Burning Practise

It's been another busy week here at Angelcat manor. MIL should be coming out of hospital today, even though we will have to continue to visit every day to cook her meals I should get a bit more free time without all the toing and froing from hospital so hopefully we will settle into a routine again soon.

In the meantime I have a day off work today and have decided to spend it catching up with blog reading and of course hitting the sewing machine. This morning I have been burning as a practise for the bag piece that I made the other week.

As I think I mentioned before I decide to make a basic grid for my practise piece, here it is before I cut it up. As I still owe plenty of postcards in various swaps I decided to cut this down for postcards. Here is one of the cards in progress after I had burned some voids in the grid. Here I'm attaching the background fabric.
And this is how one of the finished cards look. They are all slightly different and I didn't burn the voids in any particular order or pattern, just whatever I felt looked ok as I worked on each piece. I now have a whole pile of little sparkles left over, they are tiny pieces, the cut outs from the voids. I have no idea if I will ever be able to use them for anything, but they look too pretty to throw away! So here we are it's only midday and I've already managed to complete a set of postcards and spent several hours catching up on internet stuff, who know what I will have achieve by the end of the day. On the list of things I hope to do is finish at least one more set of postcards, start making a few christmas cards and finish a knitted scarf that I have in progress. Ok so maybe all of that is a bit ambitious but it will keep me busy for the day :)

Ready to Burn

So after waiting for my camera battery to charge and attempting unsuccessfully to get a good picture of my bag in progress I figured out that the piece is just about the right size to fit under the scanner.
I'm now at the stage where I'm supposed to burn holes to create some void spaces in the design. After all time it took to stitch the darn thing I've decided not to dive in and burn straight away without some practise. So today I will be stitching up a basic grid pattern using the same techniques to practise my burning on. Wish me luck!

Knitting and Precious Gifts

So I still don't have a picture of the finished stitching on my bag project to share. I did take one but managed to delete it and now my camera needs charging. Sometimes I can be so ditsy. Instead I'm going to share something else that I've just finished.

I knitted myself a hat, one of the few knitted things I've managed to finish. Honestly I have half started knitting projects every where, I think the problem is I'm attracted to things that are just a bit too ambitious for my basic knitting skills and have got stuck and the difficult parts of various projects. As you know I don't like sharing pictures of me but what the hell, after the lack of blog posts here for a while I don't expect many people are reading any more anyway!
The picture is a bit dark so you can't really see the beautiful colours in the yarn I used very well, I will try and get a better one soon. I'm pleased with the way it turned out and have bought some more of this beautiful yarn to make a hat and scarf set for my friend Charlotte for Christmas (she doesn't know about my blog so I'm not spoiling any surprises here).

Before I sign off I just have to share some pictures of 2 precious gifts that my friend Vi sent me all the way from Australia. Look at this totally adorable pin cushion (again please excuse the poor quality picture there is not much good daylight at the moment and when there is some I'm always at work!).
Vi also sent me this beautiful friendship doll. She made this with a wonderful rainbow theme to remind me always of my Mum. Definitely one of the most special gifts I've ever received. Thank you so much Vi.

Stitching again

It's been another tough couple of weeks in Angelcat land. MIL still hasn't made much progress and after a few days at home is back in hospital, so the long days of work and hospital visits continue.

Last week I was knocked out with the flu and a horrible cough which was none too pleasant (and I missed the November GWE meet because of it which I am thoroughly annoyed about), but thankfully the worst of that seems to be gone now.

I really need a break from all the madness and as luck would have it I had signed up for a workshop with the Swindon Embroiderers Guild this last Saturday. The aim of the day was to learn the techniques to make a filigree bag. Everyone seemed to have a really enjoyable day. Here are some of the group hard at work, just look at the concentration, they look totally engrossed don't ya think?
Sadly I didn't get very far with my bag, I was a little disappointed but I think I didn't really get a good grasp on the concept at the beginning and chose a stitching pattern that was way too intricate for my meagre skills. The only picture I have to share of my work in progress is the piece all layered, pinned and ready to stitch. By the end of the day I still hadn't finished stitching, let alone started the burning process. I am happy to say that I spent half hour at my machine this evening and the stitching is almost done, who knows if I get of the computer and back to the machine I may even have a picture of the stitched piece to share tomorrow!

