I thought I'd just add a few more softies, for no other reason than they're softies! Softies are cute and funny and - oh, I don't know. Do you really need a logical sounding reason for posting pictures of fake doughnuts and felty jam tarts!! There's a recession on and we need every reason to smile we can get.
I've been clearing up the chaotic area around my desk and came across lots of softies. Lately I've spent so much time doing patchwork and needlepoint that I'd forgotten how much fun softie making is. So I gathered up this selection of cakes and took their picture, to remind me.
Sewing took a back seat yesterday though. I'd got my bike fixed in the week so took myself off for a couple of hours cycling. There's a great cyclepath in Bristol which runs under the suspension bridge and along by the river. It's a lovely relaxing ride, and the countryside looks beautiful. I don't know whether it's the weather (!) this year, but Spring is so lush and green, much more so than usual. There're still bluebells out and everything's blossoming and sprouting and flourishing. Makes you feel good (and makes me think of Cold Comfort Farm - when the sukebind's in flower).
Popped up to the allotment later in the day and -wow! - after a few days of not going up there, it'd gone crazy. The grass is almost growing before my eyes. I began weeding with a vengeance, and - sunshine permitting - will be carrying on again today.
So softie making will have to wait yet again ...
I can see way too many UFOs. Not shiny silver saucers winging through the night sky but those dratted unfinished projects that start off in a flurry of excitement then get pushed into a corner and forgotten when a new idea comes to mind. So I'm trying to finish a few off.
I've backed and stuffed a few more cushions, and spent yesterday afternoon quilting a section of an entirely hand stitched patchwork quilt. Those things are like the Forth Bridge, you never feel you're making much progress but one day - one day! - you'll get there.
Apart from that, I seemed to spend most of yesterday eating! The more I think about dieting, the more I seem to stuff my hamster-like face with everything I can find. I think I need a whole shelf full of those self help books, plus maybe a padlock on the fridge. Oh well, I'm starting today with good intentions. Let's see how those work out.
I'm drinking tea, listening to a druid called Arthur Pendragon being interviewed on the radio (don't ask!) and uploading photos on to my Photo Album. Here's a couple of pictures for Sunday morning viewing. This first one is of a big chunky bangle I bought from Boden. It's not somewhere I'd normally shop (a bit too yummy mummy for me) but I'd got on their mailing list and they keep sending me leaflets.
One leaflet caught my eye, offering a £10 discount on anything I bought, plus 15% off plus free postage and packing. So I bought a £15 bangle I really liked (but wouldn't have paid fifteen quid for) and once discounts were put in place it came to a grand total of £2.75.
The bangle's a lovely dark amber, but it's suited more to bare summer arms so I'm not wearing it much yet, and it came in this sweet green and white patterned bag with a lovely pink ribbon. The bag now houses my ipod and charger, the ipod being the same bright pink as the ribbon. Such are life's little pleasures!
This second photo is of (I'm 99% certain) larkspur. It's one of the few things I managed to grow last year on the allotment that wasn't demolished as part of a luxury buffet by The Evil Slugs. The flowers are past their best now, but look at that vivid colour. Stunning. I couldn't resist picking some and putting it in a vase.
I spent last night watching the first two episodes of Kirstie's Homemade Homes, which was great fun. I love her enthusiasm for make do and mend, trawling through rec yards and markets for second hand goodies and her championing of British craftspeople. It was very sweet to see how thrilled she was with making a simple envelope cushion. Bless! I also loved the little knitted house featured at the start of the programme and before/after the ad breaks. Would really like to knit one, so I came up with a very, very much simplified version.
It's embroidered with flowers and slightly padded with polyester filling. Not sure it has any practical use, but I enjoyed making it. I like the idea of making bunting with lots of litle houses of differently coloured wool.
This knitted house joins a couple of others I've made in felt, one a Christmas decoration with red/green/silver and the other just another non-practical piece of enjoyable sewing.
I'm going to knit another house or two, and improve the design. Maybe make that bunting too.
