Tuesday 26 May 2015

Hair issues and a very nice book, or two


A girl does need a hairbrush first thing to combat that tussled look?
By 2am that morning she was in nannies bed lol
after coughing and choking away bless her, I gave up and brought her in with me!

This week is half term school holidays so I have been sorting through magazines and have 40 so far to offload to either charity shops or stitchy club. But I also need to clear the table lol


A reasonable view of my titchy little back garden this and don't you like the cucumber plant cloches?  - tonic bottles obviously : )


Went garden centre shopping on sunday and saw these which both made me smile - not convinced the stools would that comfy mind you!But zip it was kind of funny, his teeth are whiter than mine, so he clearly hasn't drunk much tea and coffee!



I paid the extortionate price of £9.99 for this book
 ( having now seen it on Amazon for £3.99 !!)
but the pictures in it would transfer to quilting patterns and more especially to redwork I reckon.
If you see it on book shelves, do take a look. I love it!
Not sure I can bring myself to colour it in though lol







I also got a new book by Janet Bolton and hadn't realised quite how Japanese -y most of her work is, in its simplicity of layout.
Seeing so much of it in one book together, I can't help but see the oriental artwork influence.


The April rosette is not growing very fast - lol
Oh and this is a fastenings waistcoat I brought home to finish, because the lad needs it the first day back at school.
He has cerebral palsy and very weak hand/finger mobility and they are concerned he wont be able to fasten his own shirt buttons once in secondary school later this year.
So I'm using real shirt buttons on this one, using the button plackets and intend to stitch the cuffs on the front too, though whether he will use it is anyone's guess.
He's fiercely independent bless him and embarrassed by what he views as his weakness.
I had picked up some brilliant shirts for 50p each and all were fantastic cotton fabrics, so they were for the chop anyways, so using the buttons and cuffs for work is no hardship.

Friday 22 May 2015

One Lovely Blog Award -Thank you Dasha !

Am late posting this but lovely Dasha from 
http://patchingpixies.blogspot.co.uk/
nominated me and others for the One Lovely Blog Award and I can't thank her enough!

The purpose of the award is to nominate fellow, mostly newer bloggers,
that they wish to recognise.
The goal being to bring attention to blogs that we think are 'lovely' places to go visit and enjoy reading.
We hope others will also enjoy visiting these blogs too.

Nominees are asked to disclose seven facts about themselves lol
so here goes my seven!

1.

 
I'm partial to gin and tonic : )
This is Saffron Gin and a new find for me, it's a wonderful amber colour in the bottle and with tonic is delightfully golden and yes, tasty!

2.
I spent many years in cat rescue, fund raising each weekend on a car boot stall to pay for the food and vets bills. Over the years I have had some wonderful cats in my care and couldn't part with some of them.
I have only 2 left now and one of those I acquired by default last summer - that's hooligan Harvey, at 14months he's like a (gammy) legged teenager. He has more enthusiasm than common sense lol

3.
I was an Air Load Master in the RAF, roleing, loading and flying on the VC10 aircraft and I was lucky enough to go to some amazing places, like Hong Kong, Belize, Guam, the Maldives and also Kathmandu to name but a few.
This was the last VC10 aircraft out of RAF Gan, then in the Maldive Islands, before the RAF station there closed down, taken by an RAF photographer whose name I can't recall now sorry.
I had been on the aircraft that left the night before.




It's heart breaking to me to see the devastation that has been wrought in Nepal after the earthquakes. The Nepalese I met were so lovely, kindly folk and many were Ghurka soldier families.
Most of the families had walked miles from their homes in the hills and then climbed aboard an aircraft for the first time in their lives and were flown through to Hong Kong to quarters there.
The only aircraft they'd have ever seen before, had been soaring above  the Himalayan mountains and now they were expected to climb up clattery aircraft stairs and be swallowed up in one! 
All were obviously scared to death!
The Ghurka soldiers were the most wonderful aircraft passengers.
Each and every one of them came on board either in uniform or  smartly dressed in identical blazers, super smart trousers, highly polished shoes and white shirts with ties.
They were courteous, smiling and each one drank only tea, not a single coffee drinker amongst them!
If you haven't donated to the DEC Nepal Appeal, please consider doing so, however small an amount, please.

4.
I'm truly superb at starting stitchy, knitty or crochet projects!
I could get an award for that alone, yes honestly!

5.
But I'm also appalling at finishing things ~
it's not that I have that many UFO's ....... exactly,
but I do have several things on the go all at the same time
and flit from one to the other.

6.
I have reduced my hours of work somewhat, but am still employed to devise and make tactile learning resources for visually, hearing or physically impaired children.
That explains why you'll see things I have made ( and actually finished!) for work on these pages too quite often.

7.
My only real claim to fame of sorts, is that I make these trees from all recycled materials and have sold quite a lot.



So that's my 7 facts - are you still awake?

Now I should post 10 blogs for you to visit but I cant choose only 10, so I am going to cheat and ask you nip in and out of the blogs I follow from time to time.
However I do need to make sure that the list of blogs I follow is actually on my blog page! Should have done that first I realise LOL
Okay, so far I have the title but haven't sussed out how to move the blogs I follow, onto the blog!

