Flowers, a tortoise and a hare!

Okay, before I explain the above image, I'll witter on for a while about what I've been up to. Yesterday was a beautiful spring day, so I headed to the allotment. The wallflowers and spring bulbs are blooming, and the plum tree has plenty of blossom on it. Last year a late frost meant sudden death for the blossom and consequently not a single plum to be harvested. Fingers crossed this year will be better.

I took a couple of photos of the quilt I mentioned yesterday, the grid pattern improv quilt that's still awaiting its binding.

On to today, I had a walk into town to buy groceries, and decided I'd nip into a couple of charity shops too. Now, this is where the image of the Brian Wildsmith book comes in. I absolutely love the illustrations. They're so vibrant, and cry out to be interpreted in fabric, wool or embroidery. Ages ago I'd had a try at capturing the hare in a small piece of needlepoint.

I stitched it, thinking vaguely it might end up being a pin cushion, but it eventually got incorporated as part of a large needlepoint floor cushion. Anyway, I decided to try making something in patchwork that was based on another page of the book. This one with a mainly bright red background. I'd already got some reds and pinks, but could do with some more. Hence the intention to rummage around in charity shops.

Hmmm ... I came back with a cream coloured fleecey blanket, two paperbacks and two bags of mainly blue fabric scraps. Oh well ...

This is the image I want to - not exactly recreate - but do my version of, however abstract that eventually becomes.

I started playing about with the material I already have, including a vivid red Monsoon skirt I'd never worn so it ended up being cut up for my fabric stash. It featured a lovely embroidery of flowers and leaves. I've made good progress today, so will carry on tomorrow, and see where this latest quilting adventure takes me.

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Fabric bowls & electrical cables ...

To add to my seemingly never ending list of works-in-progress, I've started making a fabric bowl. Or should I call it a fabric basket? I'm not sure. Anyway, I've made the odd bowl or two before, like this blue & white one that I keep cotton perle in. I decided to use upholstery material, which has both advantages & disadvantages. On the good side, it has a certain stiffness, which helps the bowl stay in shape. On the irritating side, the kind of material I'm using frays like mad, and I'm forever picking up threads off the carpet. The bowl's a simple construction, and I've used a circle of cardboard covered with brown felt for the base. It'll look much better when I've embroidered and stitched into it. I've made a start on that, and appliqued on a rectangle of plum coloured velvet for extra interest. When not stitching, I've been catching up on my reading. I finished C J Sansom's 'Dark Fire'. Real...

Threads of Freedom and charity shop bargains

It's Saturday afternoon, and I haven't done half the things I'd meant to. Partly because I spent most of this morning messing about with paints, stencils and the gell plate. Never mind, everything on today's 'To Do' list will join tomorrow's 'To Do' list ... it's hardly life or death if I don't haul the hoover around the room or pull up weeds in the front garden. I thought I'd show you what I made on Wednesday. I'd gone to my monthly StitchArt group, and this time we did something a little different. There's a project called 'Threads of Freedom' which is working with various community groups across the city. It's about creating little stitched pieces, some of which will be included in a textile panel to go on display at Leeds art gallery. There was lots of fabric we could choose from to sew with, and I picked this vintage tray cloth with the roses embroidery. My own embroidery's not a patch on those flo...

Another fabric bowl & what's starting to look like a craft room ...

Hello on what's been a beautiful autumn day. Bright blue clear sky, a chilly start but warming up in the afternoon. I've been on a long walk around a local nature reserve, not wanting to stay inside when it's so lovely outdoors. In the last week or so, I've been finishing this fabric bowl, and have started making another. But mainly I've been having a bit of a change-around in my house. I've hauled furniture from one room to another, clutter-cleared cupboards and bagged up things for the charity shop, and generally hoovered and cleaned all those dusty corners. I'd finally made a decision about turning the dumping ground of the front bedroom into a craft room. It's taking shape, though it really has taken some effort. Larger pieces of material are stacked on shelves, grouped into colours. Lower down is my Sissix machine and die cuts, and at the base of the shelving are beads and jewellery making supplies...

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