dyeing 2 sew

Out driving!

2008-06-12T19:33:00.002Z

On Sunday afternoon we went for a drive to Porthlevan via Helston. It was a glorious afternoon with the sun shining and the fields and hedgerows full of Spring flowers. Lovely! The pictures above are of our trip.
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The first one on the left is of the first Cosmos flower to come out in my garden and nothing to do with the trip at all!The next two are of an old Georgian house in a back road in Helston. This is the old part of the town. The next one is of Porthlevan harbour. The tide was in and there were lots of boats moored there. Under the picture of the Cosmos is a picture of a brass band which was playing in front of the pub on the harbour wall. Brass bands are a common feature in Cornwall and are to be found at most events as well as in places like this. Then there is me sitting on the pier wall with the sea behind me. Lovely waves with a glorious curl to them. Future inspiration! And next is a picture of a fishing boat coming back surrounded by seagulls. Not as common a sight as it used to be! Martin found a shop which had a row of carved beach huts for sale. I would have bought one only the shop was closed! And they sell delicious icecream. Such a shame but saved me all those calories! Under the brass band are two pictures of the boating lake on the outskirts of Helston. I couldn't resist the picture of the ducks tail up in the water. Then home through Helston town this time. And views of old mining chimneys and chimneys complete with engine house. There are heaps of these all over - a most common site in this part of the world where tin mining used to be the occupation! Lovely foxgloves with views behind of the new modern windmills. Not a patch on the old windmills of yore! No soul! To me they are an alien force straight from science fiction! Views of the sea and estuary of the river Fal as we come down Mabe hill and last but not least daisies hiding in the rushes at the petrol station we stopped at near home. All in all a good afternoon's outing; much enjoyed by both of us!

The Road to Hell!

2008-06-07T17:48:00.009Z

Well I am probably well on my way to Hell as my intentions have been good but not unfortunately brought to fruition. I am of course talking about my lack of content for the blog! I would like to thank all those people who so kindly leave comments or email me. Please do keep them coming as they are a spur to my conscience. They are much appreciated and make me feel really bad that I'm not more regular in my writings. However I am now going to make up for my tardiness!
At the end of May my quilting group had a demonstration table in one of the tents at Mabe Shindig and Steam rally. As my group holds it's classes in Mabe we thought this would be a good advertisment. However sometimes one's plans go adrift. We hadn't counted on the weather being so appalling. Rain and high winds. It was so bad that the show was called off in the afternoon which was so sad for the organisers. I felt really sorry for all the folk in the craft tent trying to sell their goods as few people ventured out into the misery of the weather. We had a good time among ourselves drinking coffee and eating biscuits. In the picture below Yvonne is showing Eileen how to make Yo Yo's using the Clover tool. The quilt on the tent wall is the first large quilt that Yvonne made and lovely it is too!

Here are some pictures of the Disperse Dyeing I did (all on originally white poly/cotton). From the top left: dyed background with stamped shapes to use as base for an applique eventually; then two pieces with leaf panels to use as borders.In the middle row from the left two pieces which were randomly printed to use as backgrounds and on the right a piece made up of various prints to make a fishy scene. Bottom left is a graduation of prints making up a landscape type piece. Disperse dyes being transparent some interesting effects and colours can be made. And the last two are done on Lutradur which I shall burn and distress for my class on Fabric Postcards in a fortnight's time. I thoroughly enjoyed this and the class had a great time. I like to keep painted papers by me so that I can print whenever I need to.

As well as this I have been doing some Trapunto by Machine. I love the effect of Trapunto and this is such an easy way of achieving it. And as well one ends up with a usable back.

And as well as all this quilting I have been working hard in the garden. I am only a spring-summer gardener and this year Spring came late or so it seemed! I have sown seeds and planted plants and now I'm waiting for them to do things. The Avocado has weathered the winter sans it's little tent...it's now too big for it. The leaves looked very sad but there are masses of new ones coming and the old ones are dropping off. Not the world's best example of an avocado but it is mine own and I like it! I really ought to dust off my other blog now that I'm doing something in the gardening but it takes me all my time to remember to add to this one. One of the problems being that now the computer is upstairs I don't use it as much! I don't quite know how to over come this! I have a lap top but it's not the same!
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I shall have to make more effort soon as I have to design and make next year's quilt for class. I'm hoping to do an applique quilt this year in some shape or other so if I'm on the computer designing that there will be no excuse for not keeping up the blog. I already have some rough ideas sketched out and now it is a matter of playing with them in Photoshop or EQ6.
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I have to hang my head in shame and say that I dropped out of the Take it Further Challenge as I just couldn't keep up. Too much going on that took precedence! Including reading a book now and then! At the moment I am wading or should say galloping through the Father Cadfael books by Ellis Peters! I'm amazed I've only just found them. I now want to go to Shrewsbury to visit all the places in the books! My mother comes from Shropshire so it would be interesting to have a leisurely look around rather than just driving through the county on the way to Scotland. Perhaps I'll arrange a week's holiday to coincide with our Wedding Anniversary in July. 42 years married! Doesn't seem nearly as long as that! I wonder if Martin would say the same? Big Grin!

