Pink blossom and a robin

There are lots of these beautiful blossom laden trees around, and the gusty winds we've had lately have been scattering pink petals across grass verges and pavements like confetti. I've still got a garden full of tulips, joined now by bluebells and anemones in their jewel-like colours. There are even flowers beginning to appear on my strawberry plants, so lets hope for a bumper crop of berries this year.

I nipped into a couple of charity shops today. Two interesting looking historical novels for 50p each, plus three crochet magazines for a quid each. I don't crochet, but my niece does and these will be going to her. The magazines are good quality and full of patterns to try, but if you really really peer at the small print on the cover you'll see their original price. £7.99 each. Yikes! That's why I don't buy glossy magazines any more, the prices are way too high for my taste. I'd rather spend on craft books. No adverts, plus you can pick up no end of books second hand for a fraction of their retail price.

Talking of things craft related - I made a second bag based on the triangular design found on YouTube. I upsized it to make a bag rather than a coin purse, and used a patchwork of fabrics for added interest.

I tried using some nubbly dark blue wool for the fastening, but settled on this silver ribbon instead.

After finishing my blue bag I decided to make another embroidered bird, this time a robin.

As with the blue tit I made, I stitched on to unbleached calico, using my RSPB bird book for reference. My robin's a simplified version of the bird, but I'm reasonably pleased with it. I made the beak slightly larger than needed, so hopefully when the backing's added the beak won't disappear in the same way the blue tit's did. The colourway isn't as appealing as the blue tit's yellow, green blue, black and white, but I tried to use different shades of brown and red, plus white and cream so the body and wings weren't just solid blocks of single colour.

I'm off to Leeds city centre tomorrow afternoon as there's a talk about a textile piece on display at the Art Gallery. The Leeds Tapestry, about which I know nothing, so it'll be educational at least, fingers crossed it'll be fun too.

More about that, hopefully with some decent photos, to follow.

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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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