Gelli prints and a postcard

 A few weeks ago I showed you this picture of some collograph gelli prints that I had made using a tutorial from Design Matters TV.

I have started working into a couple of them

but I was soon distracted by the idea of printing the designs onto fabric and came up with these.

The top two are printed onto white cotton sheeting and the bottom three onto hand dyed cottons. I was very pleased with how these turned out - even the ones that dont show up very clearly at the bottom. Needing something for a postcard I took the print on the bottom left 

and bonded it to some pelmet vilene before adding some machine stitch to the background to emphasise the shapes, and to the pomegranate seeds.

I used some gold paint to hightlight the hexagons and the pomegranate and there we are, one postcard!

It has been lovely to watch the garden coming to life during March so I will leave you with a few of my favourite photogrpahs.

FNSI MArch

 I have been a busy bee recently basting the coffin hexies for my Wings and Pretty Things borders. I have basted more than I need for the moment but I felt it was good to have some done ready for the outer border, when I get there. Anyway, here they are

and here are the ones for the first border, all sewn together.

So my Friday task was to cut the background fabric and start appliqueing! And this is where I was by he end of Friday.

Not quite finished but almost!

Many thanks to Wendy for getting us together again - you can see who else took part here. I have a bit of reading to do I can see!

This lovely postcard arrived in my postbox recently

It was from Annie as a bloghop prize. If you don't know Annie then do pop over to her blog, she makes some lovely things. It is some time since a post card came my way and it has enthused me to make some myself!

Spring is well under way here although it is decidedly nippy here this weekend with a cold north wind blowing. But the sun is shining and there is not a cloud in sight!

Have a great week

Catching up

It's now a week since we returned home from Spain and March is starting to zip through already! So time for a catch up on what I have been doing.

The Pansy Scissor Keeper that I stitched in Spain is now complete - I forgot to pack any stuffing so it had to be completed when we arrived home.

This was a kit from Sue Hawkins Needleworks and as with all her kits the instructions were clear and easy to follow, plenty of thread and a gorgeous colour combination. Very happy with this.

While we were away I bought some yarn and started crocheting squares to combine into a blanket. I had lots of fun trawling the internet looking for free granny square patterns - some simple some more complicated. Most of them were written with US crochet instructions which it took me while to come to terms with! So here are all the blocks I made while away.

This project has now been stored away until our next trip. Ooops! Just noticed that my heart is upside down in the picture!

Since our return I have started a new cross stitch project - sorry, I don't seem to have any pictures - and been working on the next round, brown rose, of my 1797 revisited quilt.

This #weebrawbag was completed in January as a birthday gift which has now been gifted.

It is a while since I have made a postcard so I have really enjoyed designing and embroidering this card for a special friend. It just needs ends sewing in and then it can be posted on it's way.

It has been fascinating to watch how the garden has changed over the last week with so much early spring colour around now. So I will end with a few pictures from the garden.

Post and a reminder

Just popped in to show you this lovely postcard that arrived in my postbox today - a card from Japan which is a lovely first.

I have been following Pamela's blog Hokkaido Kudasai for some time now - she does the most beautiful embroidery and shares stories of her life in Japan and all the beautiful places she visits.
As she did not know about textile postcards I sent a few links and we arranged to swap. So this is Pamela's first postcard. Isn't it lovely! Just such a beautiful, simple Japanese design and I love the beautiful piece of shibori fabric along the bottom. Thank you very much for swapping with me Pamela.

Now the reminder - yes it's already time to sign up for Friday Night Sew In - if you would like to join in then pop over to Wendy's blog to sign up.

See you on Friday.

FNwF August!

August! Already!
Well, here we are again and it was the first Friday of the month so it was Friday Night with Friends - linking up with Cheryll and all those lovely people who joined in last night.

Thank you Cheryll for getting us altogether again.

Most of my Friday was spent painting the walls in my kitchen - good to have it looking fresh and clean again. So I was very happy to spend Friday evening turning this pretty Jenny of Elefantz embroidery

into this mini quilt top

The buttons are not stitched down yet - they will form part of the quilting. So next job is to put a line of quilting around the inside of the frame and to stitch down the buttons.

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It has been good to join in with another postcard swap - thank you very much Sheila for organising this swap.

Here is the super card that I received from Mary

I love the colour combination, beautiful turquoise.

This is the card I sent to Mary.

It's warming up again here after a couple of cooler days - which we needed.

Happy Sunday.

It's EPP time again

Anthea is coping with builders and extensions but has still found time to set up the linky for EPP Tuesday and so we are Piecing Ourselves Together again!

Secret stitching here on the EPP front so I am just showing this sneaky peak which regular readers will have seen already!

But there has been some lovely post and these hexie flowers have arrived from my swap partners this month.

These from Australia

and these from the USA

Ooops - just remembered this birthday card for a special young lady!

Many thanks to Anthea for setting up the linky - I am off to see what everyone has been doing.

Not much time to sew!

But it is lovely to have visitors (Keith and Lorraine) especially at this time of the year when the garden is looking so lovely.

A lovely surprise in the post last week was this super postcard

from Monika Kinner-Whalen. Such a completely different style for Monika and you can read all about the fun evening she had with friends creating these modern cards by clicking on her name. Thank you very much Monika - am enjoying having it on my easel.

I can show progress on my May crazy block

not quite finished but I need a quiet afternoon to myself to do it.

Hope you are having a great weekend.

Happy Easter

Wishing all my lovely blogger friends a very

HAPPY EASTER