rubykittyruby

Today's been hot, hot, hot!  I mean, it's lovely, don't get me wrong.  Wall to wall sunshine makes you feel good, but - but - you see, the gardener in me is pining for rain.  A deluge.  A downpour.  Thunder and lightning would be an added bonus as I love a good storm.  The garden and allotment are desperate for rainfall, and the two water butts by the back door have barely a thimbleful left in them.  I keep topping up the makeshift bird bath, and refilling the bowl of pebbles and water left out for bees, wasps and other fluttery, buzzing creatures, and I worry that lots of people aren't doing the same.  Our thirsty wildlife need all the help they can get.  At least I can turn on the tap when I'm in need of drinking water, but the poor things can't do the same.   Anyhow, on to craftiness.  I've started patching up a shopping bag.  It's one of those just-in-case bags that I bet most of us have lying around.  It's unblea...

Here's the allotment.  Not providing much in the way of food at the moment, but oh boy!  Isn't it pretty?   Yup, no doubt about it.  Prettiness everywhere you look. Back at home, my sewing machine's playing up.  I changed the needle which improved things, but the tension's not right and I've tried different makes of thread and that helped a little.  I think the machine needs servicing, so will find out where I can get it done locally.   While it was grudgingly behaving itself, my stroppy machine obliged by sewing the seams of this little bag.  It's based on the Japanese rice bags that I've seen being made in YouTube videos, and was an easy make.   Five squares of fabric for the outer, five for the inner, small rectangles for the loops, cord and beads for the tie.   I used cotton material, without interfacing, so the bag's quite floppy.   A denim version would look rather handsome, don't you think? ...

Sunday has rolled around again.  A sunny June day, bees buzzing like crazy around the purple flowering sage in the front garden, popping in and out of foxglove bells, intent on finding food and paying me no attention.  I caught up on The Archers omnibus this morning - I was distinctly underwhelmed by the storyline about Jim's missing glasses.  Yup, he'd lost his specs, hold the front page! - then a mooch down to the allotment to admire the rapidly ripening strawberries.   The afternoon was fairly aimless, a botched attempt at making a bag, I hadn't thought it through properly, and another chapter of the Alice Hoffman book.  This evening will be sewing and telly, and I probably won't shift far off the sofa.  If you're wondering about the photo above, I was browsing on Instagram and came across a post from amandanadigart.  She'd cut out squares of plain fabric, then sewn on two randomly shaped scraps.  As she wrote:   ' Stitch a shape...

  Having finished my '31 days in May' fabric challenge, I was pondering on what to do next in order to keep my mind ticking over.  Then I recalled this book, Clemency Burton Hill's 'Year of Wonder'.  I bought it ages ago, and every late December I pull it off the bookshelf and decide to include it as part of my New Year resolutions.  Cue failure.  Don't most resolutions peter out way before the end of that long, dark, dreary month?  All grey skies and freezing cold, no cash after Christmas and expanding waistlines from too many festive treats.  New Year resolutions disappear, along with the last of the wrapping paper and boxes of chocolates.   If you've not come across 'Year of Wonder' it's an introduction to the mysterious world of classical music, and the author picks a short piece to listen to each day of the year, along with a few paragraphs or a page of explanation/introduction/history of the composer.  The music's easily accessible...