Merry Christmas

Wishing you all a very merry Christmas.  May you be safe and happy, and enjoy time with your loved ones.  Hoping you all get lots of crafty things in your stocking.  Best wishes and many thanks for taking the time to stop by my blog.  I know I've been a bit quiet lately, life's a bit busy with us building a new home, but I will be back in the new year and promise to blog more often. x x

Overwhelmed with possibilities

There's lots of old sayings like "trying too hard", "can't see the wood for the tree's" and so on, and they all applied to me when I was studying my C&G.  I tried so hard to see things that I often couldn't see what was right in front of me.  When studying one module at a time I concentrated only on the requirements of that particular module, such as "line" - I only looked for line, then in "shape" I only looked for shape - now I can look for anything at any time and its amazing how much is all around me on a daily basis.  We're currently building a new house and the design possibilities that its thrown up are amazing, and I decided to share some of them with you.

Look at the wonderful rust around the holes in this steel.

 Even scaffolding parts offer wonderful pattern and shapes.

Lengths of steel coded by colour give great uniformity and grid ideas 

Stacked steel frames create crazy line patterns

Threaded squares of steel - some in line with each other, others spun to give angles

And this is one of my favourites - like a crazy wire flower - I think its a buffing head for smoothing steel (I've no idea, but I know hubby uses it a lot, lol!)

And who'd think that a welding machine would have such a lovely daisy design on it

Even welding slag dropped onto steel frames, rusted over time gives amazing design possibilities, all crusty and orange - can't wait to have a go to reproduce this one!

If you're working on grid designs - a side view of the steel frames gives a lovely increasing and decreasing zig zag design

And lets not forget the humble safety cone - even this has great shapes and patterns, negative and positive.

All I need now is the time to put these design sources to good use.  Let me know if any of you use these as starting points for your own creativity - I'd love to see what develops from them.

Design progress

A new love of mine is felt work.  I'm not giving up needlework and textile work to become a felter, but I do see so many possibilities of using felt in creative embroidery.It's soft, pliable, forgiving, colourful and wonderfully inspiring.  I have my spurts of enthusiasm when I spend a day or two making felt, then put it aside until inspiration hits me in the face, which it has done recently. 

This aqua/lilac piece is something I did a few years ago, but have only just mounted it.  Its only about 6cm square and mounted on black trigger cloth with some hand stitching and sequins and beads for embellishment.  At first I was going to insert it into a card for a birthday or such but then decided it would be nicer mounted as a small art piece.

These three designs are the beginning of a whole range of idea's I have for new design work which will appear soon on my website, and are an introduction to expanding design ideas.  

Currently we're in the middle of building a house, and my studio is smack bang in the middle of the construction site, so progress in the studio is slow at the moment, but bear with me - I'm working slowly in the background and intend to have new kits and classes ready to go in the new year.

100th post

I originally started this blog as a way to document my city and guild embroidery course and to meet fellow students, and it was pure happenstance that my 100^th blog post should come around right at the same time that my C&G certificates arrived.

How’s that for timing!?

I can’t begin to explain how I feel at the moment.  Getting the certificates was the final icing on the cake – it all feels real now.  But even that last little thing didn’t come easy.

I don’t know what the postman/post office was doing but my certificate took 4 weeks and 3 days to arrive by AIR MAIL from the UK.  Why is it that your bills can arrive within a day of being posted yet it’s always the really important urgent stuff that gets delayed. 

I have a constant battle with my post office – my post man doesn’t understand what DO NOT BEND means.  He drives me to near rage.  I subscribe to the Inspirations magazine, which as many of you know, can only be purchased through subscription now, creating a roller coaster of anger and frustration between me and the postman.  On the label of the magazine it clearly states in big red letters DO NOT BEND about 3cm above my name and address, yet what does he do?!  Yep, he bends it.  But when its bent the magazine is then thicker than the opening in my letter box, so he forces it through, which in turn scores the magazine and leaves every page with a jagged crease mark down the centre.   If he lent over off his motorbike he could open the flap in the back of my letterbox and place the magazine inside without damage, but this is too difficult.

