I would've cleaned the house but ...

I was going to do some cleaning. No, really! I was. But the vacuum cleaner's decided to give up on life. I've tried resuscitation. Switching it off and on again. Also swearing at it. But it won't work, and I've yet to buy a replacement. I'm debating whether to buy a cheap 'n' cheerful model for about £60 or so, or splurge on a Henry at a more substantial £140. The Henry looks like it'll last longer and be robust, so I suppose I'll end up getting that. Anyway, being cleaner-less gave me an excuse to spend time on craftiness. First up was this bag. I'd decided that it needed an inside pocket.

So I dug out this denim pocket harvested from an old pair of jeans. A simple task to sew it to the bag's lining. A nifty bit of upcycling, I hope you'll agree.

Also completed is another zokin. I went off-piste with the sashiko stitching and for some reason added circles.

It'll be interesting to see if the zokin's noticeably less hard-wearing than the other two I've made. They were covered completely in stitching, whereas this has areas left unsewn.

I was messing about with making another doll as well, and finished sewing her by adding a pair of fairy wings. The doll's made of painted fabric, then embroidered and beads added. The face is white felt, as are the backs of the cotton material wings.

I'm still trying to find the ideal shape for these dolls. Haven't cracked it yet.

I had the gell plate and paints out today. Painting more fabric, but also making prints on paper. As well as my hand!

What a mucky puppy! It does look like I've got some horrible disease like a character off a sci-fi or fantasy film, doesn't it? But it was all good fun, and I've ended up with a stack of A4 sized prints. If you're wondering what I do with them all -

I finished these two art journals today. They only needed their covers glued on. The one of the left's full of gell prints made on standard copier paper.

The other book has pages made from sketchbook paper, and they are less densely coloured.

Well, that's all for now. I need to do more online comparisons for vacuum cleaners - oh the glamour of my rock 'n' roll lifestyle - and it must be at least half an hour since I had a cuppa so I'm gasping ... thanks for stopping by my blog, and maybe wander back again sometime? Though I'm not promising the place will be any tidier ...

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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

Hello again, and excuse me while I scratch my insect bites. I don't know what it is, but at this time of year I'm invariably itching like crazy because I've been bitten by bugs. It seems to coincide with blackberry-picking season, but whether that's purely coincidental I don't know. Whatever's biting me, I'm obviously a tasty morsel in their world! I might try using a highly scented oil like Tea Tree oil, see if that deters them. Anyway, let's get on to more pleasant matters - I'm having a go at making a zine style booklet. Because I didn't have any paper large enough, I joined together two A3 sheets of sketchpad paper, using torn pieces of book pages for the joining. I thought that'd look less noticeable than packing tape or similar. Having chosen my colour scheme I used acrylic paint and an unwanted plastic bank card to apply the paint. Plus a stencil, sponge and modelling paste. Applying paint with a ATM card wa...

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