rubykittyruby

Do you ever those days when you spend ages looking for something?  You look in the place where it was meant to be.  Then places nearby, and odd shelves and cupboards and drawers.  Then you go back to the original place you looked ...  but all the time it's staring you in the face.  Honestly, I spend ages wondering where on earth I'd left rolls of washi tape and - oh yeah, I'd used them in this box of embroidery threads to keep the spools from falling over.  Doh!  Someone needs to invent a device where you can type in whatever you're looking for and it tells you 'it's over there!' and sighs dramatically, as if you're the biggest idiot in the world.   Anyway, enough of this nonsense.   I've just finished reading this, Rory Stewart's memoir of political life.  I'm neither a natural Tory or a frequent reader of politician's memoirs, but it's a cracking read.  It made me simultaneously feel sorry for MPs.  The good ones wh...

That might sound a silly question.  You call it a full moon, of course.  But a full moon has different names given to it at different times of the year.  Those names vary slightly according to which reference book or website you consult, but here are the most popular:  January - Wolf Moon February -  Snow Moon March - Worm Moon (also known as the Egg Moon) April - Pink Moon (alternatively, the Seed Moon) May - Flower Moon June - Strawberry Moon July - Buck Moon August - Sturgeon Moon September - Harvest Moon October - Hunter's Moon November - Frost Moon December - Cold Moon Apparently the naming goes back to Native American culture, a way of keeping track of the seasons, the names reflecting what was going on in the natural world at that time of year.  The Worm Moon, for instance, was to do with Spring, the weather warming up, earthworms rising to the surface, migrating birds returning to the land.  More info about each month's name can be found on thi...

  Well, my Bank Holiday Monday got off to a nice start.  I've made a sale on Etsy.  I'd listed a patchwork quilt top, an English paper pieced one that I'd done ages ago but never got around to adding wadding and backing material.  I offered it for sale as a project someone else might like to complete, and it'd been listed for months, long enough for me to think only yesterday that I ought to take the listing down.  The amount I asked for the patchwork isn't anything much compared to the sheer number of hours paper piecing takes, but that's fine.  I'm more than happy to have it packaged up and ready to be posted to its new home.  Hopefully to be finally made up into a proper quilt and provide someone with warmth and a feeling of accomplishment.   I spent yesterday morning making this very speedy little fabric bowl.  It's a bit rough 'n' ready, but I can pass that off as boho style!!!  I cut a circle out of felt, then cut a strip of f...

This is my allotment, where everything's lush & green & growing like it's been put on fast-forward.  Sweet marjoram and mint are taking over the beds they've been planted in, and there are so many foxgloves in flower.  I did think about cutting some and bringing them home to put in a vase, but I always feel guilty if I do that, depriving the bees of their food. An hour and a half of mainly cutting overgrown grassy paths left me tired and a bit headache-y, so I've been spending time this afternoon messing about with paint and fabric again.   I applied paint to various pieces of cotton, calico and synthetic material, and while they don't look like much as yet they'll be prettier when this layer of paint's dried and I stencil over top of it.  I've got something in mind for these pieces, and it's a light bulb moment I had this morning while I was slurping tea and trying to fully wake up.  It's to do with two mini stylized dolls I made a while...

  Today's been a mainly-indoors day.  Partly because of heavy rain, but mainly because I want to try and organise all my crafty works-in-progress.  A constant complaint of mine is that I've got loads of things halfway finished or three-quarters done.  Yet I still rush headlong into new projects, having seen something inspiring on Instagram or watched a YouTube video.  Why can't I start making something, complete it, then move on to the next thing?   .... sighs, rolls eyes, accepts that logic isn't my strong point ...    Anyway, I'm browsing the Ikea website, looking at storage options.  In the meantime, as you can see in the picture above, I've sewn these pieces of handpainted material together and stitched the whole thing on to a rectangle of calico.  I'll turn it into a fabric roll, so need to decide on backing material.  A lively pink print?  Plain peppermint green cotton?  Or a fat quarter that's got a fifties fe...

This was the state of my dining table yesterday morning.  I'd dug out the gell plate and acrylics, and I'll show you the results later on in this post.  First of all, a quick round-up of recent charity shop buys.   A good book for 50p, jeans for a quid and a Next dress - with pockets! - for £2.00.  I mean, why shop anywhere else?  The dress is ideal to wear as a tunic over leggings.   I also splashed out just under £4.00 for this massive men's shirt.  It's cotton, and the colour's more vivid than the photo above shows.   Mens shirts, and in particular oversized ones, are great for harvesting the fabric.  A rectangle or square can be cut from the front, perfect for a cushion back complete with button and buttonhole fastenings.  Meaning no need for a zip to be inserted when you make a cushion cover.  I'm saving cuffs and collars from the shirts I chop up, and they'll be used for a patchwork project at some point. ...