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 painted papers, stenciling and stamping on sheets of tracing paper, ready to be included in a handmade book. Plus, I made a couple of thread keepers based on these by Jude Hill. Hers were made of heavy duty paper, but I used cardboard for mine, making use of packaging from an online order. I tried out a couple of shapes, trying to make them look weathered and worn, sponging on metallic gold and white paint, then drawing in the faces. I couldn't decide whether to make notches in them for holding the ends of thread in place, so tried using a small hole punch instead, thinking that might do the job. Well, they're not exactly sophisticated - and not as characterful as Jude Hill's design - but they could be an idea to experiment with, and at least they're a greener alternative than buying yet more plastic spools to wind thread around.
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...
Oh dear to the broken Harvey Nicks tumbler! I go through a period of wrecking things, I broke three mugs in short succession a few weeks ago and hopefully that'll be that for a while!
ReplyDeleteI love your little cats! xxx