More exciting things for the house!

2008-05-16T18:14:00.003Z

We have had French doors put into our kitchen-diner and hasn't that made a difference. The door and window that were originally there were totally rotten and also the door had occluded glass in it which meant the garden couldn't be seen. How useful is that? Now the view of the garden is terrific and when the weather is warm we can open them out and feel as if we are in the garden itself. Magic! I am so pleased. In fact it is such a change that I keep thinking the door is open as the view is so clear and I am not used to having a view!
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We were having lovely hot sunny weather but that has all changed and today it is warm but thundery. However the last two days have been quite cold. But I gave up wearing stockings or socks and refuse to go back so I have had chilly toes! Hopefully the weather will improve soon as just before it changed for the worse I bought a whole load of plants at a local nursery to put in the tubs in the back garden. And I was really hoping to do another dyeing session in the garden as well as I have more room and haven't got to worry about the floor.
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A month ago I bought a mini trampoline. It is fantastic and is so energising. I try to do twenty minutes each morning and another twenty minutes in the evening. With some really good rock and roll on the CD player it isn't hard and the time goes really quickly. I am finding it is making me sleep better and lose the inches! Already my clothes are getting looser! Even Martin has a bounce each day!
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Next week my class is on Disperse Dyeing so I am going to dye up some poly-cotton this weekend and also make lots of samples of various transfer painting techniques. I really love this form of dyeing as it is so easy and yet so very effective. Pictures to come!

Bank Holiday Monday

2008-05-05T18:54:00.008Z

It was a lovely morning with the sun shining and the birds singing. So lovely in fact that I took my granola and yogurt outside to eat on the patio.  I was then inspired to finish tidying up the garden and plant an azalea that had been sitting in a pot for a few weeks waiting for the right moment to arrive! Well it arrived this morning.  I am a summer gardener. Only between April/May and October do I garden. Sometimes the urge comes on me in April and sometimes not until May.  But then once I've started I get all enthusiastic and plant flowers etc as if there is no tomorrow. In fact Sue and I are going garden centre hopping tomorrow.  Bad for the purse but it will be a good day out and the coffee and cake will be a bonus.

The tulips have been quite lovely even though they weren't planted until January. The colours have been superb especially the 'black' ones. But they didn't last as long as more ordinary colours. I had to make a piece of shadow appliqué so I chose to do tulips as the subject matter. I still have to frame the piece or do something with it but that can wait for a while as I have other things to do.

Having done a stint in the garden I then decided to do some dyeing and because I can't dye large lengths in the kitchen any longer because of our new floor (Martin would kill me if I dyed it!) I set up some acrylic sheets outside. I don't have many so I was limited in what I could do but a lot was achieved in a small space. I then went on to layer more acrylic over the ones seen below. It was fun but my back ached after a while so I'm glad this isn't my normal mode for dyeing.

And finally this is a picture of the small bag I made for the wedding. It is big enough to take my camera and other paraphernalia. It is mostly made from strips of silk with the odd bit of hand-dyed cotton and I found an antique mother of pearl button for it. Very simple and quick to make and very effective. I could make one for every outfit.....but I won't!

Now to finish my version of a Convergence quilt a la Ricky Tims for my class on Friday. I'm finding this great fun and using up lots of scraps. Well not really scraps as they are all at least a foot square. But you know what I mean.

Sophie's wedding

2008-05-04T19:42:00.007Z

My niece Sophie got married yesterday in Mawnan Church. This is a very old church on the cliffs overlooking Falmouth Bay. The weather smiled on us and the rain stayed away. There was even sun in the afternoon! The wedding was at 3pm so plenty of room for the improvement on a dull start.

This is my niece and her new husband Jon. It is going to be very confusing as she also has a brother called Jon. He will now have to be referred to as Jonathan to save confusion!

The lace over dress that Sophie is wearing is one I made for her mother, my sister, to wear at her wedding over thirty years ago. There were a few alterations such as lowering the neck and shortening the sleeves but it still looks good. Sophie was a beautiful bride and glowed with happiness. In short it was a lovely wedding. Very simple but lovely.

