Published

You know when you've had a glass or two of wine and you love everyone?
And you want to hug everyone and tell them you love them?*
(*I have to add here that when I wrote this I HADN'T HAD A GLASS OF WINE..I just felt the same warm feelings...)
Well...perhaps you don't but I do, and  blogging makes me feel like this.
There are people who comment without fail on my blog and to whom I can't reply with email, notably Heather and Connie and many others, and I would love to give you all a virtual hug. It so lovely to have you take the time to comment.
Not just you, but others.
 Thank you.
Now, I just thought I'd pop in with a creation I did a while ago but which is just about to appear in Quilting Arts emag. I'm sorry I can't link to it. I don't quite know if its available yet.
So:

 here it is in all its pinkness

 Available now ssshhhh you know where.

 In lovely silk and velvet and of course its in the worst colour to photograph. There's a matching heart which can be a pendant or a brooch. Also available.

The silk is shot lilac and orange which gives a luscious pink.
Or should I say raspberry?

Can't even think of a title for this post.

What a long time its been since I blogged.
The main reason is that I couldn't get a decent photograph of the piece I wanted to show.
Here it is now..the best I can do in more ways than one.

Its about 10 inches high.

I've had it out ready to photograph for days now and every time the cat got near it I moved it, until this morning when I found him perched precariously on the back of a chair fast asleep..on top if it. So that big crease down the centre is a result of his 'ironing ' it with his one-stone bulk.

Now the history of this piece is this: I HAD to make myself do some sewing so I got a piece of my felt from a previous post and stitched some motifs onto it, using the different coloured shapes as a guide. It was a battle I can tell you.

But the final piece was far too busy and confusing . The background colours were too busy, and you couldn't see the stitched parts.

So after a discussion at the felt group (I do love them all) I had a go at using the embellisher to force the white felt on the back through to the front to soften the spaces between, but it didn't work.

( I didn't take any pictures of it at this stage.)

I had made some felt at the felt group meeting using some softly space dyed wool tops given to me by Lesley, and I rather liked the result so I cut the motifs out of the patterned felt, and stitched them onto the softer allover  coloured felt.

I prefer this background, but the effect of cutting thick felt is a little unsatisfactory in this instance. The wispiness of the edges disappear, but other things appear I suppose. Its a bit lumpy.

I did a bit of hand stitching inspired by Jude. I like that.

 This exercise poses a few questions.

Gives me  a few headaches. I need to be more in control of the shapes I lay down on a plainer background so that they will show up when I've stitched on them. So I need to have a clearer picture of the finished piece even while I'm making the felt.

Must try harder.

I'm still reluctant to commit myself to sewing which is tough because I am supposed to be exhibiting with a group in May.

Lost my way.

Thanks for all the wonderful comments since the last post. I feel so grateful and sad I can't answer some because I can't find you . The latest of these is 'bea'. Thank you bea.

In other news: it was my husbands Birthday over a week ago on a saturday . We were going out with family on Sunday so on his birthday we just had a little trip to Staveley near Kendal, Cumbria, where we had a walk by the river in lovely frosty sunshine,

Along the way we saw a beautiful house almost all one end is glass..what a spot to live.

 Further on we saw signs saying 'Save(whatever it was) weir.'.this one. I don't know any details, but I can only imagine the floods if this wasn't here.

Then we finished our outing with a coffee at Wilfs, a cafe in Mill Yard . We read papers and patted dogs..so civilised , they allow dogs and walking boots in.

Then we had a look round Mill Yard and saw one of our favourite kinds of building!

Patchwork corrugated iron.

Wonderful.