rubykittyruby

  The hot weather continues, and Yorkshire Water's finally declared a hosepipe ban.  Frankly, they should've done that weeks ago given how little rain we've had for the best part of three months.  Anyhow, better late than never.   The catananche are looking so pretty, as are the hollyhocks.   Clumps of sweet marjoram on the allotment are alive with butterflies and bees.  That kind of makes up for the total lack of courgettes.  They need lots of sunshine and lots of water, and while the courgette plants have had the sun they've been starved of water.  Never mind, the local supermarket will have them in stock, I don't doubt, and there's always next year ...  At home, I've finished reading 'Scarlet Town' by Leonora Nattrass.  It's a terrific read.  She's one of those authors who are reliably good, and even a couple of pages into the book I had the feeling I was in safe hands.   Another kind of book.  I'm still ...

  When I've not been picking strawberries off the allotment - they just keep on ripening - or reading Barbara Kingsolver's fabulous 'Flight Behaviour', or when I've not been trying to tackle the wildly dishevelled June greenery in my garden or moving furniture and cheese plants around in an effort to have a tidy house - I should give that up as a hopeless task - I've been dabbling in various crafty pursuits.   I've finished the scroll-like piece that I made as part of this month's Stitch Art group, based around an exhibition by Roger Ackling.  It only really makes any sense if you look at his artwork (and even then it doesn't make a massive amount of sense!).  But I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out, and I've added it to the fabric book I made to collect up all my Stitch Art efforts.   I was hoping to roll this up into a scroll, like you would with a snippet roll, but including cardboard put paid to that.  So I folded it up and made a b...

(Photo of my front garden.  Everything's growing like crazy!) Finally!  I didn't think I'd get any decent strawberries from the dried out looking plants on the allotment.  But recent rainfall's meant they've grown and ripened, and I've had delicious bowlfuls of 'em.  I don't eat them with cream - can't afford to scoff all those calories - but natural yoghurt instead.  Last year I tried freezing some of the berries I picked, but they really are best eaten fresh.  I'll save the freezing for blackberries instead when it's their harvest time.  So it's strawberries in my morning breakfast of either porridge or overnight oats, berries for pudding and berries for evening snacking.  Yum!  I finished reading the Stella Rimington book I picked up in a charity shop.  It was a decent enough spy story, but rather dry and I won't be in a particular hurry to read any more of hers.  I'm about to begin the Barbara Kingsolver novel 'Flight Beha...

  And here I am again, full of baked sweet potato and veggies.  I thought I'd post this before I start on my pudding.  (Natural yoghurt & blackberries, possibly chopped apple too.  I'm trying to stay away from the really indulgent puds until we get into the full swing of Christmas, to avoid the waistline expanding too much!)  I've been carrying on with my Ulva Ugerup inspired stitching today - more of that in a wee while - but first thing after breakfast I was digging around in the recycling for cardboard.  I found Amazon packaging, which was perfect.  I wanted to make the covers for a fabric book, you see.  It's going to be for the stitchy things I make in the class I go to at the Art Gallery.  I cut the cardboard to the size I wanted, and used thin polyester wadding to add a padded feel to each cover.   Stretched over the wadding, and stitched & double-sided-taped into place, are a piece of scrappy patchwork and my embroid...

  It's a grey rainy morning, and I'm trying to concentrate on pleasant things, instead of the News which is full of the grim reality of armed conflicts overseas.  But that kind of content is for other blogs, ones far more serious and weighty than my ramblings about crafty matters.   I went to the last of my fabric covered book classes on Saturday, and it was a joy to see all the different ways others presented their books.  My over-the-top creation is the grey and purple one you can see above, and - if the light here improves - I'll try and film a little video on my phone.  Will post that later today or tomorrow.  In the meantime, look at the other books - the one with the eyeballs, the stripes and buttons, and the beautifully embroidered tiger who came to tea.   No two books were even remotely the same.   There's a pretty embroidered toadstool, and look at that pretend cassette tape!  During the class, because I'd worked a lot...

Saturday was the third of four classes about how to make a fabric covered book.  As with the other sessions, it passed in the blink of an eye.  I spent at least an hour assembling my book's cover, which involved using bookbinding glue, that I realised is far superior to regular PVA.  It dries in a fraction of the time, and if I decide to make more books using this method I'll definitely be buying a tub of the stuff.  As always, it's available via Amazon and eBay, so it's not as if you have to seek out a specialist bookbinding supplier to purchase it.   Once the outer embroidered covers were stuck firmly in place, I added black felt to the inside, choosing that instead of end papers.  I also added a dangly sparkly something at the spine, and a piece of purple & gold braid to finish it off.  There are still a few unadorned pages inside the book, so I've enough to occupy me during next week's final class.   The book doesn't close fully ...