French Street Cards

Some time ago I made a postcard for our EG French Street exhibition and got the size wrong.... So I've made another two, I just couldn't be bothered to redo the first one.  They have to be in for next Saturday so at last I got my finger out and finished them.

 The background of this card doesn't show up very well at all but its a mosaic of tiny scraps of fabric in colour bands.  I covered the whole piece in organza in co-co-ordinating colours after I bonded the Eiffel tower to the background.  I wanted to achieve a sort of Monet affect and it works, except in the photo.  I took the idea from a photo taken when Keith and I were last in Paris.  There is an area, forget where it is, that you get a great view of the whole of the tower.  In the photo were other people viewing the same scene and I used the back view of one couple.  It's not strictly an authentic view as I've added trees and some quilted buildings to the background.

 This one is a again from a photo taken somewhere in Southern France, forget the name of the village.  I have wanted to try out fmq on a patchwork background for some time and thought this would make another card.  Not really pleased with the doorways.

This last one was the first one I made and it is 5" x 7" but the other two are the correct size of A5

A bit of this and that

May hasn't been a month of activity, sewing wise that is but I have managed to do the odd bit of crafting.  I finally got round to making a mat for my Janome sewing machine to sit on when I take it to workshops.

I used a piece of batik fabric that I'd been 'saving for something special'.  I really need to use up some of the stash I've collected, I can't 'save' it all.

Last Saturday Nicky Dillerstone was giving a talk to our embroiderers guild and in the morning she had agreed to hold a mini workshop, called "Textured Frames".  I hadn't a clue what to expect but signed up for it on the basis that it would be fun just to do things with friends.  We were all given a pack of bits and pieces, mainly papers, string, thread, bandage and scraps of fabric.  Along with six four in square pieces of card with a 2" hole in the centre and a book cover.  We were given permission to play, to create frames that could be made into a small book.  We all finished six pages but had to take them home to complete and bring back to the guild next month.

Well I managed to get mine finished, I had to create a couple more pages to fill the book cover out but here it is.  My theme, after much deliberation, was based on walking by the sea and along the coastal path near home.

I covered the book cover in crumpled brown paper, edge it with a piece of lace and later spray dyed it and finally gave it a coating of acrylic wax to make it shine like leather.

First spread is a view from the coastal path and sand dunes.  I haven't a clue why Blogger has decided to turn the rest of the photos on their side but try as I might I can't get them to print in the correct orientation.  Sorry you will get a crick in your neck looking at these.

 Looking through the grass at the sea and the harbour side.

 Rockpools and the sea and the lighthouse from the dunes.

The lighthouse again with a rock pool and a view of the moors from the dunes at sunset.

Oh what a lovely weekend

It seems ages since I blogged but sometimes life just gets in the way.  I have just spent a lovely weekend with my family.  The boys planned it as a treat for me and it was wonderful to have the whole weekend to spend with them without one of us needing to go somewhere.  On Saturday we strolled through the West End shops then had a meal at The Real Greek before going on to the theatre.  Where we saw "The play that went wrong" at the Duchess Theatre.  It was so hammy and silly that it was hilarious and all of us enjoyed it very much.

On Sunday we took a taxi to Kings Cross to leave our luggage and we had the rest of the day ahead of us to enjoy.  It was Shakespeare's birthday celebrations and they were opening the Globe free of charge and we'd heard there were various things planned for the day.  So we thought we'd make that the next stop.  After that we were heading West to a wholefood market. And this is what we told our driver when he asked about our plans.  He then told us of the demonstration that was planned for that day in aid of legalising cannabis.  He said that there would be demonstrations on the Southbank and the West End and warned us to keep an eye on the time we needed to get back to the station.  He also said that the buses were being rerouted and some Metro stations closed from 1pm until pm.  That left us in a bit of a quandary as we did not want to get mixed up with the demonstration.  Our knowledgeable driver advised us to go North to Camden Market as it was not far from Kings Cross.

We took him up on his offer and had a wonderful time.  True to his word the Metro at Camden closed at 1pm so we walked back along the canal to the station, tired but happy.

Everywhere we went the Cherry Blossom was in full bloom and this year it seems better than ever.

Me and my girls in Covent Garden, look for somewhere to have coffee.

This window caught my eye it was full of old sewing machines.

