feathery cloud, Hungry Caterpillar in play and other stuff

Hard to believe but there is a half moon tucked within this feather/mast like cloud formation.

It changed shape so quickly too, I snapped four pics only seconds apart!

...though for this one I zoomed in on the cloud as it floats apart...
My foot stool come poofe, is being well used by my old cat bless him, he's not doing too badly. He is hyper thyroid so back to vets tomorrow for tablets and the hope that there is no cancer eating away at him too.

The hungry caterpillar activity passed muster with my grandson.
I made him one and he was over the moon with it.

I also made him a simple fish and velcro-accepting fabric board, activity. Now he adores fish, so this was a huge success.
This particular blue fabric came from Scrapstore as did the bright green. But normally, for work, I buy in similar fabric from Dickory Dock Designs which is a Holmfirth firm. 
Their fabric has a superb thin foam backing to it, making it really sturdy, where the blue fabric used here, might have been a seconds roll, because it has no foam backing.
It hasnt come in from Dickory Dock, most likely from a firm making display boards I would think.
I think it was £9 a metre x 60" width, last time we bought it  from DDD for work, but Id bagged a bargain at Scrapstore last summer, with both these colours at £1 a metre....so got some for myself and work too.

He made up his own rules. He decided one long skinny fish was the most fierce and that one kept chasing away other fish..and I had to guess which one had gone....and look suitably surprised at it being missing
lol so funny.
Then he took to hiding the fish or caterpillar food round the room and nannie had to go look for it.............
notice whats wrong with this scenario at all?
'nannie look under there....'hind there.... wheres it gone nannie?'
I was up and down like a yo yo
Im going to have invent some rules which make him do all the allecking about the room next lol

Ive been doing abit more leisurely hand stitching on my floral blocks.

Its so relaxing hand stitching though I dare say in years gone by, when they had to stitch their clothing or go naked, there would not necessarily have been this same therapeutic effect!

 This block has an old lace doily almost all over it and Ive carefully stitched it down so it shouldnt come adrift when washed later on.
The pic below is a truer colour, not sure what happened with the one above!

I had a trip across south of the Humber river to Barton on Humber, over the bridge, to look at a little 'holiday home' park over there. A nice little place with only 27 plots...Im still considering moving to a ( way too blummin small) mobile home for cost effectiveness and have all but chosen the homes I'm interested in............but since Ive yet to sell my house...lol...its all abit hyperthetical really!

But this view is 10 mins down the road from this little park...the river from the south side, which is Lincolnshire...with Yorkshire laying on the north side. It would be quite a nice place to wander each evening me thinks and theres a small pub 5 mins the other way!

And this clearly shows the south support, built in the river itself...just a slight turn of my head from the pic above and zoomed out.... and thats Yorkshire on the other side.

gosh its sunday........work again tomorrow.... weekends are way too short!

FABULOUS baby jumpers for Ethiopia!

 I passed the pattern around at work, hadnt thought to photograph all the others I passed on but having gathered SO many this past couple of weeks............thought Id show you what folks have made!
Arent they just great!
Theres more to come too, from a couple of others who have told me they are bringing in what theyve knitted " so far".....
People can be so kind.
There's 48 here, some few out of shot on this first piccy.

I caught site of Jupiter near the crescent moon.........first time Ive recognised a planet, as a planet and not a star..........and thats only thanks to Helen!
http://helen-buzzword.blogspot.com/2012/02/magic-in-our-skies-tonight.html

Please vote for the winner of your choice? The Town that Drowned - book review....

http://www.collectors-club-of-great-britain.co.uk/Gallery/Dolls-House-and-Miniature-Scene-Diamond-Jubilee-club-competition/_ga16

There are only 4 entries and although I no longer go to the club, our dolls house club has entered the competition above.............
Mind you I did make the boys legs that you can barely see sticking out from under the table clothed table end lolol
( he's looking up the womens skirts, well you know what little boys can be like ....)
If you think youd like to vote for any of the clubs entries...please do!

