FNWFs November

 I had plans to write a post last week but it just didn't happen, so lots to catch up on here. First of all though many thanks to Cheryll for hosting us - see who else took part here 

We had visitors and planned to take them to Wellington Monument however when we got there the rain was just arriving along with mist and so no chance of a view of Somerset for them sadly. Had a lovely lunch with them before they went on their way and we headed home.

Earlier in the week I bought this lovely book, all about making your own fabric and paper books.

I have her first book and many years ago I made a little book all about leaves which I love and loved making. Some new techniques to try in this book so I thought I would have a play.

I backed some linen scraps with a vilene stabiliser, also a piece of old white cotton pillowcase. I painted a piece of each with gesso and put them aside to dry. Then took a piece of the cotton and drew a basic flower. Coloured it in with Inktense pencils. For some reason I have not tried these on fabric before, anyway very pleased with how this turned out although I obviously need to use less water as I have a bit of a halo.

Dry pencil

After wetting

I then played with Koh i noor ink paints on the two fabrics and on the gessoed cotton.

Very happy with my samples so far.

A few weeks ago I picked up two balls of this pretty three ply yarn from my favourite charity shop in Wellington.

As soon as I had finished the Woodpecker socks I got out my crochet hook and starting working with this yarn. It is lovely - so soft and silky. So my evening was spent adding a few rows to this scarf.

                                                   ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

After Thursdays stormy weather, a lot of which we were on the edge of, and yesterdays rain, we have had a sunshine and showers day today. We went off to Blue Anchor to meet up with family and were treated to a number of rainbows. This was the best.

If you could see it, Wales is under the rainbow.

Now to catch up, here are the finished Green Woodpecker socks. Lovely sock yarn from West Yorkshire Spinners.

And this week I have been busy with some Crazy Quilting which has been fun to do after so long away. Enjoyed making this little purse for a friend.

Looking a bit lopsided in above pic but it isn't!

Hand dyed recycled fabrics and thread, purchased silk ribbons.

Well I think that is all for now, have a great weekend.

Christmas in July!

Cheryll at Gone Stitchin' organised a Christmas in July swap - thank you Cheryll.

A package came for me this week from Spain - Barcelona in fact - from Montse, who does not blog.
These were the contents of my package.

Lots of goodies inside the box.

Thank you Montse.

Montse's favourite colour is Emerald so here are the emerald things I sent to her.

And if I translated her profile right she collects bookmarks hence the 'Little Reader' on the left.

Friday Night Sew In - and I nearly missed out!

After spending a little while yesterday afternoon finishing off the embellishing of this piece

I spent some time in the garden. When I came back indoors I thought I would catch up with a few blogs while I had some coffee and that is when I realised that it was the third Friday - FNSI! And to think I had nearly missed out. So I raced over to Wendy's place here to see if I was in time to sign up - which I was. I see now that I was not the only one late on parade as two people signed up after me. Anyway, you can use that link to go and catch up with what everyone was working on last night. Many thanks Wendy for hosting us again.

So it was lovely to spend the evening with friends working on my next crazy project and this is how far I got.

I sewed the lace down first of all and then realised that it made quite a strong diagonal line so decided to add the curved line using chain feather stitch to soften it up a bit and lead the eye round the block. There was just time to add the spiders web and that was my evening over.

So that was my FNSI - hope everyone had a good one and I shall be catching up with a few blogs soon. Have a great weekend.

More crazy happening here

When I decided to get on with some new crazy projects last weekend I thought it would be good to use up some of my hand dyed fabrics. So I hauled two carriers bags of fabric from the wardrobe and tipped them onto the dining table planning to pull out some fabrics to use. Well, what a mess! Some fabrics were rolled in bundles of colour, some were just screwed up and shoved in, some were in smaller poly bags. At this point I decided to make some order out of my fabrics.
Now, I didn't take a picture of the mess I started out with but this is what I ended up with.

Not ironed but at least all in their colours and vaguely flattened out. I plan to get some more plastic shoe boxes to store these in.

I also ended up with this pile of scraps which is destined to become improv log cabins

and a box of bits that really were not worth keeping and which I have binned.

So now it was easy to pick out some fabrics for a few new projects. Two pinky purple ones -

this one is ready to be made up into a lavender door hangar -

and this will be a frame purse.

I also have two green versions ready to start embellishing.

Have a great weekend everyone and hopefully time to sew.

EPP Tuesday and some crazyness

Thank you Anthea for hosting our link up again. Not a lot of EPP going on here. This is as far as I have got with my border for the Hexathon quilt.

There will be lots of units like this that will make up the border on two sides of the quilt. I am awaiting more supplies of the grey fabric from my favourite supplier Strawberry Fayre

You can see more EPP linkups on Anthea's blog here.

Meanwhile there has been some secret stitching going on - it involves red thread and a fat jolly person. I am saying no more!

Also I have been working on my small crazy project which you last saw looking like this.

Well, then it looked like this.

And now it looks like this!

A few details.

I am glad that I went with a stitched frame rather than glue. It took time and patience but I am really pleased with the finish. I have also learnt about placement of stitches having made up the bag - for instance that Fargo Rose is in a totally inappropriate place and the beading round the lace is lost as that is the base of the bag. But I treated it as a learning experience knowing that this one would be for me and am very happy with the result.

There is a storm a rumblin round as I write and some very welcome steady, heavy rain. Good to know that my water butts will be filling nicely.

I am also linking up with Heather's Needlework Tuesday - here

Enjoy your week.

June's FNSI

Many thanks to Wendy for organising our FNSI again this month. You can what everyone did here.

It must be a couple of years now since Wendy sent me these lovely Heart of the Garden fabrics as a thank you for taking part in FNSI.

I loved them so much that I put them aside for 'that special project' as you do, and there they have stayed. Earlier this week I decided that it was high time that I did some more crazy patchwork and I got out the box that holds my equipment when I am working.

What a sad sight! Ah thought I, I will make a nice basket to hold all my equipment and immediately Wendy's fabric came to mind. Two of them are perfect for fussy cutting and so I scaled up this Pink Penguin pattern, used some new to me In-R-Form to stabilise and hey presto, one basket.

The In-R-Form has worked very well and has made for a very firm basket. Another time I will use a larger seam allowance especially around the rim but otherwise I am very pleased with the result.

The inside

The two large 'pockets' on either side are open at the bottom to make them easy to hold bulky things in place. The four end pockets are all closed at the bottom.

While I was making the basket I read this post by Barbara, she of The Flashing Scissors, which reminded me that I have been wanting to make one of those little twisty threadcatchers for some time. Perfect opportunity and so following Barbara's instructions here we have my version.

So thank you very much Wendy for those lovely fabrics.

Now to this months FNSI. A few days ago I put together this patchwork base for a frame purse.

So my first job for Friday was to pull out some threads, beads, ribbons etc to work with.

My new basket by coincidence matches perfectly with the tray I use for my bits.

After a happy hour rummaging I was ready to go.

Here is my progress so far.

The postman has just been with this lovely book which I have been waiting to read ever since Sharon announced she was writing one about two years ago!

So with the temperature set to soar over 30 degrees this afternoon I am about to sit down with some iced coffee and have a good read.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.