Tired Dogs

My mother asked me to put up photos of my dogs, Peggy Sue and Digger for a neighbour's daughter to see. We have just been to the local park and had a long walk round and up the estuary and they came back absolutely black with mud etc.  I washed them down and they are now sitting in the sun drying off.

Christmas Day was great with phone/skype calls from all my children, Mother and Bert. I was very lucky to get vouchers for Rainbow Silks and an online stamp company, so when they arrive (snow permitting) I'll be able to indulge my passion for buying creative goodies.

I made quilted book bags for my 3 granddaughters and they seem to be quite a success, Edith filled hers with a bananmilk bottle and other goodies and put it under her new pram. However, they were derived from a reference in a medievel novel when in the 1100's monks and clerics were the only ones taught to read and write and books were copied, bound and kept in leather satchels and hung on pegs in a librarium. I put a matching journal in Lucy's and little books in Edith and Nancy's bags to start them off.

It seems really strange that here in Devon the sun is shining and it is lovely and warm, when other counties further north are having cold and wintry weather and my Mother has been practically snowbound; not that I'm complaining, mind.

Surpise!

This past 4 weeks have been so busy, getting ready for Christmas, doing a doll course to make a present for my daughter's birthday and making sure I had all my presents together for my trips north and south.

and here she is, my interpretation of Cindee Moyer's The Fairy Catcher. Stephanie was most annoyed when I chose the Raven for the course she bought me for my birthday in September, little knowing I had booked both courses to make a surprise for her. She now has the doll and seems very pleased with it. It is not an easy doll to make and I had trouble with the face and extended arm. When I pushed a dowel rod through the arm to go into the body the sleeve split so I had to make the whole dress and arms again as I had used up all that particular fabric. Also the face ended up with two black eyes because I didn't spray it with hair spray to stop the ink leaking into the face fabric. However, it came together eventually and I got it into the post in time.

Bert was with me that week, but he was so anaemic and fragile he had to stay an extra 3 days before attempting the journey home (as if I minded!) and he spent another week recovering from the journey back too. However, he seems to be OK now and is more active. He gets very frustrated with himself when he feels so down and weak - just like all men - and it is hard to keep his spirits up.

I spent 10 days overall going to Plymouth to deliver Gareth and Ed's presents and then back 1 day then up to Cheshire to deliver Mother's presents. It has taken 2 days to recover myself and get going again at home. Now I have (hopefully) time to play with all the paints and papers that have been waiting for me to get to them and dive into the ideas I have been storing up in my brain. I wonder if other crafters find the same problem, time to concentrate just on the goodies piled on their worksurface?

Dormant

Unfortunately I learned this week that my Stitched Textile Group is going dormant for a while and as I had already done my piece for this month - MOTHS AND THE MOON - I thought it best to lodge it here so I don't lose it. This is the Lunar Moth and the background is made from painted ludrador, cut and shaped with a soldering iron to look like tree bark. The lutrador is painted with quink ink and lumier textile paints. The moth is made from pale green organza with trapped angelina between the layers. I made the body from a piece of cocoon stripping, stuffed and attached to the 5" wings (actual moth size).

This week I had a backlog of 6 waistcoats so I had to really go for it and achieved 5 of them, and I had two more orders yesterday so that will keep me busy next week.

Bert has finished his radium treatment but it has left him very tired and anaemic, so our plans for him to come down today had to be postponed until next week. He has to wait 6 weeks to clear the radium from his system then have a scan and see if the surgeon can operate on the tumours.

Doodling

This zentangling is quite addictive, here is my take on TREE for Inspire Me Thursday. I had to draw back and find out when enough is enough because I could have added and added and then it would have looked a mess. I also wanted to put colour on it, but I'm too new at this to attempt it...maybe next time.

Anyway, it is based on tree striations (is that how it is spelled?).