And I want to thank Riel Nason once again for book she sent to me , which I won in a giveaway last year.
I have finally read it and really, really enjoyed it!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGyfVRzUFoM

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4841877.Riel_Nason

Its perfectly charming, with interesting and likeable characters..well all except one of the lasses at the school, who I swear I recognised....one like her is probably in most schools!
Like Ruby I never felt as if I fitted in..
I can recommend you read it, its humorous and abit like reading your own thoughts from when you were a leggy almost teenager, on the cusp of adulthood.
Ruby's brother is an amazing young man with special gifts but whom most would call different and perhaps not take seriously.
The whole issue of losing the place you live in too, why our home and sense of place is so important.............there's alot in this book that resonates.............do read it!
I think you'll enjoy it.

Gardening..batik...and aged cat

A lovely spring like afternoon, so a short while outside and grandson opted to water plants for me...........this was after he'd chased the poor dog around, trying to water on him first...lol

I was at the dentist this past week and once again was struck by the batiks they have there, all framed up.
This one inspires me, I love the plant or tree at the front and the crazy bird shapes. I can SO see these shapes on a little quilt in bright colours, the shapes are such fun.

My eldest cat took to living on the kitchen worktop 2 or 3 weeks back. He seemed off colour and withdrew himself, so I humoured him and cleared a corner of the worktop for him.

He's since then, decided he's going to be sociable again and unusually, since he's always been still very much a semi feral, now comes for a lap sit each evening, so I'm very honoured.

He was one of 5 black kittens and a black queen cat that were all buggers to catch, beside a railway line years ago.

Mum was neutered and put back since she was W-I-L-D bless her.

One of her 4/5 month old kittens was neutered too and went back as well since he was a really mean young lad already.

There's a small manned railway line crossing where I trapped them all and the British rail guys took turns to feed the mum and her son.

But the other 4 kittens I felt could tame down when split up.

Three of them tamed down surprisingly quickly once split and worked on, one by one.

But Fergus here was somewhat resistant and lived for 5 months in the living room, determined not to be touched or stroked. He used a litter tray and ate well, then slowly, slowly I won him round. But he's not been domesticated really. He's just paid me lip service LOL

He must be feeling alot better because now he allows my other semi feral to snuggle in with him.

He's about 16+ and she's 11........and they both seem to have forsaken their spots in the dining room lol

I suppose a change is as good as a rest!

I think he's got thyroid issues so he's off in for bloods and then teeth cleaning next week and will most likely be on thyroid tablets after that.

Although Ive never managed to get tablets into him easily yet, so this could be a whole new experience for both of us....!

Hungry Caterpillar activity...

   

I have been making a Hungry Caterpillar activity at work, to put in a healthy eating topic box, for our visually impaired children.
It works well, so I will be making another one, to accompany a braille version of the book as well.

 I had seen a couple of similar resources online made by other bloggers, but needed to adapt mine for use with VI children. One lady, whose name I cannot now recall, used what looked like laminate pictures of the fruit and foods. They could be velcro attached to the caterpillar body as you read along with the story.
Ideal of course for sighted children and a good idea.

Then Id seen a set of beautifully made felt caterpillar foods at
http://tearosehome.blogspot.com/2011/04/little-hungry-catapillar-felt-food.html
so I had two very good examples to think about, when I started to plan one for our children to use.

I have used velcro accepting fabric for the caterpillar but sliced him along the centre, so that all the goodies can be tucked into him, as he 'eats' them.
Ive used felt for part of his eyes, large french knots for his nostrils and carpet thread, stitch wrapped, for his feelers.

I used different sized plates to shape his head and body and I hand stitched all the pieces together, simply because I enjoy hand stitching, but .....dont tell work cos the sewing machine would have meant it got done faster lol

This shows the centre line opening and the token legs stitched beneath the body at each end.

... and this is the under side with legs in position.

The fruit is tactile and a simple flat design with a hole or small area cut out of it.
But the foods are 3D, again with different tactile textures and a white felt circle to suggest eaten areas.

I'm not altogether happy with the foods, and may well remake the ice cream at least. Although it will work for what most of our children need, it doesnt look that great...yet lol Actually I dont like the salami either, must find something different to the fun foam Ive used for that.

There are squishy balls within the fleece wadding of the cherry pie for little fingers to fondle.

I probably should have used the same symbol to suggest eaten areas on both fruit and foods, so it will be interesting to see which the children prefer, in use.