In contrast I felt every one of my years and could not be called glowing! I had to arrive early to get my elderly mother to the church so Martin took this photo of me. I didn't have to put it up but I liked the hat. It's not everyday that one gets to wear a hat!
My lovely Mum who will be 89 this coming November.
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All in all it was a happy occasion and a great time was had by all. Unfortunately Martin had to work in the evening as it is a Bank Holiday weekend so I had no one to dance with! Boo hoo! Though my nephew took pity on me but only I think to stop my taking pictures of him! I have been busy with other things such as sewing but more of that later. I will try and be more regular in my posting now that I have more time. There has been so much going on at the same time that I was quite rushed for a while. But I have a few days holiday and will clear the decks ready for a fresh start.

April TIF

2008-04-05T17:30:00.002Z

I've been thinking about this month's TIF challenge subject. For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about this is a monthly challenge that Sharon of In a Minute Ago fame sets us. For more details hit on the link above. This month's challenge is about change; how do you view it; is it good or bad; etc etc. The first idea that came to me is that change is growth. One takes an idea or thing and by changing it makes it grow into something different or bigger. Not necessarily always a good thing! The expression that popped into my mind was 'Big Oaks from Little Acorns grow'! And then pondering this I also saw that one could change something and yet it would still have the same effect and do the same thing as previously; hence the saying Plus ça change, c'est le même chose! Hope I've got the accents right! But how do I portray these two views of 'change'? Do I amalgamate them or choose one or the other? Should it be abstract or visual? What do I do? I think a lot more thinking is necessary! If I get pushed for time I'll go with the growth in nature a la the Oak tree theme but at the moment I'm thinking round the fact that everything changes but actually stays the same! Not the easiest of subjects!

Finished February's TIF in March!

2008-03-26T21:25:00.007Z

This is the original drawing that I did. I decided to go with my early memories of the barbed wire on the beaches after WWII but I wanted to keep it simple.

I decided to dye a piece of fabric in the colours I wanted rather than sew strips of fabric together. I was quite pleased with the way this came out. Of course blue and yellow make green so there is a greenish element at the edge of the sea but that is, of course, seaweed!

I had kept the dyeing to a basic minimum so I added all the other elements of the design by painting them onto the fabric. I played up the 'seaweed' aspects and made shadows on the sand. I put the sun in and decided it would be early evening when shadows are lengthening. Also this would cast a sparkle on the water. I decided to leave waves alone as I felt that adding white would be a bad move and too distracting. I wanted the post to be the focal point with the wire reaching off on either side.

This is the piece bagged out and edge stitched before doing the final stitchery.

A close up of the stitching for the post and the shadow. I thought a bit of maram grass round the base of the post would be good.  Just that added touch of green to go with the clump of green in the lower right hand corner where the dyes pooled a bit.

And this is the finished article. I have enjoyed doing this. It is very simple but I think effective. I could have done more stitching but I didn't want to burden it with over kill so I kept most of the machining to the lower half apart from the sun and it's sparkle on the sea. I'm glad I persevered and got it done. There is a great sense of achievement in not having let it lapse into a UFO!
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I'm not going to do March's TIF as neither the subject matter nor the colours inspire me and also next week is April! Hopefully I can finish April's TIF in April!

Time goes by too quickly!

2008-03-21T12:37:00.004Z

Time just disappears. I think I'm keeping up with the blog and lo and behold days have gone by. So what have I been doing? When I stop and think about it, not a lot! Sad isn't it!
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I read Gabrielle's blog and had to do this test!

The Recipe For Valeri

3 parts Naughtiness

2 parts Poise

1 part Sweetness

Splash of Mischief

Chug!

What's the Recipe for Your Personality?

Not the most difficult test in the world! In fact each time I entered my name I got a different result but the above is the first one. I could have gone for a much more erudite rendition of my name but I was honest! Really!
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I have finished the single bed log cabin quilt I was making and it is on the bed! This is the table centre I made with the two left over blocks. I used up scraps of fabric so the colours although consistent weren't from the same pieces of material. It is very bright!

