Wednesday 27 December 2017

Every Inchie Monday - Goat - and catch up Turkey, Boar, Wolf and Reindeer

I cannot believe where the last five weeks have gone!  What with trouble getting anywhere with so much snow, Barry's busiest time of the year so travelling the length and breadth of the country to entertain it's been difficult to keep up with the preparations for Christmas let alone any crafting or inchie making.  I have tried to do them but keep finishing them as a new one should be posted so I would have been on the wrong animal all the time.  However on Boxing Day when it was all quiet I was at last able to sit and finish the last three.  You can probably tell they have been done with a little less enthusiasm and care as some of my past inchies!!  The aim was to actually get them finished and posted.  I am sorry I have not been on your blogs to comment either - we have been trying to sell our house where we have lived for the last 33 years and apart from trying to clear out 33 years of junk and stuff everything keeps going wrong.  Out toilet got blocked and we had to call emergency services.  Our electric keeps tripping and now we have finally found the cause on the Eve of Christmas Eve (when it would not come back on), courtesy of emergency services again!!  Turns out it was our old microwave (which has a plug very hard to get to and of course it was the only plug I hadn't unplugged!  the electrician's meter told him something was still plugged in and that's when the penny dropped!) - I had thought it was the outside Christmas lights due to the excess snows but they appear to be fine.  So guess what I got for Christmas!!!  Not only that without electric we had no computers nor water since we are on a bore hole which needs electric to pump it in to our header tanks!  And to add insult to injury two weeks before Christmas we ran out of Calor gas which runs our rayburn and the heating - just after that really cold spell, and with everyone else in the world having done the same we had to wait until Christmas Eve to get a fill up!!  It's just a good thing that we have log burners and one with a water jacket that's linked in to the system to heat the water!  Anyway finally everything seems to be working again and I have a little time on my hands before I need to pack up this big house and move into a smaller warmer one - with hopefully, less work to do and more time for me and crafting!  Am really looking forward to it but am so sad about not doing our Every Inchie Monday.  Maybe I can get involved with something else?

Anyway back to the inchies I have at last managed to complete them all and this week's Inchie is Goat, which I thought was a strange choice for a last one but having read some of your blogs just quickly last night I've discovered I'm not the only one to think that, except Freebird, who posted it as the "Greatest Of All Time!"  Which I thought was great!  So here is my little billy goat - I have run out of my lovely variegated browns and creams so he's a little odd in colour!!:


And so here are my catch up inchies -
 Turkey I found quite difficult and in trying to do the background of his tail feathers dark to make his head stand out I've given him a crown!!
Then came Boar which again I found uninspiring and drew it on plain fabric (my wax removing strips!) with promarkers and then attempted to colour him in with thread but once I started making thread marks on his snout it looked totally wrong so I just left it as is.  I tried to get his bristly ears but not sure I succeeded!!  Here he is:
Next comes Wolf.  I have done a wolf before on an inchie which was Wild in 2013 and I did a lone wolf braying against a yellow moon which I loved and had thought about cheating and submitting that one for this to save me time!!  However I wanted to use my embroidery skills and really embroider one - maybe with more time and feeling less pressurised I could have done it justice but what resulted was a rather Red Riding Hood Wolf!!  He looks ready to gobble up someone!!
And lastly our penultimate inchie for this year was reindeer which I can't help thinking should have been Christmas Day's!  I would have liked to depict Santas's sleigh being drawn across the sky by silhouetted reindeer but on an inch it just became silly lines!!  So here is one reindeer in sillouette - Barry named him Prancer! 
So that's it for 2017 - I hope we can still meet via comments on each others blogs - I will try and visit in 2018 but hey - we have things happening - Firstly we hope to be able to move into something by February - we are still waiting for the solicitors to round up paperwork and so, having accepted an offer and had an offer accepted, we are now in the waiting game of monies being released so we can commit and exchange and set a date.  Still not sure what sort of wifi we will have but it's in a better area so should be ok.  And best of all were our Christmas Day surprises -  Not one baby but two baby grandchildren to look forward to in July 2018 -both my youngest daughter and my son had been saving their news - unbeknown to them!  My daughter in law is a week ahead of my daughter in her pregnancy how strange is that!! So a double whammy!!  Am so excited - we will then have ten grandchildren!!  So I think 2018 is going to be a good year and am quite glad to see the back of 2017 to be honest - it hasn't been a good year health wise for my husband or me and one of our grandchildren was very ill on New Year's Day which rather started the year on a bad foot when she was rushed in to hospital with a burst appendix.  And so here's to 2018 - I raise a glass to all the friends I've made doing this wonderful project every week and wish Trillian a relaxed and Happy free from pressure new year and everyone out there good health and good fortune.  Thanks for visiting my blog and for all the lovely comments I have received throughout the year - you have made my day!  All the best Jenny