Rainy Monday and Easter treat bags

I'd been watching a YouTube video on how to make these little lined bags. They're for filling with chocolates at Easter, and I happened to have some suitable Rose & Hubble fabric for both the outer and lining. The idea is that you add a white pom pom as a bunny tail, and a colourful hair band to close up the bag and create a couple of rabbit ears. The pattern's very easy, the only tricky bit being the centre of the V. You have to try and avoid puckering, which I wasn't totally successful with. But who's going to quibble about a slightly dodgy seam when there are choccie eggs inside?

This afternoon I walked into town for groceries and a quick mooch around a charity shop. Rain poured down on the way home, then stopped practically seconds after I reached the front door! I dried off and did some hand quilting while listening to The Food Programme on Radio 4. Talking about food resilience and how as a country we're not growing enough food and are too reliant on buying from overseas. It got me thinking about what I'm intending to grow on the allotment and in my back garden. There's no reason why I can't be self-sufficient over the summer months in salad - rocket, different varieties of lettuce, baby chard and spinach leaves, cucumbers, chives and other herbs. I just need to get organised.

The other thing I did today was have a rummage through some denim blocks I'd made. Yet another of my on-going projects.

I've not got many blocks as yet, mainly 'cause I've run out of denim and need to upcycle a few more pairs of jeans. The problem with using womens jeans though is that they often contain lycra. Well, I presume it's lycra as the denim's stretchy. I need to rummage around the charity shops for some proper denim, the robust sort that mens shirts or denim skirts are made of.

Each of the blocks has an added detail, a line of appliqued material, arranged to form these not-quite-matching-up diamonds. The intention is to do some Boro style stitching on the blocks as I think that'd look good.

I love the different shades of blue that you get with denim, some paler, some dark. Not sure if this project will end up as a quilt. Maybe a floor cushion? Something hard wearing and quite contemporary looking? Hmmm, we'll see how it goes.

Oh, and I need to find a use for the pockets too. Any ideas?

Comments

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 week's flown by ...

Saturday's rolled around again, and it's not been the most eventful of days. Cleaning and hoovering, a walk to the shops to buy groceries, an hour on the allotment, then home to do some odd tasks in the garden. The strawberry plants are sending out runners, so I've been dealing with those, plus deadheading the perennial sunflowers, and cutting back the gone-over flowers on the sage and marjoram. I'm sad to see those blooms gone as the bees loved them. This afternoon I spent a few hours finishing 'Dawnlands' by Philippa Gregory. It's a really good book, a page turner where you care about the characters and want to be reassured everything's going to work out well for them. Plus you become enraged about the corruption of the so-called justice system at the time of the Stuart kings and queens, about transportation of prisoners to the West Indies, and about the vile nature of the sugar trade in the 1600s and the vast profits made from it....

Folding a zine and an alternative use for a bank card

Hello again, and excuse me while I scratch my insect bites. I don't know what it is, but at this time of year I'm invariably itching like crazy because I've been bitten by bugs. It seems to coincide with blackberry-picking season, but whether that's purely coincidental I don't know. Whatever's biting me, I'm obviously a tasty morsel in their world! I might try using a highly scented oil like Tea Tree oil, see if that deters them. Anyway, let's get on to more pleasant matters - I'm having a go at making a zine style booklet. Because I didn't have any paper large enough, I joined together two A3 sheets of sketchpad paper, using torn pieces of book pages for the joining. I thought that'd look less noticeable than packing tape or similar. Having chosen my colour scheme I used acrylic paint and an unwanted plastic bank card to apply the paint. Plus a stencil, sponge and modelling paste. Applying paint with a ATM card wa...

rubykittyruby

Search This Blog