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  Sunday afternoon, another week about to roll into view.  I've been for a brisk autumnal walk around a local RSPB nature reserve, coming back with a pocketful of pretty brown feathers and a handful of dried grasses and seed heads, the vague aim being to either sketch them or to make a little stitched piece with them as a reference and starting point.   This tea-dyed white cotton that I just dyed might come in handy for something stitchy, but I might over-dye it as the colour's not especially strong.  Some interesting lines from where I folded & tied the material though.   I also dyed this piece, using blackberries, and getting a good combination of pale and darker purples.   I've been trying a few odds & ends of crafty projects this week.  I'd a small bag of kilt pins, ordered in error when I should've chosen large safety pins instead, and was wondering what to do with them.  Thought I'd make something beaded that might be a bag charm or dangle off the

  It's mid-week, and I'm mid-project with so many crafty endeavours.  This is what I'm referring to as my leftovers quilt as it's cobbled together out of orphan patchwork blocks and various odds & ends.  Over the last few days I've tacked the wadding on to the back of the patchwork top, and have been burrowing through my stash trying to find material large enough for the backing fabric.  I've nothing sizeable enough, but there are three pieces I should be able to stitch together.  They need to be approx 65 x 70 inches, so I think this will end up being the largest quilt I've made.  I usually stick to lap sized ones or single bed sized.  Easier to handle, especially with my basic model sewing machine that gets huffy and misbehaves if I ask too much of it.   I also completed another page of the Lorna Scobie book, '365 Days of Creativity'.  It's not very good, and I do get frustrated by how what I want to draw doesn't end up being what I get

It's not even midday, and I've already demolished a bowl of porridge with blackberries & sultanas for breakfast, a brunch of poached eggs & feta cheese on rye crispbread and a white chocolate Bueno bar.  Seriously thinking I might be overdoing it a morsel or two ... oh well, diet begins Monday.  Isn't that how the saying goes?  (Luckily, there are lots of Mondays throughout the year.) Anyway, I've a couple of things to tell you about.  One of 'em is this book, '365 Days of Creativity' by Lorna Scobie.  I received it as a present last Christmas, and finally got around to starting it.  The book has 365 prompts in the form of pages to paint or draw on, collage or write on, all aimed at kickstarting your arty crafty creativity.  Like this starting page.   You're encouraged to fill each bowl with something.  Fruit or pencil or random objects maybe.   I really enjoyed this, cutting up an old Sarah Raven catalogue for pictures to stick on.  Two garden u

  Thursday already, and this week's charging ahead.  It feels like the year's quickening, as if it can't wait to roll into November, December and see in the New Year.  The nights are definitely drawing in, with the overhead lights going on at 7.00pm, if not a little before.  I miss those long light evenings even more than I miss summer's warmth.  I spent an hour on the allotment today, tidying up and trying to get the plot ready for its period of hibernation.  I collected a handful of leaves while I was down there as I want to experiment with using the gell plate and printing with them tomorrow.   This idea was set in motion by Wednesday's Stitch Art group that I attended.  The theme was around environmental art, with particular ref to Andy Goldsworthy, the two images above being examples of his work.  For our little taster session we spent part of the time printing on to calico using leaves and various colours of Speedball printing ink.  The results have a faded qu

  It's a grey rainy morning, and I'm trying to concentrate on pleasant things, instead of the News which is full of the grim reality of armed conflicts overseas.  But that kind of content is for other blogs, ones far more serious and weighty than my ramblings about crafty matters.   I went to the last of my fabric covered book classes on Saturday, and it was a joy to see all the different ways others presented their books.  My over-the-top creation is the grey and purple one you can see above, and - if the light here improves - I'll try and film a little video on my phone.  Will post that later today or tomorrow.  In the meantime, look at the other books - the one with the eyeballs, the stripes and buttons, and the beautifully embroidered tiger who came to tea.   No two books were even remotely the same.   There's a pretty embroidered toadstool, and look at that pretend cassette tape!  During the class, because I'd worked a lot on my book already, I decided to go of

It's the weekend already, and the central heating's kicked in because of a cold, frosty but bright morning.  I've succumbed - yet again - to buying a book online.  It's 'Embroidered Purses' by Linda Tudor, the library book I featured on my blog the other day.  Decided I needed my own copy and - ooops! - I seem to have purchased it.  How on earth did that happen?  Oh well, it was a bargain price from the ever-reliable World of Books.   On the subject of books, I recently finished 'The Casual Vacancy' by J.K. Rowling, a terrific read, I really enjoyed it.  Last night I got to the end of this Philippa Gregory, 'The Taming of the Queen'.  The queen in question is Katherine Parr, the last of Henry VIII's many wives and thankfully a woman who survived the terror of being married to him.  I'd read Elizabeth Fremantle's 'Firebrand', another novel about Katherine Parr, but I think 'The Taming of the Queen' is the first book tha