And I was also able to do the quilting using my new Fab-U-Motion tool which I bought at the Exeter show. I am so pleased with this! I had seen them advertised and also read about them on-line but wasn't going to buy one sight unseen. Too much money to take a chance on whether it was going to be good or not. But at the show I saw one demonstrated and had a go and I was hooked. It is the most amazing piece of equipment. It makes free machining a breeze. No more tired, tight, achy shoulders. No dragging of the fabric. Brilliantly smooth underneaths. What more could one want. The plate is set on a set of movable rods for want of a better description and the fabric is put over the plate and then moved side to side or up and down. The hole is quite large and ample for stitching. When one runs out of space just pull the plate over and continue. So easy! The movement is really smooth with no jerks. I found it simple to use, especially with smaller pieces of work. My first practise piece was only about 18" square and I had no problems at all. However I did have to master a learning curve when doing the larger single bed quilt as one has to get one's head round the bunched up fabric at the right of the needle on the machine bed when moving the plate. However practice makes perfect and I accomplished what I'd intended without too much aggro on my part! I'm certainly pleased with it. It works better on my Husqvarna than my Bernina having more room but the picture above is of it on my Bernina. And in fact the quilt was done on the Bernina as at that time I hadn't tried it on the Husqvarna. I am in love!

Day out at a Quilt Show!

2008-03-08T19:11:00.002Z

I had a really lovely day out today. Myself and three friends went to the quilt exhibition at Westpoint in Exeter. It was a miserable day weather wise with rain and mist for most of the hundred mile journey there and the return wasn't any better. In fact it was worse! But we had a lovely day. Spent far too much money on lovely things, saw some beautiful quilts and met up with other friends who had also made the trip. A few of my favourites are shown above. I especially loved the hanging by the Hope Quilters, shown in the bottom row. It made us laugh as this is so true of quilting groups all over! The picture of the small house quilt (second up on the left) is made of tiny tiny log cabin blocks! It must have taken a while to work it all out. We had the most delicious Danish pastries and latte coffee and didn't feel at all remorseful about our diets!
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However the day was slightly marred when I broke one of my back molars. The hole feels like a chasm and I can't do anything about it until Monday! I feel as if I've been socked in the jaw! The sewing machine vendor where my friend Sue bought a new sewing machine had a bowl of free sweeties on offer and so I thought I'd take one while waiting for Sue to finish the transaction. My mistake as that sweet blighted my life!
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A lot of fabric was on offer and I of course succumbed! I also found some animal strips which are just right for making an eye spy quilt or an attic windows quilt for the grandchildren. Fred is mad about horses and Fenella is well into dogs. Of course I need this fabric like a hole in the head but I just couldn't resist it. I also bought some single embellishing needles for using with my felting technique. And only three books! This is very good for me. One of them is about machine trapunto, a technique that I want to do more of so I am going to be busy! At least I will be busy when the tooth isn't giving me gyp!

Nominated and nominations!

2008-02-29T19:20:00.003Z

I was very touched that Victoria nominated my blog.
Let me explain the rules for the next nominated blogs:
" Choose up to 10 of your favorite blogs which bring you inspiration and make you appreciate the blogosphere ! "
Next you must inform the bloggers of their nomination by a post on their blog so as to keep the chain going !
So, here are the blogs I have chosen to nominate:

Gabrielle Swain at Handmaiden
Sue at CraftchatsewIknit2
Helen Suzanne at Hebart Journal
Shirley Goodwin at Dyeing2Design
Tommy at Tommy the Material Girl
Moi at Suckers Anonymous
Helen Cowans at Textile Goddess
Sharon at In a Minute Ago
Sarah Ann Smith at Art and Quilting in Camden
Robin at Quilt Antics

These are my ten nominations. They are always interesting; I often learn something new and frequently I'm amused. They are all worth a look if you haven't been there before!

Back to normal....well almost!

2008-02-28T20:13:00.009Z

It was good to see the grandchildren and Caroline again though I didn't get a thing done while they were down. We had a day in Penzance and went over the causeway to St Michael's Mount. The castle was shut, being winter, but the tide was low and the sun was shining and the walk over is fun. The kids enjoyed it. The sand had some interesting patterns of which I took pictures for future reference. Also there was a wrought iron gate into the churchyard that had an interesting feature or two. The views down the coast were fantastic as it was so clear. For a February day it was magnificent. The car was a very old one we saw in Penzance. It isn't every day that one sees one of these cars so I took a picture. I also added a picture in the middle of the collage of the children with their grandfather. We found the red dog in a charity shop in Penzance which was quite a find and Fred was delighted with it. Fenella prefers the fluffy variety so we bought her a soft toy to add to her collection.

I have been enjoying lovely wood fires in the evenings and admiring the new floor! Just curling up with a book and relaxing. After a full day's activities with two small ones this was bliss! And we have lots of offcuts from the floor plus all the old skirting boards to burn.

I have not been able to get a lot done on TIF number 2. The above sketches and the two below are all that I have achieved. There is no way that I can be finished by the end of the month. I haven't got further than sketching out ideas. However I have decided on which direction I wish to go in and I might get it done next week given some free time. The only trouble with visitors is that there is so much to do when they go!