What a busy weekend

Now you can see what I've been up to this weekend whilst NOT making waistcoats! This pattern arrived last Thursday and I just had to make her, it's Coleen Babcock's latest pattern called 'Give us a kiss' and her mouth is all puckered up ready. I made it for a friend in the USA so I'm hoping she doesn't catch my blog before it arrives at her place. However I have been good today and made up a waistcoat and cut another before finishing the doll, so I'm on track, so to speak.

I would like to thank everyone for their really kind comments on my challenges, these are so welcome and appreciated.

Another challenge

Here is my latest challenge piece - a zentangle! The challenge word was FASHION and whilst doing a search I came across the title in the Times newspaper and I just had to use it! Then my copy of Cloth Paper Scissors came through the door with an article on Zentangles and my vision came together. So instead of cutting out waistcoats which I should have done, I watched TV and zentangled instead. I could get used to this type of art because there is no limit and no guidelines as such. I just watched a utube video for 7 minutes and away I went. I had no idea this was out there and that so many people were doing it. There is even challenges set up and some really beautiful artwork done. Next time I'll try it with a pen instead of a pencil (I thought I'd need to use a rubber but amazingly that was not needed).

Inspire Me Thursday challenge

I really started this challenge too late i.e. Wednesday afternoon (how late can you get???) so it's not quite what I wished to portray, but hey ho, must go with the muse.

As the inspiration was SPAIN, which to me means Salvador Dali, I based this picture loosely (how loose can you get) on his painting of 'Persistence of Memory' or the Melting Clocks. My picture has a runner racing the clock trying to catch a memory that has eluded him and hopefully a spanish looking background. I feel very much in tune with this runner as I'm always trying to remember what I should be doing next.

Woe, woe, thrice woe...

Woe is me, I've had so many orders since I last posted that there has been no time at all to do any challenges. However, today I have time and no excuse, so I'm getting down to it. I went through a really low time recently which did not help but that seems to have passed, plus a couple of visits from my sons were greatly appreciated.

I did complete this month's Stitched Textile challenge - Moths and the Moon - but I'm not showing it until end of the month. We also decided to pick up on the Cloth Paper Scissors challenge for an Earth Mother Art Doll, so I'm thinking about that too. My scrap club was cancelled yet again, so nothing there, in fact a rather boring month all told.

Watch this space...

Challenge

Funny how these things happen, but I now have completed both challenges this week which is something I have been unable to do for a long time. A chance remark by one of my family stopped me short and made me wonder why I take these challenges? Then I decided that it didn't matter what they thought; I got enjoyment from using the challenges to stimulate my creativity. So although the above is not as exciting as I would like it to be, I'm on the right track and will do better next time.

Ravena

Here is the finished article, and I've named her Ravena. She now has a nest to sit on and read her book. I was sorry when this course finished, it was a lot of fun and the processes were quite easy to master.

Bert is out of hospital now but still has his chemo to go through, and hopefully he'll be home soon.

My Christmas presents are coming along, and I have found loads of inspiration from websites, there are a lot of good ideas about for those little stocking presents.

Catchup

This last two months have been very difficult for me to get going. I am feeling very out of it and have lapsed on so many things...must be getting old!

However, I have been making Christmas presents which I cannot show, and taking part in a doll course from http://www.joggles.com/ making Cindee Moyer's Raven doll. Here is the penultimate product:

She still needs her nest which we will be making in tomorrow's lesson. This is a lovely doll and so unusual and I have brain meanderings about a Swan or Egret to complement her.

The Scrapclub was cancelled this month so I didn't get to use my new papers and will have to wait until next month - shame. And apart from making waistcoats I am doing a lot of decorating. Bert started painting my bedroom for something to do, and I made use of the bedding from the guest room as it matched the colours, which meant getting new for that room and then I spotted some lovely cushions so that meant decorating the Livingroom too, so I just have to bring the Kitchen up to date to have a clean and bright house again. I think that's where all my energy has gone these last few weeks.

I'll be blogging in earnest again now...honest!

