Progress report.

Having managed to re-draw the damaged pattern onto the water soluble and match it in, it was then onto getting the sheers onto the net backing, only about another 12" left to do. I am tacking this quite closely to stop the sheers moving when I start machine stitching. As I have F.E.T.on Saturday, I would like to have started the stitching by then, but not sure if that will happen. I have got some cooking to do for Saturdays meeting AND for a party on Friday night. I have also got to go to Craft Arena Friday night, as it is the opening of their new gallery, and the exhibition looks exciting. (Saw the photo's posted by Denise)

:0(

I spent last night finishing my reports off.  
Tonight I am  going to re-draw the damaged pattern tonight and time permitting get more sheers in place-fingers crossed.

E.H.A

I couldn't resist showing you my Gunnera plant that grows in out bog garden, it has a huge flower spike and when you get close up
look at all that texture!

I haven't had a chance to repair the damage to my flower panel pattern tonight, I have been out with Nickie instead. She was doing a workshop for E.H.A. (Essex Handcrafts Association) in Billericay. As her life has not been running smoothly, I offered to go along and be her 'gofor'. We had a lovely evening, they were playing with water soluble paper walnut ink and acrylic paint to make a small panel. I didn't get the chance to get my camera out of my bag to take photo's of their finished work.;0(

Whooooops!!

A lovely Sunday sitting in the garden reading my CPS and doing a bit of hand stitching. When the football started I went indoors to do some work on my flower panel, as my house is a football free zone unlike my neighbours!
Anna (Serendipity) said this morning, that she doesn't use much green, I have found out that yellow is the colour that I tend not to use. I had thought it might be green, until I looked at my thread and button box! So, anyway I had to dye some more sheers in the microwave as I didn't have enough lemon yellows, and managed to get enough different shades. Threw in some white buttons with the sheers, and as the green dye was on the side from Friday night decided to do some buttons in that mix too.

After our evening meal, hubby thought it would be a good idea to have a shandy on the deck and watch the sun go down. I took out my flower panel so that I could do some basting on it.

When.........................he knocked my pint of shandy all over the water soluble onto which I had drawn my pattern. Even though I moved quickly to remove my work from the wet, the last 10" of pattern has become distressed. I shall be able to redraw the pattern, so it is not as bad as it could have been.

This is the dry end of my panel, I hope to start machine stitching Wednesday night. I can only place the fabrics in daylight as it is hard to get the right shading under artificial light.

Dyed sheers.

My photo of the sheers which I couldn't get last night because of the artificial lighting. I can now get on with my panel as I think I now have enough different colours.

Libby couldn't make our Y.E. meeting today, so June was in charge today. The girls were making their entry for the Regional Day in two weeks time, we had some lovely work. I will post photos after the competition. When I got home I had a nice cup of tea on the deck and enjoyed the sunshine, doesn't it make you feel good?

Hubby and I took Kezzy and two of her friends out for a meal tonight to celebrate her birthday. We just went to a local pub that has a restaurant. When I eat out, I like to try something that I wouldn't cook myself. Nothing very different on the menu but what we had was well cooked and I am typing this feeling very full!

Todays bargain.

If you are after some cheap beads, go to Primark. I found this necklace today reduced to £1, it would cost more than that to make it! I bought 2, one to wear if/when I get an outfit with these colourings and 1 to take apart. I have been dyeing sheers tonight in my microwave. I have used a combination of the new iDye I bought yesterday and Colourcraft transfer dyes. I now have a nice range of colours from jade to leaf green. Although I took a photo to show the colour range, the colours were not very good under artificial light. I will try again tomorrow before going to Y.E.

Reading matter.

On Thursday, Kezzy has art lessons at Barleylands, this gives me a chance to pop into Craft Arena and see what has arrived in Denise's shop.(I got got a sneak peak at the gallery, its looking good) This week it was CPS and Somerset Studio, I cant wait to get reading them, both have some interesting articles. I also bought a new dye to try on my sheers. I couldn't wait until Sunday. Here is my new temporary work area, not that I have had a chance to play tonight. It was E.G. committee meeting and as soon as I get in I like to type up the minutes while it is still fresh in my mind.
Tomorrow at school, it is induction meeting for my new children.

No further forward.

I have had to move downstairs to the dining room table as my playroom is much too cramped to be able to lay the panel out. Then having redone all last nights work to get a better variation on colours. In spite of having a large selection of sheers, I find that I have not got the right colours for the next section. If I can't find any on Saturday, I will have to dye some sheers to get the colours I need on Sunday (Saturday, I have YE during the day and Kezzy's birthday celebrations in the evening.)
Tomorrow evening I am out at an Embroiderers' Guild Committee meeting, a busy week!