I could make a pupae bag for the kids to roll the caterpillar up in .. for him to later emerge from .....though of course...then Id need to make him wings and if I keep the scale................he'd need to be about 6' wide! Hmm....maybe not...that needs more thought!

You cant help but smile when you look at these fragile looking little flowers, as they stand erect with their toes in the snow.

  ... and thankfully, the snow has gone and the flowers are now fully 'abloom....Come On Spring!

More body art but for protection! and hexies

I forgot to post this yesterday and I cannot now recall which tribe or culture Rachel Lombard said practised it. 

But this facial tattoo art is done by the mothers to prevent their daughters being taken away.

I assume there must be or have been,some threat that their daughters would be kidnapped or stolen away.

So its considered a protective measure, rather than a sign of beauty or a symbol of cultural identity!

I wonder if it still practised today?

Also the clubs display of what some members had finished making
( for which they deserve a medal - esp when I look at my UFO stack getting higher and higher lol)
there was this great hexi cushion made by Alison Laird.
It looks quite dark until you get close to it and then you realise its lots and lots of weeny hexies...and it looked as if it was silk fabrics too.
the camera flash makes it look darker than it really is, the colours are so subtle and all toned so well together.
It was just lovely..

There was also this other hexie quilt there... by Ann Richardson.

And talking about hexies, do go see this very clever way to use your hexies, which had never occured to me before ! 

http://www.canoeridgecreations.com/2012/02/half-square-triangles-hexagons.html

Rachel Lombard at stitchy club

Stitchy club meet today............and a talk by Rachel Lombard with a display of some of her work and I succumbed and bought her book...lol
Its like Kim Thittitachi's latest book with the most wonderful textured cover, all smoothe and warm feeling.....which is the lamest reason to buy a book...right? lol
Will let you know what its like when Ive had time to read it through.
One of her college workbooks interested me very much.
Rachel had been researching our continual concern with beauty and the pursuit of perfection through clinical intervention and had explored how beauty is expressed in other cultures.
The pages below struck me as interesting in the way she had used nails, pins and plastic straps inserted in the paper.

I dont know why, but scarification and tattoes always remind me of cave art.... wonder what Freud would have said about that!

I love fabric boxes, I've never made any but I did like these two above that Rachel had made. And I adore the mother of pearl buttons used on the lower one, with the threads all perfectly toned to the buttons colours. Each of these had personal family phrases stitched around the sides, making them a family heirloom for the future, nice that.

Oh yes ............ Coronation Cord..fancy that!

This interested me too and Id never heard of it...
coronation cord...........see the info at this link...

http://www.needlenthread.com/2012/02/cheater-embroidery.html

Benefit claimants lottery win, fab felt and a National Trust house maybe worth seeing

Shelagh tells me she has been having trouble accessing my blog and I wondered if anyone else had had bother too? though if you were/are, you wont see me asking this!
AND Shelagh says that she can see the Moons Phases on my blog?
Well I spent ages trying to get them on a while back, but assumed that I had not done it right because when I look at my blog...they are not there!
So can you all see them? anyone suggest why I can't then? lol
OH wow! Seriously Spooky! they are there now...............and yes,
I AM sober!
Okay, its terrorism.............it has to be...............

Okay, I know some folks are entitled to benefits but.........this really hacks me off! Its our taxes godamit!

"Lottery couple defend benefit claimA couple who scooped a £10.2 million lottery jackpot have defended their right to claim benefits more than six years later.

Mick and Jean O'Shea won the huge EuroMillions sum in 2005, but Mr O'Shea still receives £500 a month disability allowance because it is not means-tested, the Sun reported.

The former builder told the newspaper: "I worked for 40 years and I'm entitled to it. I've been getting it since about 1996. I declared the win to the authorities at the time, but it doesn't matter as it's not means-tested."

He said he has osteoarthritis in his legs and rheumatoid arthritis in his hands and has recently had a hip operation.

According to the newspaper, Mrs O'Shea, 72, said of the allowance: "It's for his eyesight and arthritis. We're entitled to it."

Mr O'Shea, 73, also receives a new car every three years under the Government's Motability scheme for disabled drivers, it was reported.