A call to blog

My daughter is missing my missives! Well, beloved, here is what I've been up to since the last blog... In the last week of August I called in to my local scrap warehouse to see what we were doing at the monthly scrap club. I was shown the Wysteria papers (which I had just bought) and a layout for that night.  However, when I arrived the teacher had been so organised that she had put away several packs for the coming months and we had been shown the wrong ones. Instead of a muted blue we had olive green and rose red, which did not go with my photos at all. But I set too and made up the layout, just laying my photos in the right places so I could add the right ones later. When I got home I printed out photos of my mother and father and another of their wedding as these were just the right scenes for the antique layout.

I started back at the local market last Thursday too, and as several people had been waiting for my return (lucky me!) I picked up 4 orders and sold a couple of items off the stall.

This month's Stitched Textile group challenge was a poem from Walter de la Mare, "When the Rose is Faded"...this gave me some problems as I'm no good at doing roses, but something in one of today's emails made me think that roses didn't need to come into it, just the reference to them. So I have started a piece that should answer the call. I do seem to be having trouble getting back into my challenges, and I've missed several months of the Mixed Media Monday and Inspire Me Thursday which I enjoyed previously.  I must settle down to thinking about these again as I miss doing them.

I have started several presents for Christmas, as I love to make more personal presents for then. Several ideas have popped up in my magazines and some quite unusual too. Hopefully my recipients will think the same, but maybe not...

I am using my wrist as much as possible, but there is still trouble under the surface, a bone is loose and keeps pinching a nerve which makes my little finger go dead, but I see the surgeon in two weeks so hopefully they can sort it out for me.

Apart from that, I am sitting in my garden in the sun, using the new patio, and reading a lot at the moment because you never know when it will end and we get the dreaded wind and rain etc.

This month has been a wonderful time with family visits and outings. Early August meant that my daughter, who lives in Germany, visited with her husband and daughter Lucy. We had a couple of days of catching up and a day at the seaside. My dogs were thrilled to see the sea again and learned a new game, that of jumping the waves as they came in. Digger has such short legs that he spent most of the time in the shallows where he could keep his head above the water, but he is a great swimmer so I didn't have any concerns for his safety.

I had booked a short coach holiday to York to see my middle son and his family - another two granddaughters - the youngest I hadn't seen. I spent the first day with them and we took a trip to Helmsley, a small market town outside York. I had also wanted to see Whitby Abbey and Harrowgate, both places I hadn't seen yet, but the first trip was taken up with a detour to Pickering and travel on a steam train which meant we only had 2 hours to see Whitby; and I decided to skip Harrowgate because of all the walking I'd done had made me exhausted. I found out it was the best decision because it was very cold in Harrowgate and most of the shops were closed, it being Sunday. What I did do, was to take the time to see Phil, Wendy and the poppets and visit a local craft warehouse - much fun - and have lunch in York.

Unfortunately for some, the coach wouldn't start for our trip home, so we had an extra morning in York whilst it was being mended, I spent it with Phil and Edith in the local park, then a leisurely stroll back to the hotel. We started out at 13:00 and it took me til 22:00 to get home, very tired of travelling. I wonder if I will ever go on holiday again?

This week I have Bert here, and we did say we would have a week's holiday and not do anything to the house...but...Bert is a person who cannot stay still for long, and after a couple of days, he talked me into preparing the walls in my workshop for boarding and skimming. This has meant scraping off old plaster and painting the bricks with a damp proofing paint much like bitumen, horrible stuff that sticks to anything it comes into contact. After two coats we are waiting for it to dry so we can put my tables back; hopefully before he goes on Friday.

Tomorrow I see the surgeon at the hospital to see whether my wrist has healed. I hope so because I have had so many people phone up and request waistcoats, that I really need it to be fully functional.

New doll

Here is my new doll and it is MINE. It is the result of all my learning whilst making other dolls and I do thank the tutors for their time and patience. Topsy grew from an idea I had but she is not what I imagined at the beginning which is why I called her Topsy - she evolved, due to the fabric and embellishments I had at the time. Funny but I had more trouble with the maraccas than the dress, the trims would not stick to the painted baubles without loads of glue. As this is a prototype I hope the next Topsy will be even better. I have hopes for a bride and maybe a Japanese lady (much research needed for that one!)