The sketch on the right below is the one that I am going to go with. It is simple and it says all that I want to say. The contrast between then and now is so great. Then our freedoms were restricted due to war and now our freedoms are again becoming restricted due to our useless government and an overburdening of 'health and safety'. We don't actually see the barbed wire in our lives but it is there all the same. The sun is slowly setting on an existence that we are only just appreciating as we lose it. As a young child I didn't see anything odd about what this picture portrays - as an adult it means so much more symbolically!

On a brighter note I have actually managed to make a log cabin top ( I needed a sample for class last week) and some tray cloths! Pictures of these later. This week we are doing set in circles which should be fun!

Finished at last and just in time!

2008-02-04T23:09:00.000Z

Well just as I was going to post this my server went down and we had no internet service in our house for a few days while Martin sorted it out. I'm writing this at work (February 7th) so I can't re-send the pictures at this time. The room is lovely though and although now completely awash with toys and stuff the floor remains a joy to me. I have to keep standing and staring. Pictures will come later but for the next couple of weeks I'm going to be unable to blog due to constraints of time and place. Martin and Kieran did a great job though and I am so grateful for the amount of time they put in to get the job finished before the enslaught. It's going to be a rush getting the February TIF challenge underway let alone finished. In fact it's going to be hard to get anything done. I feel as if I've got an invading army staying! But it's fun!

New TIF challenge

2008-02-02T21:36:00.000Z

It being February there is a new TIF challenge which can be seen here. The colours are not to my taste at all so I think I will go with the main challenge which is 'What are you old enough to remember?'. This is actually quite an exciting theme to work with as if one goes back in stages it is amazing what has happened in a lifetime. I can remember the days before calculators, computers, videos and DVD's, microwaves, and several other things that we now take for granted. My school days would have been completely different had we had calculators and computors but having said that we did actually learn to use our brains and I think learnt more and were more capable than kids of today. My primary school was housed in old Nissan huts and lacked most of the mod. cons. of today but every child leaving there could read, write and do arithmetic. Admittedly only a few passed to the grammar school but they didn't have the same lack of education that today's children have. And very few Mum's worked!

Going back even further my earliest memories are of sitting in a large rubber dinghy at Telscombe Cliffs just after the war. My Dad was in the RAF and this was a retrieved dinghy from a downed plane. It was huge and I look like a small dot in the middle of it! And in the same year I can remember the barbed wire on the beaches which had been put there to stop the invasion and the submarines wrecked in the bay at Gyllyngvase (Falmouth). I must have been between two and three then. One of the wrecked subs was there for years and the conning tower was a good indicator of the state of the tide. There was always a seagull sitting on top of it. Eventually 'health and safety' cleared it away! I was too young to remember this but I've been told that American sailors in Falmouth used to call me Blondie as I had such very blond hair and one gave my Mum a tin of pineapple as he was so struck by my colouring! Pineapple hadn't been seen since the beginning of the war and this was a large catering size tin so Mum gave a beach party to share it around!

So with all these memories what to choose. I would like to do a beach scene with the barbed wire and war ships in the bay. Perhaps planes overhead. But to make it fairly abstract. Whereas I had the twisting, curling vine in my last TIF piece this time I would have twisting, curling barbed wire. I will work on it when I get a moment. I only have two days to get the house presentable before the daughter arrives so won't be for a day or two at least.

Decorating!

2008-01-29T21:00:00.000Z

I have not been able to do anything at all creative since Friday. I spent the weekend moving furniture out of the living room into the garage and what wouldn't fit in the garage has gone into the dining area. See middle row of pictures. It is like living in a caravan! No it's worse than living in a caravan! There is no room to move. And that is Martin's computer set up. Fortunately mine is upstairs and I can still get at it...just! On Sunday we ripped up the carpet and rolled it up in strips and put it into dustbin bags. The wonderful dustmen took it away today! Underneath the grotty carpet was an even grottier tiled floor. The colour was sick beige! Then on Monday the wallpaper came off and under that was pale duck-egg blue paint. Actually the hanging strips of wallpaper as seen in picture 1 were quite inspiring and I have some good ideas for a something! Watch this space but don't hold your breath. We have a long way to go yet. Then last night there was the tidying up and sanding down and I went to bed exhausted. Today the first coat of paint went on the walls and the covings were done. Martin is putting on the second coat of paint on the walls as we speak....well as I write to be more accurate! As you can see it is a definite improvement. Tomorrow we start to lay the floor. We have solid light oak wood and it should look good. Then the gloss gets painted. After that all the furniture has to come back and the furniture from the dining area has to also be fitted in while we lay floor in there and then in the hall. Just writing about it makes me feel very very tired! And I haven't mentioned the cupboard that we are building in the alcove nearest the dining area and the shelves above! So I don't think a lot of anything else will get done this week. I'm just glad I got the TIF challenge finished in time!

