What a week

I've had no time for creating, getting on the computer or anything this week. My mother-in-law was rushed into hospital at the start of the week. It's been a constant stream of work, hospital visits, looking after her cat and trying to get some sleep in between. They've done lots of tests and we have had a few different diagnosis, but at the moment they think she might have Lupus. Hopefully we will be able to get back into a routine soon and I will have more positive things to share.....

Angels and Fairies

Yippee Blogger seems to have gotten over it's brain-fart yesterday and will let me post pictures today, so here are the snaps that were missing from yesterdays post. I have quite a few to share so I've only uploaded 'small' pics but you should be able to click on them to get the full sized image.

First up a full length shot of my fairy. This is a view of the back showing her wings and the flower detail I added to her dress. A close up shot of her face.

Some shots of all the fairies and angels that were made in the class. Lastly Lois had lots of wonderful dolls for sale, including some wonderful witches and ghosts perfect for this Halloween season. I fell in love with this adorable ghost and he just had to come home with me.

Antique Angels

Well my workshop curse struck again. The Janet Bolton class was supposed to be this last Thursday but sadly Janet was feeling unwell and so it had to be cancelled (well hopefully more postponed than cancelled as they hope to rearrange it for sometime early in the new year, wow talking about the new year already hasn't this last one just flown by!).

It hasn't been all bad news for this week though as yay I finally managed to find a workshop that actually went ahead. The class was called Antique Angels and the tutor was a lovely lady called Lois Brooks. The idea was to use old pieces of lace and antique fabrics to make an angel or fairy. I don't really have much old lace and things so I decided to bend the rules a bit and go modern and (yes you guessed it) orange.

Sadly blogger won't let me put any photis up at the moment so I will just have to keep you in suspense. I will try with the pictures again tomorrow.....

A lot about nothing in particular ....

Since finishing my endangered species cards I haven't had much time for stitching, but since I know it's all too easy to get out of the blogging habit I thought I'd post anyway. I want to say a huge thank you to all who left such lovely comments on my previous post, it was wonderful to have so much encouragement in connection with a project that meant a lot to me.

Last night I officially became a member of the Swindon and North Wilts Embroidery Guild, another lovely bunch of stitcher ladies! I'm looking forward to getting to know everyone over the coming meetings. I've signed up to do a day workshop with them in November which I'm looking forward to.

Speaking of workshops I've had two cancelled on me these last couple of weeks grrr, both were being put on by the same organisation and had to be cancelled due to lack of numbers. It's such a shame as I was really looking forward to both, one was Creative Knits and the other was a felting workshop. Nevermind in a couple of days I'm off to take my Janet Bolton fabric collage class so that should be great! As I don't like to blog without pictures I thought I would share a couple of pics of a beautiful bouquet I had from my work friends last Friday. I think I mentioned a while back that I had a promotion a work, it's hard to explain but at the time it was a part time promotion and last week that became a full time promotion, sadly it meant moving to another team. Even though I've only moved a few desk rows down my old team gave me a wonderful card, some flowers and gifts to celebrate my new job, they are so sweet. I don't always like my job but thankfully i work with some lovely people which sometimes makes all the difference when you are having a bad day! Before I go, if you are feeling Autumnal I just have to say you must visit Mark's blog (link in the side bar) as at the weekend he went out with his camera and took some lovely pictures of all kinds of fungi which were sprouting in Savernake Woods.

Endangered Species

Even though this is my 316th post (can you believe it?!) and in most of these posts I have shared pictures of the things that I have been creating I'm feeling a certain sense of vulnerability about sharing this set of postcards that I've made. Don't ask me why as I can't quite put my finger on it.

Maybe it's because the subject of this set is close to my heart and I really want to do it justice .....

Maybe it's because I've poured my heart and soul into these and I don't want anyone to not like them (don't get me wrong I know everyone has different tastes and what I like won't necessarily appeal to everyone, usually I can't accept this but not this time)...

Maybe it's because I know my drawing skills which formed the basis of the designs isn't great .....