Yesterday was a real April day of sunshine and a few showers. I did some charity-shop wanderings in the morning, and bought a couple of odd things (a talking book of a Ruth Rendell novel & an old fashioned box of dominoes. No, I don't play dominoes, but the box is vintagey looking and nostalgic and - oh, you know what it's like when you see something and think you'll only regret it if you don't buy it. Once home I did a tiny bit of cleaning up and general chores, then got down to some crafting.
I was quite pleased with the mix of blues used in this small piece of needlepoint. Even though there are lots of other colours - pinks and greens for instance - the overall impression is still one of moody intense blues.
Later my very unsuccessful diet took another downward turn when I made scones. Sometimes a girl just has to give in to the urge to bake. The sultana scones turned out beautifully, but they weren't a low calories option, especially when scoffed with buttery spread and marmalade. :-(
I'm still on a needlepoint kick at the moment, the patchwork and softies being put to one side for a while. I thought I'd show a couple of pieces that I made a while ago, but which I've never got round to finishing.
The idea was to make spectacle cases for reading glasses. The needlepoint would be folded so there's a cat on either side, and lined so the glasses wouldn't get scratched once put inside.
At some point I may actually do this!
It's been a lovely Easter weekend so far, and looks set to continue today. Being a Bank Holiday there's no work so it's gardening and sewing, and maybe a bit of reluctant cleaning thrown in.
I've put my 'Klimt' needlepoint aside for a short while and am completing my fishy patterns. Originally these small pieces were going to be backed with felt and used as tablemats. But now I'm thinking of making them into dinky little cushions. Of course they'd be more decorative than practical, but I reckon they'd look good grouped together on a sofa.
Tulips are one of my fave flowers. Such gorgeous colours and graceful shapes. These are some I've picked from my allotment. I can't claim to have 'grown' them as the bulbs were there when I took over the plot so they grew themselves! I feel a bit guilty picking flowers to put in vases, but I always leave a few on the plot for the bees to buzz around. I've been given masses of seeds by my Mum, so the next few evenings are going to be spent putting seeds in pots and trying to conjure up space on sunny windowsills.
Apart from that I'll be carrying on with my needlepoint project. I'm making a cushion based on a Klimt design. I made one before (see little picture here, more on Flickr) and that was pretty successful in my eyes.
This new cushion is very (very!) loosely based on shapes and colours in Klimt's 'The Kiss'. I'm trying to remember to take a series of photos of work in progress, so I can see how it develops. At first with this kind of thing the design looks like nothing special, and you have to keep on going, believing you'll come up with something good. I unpicked an area of yellowy-orange as it wasn't right and was niggling me everytime I looked at it, but apart from that it's okay. Needlepoint's slow going though, you have to allot a fair amount of time to make real progress.
The design is lightly marked out with a pink felt tip pen, then I've started stitching in the bottom right hand corner.
Finally, on a related matter, I found a lovely stash of tapestry wool in a charity shop yesterday. About 40 skeins of wool in various colours for the bargain price of - wait for it - £1.75. Considering you pay about 60 or 70p in a 'proper' shop for a single skein it really was a great find.
So thank you to the anonymous person who cleared their clutter and donated all that wool.
Yesterday bought some good finds in charity (thrift) shops and another (slightly shamefaced) addition or two (or three) to my ridiculously large fabric stash. My best buy was this 22 piece coffee set. The sugar bowl has a slight chip as does one of the cups, but apart from that it's in very good condition. I obviously don't need a 22 piece coffe set, but I loved the colours and funky pattern. Anyway, at £7.50 it was an absolute bargain so I snapped it up. Over at the fabric store I found two small floral prints which are dead ringers for Libery prints. Really pretty and ideal for patchwork. Plus an over the top, rather goofy colourful cotton which just looked so zingy I had to have a metre. Two more mini splurges followed as I bought a £1.50 china beaker with a Silver Jubilee design. The Silver Jubilee being that of Queen Mary and King George. It doesn't look valuable, but it's a nice little thing.
I tried photographing it, but my camera's not good enough to take a decent non-blurry picture in close up.
Finally, my purse nearly empty, I spent 99p on 16 fake chickens .... no, I don't know why either but I saw these Easter chicks and thought 'There must be a use for those!' They look so silly I had to have 'em ...
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