Good news Bad news

The good news is that Mum is doing well and ruling the roost at the care home. She's in her element surrounded by other rehabilitating patients who haven't heard her fund of stories. She's not in the least bothered if we can't get to see her every day, just so long as we keep her well stocked with clean undies. And, of course she knows she's not there for good - when I think of all the weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth that went into getting her there.

The bad news is that my friend Wendy is still gravely ill. She is very little respones from her - even when the physiotherapist comes to exercise her shoulder. We've been told its only a matter of time but at the moment she is stable, no better, no worse. In the meantime I'm sorting out her post, bills and anything else that needs doing for the time being. Bin day Friday so Keith and I will go round and empty her fridge etc and make sure there's nothing left that can create bad odores while she's in hospital. These couple of swaps though have taken my mind of things. The first is the 'Spring/Monoprinting' atc swap on Surface Design group. The background fabric, velvet and cotton where first monoprinted (twice) then machine embroidered and finally embellished with brads and fabric flower petals.

The second are for the jigsaw puzzle piece swap set up by Pat Winters on her Pieces of Friendship blog. These were more difficult to do than first anticipated or rather I should say more fiddly. The bases are fabric paper I made last Summer. They were then decorated using stamps and metallic inks, machine and hand embroidery. Flowers were stamped out of a tomato paste tube and the centres beaded. The first ones I beaded I sewed through the metal flowers but it was so easy to cut the threads I decided to couch the flowers down between the petals and this worked well. I enjoyed making them but wouldn't want to make lots of them I am though looking forward to seeing what everyone else has done. The pieces are darker and more vibrant than the photos shows.

The postman over the past few days has been very kind to me and I've been a bit remiss in saying thank you to all those who have sent me goodies.

First, from my friend Sylvia who sent me this piece of 'Shrink' fabric. Apparently you sew it onto the back of another piece of fabric then heat set it and it shrinks to create a textured surface. It reminds me a bit of a nylon shower curtains but not quite as heavy. I wonder if its the same fabric but finer. Has anyone else used this yet and if so what have you created with it?

The next two cards are the final two in April's private swap with the theme of Geometric. Cindy created a ballon from hexagon, circles, square and more circles in the chain stitch. Chris has used the Tangram a very old game. I remember playing with one as a child and I think they use something similar spatial tests. They are certainly one of the 'Brain Train games for the Nintendo DS.

Susan Monk sent me my first Mailer Journal and its beautiful (free tutorial on Iris's blog if anyone is interested). It's currently a swap on the Surface Design group. Susan has used a technique in Beryl Taylor's book to make the journal cover and finished it off with beaded binding and a really interesting pin on the front. She has made the pin detachable so I can reuse it if I so desire. I've made a start on mine and hope to get them finished before I go on holiday on the 23rd.

Susan also sent these goodies, a lovely card with a handmade embroidered foam stamp, decorated paper tag and everything came in the handmade envelope. Very creative Susan I am delighed with everything.

This beautiful card is from Jan Zeibol, again a Surface Design swap "Anything but Cotton". Jan has used wool and silk fibres, threads and handmade paper. She has also put a really lovely response on the back of her card "Thank you for the times of gifts and creative surprises".

Today Keith decided we needed to decorate the front lobby, which is where a lot of my 'stuff' is stored. Great timing as I had the U3A craft class this afternoon. I hate it when he decided to do things on the spur of the moment as we are now living with my 'stuff' spread all over the rest of the house. Luckily Sy has gone house sitting for the next couple of weeks so we can use his room as an overflow. This is the problem with small houses - you need to be fairly tidy, oh how I wish I were.

As for the Craft class well Keith decided to stay at home and paint as he didn't think any men would show up. They'd finished caning the chair bottom. Naturally two men turned up with a chair they wanted to upholster but neither had the foggiest idea where to start. Keith and I have upholstered furniture before (okay Keith has) so I had to get on the mobile and call him out. By the time he'd arrived all the ladies had advised the men on how to take the old fabric on, how to create a new pattern and impressed on the owner of the chair (another 3 in the pipeline) that on no account must he go shopping for fabric on his own. He has to take a lady along with him. I think the men were quite relieved when Keith arrived but Judy has been volunteered to go with Ron to buy the fabric, watch this space.