Bank Holiday day trip out

The weather forecast for the Bank Holiday weekend was not brilliant and we luckily chose the Saturday for our day out. We had lovely weather and enjoyed our visit to Shugborough Hall, a few photo's below reflect our lovely day out! (yes, I did manage to find "crafty" bits and pieces too which brought inevitable sighs and much rolling of eyes!)






We had a very expensive cake and pot of tea while there, taking with us a small picnic and when we returned home we ate out at the local pub before rushing home (joke) to sit through 3 hours of Eurovision Song Contest! (apparently we've got a full weeks worth of solid viewing of Britain's Got Talent to look forward to too!). We like to sit through and share with our children any particular programmes they enjoy and I'd promised our younger son I'd watch the semi finals with him, I hadn't realised it would take a whole WEEK to watch them!! Still, its a good opportunity to get my pins out and start cracking on with my knitting which has been very neglected of late.

Sunday was disappointingly pouring with rain which rather ruined plans that the local tennis club had for a charity "do" involving an afternoon of tennis tournaments followed by an evening's entertainment by a band; we didn't go in the end and have no idea if it proceeded or not.

I doubt we'll do much today, Bank Holiday Monday, other than a celebratory birthday drink with Graham, step father no.2, later this evening.

My 10hour piece for end of Level I

For the end of the year we have to produce a piece of work and accompanying sketchbook detailing its process to the tune of some 10hours. (good job we didn't count the 3months work of humming and haa'ing over it!). Below is a photo of my finished piece:


I chose a kantha stitch inspired project because hand embroidery is a new technique to me and I so enjoyed doing this earlier in the year and it was on the back of my mind that unless anything else jumped out at me I'd like to work on this technique for one of my projects.


I chose to make it a small size to hang and here you can see I've backed it with a piece of green silk dupion and added a small hanger I've had for ages! The reason I chose to back it was mostly because the three layers of lightweight muslin made it slightly see-through and also a little flimsy.


This is the original cutting that I took a while ago from a magazine and liked enough to set aside and when I found it again while pasting stuff into my colour book, I decided it would be perfect for the project!

Enlarging the small copy and tracing the main elements I did a few samples before deciding that I'd "add" the element of transferring acrylic paint via bondaweb to the top layer of fabric (after first checking with the tutor that I could mix these and wouldn't have to necessarily stick strictly to a Kantha piece!) I wish I hadn't! in a way! or at least I wish I'd not got carried away and added the final layer of pink chiffon!!
One of the reasons I particularly enjoyed this stitchwork was the lovely quilty effect the stitching produced at the end and I didn't get this, quite, with the final layers and combinations!! My main reason for adding the chiffon was to be able to transfer the traced copy onto my layers for stitching and even then I managed to go all wobbly and miss the lines completely on account of stitching it at night (yes! even WITH the wretched daylight lamp which I wish I'd not bothered with and am glad I only paid half price for!!).

I'm pleased with it for what it is and how its turned out, but disappointed as its not how I imagined it would be but I like the idea and may rework it again in the future.

All our work has to be completed for handing in in a couple of weeks time and my aim was to complete this project before the start of half term to give me chance to check my main sketch book. I have some pieces still working on but they are additional to whats in and I may shelve all but one of them in favour of the forth coming *summer holiday* and inevitable rush of wrap skirt sewing up!!

Tomorrow we're out for the day and may be eating out with step father no.2 as he celebrates his birthday this weekend, work on Sunday and nothing planned for the bank hol Monday as yet!
My brother, David, informs me of good news for his Dad (step father no.1 removed due to divorce to me!) in that they have finally decided to "replace his shoulder". (sounds a little bit strange to me, but I'm assured that IS correct all the weirder given I thought he went in for a scan on progress of his stomach cancer! apparently not. thats another appointment!). David is off for the weekend for a biking trip with HIS brother (also, confusingly, called John!).

Creative Textiles, interesting conversations

We've had a short half term as no class last Monday nor this coming bank holiday Monday.
Instead I've used the time to work on my final piece for the end of this year's lovely course which has been a most interesting time not to mention liberating, creatively speaking!

