Very Green ..........

Another cup & saucer, a bit green and not quite to plan but I don't dislike it .............

Whilst I had some green scraps to hand, backgrounds for fabric postcards.  Before I started, was thinking daisies but they're not saying daisy to me .................. more tropical ......... hmmm ......

Thankyou for your comments ladies, am glad the photos look ok, it's difficult to decide just which angle the laptop screen should be at to make sure they're not too dark or light.

Scraps

Well that didn't take long ..................... I'm stuck albeit hopefully only briefly whilst I decide what to do now that the daisy punch won't cut through the vilene so I'll write a blog post instead!

I  don't know what is up with blogger this morning, the pics are only uploading one at a time and positioning themselves where I don't want them and not wanting to move so ............ I'll do my best.

Any piece of fabric less than, say, 6" goes in the scrapbag and I'm talking about any little scrap here not just sizeable pieces.  It's a while since I turned the bag right out so, looking for some green bits for the next cup, it was emptied out.  Out came all sorts of bits that I'd forgotten about ................ the cover for my sleeve ironing board (so that's where it went), a couple of bits of net that I use for felting, some scraps of lace that I'd cut off a dress I threw away ............. there is such a dilemma with clothes.  Do you freecycle them, give them to charity or remove any buttons and/or bits that you may use and bin the rest?  Depends what they are I suppose but I deeply regret ridding myself of an M&S long silk velvet blouse (a Christmas gift that wasn't really me) ............. I should have kept it and cut it up.   Last year our daughter freecycled a bag full of hardly worn branded hoodies ................... it's only just occured to me that I could have used the lovely pink & blue zips hmmmmm .......

A small amount of plain green was needed so out came my dyed fabrics.  I just love them as they are .......... a rainbow of colour!  It's a ridiculous thing to say I know but I could keep these out and derive pleasure from just looking at them on a daily basis.  Large scale isn't really my thing but maybe I should turn some of this rainbow into something which I could admire on a daily basis ............... a strippy wall hanging perhaps?  Am wondering how much dyeing I'm going to be doing now that we've had a (compulsory) water meter installed!

Towards the end of last year, more out of necessity to create a couple of presents quickly & easily from stuff I already had, I made a couple of wallets ..............

There's enough scraps in the bag to make three more of these in pink, brown & blue ................ I might do that.

Using the laptop it's really had to tell if I have the photographs looking acceptable.  If anybody reads this I would welcome comment as to whether they are too dark, light or whatever - thankyou.

Tea for a Prince?

The first cup & saucer ................ I think I've acheived what I set out to do

Whilst in progress, comments from 3 different family members ...............

"Will you be able to drink out of it?"

"It must be alright, even I can see it's a cup & saucer!"

"What are you making?" "Cups & saucers" "What for (with a tone that meant what on earth for)?"  "Just to see if I can" .............. silence ..............

I cut 6 sets in total but perhaps we could do with an orderly kitchen for a day or two before I continue ..........
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Cups & Saucers .........

I have a problem and that problem is "If I use it then I'll have no more". Playing, sampling, trialling, designing even is using stuff up - stuff that I might need for "that" future project BUT if I don't play around and use things then that special piece or project is never going to materialise!

Quite a few of my fabric paints (they are mostly about 10 years old now) are drying up especially where the lids have cracked or split ................... so I need to use them!  I have been very brave and used a whole metre of pelmet vilene and a whole metre of painted bondaweb on these.  I had planned to use another metre (the last one) of bondaweb and said to my husband earlier that they may be better with doubling up the vilene too ........... "and" he said.  "well, I won't have any of that left either" .................. "and" he said .................. hmmmm, we'll see ................... .

I'm happy with the "deco" shapes, looking forward to embellishing and, hopefully, catching up with some more blog reading! 

edit - looking at the above photograph, I've just realised that I commented on some blue & white spotty cups of Jackie's this afternoon ................. the "holes" in my blue cup weren't really planned around anything - I just had the soldering iron out for another holey (obscured by the pic) cup still flat to which I intend to add swirls.  Another one of those strange coincidences!
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Hello ..................

It is a long, long time since I last blogged and sometimes life in general takes precedence over creativity (and blogging) but here is what I have been doing so far this year .................

Between Christmas & New Year I made myself a bag. It was ok but not being terribly familiar with the particular style of patchwork used, placement of the pieces could have been better (discovered when it was too late to do anything about it). However, having seen mine, a friend asked if I could make her one. Using the pattern from Easy Japanese Quilt Style I changed the placement of the ties a little, added an extra set (obscured by the photo) to enable the bag to be tied in different ways and inserted an internal zipped pocket



I was also asked if I could make a "pinky" backpack for said friend's toddler grandchild. Hmmmm, the nearest quilting shop had no kiddy/girly fabrics in pink so I selected a range of fabric that I thought I could put together without looking too grannyish and together with the plain dark pink in my box at home am rather pleased with the result ................

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Not actually knowing the child, I wanted to be sure the size and practicality would be about right so searched the net for something modelled on a real child and found this pattern to which I added a lining (made as a separate "bag" then stitched in) and velcro fastening.

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And we now have another little patchwork pig ....................

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I hope to catch up properly with reading all my favourite blogs and get working on one of my own designs which I have been playing around with the last couple of days.

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Wishing everybody a happy, healthy and creative 2010