Ribbons

Today I started to sort out all the ribbons I have. The intention is to have one 33x37x33cm drawer for all my ribbons. I am fond of making jokes! I didn't realise just how much ribbon I have. When stuff is all over the place gathering it together into one spot is enlightening to say the least! So many reels with 25yards(bought in the US) or more on them. I will never use all that! So I rewound them and gave the spools to a friend and halved all the quantities. The spools alone would take up half a drawer! One half for me and one to make up into the goody bags I'm going to do. I have wired ribbon both plain and ombre shaded;satin ribbon; velvet ribbon; silk ribbon and grosgrain ribbon just to mention a few. And all of these come in several widths from teeny tiny to ginormous!I will arrange it by colour and size! This way I will see what I have and may even use it! So anything that won't fit into the drawer will be out! I have made a list of all the kinds of supplies I have and I am slowly going to be working through it so that when the drawers arrive next week I am ready to go! Tomorrow I will look at the lace I have! Again, a drawer's worth is all I want to keep!

Sewing Room

Click on picture to enlarge!
Pictures of my sewing room as it is at present. The top left and top middle pictures are the view through the open door. The door has hanging on it the wonderful 'Keep Out' crazy quilt notice that my friend Martha Green made for me when we were teaching together somewhere. I love it! The top right is of the back of the door. No space is wasted! Middle and bottom left are of my sewing machine and the boxes piled high on the shelves at the back of the table. Middle middle is of the bookcase beside the door and middle right is of the window and my chair. Bottom middle is underneath my workbench and bottom right is the workbench with the shelves above it. The basic plan is a U shape or actually more of a galley at the moment as I have moved the trolley that used to be under the window.It is definitely time for a change. I shall get rid of the tallboy that restricts one's entrance and the bedside table/cupboard that holds up one end of the workbench but keep the small two drawer chest that holds up the other end. It will go where the tall boy is now. I shall miss the tall boy as it has three shelves and two long drawers. But then I am going to be moving stuff on! Keep reminding me of this!

This and That!

Yes Sue, I know what you mean. I too could do with a larger house. Or at least a larger workroom. My workroom is barely 7ft by 7ft and with all the stuff I've got crammed in there it is amazing that I get anything done at all. But all that is going to change. My friend Yvonne has had a make over of her workroom which was the dining room in her house and I was so impressed with the units she got from Ikea that I immediately went home and thought of new arrangements for THE room! I have ordered two shelf units(Expedit range) which will give me 8 spaces and into seven of these spaces will go a transparent box and in the eighth one a two drawer insert. This overall unit will then have my work bench which is 6ft by 2ft 6inches on top. The amount of storage compared with what I have now will be massive! The fly in the ointment is that I can't have it until next Wednesday due to the Bank Holiday on Monday. The waiting is killing me! I want to be doing! I shall take some pictures of the before and then eventually of the after. I'm hoping at the same time to clear some of my stash. It has been suggested by one of my students that I make up bags of assorted bits and sell them in class. I may just do that as I have more ribbons, beads, threads, lace and fabric than I can use in a life time, and I'm sure there will be other surplus to requirements things as well, as now that I'm not teaching City and Guilds embroidery, patchwork and dressmaking, I don't need half as much stuff. I am now going to make lists! I love lists. They are such fun! More later!

New Door

We now have a lovely new door and I am very pleased with it. Martin made a new plaque for the number and altogether I think it all looks very smart. A great improvement on the old door as there are no droughts!
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I have a class tomorrow. The first one after Easter. There will be eight or nine students which is a good number. We are going to meet once a month and then have coffee mornings on the second Friday in each month. I think this will work well for the summer months when classes are competing with holidays and gardening. Tomorrow we are going to be doing a session on machine quilting using free machine techniques. This is really a most important part of the quilt making process but so often is the least important part because of the rush to get the quilt finished. And yet so often the quilting can add just that final touch that brings everything together. I was amazed at how many different ways I was able to quilt using a squared grid to form a sampler. Ideas just kept coming. Should be a fun class!

Too busy doing other things!!

