Where does all the time go?

So what have I been doing to loose all this time - well baking for a party of 80+ guests.  My son's partner Julie turned 30 on the 14th August and she had never had a party so Sy, Julie'smum and myself set off to bake.

This was only part of the days work I ran out of storage space and ended up putting stuff in my sewing room.

But the big smile made it worthwhile.

That was on the Saturday on the Sunday we had a BBQ for the rest of the family that couldn't make the party so it was a non-stop weekend.  

On the following Wednesday we set off for two days at the FOQ.  The show was wonderful, I was of course, far to late to book a workshop but I did get into Maggie Grey's lecture on 3D embroidery.  It was very entertaining and I enjoyed it but wished they'd been less of other peoples work and more of Maggie's.

Now anyone who knows me knows that I don't particularly like rusted fabric.   However, the display of rust work from the Prague Patchwork group was absolutely magnificent.  It was so astonishing that I bought their CD.   This is a sample of their work.

And now for a photo of my new Baby......

 The Accuquilt.  It works a bit like the card makers' Sizzex machine with metal die cutters punching out shapes from fabric.  I hope to do great things with it. Keith says its my birthday, Xmas, Easter and all the Saint days presents rolled into one for the next five years.  We'll see.... but I love it so far. Two days aren't not enough to do justice to the show but my poor suffering dh, feet and pocket had had enough

To day is mine and Keith's birthday, yes its the same day.   I got the Accuquilt as my main present and Jan Messant's new book "Celtic, Viking & Anglo-Saxon Embroidery" for my birthday.  Keith got a bandsaw which doesn't arrive until next week.   The book is lovely, very well written and illustrated, so much so that I sat down and read it from beginning to end in one go, very unusual for me I'm the 'dip into' type.

Tomorrow evening the family (well at least 12 of them) are gathering for  our birthday dinner at an inn in a nearby village.   Keith and I are looking forward to that all I have to do now is finishing the washing, ironing and tidy the house before all the guests arrive.

"The" wedding is also getting close, final suit fitting tomorrow as well as the family dinner.

I trailed all over town looking for suitable headgear to go with my wedding outfit and couldn't find anything suitable.  But within an hour of walking into the FOQ I  found Janie Lashford'smillinery stall, how appropriate was that.  We had a long discussion on styles and tried on several fascinators finally settled on this kit .  Now all I have to do is make it before next Friday when we set off for the Lake District for the wedding on )Saturday.  On the Sunday (the 5th) it will be our RubyWedding but I doubt we'll celebrate as I really need a rest.

At last bought my dress for 'The' wedding

It's take me ages to get round to buying an outfit for Marc and Alix's wedding next month but at last I've done it.  Typical me I found it when I was looking for something else.   Strictly speaking I didn't find it the kind shop assistant ran round in circles looking for suitable dresses for me.  I was looking for a suit but ended up with longish silk dress with beads round the neckline (just discernable in the photo) and round the edges of the cap sleeves.   I also bought a short cream collarless jacket which turns it into a wedding outfit fit for the mother of the groom.  This morning I had to go back into town to buy suitable underpinnings, shoes and bag to match the outfit.  Alix is relieved I've finally got an outfit, she had an image of me turning up in jeans, tshirt and flip flops.

I turned my first attempt  lino cutting samples into a book cover.  I covered one of the 49p plastic folders Sainsburys sell for their recipe cards.  They are just the right side to store postcards,  They have two slots cut in the front cover of the ring binders which act as a lock so the book doesn't open out.  I've covered quite a few in the past and have several of them filled with fabric postcards.   I bought six on Saturday to take to our next Dippy Day later this month where we are all going to make a book cover using different surface design techniques.  Should be interesting and will post pictures if I get the chance.

This is my next project for stamping fabric.  Our lesson objective was to make a stamp with movement this one started off as bark but not sure what it'll turn out like.

More goodies from the postman, the two postcards are from BQL's monthly challenge and the single one from Art4Mail.   BQL's July challenge was to make a postcard, think August's challenge is a lap quilt.  The Art4Mail challenge I spoke about in an earlier posting.   Helen and Jo's cards are very different, Helen has concentrated on feather quilting Jo on raw edge applique.   Gwyneth's challenge techniques for her card were 1, painted fabric with silk or watercolour paints, 2 pleated fabric, 23geometric block 4 quilt with a curved line and 5th couching.   Hasn't she done well.

I'm going to theFOQ....

I didn't think I'd be able to make the FOQ this year with 'The Wedding' coming so close but we rearranged our timetable and are taking a couple of days out to go.   I'll be there on Thursday and maybe Friday if anyone else will be there those days. 

I've been saying for some time that I needed to sort out my threads.  I keep them, colour coded, in plastic boxes but the boxes are overflowing.  Everytime I need a thread I end up in a tangle of threads because I'm too lazy to wrap them up properly when I put them back.   Keith sorted me out though - he's made me these two thread racks and I spent hours yesterday playing with colours.  Problem is I still have at least half my threads still in the boxes but at least they don't have loose ends anymore.   I can now see at a glance whether I have the right colour or now.

Large Rack (144 threads) embroidery threads.

Small Rack with cotton threads

Blog comments

Not sure whether other bloggers get comments in a foreign language but if so do they know how to translate them.  I'd be grateful if someone would tell me how to interpret the ones I get as I'm not sure whether they are good, bad or indifferent and its frustrating.

Jan's rose is in full bloom and smells as good as it looks.  Don't know what its called we dug it up from her garden when she went into care and the house had to be sold.   I thought it had died because we moved it at the wrong time and last year it got moved again when Keith got his new shed.  This year however all is well.

I've now had time to play with my lino cutting tools and actually finished the first lesson and made a start on the second.  

This was the first lesson where we just made marks on the lino.  I found it really difficult to make circles but have now got a new cutter so hope this will make it easier next time.

My printing still leaves a lot to be desired the silver leaf is very blotchy.  The - wait for it... "artists monogram" well that's what Dijanne Chevaal calls it is also a bit blotchy but I'm sure I'll do better next time.  I tried using acrylic paints to transfer the stamped images to fabric but not all of them were successful.  I found the screen printing inks I had worked better.

I saw this link on Elizabeth Creates blog and thought It looked the sort of thing I could do while watching tv or travelling so I set off to make the basic pillows.   I actually finished one but I'm not comfortable with unfinished seams, guess its being brought up with a grandmother who liked the back of things to be as good as the front.  I haven't really learned to loosen up so my pillows have all the seams inside the pillows.

I'm going to do some quilting on them, perhaps embroider the odd flower etc then think of how I'm going to join them.  I like the idea of an art journal cover and will probably make a few signatures to include within the covers.   Watch this space.