15

Tonight I have started on my Flower Power panel (at long last, and not got very far). It is nearly 60 inches long, and I have drawn the images onto water soluble film with a permanent pen. I don't have a very big working area and it is a bit of a squeeze working on something so long as well as having my large box of sheers out. The reason for not doing very much work on the panel, is that is is my youngest daughters 15th birthday today. She had a hospital appointment straight after I finished work for her brace to be tightened. Friends and family came round to see her it once we were home, and it was very late by the time I cooked the evening meal. As it was such a nice evening we had our meal on the deck watching the sun go down and unwinding.

And the winner is......

Tonight I have used the Random Generator from here, to find my winner for my book....... drum roll please........
and it is .........................................................JP.
Please send me your address so that I can snail mail it to you a.s.a.p. A very big thank you to everyone who entered into my drawing.

Father's Day

Here it is, the photo as promised yesterday. I have really enjoyed making it.

I have had a lovely day in the garden in spite of the cold wind, cutting back over-grown shrubs, a bit of dead heading and planting out the bedding plants. We hope to start work on a new water feature in a few weeks time, we have got to do it while I am still on full pay.

The first stitching job tonight is to hem Rhodri's trousers:0(. I don't usually do mending but it is a barter. I mend his trousers and he will sort out my AOL which has not been working properly all week. A fair trade I think!

As it is Father's Day today , I spoilt hubby by making him 2 desserts - a Fresh Fruit Brulee and a Raspberry Charlotte, he does like his food!!

Tomorrow night, it is Embroiderers' Guild meeting. We have Carol Humprey, and her talk is 'Textiles at the Fitzwilliam Museum.' Should be interesting

Finished!!

Apart from making a quilt label, I have now finished my 'Hundertwasser'. I have tried to take a photo tonight, but cant get a decent image, so I will do that tomorrow.
Due to having to go and visit Hubby's friend who is quite ill and in hospital, (he was our best man when we got married 10 years ago) I didn't get round to starting on my flower panel, but friends are more important. There is always tomorrow.

Sorry, no photo's tonight.

I have discovered the benefits of the World Cup - Why??? All the shops and roads were empty when I went food shopping after work tonight!!
I have now got the binding on my quilt, just the final embellishments tomorrow. It will be then time to start work on my flower panel, the pattern is drawn out on water soluble already, so I will be able to get straight in to it.

Giveaway drawing soon.

There is only a few days left of my giveaway, and as I have Embroiderers' Guild meeting on Monday night, I wont post the winning name until I get home from that about 10.30p.m, GMT.

I have spent a good bit of this evening on the phone chatting to mum and various friends.  Having done that, I have managed to stitch two bindings on my 'quilt' and will do some more tomorrow night. My eyes are just too tired to do more.

The end's in sight.

Having spent every available moment sewing in all those, what seemed hundreds of ends, I decided I needed to stitch the fabric in front of the houses. Once these ends are sewn in I can do the binding. I should finish this by the weekend, all being well.

My evening has gone in a blink of an eye. I had an appointment to donate blood, so it meant I was very late getting home. By the time the evening meal was cooked and cleared away, bits sorted out ready for work tomorrow, there has not been as much time to stitch as I would have liked. I did manage to finish machine stitching my 'Hundertwasser' and I have now got to finish sewing in all those hundreds of ends. Another picture when there is something to show.

'Hundertwasser' continued

A lovely evening spent machine stitching my ALQS4 piece. As you can see by the picture, I have nearly finished the yellow sky. Lots and lots of threads to sew in!

Reminder

This time next week I will be doing the drawing to find a winner for my giveaway-a book, a picture of wich is on my sidebar.
Off to do a bit of stitching before starting the evening meal ( a great way to unwind)

R.R.C

The drive to and from Norwich took quite a bit longer than 2 hours each way as every slow moving vehicle was on the road as well as lots of road works!

I took the fabric from the R.R.C with me so that I had some stitching to do while talking to my Auntie. I had to fold, tuck and stitch the fabric to make a vessel.

Shopped out!

It was only going to be a quick trip to Chelmsford but......
1. We couldn't find the top that Kezzy wants for her birthday.
2. Hubby couldn't find any shorts in the right colour/style.
3. I decided to buy a skirt, and then couldn't find the right colour shoes to go with it.
So many hours later, we got home and having bought some fabric shoes in ecru, I have now painted them to go with my skirt. I have also done some more to my ALQS4, but nothing worth showing tonight.
We had to pick up Kezzy this evening from a bar-b-q, we couldn't believe how many very young people were very drunk and having a job to walk- all that celebrating the football I think. Our house is a football free zone!
Off to see my Great Aunt in Norwich tomorrow, a four hour round trip!