Spooky Eyes

I just want to say a huge thank you to everyone who has commented and emailed me about my last couple of posts, it really does mean a lot to have so much support from so many cyber friends.

So I've decided to be done with feeling sorry for myself and get on with things, after all things could be a lot lot worse. Verobirdie left a great comment on my last post about remembering the joyful things that happen each day no matter how small. I think a 'joy journal' would be a great art project!

Madhatter also mentioned that she likes to find some creative time everyday and I think that would really help me. Most days at work I tend to work right through my lunch break, and do I get any extra thanks, no I don't, so starting tomorrow I will be packing some portable creative projects in the car and lunchtime will become my creative time. I'm feeling excited and more relaxed just thinking about it.

I know I have been and missed Halloween celebrations this year, but I just have to share this picture of spooky eyed Hector which I took while messing around with my camera for a few minutes today.
Hope you all had a great weekend!

What is normal?

Ever have those times when you feel like your life is not your own?

At the moment mine is an endless round of work and hospital visits. Don't get me wrong I need to pay the mortgage and I don't begrudge the time that I spend at the hospital I wouldn't want to be anywhere else family comes first. BUT the last two years just seem to have been one thing after another, just as soon as I feel like I'm getting back on my feet life comes and deals another sucker punch ... when will normality resume? What is normal? It's been so long I think I forgot.

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...

Excited

Yeah, I just got my requirements list in the post today for a workshop with Janet Bolton, which I signed up for at the local quilt store. I'm so excited as I've been admiring Janets work for a long time so it should be a great day.

I've signed up for a few different day workshops coming up over the next few months from creative knitting to felting and I'm looking forward to every one. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they will all have enough participants to go ahead.

Before I sign off here is the hat of the day I love the colours of this one.

Blackberry Dyeing

Last night I got to squashing some blackberries into some fabric to see what dyed effect I could get. I only saved about 20 blackberries from the stash we collected the other day but the juice went far and I now have a 24" x 11" piece of blackberry dyed cotton.

Sorry the scanned image isn't the best but you get the idea. Now the fabric has dried the colour is a lot paler than I thought it might turn out, it was a lot of fun to do though so I might go get some more berries and try some different squashing techniques to see if I can come up with different effects.

Of course I can't end the post without another hat on location. This is one of my favourites, I think it looks great nestled in the tree.

Hats on location

A couple of posts ago I showed you a picture of me knitting in the great outdoors. I thought I ought to share with you a what I've been making. I think I told you about the Innocent Big Knit challenge. So for the past week I've been making the odd hat here and there. Rather than just share pictures I thought it would be fun to put Mark's photography skills to good use and take some of my hats 'on location'

Yesterday we went for a walk up Windmill Hill near Avebury and I took some hats with me. Sadly it was quite windy yesterday and as we managed to quickly empty the contents of the bottle it was difficult to find places out of the wind to get some good pictures but we managed a couple. Here is my hat of the day. Look out for more in the coming posts :)

Originally I had hoped to make and donate 30 hats, they only take about 30 mins to make from start to finish so a perfect in front of the TV project. So far I have made about 15, although I have a reasonable yarn stash, I have already made a hat with all the different types of yarn that I have and I don't really want to make too many duplicates as I think I will get quickly bored with that so I might just leave it at 15.

On a totally different note I just realised that I forgot to tell you all about my meeting with the wonderful Maggie Harris last week. I have been admiring Maggie's blog for sometime and asked her whether she knew of any groups that meet in the local area. Kindly she told me about the Swindon branch of the embroiders guild and I went to their meeting last Monday. It was such fun, all of the ladies there were so friendly and very welcoming and we had a lovely talk from Jenny Smart a local spinner and weaver. I had a great evening and hope they will let me become a permanent member of the group.

Blackberries

It seems that we are being blessed with another day of beautiful weather here. Rather than waste it Mark and I decided to go for a walk to enjoy the sunshine. Along the way we collected lots of yummy blackberries.

I think maybe I'll make some jam and perhaps a couple of apple and blackberry crumbles. I have it in my head that I might squash a few onto some fabric too just to see how well the colour takes. It might for some interesting results, my hands were certainly a nice shade of purple by the time we were done.

Along the way we managed to pick up this cute fellow. Of course we nicknamed him Blackberry.

