Cecilia? Felicia? No, it's Phacelia

Okay, before the crafty talk commences I'll share pictures from the allotment. The iris are in bloom, and looking magnificent. I thought they would as the tubers were baked by last summer's blisteringly hot weather, and apparently a lot of heat is what causes them to flower exuberantly the following year. Also full of purple flowers and attracting the bees is the Phacelia. I'd never heard of it before I bought the seeds, but it's a 'green manure', doing all kinds of good, worthy things to the soil by rooting in it.

Redcurrants? Blackcurrants? Who knows? My labelling skills need working on.

This creeping buttercup is probably a weed, but it's pretty so it's staying put.

Right, that's enough greenery for now. On to my seemingly never-ending fabric postcard challenge. I was cheesed off with Tuesday's insipid effort, but Wednesday's made me happier. I made sure to use a good amount of upcycled fabric. Denim, a fawn coloured fabric from a vintage tea tray cloth, a sliver of a chopped-up mens shirt, orange material from a skirt.

Incidentally, I love these little plastic clips instead of pins. But they do become so brittle after you've used them a while, and consequently they snap in two.

Nearly done. A few stitches more and ...

Wednesday's postcard being judged a success, I cracked on this morning with Thursday's offering. Another stripey number.

The pink background is my dressing gown! I'd woken up at stupid o'clock and couldn't get back to sleep. What else could I do but pick up a needle and thread.

I really like the contrast between the black, orange and white. Plus the spots v. stripes, and the way the strips of black and orange aren't super-sharp and ruler-precise. I'd cut them freehand with scissors, rather than rely on a rotary cutter and ruler.

After finishing today's postcard, I was playing about with some already-made scrappy strips of mainly brown fabric. I hadn't any idea of what to make with 'em, but started joining them together.

I added longer pieces of plain white, and strips of pink & brown.

And this is how it ended up, a small cushion, sat on my slightly shabby aubergine sofa. The cushion is backed with a lively floral pattern. Hope you like it.

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Sari scraps, PVA, a couple of books and a necklace

I'm typing this as snow's falling, and has been steadily all day. It's not settling to any great extent, though I bet by tomorrow morning the paths will be slippery with ice. Which always makes me paranoid about falling over and at the very least looking undignified, but at worst breaking a bone or twisting an ankle. Oh well, it's ideal weather to stay inside and craft, isn't it? I finally got around to listing packs of sari scraps on Etsy this morning. I only made up six bundles as I've no clue whether they'll sell or if I've set a reasonable enough price point. Time will tell. This is a link to the listing, if you're interested. This vaguely pink fabric isn't from one of my Etsy packs. It's from a bit of experimenting I was doing yesterday. I'd seen a post on Instagram showing how a DIY version of batik could be done without using hot wax. The Instagrammer used PVA instead, and I wanted to try this out....

In praise of wool

Just a quick post today. I'm offering you a short but peaceful break from the overwhelmingness (is that a word?) of Christmas. By now you've probably eaten your bodyweight in sweets//roast potatoes/pigs in blankets/cake/After Eights ... whatever your festive indulgences are. You're under-exericsed, over-stimulated, feeling broke and possibly guilty about an argument with a relative or friend you've never entirely got on with. So, here's something to take your mind off all that. I've two videos to refresh and revive, and they both concern wool. Interesting fact. Well, I found it interesting. About 1% - yup, one per cent - of the world's textiles are made of wool. Out of curiosity, I also googled how much is made of cotton. That's higher, but it's only about 24% and that's heading downward instead of up. Synthetic fibres are the bulk of all textile manufacture. Anyway, back to woolly wonders. My firs...

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....

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