Confession time. I'm scared of zips. Not in the sense of refusing to have them in the house or wear a jacket with them, but in the sense of not having previously sewn with them and finding the idea of them quite daunting. Anyway, as you've noticed, I've been going through this bag phase recently and in my perambulations around the internet came across several tutorials that promised (faithfully, hand on heart) to take the pain out of zips and make inserting them a breeze. Well, I girded my loins and went to Hobbycraft and bought two small zips. I decided to make some little zippered bags - the sort of thing that might be suitable for makeup or loose change. My thinking (bold, this, I know) was that if it worked, then these might make very attractive Christmas or birthday presents, especially if coupled with say, a tote and a tissue holder in co-ordinating fabrics.

The first one worked, and the instructions were simple to follow, and I was very pleased in one sense. But the zip insertion was wonky and the whole thing didn't look terribly impressive. Another tutorial mentioned having fabric covered zip ends which seemed to look a lot smarter so I went for it. I used some of my Amy Butler fabric with a plain blue lining and a blue zip. The instructions were quite simple and painless to follow and I ended up with a zippered purse. It's not going to win any prizes at the Annual Zippered Purse Show but I'm very pleased with it. Moreover, I've conquered my fear of zips and I think the next stage will simply be to practice a lot, to improve how I do it. I should also mention that the Amy Butler fabric was a dream to work with - a nice weight, didn't fray as soon as you look at it, ironed well, very easy to handle. Fellow sewers/quilters will know how much fabrics can vary, and what a huge difference a good quality fabric can make. I'm going to be really brave and give this little purse to my friend Penny tomorrow, along with the tote bag I made that you can see in the pics above. Again, the lovely AB fabric with the gorgeous lining in the tote. Penny loves shopping at farmers' markets and does a lot of travelling with her work so I can see this being really useful for her.

Tomorrow is the Llandovery Pony Club Show and Penny is judging the Working Hunter Pony Class. I'll be stewarding for her, so it should be a really enjoyable day. We were supposed to be having a heatwave this weekend - today it's been raining most of the day, windy and cold. Earlier in the week, I was so fed up with the weather, (cold and wet) I ordered a new cardigan from Lands End - not for the winter, but for wearing now! In the best British traditions tomorrow, I'm still quite unclear what to wear. My thinking at the moment is to go for cropped jeans, my comfortable dog walking shoes (good grip too when dashing around on grass), a short sleeved cotton top plus cardigan plus fleece in car as back up. Sunglasses too, if it goes the other way. And I'll probably take a spare pair of jeans, socks and top in case it pours down all day and I need to change into something dry before coming home. I've got to be down at Penny's farm by 8.30 and we'll travel together from there so it will be an early start - probably leave here about 7.10. Andrew will be staying home with the woofs. He's been busy in the kitchen preparing a delicious marinade for some pork that he is going to casserole tomorrow - his thinking being that this can sit quite happily for hours in the oven so no worries about rushing home or burning dinner if he waits.

More news about Boola, our blonde bombshell. Now that he's enjoying coming upstairs, he's really getting into it. Last night, a further breakthrough came when he decided to hop on the bed and spent the night on it with me. Andrew is still in the bunk bed as he is finding it easier to make a nest with pillows for his arm. I woke a couple of times in the night to give Boola a stroke and he seemed very happy. In fact, as I write, he's lying behind me, snoozing gently on his duvet.