Mad Hatter's Tea Party in Camden High Street

It was very busy and these photos don't do it justice but we enjoyed trying all the street food, not to mention all the other stalls.

The day ended with a lovely walk back along the canal side.

Burning back

Some time ago I saw Margaret Beal layering synthetic fabrics and using a soldering iron to burn the layers back to create patterns.  Kathleen Laurel Sage layers sheer fabrics, stitches a design onto the layers and burns back some layers to create colour variation.  Just recently I've seen Susan Lenz use a combination of both techniques to create her own version of stain glass windows.  I've taken courses with both Margaret Beal and Kathleen Laurel Sage in the past and the technique fascinates me.

This is the piece I made in Kathleen's class with a close up of one of the flowers, that's beading in the centre but I think it looks like a button.  I've always planned to make a larger piece, perhaps using four of the above pieces to create a window hanging for my small landing window.  But so far its just a 'maybe'.

I don't have any of the pieces I made with Margaret, they were largely button's and odd shape pieces and have now all been used on other articles.  But this is a good way of making bits and pieces to add to your creations so I will be restocking sometime soon.

I thought I'd try Susan Lenz's combination idea to create a "burning back" piece which I think will end up on the front of a book cover.  This is my February journal page. Not sure whether I would layer on felt I rather like the more delicate look of the fabric only piece.

I started off using Margaret's layering on an acrylic felt background method, then free motioned a design over it, some edges were straighter than others.  Then I burned back some of the layers and finally sewed the whole piece onto a bit of glitzy fabric to show off the holes and pull all the colours together.  The acrylic felt made a very sturdy fabric, much easier to manipulate than the flimsier fabric of Kathleen's.  It would make good book covers and boxes where you need a bit of added strength.

What with Lesley still being in hospital I have had very little time to do much of anything.  She is slowly improving, still dehydrated though and they are still continuing to give her fluids intravenously   Her blood count isn't back to normal either but she is looking and sounding a lot better.

Now I'm going to make some small triangular purses to put mini eggs in for Easter.  So far I've made two.

I made one of these to put my Ipod headphones in. I also want to make a few cable wraps as I seem to have so many power cables etc for my various readers, cameras, phone etc.

This is one I made earlier.

Catch Up

You know those days, busy all day but with very little to show for it:  well I seem to have had a few weeks like that.   I have done some sewing but not a lot.  First my Bernina B710 developed a fault, it wouldn't switch on.  Apparently it needed updating and I'm waiting at the moment for it to be returned.  In the meantime my old trusty but very weighty Bernina 1630 finally got the better of me. Loading it into and out of the car, carrying it, setting it up in workshops left me breathless and with an aching back.

To cut a long story I finally agreed to take a pre-owned (owned for one week by an elderly lady who couldn't manage the complexity of the machine) Janome TXL 607.  The lady had bought the quilting package of table, walking foot and extra feet so these came with it.  It arrived last Thursday and I love it.  It's light, well half the weight of the 1630, and comes with all the functionality I wanted plus many more stitches than I anticipated.  I haven't been able to do as much sewing with it  as I was due to leave for Kent the following morning and had company at the time of its arrival.  But one bonus is that it fits on a small table I have so I can use it and watch tv at the same time, yehhhh

I have been promising to visit my friend Judy for some time and on Friday morning I set of to stay with her for a long weekend.  I only got lost once trying find the right platform at St Pancras.

The weather wasn't too good in Kent, it was much better at home in the North East, but we did our best to get out and about.  The village of Wye where Judy lives is lovely with a lot of medieval buildings,misshapen and high pitched roofs.  The walls also have lots of quartz in them, similar to those I've seen in Lincolnshire and Norfolk.

 This is the oldest part of the College, I just love the doorway.

The local church had long bench covers detailing aspects of the village.  I've only shown three parts of one as I took so many it became boring.

Sunday we went into Canterbury I wanted to see the tomb of Thomas Beckett but once again I was unable to do so.  Last time there was an international synod taking place and the cathedral was closed. This time it was a different function but with the same result.  

