Evening Bag and Tweets

Back in January I downloaded instructions for a bag by Angie Hughes and this week I spent a little time making it.  The base is black cotton velvet with bling added including Angelina fibres, painted Bondaweb and bright fabrics.  All these were overlaid with organza and stitched to within an inch of it's life.  I then beaded and finished it off.  I'm quite pleased with it myself and can see me making a few more with an alteration or two.

The My Tweets blocks are all now finished!  I know they are a little late as it finished in December but I was really struggling with the boredom factor with these!! 9 - 12 below.

All there is to do with them now is wash them and hope none of the pieces float away, size them up and decide how I'm going to finish the top itself.

Whilst rooting around in a cupboard I found this untouched box of inks waiting to be rediscovered.  I love using dip pens so perhaps this is a hint to dig out the nibs again, and perhaps a brush or two.

I have also raided the shredder and made some paper today à la DMTV. I even added some paint to tint a couple of the sheets.  They are now drying so will have to wait for the photos of that!

While I was having a wonderful time finishing this and that poor John had the task of moving two tipper truck loads of logs. The truck can only come halfway up the property and John has to move them the rest of the way to the woodshed with the trailer (sometimes we are lucky to rope in a son or daughter!).  Even that many only half filled the bay behind him but they won't be used for about three or four years anyway so I expect they could be added to.  The middle bay is what we have been using this year and the nearest one is next in line.  They joys of being lucky enough to have two rather large wood burners have to be earned and John will be the first in front of one of the fires tonight with his very deserving whiskey!

Have a wonderful weekend!

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Order to Chaos

Whilst we were in Spain in the Spring, John stopped the car and we took a photo of these trees in their rigid formation.  He told me it would make a good quilt and he named it there and then.

So here it is, Order to Chaos made this week with machine free embroidery on hand dyed fabrics and a little beading all mounted onto stretched canvas. 8 x 20 inches.

Speaking of chaos, here is Chris at the start of his first ever half marathon.  He did an exceptionally fantastic time of 1 hour 49 minutes and 10 seconds and out of 2054 runners he came 478th which is well in the first quarter of the field! Very proud Mum!

                             
 A few gardeny bits now.

As Chris is with us he has been helping around the place which is wonderful.  While moving some slabs around he found this little stash of hazelnuts.  They go down quite a long way and I'm sure the mouse who put them there would not be happy if we moved them so the slab went back down to cover them again.  We have lots of hazelnut trees in the garden but no walnut tree and neither have the neighbours so it was a mystery why we also found a walnut not too far away.

This is a new one for us, a white headed Goldfinch.  He has faint markings of where the mask should be but no colour at all.  He is a little jumpy so hard to photograph and we assume one of this years brood though all the others have their full coloured plumage.

At the beginning of the month there was huge excitement at the sighting of a Hummingbird Hawk Moth in the front garden.  Too fast and brief for a photo though.  We also found this fabulous caterpillar of a Grey Dagger Moth on one of the hawthorns.  Isn't it spectacular?  Moth larvae are nearly always better than butterfly.

I have finished block 8 of My Tweets.  The end is really in sight now and I'm already thinking of how to quilt it.

And in my own room of chaos, there is always a place for a little bit of calm and a snooze.

Have a wonderful weekend.

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MIA Block 6

I've finished the found Block 6 of My Tweets.

Block 8 is under way.

I am still very under the weather.  The Doctor called me in to check my chest.  All is well but the virus will take it's time to work it's way out and, of course, antibiotics don't do anything to viruses so no point in them.  Lots of treating the side effects though of sore throat and nose, terrible muscle cramps from coughing and general lack of sleep.  I've snorted, rubbed and imbibed of most things available to help but my favourite is still a late night hot milk with a dribble of whiskey. At least the sweats seam to have stopped now so I must be on the good side of mending!

Have a great weekend.


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Far Travelled Birds

I did managed a few stitches while we were travelling about this summer, though not huge amounts.  I'm not too sure if these are the farthest travelled of Erin's little birds but I think I've had these blocks with me on every trip.

Apologies for the lighting in the pictures, it's quite grey outside and the 'lights on' effect does not work well!

Block 4

Block 5

Block 7

Block 6 managed to hide itself somewhere but I have now found it again and discovered that the bird is sitting on leaves with no flowers so I will be cutting those soon and Block 8 is still in the computer.

I've had horrid catarrh on my chest since Tuesday, I slept most of Wednesday and this morning it decided to hit me in the head.  Not feeling great but between the rugby world cup and the Formula 1 I'm happy on the sofa.  I did managed to send off another little batch of City & Guilds work before it hit so I don't feel as though I'm losing contact with that either.

I hope your weekends are going well, I'm going to hide under a quilt again.


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My Tweets 3 Finished

I've completed the My Tweets outer block 3 now.

Block 4 is all starched and appliglued down ready for stitching and block 5 is imminent.  My sewing Ladies are very interested in the starching technique so I am going to have to demo it for them in a couple of weeks time.  Should be fun!