Lots to write about and show. I've finally come to the end of this semester's work at the library. I've really enjoyed it, but the last month or so has been very hectic with doing my agency shifts, my permanent shifts and a whole range of extra training, induction and so on. Now I'm off for the summer and will return in the autumn to my permanent hours arrangement. As we came to the end of term, I decided to make something for Sian, the lovely person I've done most of my shifts with. Following on from the tote bag I made for myself, I made one for Sian, then got a bit carried away. To go with it I made a little tissue holder (I just LOVE making these at the moment) plus I made up a little pouch with a Velcro closure. Sian plays a lot of softball in a league so I thought that it might be handy for things like keys, change etc when she goes to a match. On the front of the pouch I added some pretty gingham ribbon and a little flower button. I'd asked Sian what colours she liked and she said "Blues and turquoise" so I tried to incorporate these. Some of the fabrics are ones I bought on my birthday as part of a fat quarter bundle at Cross Patch. You can just see bits of Andy in the pics, as he was lying on the bed, assisting/supervising the photo shoot. Sian loved the bags and I was really pleased with them.

As part of another gift for someone, I made up a little parcel for my friend Leila. She's shortly to go away for the weekend with another girlfriend who's been going through breast cancer and fancies a few days away in Cornwall (well, who wouldn't?). I made up a couple of drawstring bags for her, (plus the obligatory matching tissue holder) and I popped in a little goodie bag from L'Occitane, filled with lots of little travel/treat size goodies, such as conditioner, shower gel, a face pack and so on. These sizes are always so handy for travelling - you don't want to be lugging a huge vat of shower gel around with you when away for the weekend. The bags use some of the fabric I bought at the V & A last year, I love these fresh, pretty greens and blues.

On a related note, a study published this week by the University of Glasgow makes interesting reading, discussing the benefits of quilting from a health perspective. See the link to the story here.

I don't think the story will come as any surprise to anyone who sews/quilts. I've written many times before about the very deep emotional satisfaction I derive from this hobby, made up of a range of benefits, many of which were reflected in the study. Much of what I make is for others, and I love giving things that are hand made. I love the immersion in colour and pattern, the challenges, learning new skills, the social side, and also feeling part of a long line of tradition.

I also made a tissue holder for one of the ladies I've just started working with on one of my permanent shifts, Claire. Again, I asked about colour choices and she specified "Blue, non floral" so I made up a batch of various ones, in assorted patterns and then at the last minute threw in one in a Kaffe Fassett turquoise floral. Now anyone who knows Kaffe's fabrics will know that quiet is just not a word to use - Kaffe has a use of colour that is bold and positive. This fabric went in and guess what, Claire chose it!

We were up early this morning as a new chest freezer arrived for the garage. I've previously mentioned that we've gradually moved away from feeding the dogs on manufactured kibble and are now doing a lot more home cooked and raw food. This is working very well, and the dogs are thriving on this sort of diet but it's a bit of a pain in terms of storage. So we decided to get a dedicated chest freezer so we can buy frozen meat etc in bulk (much, much cheaper that way too) and then just defrost what we need when we need it. All of them absolutely adore tripe - it's vile stuff, looks and smells disgusting, but for the dogs, seems like it's a winner. I suspect the freezer will also be handy at times like Christmas or when we are having lots of guests for batch baking/cooking in advance.

I'll close by sharing some good news about Boola. When we first had him, he was terrified of the stairs, and the thought of even going near them. Even passing through the hall, he wouldn't even look at them, but would just shoot past them. Gradually, he gained confidence in the hall, and would even put his front paws on the bottom step when he was excited about going out for his walk, but had never been brave enough to come upstairs. When we had brought him, he'd been stressed and nervous, so we didn't repeat the experiment. Anyway, fast forward a bit. When on holiday in Pembrokeshire, we brought him upstairs every night in the cottage and he had settled beautifully, which was nice to see. During the summer, he had been living up to his nickname of the "blonde alarmclock" by waking us every morning when he felt ready for some company. Trouble was, that was usually around 6 a.m. and we were getting a bit fed up, to say the least! And for all those saying "Well, ignore him then" (as in controlled crying for babies) we didn't want to do that, as he would occasionally be telling us he needed to go outside, and we would never want to stop him telling us that. So we were being woken early.