After dinner with Judy's  family we arrived back to find on my mobile two messages for me to ring my brother and nephew urgently.  My sister had been taken into hospital seriously ill.  She had apparently taken ill on Friday morning downstairs in her kitchen where she was so exhausted she fell asleep on the floor.  She can't remember so we don't know if she fell and landed on the floor or whether she lay down.  She struggled upstairs where she thought she would take a bath. Having got into the bath she couldn't get out and spent the rest of the time lying in an empty bath until her son found her on Sunday evening.  They blue lighted her to hospital where she got the treatment she needed for dehydration, confusion and hypothermia.  I spent a very worrying Sunday evening and journey home the next day. I went straight to the hospital to find her sitting up in bed, tired but happy to see me.  She will be in hospital for several days yet and I am hopeful that the help that has been offered before she will now accept.

Keith's Jeans

So far I haven't been able to face clearing out Keith's clothes and may not do so for a long time.  But I have been recycling some of his stuff.  This time I turned a pair of his jeans into a bag for Julie and another smaller bag for myself (not yet photographed).  I'd been promising to make her one to take to work that would hold her lunch (and sometimes breakfast) as well as odds and ends.

I've had the handles, feet and clasp for Julie's bag some time as well as the material for the pockets and lining.  So they are recycled as well.  All I needed was the jeans to make the bag from, Keith came to the rescue again.  Apart from the outside pockets, on both sides, there are two more denim pockets inside to hold water or juice bottles.

Julie likes it and apparently so do a couple of her workmates so that should please Keith that his trousers are admired by ladies......

My Kindle has gone haywire.  Don't know why or how.  It was working one moment the next it wouldn't stay on despite the battery being fully charged.  I decided to restart it and return it to factory settings (not that I'd touched those) and lost all my books.  Still it now starts and stays on but I have to re-register it so until I do that I can't re-download the books I bought from Amazon.  So guess what my next job is.  I really miss my Kindle I've had it for approximately four years and its been very, very very well used.  I get through around 3 books a week - mainly reading in bed.  I've had to revert to listening to books on my Ipod.  Problem with that is my eyes don't get tired so instead of putting the book down and going to sleep, I keep on listening to it until the early hours of the morning.  Either that or I drop off to sleep still listening and miss several chapters which means I have to backtrack, not always and easy thing to do.

Went to the cinema this week to see Shakespeare's "Loves Labour Lost" which was being broadcast by the RSC directly from Stratford upon Avon.  It was a completely different experience from watching a film, much more akin to actually going to the theatre.  I loved it and me and my friend Gill are off on the 4th March to see the companion play to this "Loves Labour Won" or as its better known "Much Ado about Nothing".

Spot the Difference

Spot the difference it wasn't until I had uploaded the photo of my French cafe scene that I realised I'd missed a couple of elements off.  Can you find them?

One of the things I had promised myself this year was to make a monthly journal page.  Well it started out as a journal page:

but ended up as:

A pot to stand next to my computer.  At the moment its holding the various cables I use when I want to connect my Kindle, Ipod, Ipad, phone etc to my computer.  Well at least its tidied themup.

French Cafe Scene

Our EG group have been asked to create 5"X 7" postcards depicting France which are to be exhibited there sometime towards the end of the year.  Taking advantage of a 'no dog, day I set off to create something.

I found an image I liked from one of our photos.  This one was taken en route to a holiday in Spain. Going through France we stopped in a small town for coffee and too this photo. I've just noticed that  I've forgotten to embroider cafe on the card and create a menu to go on the wall!!  Must do that as soon as I've finished this post.

I resized the photo to 5 x 7 inches and turned it into a black and white image.  Then traced the main lines.  From that I created pieces and ironed them onto a cream background.  Once that was done I outlined everything in black and tried to create ironwork.  I quite deliberately didn't try to be neat with the outlining, I wanted it to have a hand drawn appearance.  Leaves were cut by hand and bonded onto the background and the bike and table are clip art images printed onto shrink plastic and glued on. I may make another one using much more traditional embroidery later.

Buster is appreciative on his travel rug when used in my sewing room but still isn't too keen to lie on it on laminated floors.

One more thing that has been finished is THE wall hanging, yehhhh.  Marc and Alix were very pleased with it and took it home with them last night.  They had come up to have a meal out with Sy and Julie as it's Sy's birthday tomorrow (2nd).  Naturally I forgot to take a photo but Alix has promised to send me one when its in its pride of place on their wall.

