About time....

This is meant to be a craft blog which is why I haven't done a new post for a while. I haven't been doing any craft! However I still managed to make it to the top and near the top of 'Top Blogs by Crafters' so despite my absence there have been visitors clicking through to get me up there. Thank you.

 I really couldn't do another 'nothing to show' post!

 There has been an unfortunate incident since my last post. I used to describe our house as 'the house with balls' but not any more. Here they were one snowy day (scroll down) but now they've gone. Nicked, stolen, thieved, lifted, taken....and the same name always comes up in our village and no-one ever does anything about it.

Meanwhile I pass a garden every day where there are some cowslip seed heads and have to knock on the door to ask if I may pick one or two. Ah well everyone's different I suppose.

 Anyway..thanks for all the lovely comments on the last post. I didn't get much replying done as my Mum has been a little unwell.......feeling down after the lovely week in Scarborough, so I've been a bit busy.

And we had a lovely family party for Joe's 31st Birthday. A happy time to record here . A whirlwind two hours eating and laughing. Just enough!

So..onto the makes.

I've had two 'areas' on the go. I had to make some brooches for the wonderful Found Gallery in Dunbar and they asked for some wall pieces as well.

During the brooch making I made a mistake with the thread for one brooch..I accidentally picked up this chocolatey-brown-shaded-to-cream instead of a tan and I am in love with the combination.

I have also made the nicest brooch I have ever made..I say that again..yes..I love the colours although not an obvious combination and its unrepeatable because I have none of that particular orange left and I'm rubbish at dyeing with accuracy so am unlikely to get it again.

 This is it.

So..some gratuitous brooch pictures to make up for the lack of them recently.

(How do I stop white backgrounds looking pink? Yes I know its something to do with white balance but I don't know how to change it if anyone has any ideas with a canon powershot s95 I'd welcome them)

Now..I've also used different colours in a new embroidery. I don't know if it works but I thought I'd give them a go. I made the base with pre-felts on a mixed red/orange/cerise background

I like how this orange bit in the centre glows.

I enjoyed doing it. Its not miniature and its not huge just a nice 7- 8 inch square-ish. I haven't measured..just guessed.

 I love working on the little hand stitched details.

 then going back over a few areas with machine stitch.

I've got another one in the same colours in the pipeline.

I think I'm going to sew them to calico and stretch them over a card mount to keep any 'shipping ' costs low if I sell them. 

This has been a problem of late. 

Works which have been stretched onto frames have proved to be too expensive to send overseas with insurance. It didn't used to bother me but since the piece I sent to Australia didn't arrive it bothers me .

It will be quiet here for a while. We are going to squeeze in a week in Greece. Symi to be precise. We were a bit stuck for a dog sitter and then my son decided he'd like a holiday  in our house here so all will be well. Hetty will have fun with Fin and friends.

What a way to spend my bloggiversary.

GIVEAWAY CLOSED. NO MORE ENTRIES NOW. LET THE DRAW COMMENCE


Rather later in the day than planned, I am here to mark the fifth(not fourth as I initially reported) anniversary of my blog.

I can't believe that five years have passed since I first tiptoed into this part of cyberspace from the pages of Flickr.

I predicted my blog would last 4 years before I filled up allowance of space, but it seems to be going on. 

I've made some lovely friends and was very good at reading blogs for at least three years but lately its all got too much. 

I'm grateful to everyone who reads and comments still.

Anyhow lets get on to the customary giveaway to celebrate. Two brooches.

Comment below and add the word pink or green (for obvious reasons) and you can go into the draw for one of these brooches. I will choose one from each colour.

The giveaway will be closed on Thursday afternoon.

Hope you like them.

Today I have mostly been ironing.

You know what its like....the ironing basket gets filled up and every time you iron you leave a bit behind. Well today I was determined to iron everything. 

HUGE Damask  tablecloth; Egyptian cotton sheets; small embroidered table covers. And this is where it got a bit weird.I was ironing this familiar object when I suddenly spotted......

is it 'the scream' in cutwork? 

The leaf at the other end has only one hole.

And suddenly all the motifs took on lives of their own. 

Look at this cute little bear popping out of a box in the middle of a flower. 

Or is it just me?

When I'd finished the ironing I promised myself I'd clean the bedroom, (such fun!) change the bed, put away all the clothes, dust and hoover. ...er....Dyson.

But the drive belt had snapped on the dyson. No problem according to Sam from Unifit: watch with what ease he removes the sole plate. I'm with him there. Removing the old belt..easy ours had snapped; removing the brush roll...yes I managed that but then...if you look carefully you can see that Sam from Unifit grimaces...grits his teeth, his arm trembles  but still asserts 'Thats how easy it is'. At least  Matt from espares  has the good grace to admit its a 'little tricky. '

Hetty and Jules are as baffled as I am.

After an hour and a half with the aid of a knife and the handle of a washing up brush I conceded. 

You need long fingers like ET and biceps like Arnie (Schwarzenegger) to stretch the rubber band whilst niftily hooking it round the spindle of the motor.

My husband came home and we fixed it together but I have to admit..its twisted.

Never mind ..it works. I will ignore the heat and the slight smell of hot rubber.

Its taken me a few days to recover from my wedding flower escapades at the weekend.

