Seam Treatments

All the seams now have the beginnings of some stitch on them. I've not used silk velvet in any type of crazy patchwork/quilting before and probably wouldn't do so again if I remember (it would appear to have a mind of it's own) and find something else for contrast texture instead!

Elegant - yes the jacket pattern is Gina but I'm not sure "I do" elegant these days lol! I was aiming for the look of the brown view so will have to rethink fabrics having bought some silk over the net which turns out to be totally the wrong colours from what I wanted!

Vogue 7907

Amongst my Christmas presents (chosen by myself) was this pattern ..........



I've done a mock-up with an old duvet cover and have to confess that I'd actually wear this (pity about the random stripe lol!) - very shabby chic! Both views use exactly the same pattern pieces - the look depending on the fabric used ....................



Only problem is, the slightest breeze or much movement and the folds in the collar/frontspiece are all over the place. I could use a single fastening in the centre but I have a feeling that the collar is too big and floppy for that to be very effective ..............

Maybe no fastenings at all but a few invisible stitches to hold the folds in place ????

Crazy Patchwork

Looking at the fabrics that I had out for the elephant the other week, I thought they might make a nice cushion so on Saturday thought I'd spend an hour roughly patching them together before getting out of my nightclothes - it took 8 (minus minimal breaks for refreshments)!

It's something to do in the evenings and is going to use a large chunk of my hand dyed threads. Now all I need is a volunteer to sand the edges of some Shisha mirrors! I'm really, really pleased with this photo - taken outside on an overcast day - I'm learning all the time!

Meet "Homer"

Injecting some colour into this urban madness ..................

20# wire was much more manageable though perhaps a touch flimsy if the legs are too long - his are a little shorter. See Nellie's blog for her free bird pattern.

The Journal

I have photographed this outside in the sun, outside in the shade, inside, used two different cameras and still the painted surfaces won't show anywhere near their true colour - it is more raspberry and a deep violet and the cords do match!



The back ...................... my husand helped cutting the hole for the first eyelet and we now have a little hole (yes a nice round hole) in the kitchen worktop!

It's not got any pages yet as I can't find the hole punch - it's not in it's usual place but nobody has seen or had it! Not sure what I'm going to do with it yet - probably not it's intended purpose as the colours are a little moved from what I originally planned.

Thankyou for all your lovely comments about "Flitty" in the last post. Judith, I wasn't quite sure if "Flitty" was a he or a she ............ I was thinking that it is male birds that tend to be more ornate?

Nellie, I used 18# paper covered cake decorating wire (painted with acrylic and covered with free machine zig zag) because it's what I had to hand but it was a little too rigid to bend around the feet successfully. 24# is much too fine but I might try a 20#.

Flitting About!

Before Christmas I spent some time looking at handbag patterns and bought this glorious piece of fabric with the intention of using it as one of the fabrics in a bag until my teenage daughter made it qute clear that she wouldn't welcome anything I'd made. On reflection, perhaps if I'd been a little more discreet and included a faux "Primark" label then things might have been different!


Anyway, during that trawl I found a free online pattern for a little bird purse/bag which looked fun, if a little basic and I then found Nellie's Needles stuffed bird tutorial (moving away from bags here). Catching up with blog reading the other day, I noticed Jackie's "Tweets" and remembered Nellie's Tutorial in my favourites hence a lesson in how to waste fabric with the placement of pattern pieces to achieve the desired effect and I now have my own little bird ..............



The other side ...................

"Flitty" was great fun to do even though being able to stand unaided required lots and lots of encouragement!

Back to Bowls & Pots

I hadn't planned to do another post about the coiled vessels right now but on catching up with all the blog reading have just noticed a comment from Bethel of Bethnia posted back in November! It has also come to light that I am not getting all the email notifications for comments so can only guess that our provider is filtering them out as spam.

Here's another one made before Christmas which I still have (there were some that I forgot to photograph before they were given as gifts) ..........



In reply to your comment Bethel .............


Yes, mum did like! She said that my brother had admired it too so asked me to make him one for Christmas which I did - not purple with "flowers" though!
I haven't had any problem with the tension at all. Here is the type of polyester washing line that I use together with a picture of the first bowl that I did. I try to keep the coils snugly fitting as I stitch and try to hold the bowl at the same angle for each complete turn (I just use a pin on the inside to mark the start point). I realise that's it's some time since you commented on these but if you have any further questions then do please ask - only to happy to help!

All Painted

I actually quite liked the lilac and pink in the first one but seeing as the purpose of the exercise is to add layers of thinned paint to get depth ................ . In addition to the paints selected yesterday, I used a raspberry acrylic and a little glitter glaze (which doesn't show in the photo).

A Productive Day

All stitched and covered with Gesso ...........

It's a long time since I've had some of my paints out and was disappointed to find that some of them have dried up but these fabric paints were just the type of colours I wanted so am going to have a play around with these ...............

The Plan!

Firstly, thankyou for your lovely comments everyone and I'm delighted to say that I received a phone call this morning from the recipient who was "thrilled" with her little surprise thank you gift to go with her elephant collection. Isn't that just the greatest reward when you know that somebody is so appreciative of something - I am delighted!



Most people who read this will have seen Angie Hughes' article in the current issue of Stitch or be familiar with her work. For a little while I have been thinking about a little book and this is just the inspiration I needed. Peering into my boxes of fabric this morning, I came across this curtain interlining that I bought some years ago but never put to any use - it frayed too easily and was too fluffy to be of much use for anything but, I hope, is just the thing for this.

I've used PVA on fabric before but never thought to use it on this. The texture as it is reminds me very much of mulberry bark (without the flexibility of course) and I imagine that it's going to feel like a very heavy silk paper when ironed - scrumptious!

My husband asked what it was for so I had to explain (in detail but all in one breath) that if anything ever happened to me then he might stress about the arrangements/details etc. being exactly to my taste so I was making a little ideas book! I got one of them grins and told I was a weirdo - a little contrary maybe but weirdo I think not lol! Mother in law died suddenly on Christmas Eve (Father in law was New Years Eve a few years ago so no forgetting them dates!) and it gets one thinking. I won't be revealing any of the contents but that's "The Plan"!

Catching up on the blogs is going to take a little time - I just wish there were more hours in the day - but I will get there.

A Scissor Keeper (or Hanging Elephant)!

It's been some time since I last made any of these (probably about 10 years ago!) and I remember being able to do one in a day - this little one took 3 (with new glasses and a daylight lamp!) and is going to be packed up ready for posting tomorrow.

I haven't been very creative for several months but now the days are getting a little brighter and longer, I hope to be able to see better as well as becoming more inspired - oh for the eyes of a few years ago - and I hope to catch up on all the usual blogs too!