More recycling

Recycling just 'happened' I was really looking for something to do and found several wip and decided to finish at least one of them.  Several metres of scrap fabric later I got fed up with feeding small bits of fabric into my machine.  Then I took Buster to see my sister who has laminated floors.  Now Buster and laminated floors just don't go together.  He hates the fact that his feet just seem to slip around on them and they are hard on is old arthritic bones.  I thought this is going to be a major problem as Buster just doesn't like being left on his own since we lost Keith, he howls all the time I am out (unless I feed him treats before I go - not good for his weight!!).  I can go out for a couple of hours without him creating havoc but anything longer and he gets very distressed.  He also doesn't like sitting on the floor of my sewing room as it is covered by a thin carpet, again a strain on his old bones.  So last night as a pair of thick quilted over trousers fell out of the wardrobe for the umpteenth time a light bulb went off.  Why not turn these quilted trousers (very very large pair) into a travelling mat for Buster.  Then I saw Keith's old cardigan with a fleece lining, hmm he wouldn't mind if I cut that up too.  So armed with scissors I set too and took the garments to pieces.

Buster now has a lovely cosy travelling mat to lay on when we go to visit friends/family etc and for use in my sewing room.  He loves it.... no more howling, no more shouting at him to shut up and no more downtrodden looks from him when he encounters laminated floors to lie on.

 Buster likes the fluffy side up

but is okay with the quilted side too.

It rolls up quite small and I shall make a bag to carry it in when we go visiting.

New family addition

Welcome to my new great niece Catherine Ann born this morning at 10:30am. She's going to be a heart breaker, like her mother and sister, her brother isn't too shabby either.

Happy Creative New Year

I know its well past New Year but I've only just got my muse back in place.   For the last few weeks I've kept going into my workroom, picking stuff up, putting it back, thinking yep I'll do that then changing my mind again when the urge left me.  You know the feeling.  Well yesterday I decided I'd have a bit of a spring clean and see if anything gave me the urge to create.  Nope just ended up with an ultra clean sewing room.  I told myself to get off my butt and do something so I made a list of all the things I'd like to do, projects I wanted to complete, new techniques I wanted to try out.  I wanted to do more Gelli plate printing and would start with that.

Then I started looking for where I'd stacked my Gelli plates.  I knew I 'd put them somewhere safe over the festive period but could I find them, course I couldn't.  Now in my workroom I have an old microwave which I put there with the intention of dyeing fabric.  It gets used as a cupboard. I thought I might have put them in there.   What did I find in the cupboard but 40 odd scrap blocks. So  I thought why not sew them together while I continue to look for my Gelli plates.

So that's what I did.  I haven't bothered with sashing.  I did think about it then decided to go with the flow while I still had some flow.  After I'd sewn the 'hoard' together I made a start on depleting my stash of left over bits and bobs.  My method of sewing them together was simple, I strip pieced them then strip pieces the bits.  At times I had to trip them back to a reasonable shape, if you use odd shaped pieces such as triangles you can get some weird and wonderful blocks.

Many of these pieces are from Christmas projects.  I will continue sewing my scraps together then cut them into 6.5" blocks and add them onto the 'hoard' piece.   It's not much but at least its got me going again. 

I've since found my Gelli plates and plan to make more prints and turn them into journals.  I have an idea to make mug rugs from maps,  some fabric scrap maps and Julie Mackiner has a mug bag on her Facebook page that I want to make. 

So here's wishing you all a happy, healthy, creative 2015.

Merry Christmas to all

Not sure what has happened to December, it has gone in a flash but all the presents are bought or made and the baking is done.  Only thing that I haven't done is put up the tree and decorate the house.  It was something Keith and I did together and this year I find myself reluctant to do it.  But this afternoon Sy is coming by and maybe I'll be less reluctant then.

I've been busy making shark pencil cases from a tutorial by Patchworkposse I've made three, one for Flynn and the other two for my brother's grandsons.  Naturally I haven't take a photo but if you use the link above you will see them.

Flynn has had his first school photo taken and he looks cute.

He's looking forward to Christmas although I don't think he really understands what Christmas is yet, to him its probably lots of parties and singing.  I've had fun buying him books and have gone for several the boys enjoyed.  Meg and Mog, Mog's Christmas, Gruffalo, The Owl who was afraid of the Dark plus one or two other bits and pieces.  I'm looking forward to the time I can buy him the Church Mice books, at the moment he's too small to appreciate the graphics in the book.

Flynn also has been busy, he made me this Christmas card, which I would like to share with you all.

And is helping his Mum make cakes for tea.

When times get tough for me this little chap put the smile back on my face.  Merry Christmas to you all and hope 2015 is a happy, healthy one for you all.