The first time it happened I complained and got a refund from the PO, although it took 4 months!  The second time I complained the PO told me they don’t do refunds.  I suggested a newspaper tube on the side of the post box but the PO said legally they weren’t allowed to put mail in there, and the same applied to just laying the magazine on the top of the letterbox.  So apart from lying in wait every day and ambushing the postman, I’m afraid I’m beaten.

And this problem led to much panic about my long strived for certificate.  I couldn’t bear it to be creased and damaged, so I requested it be sent in a tube, which SofST kindly did, so what does the PO do this time – make me wait, anxiously, for four and a half weeks to get it.  Aaarrrgghh!!!!!  I was at my wits end by the time it arrived, but now, at last, I can finally relax, take a deep breath and contemplate whether or not to tackle the Diploma.  What do you think?

Six years in the making

It's only taken me 6 years to make this crocheted blanket.  No, I'm not the slowest crocheter in the world, but I might be the dumbest. It's always best to make sure you have enough wool before you start a project.

I started it in 2006.  I had a breast lump scare and spent 7 hours in the clinic sitting with lots of other frightened ladies, and I started this blanket as a way to pass the time and take my mind off a terrifying day. Whilst we all sat there in our gowns watching the clock tick slowly and a world of worry on our minds, I frantically twisted and turned my hook and wool and focused on the blanket instead.  

I made great headway and achieved a good size by the end of the day, when I luckily walked out with good news that it was benign. The blanket was then tucked away for a year or two. Occassionally I'd get it out and do some more until I ran out of wool. Only then did I find out they no longer make this wool. No matter where I looked I couldn't find any, and it was just a long thin piece of nothing.

So ... another couple of winters went by where I spent hours and hours unravelling it and winding it into balls, only to start it again, but this time not as wide. After finishing my C&G course this year I had spare time and also needed something to keep me warm, so I really got stuck in and finished it.  Its a good size for a throw over the sofa and is lovely and thick and warm. It was hubby's idea to add a scallop on the edge and I'm happy he suggested it, as it really finishes it off.

I've never read a crochet pattern in my life, as I can't make head or tail of them, but I did learn as a child how to do the basic stitches and used to make afghan blankets - this time I just went up and down, instead of round and round, so easy and very therapeutic. Now for the next project.

Phew! she liked it

Well the quilt went down a treat - thank goodness!

The housewarming was a lovely, fun night.  Bec put on a great spread of gluten free food - all yummy stuff - and we all had a wonderful time, catching up with family and celebrating the move into her own new home - always a huge step for anyone.  And she loved the quilt.

What a relief!!

There's something undescribably pleasing about making something for someone who utterly appreciates the work and love that goes into it, and that makes it all worthwhile.

In fact, I got a few "ooooh, I'd love one too" comments - so who knows, I might be able to improve if I do a few more - but I think I'll have a break for a while and get back into my one true love - stitching (or at least until I find a good professional quilter)..

Quilt complete

I do love quilts.  I love their amazing colour schemes.  I love the huge assortment of designs.  I love the feel of them.  There's something so comforting about them.  I love cutting out all the pieces. I love stitching the pieces together.  I love seeing them come to life.  But I hate quilting them!!!!!

I know there must be a method to cramming a huge amount of fabric through the small hole on my sewing machine - but I've yet to discover what that is. 

And so, my nieces quilt is finally complete.  I think I'm happy with it.  There's always that nagging in the back of my mind, that I could've done it better - possibly taking it to a professional quilter could have erased these nagging thoughts, but ... there's always next time.

I had tossed up with the idea of sending it to be professionally quilted - I really like the look of the all-over quilting - but time was against me.

The house-warming is tomorrow night.  I only hope she likes it and that she knows wherever she goes in life, or whatever she does, whatever happens, and no matter how old she'll be, she'll always be able to wrap my love around her for comfort.