Friday 15 July 2016

'10 in a bed' ( settle down!) and Moths

Only a week and a day to go till the school summer holidays begin -
yeahhhh : )
I do like working term time only, although shed loads of work came in last week for me to do, for our Councils Porterage group.
One job was to replicate this old resource, long past its best and mucky as 'eck!
It was made with pelmet Vilene and you can tuck the teddies in behind the bedding, a cute idea isn't it!


So this is my prototype interpretation of it, making it tactile with differing textures.
The 'spotty' numbers on the pillows are hefty French knots, 1 -10.
The pillows I colour coordinated with the bears hats.
Most of the children the Porterage team see will have sight, so no Braille needed on this and the colours will be seen and become a matching activity for this 10 in a bed gang.



This beaut Hawk Moth was hanging about in my back garden, killing time ...


an hour or so later and she had company - nooky time!



I've had a couple of these canoodling in my garden before, too often and my garden will get a bad name!

I made up another fastenings waistcoat last week


We have a display in Hull of painted moths, to commemorate Amy Johnson who lived here for a while.
Here are a few of the 56 scattered around the city -






When I was about 12 I had my ear syringed with water to try and reduce my tinnitus, a wierd experience but happily the tinnitus  eventually went away.
After about 2 years with a blocked sinus on one side and the ear on that same side, feeling as if I'm under water, crackling and swelling internally from time to time I finally got a Dr to take it seriously.

I was at hospital today to see an Ear Nose and Throat Consultant and had my right ear hovered!!
Yes hoovered LOL no water in this day and age : )
It was a mini Dyson gadget and would be perfect for hovering sewing machines and keyboards I thought at the time!
I also had my hearing tested ( its fine thankfully ) but the sinus tube is narrow and blocked, as Id suspected and if I cant get it cleared with persistent use of nasal spray, I may have to have a grommit fitted!
Trust me to have something out of the ordinary .....

I watched the footage on tv earlier of the prat in a truck in Nice, France.
Appalling carnage, wanton killing, children included -
So many dead, in so many places in our world, in the name of religion or an ideology -
Sickening, heart breaking and So bloody wrong.



Sunday 3 July 2016

Im still Scrappy Happy : )

I do wonder why I'm fixated on using the bags of scrappy fabric bits I have, when I have such a lot of untouched fabric to yet cut into!

So from this to ...


this ...


Not as easy as it looks mind you. The block ended up smaller than Id anticipated, have yet to understand why lol but I fancy a few blocks with skew whiff inserts.

The fun part is that these strings can be done whilst sat watching tv,
on your lap, by hand and you can use up smaller scrappy pieces.
I didn't use the till roll method, I just stitched the scraps together in roughly straight vertical lines.
Though again I have included some diagonal angles, simply because some of the fabric scraps were angled themselves.
Many are leftover pieces from my fussy cutting for The New Hexagon hexis.

I have also made some strips now in single colourways, different scrap fabrics with a single colour theme -  that too could be a fun idea to play with.

I'm still making circle blocks and have started quilting some of the blocks.


I finally placed the textile human digestive system onto a back board for work. It is held in position by Velcro, so it can be taken off if needs be.  I also made a Key to accompany it, the large print text has Braille laid over it too.

 
of Amy Jihnson
 
Here in Hull we have some 50+ moth shapes on display, to commemorate 75 years since the death of Amy Johnson, who lived in Hull for a while and went on of course to become a famous Aviatrix.
 
This is the first I have been to see so far.
 

 

Oh yes and here is Nellie, my Yarndale sheep, which folks are being asked to knit a version of and send off to form a display at the Yarndale show later this year.
They will help to raise funds for this years chosen charitable group
Martin House Hospice.
http://yarndale.co.uk/

http://yarndale.co.uk/little-woolly-sheep/

There are free knitting and crochet patterns for you to make your own sheep.
I used a nobbly unbleached 100% wool but I should probably just have used a normal white double knit perhaps.
There is also a great little sheeps' coat too, but Nellie would have been too hot, so I didn't make her one!
 I am going to make a few sheep for myself and the grandkids, so Nellie may stay with me and another go to Skipton yet!
Hilly got in on the act at the last minute lol


This is her 'Feed Me!' look ....

The wonderfully talented Lucy from Attic 24 supports Yarndale whole heartedly each year and has come up with the superb crochet sheep pattern. Lucy can be found on Facebook and has a blog too.

http://attic24.typepad.com/

Lucy has an interesting post here too by the way, showing how she works out a placement colour scheme, for when she plans a pattern.
 Its sensibly clever, would never have occurred to me and worth looking at even if you don't crochet!
http://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/2016/06/colourwash-granny-blanket-the-beginning.html