rubykittyruby

  The days are marching by at record speed, and I've finally - possibly - bought all the presents I need to buy and written all the Christmas cards I need to send.   I decided not to put up a full-sized tree this year as I'm convinced Badger the cat would simply view it as a climbing frame, and I'd find it toppled on a daily basis.  Instead, there's a small green tree, and a simple white twiggy one that has lots of vintage baubles dangling from it.  To be honest, I prefer the twiggy one, so the green tree might be permanently retired from now on.  I've not gone crazy with the decorations, but there are various strings of fairy lights that look so pretty when they're lit.   I have - between internet shopping and baking mince pies - made a little fishy pin cushion, decorated with seed stitches, French knots, chain stitch and stem stitch.  I'm on the look-out for grey tweedy material to make another fish as I think that'd look better than plain ...

Hello from a grey, rainy-sky Yorkshire.  I'm sat on the sofa, waiting for the parcel man to deliver one of the few Christmas gifts I've actually got around to buying.  I really need to get a move on with deciding what to buy people.  I did venture into a few actual shops yesterday, but the impatient crowds, queues at tills and endless jaunty Christmas themed songs being played wasn't my idea of fun.  Online shopping's the way to go!   Right, on to crafty matters.  I was in Leeds yesterday for the last Stitch Art session of 2025.  It was themed around a new exhibition, ' Plant Dreaming '.  It's a beautiful display of paintings, photographs and textiles, plus some fabulous ceramics that I really coveted.   I think these ceramics are by Aliyah Hussain.   Hopefully you can see enough, despite my poor photography.  I also loved these massive wall hangings that were pretty much floor to ceiling.   They make me wan...

I haven't been posting much on this blog lately, apologies for that.  I'm easily side-tracked and forget how quickly the days speed by.  I've treated myself to a couple of books, so no change there!  The 'Stitch, Fibre, Metal & Mixed Media' is a book I'd borrowed from the library, and liked so much I wanted my own.  It's secondhand, as is the 'Modern Folk Embroidery' which I picked up for a bargain price and I've had on my list of books-to-buy for ages.   I love these fabric baubles from the 'Stitch, Fibre' book, and had a go at making something along these lines.  I'd had the idea about three years ago that I wanted to learn needle felting, thinking I'd make lots of cute little animals and dazzle everyone with my needle felting skills.  I acquired a boxful of supplies and - guess what? - I didn't get anywhere with that craft.  My enthusiasm fizzled out.   Anyway, literally years later, when I decided to make a version of ...