rubykittyruby

  It's been one of those restless kind of days, beginning awkwardly when the clock radio besides my bed wouldn't tune into the radio station I wanted it to.  The radio's not broken.  It just flatly refused to do anything other than make crackling, hissing noises at me, like a thing possessed.  Very disconcerting.  Then I somehow broke a glass that'd been on my bedside table.  One of my nice Harvey Nicks tumblers too.  No idea why it shattered, but it did.  A malevolent poltergeist?  Nah, more like a still-sleepy me being clumsy.  Anyway, the restlessness has continued all day, and resulted in a lot of tea drinking and snacking.  Far too much snacking!  You know when you buy a multi-pack of chocolate bars and think I'll be sensible and ration them out, eating one a day ... yeah, well it wasn't a one-a-day kind of day.  I've eaten 'em all!  On the crafting front, I managed to get myself together enough to make some pain...

  Hello, and I'm happy to report that Kate Atkinson's 'Shrines of Gaiety' is a proving an excellent read, and I'm halfway through and lovin' it.  Luckily I've finished the Jude Hill inspired slow stitching, so that's not a distraction any more.  I was going to add further details to this - a couple more feathers, a stylized comet flaring through the sky, more spirals - but when I reached this stage it felt complete, as if adding more elements would make it too busy.  I didn't get the expression on the moon's 'face' completely right, but it was as good as I could manage.  In between devouring chunks of 'Shrines of Gaiety', I nipped into town, and did the obligatory rummage around the charity shop, my purchases joining those from the other day.  A pretty skirt that'll be cut up for patchwork - it's about a size 20, so there's lots of fabric to use - and that cost 99 pence.  As did the stencil of the three kings bearing g...

  I spent the morning cleaning, then stitching, so a long walk was called for.  A circuit of about an hour's brisk walking around my favourite haunt, the local RSPB reserve.   There were plenty of twitchers about, as well as people just enjoying a stroll, dodging the muddy puddles and the occasional cyclists and horseriders.   Back home I'm getting stuck into a Kate Atkinson novel.  I'm only a few chapters in, but it's already a terrific read and I'm loving the notorious Nellie Coker.  The book's called 'Shrines of Gaiety' and is set in 1926, a world of dancing girls and seemingly glamorous nightclubs, but also of a seedy criminal underworld and people traumatised by the impact of the so-called Great War.   The other thing I've done today is start experimenting with eco-printing.  I've seen various crafty types on YouTube produce lovely looking eco-printed material, so it was about time I tried the technique out.  Not 100% sure...

  In a few hours time the clocks will be put back an hour and that's that as far as Summer is concerned.  It's always a little disconcerting when the clocks go forward in March or back in October.  There's the feeling of being unbalanced.  Unsettled by the shifting of time in this way.   I've spent part of today finishing this book, 'A Disappearance in Fiji' by Nilima Rao, set in 1914 and concerning the lives of indentured Indians on the island of Fiji.  This was the days of Empire, of colonial rulers and sugar cane plantations where conditions were appalling for the thousands of workers bought over from India.  Not only is it a well written story, but it gave me a glimpse of a slice of history I'd not known about.  In an afterword by the author, she notes that between 1879 and 1916 over 60,000 Indians went to Fiji as indentured servants.  Basically they were contracted to work for a fixed period of several years, for fixed pay, and were...

  Some odds and ends for you today.  First off, I love the work of an Instagram user by the name of ievate, and I was smitten with this crazy looking Folk Art style angel that she made.  Which meant I've collected fabric scraps & had a go at making my own version.   They're still very much W.I.P.s, and they're definitely not going to be your traditionally pretty angels!  (Once they're made I'm going to try a reindeer too .  After all, Christmas isn't that far off, is it?)  I'll remember to show you the angels once they're finished.   When I'm done with scrolling through Instagram with the first cuppa of the day, I like to scoff my morning porridge while watching crafty videos on YouTube.  Well, it beats listening to news reports full of doom 'n' disaster on the radio.  I'm enjoying Jude Hill's short pieces about her textile work.  This little video about weaving had me emptying out a matchbox in order to use it as a ...

  It's going to be an indoors kind of day for most of this Sunday.  Grey sky and rain.  Lots of rain.  So I'll start this blog post with a few photos from a couple of walks this week, when it was blue sky and astonishingly mild for mid-October.  There's something very restful about being outside and looking at a view where you can see open fields and a wide slice of sky, with no buildings to block your gaze.  You can escape the hemmed-in feeling that town or city life can give you.  It's the same as being at the seaside.  It's not just the smell of salt air and the sound of the waves and the crunch of shingle underfoot that we love.  It's that uninterrupted view to the horizon.  Thoughts don't seem to crowd in as much when there's distance ahead.   Anyway, on to craftier matters.  I've been taking pictures of the hedgerows in all their autumn colours and various stages of decay in the run-up to winter.  I want to make...

I stumbled across half a dozen videos the other day, and they're what's sparking this blog post.  Erica Wilson was someone whose work I first came across in a small way in Cathy Callahan's 'Vintage Craft Workshop' book.  In it she gets different crafters to recreate seventies designs but with a modern slant.  There're projects involving raffia, hessian, papier-mache, macrame and lots more, including embroidery.   The chapter on 'Stitching: Crewelwork, Craft Kits, and Applique' included a brief note about a lady called Erica Wilson.   The chair's shown in this photograph, and I can see why the stitching captivated Cathy Callahan so much.  It's fabulous.   Erica Wilson's name stayed in my mind, so when I was snapping up a few secondhand embroidery books, wanting to learn more about the craft, I happily bought one of hers.  (It's a great book, by the way.  Dated, obviously, but very comprehensive.)  All of which led me in the...

  Sunday afternoon, another week about to roll into view.  I've been for a brisk autumnal walk around a local RSPB nature reserve, coming back with a pocketful of pretty brown feathers and a handful of dried grasses and seed heads, the vague aim being to either sketch them or to make a little stitched piece with them as a reference and starting point.   This tea-dyed white cotton that I just dyed might come in handy for something stitchy, but I might over-dye it as the colour's not especially strong.  Some interesting lines from where I folded & tied the material though.   I also dyed this piece, using blackberries, and getting a good combination of pale and darker purples.   I've been trying a few odds & ends of crafty projects this week.  I'd a small bag of kilt pins, ordered in error when I should've chosen large safety pins instead, and was wondering what to do with them.  Thought I'd make something beaded that might be ...