Stitching superwoman

Well, its been quite a week which has left me feeling sorry for myself as I have succumbed to a heavy cold. A friend likened me to superwomen but I replied by saying,

"I've lost my halo and my wonderwomen knickers are in the wash. I've run out of batteries for my bionic arm and my cat woman whiskers are bent. I'm too fat for my pink PVC power ranger costume so I'm in a very bad way"

On a positive note (I'm not feeling sorry for myself really), I enjoyed the V&A museum and I have finished a mixed media sample for my C&G module based on bussell sprouts.




I'm not sure why the picture quality is so poor. DS has been messing about with the settings so I need to go hunt down the manual to sort it out. I am teaching at the Quilters Guild conference and AGM this weekend so need the camera to behave.

"Things can only get better"

Things have not gone to plan so far in 2010. My rayburn which provides heat, hot water and somewhere to cook stopped working last Sunday. We do have a log burning stove which has been wonderful as a source of heat and two plug in oil radiators in both boys bedrooms so at least they are cosy. To give you an idea of how cold, there was ice in a coffee mug in the kitchen today! The repair man should arrive tomorrow so I have everything crossed that we will not have the predicted snowfall.

With my life so hectic coping with DS2's behaviour and special needs as well as life, I have realised just how much I depend on my friends and how precious they are. Many of those friends have been made through quilting. These friends prop me up, give me requirements lists for workshops over again when I lose the first one, lend me fabric, dyes, books or just give me advice about life or projects I am working on. They are always ready to listen and give me the support to keep going through black and difficult times.

Trying to be positive I did finish my nephews Christmas quilt. The pattern got simpler as it got nearer to Christmas and ended up just being 9" squares of novelty fabrics sewn together. He loved it though which is the main thing. How many children underneath?

I am also with DH help working on my website. This was something on my "to do" list for last year but it never got done. DH is very cleverly building it from scratch. Here's a peek

It will have all the workshops I teach on it along with examples of finished pieces. In my diary I booked three Saturdays in the summer in which I can get an indigo vat going in my garden. These days have proved to be incredibly popular and are now fully booked. The dilemma is do I find more days? It's not as simple as it sounds though as all the "boys" have to leave home for the day.

Fabric Fusion

This is the finished piece for my friend I have been working on. It's now with the proud owner and hanging on her wall. I'm not sure if I said before but one of the workshops I teach is a six day course covering different dyeing techniques, printing, stamping, paint sticks etc etc. At the end some students decided to trade work so the fabric has been "created" by lots of different ladies. The owner of this is just about to go and have a major back op so I have made it as a kind of gift. Her brief was to make it look like it had been thrown at the wall, nothing too formal. This photo doesn't show up all the detail but I used hand and machine stitching with different binding techniques.

These beads were from some curtain fringing.

Blanket stitch with beads attached.

Seals, fabric cuffs and fireworks

Yesterday we all managed to get up and out early so that we could go and see these amazing seals. We are lucky enough to live quite near a nature reserve, Donner Nook in North Lincolnshire which grey seals go to each year to breed. It is really well "policed" with volunteers from the Wildlife trust making sure that the public don't disrupt the seals, we are also contained behind a strong fence. In the past week there were 134 babies born (according to the statistics in the information shed).
Having never been before I was surprised at just how close to the fence some of the seals where. You can see the shadows of people behind the fence on this baby and mum -

I couldn't resist a close up of mums face, nor the baby below.

Once home I received these in the post -
I now belong to Fibre Arts Trading Group and this was the first trade I took part in. Thank you so much to Trees and Laura if you read this post, I can't wait to wear them. I am a bit worried though as I sent off my cuffs over a week ago and my trade partners haven't received them yet. These were the cuffs I made, I have fingers and toes crossed that they arrive safely.

The day finished with us going to a fireworks display, I discovered that my digital camera has a firework setting so I wanted to play with that
I'm going to use some of the images and print them onto fabric for my November journal quilt.