Andrew decided to bring him upstairs about a week ago, with a duvet for him to sleep on from downstairs. He was escorted gently up and immediately settled happily on the duvet. Next morning, not a peep. Bliss. This has been going on for about a week now, and each evening he comes up the stairs with progressively more ease, and less reluctance, which is lovely to see. Then this afternoon, a big break through. I was on the computer and Andrew was also upstairs, and Boola was in the hall. Andrew called him, and all by himself he came up the stairs, looking very pleased with himself. He came into the study, settled immediately on his duvet, after a bit of congratulatory cuddles and tickles, and masses of praise from both of us, and is now lying by my feet snoozing contentedly. It's lovely to see him looking so happy.

I'm beginning to feel that everyone around me is the victim of a strange orthopaedic curse. While I was at work last night, Andrew heard from his mum, who's just broken her arm/wrist, and is now in plaster. So, that's three breaks in three weeks, after going years without anyone I know breaking anything. Fortunately, she is not in too much pain, but as with all these sorts of injuries, is finding the cast a hindrance to everyday life. Also, she's righthanded and has broken her left arm, so that at least means her right arm is still working. I sent her a get well card this morning that I made. I used some of the lovely Anna Griffin kit I recently got from QVC - I've been delighted with it. Pics of Rita in her cast (courtesy of FIL) and card attached.

The other downer is that Andrew came home yesterday afternoon after a successful trip to Watford (successful in the sense that he managed the travelling with no problem) and by last night was feeling very poorly. This morning his temperature was 38.8, he's unwell and has wisely stayed in bed and slept most of the day. Later this afternoon, Tesco are delivering some groceries to us, and I'm hoping to catch up on some sewing after a busy morning.

I mentioned in my last post that I'd bought some lovely fabric in John Lewis. After a very busy week, with work on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday (an extra shift for some training) and Friday, I decided that Saturday was going to be for me. After walking the dogs, I settled down for a blissful afternoon with the sewing machine. I'd found a lovely set of instructions for making a Fat Quarter handbag on Sew Mama Sew (an excellent website for ideas and inspiration) - you can see the tutorial here.

I recently also made a nice tote bag for my MIL for Mothers' Day - the instructions were on another of my favourite websites, the Moda Bake Shop and you can see the tutorial here.

So I decided to make the handbag and the tote bag, and a little tissue holder to go in the handbag. You can see the two fabrics I used. The lining of the handbag is done in the same fabric as the tissue holder and it looks gorgeous. I made sure the handbag had an internal pocket and a magnetic closure. For the tote bag, the back of the bag is one panel of the peacock fabric and I lined it with a very pretty pink spotty fabric (you can just see a glimpse of it if you peep carefully) - I also added an interior pocket. I was delighted with how they turned out - absolutely thrilled to bits. For the handbag, I added a pretty blue rose corsage that I wear sometimes - just seemed to work. These are great summer colours - so zingy and cheerful. I took them both into work with me on Sunday and felt like a million dollars.

Today has been one of those days for running around doing various errands that individually don't take much time, but cumulatively add up to an afternoon, things like picking up tablets from the vet, getting my ID card photo done for the university, dropping off some paperwork and picking up some dog food. The afternoon weather was glorious - really sunny and with a gorgeous blue sky. After we came back home, I sat out in the garden to soak it up and Booty came and joined me. After some quality tickle time, she decided to sunbathe on the flagstones near the pond and practically cooked herself. When she got up to go back in the house, she was so hot, she was almost too hot to touch. She loves the sun, and will often sunbathe in the garden - I guess that with her arthritis, the heat probably helps her.

This week I am doing fewer shifts in work, and I'm hoping to make a bag for one of my colleagues that I get on very well with. We've done most of our shifts together since January and she's lovely - that makes a huge difference when you are working predominantly with one other person. She loves blues and turquoises so I shall try and make her a tote bag similar to the one above, and I thought I might also make a drawstring bag - she plays softball regularly so might come in handy for sports kit or shoes.