We're having a party !

Good afternoon,

I'm very pleased to be showing you a Square for our 500th Blanket. It has been made by MarilynJG here in the UK. We have recently reached our 500th Sunshine Blanket and we have decided to make a special 'party theme' Blanket to celebrate. All parties have cake and just look at this Square! It has been made on Marilyn's sewing machine and this is going to look fantastic in our Blanket. Crochet around the edges couldn't be better.

Do you remember the other ones she made? Here they are.... Absolutely wonderful thank you Marilyn!

If you would like to join us there are still spaces available?

Pop over to RAVELRY on this link.

I also received a superb Granny Square Blanket in the post today from 'jean nock'.

Each Square is different as you can see using lots of spare yarn and it's another wonderful Blanket for the Elderly. This is a great size and I know it will be very well received at one of the homes.

Thank you very much 'jean nock'

So pretty thank you very much.

x Sue x 

Granny Squares Blankets are made for SIBOL!

Good Afternoon to you all and thanks for visiting the 'SIBOL' Blog,

I would like to thank Kate today for the box received this morning. Inside were three gorgeous Blankets, SIBOL Butterflies and a lovely bag of Ribbon which will be very useful indeed.

This picture one is based on Louis Armstrong's lyrics to Wonderful World.  Kate tells me she didn't mean to make a whole Blanket but she had  a couple of squares that were too big a while ago and they were just being unloved.  All of a sudden inspiration hit, she thought of our Challenge and before she knew it she had made a whole Blanket. This certainly is a wonderful Blanket, you really have some fantastic ideas for Squares.  While we are talking about our Challenge I do still need Squares if anyone would like to help details are over on our Challenge Blog. Here's the link.

I love the World Square in particular you have captured it really well and of course clouds, sun, trees, flowers make this really interesting.  

We have two other Blankets to look at now and it's the good ol' Granny that has been used. 

The Black border is perfect Kate it really makes the Squares stand out.

It's nice to see the tiny Squares made in to a Blanket and I love how you have incorporated the two different sizes in the other one.

Kate you have worked really hard on all three Blankets, thank you so much for making and donating them. Also for the lovely SIBOL Butterflies and Ribbon too which will be terribly useful.

I know these Blankets are going to be loved. I will be very happy indeed to

pass them on to the Elderly. Thank you.

A Slide Show for you Kate.

Created with flickr slideshow.

Thanks for popping in today.

If you would like to ask me anything about our Blankets please mail me

Sue on sueatpigsty@talktalk.net

Bye for now!

x Sue x 

Southbank Centre Village Fair Day two.

Good Afternoon and welcome to 'SIBOL',

I am terribly grateful to Maria-Jesus and PurlyGalore for promoting our 'SIBOL' Group at the event which has been taking place at the Southbank Centre in London over the last two days. They belong to the London Knaughty Knitters and they very kindly distributed information about our project.  They have also very kindly given me an up-date on Day two.

"The day, again, has been fantastic.

One of our top students, the Baking Dolly, who learnt to knit and crochet in the space of two hours yesterday, also won the 'Bake off' competition today, and brought her mouthwatering prize winning lemon drizzle cake for us to eat!

We had lots of women and men knitting with us, many different nationalities, and some lovely children...

It was really interesting to hear their knitting stories, and we made some new friends.

Many people wanted to find out about Sibol, and took some information home.

Thanks to them, over the last two days we've made about 50 squares!

Overall, we have a grand total of 103.

They will be made into blankets and added to the one we've already finished.

It's been a great weekend, and we hope you have gained many Sibolettes :)"

Regards,

Purlygalore and Maria-Jesus

Photos too! Thank you!

The photos are great, it  looks as though you all had a fab time. A lovely time to sit, knit and chat and at the same time turn out some beautiful Squares and Butterflies for 'SIBOL'. Beautiful blankets too coming my way by the look of the photos. 

I'm sure everyone in the 'SIBOL' Group would like to thank you both  for promoting our Group. You have both worked really hard making this event a success and I have to say the leaflets that you produced are fabulous. Well done to you both!

x Sue x 

Day 1 Southbank Centre Village Fair.

Good morning!

I would like to thank  Maria-Jesus and PurlyGalore for promoting our SIBOL Group on Saturday.

They both belong to 'London Knaughty Knitters' and over the weekend they are holding an event at the Southbank Village Fair. The event runs for two days so there is still time to pop along if you are in the area. They very kindly printed some leaflets out informing their visitors about the work we do for the Elderly and invited everyone to knit a square for us. How kind!

I have received a report about the day from Maria-Jesus I thought you would like to read it.

We've been really busy, it's been rainy but we were indoors.

In a way the rain made people come and sit with us and knit a square.