The couple live in Sneinton, Nottingham, but reportedly also had a house built in Co Kerry, Ireland, after their win.

Mr O'Shea said the pair give away 10 times more than they receive to good causes every year.

Under Government reforms, disability living allowance will be replaced by personal independence payments, which will involve more rigorous checks on claimants but will not be means-tested.

A spokesman for the Department for Work and Pensions said: "We do not discuss individual cases but these specific benefits and allowances are not means-tested."

I'd be interested in your thoughts !

I saw this on the Craftside digest and thought you might like a look............fab felt works...clever lady!

http://kaylacoo.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2011-01-01T00:00:00Z&updated-max=2012-01-01T00:00:00Z&max-results=19

AND....................I just watched a Flog It tv programme and they were at
the most amazing looking National Trust house  'A Laronde' over looking Exmouth.
It looks fascinating, you may be interested in looking at the website.
the house has a wall freize running around a room, up near the ceiling.......okay not so unusual, but its pattern is made from feathers!
All gathered by the owners on their 10 year Grande Tour of Europe...thats alot of dead birds sadly....

http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/alaronde/

VC10 and a book to read!

A touch of nostalgia here, this is my most favourite (then RAF) VC10 aircraft, the one I would load with passengers and/or freight, then fly on as aircrew, worldwide.

She took me, (she and the other several airframes,) to parties across the world and to amazingly interesting places.

I miss her to this day........

I also miss the younger, bonnier, slim, me that flew in her!

This photo above, was the last VC10 out of RAF Gan, now the popular but expensive Maldive Islands, the ultimate luxury escapist holiday destination surely.

And to think I swam in the waters there, snorkled, featured on a radio show for the unaccompanied lads there and got the very best tan, ever, from anywhere, there!

Blimey...how times change in ones lifetime lol

..... And how lucky am I, above is my giveaway win from Riel Mason whose blog is at http://quispamsisquilter.blogspot.com/ , which is well worth a look! Do go visit.
You'll notice that the book is written by Riel herself, it's her first published novel and I can't wait to start reading it. She's also included some lovely fabrics that I can fussy cut to use in an I Spy quilt. Riel  has made some wonderful quilts on the I Spy theme, well worth a look at.
Thank you so much Riel!

Rags and stuff and Rug Aid

An owl with a heart and a pocket though its hard to see it lol

Thats it, thats my Valentine 'make' ....!

Its true that some charity shops over here have become more selective in what they take in, but they have to pay to dump the unsaleable stuff now, so maybe that has something to do with them turning more stuff down.
They cant accept suites for example, unless the foam is labelled fire retardent and theyd have to pay to dump it in landfill if they took it in.

Your right Jeannie 'green' has become a buzz word..........not unlike a fashionable version of the 'mend and make do' of my grandparents day lol
In the 1960s we knitted and crocheted and mended with floral patches and it was as much a fashion statement as it was the need to spend limited cash carefully.
I still floral patch jeans or now though at 62 it may not look that cool any more  .... but my last patch was a 'boro' patch!
It is a good thing that folks are no longer embarrassed to buy and wear 2nd hand, all be it they prefer to call it 'retro'! It saves on landfill, its reusing items that still have useable life in them and its respecting the products weve acquired and produced.
Its shameful that we so carelessly turf things out that could be passed on, not valuing them or the others that might want or need them. 

We have bags left at the door and they are from 'organisations', not charities, and they take whats put in the bag and sell it in the third world, asking high prices for items we've discarded.
They dont use the contents to make mop heads any longer!
I never fill those bags lol

Rug-Aid is charity operating in the Gambia, set up by the internationally renowned rag rugger Heather Ritchie.
Its aim is to teach the blind there to make a living for themselves.
The blind are looked down on by Gambian society, they are 'maimed' and can only beg for money to eat, not work.
But she's taught many to make rag rugs..............clippy rugs, which they are able to sell (for a pittance really ) to tourists.
Amazingly its given many of them a confidence, a little cash to eat with, a sense of purpose and is raising their status ( to human!) amongst the society they live in.
Heather says she goes to the markets over there and buys the cotton tshirts from the stalls that sell the cast offs from our western world.
She then cuts them up into strips so they can be used to make rag rugs.