I have been so busy with the garden that I haven't had time to sew or do crafty things. But all that will change as the garden is now manageable and won't take so much effort and also I'm getting withdrawal symptoms from not doing anything crafty. I did have a mammoth dyeing session at the weekend and produced a good pile of fabric to sell. It is always difficult not to pull out half a dozen pieces or so that I really, really love. But I have been strong. I have a drawer full of Liberty lawn fabrics which I must either use or sell/give away/or lose! I might be tempted to make bundles with a selection in each and see if there is a market for them.
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Tomorrow they are coming to fit my new door and it will be chaos but after that I shall sort the fabric out and see what I can do. I'm quite excited about the new door as the old one is terrible. Very hard to close without slamming it! And it's going to be another lovely sunny day! Pictures of the door tomorrow!

New finds of old stuff!

I was searching in my cupboards for some samples and came across these two items. The first one above is of a red velvet bag I made with silk ribbon embroidery. The one below is of ribbon flowers made with wired ribbons on a quilted velvet strip which has been washed so that the backing shrunk and pulled up the velvet. Very easy to do and very effective. These two pieces have reminded me as to why my cupboards and shelves are overflowing! It is because I dabble with too many things rather than just concentrating on one or two! I am going to have to really think about what I do, why I do it and how much of it I'm going to being doing in the future. Like for example the silk ribbon embroidery. I do very little of this now, mainly through lack of time, and have run down my stocks of ribbons. But I still hang on to all the equipment needed for these and several other creative techniques. I used to make lots of hand-made paper but haven't done that for a while but still all the stuff is there. I find it hard to move on! But I will try and make a plan! I enjoy making plans and perhaps this time I will actually act on it. Watch this space!

Easter Treat!

As it is Easter this coming weekend I made a Simnel Cake. I haven't made one for years so it is a bit of a treat. For those who don't know Simnel Cake is an Easter speciality. It is a rich fruit cake with a layer of marzipan in the centre of the cake and then a layer of marzipan on top. Traditionally it has 11 small balls of marzipan on the top also and the centre of the marzipan is covered with yellow glace icing. However I decided to put small chocolate eggs on the top. I made two loaf tin shapes instead of one big round one and took one to work this afternoon where it was soon devoured and pronounced good! We will have the other one for Easter Sunday tea!
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I am delighted to hear that my stick insect is possibly a Praying Mantis and fond of aphids! Anything that feasts on aphids is welcome in my garden. So thank you to Anonymous from Memphis for that comment. Much welcomed!

Stick Insects

Some time ago I mentioned that I had found a stick insect in the garden and one in the house! Today I decided to pull compost out of the compost bin to mulch the garden and there on the top of it on the lid was a baby stick insect. I think I had shakent the Weigilia which is next to it and the poor little thing dropped off. So I put him back and hope he manages OK. He had gone when I next went out to look. Do I perhaps have a colony of stick insects in my garden? Are they breeding like mad! It is Spring! I know next to nothing about them and I'm curious! Do they fly? I always thought they were a foreign creature. Obviously they like the garden!

Moving one of my blogs!

I have moved my blog 'My small Cornish Garden' to Blogspot as I just couldn't get on with Wordpress. I know some people love it but it just wasn't for me. I have told myself that I will write more consistently so that next year I have a record of what I have done and what the weather was like!

Handmade books

I have been spending my time making handmade books. The picture above shows a selection. I am in the process of making larger books (A3 size) but haven't finished them yet.

This one is covered in handmade paper. All the paper I bought from Paper Chase in London. This is one of my favourite shops and one could spend a fortune there as there is such a variety of paper which makes it difficult to choose. I have some handmade paper that I made myself but the only problem is that the biggest piece is only A4 size. The binding cord is coloured string.

This is the inside of the book showing the endpaper and flyleaf. The flyleaf paper is very pretty with inserted rose petals and ferns.

This little book is so easy to make being just two covers held together with suede and a post-it block inside which you can see below. Great idea for small gifts!

I love these miniature books. They could be hung on a chain and attached to one's bag or key chain. Very handy for making notes of measurements etc. They are approximately 2x3 inches.