Lots of experienced knitters interested in Sibol, and also lots of beginners keen to make the gorgeous butterflies, and have a go at the beginning of a square.

We had made a butterfly garland in rainbow colours, and it's been photographed and admired :)

They have also looked at the blanket we've already put together, the one with the loud Christmasy colours.

We've given away lots of leaflets that have your blog's address, so maybe someone will be in touch :)

A few people are coming back tomorrow to carry on with their squares!

We had a great happy atmosphere, and the day has gone really quickly.

Photos too!

Well done! You've made a great Butterfly!

  Great Blanket!

A fantastic selection of photos thank you both so much! I love the string of Butterflies what a great idea and I'm so pleased you had a good turn out. It looks as though the event was a success to me and all the best for Sunday! I'm sure everyone will enjoy reading this post.

What a great day!

x Sue x

500th Challenge/Festivals Challenge.

Good Afternoon and welcome!

I am very pleased to be showing you the 'centre square' for our 500th Blanket. joyce28 has very kindly knitted this great design.

It's going to look superb joyce28 thank you! If anyone else want to make a square we do have a thread over on RAVELRY here's the link. You are most welcome to join in the Challenge.

We do still have the 'Festivals' Challenge and 'Wonderful World' Challenge running at the moment and if you would like to join in please do. Please visit SIBOL Challenges. Thank you!


We had such fun taking part in the 2012 'Jersey Textile Showcase 

when it raised £95.00 for Jersey Mencap.  I was wondering if you would like to help me make a Blanket for next years exhibition.

The theme is 'Festivals'. So I am inviting you to make a 6" Crocheted or Knitted Square with this in mind. 

Where-ever you live in the World each country holds it's own Festivals. If you 'Google' - 'Festivals' you will find lists of various ones held. You know the sort of thing 

Music, Wine, Book, Film, Steam, Religious, etc
Here's a link giving you some ideas.


REQUIREMENTS
6" Crocheted or Knitted Square.
Acrylic yarn.
Festival theme
Lots of colour!

With each Square please enclose a note enclosing details about the Square you have made so I can enclose a sheet with the Blanket.

Please send your Squares as soon as possible. Thank you! 

The Blanket will go on exhibition in the Gallery at the Harbour in Jersey for the duration of the show and then it will be sold to raise funds for Macmillan Nursing

http://www.macmillan.org.uk/HowWeCanHelp/Nurses/AboutMacmillanNurses.aspx

This will not be entered in to the Competition as it will be too big.
This is purely for exhibiting and fund-raising.

There are lots of details about the Jersey Textile Showcase  on here

http://www.theharbourgalleryjersey.com/textile.html

Enquiries Sue on sueatpigsty@talktalk.net
or RAV mail me

Thanks to everyone!
Sue

Mothers Garden and Bullseye.

Good Afternoon and welcome!

I am so excited this afternoon to be showing you two superb blankets that have been made and donated by Kathy.

The square blanket is 'Mothers Garden' -  'named for my mother who died last year. Her garden was always so colourful', Kathy  says in her note.

This blanket looks like a garden of flowers to me Kathy! 

How striking! 

I'm really happy to be passing this on to a Home. 

The second blanket Kathy has made is called 'Bullseye'

You will see why!

Once again fantastic!

These blankets are a great size for the Elderly and I know they will be loved!

Thank you so much once again. 

Made so quickly too!

Absolutely perfect.

Thank you too for the ribbon ideal for our blankets.

I am also very pleased to be showing you two squares made by jesssiebonbon.

They are for our 'Wonderful World' Challenge.

We do still need more Squares for this Challenge  if anyone is interested.

All details are on here

Thank you both so much. Slide Show here for you Kathy.

x Sue x

Created with flickr slideshow.

Southbank Centre village fair London 24th & 25th August/Butterflies/Sunshine Blankets.

Good Afternoon,

I am very pleased to be showing you two stunning Blankets received from Anita here in the UK. How kind of you to make and donate them to SIBOL! Both Blankets are absolutely beautiful, really bright and cheerful just what we need for the Elderly in the Care Homes etc.,

If you haven't read about my visit to Victoria Lodge  Care Home please do scroll down and have a catch up. Our 'Sunshine Blankets' were received so well and the Staff and everyone loved them.

Getting back to Anita's Blankets here they are!

I do hope the Granny Squares are inspiring you to pick up your hook!  These two Blankets have been put together so well and I know they are going to be loved. There is a great need for Blankets in the Care Homes. Sometimes the ones they have are very old and tatty and what's  nicer than having a nice new one! They give a great deal of comfort to an Elderly person and certainly bring smiles to their faces! Definitely talking points in the Homes too especially the Challenge Blankets.

Thank you very much indeed Anita for putting these together, I really appreciate them. I shall make you a Slide Show so please scroll down to the end of the post.



