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?

A Post with appalling picture quality.

Not Long Till Valentine's day!
I've been working for an Art Gallery near Newtown in Wales and didn't finish sewing till 1 am, so the pictures were taken in very poor artificial light, because all the items went off to Wales early this morning.


I've had these large blanket/kilt pins for ages and I've indulged myself. I've wanted to make these for a while but couldn't really justify them..what are they? Even I don't know. Large brooches or small wall hangings?


I just wanted to play with the tweed and velvet for its own sake.
(Oh the pictures are sooo bad)
There's an extraneous bit of red got onto this green one.


I wish you could really see this red in all its glory.

Besides these I made some more cuffs to go with the heart brooches.

Here's the coppery gold one.

The Gallery is having a Burns Night and Valentine event so these tweed hearts fill both bills!

Again the colours are all wrong.

(But you're an imaginative bunch so I'm sure you get the picture)

Now, I've been tagged twice on the same day.

Once by Lorie my dear distant friend and supporter, and once by Daisie who is probably the nearest blogger to me.
They were not exactly the same ..one was 6 things that make me happy every day, and the other was 6 things I love.

I'll just choose 6 nice things and invite anyone out there to do the same.

So, not counting the obvious..my family, here goes.

1.Walking round Tarn Hows on a crisp frosty winters day just as its going dark.

2. Eating and drinking in the company of close friends who you can be completely yourself with.

3. Northern Exposure TV series. I watched every single episode and loved every one.

4.Climbing into a freshly made bed into newly ironed cotton sheets.

5. Afternoon tea at Bettys

6.Sitting at my sewing machine with a huge pile of fabrics and threads and sewing.

I won't tag anyone else, but if you want to do it, link to me and tag 6 more...or don't.

Finally..how could I have been so stupid?

I have been reading about Cyber Fiber for quite some time now, and not really cottoned on the the idea that I could send a postcard to be exhibited before trading.

When I finally realised what an amazing job Susan Lenz has done I was so busy that it was quite hard to find the time to join in.

However today I managed to make one.

I was going to design something special, but in the end I decided 'stick with what you know'

And after that I wen to see my Mum for the afternoon.

We watched a DVD of Mamma Mia and had a glass of Baileys!

Simple pleasures.

''This week I have mostly been making.......

....gold and red.''

These are by far the most sumptuous versions of my cuffs and brooches but the pictures are so disappointing.
The red is deep, deep, shimmery, subtle so I have chosen the pictures on the basis of colour not sharpness.


I just wanted to ask you dear reader, to ask all your blog friends,

to leave me your wrist size and preferred width of cuff

on my survey post which you can click here to visit.

I think to be a valuable survey it has to have about 100 participants.

If you have already done it, thank you, and please leave a comment here instead.

I love to hear from you.

I am doing a craft fair on Sunday if anyone lives nearby pop along to The Old School, Ulnes Walton near Leyland.

Porky and Blodwen will be there.

Words and Pictures

Keeping my own counsel has never been my strong point.
I talk too much.
I often speak before I think.
A bad idea.
And when my first son was born 26 years ago, I talked to him...a lot.
The result was that he had an amazing vocabulary from the age of two and when the health visitor came to ascertain that he knew red, blue and green, he added 'and this is pale pink and thats a sort of greyish beige....'

My younger son born two years later had an equally good grasp of colour.
But he knew what he liked.


Consistently throughout his early childhood when asked his favourite colour the answer was emphatically 'Gweeeen'.


So here's some gweeeen for you.

I must point out that my wonderful place for taking pictures was the kitchen table.
Being a Victorian house the kitchen is at the darker cooler end, and now its November the sun doesn't get round there.

Its extrememly difficult to get good pictures of velvet and silk together, but I think you can see the sheen of the silk in these.

Since I posted the silver pictures I have had some lovely comments, thank you, and sold quite a few cuffs and brooches to lovely ladies, to whom I am very grateful.
And I am tantalisingly close to two new batches of Harris tweed, winging their way from the Hebrides at this moment.

MARKET RESEARCH SURVEY
Now I would like to ask you a question..well two actually, about the cuffs.
I need an average of wrist sizes.
I have made long ones and people have asked for shorter and vice versa.
I have made narrow ones and people have asked for wide and vice versa (again)
If you could leave me a comment including your wrist measurement and a preference for width of cuff I will put your names in a hat (well you know what I mean) and there will be a prize.
A cuff in your choice of available colour, width and length. Or something else if you don't wear cuffs.
So please include in your comment width preference and wrist measurement, according to how tightly or loosely you would like to wear one. I'll leave this open for two weeks. I'll do the draw on 21st November.

A THANK YOU
I just want to add a little thank you here to all the people who have left comments and ratings on the 'Top blogs by Crafters'. There's no way to find out who you are from the comment itself so I am thanking you here.

Silver Service

Mass production is not my strong point.

I like to surprise myself with each little unique creation, taking as much time as it takes to work the patterns and designs till I feel satisfied.

This is as near as it gets bulk sewing, and I can tell you I used the utmost restraint to stick to one colour for a whole stint.


I only managed it because the silver silk is so beautiful.

I did change the velvet from a lilac bias to a silvery blue on the one below.

I don't know whether to put them on Folksy or Etsy at the moment but I had two or three enquiries about them when I posted the last pictures so if you are interested they are available directly from me at ten pounds for the brooches and fifteen for the cuffs. including P&P to UK.

This last one is constructed in sections so has a square sided look.

Now for the Science:

The square one measures nine inches overall , two inches of it is the velcro tab.

The circle one is nine and a half overall, two inch velcro tab.

The flower one is quite small, eight and a half inches overall including two inch tab.

The velcro makes them slightly adjustable.

They can be worn loose or tight.

They can be extended slightly but a bit of velcro will show underneath your wrist.

They can be made smaller by tucking more velcro under.

Coming soon: A Green Day.

(PS: Have the word verifications got easier? They seem to have stuck more vowels in to make nonesense words and I haven't failed as many this week)