Finished!

2008-01-25T22:09:00.001Z

I have finished the TIF challenge! It is perhaps not as detailed as I might have made it had I not had so much else going on at the same time but it has ended up as I visualised it which is a good thing I suppose! I wanted to keep it simple as I have good intentions of working further with this concept and perhaps doing another piece or pieces. I think it has great possibilities so I will continue to work designs around this idea in my sketchbook and hope for some free time to actually get down to sewing them out. The picture isn't brilliant and I don't know how much detail can be seen. If I could do one part again I would do the satin stitching on the leaves differently and I would make the twisting stem of cord and not stitch it as doing the twists was a pain. Hopefully by December I will have perfected the actual putting together of my designs. Did I enjoy doing it? Yes, very much so and it made me look at colour and shapes in a completely different way for me. I saw the purple and mauve as shadows which complemented the beige of the columns and the background colour being the colour of a murky sky viewed through a haze of leafy shapes. I'm now looking forward to February's challenge. But first I've got to get through the trauma of laying the floor, decorating, clearing up and preparing for the enslaught of the family! Oh what fun!

Faux Chenille

2008-01-23T20:38:00.000Z

I have just spent the last two hours in the attic so no time to take pictures of the cushions. But here is one of the bags which I made last year. The fabric was layered five deep and then the flowers laid on top. I used several colours to get the petal effect. Then I stitched across the whole thing diagonally. I used a Clover channel slicer which did the job in next to no time and then after a go in the washing machine, voila a piece of faux chenille.
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When Martin and his friend Kieran layed the floor in the attic they did a side at a time and just moved the boxes etc from one side to the other. I am now going through a tightly packed heap of stuff and trying to make an organised plan. What I'm finding is though that their tightly packed heap is turning into a large sprawling mess. And this even though I'm chucking stuff as I go! Eventually it will all be neat and tidy! I hope!

Rush,rush, rush!

2008-01-23T13:37:00.000Z

I'm feeling pressurised! Today we bought wooden flooring to lay across most of the downstairs of our house. On Monday a guy we know who is good at these things is coming to help lay it and also to strip wallpaper and decorate the livingroom. So knowing that the house is going to be turned upside down I have been trying to get as much stuff done as possible. This has meant that the TIF challenge has been put to one side for the time being. It is a proper piece now, being backed with neat edges. I bagged it out as I decided not to put binding on and it is looking good. Now I need to applique the leaves on and do whatever quilting I decide on. There is the rub...how am I going to quilt it?

Added to my general feeling of stress is the fact that the week after next Caroline comes down with the two grands. Much as I am looking forward to seeing her I am also dreading not being finished in time. Perhaps I could carcerate all three of them in the attic! Just joking!

This week on Friday we are going to do some faux chenille so to that end I have made two faux chenille cushions using a couple of my whirlpool FQ's. As I am writing this at work I have no pictures but they look good and I am pleased with them. They will fit in the newly decorated living room. I have several tote bags where I have used faux chenille as panels and I have to say that I do like the effect. If I have time tonight I'll post some pictures.

I have changed my email as my provider at the moment has been taken over and I have decided to move. It is valeri.b@farnedesigns.co.uk and is linked to my website so should be OK. I say that because for the last few days my website has been down and my email wasn't working. When I queried this it was because they had suspended the site due to non-payment of registration fee. As I paid this in October for two years I was a tad upset! They re-instated the site but there was not a word of apology for causing me such grief. Yet when I had a problem several years ago they couldn't have been more helpful or more concerned. How things have changed!

Yet more quizzes!

2008-01-15T20:24:00.000Z

You're Not Exactly a Hippie...

While you're not a hippie, you've got the spirit of one.
Like most hippies, you have deep beliefs and unusual interests.

You may not buy into hippie fashions, music, or heavy drug use.
But at heart, you are a free spirit and suspicious of the status quo.

Are You a Hippie?

Well no I'm not really a hippie. When I was an art student I was more of a bohemian. The last line says it all! Again I have Gabrielle to thank for this. I'm a sucker for these quizzes.

On being organised!