I also received some SIBOL Butterflies this morning from 'Lynn' here in the UK. Lynn is a friend of our Fee. They both meet at a local Knit and Knatter Group. Lynn is new to crochet and she has really enjoyed making the Butterflies for us. Of course once she started making them she was addicted to them. I would like to thank Fee too because she actually taught Lynn to crochet.  Here they are.....

If you would like to have a go at the Butterflies please follow this Link to Netties Blog in Australia.


Thank you both very much and now a  message from  one of our SIBOLETTE'S 'Maria-Jesus'.

A message from  one of our SIBOLETTE'S 'Maria-Jesus'.

Hello all,

There is a brilliant event going on over the bank holiday weekend at the Southbank Centre, a village fair with cake competition, dog show and…….. some knitting ;) Our group, the London Knaughty Knitters will have a stall, where we will teach people how to knit making squares for a SIBOL blanket. Everyone in the group has been knitting like crazy over the last few weeks and we already have enough squares for two blankets, and we are not at the event yet!!!

If anyone is around London the Bank Holiday weekend, we would love to see you, make a square together, a butterfly, or just have a chat ;)

Also if you would like to pop by with your squares, we would be very happy to add them to our blanket or send them on to Sue. (SIBOL)

Where and when: Saturday 24th &  Sunday 25th August Southbank Centre
Our group will be in the Makers Market from 11-4pm, that will be in the Herb Garden at the Riverside Terrace.

Here is the link to the Southbank centre where you can see all the activities going on, it is going to be something else!!


Thanks Maria-Jesus!

I wish I could pop along myself!


Created with flickr slideshow.

Join in the fun it's party time!

Good Morning and welcome to 'Mrs Twins',

First of all could I say my 'talk talk' account is playing up. On occasions I can't send email so I'm sorry about this. Apparently things are getting sorted their end. Also my land line has gone deady dead. One of those days!

I've had a busy week so far..... Monday I visited Victoria Lodge Care Home so I hope you can scroll down and read about my visit. Our Blankets were very well received and I would like to thank everyone for their support.

Tuesday this morning I visited our 90 year old 'SIBOLETTE' Irene. Irene is the Mother of June  who is 'The Chairman at the Craft Group' where I did the talk some months ago. June very kindly told her about our work and since then Irene has been making Squares for us. We have already put the Squares into two Blankets and now we have around another 50 for another two Blankets. She was only too pleased to make some for us it gives her something to do. Strange thing is she can see to knit but not to read. She gets an enormous amount of pleasure from doing the Squares so I am really pleased. Here they are and aren't they lovely! June has a twin sister too, so we had lots to talk about as you can imagine.

Then when I got back home I found JoannaD's Blanket in the porch. Joanna has very kindly made a Blanket out of Granny Squares, she loves them so much. Joanna loves a variety of crafts some of these are Sewing, Quilting and  also she is busy making her 'Mystery Blanket' which involves fair isle, beading and cabling. When the Knitting  get a bit tricky for her she has a break and makes Patchwork Granny Squares. What a good idea. It's her form of relaxing so I think this is a great name. The Blanket has been made using odds and ends of yarn that she had in her box and also some that her Grandma sent up to her. I'm very pleased you have found a use for them.

If you are new to Crochet, why not pop over to You Tube and learn how to make a simple Granny Square then perhaps you too could make a Blanket for SIBOL!

Let's take a look now Joanna, thank you so much you are very kind.

Very nice indeed Joanna. Here's your Slide Show!


Created with flickr slideshow.
This is actually our 500th Blanket would you believe, but I am going to number this 501. Simple reason being is that we are going to make a special 500th Blanket. Guess what! You are invited to take part. Now I would like an offer of making up the middle Square if someone would like to take that on. It would have to have the number 500 Crocheted or Knitted on.  I'm going to leave the colours of the Squares up to you. It's got to have a 'celebratory/party' theme to it though.

Let's see if we can make this a special one. Thank you.
Any queries please mail me Sue on sueatpigsty@talktalk.net
or RAV mail me MrsTwins

Raverly is a lovely place to be and I have been asking the Ladies on there  when they started to Crochet. If you would like to read their comments please follow the Link. You are welcome to join in the topic!

Well I think that's all for now. Cup of tea and then it's time for my hook.

Thanks for popping in today!

x Sue x

SIBOL 499!

Good Morning,

I  do hope you will scroll down and read about my visit to Victoria Lodge Care Home I had a great morning yesterday. Our Blankets were received so well  and it was such a friendly Home.

Late yesterday afternoon I received a hand-delivered 'Sunshine Blanket' and I would like to thank Pj for organising it's delivery! This Blanket is just amazing! I have taken quite a few photos of the Squares close up because they are so interesting and I want you to see them in more detail. The colours are great and the border is out of this world. It is so pretty! Thank you so much for making this Blanket and I'm sorry it didn't quite make my Delivery yesterday. If you would like to visit Pj's Blog here's the Link.  I shall definitely take it out next time with me.