Maybe it's because I haven't had much practise at free motion stitching.....

Maybe it's because despite the fact that they haven't all turned out as accurate as I hoped but somehow I still love them ....

Maybe it's because each took me a couple of hours and yet in many ways they look so simple...

Whatever the reason maybe I'm feeling nervous..... Here goes the three cards I have been making for an Endangered Species swap.

Red Squirrel

Polar Bear

Orangutan

To find out how you can help save the worlds endangered species visit here.

What Planet Are You From?

You Are From Neptune

You are dreamy and mystical, with a natural psychic ability.You love music, poetry, dance, and (most of all) the open sea.Your soul is filled with possibilities, and your heart overflows with compassion.You can be in a room full of friendly people and feel all alone.If you don't get carried away with one idea, your spiritual nature will see you through anything.

http://blogthings.com/whatplanetareyoufromquiz/">What Planet Are You From?

Great Western Embroiderers

Today I spent a fun afternoon stitching with a whole crowd of lovely ladies, some of whom I'm sure will become good friends over the next few months. I went to my first meeting of the new GWE group. This afternoon was the second meeting of the group but I met quite a few ladies who like me were attending for the first time. I also got a chance to briefly meet Anna too whose blog I have long been visiting and admiring.

We spent the afternoon making a sampler from two different stitches. We worked in two different groups so it was a great way to get to know some of the other members, as we got round to plenty of chat while we were stitching. A couple of ladies took my blog address so hello to Gemma, Deborah, Mary and Mary if you are reading :)

Here is my piece stitched in herringbone and chain stitch. A couple of the ladies pointed out that it has turned out to be the perfect size for fitting into a CD case, which was a challenge set at the first meeting so I plan to make a second piece as a backing for exactly that purpose :)

Gemma and I spent a while talking about knitting too as Gemma had a fabulous hand knitted top on that she had made and directed me to the Cricklade Needlecrafts shop so that I could buy myself a skein. Gemma you were right the lady in the shop knew exactly what blossom meant! I also came away with some sock yarn and a pattern as I have been itching to try socks for a while. Gemma if you are reading the heel part sounds very complicated so I may be pouncing on you at the next GWE meet with a half finished sock for some help!

It really was a lovely afternoon, and at least I have one reason to look forward to going in to work tomorrow, which is to book the afternoon off now I have the date of the next meet. Thanks for introducing me to the group Maggie!

G is for ...

Helen kindly reminded me that I hadn't yet posted a picture of the cards I made for the something beginning with G swap. No, I haven't been trying to hide the fact that I hadn't made them it was just with my busy week at work last week I forgot to post about them. So here we are ....
Apologies for the bad picture quality it was a dull day when I was trying to take this photo (we've had a few of these recently, lol!). G is for Girl, green and garden. H is next, I have started them but I expect it will be a few more days until they are finished and ready to post about, especially as I have about three other half started things to be working on too. I've chosen a pretty obvious H for anyone who wants to try and have a guess...

As well as the G cards I also forgot to share this card that I made for the Artsnthemail September challenge - Knitting. The brief was to include any piece of knitting on your card, I took the simple approach and just knitted up a few rows with some fancy yarn and attached it to some of the blackberry dyed fabric from a couple of posts ago.

Autumn

I've been so busy at work this last couple of weeks I've hardly had time to think let alone blog. It doesn't happen very often but I've had a few late nights at work and I had to work yesterday too, yuck!

Things should be back to normal now though and I can get back to creating. I had fun yesterday evening making these cards for an Autumn swap.
It was quite time consuming cutting all the leaves and then handstitching them, but I enjoyed every minute (it was just so nice to have some creative time) and I am pleased with the way they turned out.

This week I have booked Tueday afternoon off work and am off to a meeting of a new group the Great Western Embroiderers, which should be a lot of fun. Also this coming Saturday I should be going to a creative knits class. The last time I booked a course with the group that are running this one it got cancelled due to lack of interest so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this one will go ahead. Speaking of Knits here is another of my hats on location...