Wild Women

Yesterday was our annual +4 Christmas lunch where we enjoy a bit of crafting, some good food and lots of laughs.  We make each other small presents, nothing flash or expensive just something we think we'll get pleasure from.  I made some wild women brooches, actually they are a cross between two patterns, one from the Sue Lawrence book Wild Women and one from a charity brooch pattern called Button Babes given away (with I think WOW) many years ago.  I made five and wrapped them without names and put them in a bag for each to pick one.  And here are the ladies.  I had fun making them and if anyone wants to try their hand the basic body pattern is an atc sized card.  Measure in half an inch at one on both sides of one end cut a diagonal line from that mark to the bottom corner.  You end up with a wedge shape. This is your body pattern, cut out two, sew together leaving a small opening to turn (I left the top opened).  Turn, stuff and sew up hole - you will need something to help you turn the body and to stuff it.  I used a haemostat.  Sew a button onto the small end and decorate as you wish.  I've used a variety of fancy yarns and some silk throwster's waste.

We each got felted soap from Jenny, small items for our handbags from Pat (who has problem wrists and couldn't make something this year, she is forgiven), home made mincemeat from Elspeth, very special recipe, A box of hand made cards from Linda plus nail varnish in the cracker and my presents the wild women brooches and a small post-it book complete with jacket (not shown as I forgot to take a photo.

We had a lovely day and far too much to eat but next year we are going to get down and do something a bit special, Watch this space.

Each year St Teresa's Hospice invite those families who have lost someone dear to them during that year to place an ornament on their Memory Tree.  This year we were invited as a family and after discussing it decided we would like to go.  There would be tea, coffee and mince pies etc and other families to talk to.  We were quite looking forward to putting the ornament on the tree for Keith.

What I hadn't been prepared for was the wash of emotion as I walked once more into the hospice.  I was overwhelmed with grief and memories of our last day together.  What made it worse was there was a memorial book that just happened to be opened at May and the first name I saw was Keith's.  I'm afraid it was very very difficult for me and for  the boys too.  We wrote out our messages on the paper ornaments and placed them on the tree.  Then we just couldn't stay any longer and left with heavy hearts. 

Once home we talked about how we had felt, how unprepared we'd all been for the emotional challenge.  But after we'd chatted, remembered some of the good times and had a cuppa  we felt better. The strange thing was that that morning the app on my printer had printed out an origami angel.  I was quite an advanced and I got stuck.  Marc finished it off for me and I felt better knowing the paper folding had eased his mind enough for me to feel better about him driving all the way home on his own.  He was picking Alix up from the airport, she had been spending time with friends in Lille.  Sy and Julie went off to buy plates for Christmas dinner which left Buster and I to have another biscuit and a sleep.

Christmas sewing

Actually got down to do some sewing.  I was asked to make a Christmas Stocking for my friend's grandson and thought it a good reason to use up some of my Christmas fabric stash.

The sharp eyed of you will see that I've cut the main stocking fabric upside down!!!  These stockings take up much more fabric than I anticipated and naturally I didn't have enough to re-cut it.  I thought I'd make one for Flynn.  I do have quite a large stash of Christmas fabrics but most of them were fat quarters so Flynn's had to be a strippy one.

Flynn's is also slightly smaller,  I found some fun Laurel Burch fabric for the cuff, pity there wasn't enough to make the whole sock in.  I think I'm going to enjoy filling it with Santa presents.

I am also making several small snap-top bags to hold stocking fillers for the offspring.  I have one finished and another six to make.  They are all cut out and the metal ruler pieces (from a retractable metal tape measure) are all cut out too.  Actually I've made several of these before and my lovely Keith cut up two of his tapes so I could have a supply of pieces whenever I needed them.  Thank you my love.

Don't know why Blogger has decided to post this picture upside down, its was the right way up when I imported it, hmm.  Still you get the picture.

Took Buster for a walk alongside the River Tees, he knows the way his friend Mark takes him out sometimes.  The path ended at the style and Buster is waiting for me to cross it.  No hope Buster, it was raining and that path is wet and slippy at the best of times.  There were some swans on the river, just about discernible on the right hand side.

And finally my virtual friend Pauline sent me this lovely postcard because she has enjoyed swapping with me.  I was very touched and shall treasurer her card. Thank you again Pauline.