Remind me again, what day it is?

It's that strange time of year, isn't it? Twixtmas, the in-betweenie days between Christmas and New Year. When we all regret overeating and overbuying and know we ought to move off the sofa and do something ... but it's dreary outside and Storm Gerrit's doing its thing right now. All gusty wind and rain, meaning it's best to stay indoors and - well, maybe not lie for hours on the sofa but get crafty things done.

Santa bought me some very welcome gifts on 25th. Among them, two new gell plates, Pebeo paints and a handful of stencils. I'm going to have fun with those. But rather than get stuck into those I did some sewing instead. Making more blocks for my Terry Rowland style quilt. I've made roughly 125 so far, and probably need to make at least another 125 in order to get enough colours and patterns to achieve a pleasing colourwash effect.

The postie called in the afternoon with an eBay parcel of new fabric, but it's not destined for patchwork blocks. I bought a bundle of scarves and sari fabric. The scarves were maybe the less successful purchase, but I'm much happier with the saris. (The colour in these photos isn't great. They're much more vivid.)

The idea is to sell packs of fabric on Etsy, for fellow crafters who want to either make boho beads or decorate art journal covers, or make dolls clothes or who knows what! When I was making my own boho style beads I was thinking about what fabric I'd ideally like for them. That led me to decide I'd try and sell a selection of pretty materials myself. I'm thinking about offering several pieces, maybe a dozen, in each pack, and for at least three or four of them to be reasonably sized. Maybe 12 inch squares? I want to include enough fabric that buyers feel they've got good value for money. Tomorrow I'll put together a sample pack and play around until I'm happy that it's right.

Hope you had a good Christmas, and that you're cosy and warm. The days are getting longer now we've had the Winter Solstice, so let's look forward to 2024 and all the good things a new year can bring.

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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

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