This next piece was made at my scrap club and shows a picture taken by my friend Patty in the USA. She was holidaying in the south and found this stagecoach apparently abandoned. It makes a wonderful focal point for the papers we were given at the club. Unfortunately I won't be able to go this month because my wrist is still in a splint and I can't drive, not that I would be ableto keep up with everyone once there, so I'll have to wait until next month.

Next Monday my daughter and family arrive and I have much to do to make them confortable. On Thursday I head for York and my middle son and his family. I'm going on a coach trip so I'll be seeing Whitby and Harrowgate too, and that is something I've wanted to do for a long time. So, lots of fun next week, I just hope the weather keeps sunny so that I can take lots of lovely photos.

fun on a rainy day

I had some more fun with my More Journalling class and made the last of the journals - a piano hinge book. Needless to say that when I found out we were doing this type of book last week, I went out and bought a proper piano hinge. BUT, of course I didn't need it. Does anyone know what I should do with it...don't answer that!

Here is the book, by the way, more for display than practical use, but the hinge could work on other journals such as a pocket book or scaled down and using painted cuticle sticks, or a wedding book with pockets and pages - lots of ideas to explore.

I have also had a go at making hobgoblins for my granddaughters in York. I went through my loft stash again and found bits and pieces and with a little experimenting, made these little fun guys. Bert is here this week, creating mayhem because of the rain and he can't get out to do stuff. It keeps showering on him whilst he tries to work.

We spent a sunny Saturday in Plymouth taking Ed out for a birthday bash. The train journey down was eventful because at Exeter 50 spanish students got on the train along with two cyclists and their cycles and as the train only had two carriages and no guard's van they clogged up the aisle so that no-one could get by. At the next station 50 french students crammed onto the train, then a troop of scouts were squeezed in at one end. We spent the next hour amidst this mass of bodies all shouting in their different languages. All of us got off at Plymouth and soon disappeared into the town and Ed was there on the station platform ready to take us home to meet the family and then out to enjoy ourselves...and we did. We got home at 20:00 very tired but extremely happy.

A quick blog

Bert is here tomorrow so a quick blog is in order before I get sidetracked. I made some journals using techniques from various articles I had come across in my books and magazines.

The first two photos are a journal using cotton batting as the main fabric. I stencilled leaves onto it, quilted it and made up the journal, but found the batting very delicate and had to cover it with an organza to give it more durability. I intend to use this on my holiday in August when I go to York, so I've spritzed the pages in readiness and added all the pockets and paraphanaelia needed for the trip.

The second two photos are of a crazy quilting technique using some pieces of fabric I had stashed in my loft. I just love the sunflowers on the paper covers inside. This was fun to do and gave me ideas for more of the same.

The last two are of a brag book I made for my granddaughter's arrival. My daughter, SIL and GD are arriving in August and I wanted a little present that would keep Lucy occupied. This brag book has 6 plastic pockets for photos of her holiday and two little booklets to write in and collect ephemera in the envelopes and pockets attached inside. I also added a map so that she could see where she was staying. I just hope she likes penquins...

multicoloured

Well, this week did not start well, because whilst taking out the dogs for their walk on Sunday last, I managed to fall and injure my left wrist and hand, smack my face on the pavement and graze my knee. A visit to the hospital A&E put me in a temporary caste and allowed me to use my bus pass for the first time to get back home. However I learned you can't use them before 09:30 so I had to pay up, to my disgust! A follow up visit to the surgeon the following day meant that my caste was substituted for a splint and I was able to move my hand somewhat.

I was really impressed by the speed of the A&E and was in and out within the hour which is a miracle when judged by the length of time I've spent in the hospital in Cheshire waiting for attention.

So, I had to learn how to get about using one hand, no easy task, and as I was unable to carry anything, I joined the online delivery service of our local supermarket. This service is not as expensive as I had imagined and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is housebound. It also concentrates the mind on what is actually needed and not on the 'would like to have' items that you fill your trolleys with whilst browsing round the aisles; so I have also saved money too.

