rubykittyruby

  There are lots of these beautiful blossom laden trees around, and the gusty winds we've had lately have been scattering pink petals across grass verges and pavements like confetti.  I've still got a garden full of tulips, joined now by bluebells and anemones in their jewel-like colours.  There are even flowers beginning to appear on my strawberry plants, so lets hope for a bumper crop of berries this year.   I nipped into a couple of charity shops today.  Two interesting looking historical novels for 50p each, plus three crochet magazines for a quid each.  I don't crochet, but my niece does and these will be going to her.  The magazines are good quality and full of patterns to try, but if you really really peer at the small print on the cover you'll see their original price.  £7.99 each.  Yikes!  That's why I don't buy glossy magazines any more, the prices are way too high for my taste.  I'd rather spend on craft books. ...

  I made a little triangular coin purse today, after seeing a tutorial on YouTube.  My version's slightly different to the original, but only slightly.  If you'd like to know how to make a purse then view the video, found via this link.   But I'll also run you through how I made mine.   I drew a rectangle of calico, 17cm x 16cm.  Then turned it into an L shape, as per the measurements below, shown by my highly technical super-de-luxe artist's quality diagram.   Bet you're impressed, aren't you?  Anyway, moving on ...  I chose a plain cotton fabric for the purse's inside and a patterned one for the outside.  I placed those fabrics right sides together, then my calico went on top.  I pinned around the edges of the calico, using red pins to indicated where I'd leave a gap of about 5cm or so.    (Basically I'm using the calico as a kind of interfacing.  Otherwise the thin cotton outer and inner fabrics would be ...

Here are odds & ends I've been making, and a few charity shops purchases.  First up, this is a proudly taken picture of a slow stitched square, and in particular my French knots!  I used lengths of the crochet cotton that I'd previously dyed using Inktense.  I love the range of colours from my homemade variegated thread.  I won't show the whole square as it's going to be swapped with someone on a Facebook group.  It's unlikely they'll wander by my blog, but you never know.   I'm also making a couple more owls that are for swapping.  I varied the embroidery from the previous ones I'd made, and prefer these.  (Though the owl on the right does have his wing applied back to front.  Why do I only notice mistakes like this after I've completed something?  Every time.  Every single time!) These are my charity shop buys.  A dressmaker must've had a clean-out as there were lots of fabric remnants, though most weren't suitable f...

  I finished a little embroidered bird this morning, and overall was pretty pleased with it.  I'd tried to cover all of the calico with stitching, and in particular to get the markings on the head and the eye position correct.   This started out as calico with a pencil drawing of a bird's outline drawn on it.  I didn't want the threads to be all one shade of blue, one shade of yellow, one shade of green and so on.  Instead I used a mix of colours to add interest to the body and wing.   It definitely helps to have this in a hoop.  There's a little puckering with the calico, but not much.   When I finished the embroidery I took the material out of the hoop, selected my pale blue felt for the backing, then put them both into the hoop, the embroidery face down on the felt.  Then I sewed around the bird's outline, leaving a gap of about two inches so I could turn the blue tit right side out.   I inserted light padding in t...

Us Brits are never happier than when we're either drinking tea or discussing the weather.  Preferably both.  Today has been unseasonably warm.  I mean, it's April.  It shouldn't be so mild you don't even need a coat or a jumper on.  I can't decide if it's just a routine weather event or yet another scary sign of global warming.  Anyway, on to craftier matters.  The day began with me unearthing this buckle while I was rummaging in a button tin.   I realised the colour meant it would look good as part of a fastening for this fabric wrap that I'd almost-but-not-quite completed.  I sewed the buckle on, and paired it with this dotty black ribbon.   The ribbon's not totally perfect, but I need to remember the ' better done than perfect ' saying, don't I?  Right, that fabric wrap's finished and I can tick it off my work-in-progress list.  The other thing I finished is this circle bag.  It didn't really turn out how I en...

  Good morning from not-so-sunny Yorkshire.  It's all grey sky and the promise of rain out there, so I'm indoors and thinking about books.   I've finished reading this, and to be honest I won't be recommending it.  On the good side, it's full of historical detail about England in the Civil War years, and that must've been a fascinating, frightening but thrilling time to exist in.  But the problem I found with this novel was that the characters never came fully alive.  I didn't feel any of them were ever swept up in the emotions they were supposed to be experiencing, whether that was love or grief or fear.  I ploughed on to the book's end, but was glad to be done with it and it's off to the charity shop for someone else to hopefully enjoy more than me.   Still on the subject of books, I popped into the Art Library yesterday and borrowed a couple off their well-stocked shelves.  My developing interest in embroidery got me thinking at ...