rubykittyruby

I keep thinking it's Wednesday, but no, it's only Tuesday, and it's also astonishingly mild too.  I was out in the garden without a coat on!  Makes a change from shivering in layers of thermals and woolies during the recent freezing cold weather.  A bit of blue sky and warmish weather really does lift the spirits.  I've noticed the days are getting ever-so-slightly longer too.  There's the not-too-distant promise of light evenings and spring flowers.  Speaking of flowers, the perfume from these blue hyacinths is gorgeous.  Nicer than any scented candle.   In other 'news', I've been making progress with this scrappy patchwork.  It's had its binding attached, and is waiting to be quilted.   I know using my sewing machine for those quilt lines would be speedier, but I like the softer look hand stitching gives.   The binding's as scrappy as the patchwork squares.  I've jumbled up colours and patterns, so there's ever...

  Another grey Yorkshire day and I've already spent part of it outside, rummaging in the green recycling bin.  I'd bought someone a present that (a) is electrical, so there's always the chance it'll develop a fault, and (b) she might not like it, so I want her to be able to sneakily exchange it.  Which meant I needed to keep the receipt, instead of lobbing it into the bin, along with loads of cans, cardboard, glass and plastic.  No idea what the neighbours thought of my bin-diving, but the receipt's been successfully retrieved, so that's one thing to tick off my 'to do' list.   Talking of things I'm ticking off my list, I've decided to see December 2024 out by trying to finish lots of little crafty projects that're lying around.   I sifted through these shelves, tidying and grouping things together, and used several freezer bags to sort WIPs out.   The last of the embroidery's now finished on this heart.   These partly-complete...

  It's mid-week, and I'm mid-project with so many crafty endeavours.  This is what I'm referring to as my leftovers quilt as it's cobbled together out of orphan patchwork blocks and various odds & ends.  Over the last few days I've tacked the wadding on to the back of the patchwork top, and have been burrowing through my stash trying to find material large enough for the backing fabric.  I've nothing sizeable enough, but there are three pieces I should be able to stitch together.  They need to be approx 65 x 70 inches, so I think this will end up being the largest quilt I've made.  I usually stick to lap sized ones or single bed sized.  Easier to handle, especially with my basic model sewing machine that gets huffy and misbehaves if I ask too much of it.   I also completed another page of the Lorna Scobie book, '365 Days of Creativity'.  It's not very good, and I do get frustrated by how what I want to draw doesn't end up being what ...

It's the weekend already, and the central heating's kicked in because of a cold, frosty but bright morning.  I've succumbed - yet again - to buying a book online.  It's 'Embroidered Purses' by Linda Tudor, the library book I featured on my blog the other day.  Decided I needed my own copy and - ooops! - I seem to have purchased it.  How on earth did that happen?  Oh well, it was a bargain price from the ever-reliable World of Books.   On the subject of books, I recently finished 'The Casual Vacancy' by J.K. Rowling, a terrific read, I really enjoyed it.  Last night I got to the end of this Philippa Gregory, 'The Taming of the Queen'.  The queen in question is Katherine Parr, the last of Henry VIII's many wives and thankfully a woman who survived the terror of being married to him.  I'd read Elizabeth Fremantle's 'Firebrand', another novel about Katherine Parr, but I think 'The Taming of the Queen' is the first book tha...

  It's been a glorious autumn day.  Chilly to wake up to, then the sun came out & shone brightly, so it was off to the allotment where the earth's softened up after recent rainfall.  I was able to weed and tidy, trying to make the plot look respectable before the cold weather sets in and we slide inevitably into winter.  At home I fitted in some sewing.  The patchwork bug's bitten me again, after having a break and spending time lately with gell printing.  I've been gathering up lots of tiny scraps and joining them together, going for a haphazard look.  Nothing matchy-matchy or colour coordinated.  There's something very satisfying about finding a use for the smallest strips or triangles of cotton, little pieces that might otherwise be destined to end up as cushion filling.   Speaking of gell printing, I've been using prints to turn into seed packets for flower seeds gathered from my garden.  Hollyhocks, scabious, catananche....

  I'm typing this with the Olympic cycling on in the background, and hoping the Ibuprofen I just took will get rid of a banging headache sometime soon.  I think the weather's got something to do with the headache.  It's muggy, very close, and with luck we'll get a really good storm before long.  Or at least a decent amount of rainfall to help clear the air.  Today's been a muddle of grocery shopping, allotmenting and adding more stitching to this would-be wall hanging.  It's slowly beginning to take shape, and I'm slowly beginning to think it mightn't be too bad.  I reckon once I put a border around the whole thing it'll look less raggedy and I can concentrate on adding lots of detail.   Sunday morning was spent gell printing, but it was one of those infuriating times when print after print turned out a muddy mess.  I only turned out one single print I kind of liked.  So I switched from paper to fabric, and applied paint to calico i...

  When you've a stack of single bed size or lap size patchwork quilts that'd been patchworked but not quilted, all of 'em waiting for you to finish them and put them to use or give as presents, it's immensely satisfying to make these teeny-tiny pieces of patchwork.  Not even a full day's stitching and you've something completed.  Of course, these mini quilts aren't going to keep you warm at night, but they do have a practical purpose.  Kind of.   This one measures roughly around 2 and 1/2 inches wide and 4 inches long.  It has a calico base, then scraps of material sewn on, sewn over, stitched and re-stitched.  I was going for a boro style.   The back's reasonably neat.  What I found was that the more I stitched into the mini quilt, the nicer it became to push the needle in and out of.  The different layers of material become like one, and I liked the way the horizontal running stitch and vertical running stitch went over and u...

Hello from the mess that is supposedly my front room (a.k.a. sitting room, lounge, parlour, whatever you want to call it).  I've been sorting through piles of fabric and trying to bring order to it.  Fat chance of that!  Nevermind.  I thought I'd start this blog post off with a failure.  Something I tried but which didn't really work out.   I've been playing around with making simple doll shapes lately, and yesterday morning had the idea of making a doll patchwork block.  A background of 6 inches x 8 inches and a doll shape appliqued on.  I'd recently bought a packet of Bondaweb and wanted to try that out, not having used it before.   I deliberately chose clashing colours and patterns, going for a scrappy look and lots of contrast.  Four of the five blocks I made turned out okay, but the fifth pink block had the doll shape appliqued on all wonky, so I put that aside.   I added the blank faces, ready to be embroidered ...