2008-01-14T20:41:00.000Z

I felt that now was a good time to re-read the above book. Of all the self motivation books there are out there I like this one best. It is easy to read and is such sound common sense. Working on the premise that lists are good I have been making lists for all eventualities. A list of what I hope to achieve by this time next year and then that broken down into what I hope to achieve this month and then this week and lastly day by day. According to the book those who plan ahead get on better and with more to show for their activities. I haven't only looked at long term goals but also at things that need to be done soon or in the not too distant future. And I've broken everything down into importance categories. In fact I feel really pleased with myself.
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One of my long term goals is to teach myself Spanish and breaking this down into sizable mouthfuls means I learn 4 words a day! This is good! This is about what I can manage! The first words I have learnt are the Spanish for 'where', 'what', 'how' and 'when'. I didn't realise at the time but these are good words in relation to my quilting-sewing work. Where am I going with this design? What am I going to use for fabric, thread, etc? How am I going to put it all together and when am I going to do it? I must remember this when starting a new piece and I will be starting new pieces because one of my other long term goals is to achieve a new piece of work each month and end up with at least 12 items by this time next year. Along with the weight loss and the tidy and decorated house etc etc. I just love making these lists; isn't it a pity that I'm not so good on following through. Perhaps now I've told it to the world I'll feel shamed into getting it all done!
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But the TIF challenge is coming on. I have found it a challenge as it has made me question my decisions so that I move away from safe and simple and try something different. At the moment I'm not sure how to stitch on my piece. Do I machine stitch or hand stitch? Something free and curvy or straight and restrained? I am working with two ideas in my head. The elegance and solid vision of Greek ruins and the wildly spiraling and curving ivy and vines that find their way onto these uptight stones. Perhaps a bit of both? I shall sleep on it. As Scarlet O'Hara said 'tomorrow is another day'.

A bit of fun!

2008-01-12T19:40:00.000Z

You Are 96% Creative

You are an incredibly creative person. For you, there are no bounds or limits to your creativity.
Your next creation could be something very great... Or at least very cool!

How Creative Are You?

Saw this on Gabrielle's blog and had to have a go! Of course it's all true!!!

More TIF Challenge!

2008-01-10T20:22:00.001Z

I was able to work more on the TIF challenge today even though it was a day fraught with problems. The first one was that the paper recycling people came at the crack of dawn or even before that it was so dark. I noticed the flashing yellow light on their cart and looked out to be horrified as I had nothing by the side of the road but a large, no an enormous pile of cardboard blocking my hallway. So in the howling gale and spitting rain and in my dressing gown I hauled all the stuff out just in time! My neighbour wasn't so lucky as the wind caught one of her bags and tins and plastic bottles blew everywhere. And then second trauma of the day, Martin's car wouldn't start so I had to give him a tow. I was dressed by this time but he had to have two goes as the first time he turned the engine off again to see if it would re-start. It didn't! Eventually I was able to have breakfast and get under way.
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After all this I found it relaxing working on the piece and very therapeutic. So far I like what I've done though I haven't done any stitching yet and the leaves and thread are only placed over the fused pieces. Tomorrow is a teaching day but perhaps tomorrow evening I'll be able to do a bit more. I'm thinking of a border in the deeper purple. Only a small one but I think it will set it off.

Under Way!

2008-01-09T20:29:00.000Z

I have started! That is half the battle; actually cutting into the fabric and laying it out. I fused all the fabric and then cut the pieces out and layed them in place. In the photo the pieces have curled up because they still have the paper in place. Tomorrow I will fuse them and then the piece will begin to come alive. I'm finding this really quite exciting and enjoying working on it. Suddenly I find that I am motivated and full of ideas regarding this piece. Shall I use the yarns I found as embellishment? Could the green thread be used to link the leaves together? What if I put a border on and let the leaves fall outside the piece onto the border or even be free-form and dangle from the bottom. There are so many what-ifs! But it is beginning to be real to me and I am just thankful that we have a whole month to work on it as I think I'll need that time to come to a successful conclusion. I do like what I've done so far and that is always a bonus!
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Not a lot else is being done! Is that surprising! I am trying to organise my wardrobe. I bought a lot of clothes in the sales. I'm amazed that Marks and Spencers had such a poor time in the sales as I would have thought that the amount I bought would have kept their shares in the black for a long time! Now I have to find clothing that I can get rid of to make room for the new. I have been looking on the web for 'wardrobe planners' where one can list all the clothes in one's wardrobe but to no avail. I shall have to design something myself so that at a glance I can see what I have, what colour it is and what pieces work well together. This would save so much time and cut the agonising over what to wear.
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In a previous post's comments Wanda said of putting boxes in the attic that that was fine as long as one marked the boxes. Cleverly I marked the boxes but now I can't think what the descriptions belong to. How clever is that! Words such as 'files', photos (when one has several boxes marked thus),stuff!?!, old stuff and paper have so many meanings. I obviously thought I knew what I was doing at the time! Ah well..my head will never save my body!

