This is now.
I'm not very hopeful of much progress this week. As well as the conference it's Mark's birthday Friday so I expect we will fit in some celebratory outings over the weekend. I don't see much stitching time until next week.
I wonder if there will be any progress by the weekend when I get back?
Just a quick post to share the card that I made for this months lottery on Artsnthemail. Not the best card I ever made but I challenged myself to use some bits and pieces that had been lying around on my worktable for a while and this was the result. 'Colourful' is probably the best thing I can find to say about it!
Nine Patch Variation
Ohio Star
Log Cabin
Spinning Four Patch
I decided to stick to relatively simple block patterns as I thought this would suit the colour scheme. Here is a picture of my row added to Susan's original row. (Susan's row on top)
What a great quilt she will have at the end. I'm looking forward to getting the next one to work on too. I wonder what it will be......
Yesterday evening I went to switch my sewing machine on and nothing, zilch, zippo. It just won't power up. I tried changing the fuse still nothing, so it will have to go in for repair.
Had a moment of panic and then decided to breath and get my old machine from it's hiding place at the back of the cupboard.
It will take a bit of getting used to as it's really basic, but it will allow me to keep working on some of the things I have in progress until my regular machine is fixed.
Here is something I did managed to get done the other day before the machine failure. A set of postcards for a 'layers' swap.
I had loads of fun with these. I tried out a burning technique which I know is old news for many fiber artists but something I'd not tried before. First I tore some strips of cotton, over layed these with some organza and went to town with some loopy FME.
Then it was out with the heat gun (I've had mine for ages from when I used to do a lot of card making and rubber stamping) for some melting fun.
Well you may have figured by now that I love my hand stitching so finally a layer of fly stitch.
I had four cards to make and I made the background all in one and then sliced it up, something else I'd not done before I usually make my cards individually. I think overall I prefer the individual way, but for some techniques like this it really would not make sense to make all the backgrounds one at a time.
Finally I couldn't resist sharing this picture of a part finished card sitting in the window. I love how the light changes the colours in the organza.
Not as much progress as I had hoped but C'est La Vie!
Sorry about the picture, it's starting to get to that time of year; still almost dark when I leave for work and almost dark when I get home so difficult to get any good light for photos.
I really enjoy working like this, freely and having plenty of fun!
19 Skeins of Anchor Perle thread for £4 (including postage). I love these threads for hand stitching but rarely buy them off the cuff as they are almost £1 each skein at the local store. Maybe I'll check out eBay a bit more often again.
This last one is Mark checking out some angles for his shots, as most of you already know he is the real photographer in the family, you can check out his pictures here.
Boats at Windermere
Birmingham's iconic bullring building
Sunset
Sunrise
I love the fun, vibrant colours in Laurel's designs. Here are a couple of close up shots which makes it easier to see some of the hand stitching I added.
and this is the now. 
See, I warned you there hadn't been much progress. Still every little stitch helps. Hopefully this will have moved along at a somewhat quicker pace by the time of my next confession :)
X is for X-Ray. I have been looking forward to the letter X almost since the beginning of this alphabet swap as I knew I had the perfect fabric to use. The wonderful yellow fabric in the background is from the parcel that I recently received from Vicki. I decided to add lots of little hand stitched X's to the background, the idea was to try and symbolise all of the X-rays flying at the kitties.I am way ahead on this swap, and haven't done my W's yet but as I knew what I wanted to do and it involved plenty of hand stitching it was the perfect thing to take away with me last week.
Back to work today which I'm not looking forward too, fun things like stitching will take a backseat again, but thankfully I have a few more finishes from my hols to share yet so hopefully enough to keep me going for a few more posts.
They had quite a good little range of cross stitch and embroidery kits and a few threads and accessories. I decided to treat myself to a little something which would serve as a reminder of our week in the Lakes so picked this little long stitch kit.
I'm not sure yet when it will get started but I'm determined not to leave it in the packet for too long. Of course for the rest of the week while we were out and about I tried to look out for similar scenes which I thought could have inspired this design. There were plenty of stone bridges scattered in the landscape to choose from but this little footbridge was my favourite.
On an entirely different subject I have ended up with two copies of the latest Stitch magazine so thought it would be fun to have an impromptu giveaway. Leave a comment on this post by the end of the week if you are interested in going into the draw for a chance to win this magazine.
and very comfortable it was too. We stayed at this campsite next to the lovely Brotherswater. Here we are happily squinting into the sun!
This was taken just after Mark finished a mighty trek up Scafell Pike the tallest peak in England, I have to confess I stayed at the bottom this would have been way beyond me but I had a great time stitching in the sun instead!
and our poor flooded campsite when we left at the end of the week
If you can make out that tent in the background I met the poor campers in that one and they had to evacuate at 2am when the tent flooded. Luckily we were pitched on some higher ground.