By chance I struck up a conversation in the shop with another lady who attends a C+G creative textile type class run by Maggie Swain and was very enthusiastic about it; I particularly enjoyed the conversation as she, like me, came in from a more "tailored" background of dressmaking and garment construction type of sewing and it was nice to hear another's experience of seeing textiles and machines in a more creative way and to discover that it does take time to adapt to new ways of working with such materials and methods!

Similarly, this lady also enjoyed the transfer of acrylic paints via bondaweb and layering and cutting of fabrics so you can imagine we had a good long chat!! At the end of it, I discovered she is in fact the cousin of one of my own colleagues!! small world!! full of spooky coincidences!

As I near the end of my own course I have to think about what I have achieved and gained so far and where I will be this time next year! My new *friend* has found the challenges of the C+G very demanding and she too has a health concern and, it appears, a close relative with a cancer, it seems that finding an outlet such as a creative course with time spent with likeminded new friends goes a long way to keeping everything into perspective and emotions into check! We decided that some of the nicest and closest of friends are a "crafty bunch"!

Happy Birthday wishes

A colleague celebrates her birthday this bank holiday, I made her a card using a piece of sewing themed fabric square on layers of mirrored card, foam and papers and matched to the envelope too which made it rather a pretty "make".
For her main card as colleagues, I asked another lady to make it as she does them SEW much more professionally! I wish I could share a photo of it as she really made a nice card but you'll have to take my word for it!

Sketchbook Cover

FINALLY my sketchbook cover project is complete!

Until it was complete, I didn't know if I liked it or not! The more I look at it the more I like it (even the pink ric-rac isn't DEFINITELY going to come off as of today!! even though I still feel this is the one part I like least)

The photo above shows it in its entirety, unfortunately I had to lose a bit of it to the turned under edges and typically the nicer parts are inside the cover!



These two photos, above and below, are close ups of various parts where you can see how in fact the lace layer I added and then hacked away at in attempt to remove, actually works rather well and I've ended up being PLEASED with it! (ignore the pink ric-rac, trust me it looks better in real and from a distance, but I know you are itching to get the seam ripper out and remove!)


The photo's above and below are of the completed cover on the book which has all the work within from the Creative Textiles course I've been attending this year - yummy SCRUMMY!


Layer of muslin followed by layer of wadding, then a piece of green silk dupion for the background start the project, added to this are pieces or layers of various fabrics mostly netting and organza's followed by a large piece of white overall lace (which I would omit another time) and a layer of pink organza completes the "sandwich".
My mistake was in using the 505 spray to hold it all together! it did hold it all together! rather too well and as well as discovering that it stains the dupion silk, it made it tricky to cut away at the layers when stitching into the piece! Next time I will tack it like the book said!!

I machined freely over the top before cutting into the layers and trimming to the machining to reveal the various fabrics adding more and more machining and cutting away at more layers. Hand stitches were added which gave me further opportunity to have a go at a few more examples from my book! Beads and a bit of ribbon and button and two flower heads finished it off!

The netting is the best bit! I was able to weave some of the lovely boucle thread I purchased from the Sewing for Pleasure show here and outlined a lace motif nearby. Some beads were "trapped" inside the "net".

I could have carried on stitching and flinging beads at it but decided to stop at this point!

More on "colour"

Sharon lists some very useful websites on her blog and this one caught my eye as "colour" is something I find hard to get to grips with: color wizard.

Pair of crocheted corsages!

Easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy! Pair of quick to crochet corsages! We learned the techniques and stitches for this on the recent beginners learn to crochet workshop, and here are two I've made up since!

The observant of you will spot that I've not yet stitched them down or added the brooch back, but that aside they are done!

This project was good for the fact that I can now do a dc, htr and a tr and double yarn round the hook drag it twice thingie stitch without having to look it up in the book!! oh! and a sl st which took me best part of both corsages before I "got" this useful stitch!! (what I was actually doing was in fact a "dc" but I felt if I closed my eyes and did it quickly it could qualify AS a sl st! but I resolved to learning it properly!).

The challenging question NOW is where to FIRST stick my hook when completed the required turning chains! a colleague and I puzzled over this for a good 10mins ..