I am having such fun doing this and will soon have quite a collection. It will solve some of my Christmas present dilemmas. As I've got my workroom set up to do this it seems only sensible to do as many as possible!

Sorted!

Well I have solved the problem. We are going to run our classes once a month and have a coffee morning once a month so that in effect we will all get together twice in the month. I will organise one project per month and we will be open to guests. Students who just want to attend for that one session.(So you would be very welcome Susan) Works for me!
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I have 100 metres of fabric to dye and I have lots of ideas for colour runs,value runs and one of a kinds. There will be competition if the weather is good between dyeing and working in the garden. I am wanting to do some batik pieces so perhaps I could actually dye in the garden! More room and less mess!

New Blog

I have started another blog. As if I need another blog! The link can be found in the sidebar. I wanted a blog where I could post inspirational pictures. These will be of things and scenes which motivate me to create and I will add a few bon mots as to what it is about the picture that gets the juices flowing. Sometimes I will follow up with actual work that has resulted from the picture.

In a quandary!

I don't know what to do. We are coming to the end of this term's classes and there is going to be a shortage of students for the summer term. In fact we will barely make the room hire money which means I will be teaching for next to nothing. Do I do this as a labour of love because there is every possibility that it will pick up for the winter term or do I call it a day and stop teaching? I can always advertise again for the winter sessions. I do enjoy teaching but do I really want all the work of planning classes for very little in return. There is a core element of students whom I really don't want to let down but on the other hand I could be using my time more productively. I really don't know what to do. The summer is always a difficult time because people go on holiday, have gardens to tend and just like to be free to do what ever and not tied down to a class. I can understand this! I suppose in the back of my mind is the fear that if I get off the track I won't be able to get back on. Should I perhaps just run one class a month for the next six months and see how this goes? Make it more of a group than a class? I shall have to discuss it with those students who are keen to continue but I don't know what to offer them for the best. These things are sent to try us and they do. Not forgetting that I actually sell a fair amount of fabric at class! Always an important point to remember! Though with less students and a recession that too could go down. I need help and advice!

This and that!

These are a few of the kaleidoscope blocks done in class last week. Heather had a very large repeat (top row)and we had to move the fabric around a lot but we got there in the end and these lovely patterns were the result. This is a superb block to do as each pattern is subtly different. The difference between the pansy material and the japanese fish material is decidedly marked though both are attractive. The ooh's and aah's as the patterns were laid out were most gratifying. One of my favourite classes to do!



This week we made a crazy patchwork armchair tidy. This is my sample for the class. It is a very simple pattern and once the crazy patchwork is done quick to make up. I used silk on the top side but a linen underneath so that it wouldn't slip.




Next week we are making journals. The one below is covered with fabric and is A4 size with corners in the same fabric as the spine.




This is the fly leaf of another one which was covered with hand-made paper bought at Paper Chase - one of my favourite shops! The fly leaf is a piece of onion paper that I made myself. I haven't made paper for quite a while but stocks are getting low so perhaps I'll have a paper making day this summer.



My son is coming down from Scotland tomorrow for a few days so I won't be posting for a while. We don't get to see him that often due to the distance, so I am really looking forward to this visit.

How Time Flies!

A month has gone by since I last wrote anything. It has gone so quickly but then February is a short month. My daughter and the two grandchildren, Fenella and Fred, were down for nearly three weeks and that made time speed by.This is a photo of them building a mousetrap in the garden. I don't think the mice need to worry just yet!

Fenella had a camera for the sixth birthday in January and is an avid picture taker! Suddenly she is becoming very grown up.


One day we went to Newquay Zoo and I loved the shell on this tortoise.The markings on it were exquisite.


Then I had a workshop to do for a local quilting group and that needed work preparing for it plus my regular Friday morning classes which need a new sample every week. Considering I also work in the afternoons I am kept quite busy.
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At the moment I am making a kaleidoscope quilt which is not growing very quickly and this weekend I hope to make a selection of hand-made journals. I love doing this and will take pictures of the process. Hopefully I will make a dent in the pile of hand-made paper I have stored up and free up some room.I will also make some fabric covered ones using some of my hand-dyed fabric. I have finally found a new supplier. For those who are interested I am getting my fabric from Whaleys. I couldn't find a cheaper supplier and get the quality. This is working out well though.


