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Badger!

  Here's Badger, looking like the little cutie-pie he is.  He's settled in so well, is absurdly affectionate and eats anything and everything I put in his food bowl.  The only fault I can find is that he likes to sharpen his claws on the side of my sofa.  This is despite having two scratching posts, one of which is part of a cat tower that's taller than I am!  I may have to try trimming his claws, but I don't know how Badger will react to that.  Anyway, expect to see more photos of him, so sorry in advance for any of you who aren't feline fans.    Apart from gazing in admiration at the cat I've continued to experiment with embroidery.  I really can't decide whether this mainly pink piece of stitching is something I like or just a dog's dinner of a mess.   This is another embroidery I've been stitching.  Frankly, at the moment it looks like it should be lobbed straight into the bin.  I'd painted with a mix of watercolour pa...
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Badger's not a badger, he's a cat ...

  (this is a crazy looking piece of embroidery I've been messing about with.  It's not exactly subtle & minimalist, is it?!!) I'm about to become a cat owner again.  Or should I say a cat caretaker as we don't really own the creatures, but merely act as their willing servants and admirers.  I visited the local Cat Protection Homing Centre earlier this week as they'd shown a kitty on their website that suited me nicely.   He's called Badger, and he's an indoor only cat as he's got FIV.  It's a virus that weakens a cat's immune system.  He can't infect people, but if he scratched or bit another cat he could pass it on to them.  So I can adopt Badger and not feel guilty about never letting him outdoors.   I've been thinking about adopting another cat for ages, ever since my Emma became seriously ill and had to be put to sleep.  But my neighbours had two cats hit by cars, so I decided it was safer to have an indoor only pet....
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Inspired by tyres? Maybe not as weird as it sounds ...

  This photo will make sense in a while ... but before I get around to that I'll show you my latest charity shop finds.  It'll probably come as no surprise that I've bought yet more books.   The Quilting Arts Idea Book in particular is a fab bargain.  Full of inspiring photos and techniques to experiment with.  Someone once paid twenty seven U.S. dollars for it, which makes me wonder how it ended up in a West Yorkshire charity shop. Another two novels can be added to my To-Be-Read pile.   All four books for a mere £2.50.  I also picked up these bottles of drawing ink, which I've not tried using before, taking my total bill to £4.49.  I left the shop with a smile on my face and change from a fiver.   Now, to explain that photo at the beginning of this blog post.  Wednesday was the day for my monthly stitching group at Leeds Art Gallery.  This month we were looking at ...... tyres.  Yup, tyres.  Burst car tyre...
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A bag of silk cocoons ...

  Do you know what these are?  They look like sweeties, don't they?  But they're actually silk cocoons, and I'd seen them used on a YouTube video, to add texture to an embroidery, so decided to treat myself to a bagful.  (Of course, it's very grim to actually think about how silk is made.  There's no getting away from the fact the silkworms die in the process.) I also splurged on these luscious Stef Francis threads.  Such beautiful colours.  I'm stitching on this piece of embroidery at the moment.  It's like a form of doodling, but with thread instead of paper and pen.   Alongside, I've been carrying on with my 'Under the Sea' textile piece.  It's slow progress, but I'm adding more details and working out what goes where.   I've added grey padded ovals which are meant to be pebbles on the sea floor.  Well, it all makes sense in my mind!!!
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Shisha mirrors and cheap embroidery thread

  Hello.  I hope you're well and - for UK based blog readers - not too thrown out of kilter by the clocks going back an hour.  For overseas readers, our clocks go back an hour in the autumn and are put forward an hour in spring.  It's all rather discombobulating.   I've been making progress with my 'Under the Sea' wall hanging.  It's still in the early stages, but I've slow-stitched a fair amount of the background, & am currently adding shisha mirrors, which are meant to look like air bubbles.   The first of my embroidered fish is almost done.  I realised today I've splashed paint on the blue material in the hoop, but luckily the splashes missed the actual fish.   I also realised I'd made a couple of things that I can refer to for ideas about what to include in my underwater scene.  I'd sewn this mini wall hanging, and want to recreate these fishes in my larger piece. I'd also done this embroidery, and will recreate el...
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More fabric beads ...

  They're like prettily wrapped sweeties, aren't they?  Do I need so many handmade beads?  No, probably not.  Am I going to keep making 'em?  Yup.
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Fabric beads and an extra large knitting needle ...

  You might remember a previous post or two about creating these boho style beads.  They're so easy to make.  You either use a paper straw or a rolled & glued strip of paper to make a tube, then cover it in fabric and wrap with thin wire, on to which you've threaded beads.   Well, I've spent part of yesterday and today making a variation on them.  Rather than use paper as a base for a bead, you use material.  The entire bead's made of fabric, and there's no wire involved either.  I used a chunky knitting needle and wound a narrow strip of felt around it, adding a few stitches to keep everything in place.  Then covered the felt with a sari scrap, and secured that with more stitching.  Beads and sequins gave the fabric beads even more of a boho look.   These are the first four I sewed, and I've done another four since.  No idea what I'll do with them all, but I'm having fun! 
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