The loss of another great pal, car booties and WIP

Im sorry, I know its something upsettingly personal, but I made a hard decision today, on behalf of my collie cross dog.
And as many of you know, it hurts like hell ~ that last act of love you make for them.
Not least because he was such a gentle, lovely dog and my close pal.
He'd been ill for a long time now with Cushings and he finally gave up last night, I could see it in his eyes.
He told me the time had come.
He'd been found in a neighbours garden 15 years ago and he was about 10-12 weeks of age I reckoned at the time.  
The kennels we housed rescues in then, had a Parvo outbreak and he would surely have been at risk there, so he stayed with us, ostensibly until the outbreak was cleared.

Then a week later, we got news that the father of my children had died from a heart attack, aged only 40....
Although he had already left me, we all three, lost him all over again that day.
So the pup stayed with us and became a part of our family and helped us come to terms with things.
The children called him Rocky, although he never fulfilled his butch name, afraid of all manner of louds bangs and nosies. Whatever happend to him in his early weeks, left its mark on his courage bless him.

He fell in love with my adult orange roan Cocker Spaniel, and they became unseperable. It was a joy to witness.
When I lost the Cocker to old age, our Collie cross furry bear, became a gentle companion in his own right.

Now I have just one dog, who is going to need alot of attention, since he
feels the loss too....another rescue, another soul in need of hugs and comfort.
This year I have lost several good friends.
Life can be a bitch at times ..............

Although today has been sad.........yesterday I had a pleasant trip to a huge car boot at Bridlington, taking a friend along for a jaunt.
Take a look at this wonderful teacup, which I didnt buy but I thought was such fun!

It was for sale at £3 although did have hair line crack in it, but even so.......what fun!

Its a good job I took Jean ( jeansmuse.blogspot.com) along with me!
She spotted all manner of goodies for my Topic Boxes at work that I missed and she managed to male me spend very little of my money LOL
I'm indebted Jean, thanks!
It was she who spotted these first .......... cotton edgings, 25 metres each and coincidentally ideal for my current stitching project. Although I probably wont use the edges themselves for it.
At £3 each........well I couldnt NOT buy them surely?

Which brings me onto the current WIP, that called to me, to get stuck in...
Although I was going to use vintage Laura Ashley fabrics originally...I have no way enough, but am making a start anyway and adding similar weight cottons as I go.
I have a desing on a piece of paper somewhere...safe...when I find it!
But its another of my seat of the pants ideas so it will evolve as I stitch and may organically alter, as I gather rectangles, squares and circles together.
Im hand stitching at the moment, so I will see where it takes me.......and keep my eyes open for old Laura Ashley floral cottons in charity shops, jumble sales and car boots.

 Now I look at it, Im not sure that apple circle is going to fit in....but never mind lol

 I have also unearthed some eco dyeing that has been steeping for a while now...well, a week or so.
Although they look abit like well roasted beef joints............these are euc bark, euc leaves and an assortment of flower heads, that were simmered in a wizardy brew.
I cant for the life of me recall what is in the brew, its been added to and topped up with rain water from time to time.
So it will be interesting to see if anything has survived the process at all!
Possibly not!

Watch this space lol

The bees are IN the tent!

I have heard from Helen and she did receive the Giveaway bundle okay, which is a relief I must admit.
She does seem to be pleased with it thankfully lol

I stitched a belated flower between the bees, rather than two more bees at opposite 'corners'..... I get bored repeating things!
It works but wont win any quilt prizes lol
But I think grandson will be chuffed to sit on a firmly padded base with 2 bees for company anyway......and he wont notice its a lop-skew petalled flower Im sure!

Cutlery tray spool holder and Magic Feathers for Jude

If you havent yet heard about Jude Hills request for 1000 embroidered Magic Feathers then hop over to her site and click on the Magic Feathers logo on the right hand side. If I could work out how to get her logo, Id have one on here too so you could link direct to her!

She is collecting feathers to turn into fabric story cloths for use with childrens therapy

http://spiritcloth.typepad.com/spirit_cloth/

 Anyway these two will be on their way to Jude tomorrow in the hope she can include them somehow. 

And see - they are laying on one of my new thread spool holders..the cutlery drawer! Well done Peggy for sussing it out.

There's no prize sorry lol

 I bought a couple of tents, the smaller sized, in house variety, more like a wigwam shape really, for my grandson to use at mine and at his dads place.
So am making him some padded flooring to sit on inside them and since he loves bees........ have added these cariactures to this one.
Cant decide whether to place an applique flower between them now....SO many decisions to make in life aren't there!
But yes, I think they do need a flower of sorts to look at, before I stitch it all together ......
Gosh only 8.45pm and its almost dark outside. Our Autumn is on its way.........nights are pulling in, days shortening.
I picked wild blackberries today to have with cereal for breakfast making sure I left plenty for the wildlife.
One of the advantages of working behind a school with an enormous playing field that borders an equally enormous football field, that runs along side a railway embankment.
So there are blackberries and elderberries...and buckthorn too to dye with!
No sloes though.........so for sloe gin I must hunt further afield this weekend lol
And Im going to try making Werthers Original Vodka..where you simply put Werthers yummy toffees in vodka and allow them to dissolve into a liquer-y drink.....shaking it now and then to stimulate the dissolving...got to be worth a try lol

Overdyed white skirt with orange and blues...