So fact 8 ........ would be that I'm a techno dummy!!
Since the blogs I follow aren't showing up, why not visit the lovely blogs that follow me instead?
I follow them anyway and once I've sussed how to add the other blogs in, you'll hear about it next!

I will however ask you to read this quote below from one dear bloggy pal of mine whose passion is crazy quilting.
The magazine she's talking about needs some additional circulation,
so if you know anyone at all interested in crazy patchwork or the exquisite embroidery so often found on it......... do please pay her and the magazine a visit!



Many of you know that I'm involved in the new 'Crazy Quilt Quarterly' magazine spearheaded by Pam Kellogg, and will have noticed the cover pictures in my sidebar (where, by the way, you can click and be taken directly to where you can purchase your very own copy!). I'm asking you a favour - would you please consider doing a little blurb on your blog about the magazine? Our success depends on two things - people submitting pictures and/or articles about their work AND the word getting out that the magazine even exists. The more people that post about it, the more the word will get around, and the magazine will just keep getting better and better. If you want further information, please feel free to contact either Pam (pkellogg AT mc DOT net) or myself (marmic1954 AT hotmail DOT com). Thanks so much!!
 



Tuesday 12 May 2015

Deb O'hare at our EYES stitchy club : )

We had a welcome visit at our stitchy group from Deb O'hare last weekend, she came to give us a talk on the Saturday and then ran a workshop the next day.
Sorry Deb - I managed to take your photo when you blinked!!

 
 
I have been following Deb online for some while now and it was really lovely to meet her after nattering via email and the comments sections of our blogs for so long!
Deb is an accomplished fabric painter and makes some really beautiful  textile wall hangings, ( I had previously purchased 2 and a couple of her hare patterns too). She uses her painted fabrics with both hand and machine quilting on her work. You can see her work on the links above, they are well worth browsing through!

Her talk was just perfect for most of us, because it was "Tales from my Scrap Bag" and I reckon almost all of us have bags of scraps in need of taming!
From a comparatively small brown paper bag, which had held scrap fabrics - Deb made a surprisingly large number of projects and she helpfully explained to us what she had done and which techniques she had used.
I think many of us came away inspired to tackle our own scrap bags now! In fact her talk is almost a challenge to anyone who has a bag of scraps - so watch this space, later in the year!

We are lucky at club since we have a large hall to meet in, as you can see from the pics below, taken at the workshop on the sunday, its a large hall and at the Saturday meetings we regularly have 125+ladies seated for the talks.
The workshop was great fun and we all learned something new and most of us got on quite well making a tumbling feather wall hanging.
Several of us bought Deb's fabulous hand painted fabric packs to use and below are some examples of what we had by the end of the workshop.
I have yet to finish mine of course, but suffice to say my Millefiori rosettes will have to wait till my feathers are complete : )
 



This is Margaret Wright our clubs Chairman also enjoying the day.

 
By the end of the workshop we were all on track for a finish as you can see. ( Mines on the left below with the naff quilting lol I need way more practise at that - hey ho )
 


 
 Jeans above if you enlarge it, has the most beautifully transfer painted feathers.  ( http://jeansmuse.blogspot.com
Thanks so much Deb ( and hubby) for  trailing up from south wales to our northern hemisphere!
Oh and if any of you bought the current UK Stitch magazine, the fabric jug featured in it was made by one of our own club members,
Anne Pye!

Saturday 9 May 2015

A change from Millefiori patchwork ~

I needed a change from the Millefiori patchwork



which if you haven't seen it before, do nip over to the Facebook group page and feast your eyes on some of the wonderful rosettes folks are making.
- https://www.facebook.com/groups/1481806698762201/

It's addictive EPP and well worth having a go at!

So I thought I would make a start on an activity boards for my granddaughter, rather like some I've made for the kids at work
but on this occasion, since she has sight, I don't need to use as many tactile different fabrics.


This mdf board is covered with Velcro accepting fabrics, which means its like the softer side of Velcro, so that you can attach the tackier Velcro side to whatever you want to stick on and take off.
Does that make sense lol ?
I get the fabric which is 110" wide from
http://www.dickorydockdesigns.co.uk/home/ in case your interested.

It means a child can put on and take off items, and of course they stay put, be they Baa Baa Black Sheep, 5 little ducks or Old MacDonald as above.
My intention is to make characters for the nursery rhymes she's currently singing -  thanks to You Tubes various Nursery Rhyme singalong with films - which are a godsend when you want a five minute break, or a quick tiddle believe me !
I have made Old MacDonald as a finger puppet and will make some animals next to go with him.
The back of the board is covered in black, so Twinkle Twinkle  Little Star works on the reverse and it will be better for laying letters or numbers on later, for clarity.



I finished another fastenings jacket at work last week again. This one is for a little girl with very poor finger strength so the emphasis was on buttons and zips.



It was my granddaughters 2nd birthday party today and
she got her first car from an auntie!
Her dad's dad opted for being the push power and she was all round well impressed!


She had a cute and tasty cake!


 
I know it looks like she is giving a finger sign but trust me she wasn't!!