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Happy Easter

What amazing weather!  Yesterday Elsa and I, (mostly Elsa) cleared up the vegetable patch at the top of the garden.  The onions and garlic are doing great, but that's it so far.  Mind you a false sense of summer security can be dangerous in the garden, we can still have frost in May so there's no hurry with beans etc yet. I must admit to still really, really struggling with the gardening and I am very cross as to where the enthusiasm has gone.  I am grateful that we spent five years turning the garden around and it now just needs mowing and tweaking and a few hours from the gardener each week, not watering or major replanting marathons.  Maybe that is part of the problem, I burned out and had too many incidents, knee operation, stings, ceptic cuts, nearly losing the top of my finger, I just had enough.  I'm still a little sad though.

I have caught up with home things now though and Tuesday, while John was fishing for bream, I played hard with Bob.

 It was my first Lone Star! (20 inches)  I confess to finding a foundation sheet of interfacing in Spain.  It was so quick and easy.  I would still like to do another the real way, but maybe in a while.

I finished the My Tweets centre panel, Miss Kelly (24 inches) and I'm just cutting and starching the next two blocks ready for stitching.

I've also managed a little more on the Stay at Home Robin with embroidery and quilting.  Yes the needle is still in there, I'm still working on it as it's evolving.

There are three more, and I think they are the last, bits boxes to find homes for and then my room is full.  I've enjoyed re discovering all the things I bought because I knew I would need them someday.  Ariadne the  longarm is sitting patiently upstairs with a quilt on it hoping to be finished at some point this weekend.  I want to put the little Lone Star quilt on and make that up so I had better pull my finger out.  The C&G is sitting patiently too so perhaps that will have a look in later.

Have a wonderful long weekend and keep cool.


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Today I Have Mostly...

Prepared the appliqué on My Tweets block 2 for sewing...

and then doodled on my wrist support.

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C&G Dying Again!!

Yesterday I put lots of fabrics and threads in dye bags with various mixes and today I have rinsed, washed and ironed them all.  I have a nice stack of fabrics all ready for the next phase of the C&G course now.  I have photos of them all open (!) but it would be a little overpowering to show them all here.  I am pleased with how they all turned out though.

These two are probably my favourites though.  The left one because of the crystalline effect and the right one because I was looking at the sky just after sunset the other night and wishing I could capture the lovely  yellow and blue with a green hue along the horizon.  I think I almost sort of managed it! 

The first block in the Erin Russek My Tweets (see link on the right) has been sewn and washed though the ironing is a little slack!  I haven't strayed very far from her original and I like the colours so far.

In the post this week I received this lovely bundle of Jinny Beyer 1 yard pieces.  She had the most wonderful sale and even after paying VAT to Mr HMRC and the bonus postage to Mr Parcel Force they were all still less than half the price I can buy them for over here.  A couple have been earmarked for the new Mystery Monday which has just started too. 

I also had this through the door today.  I ordered this forever ago when I was doing the machine embroidery course on Quilt University and I had totally forgotten about it.  I'm not sure if I can remember how to do the embroidery thing but I have notes and may be able to figure it out again one day!

And the old little conservatory on the side of the house has come down and Andy is wreaking havoc outside.  This is the beginning of the new big conservatory that will be my workroom.  (Nope, still can't call it a studio!).  It will be 5 x 3 meters of my stuff.

PS  It appears there is a problem with Picasa uploading blurry blog headers at the moment, please excuse mine, I'm working on it!

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Yesterday I Was Dying ;-)

I haven't dyed properly with Procion MX dyes before.  I've done a little with Dylon in the micro and had good results, but this was the real deal!

Would these mushy bags of colour actually turn into anything?

Of course!   Yay!!  I had twelve colours in the starter kit I bought from Debbie but I was supposed to be making a basic colour wheel so only used the red, blue and yellow as they were and as mixes to make the secondary colours.

I also threw in two types of mercerised cotton threads I had and, just to see how they would take the colour, some cotton parcel twine (white) and some beading hemp (mid tan). I was quite please with these too.

I think I may have another go at it later next week as I think the violet could be pinker and the green stronger.  I also have some linens and other bits I want to try too.

As well as Lisa's beading class, I have also been taking part in the Kim Klassen Skinny Mini Photoshop Elements course this week, (see button on the right), though I do have one night's work to catch up on.  I have had Elements on the computer for at least 8 months and every time I open it I have a quick look and then close it again before I start screaming in terror.  This week I have used layers!! AND adjustments!!!!! Kim runs these free little taster courses on a regular basis and they really are a great stepping off point.

Also this week Erin Russek has started her latest appliqué BOM with her beautiful design My Tweets, (also see button on the right).  I am strangely attracted to her use of colours, which is scary!  You know how I seem to like dark, strong and moody colours, well hers are fresh and vibrant and summery and I, yes me, am going to have a go at using similar colours too, not just because it will be easier to choose but to try and change a habit of a lifetime!   I also need some handwork for the evenings and take-outs.

Also a quick note that the RSPB Big Garden Bird Watch is at the end of this month too.  In the wind we have at the moment the garden is virtually empty.

Now to find something for dinner, slimming of course!  Have a good weekend.


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