31 days in May

 

I've just completed the last fabric postcard as part of my challenge to produce one per day for the 31 days of May.  Today's effort was based on the zero waste idea of using up every tiny scrap.  Even these little shavings from where I've levelled up edges of scrappy blocks with a rotary cutter and ruler. 

Before I show you the finished textile piece, I thought I'd do a final here-they-all-are blog post.  So you can see the progression throughout the month.  Right, here we go.  1st May, the Klimt one.

The sea and sky one.

The tomato red and mint green one.

The one with Neapolitan ice cream colours.

The one recalling Janey Forgan's 'Liberty Jack' quilt.

The one with the black velvet line

The vaguely dissatisfying one.  A.k.a. the 'meh!' one.

The one that reminds me I intend to make a winter quilt.  

The one with curves.

The one with a pear.

The one with little pockets for feathers and seed-heads and Mother Nature's treasures.

The one where I learnt how to insert circles.  

The black and white one.

The one with the red triangles like sail boats.

The oranges and ribbons one. 

The second one that I found vaguely dissatisfying.  A.k.a. 'meh! two'.  

The one reminding me of a flag.

The spots and stripes one.

The one where I play about with crosses.

The other one where I play about with crosses.

The black and white and green one.

The one making me think of the Tree of Life.

The printing on calico using bubble wrap one.

The one sewn with sheer fabric.

The orange and pink with an unexpected grey and white stripe one. 

The planets one. 

The running stitch and little crosses one.

The neutrals one. 

The one where I raid the scraps bin.

The spring greens one. 

And finally!  Ta-dah!  The zero waste one with silver thread dandelion seed-heads.

Phew!  That was a mammoth blog post.  I may need chocolate to recover...

I'm already pondering on what June's challenge will be.  I'm thinking about a 'make a monthly mini quilt', and also about something to do with listening to classical music.  More of that tomorrow.  I need to stop typing now as there's washing up and hoovering to do, plants to water, lots of 'creative clutter' to tidy away and - oh yes, chocolate to buy!  

Enjoy your day.  

The Waves and the flamingoes

Every time I walk outside and nose around the garden something new's come into flower.  This - iris? - is a beauty.  Sadly, there aren't too many alliums, but maybe more will pop up in early June.  

This poppy's not shy and retiring, is she? 

The sage is flowering too.  (Sorry, not the greatest photo, is it?)

Here are some chives with their purple poms poms! 

And these blooms are pretty in pink.  

This is a cistus, the plant bought a year or two ago from Wilko, I think. It's been growing happily, but this is the first time it's flowered.  

For part of my Bank Holiday Monday I made yet one more of my fabric postcards.  I hadn't a clue what to make, and was staring blankly at the scraps bin when I had the idea.  The scraps bin is where the teeny, tiny bits of material and lengths of tangled thread end up, before they get re-purposed as cushion filling.  I grabbed a handful of straggly bits and a glue stick, plus my 6 x 4 rectangle of calico.  

I fiddled around with 'em until I had a pleasing arrangement. 

Then it was a case of sewing by hand, securing the fabric to the calico backing and working away until I got to the point it felt finished.  

I like the layering, as well as the frayed edges.  

Here's Monday's postcard again, looking good against this brown basket.  

Today's postcard was another spur of the moment idea.  I was thinking of springtime, all the green.  Trees, grass, nettles, cleavers, green fields, fennel tall and frothy, so much zingy colour.  

Gentle curves reminding me of blades of grass.  

As with Monday's postcard, I added lots of hand stitching.  It's a simple design, but pleasing to me.  I added three silver dandelion seed heads too.   Should've made them bigger perhaps?  

Anyhow, after all that stitchery - I mooched into town, seeing this fluffy wonder on the way.  

Whatever type of caterpillar this is, it was so intent on eating it totally ignored me taking its picture.  Once I reached town I did a quick detour before traipsing up and down the grocery shop aisles, that detour being the inevitable trip around a charity shop.  

I bought Virginia Woolf's 'The Waves', having read it decades ago and not having my own copy.  On the to-be-read pile it goes, having retained only the vaguest memory of what the novel was actually about.  Also, I picked up for the princely sum of £1.25 this rather nice flamingo themed zip up pouch.  It's by 'Wild Thoughts' and i'm certain it's never been used as it's in pristine condition.  Googling the brand it looks as if buying this from a 'proper' retailer would've put me back about twelve or thirteen quid.  I found a bargain, didn't I?  

Okay, it's early evening now, and I'm full to bursting with pasta and pudding, having indulged in an overly large meal.  I was going to type 'overly large tea' but where you're from in the country means that you might call it dinner instead of tea.  Or - if you're ridiculously posh and have an Aga, green wellies and a couple of labradors - you call it supper.  Whatever it's called, I ate A LOT.  I'm planning on spending the evening catching up on 'The Archers' and a few podcasts.  Better get on with it.

Bye! 

 

Welcome to the weekend

It's a long Bank Holiday weekend, and the sunshine is still hanging around.  I swear when I was a kid every Bank Holiday weekend was soaking wet, all rain clouds and hanging around indoors ...

Here's a quick round-up of the latest fabric postcards I've made.  Saturday's began with a plain dark blue background with a couple of added inserts in purple and a punchy pink.  

I kept stitching into it, enjoying the perfectly imperfect crosses and lines I made.  

Another day of my soon-to-end challenge completed.  Once again I've used the cover of this quilt book by Maria Shell as a background.  

Sunday's postcard is a play on a muted colour palette and straight lines.  

Progress was made.  

I sat outside, enjoying a peaceful morning sewing by hand, listening to bird song and watching the sparrows sipping water from the makeshift bird bath.  

And again, this time against a different background.  

Apart from craftiness, I also recently - inevitably - did a quick mooch around a few charity shops.  I bought a dress, which I definitely won't wear as it's not quite me, though I love the material.  Also, a shirt, which I initially thought would join the dress in being chopped up for future patchworking.  It's a size 8, and I assumed it wouldn't fit me.  But it's more of a 12 than an 8, so it's been washed and hung in my wardrobe.  Honestly, size labels in clothes are meaningless, aren't they?  

Today I collected chard leaves from the allotment, to add to a stir fry for lunch.  I sowed chrysanthemum seeds and put in some squash plants a neighbour gave me, chatted to a nearby plot holder - bless him!  He's even less idea what he's doing than me.  I had to explain the mystery plants that'd self seeded on his plot were poppies - and I promised another plot holder I've save some iris tubers for his missus come the autumn.  

Coming home I made lentil burgers, based on a recipe I found online.  It's a really economical way to get your protein.  You soak a cup of dried red lentils in water for an hour or more, then drain and rinse them before shaking off most of the water.  

Put the lentils in a bowl.  Add a handful of chopped spring onions, a grated carrot, ginger and seasoning.  Plus a tablespoon of plain flour as a binding agent.  Then, I used a stick blender to whoosh 'em all up into a sticky paste like mixture.  

I made nine smallish burgers and left them to rest on grease-proof paper, so they could firm up.  

Into the frying pan ... 

I think I'll add more carrot next time as they could do with being a little sweeter.  But they were good to eat, and all those lentils must be doing good too, surely?  

Anyway, that's all for now.  I'm watching 'Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland' on the BBC iplayer, and it's grim but compelling stuff.  I'll try and fit in another chapter of Alice Hoffman's 'The Probable Future' before I go to bed too.  It's so beautifully written.  

Bye for now.