Yesterday, after a hairy week, I had some pain free time so I set to and made my Friday's lesson from Sue Bleiweiss, learning how to make a hand bound notebook and a 3 fold journal with pockets. Very taxing and I'd had enough by the time the dogs came back from social club. However, they were very wet as it had rained heavily during their outing and extremely muddy. I then had to get them both in the shower and wash them off so by the end of this I was in deep pain and could only sit whilst the painkillers started to work...very sorry for myself...

Well, enough of this, today I'm back on track with a multicoloured hand that is now useable, and looking for things to do; I can feel another doll coming on and as I have been trawling my books (like you do when limited), I am thinking of new ways of making journals too.

At last, some time to myself!

I have been working like a demented dervish for the past two weeks, trying to finish all the work from the market and keep up with my new course. Yesterday I actually could say I am now on holiday and can take things easier, however the weather is not good so I can't sit out, my house needs cleaning for when my daughter and family arrive soon, and I have the added worry of Bert's latest xray showing a tumour on his liver!

Am I downhearted...not a chance.

Here are pictures from my lessons from More Journalling:

The pink book is made of board and exposed signatures that have been attached with thick thread, as is the larger black book, but this one is made with fabric around the signatures and much more fiddly. I used openweave floppy linen and won't do that again! It was quite an art getting the fabric to line up with the pages and to remain stable, maybe they should have been sprayed with a starch beforehand. The horse book is a great little envelope book - 6 envelopes attached to separate spines within the folder and six mini journals in each envelope. This was the most fun one to do up to now, and didn't take all that long to make and brings me up to date with my course lessons.

Today I made a present for my 7 year old granddaughter, a pocket monster, in which she could hide little things from everyone once she has found the pocket herself...I must make two more for my other granddaughters, but I want to design something a bit different.

Not a happy teddy!

I'm supposed to be on holiday, but it seems to be rather elusive. I just spent the past week working like crazy to get all my orders done, but I forgot about my phone being on my literature and I'm being pursued in supermarkets, whilst driving, and beating a path to my door. Still as the weather is going crazy too, maybe it's not such a bad thing. I'm also taking Sue Bleiweiss's follow on course 'More journal making for the fibre artist' and only just caught up today with lesson 1 - two trifold journals. I had been ferreting around in my attic for some lace and came across loads of lovely quilting fabrics which would be great for this course. The first I called Serengetti and I cut out African animals and used them as masks for the inside pages, spritzing over them with moonshadow mists in teal and silver. The little button closure is supposed to be a lion's head and the tie is plaited raffia.

The second is a series of pictures of Egyptian gods which I used for my Luxor journal - I printed out a picture of the pyramids at Luxor and fused it to the front so that when you opened the journal up you saw the gods as you would when entering one of their tombs. The signatures were cut to shape the inside too.

Bert was here last week too, and he finished the block paving across the kitchen and up the side of the workshop. He also put up a wall mounted washing line for me which has made life easier as well as saving electricity for the dryer. Now I'm about to sit in my lounger and read two books that have just arrived 1) Maggie Grey's Stitches, straps and layers; 2) Lynda Monk and Carol McFee's Stitching the textured surface. Just a wonderful feast for the eyes and imagination.

Summer weather - lovely

All this past week we have had some gorgeous weather. I've been able to top up my tan and snooze in the garden in the afternoon. Although I'm still at the market till the end of June, the waistcoats are not selling and it was the same last year; so I'm taking July and August off as a reward to myself and I'll get some stock up and running for September and Christmas.

My latest doll is Dot the Pocket Angel from Jill Maas. I just love Jill's patterns they are so quirky. Dot has no hands or feet so she can be made in a few hours, unlike Violet who takes two days to complete. I have a contact who sells sheepskins and I get the offcuts from him to make the hair on my dolls. It certainly makes a difference when you use the real thing, plus the offcuts come in all sorts of colours even pink and purple.