Well it was such a nice day yesterday, I  thought I would pop some cut pieces of the white skirt with the interesting circles, into pots with some cold water dye to see what effects came out.

I should have sprinkled some salt amongst the folds too though, I may try that with some more of it.

I have half of the fabric left still white, so theres still penty to play with. 

I think the white could work in a snow scene of some kind. I hadn't realised it, but the lining underskirt to this, is also cotton but a lovely soft fine lawn, so this was worth every penny of the £3.25.

I may have to stitch a feather in one of the circles......!

Any guesses what Im going to use these for?

 Well now at 50p each tray I reckon I have a use for these that doesnt involve cutlery....
and ideas what I want them for?
(Naturally I didnt know I wanted them, until I saw them sat in the charity shop...... )
And in fairness the grey one is perfect for my idea so I will have to trial the blue one....whilst looking out for more of the grey style tray.

Then there was this skirt....which called to me... not because it was my size you understand......
                                                                     no -lol- as if...
                                                                  but ....linen and circles...
                                                                    lunar circles at that..
                                                                I may try and overdye some of it.
                                                                                                                                             

And this caught my eye too.... though it was overpriced, but for charity so I paid it anyway. Though in truth it wasnt overpriced for the work that went into it which is beautifully done.
I could not get that result if I spent months in training, Im a CL-artist but can recognsie nice work from others!

I have a new hero!!! Please go look.........

I have a new hero of embroidery and re-use........please give yourselves a treat and go look at the following links. You will probably never, ever walk past those long forgotten old embroideries in the jumble sales or on car boot stalls again.
I am going to treat both myself and an old school friend to his creatures off Etsy and then try my hand at making one or two (for Visually Impaired kids) for ourTopic Boxes, for the Mini Beasts Box.......using far less socially historic fabrics naturally.
Though having said that of course, embroidery on the fabric wings could be felt by our children ( and partly seen by those with limited vision) so I may applique the pattersn on each wing to show the replication of pattern.

His work was spotlighted on Craftgossip which is how I learnt about him...
but first go to this link and then I defy you not to go.... WOW!

http://finch-uk.com/

then the piece by Craftgossip link

http://needlework.craftgossip.com/inspiration-paul-finch/2011/07/18/

in which is his Etsy link and thats pure joy to peer at!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/MisterFinch?ref=seller_info

This guy can do no wrong lol and Im no way affiliated.......though I do wonder if he's single and available!

And still no word at all from Helen to tell me she has received the Giveaway package and I cant seem to email her either. Her blog link doesnt seem to be working, which make me worry even more that she is ill. It simply comes back as unavailable. All very odd.

Daft cats and still no word from Helen.......

Daft cat Fergus, trying to get my attention whilst I was putting 'Somerset Studio' mags up for sale on Ebay.....

this is his laconic.....' You'll have to feed me sometime...' pose........

and the next one here is his new 'suntrap' seat! Though as you can see the sun had gone in at this point.....

I came out of the back door the other day to find he and Hilly cat, laying either side on the top of this plastic greenhouse gadget!

It houses several infusions of eco dyes and umpteen bowls and saucepans too and was watertight till their blessed claws got up there!

Now the side that is empty here is torn, so one of them may well end up tumbling inside if they are not careful lol

When the clematis cascaded off the porch roof there, they couldn't climb up on this gadget and of course I didn't figure on them using it as a climbing frame, or sun trap seat! Shish...

This is their usual and much preferred place for a snuggle....

Peggy sent me a great link for a poster with wise words on it and having printed it out, I thought I would photocopy it for the office wall.  But at the last minute I moved the sheet with the picture on and ended up with a skew whiff copied picture.
Of course I did it again then deliberately and got a different 'skew whiff'! So for those fo you that 'Journal', it might be a nice technique ( techique notice, and not like, a mistake or anything.... lol) for addding unusual text or graphics to your pages?
I mean not to use this particular pic, but to do it with your own, though you are welcome to cut n paste this if you did want it!

See how easily I am pleased lolol

I still have not heard anything from Helen who won the Giveaway, so do hope the parcel of goodies got to her okay!

Right back to Ebay to list more Somerset Studio mags and Art Doll Quarterly too. I seem to be taking this 'downsizing' of things seriously at last!

A pic of the goodies and another Giveaway over there ...>

Well I posted off the Giveaway Goodies first class post last saturday morning, so I think they should have arrived by now and Im hopeful that Helen will have found a few bits to fondle and tinker with.
So you can see what a Surprise Giveaway might contain the next time I throw one together......see below!

Foils, kimono cottons, copper curls and all the rest of the fabrics are silks, though I think one may be a feel a likey but is nice never the less lol

And just in case you want to enter another Giveaway, pop over to

http://jeansmuse.blogspot.com/ and leave a comment there!

Go on, you know you want to! LOL

Giveaway Winner is .........

A short hello.......

to let you know that it was comment number 3 that my daughter picked out for me, (over the phone, so sight unseen)and that is a comment from .............Helen.......!! (Since India who would have been number 3, didnt want a bag of goodies anyway and had just left congrats..)

Anyway......... yes Helen it is YOU, have emailed you asking for your address, so it is not a spoof, you have won lol
Will post a piccy of the goodies but cant this evening, because my camera is at work and not in my bag where it was supposed to be!

duhhhh..........