Skip to main content

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.  

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Fabric bowls & electrical cables ...

To add to my seemingly never ending list of works-in-progress, I've started making a fabric bowl.  Or should I call it a fabric basket?  I'm not sure.  Anyway, I've made the odd bowl or two before, like this blue & white one that I keep cotton perle in.   I decided to use upholstery material, which has both advantages & disadvantages.  On the good side, it has a certain stiffness, which helps the bowl stay in shape.  On the irritating side, the kind of material I'm using frays like mad, and I'm forever picking up threads off the carpet.  The bowl's a simple construction, and I've used a circle of cardboard covered with brown felt for the base.   It'll look much better when I've embroidered and stitched into it.  I've made a start on that, and appliqued on a rectangle of plum coloured velvet for extra interest. When not stitching, I've been catching up on my reading.  I finished C J Sansom's 'Dark Fire'.   Real...

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 fabric bowl & what's starting to look like a craft room ...

  Hello on what's been a beautiful autumn day.  Bright blue clear sky, a chilly start but warming up in the afternoon.  I've been on a long walk around a local nature reserve, not wanting to stay inside when it's so lovely outdoors.   In the last week or so, I've been finishing this fabric bowl, and have started making another.   But mainly I've been having a bit of a change-around in my house.  I've hauled furniture from one room to another, clutter-cleared cupboards and bagged up things for the charity shop, and generally hoovered and cleaned all those dusty corners.   I'd finally made a decision about turning the dumping ground of the front bedroom into a craft room.  It's taking shape, though it really has taken some effort.   Larger pieces of material are stacked on shelves, grouped into colours.  Lower down is my Sissix machine and die cuts, and at the base of the shelving are beads and jewellery making supplies...