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 ...

  Here's Badger, looking like the little cutie-pie he is.  He's settled in so well, is absurdly affectionate and eats anything and everything I put in his food bowl.  The only fault I can find is that he likes to sharpen his claws on the side of my sofa.  This is despite having two scratching posts, one of which is part of a cat tower that's taller than I am!  I may have to try trimming his claws, but I don't know how Badger will react to that.  Anyway, expect to see more photos of him, so sorry in advance for any of you who aren't feline fans.    Apart from gazing in admiration at the cat I've continued to experiment with embroidery.  I really can't decide whether this mainly pink piece of stitching is something I like or just a dog's dinner of a mess.   This is another embroidery I've been stitching.  Frankly, at the moment it looks like it should be lobbed straight into the bin.  I'd painted with a mix of watercolour pa...

  (this is a crazy looking piece of embroidery I've been messing about with.  It's not exactly subtle & minimalist, is it?!!) I'm about to become a cat owner again.  Or should I say a cat caretaker as we don't really own the creatures, but merely act as their willing servants and admirers.  I visited the local Cat Protection Homing Centre earlier this week as they'd shown a kitty on their website that suited me nicely.   He's called Badger, and he's an indoor only cat as he's got FIV.  It's a virus that weakens a cat's immune system.  He can't infect people, but if he scratched or bit another cat he could pass it on to them.  So I can adopt Badger and not feel guilty about never letting him outdoors.   I've been thinking about adopting another cat for ages, ever since my Emma became seriously ill and had to be put to sleep.  But my neighbours had two cats hit by cars, so I decided it was safer to have an indoor only pet....

  Do you know what these are?  They look like sweeties, don't they?  But they're actually silk cocoons, and I'd seen them used on a YouTube video, to add texture to an embroidery, so decided to treat myself to a bagful.  (Of course, it's very grim to actually think about how silk is made.  There's no getting away from the fact the silkworms die in the process.) I also splurged on these luscious Stef Francis threads.  Such beautiful colours.  I'm stitching on this piece of embroidery at the moment.  It's like a form of doodling, but with thread instead of paper and pen.   Alongside, I've been carrying on with my 'Under the Sea' textile piece.  It's slow progress, but I'm adding more details and working out what goes where.   I've added grey padded ovals which are meant to be pebbles on the sea floor.  Well, it all makes sense in my mind!!!

  Hello.  I hope you're well and - for UK based blog readers - not too thrown out of kilter by the clocks going back an hour.  For overseas readers, our clocks go back an hour in the autumn and are put forward an hour in spring.  It's all rather discombobulating.   I've been making progress with my 'Under the Sea' wall hanging.  It's still in the early stages, but I've slow-stitched a fair amount of the background, & am currently adding shisha mirrors, which are meant to look like air bubbles.   The first of my embroidered fish is almost done.  I realised today I've splashed paint on the blue material in the hoop, but luckily the splashes missed the actual fish.   I also realised I'd made a couple of things that I can refer to for ideas about what to include in my underwater scene.  I'd sewn this mini wall hanging, and want to recreate these fishes in my larger piece. I'd also done this embroidery, and will recreate el...

  Hello from my corner of West Yorkshire.  I haven't posted much lately as, to be honest, it's a bit quiet around here.  I've been pottering around the garden, sewing, going for long autumnal walks and generally not doing anything especially blog-worthy.  No exotic foreign holidays or lavish days out to tell you about.  But sometimes life's like that.  We have lulls.  Maybe it's to do with the time of year.  Shorter days, colder weather, less money to spend as the central heating's going on and that's got to be paid for! I've partway through embroidering this fish, which is for a wall hanging that I'm making.  It's not looking like much at the moment, but I'm hoping it'll all come together when I've got more stitching done.   I've also been making more of these fabric flowers, and have bought a pack of brooch pins to sew on the back of them.   I added this little heart today.  Red felt surrounded by shiny red beads....

Saturday evening, and am I getting ready to go out clubbing & dancing the night away?  Nope.  I'm lounging on the sofa and half-watching TV while I'm sewing.  Years ago I might've felt guilty about not venturing out, but now I'm perfectly content to admit I'm an introvert and my happy place is home.   I'm starting a new project.  Yeah, I know, yet another one!  Annie Claxton, who has a Facebook craft group and a YouTube channel, is making an embroidered picture of an underwater scene, complete with octopus, seahorses, fish and lots of coral.  I've been admiring what she's doing, and also another YouTuber SuzieQMakes, and belatedly decided I've join in too.  I've gathered up lots of blue material for my background and have made a start of tacking the layers together.  I'm hoping that lots of kantha style stitching will make these patches appear a unified whole, then I can begin adding my own sea creatures.  I'm also googling imag...

  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...