A positive week..............

This week I have tried hard to keep my glass half full and I am wearing my rose coloured glasses.

 This is a review of my week in words (and some pictures) 

• My shibori remains a beautiful sculpted piece of white cotton.
• Embellish magazine arrived from Australia

• DS and these samples went to London, I stayed home. DS went to see Lion King with his school, the samples went to a conference about recycled and repurposed clothing. 

• I met a very nice and hunky recovery man on a very dark road for rendezvous with a tyre.
• I now realise the full importance of the hexagonal Allen key thingy in removing a car tyre. It will now stay in the car and not with the printing things.
• I had some ""me time" watching Lorraine Kelly in a comfy chair with a coffee in the waiting area of Bush tyres.
• I met another very nice man with a large tanker (after a visual reminder that the septic tank was full)
• DH started to decorate the hall way (thank you darling but please hurry up)
• Had some time to plan some new courses and quilts (OK did have to stay up most of the night with DS being sick for this one)
• I saved a pheasant from being shot after it flew into my car. It had a nice burial in the garden.
• I started a new craft course,  babies and paint..............just use your imagination.

What every you are up to this weekend be happy and I hope your glass remains half full.



 

Happy Stitching

Shoes and stitches

The Hub, Design Centre in Sleaford has a new exhibition of shoes designed by Vivienne Westwood and I was able to visit last Saturday. It is on until May 2nd 2011 and well worth a visit. The shoes are just stunning and I could imagine many of them on my feet. This isn't meant to be sexist but from talking to several people I think you need to be female to appreciate the beauty of shoes.

Unfortunately the gallery was quite dark and all the shoes were in display boxes so very difficult (no impossible) to get any decent photos. I did google Vivienne Westwood shoes and the images below were all in the collection.

On Saturday I stitched into a long, skinny piece of cotton to experiment with a little shibori. If it works well then it will be the basis for a much larger piece of work. The aim is for it to go into an indigo dye bath this week, there I've said it so will have to try my best and get it done.

And it all started out like this.............

Mug Rug Swap - part 2

I forgot to add this photo to my post yesterday. These are both the mug rugs that have been sent to America. Hopefully they will arrive soon. I had to take the photo with a flash, still having camera problems though.

Mug Rug Swap 2011

My mug rug swaps arrived this week from the talented Quiltjane in Australia. They are both in my absolute favorite colours, purples and lime greens and are both so different, in some ways too nice to use. I have promised Jane a photo of them being used so watch this space. Thank you so much Jane I am thrilled.

The two I  made to swap are now on their way to America.

A Little Bit of Everything

Its been a long hard, difficult week with DS2 but this weekend he has been with the respite carer. We did have a house full of teenage boys yesterday as DS had some friends round but peace reigned over the house. This allowed me to finally get down to the dyeing required for my diploma quilt. I'm not sure what has happened to my camera, all the photos in this post are not great. I think I need to check all the settings again so apologies.

The turquoise blue is for the mid-day sky. You can't tell on the photo but it goes from a pale shade on the right through to a shade darker on the left. The texture on the fabric also isn't showing. The brown is being dye printed so I have more control over the final shades. The three pieces need to be just a shade darker than the one before each time.

I have been inspired by some bloggers trying to complete UFO's so this Halloween quilt has finally been quilted and completed. I like to think that it is 8 months early!!!! You just can't see but I free machined pumpkins all over it in a varigated orange and purple thread.

I decided a few weeks ago to cut out a "turning twenty" quilt. I have mamnaged to do the piecing much quicker than I had thought. I will have 16 blocks, here are some laid out on the floor to give you an idea of how it will look. Again not great photo which doesn't show up the feature monkey fabric in the centre of each block.

I wasn't sure whether or not to show this because of the photo, the colours are washed out. It's one of my mug rug swaps. The batiks are rich jewel like purples and a deep pink. I just have to bind the other one before they can be posted off to America and their new home.

I spent a peaceful four hours at a sports centre today whilst DS joined a power riser/jump stilts group. I concentrated on the sewing and not what was happening down below. If you have never heard of them just look at this clip. DS isn't at the point of doing stunts yet though.  

Paper Work Conquered

For the past few weeks I have been battling with a mountain of paperwork. Somehow over Christmas I let everything slip and creative things have had to take a back seat. I'm now back and have a list of UFO's that I am determined to complete this year. As I wanted a small project I joined the Mug Rug Swap and have been sent my swap partner. This is a tiny part of what I have made. I will have to read the rules and see if I can show it all, until then a peek..

DS keeps moaning that he hasn't a quilt that is big enough to cover his body (he is now taller than me). Anyway he has made me feel so guilty that this week I cut up a stack of brown and red fat quarters which will become a turning twenty quilt. The idea is very simple if you haven't heard about these quilts. You cut up the fat quarters in the same way, stitch together and fairly quickly you have a decent sized quilt. The monkey fabric you can see will be in every block. I will post progress soon. When he was younger he loved anything to do with monkeys so they have got to be in his "big" quilt. As he won a prize at FoQ last year I should really get him to make one for himself but he is already starting his FoQ 2011 one. I do have a sneaky plan though that he will help to machine quilt it once complete.

I managed a day out yesterday with Sweetpie to visit Trudi at Quilt Prolifically to see her new Quilt Studio. It is a fantastic space and I know she will be even more creative with her quilts. We have been invited for a sewing day soon and I can't wait. Here she is in her new home. Pop over to her blog and you will be able to see just how quickly it went up.

New Year Update

Happy New Year to you all. I'm not sure where the past 10 days have gone really. At least everything has slowly begun to get back to normal after the Christmas holidays. DS got some jump stilts for Christmas but it has been too snowy and icy for him to use them. In the end he had a little try at home inside. It was tricky as he couldn't really stand up straight due to the low ceiling.  Since this photo was taken we have managed to get outside with them. He was born at 29 weeks and is now taller then I am, on these silts I come up to about his waist!!!

Smocking started back last week and we moved onto using smocking dots rather than checked fabric.

This was a sample that someone did at home over the holidays to try out different stitches.

I have some exciting news. Last Saturday I went to visit an incredibly talented group of textile artists known as Textile Lincs. They are a small group who regularly stage exhibitions of their work. After showing and talking about my work I was later invited to join the group. I was so excited as I haven't really exhibited any of my work before. 

Whilst out and about this weekend I also saw an exhibition by Peter Moss called "Past, present and Future" at "The Hub" in Sleaford. This is only on until 16th January but is well worth a journey if you are near.

Didn't mean to upload these parsnips. DH "found" them in the veggie plot so we had to eat them for Sunday lunch. The theme for the Sketchbook challenge 2011 is "highly prized" and I have done some pages in my sketchbook, I just haven't taken any photos! I did wonder whether or not these parsnips could be considered highly prized as they had been sown last March (ish). They have been in the ground through all the snow and ice yet still were intact when dug up and were very tasty when roasted.