rubykittyruby

  There's something immensely pleasing about a tin of buttons.  You can pick up a handful and let them slip through your fingers, enjoying the sound they make as they fall.  You can rummage through a mis-mash of shirt buttons, iridescent mother of pearl buttons and garishly coloured cheap plastic ones.  Large buttons salvaged from coats and jackets.  Novelty buttons from children's clothing, maybe from back in the day when babies wore delightfully named matinee jackets.  As a child I could quite happily spend ages threading buttons on to a length of knitting wool in order to make a necklace of sorts.  Why am I telling you this?   Well, I had the urge to make button cards today, so I cut out tags and either stuck a pretty paper on one side of them or I added a printing stamp.   These are three of them, and they'll probably end up added to a journal page or cover.   I also spent a bit more time sewing lines of slightly wonky...

  This year continues to race along at breakneck speed.  Already I can see the evenings are getting shorter, and it's darkening by 9.30 when it used to be light until 10.00.  It's supposedly full summer, yet the hedgerows are full of ripened blackberries.  Way too early, and the apples on my allotment trees look as if they're almost ready too.  The seasons are out of whack, aren't they?  Climate change is scary, and we've not even begun to experience the worst of it yet.  Maybe I'm burying my head in the sand by retreating into crafting?  But what can any of us do on an individual level, besides buying less, recycling more, trying to vote for politicians who'll respect the environment. I'll continue making things, meanwhile trying to do my bit to lessen my personal carbon footprint.  These little patches are just calico with lettering inked on them and watercolour paint around the edges.  I've slow-stitched this one to make a fabric tag,...

I've annoyed myself a great deal this morning.  Two or three days ago I took delivery of a little packet of jewellery findings.  I fancied making some new earrings as mine are looking a bit shabby, so I bought a packet of 50 silver coated wire hoops.  I distinctly remember putting the packet on my dining table, but was it there at breakfast time when I looked for it?  No.  No, it wasn't...  Cue a fruitless search.  Either I mistakenly binned it when I was tidying up, or I'd placed it 'somewhere' for safe keeping.  I've looked everywhere, even in the recycling bin.  (Honestly, what must my neighbours think?  I'm out there in my pyjamas rooting through the plastic and cardboard!)  The silver wires have disappeared without a trace, but on the plus side I did find a bone folder I'd mislaid months ago, a cardboard template I'd hunted high & low for, and a reel of perle cotton.  There's a lot to be said for 'a place for everythin...

I'm still immersed in trying to uncover my family tree, but in between I've been catching up on 'The Archers' (George - what a nasty piece of work he's turning into) and re-watching the grim but compelling Scandi Noir series 'Wisting' on the BBC iplayer.  I've also been making a couple of art journals, using papers I'd painted and stenciled ages ago but that'd sat around waiting for me to do something with them.  There are certain crafty activities that're immensely pleasing and that definitely includes putting simple books together.  Compiling signatures, using a bone folder to make sharp creases in the paper, choosing fabric or a printed paper for the covers.  If I can get my act together I want to make three as Christmas presents, but with December just around the corner I really need to get a wiggle on.   I'm also sewing another Jude Hill inspired piece of slow stitching.  A moon in a starry sky.  It's going to be a little wall ha...

  Hello, and I'm happy to report that Kate Atkinson's 'Shrines of Gaiety' is a proving an excellent read, and I'm halfway through and lovin' it.  Luckily I've finished the Jude Hill inspired slow stitching, so that's not a distraction any more.  I was going to add further details to this - a couple more feathers, a stylized comet flaring through the sky, more spirals - but when I reached this stage it felt complete, as if adding more elements would make it too busy.  I didn't get the expression on the moon's 'face' completely right, but it was as good as I could manage.  In between devouring chunks of 'Shrines of Gaiety', I nipped into town, and did the obligatory rummage around the charity shop, my purchases joining those from the other day.  A pretty skirt that'll be cut up for patchwork - it's about a size 20, so there's lots of fabric to use - and that cost 99 pence.  As did the stencil of the three kings bearing g...

  In a few hours time the clocks will be put back an hour and that's that as far as Summer is concerned.  It's always a little disconcerting when the clocks go forward in March or back in October.  There's the feeling of being unbalanced.  Unsettled by the shifting of time in this way.   I've spent part of today finishing this book, 'A Disappearance in Fiji' by Nilima Rao, set in 1914 and concerning the lives of indentured Indians on the island of Fiji.  This was the days of Empire, of colonial rulers and sugar cane plantations where conditions were appalling for the thousands of workers bought over from India.  Not only is it a well written story, but it gave me a glimpse of a slice of history I'd not known about.  In an afterword by the author, she notes that between 1879 and 1916 over 60,000 Indians went to Fiji as indentured servants.  Basically they were contracted to work for a fixed period of several years, for fixed pay, and were...

  It's going to be an indoors kind of day for most of this Sunday.  Grey sky and rain.  Lots of rain.  So I'll start this blog post with a few photos from a couple of walks this week, when it was blue sky and astonishingly mild for mid-October.  There's something very restful about being outside and looking at a view where you can see open fields and a wide slice of sky, with no buildings to block your gaze.  You can escape the hemmed-in feeling that town or city life can give you.  It's the same as being at the seaside.  It's not just the smell of salt air and the sound of the waves and the crunch of shingle underfoot that we love.  It's that uninterrupted view to the horizon.  Thoughts don't seem to crowd in as much when there's distance ahead.   Anyway, on to craftier matters.  I've been taking pictures of the hedgerows in all their autumn colours and various stages of decay in the run-up to winter.  I want to make...

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 ...