rubykittyruby

  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.

  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! 

  Hello from my corner of West Yorkshire.  I haven't posted much lately as, to be honest, it's a bit quiet around here.  I've been pottering around the garden, sewing, going for long autumnal walks and generally not doing anything especially blog-worthy.  No exotic foreign holidays or lavish days out to tell you about.  But sometimes life's like that.  We have lulls.  Maybe it's to do with the time of year.  Shorter days, colder weather, less money to spend as the central heating's going on and that's got to be paid for! I've partway through embroidering this fish, which is for a wall hanging that I'm making.  It's not looking like much at the moment, but I'm hoping it'll all come together when I've got more stitching done.   I've also been making more of these fabric flowers, and have bought a pack of brooch pins to sew on the back of them.   I added this little heart today.  Red felt surrounded by shiny red beads....

Saturday evening, and am I getting ready to go out clubbing & dancing the night away?  Nope.  I'm lounging on the sofa and half-watching TV while I'm sewing.  Years ago I might've felt guilty about not venturing out, but now I'm perfectly content to admit I'm an introvert and my happy place is home.   I'm starting a new project.  Yeah, I know, yet another one!  Annie Claxton, who has a Facebook craft group and a YouTube channel, is making an embroidered picture of an underwater scene, complete with octopus, seahorses, fish and lots of coral.  I've been admiring what she's doing, and also another YouTuber SuzieQMakes, and belatedly decided I've join in too.  I've gathered up lots of blue material for my background and have made a start of tacking the layers together.  I'm hoping that lots of kantha style stitching will make these patches appear a unified whole, then I can begin adding my own sea creatures.  I'm also googling imag...

I've been a busy bee, making these Georgian inspired eye charms.  More of those in a moment though as I've also been messing about with coffee dyeing paper and making swirly patterns with watercolour pencils and oil pastels.   The coffee dyed paper were pages torn from a sketchpad, and took the colour nicely. I laid stencils over the pages as they were drying, and they took the imprint of the stencil patterns but only delicately.  Perhaps I need to weigh them down a little next time.   I watched this video while I was eating my bowl of porridge for breakfast, so had a go at making Kandinsky inspired pages afterwards.   These two won't win any artistic awards, but it was fun to play with colour and there is something genuinely pleasing and calming about just letting your thoughts go and making circles.   Now, for more of those lover's eye charms.  So much fun to create these!  I'm planning on making a short YouTube video tomorro...

Yesterday I hopped on the train into Leeds for another monthly meet-up of the Stitch Art group.  This month's theme was 'eyes', which didn't give me much of a clue what we'd be up to.  Well, it was a lot of fun.  We were doing an activity based on Georgian eye charms, or Georgian lover's eye jewellery.  I hadn't even known these existed, but apparently they were miniatures of a loved one's eye.  You could have a painting of your beloved's eye made into a pretty piece of jewellery, and wear it secretly so others couldn't see who'd captured your affections.  They were made popular by royalty, and while the originals might've been beautifully painted and covered in precious or semi-precious stones, our versions would be more modest.   We used canvas for our base.  It was leftover from other use, already painted with acrylic and cut into small pieces.  I chose this rather Barbie looking pink and shaped mine into an oval, though we could use ...