Dot also has a waistcoat which I thought very significant as I'm 'The Waistcoat Lady' at the market and these little fronts (no backs) are much quicker to make, I wish all my waistcoats could be so quick!

Well, I'm off now to make some more pocket angels.

More challenges

This is for the challenge from Inspire Me Thursday - "The lost art of letter writing" - I had some A4 stretched canvasses that were just asking for paint and an article by Julie Fei-fan Balzer gave me a new technique to try. I wrote the little letter to my grandchildren (all girls) whilst watching "The Mummy Returns" which appealed to my sense of humour, and transferred their photos onto the canvass over the writing. Then a little oil pastels, spray paints and a few dots and hearts finished it off. The transfer wasn't too clever and I need to experiment more to get it more definite. Still that's what it's all about.

Last Friday I went to my monthly scrapping club and the teacher there gave us this rather tricky layout to copy. Weaving circles and strips whilst sticking them down was rather a challenge and I also had to get the strips at right angles to each other whilst doing this. The picture is a bit off, but the lines are straight - honest.

We were given two lengths of silk to do the cross stitch round the thin circles and I just about made it last. When I got home I put a few more embellishments onto it, to make it mine, so to speak, as I felt the flowers were too small to give a proper impact.

This week's challenges

This small picture is printed on cork and has a lady holding a bunch of lavender in her hand. I found it whilst looking for something to answer the Mixed Media Monday challenge - Lace - and as I'm doing journals at the moment, I incorporated it into a collage for the cover. I layered it onto stone coloured cotton suede then brown linen, added the music and pieces of lace, then the flap was edged with gathered two-toned organza ribbon and the same lace. My daughter had sent me the crocheted flowers and they made a lovely addition to the flap when beaded into place.




By contrast, the next journal was made in black velvet. I had been on a course where we made the yellow fabric (see Februrary) and I cut it into an oblong and 3 squares and couched them down, then added the stuffed silk edging. I stuffed this knitted silk edging with string, but it is not quite right for the ties, it is too stiff, but OK for edging the journal. The silver you can see on the fabric is actually a crisp packet that has been heat blasted.

Both journals have hand dyed and stamped insides and one signature of 10 papers. Well, that's my weekend play and now I have to tidy up my workshop for the week ahead, when I hope to go through some interesting techniques.

Watch this space...

back at last

These past two weeks have been so busy making waistcoats, as I had so many orders that I had to work weekends to make them in time. However, this week I had no orders at all, so it has evened out somewhat. This will give me time to catch up with what has been going on challenge-wise and blog-wise. I did manage to finish a few projects and to download my magazine from http://www.workshopontheweb.com/ and found so many new techniques I want to try them all. Also my online http://quiltingarts.com/ magazine has inspired me to try out their workshops too. I hope to transfer all this learning into making journals as a reference library. Here are two I made earlier:

This one was made using aquarelle paint sticks on the background and then stencilled and stamped before adding papers to the inside and a few embellishments to the flap. I got the pocket in the wrong place and had to improvise but at least it is now unique.

This one was more stitch based as I had received a copy of Victoria MacLeod's DIY embroidery booklet. I raided the nearest DIY store and used some of the findings in an embroidery collage then cut and stitched it to the front of some hand-dyed fabric. This time I got the pocket in the right place!

I also finished Lily, my fifth doll and she is more ladylike in her dress and attitude. I'm waiting for a pattern I found, quite by accident, from the USA where the doll is made from scrunchies and a drinks can - all about recycling - and I'm quite excited about it.

Apart from all this that has been going on, Bert was here for a week and he is bouncing now. He seems to have got over his operations and the subsequent chemotherapy and taking more interest in life. He insisted on buying paving blocks and starting to lay them up the side of the workshop and will finish on his next visit by laying them on the path outside the kitchen. Once we have laid flags on the lower patio the garden will be finished and we can rest from our labours. I say 'we' because he lays the grounding and I lay the blocks on top; we have always worked well together except when I query what he is doing - he's not used to explaining why he does things, but he is getting there.