The Gambians were appalled at first, that she would cut up what they considered to be, still wearable and relatively expensive clothing!
They couldnt afford to buy them to wear but having raised funds, she could go buy them, so the blind might make rugs and earn a living!
It does sound daft doesnt it lol

Rug Aid is a heart warming story of a womans insight and the fact that rugs are made from our cast off clothing, is perhaps the only glimmer of justice in the sale of our 2nd hand clothing, to the third world in that area.
There the value of 'rags' has a value way beyond the financial.
Pop over to the website and read the reports Heather has put together after her visits............its humbling and interesting.
http://www.rug-aid.org/

My daughter with her nephew........chuckling at the owl and the pussycat
http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/863435-cute-alert-the-owl-and-the-pussycat-take-youtube-by-storm
its heart warming this one if youve a cat...or owl!

Rag prices rise..../

I think the price of rags must have gone up appreciably.........
there's a shop opened up locally now, where you can take your bags of clothes/textiles and get paid for them by weight...
I think the manager said that they pay 50p a kg.
 He said that one bright spark took his clothing in all soaking wet ( theyd weigh heavier wet of course lol) but was told they wouldnt accept them wet.........so chummy dumped them outside the shop in disgust!

Its another alternative to giving clothing to charity shops, car booting your cast offs or passing them onto folks free, via a freecycle group.
In fact recently charities have reported that they are stopping their door step collections, because so many bags are being collected, or rather stolen, by others before the charity has had chance to collect them!
Like the increase in lead thefts, seems textiles now have a profitable weight value too.

This should make us rethink our use of textiles/clothing shouldnt it?
That we casually and indiscriminantly cast them away, without due thought to the gathering of the products, the making of the fabrics and the true 'cost' of them to our lives and world.
That we don't mend anymore, we dont darn or patch as we used to do, we so easily now throw clothing/things away.......or worse....replace them with a more fashionable colour at a whim.
But most in our western society wont think twice, some of us will and do already, but most won't.
Although maybe some might since the ecconomic downturn has altered so many lives for the worse?

We used to do jumble sales using the large amount of donations given to us, to fund raise for our cat rescue group.
At the end of them we had a 'rag man' come take what was left and give us a cash in hand amount, dependant on how much  we had to give him.

It was about £120 a ton hed give to us when we started.... a good 20 some years back and although he would berate us for saddling him with bric a brac, books, shoes  and other 'junk' at the end.......he would take the sundry leftovers too for us.
He was adament he would just go to the tip with all that but we knew, and he knew we knew (lol), that he would box the dross and stick it in at the local auctions where he might get a £1 or more for a box of bits.
Am sure shoes would go to the third world somehow and there, folks would pay for them, well worn though most would be.
Metal would have been stockplied in his yard no doubt for he had his contacts.
But by the time we stopped doing the jumble sales, the rag prices had dropped and I can recall him giving us only £25 on one occasion for almost a ton and £5 of that was a 'donation' to the cause he said.....because he liked cats lol and that amount was all but wrung out of him!

We always sorted through what had been donated to us before and again at jumbles, pulling out anything we thought we might get abit more for on our weekly car boot stall.
So by the end what was left was not necessarily that great, but when the rag prices dropped, we tried to seperate afew bags of clothes and saleable items for whichever was the closest charity shop, so they might get a bit for what we passed onto them too, one way or another.

The manager of this new 'recycling' shop says he is opening 2 more shops here abouts too.............so yes, the rag prices must have risen alot!

I am reshuffling my work room again, offloading alot and taking it to scrapstore, finding things Id forgotten Id bought even............so dont let me go to another show for at least a year!
If I mention going ............PLEASE remind me about the 2 large bags of unopened new stuff that I have still to play with! lol

Now Im aware I promised a giveaway, I havent forgotten and am gathering a pile of goodies to offer, so I will be telling you about it shortly...I promise.


http://www.ragrescue.co.uk/products.php?category=vbooks
an interesting site for us stitchers, with english, french and german fabrics to buy

and I love the name of this firm lol

http://www.ragandphone.com/

I tried to find out online how much you can get for a ton weight and was gobsmacked to read this!

xStatistics: Price of textiles fetched by second-hand textiles fluctuates (in a similar way to other commodities such as oil and wheat). As at December 2011, virgin clothes (see definition below) were fetching around £1,000 per tonne. This was three times the price of five years before.