Looking back; looking forward!

2008-01-08T21:38:00.000Z

I am having to work on my laptop as I don't want to go upstairs and work in the cold. And the lovely log fire is too nice to leave! So I have no pictures available of current stuff. However I found this picture I took last summer and thought what a good composition it would make for a landscape piece of work. Especially one done in an abstract manner. The blocks at the forefront of the picture are so strong and have such fantastic shapes. The hint of white foam on the waves and the contrast of the various blues all are inspirational in their own way. So I'm glad I was hunting through files as this will be something I work on soon. And also there is the promise of another summer to come. Something to look forward to.
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I have enlarged the drawing for the TIF challenge and will work at about 14 x 9. This is a good size as it is large enough to convey what I want to say but small enough that I won't get bored! Depending on how this piece ends up it is also a good size for a table mat! I could end up with 12 different 'arty' table mats! Could be worse! I have a free morning tomorrow so will try and get the pieces cut out and fused. How did we manage before bondaweb? I know I was a great fan of Pritt Stick but it still meant lots of outline sewing to keep the pieces from shifting.
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I have noticed that as I lose weight so I am becoming unbearably energetic and enthusiastic! But I am not becoming a weight loss fanatic (over a stone so far!)as I'm off now to eat a piece of fudge! Yummy! And I can't really say I'm doing a lot of exercise....a bit of Salsa dancing now and then!

More doodling!

2008-01-06T19:40:00.001Z

I had found the photograph of part of a ruined Greek temple while clearing out and had stuck it in the corner of the mirror in the room where my computer now lives. This was one of a series of photos that my father took in the 1930's. The mirror is even older! I was struck by the idea of temples and blocks for the Challenge - Take it Further, so I did some rough sketches playing with ideas this brought forth. They were lightly done and I have shown pictures of the later ones. I think this one is the one I am going to run with. I like the idea of vines trailing across the piece. Every ruin I have seen has had vines or ivy running riot over all or parts of it and I will be able to bring in the green fabric. The purple and lilac fabrics will represent shadows. The roof recess and the floor inside. The eu-de-nil shade will be the sky except that the fabric I have is more akin to a light turquoise. The next stage will be to work out how big I want to work. Certainly not larger than A4 landscaped, but I did wonder whether it might work as postcard art. In fact I'm sure it would but is that what I want? I am concerned that the process is rapidly overtaking the action! This page below is from an earlier sketch book that I did using other photos from this collection as inspiration.

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Today we went to Trago's, our local buy it while you see it store. And while Martin perused the basement for motor bits I went to the art section and found a box with 110 felt tips for £1.79. (About $4 perhaps a bit less) Imagine my dismay when I got home to find that the top layer which was visible was all I was going to get colourwise as the underneath layers were all repeats! What a swizz! There I was imagining all kinds of nuances of colour with the usefulness of being able to shade from one colour to another. Made in China of course! Not that there is anything wrong with them, I just feel let down! I was restrained. They were the sum total of my arty buying. Oh well. I can feel virtuous about that!

Weird!

2008-01-05T21:19:00.000Z

This was really weird as it was so accurate. Well almost so accurate. I wouldn't say that I was that hyper but the end is definitely more me than the beginning.
If you want to see what your name says about you have a look at Deb's blog for the link.

What Valeri Means

You are very hyper. You never slow down, even when it's killing you.
You're the type of person who can be a workaholic during the day... and still have the energy to party all night.
Your energy is definitely a magnet for those around you. People are addicted to your vibe.

You are usually the best at everything ... you strive for perfection.
You are confident, authoritative, and aggressive.
You have the classic "Type A" personality.

You are relaxed, chill, and very likely to go with the flow.
You are light hearted and accepting. You don't get worked up easily.
Well adjusted and incredibly happy, many people wonder what your secret to life is.

You are friendly, charming, and warm. You get along with almost everyone.
You work hard not to rock the boat. Your easy going attitude brings people together.
At times, you can be a little flaky and irresponsible. But for the important things, you pull it together.

You are wild, crazy, and a huge rebel. You're always up to something.
You have a ton of energy, and most people can't handle you. You're very intense.
You definitely are a handful, and you're likely to get in trouble. But your kind of trouble is a lot of fun.

You tend to be pretty tightly wound. It's easy to get you excited... which can be a good or bad thing.
You have a lot of enthusiasm, but it fades rather quickly. You don't stick with any one thing for very long.
You have the drive to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time. Your biggest problem is making sure you finish the projects you start.