We think he probably belongs to the farm that was up the track from where we were walking. He was such a friendly cat and followed us for ages. It was such an unusual pleasure to go for a walk in the sun accompanied by a feline friend. He was definately a fiesty little chap and hissed down a couple of dogs along the way. I think a few people thought we were a bit odd taking our cat for a walk so I had to explain a couple of times that he wasn't actually ours, just keeping us company for a while.

Knitting in the Beacons

Part of the reason that I haven't blogged much this last week was that I went camping at the weekend. Mark and I decided to take off to the the Brecon Beacons for a couple of days. We had lovely weather and who could fail to feel refreshed after a weekend of wonderful views and fresh air.

Mark had a great time looking for photo opportunities and I love to try and snap him when he's engrossed in capturing the images he thinks are interesting.
We sat by the stream that Mark is photographing above for a bit of lunch. Not only is Mark a great photographer but I think he might have a career in sculpture if he try, here is the rock frog he made while we were just hanging around. I am entirely unfit at the moment and had to sit around a beautiful mountain lake enjoying the sun while Mark climbed to the summit. You can just about make out his silhouette (he's stood on a huge boulder) against the skyline here.To help keep myself busy I took some knitting with me. Innocent Smoothies are having their knitted hat campaign again this year to raise some money for Help the Aged. You can find all the details here. Last year I bought some of the hatted drinks but this year I thought I'd join in and make a couple. I don't usually post pictures of myself as I'm horribly ashamed of how I look being far too overweight but what the heck, here I am knitting up a storm in the lovely Beacons landscape.

I've been tagged

I can't believe how fast time is disappearing at the moment it's been well over a week since I've blogged...

I've been tagged by my wonderful friend Vi, to write something about myself for each letter of my name so here goes

A - Adventurous, I love to try out new things or go new places. Even a walk down a well trodden path can be an adventure as you never know who you might might or what you might see.

N - Nice, well at least I hope so. I like to think that others see me as a nice person, I try and be as helpful and kind to others as I can.

G - (good looking, lol ok so one can dream!) Generous, I'm happy to donate my time to others and if I have money in my pocket I'd much rather treat friends and family than spend on myself.

E - Eager, to learn new things and seek out new experiences.

L - Lustful - ok now I don't mean in the X rated sense, I mean in the sense that when it comes to crafts and creative things I'm always wanting new toys to play with, sadly my budget is not as limitless as my lust!

A - Always grateful that I have been blessed with a wonderful family and many great friends.

Ok so now I have to tag a few people. I've never done this before, so am not really sure who likes to play along with these. I'm going to tag Helen, Terri, Kate, Ali and Melinda, but don't worry if you ladies don't want to play I won't be offended.

Yes, you guessed it more postcards.....

Well it's been a few days since I posted about my elephant cards. It's not that I haven't been doing anything it's just that I've been a bit restless. I've started 5 or 6 different things but never quite seemed to finish any of them. Finally last night I decided to knuckle down and tick some more postcards off the list. First up here is one of the cards I made for the Cats and Dogs swap we had a while back at Artsnthemail. These were great fun to make. Took a while cutting and fusing all the pieces, especially on the dog and then appliqueing them down with tiny satin stitch. I finished them off with little felt noses and goofy button eyes.

Next up was the Something Beginning with F swap. I decided F is for felting. For ages I have dreamed of getting an embellisher machine but sadly they are way out of my budget at the moment so I'll still keep dreaming. Instead I decided to try out the budget option from Clover.

Actually it was a lot of fun to do but quite time intensive for even the small areas that I was working on, but I really like the soft felted finish. Here is the result.
F is for felting and flower, actually the flower didn't work too great I think it might have been the pink on orange colour. It seems to show up a bit better in this picture than it does to the naked eye.

In progress I have postcards for an Autumn themed swap, Something Beginning with G (anyone want to guess it's not as straight forward as E!), a padfolio and a page for a fabric book swap. Phew, well at least I won't have time to get bored finishing up all of those.

E is for Predictable

Lol, I had to laugh at Helen's comment on my last post which said the only E she could think of was elephant. Well I had a similar experience and elephant was all that came to mind.

I really enjoyed hand stitching these little fellows, from a pattern in the current issue of Classic Stitches. I worked them over 22 Count Hardanger. I've done a lot of cross stitching in the past as this was my Mum's favourite pastime, but never anything as small as 22 count, I'm not sure my eyes would hold up to doing a large piece on this type of fabric.