A young woman who I used to teach asked me ages ago to do her wedding flowers. She wanted mainly 'gyp'. In her original email she asked me to do pew ends.

I did buttonholes.

I did bigger 'ladies' buttonholes

I did corsages for the mothers

I did a wrist corsage for the bridesmaid.

I did the bouquet.

I did an arrangement on the altar

and several bunches in jam jars for the top table at the reception

BUT I COMPLETELY FORGOT THE PEW ENDS.

 I discovered this omission on Friday afternoon so after a sleepless night  I made an early saturday morning trip to the wholesalers 25 miles away for some more 'gyp' and managed to tie 10 little bunches to the ends of the pews. Just in time.

It looked very pretty but I was so embarrassed that I'd just not taken it on board that I had to do them in the first place, and quite worrying.

I slept for the rest of the afternoon.

 Hetty news. She's had a drastic haircut. She's not happy. When we were protecting the flowers from wilting by not putting on the heating, she was sitting shivering so we had to put her coat on.

But I like how we can see her eyes now. 

(Just a note...I have just found a whole lot of comments in my spam folder. I don't know why or how but I am sorry if I haven't replied, They all had addresses as 'no reply' . If you would like a direct reply  you have to comment with a google account id.)

Bosky.

Green . Is it envy? Jealous hearts? The green-eyed monster?

Or is it Naivety? Innocence? 

Or do you think of the green that is connected with the environment?

Well I would like to use the thesaurus for my definition: 

Definition: young,new,blooming

Synonyms: bosky,budding, burgeoning, callow, developing,flourishing, foliate, fresh, grassy, growing, half-formed, immature, infant, juvenile, leafy, lush, maturing, pliable, puerile, pullulating, raw, recent, sprouting, supple, tender, undecayed, undried, unfledged, ungrown, unripe, unseasoned, verdant, verduous, youthful

BOSKY!  What a wonderful word.
In my failed attempt to achieve palest duck egg dyed velvet I have managed to produce a lot of shades of shades of green and have made some Bosky Brooches.

Tender brooches?

 And big.

These are all long  brooches.

This one has kisses. 

and this one is a bit buttoned up. 

 My favourite is this polka dot one.

Now I've started with the dots  I feel a dotless heart is a little naked. 

'Verduant'

Or should that be a spotless heart?

All will be available in my etsy shop but if they are anything like the last batch they won't be there long.

The Felt Group

We meet on the second Friday of the month in a village hall. 

We take our own lunch and as I was making my salad last friday I was wondering if I could manage without bread but then thought..'oh well, there'll be cake'

There is cake. We have a rota.

Last week lots of members were unable to attend. I was, as usual late but had a good reason, not just not getting up early enough.

I walked in to half a dozen eager faces and the cry 'Have you brought cake?' (It wasn't my turn)

Horror..no one had taken cake. There were only about 8 of us and we didn't get down to felting with any great gusto. Instead we chatted.

We go for friendship as well as felting.

I eventually spread some wool tops out for a piece to make brooches.

I took ages just adding wisps of many different colours mixing and 'painting' with the wool.

Then it was lunch time.

(No Cake)

After lunch I wet the felt and did about three rolls and then there was a bit of discussion about who was going to lock up as our usual key person was away, and second in command of the keys wanted to go early. One by one we said 'Oh well, I'm going early' until we all decided to pack up.

So I didn't get to finish my piece of felt until Monday.

Ah I love the felt group! Usually its a room full of variety, laughter, and heavy duty felting. The offering of advice, the family news, and general good feeling. It was just a bit thin on the ground last week.

So I'm leading up to my latest piece of felt. Very hard to photograph. If the light is good, the colour disappears as it bounces back. If its not good light it looks dreary. I hope this is just about middling.

 It worked out well from a sewing point of view. I'm happy with the mixing and went to my sewing room to work with it and these are what happened. I've increased the colour in the one below...its a bit vivid.

 This is better. 

 I like this the best but in reality the left hand side of the leaf is a lovely duck egg felt. I'll have to try these again.

 Anyway thank you to all the people who commented on my invitations. Rebecca loved them. I'm sorry if I didn't get to reply to all of you. Your comments are very welcome.

Inspired by Charleston

 This felt has appeared before.

 Its mellow palette was inspired by the interior of Charleston Farmhouse Sussex which we visited just before this time last year. 

I had been thinking about what to do with it and recently I got down to it and produced a whole pile of little pieces as is my wont....which I then stitched to a background.

 Near to it was ok, but from a distance....

 too confusing.

So I made a nice neutral piece of felt, got out my un-picker and re-positioned the pieces.

 I am really quite delighted with the outcome.

 Thought I'd share.

 It looks sort of Heraldic

 Well....anyway..there it is.

 This exact time last year we were in Symi...ahh Symi...Blue...hot....delicious..sea swimmy Symi.

However funds this year did not stretch to that bit of heaven so as I felt the need to be on an Island we went last Sunday to Anglesey in order to walk to Llanddwyn Island. Bu all accounts a very special place. However when we arrived after a 2 and a half hour drive we found there was a dog ban between 1st May and 30th September,  so we were confined to this beach..which was very nice but not Llanddwyn. 

(See the kite surfers? It was windy.)

And definitely not Symi.

I liked this though.