This rise has caused an increase in the number of commercial collectors in the UK (including misleading and bogus 'charitable' collectors). It's also led to an increase in the theft of bags left out for house-to-house collections.

'Virgin clothes' means they're as-donated, unsorted. However, once they've been picked over by charity shops (and the best items removed), the remaining items fetch a lower price.

 Obtained from http://www.charitybags.org.uk/textile_recycling.shtml

Maybe I should weigh in all my textiles!

 

 

What not to do with a lottery ticket.....

Sometimes I have to just knit.......but seem to avoid starting big items lol so yet another head hugger.

Another successful trip to scrapstore.......torn in places but made of lovely old cotton, a nightdress....great for dyeing at some point.

Now a warning...........any idea what this below is?

                     
                   I scrunched up the wrong lottery ticket, one I hadnt checked....
so thought Id iron it so it would go through the stores lottery machine for checking .............
DONT DO IT!
Though I ironed on the back side of the ticket, the printed numbers side...........turned black with the heat! How or why Ive no idea lol
I just hope it wasnt a winning ticket! lol

Cute Ethiopian jumpers and books Im thrilled with

 Well I made another two jumpers with the lovely blue marl wool on the left here. And two folks at work knitted the other three. It is such a nice little pattern.






Ive been meaning to mention some books I bought a while back.... Laura Wasilowski has an interesting fun blog and her applique pieces are beautiful, colourful and show her lively look at life.
The Fuse and Tell Journal Quilts book is choc full of hints and how to's. Im hoping it will help me achieve some fun effects of my own for my grandson. I love her vibrant hangings.
Fanciful Stitches Colorful Quilts is a rich and informative book with lots of ideas to use as inspiration...............its just yummy.
-- http://www.artfabrik.com
http://artfabrik.blogspot.com

The lush Sew Wild by Alisa Burke which has a dvd with it........which I've yet to watch....is a great book for inspiring you to trial out techniques. Its joy is that Alisa uses simple, everyday things..........rather than buying in shed loads of named this, that or the other fancy stuff.
http://alisaburke.blogspot.com/
http://www.alisaburke.com/
Its a nicely laid out, no fuss book which covers all manner of ideas.

I couldn't resist the Steampunk Softies book............I doubt Ill make any for me but Im SO hoping someone else needs some, so I get to make them anyway lolol Mini art dolls with attitude.........fabulous !
The Love Stitching book by Jan Constantine was a christmas gift, along with pieces of felt and a feather cushion pad.
Her style is very English and some of it quite retro...........Id never heard of her before, but her website shows her style of work which Im sure some of you may find interesting to look at. It is a pageant of British identity.
eg.............cool eh! 
http://www.janconstantine.com/

Then the Fabulous Surfaces book by Lynda Monk...........which covers all manner of ways to use various tissue papers to achieve scrumptious turquoise, copper and rusty looks.
This is published by d4daisy Books Ltd and there are additional workshops online at their website which you can access as a bonus.
http://purplemissus.blogspot.com/

Then I popped into the central library and found these .......which are now on my wish list lol

Layered Textiles by Kim Thittichai is a must have book, I must have it ! Again all about techniques and encouraging us to experiment and understand the techniques so we can use them successfully.

Now this book is delicious 'folk quilt applique' by Clare Kingslake. Her style is exquisitely pretty without being frothy....I need this book too now....sigh
http://www.clarespatterns.co.uk/
http://clarespatterns.wordpress.com/

I lifted the pic below off her blog - naughty of me - but its distinctly her style so please go and have a look for yourself at her site and blog.......I love her use of light, fresh colours and the books' cover hangings are simply delightful.

And this last book above by Helene Martin is sheer joy with pencil drawn animals and patterns for the stylised applique animals and people. 
Its very reminiscent of Janet Bolton but with an individual twist.
I havent managed to find a website for her as a stitcher, though there is a french journalist and it appears it may be her.

Gosh there are such gifted folks out there and how great we get to read books about them and what they do!
Enjoyyyyy :)