Getting there!

I have ignored my reports tonight, well and last night as well if I'm truthful. Last night I was out with my daughter and friends making a few cards.
Tonight I have finished the hand stitching and additional painting, so all I need to do now is make it into a quilt. I have to get it finished by July 1st

That time of year!

SCHOOL REPORTS!!!!!!! :0(
I am going to spend an hour on them and then reward myself with some stitching!

I have had my secretary's hat on tonight. Our Branch is hosting Regional Day next year and I had to do some paperwork ready for our next meeting.
Then it was time for some textile therapy. I finished drawing the flowers on my panel in readiness to start stitching-hopefully this weekend, although, shopping for Kezzy's birthday present on Saturday and I am going up to Norwich for the day on Sunday, so maybe not!
I have also done a bit more to my Hundertwasser inspired piece for the ALQS 4. Lots of ends to stitch in at work tomorrow.

My piece of fabric for the RRC has arrived in the post from Margaret today. It was originally started by Diane using Australia as her inspiration passed onto Deb, then Margaret. I now have to make this into a vessel by the end of the month!

Hilary Bower

Nickie and I spent the weekend at Missenden Abbey doing a course with Hilary Bower. This is the back of the Abbey, and yesterday morning as we sat here having a cup of coffee on the patio, we saw a mountjack and roe deer run across the lawn.We just had to take photo's of this wonderful tree, the branches were huge.

As this was Hilary's last course she is taking at Missenden, she was given some book vouchers to remember her students by.

We took the evening off so that we could sit in the garden and stitch rather than in a hot and stuffy classroom. The front garden where we were staying was wonderful, so again it meant taking more photo's.

We didn't get to sit in the back garden as we couldn't find the key, but while Nickie stitched I did the homework that Hilary had set me. Although I don't have any work to show for my weekend away, I have done a lot of thinking with the prompts from Hilary, as to which direction to take my work when I have finished the projects I am working on at the moment.

A lovely weekend, with lovely people.

Away!!

Been out for lunch with a friend (one of the joys of school holidays is meeting and catching up on all my friends news), tried to but a new school blazer for Kezzy as she has manged to get white acrylic paint on the one the one she has been wearing- too early, blazers are not in the shops yet! Pulled up some forget-me-knots as they are now over and I want to get some Busy Lizzie's in. And packing up for Missenden:0) I'll be back Sunday.

GIVEAWAY

I entered Wanda's blog drawing last month. As I was a winner, I now have to pay it forward. This is what my prize will be:- A handmade book cover and book. The cover is made with craft vilene which has been coloured with transfer paints, using my embellishing machine machine, fibres and fabric were added for texture, and then machine stitched. I have taken my inspiration from the colours of Autumn (my favourite season), the machine stitching represent the bark patterns. A metal leaf for final embellishment

The book is made with paper weight 270g/m2, coloured with Brusho, ala Frances Pickering. Images and words have been stamped on a few of the pages with Distress Inks.

All you need to do is, leave a comment on this blog and a mention on your own blog(if you have one) to be entered in the drawing. Don't forget, if you are the winner, you have to pay it forward.

The drawing will take place on June 21st, Midsummer's Day.

Time to play.

What a lovely day I've had. Lunch in the garden, visit from my grandchildren and some sewing.

First of all, a bit more work on my Hundertwasser for the ALQS4. I want to be able to get it ready to do the hand stitching on it at work next week. I also started on this work first, as I was plucking up courage to cut up Nickie's R.R.C fabric. This is how it came from Diane.
I cut the row of Euro symbols apart so that I could have 1 in each corner and the large one as the focal point. Then reversed some of the strips. Taking it to Debs tomorrow for her to embellish.

RRC and KISS

It is time we all swapped our fabric in the RRC but as Margaret and Diane are off on holiday we wont be having a get together like we did last month. I have been trying to pluck up courage to cut Nickie's fabric all evening- but I will postpone that until tomorrow when I am bright eyed and bushy tailed! I am passing it on to Deb on Thursday so no more time to dally.
I popped into Craft Arena this afternoon to get the new issue of QA and also got Sew Somerset, I have never had this magazine before but I have seen adverts for it and it looks good-I will let you know if it meets up to my expectations. Nickie and I are off to Missenden at the weekend for another workshop with Hilary Bower, so I am saving them for our bedtime reading.
It has rained all day today and I have found out that Dijanne wants a photo of my KISS project so I hope that it is sunny tomorrow.