I've added some Ribbon and Butterflies to decorate and I'm sure you will agree this one will be loved too! I do hope you will have a look at the beautiful Butterfly card too, thank you!

Created with flickr slideshow.
Aren't the Squares interesting? Thank you so much Pj

x Sue x

26 Sunshine Blankets delivered today!

Good Morning,

We have now clocked up 498 'Sunshine Blankets' since January 2010, two more off the big '500!'. I am very grateful to everyone that has supported the 'SIBOL' project over the years without you we couldn't have achieved what we have done.

'SIBOL' is a place where we can share our 'creativity'. It's nice that we can share our love of Crocheting and Knitting but at the same time do something really worthwhile for the Elderly. Today is another of my 'Delivery Days'. Even after reaching nearly 500 I STILL get terribly nervous approaching the Homes, but that's just me! There is no need I know because everyone is always so welcoming.

This morning I 'googled' Care Homes in 'Birmingham'. A long list once again came up. Which one do I choose today? What do I look for? Well before searching I count how many Blankets I have. Today's count was 26, I can't believe we have made that many already. I telephoned 'Victoria Lodge Care Home' in Acocks Green and spoke to Anne. The Manager at the time was in a meeting.  I explained to Anne we had made enough Blankets for her home and asked if she would like a donation for her Residents.  She was very pleased to accept them so I asked if I could pop up straight away.

Here's a photo of the Home.

It was a funny road sort of split into two. My sat nav seemed to be taking me in silly circles so I stopped and asked a man walking if he knew where it was. Of course I was cursing the sat nav as you do! I carried on and came to the home on my left. The entrance to the Home was a little tight as there was a parked car at the side of the road but  I managed to get a space right by the front door. I was met by a member of Staff who helped me carry the boxes in which was really nice of her then I met Anne and she introduced me to the Manager in charge. (Sorry at this point I have forgotten her name......not very professional am I!). Anyway I put the boxes down on the floor by the tables and first of all I pulled out Jennifer's Blanket 'A Ray of Sunshine'. The Staff absolutely loved the Blanket and the Manager said, 'You can just feel the love in this Blanket'. I passed on the little card that Jennifer had written and they were over the moon with it. But it wasn't just that one they loved. They loved them all! It was a lovely thing we do I was told. The Manager just couldn't believe that we had made so many and she  kept saying 'You can feel the Love in these Blankets' and how lovely!  After Jennifer's it was one of Kathys which they loved too. Of course I couldn't undo them all!  I explained about our Charity Blankets too and the money that we had raised for Breast Cancer, Alzheimer's etc.,  and she really was so surprised. The SIBOL project was started in my Grandmothers' Memory so of course I had to tell her about my Nan. She was really interested in every thing we do and of course the Residents were admiring the Blankets too while we were speaking. After lunch they are going to make a special point of getting together and distributing the Blankets for us. I've walked out on a high I am so terribly proud of you all and I said this a couple of times too! It makes everything seem so worthwhile, the hours of uploading photos, blogging etc., Delivery Day is just the best!

Here are a couple of photos for you now.

(The Manager on the left).

OOh, just realised I never had one taken! :(  Sorry about that. Not as though you want to see me anyway. I paid £73.00 for a perm the other day and it's an absolute flop. I rang up and on Wednesday they are doing it again for me. I didn't forget on purpose and that's the truth.

Anyway, I have been promised some photos of the Blankets being given to the Residents this afternoon so I wait patiently and as soon as I receive them I will load them up.

I would like to thank everyone at Victoria Lodge Care Home for being so welcoming. There was no need to be nervous at all. As soon as I walked through the door I knew instantly  it was a lovely Home, everyone was so friendly and indeed most importantly very caring to their Residents which is really really lovely. I do hope the Blankets will give a lot of comfort to them. Oh apparently they have film nights where they all snuggle up under Blankets so they are going to look a pretty bunch don't you think!

I would also like to thank you for supporting 'SIBOL'. Your Squares are always so lovely and your Blankets too have all been made with such a lot of love. So thank you all very much!

If you would like to see some photos of the Home please follow this link.

I had a great morning and when I came back my post had arrived. Squares from liztelf today for our 'What a Wonderful World' Challenge.  I still need 16 Squares and if you would like to take part please pop over to SIBOL CHALLENGES. 

Let's take a look now at Squares from liztelf. Beautiful thank you so much!

Well I think that's all for now. Oh I would just like to say thanks to the new Ladies for enquiring about our SIBOL project. It's always lovely to have new 'SIBOLETTES!'.

x Sue x