Also a bit of creative recycling going on for this card as the background fabric used to be a pair of my favourite trousers (pants) which I recently wore a hole in. I was sad to see them go but being a larger lady at least has some advantages, I now have plenty of this beautiful fabric to use in future projects ;)

Back to work Blues

Yuck! Today was my first day back to work after a week off, boy was it hard to get my butt out of bed this morning. I was so tempted to phone in sick but my conscience got the better of me. Still it's over and done with now.

I have an evening full of creating planned but before I get to that I thought I'd share with you what I got finished yesterday. More postcards I'm afraid, I know it's probably getting boring me posting about postcards all the time but although I'm making good progress into my 'things that I am way behind in' list I've still got quite a few to go.

Here is a baby postcards for an internet friend of mine Dawn who just had a baby girl. I had fun getting pink hands dyeing the cheesecloth for the background :)Also an embroidered dress that I made for a 'Fashion' swap, with a little help from another rubber stamp that I had in my collection. Sorry about the picture quality but it's a grey day here today and if I try with the flash on there is just too much glare.

OK how about a quick quiz? Tonight I am working on a postcard swap the theme is Something Beginning with E. Anyone want to try and guess what my E is?

My painted Soul

I've seen this quiz on a few blogs and thought it would be fun to take it myself. The result is interesting as I don't feel any particular affinity to the colour purple but hey if I must be associated with royalty and divinity so be it,lol

What color is your soul painted? Purple Your soul is painted the color purple, which embodies the characteristics of sensuality, spirituality, creativity, wealth, royalty, nobility, mystery, enlightenment, arrogance, gaudiness, mourning, confusion, pride, delicacy, power, meditation, religion, and ambition. Purple falls under the element of Earth, and was once a European symbol of royalty; today it symbolizes the divine. Click Here to Take This Quiz

Quizzes and Personality Tests

Dorset Steam Rally

We had a wonderful day at the steam rally yesterday. To be honest I didn't realise how big it would be. There was so much to see and do I think you really needed to have stayed a couple of days to do it justice. Most of the photos I took didn't really capture the atmosphere or the scale of the event too well but I have kept a couple to share with you.

Just one of the hundreds of magnificent steam engines on display.

There were dozens of engines roaming around in the heavy haulage ring. This picture gives an idea of how steamy the event really was!

There were many old traditional fair organs to be seen throughout the fair. This one looked spectacular all lit up at dusk just after sunset.

Feathers and Dolls

Ok here is what I have been up to this last couple of days. More postcards I'm afraid. I still have quite a long list of postcard swaps to catch up on but slowly the list is getting shorter yipee! I was doing really well keeping up to date at the start of the year before Dad's op but it only took that couple of weeks for things to get out of kilter and I'm still struggling to catch up.

Both of these sets of cards are for ARTSnTHEMAIL swaps. First up feathers. When I first signed up for this swap I had grand ideas of embroidering some beautiful feathers but after a couple of tried attempts which looked nothing like elegant feathers I gave up on that one, lol! Instead I decided to keep it simple and just cover my card in craft feathers. Ok so this may not be the most artistic card I ever made, but it feels beautifully soft to touch and for a while my creative space was like a whimsical fairie land with bits of feather floating around everywhere.

Next theme is Something beginning with D. I had a few different ideas before remembering a beautiful mermaid rubber stamp that I bought from Patti Culea's collection. Now you might be thinking what has a mermaid to do with the letter D. Well nothing really but the idea of the stamp is to help you create a wonderful paper doll which seems to be all the rage in the papercrafting world at the moment so D is for Doll. Boy did these little mermaid's take me an age to stamp, colour and stitch but I'm really pleased with the way they turned out.(The stitching detail shows up better if you click on the picture for a larger image). It was an enjoyable afternoon sat at my machine with the Marie Antoinette DVD playing in the background. (If you haven't seen this movie it's worth watching for the beautiful costumes and sets if nothing else). Anyway I hope that my swap partners don't mind the fact that the mermaids don't strictly fit into the 6" x 4" format. I think it gives the cards an added bit of fun.

Today Mark and I are off to the Dorset Steam Rally as Mark is itching to do some photography so far the sun has been shining this morning so hopefully it will be a great day.