I dyed some wool last weekend which will be useful for decorating the covers and fastening the covers together. The picture above is an old one but the wool I dyed is exactly the same. I love these colours. I also did some deep ruby reds and dark blues. The wool is a rough spun fibre with lumpy bits in it. Lovely for decorative work. I have some more in hanks which I will dye up soon as I don't think what I have done will last for long! I also have a fleece living in the boot of my car which needs carding and then dyeing so that I can make some felt. It has been there for a few years now and really needs to see the light of day! It is there, along with some sacking and various plastic pots and a portable ironing board, two irons, a folding chair, an umbrella and a roll of cardboard. It is as good as having another cupboard! There is just room for my sewing machine when I go to class! One day I must give it a good clear out and see just what I have there. I think I've even got some wadding and embroidery threads. It's no wonder I have a job finding the spray can of de-icer when it's frosty!!

Snow!

This was taken last night. There was a really bright moon and it all looked quite ethereal! For some reason it reminded me of a Thomas Kincaid picture! It is quite cold now and beginning to freeze. I'm glad I'm home in front of a roaring fire; and glad I've been to Asda and bought enough food for a siege! Now will I have enough books from the library to keep me going? Well I can always fall back on Sudoko if I'm stuck. It's too cold to go and sew as I am too mean to run the central heating all the time! But I could knit! Now there's a thought!

Aaaaaagh!

Eventually I got around to trying to copy the Husqvarna instruction video and wasn't that a big mistake! Now this is a twenty plus year old VHS tape I am trying to copy and I haven't viewed it in at least fourteen years! It was fuzzy! Well actually that is an understatement! It was completely unviewable save for the first chapter on setting up the machine. If I don't know how to set the machine up after twenty odd years then I am more of an idiot than I imagined! So it was a wasted effort and what was worse it completely wrecked my Mum's recorder. Which we didn't realise until she came to record one of her weekly programs. She was not happy! However my husband rode to the rescue and the machine is now all hunky dory and working well but it has put me off trying any more videos for the time being. I'm really sad about my Husqvarna video as it had some good motivational stuff on it using pictograms as well as the basic instructions. Ah well - win some, lose some!

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No pictures as I'm at work typing this. I had to walk in as we had four inches of snow last night and there was no way my car was going to make it up the hill. Very slippy under foot too! I'm doing an early shift so as to get home before everything starts icing up again. For those international readers of this blog I have to tell you that Britain comes to a full stop when it snows. Trains, planes and buses don't run; schools close and lots of people can't get into work because of the general chaos! Not like Canada or Norway where life goes on as normal regardless of weather conditions. I can remember when I was first married and living in Devon, where we would get a lot of snow, that we always kept chains to put on the car but I think this preparedness was due to the fact that Martin had lived in Norway for a year where his only mode of transport was across country by ski! Now I am a total wimp and only go out in ice and snow if I absolutely have to! I'm wondering if my daughter and grandchildren will be able to make it down here on Thursday from London. They have had it really bad in the South East. I have taken photos so perhaps I'll be able to post some tomorrow. Falmouth rarely gets masses of snow as it is on the coast and fairly protected. I remember one year in the sixties when I was living in Kent that the whole country was snowed up save for Falmouth! Mind you those living in Falmouth were completely marooned! So really it isn't that bad though I have yet to walk home!

More fruit blocks

Danielle wanted to see more of the fruit blocks so here are three of them done on silk and made into cushions. The top picture is one of cherries which I did for my niece and the bottom two are of pears and apples which I did for my sister, again on silk. I also have these patterns done on the turquoise cotton to form part of the wall hanging I'm doing. As well as these fruits I've also done lemons, oranges, plums, gooseberries, grapes and strawberries. I hope never ever again to have to do piping in silk as it did my head in being so slippery! And also because I covered the piping cord in wadding so that it wouldn't show the twist and this made it harder to control as well. So no more piped cushions! At least not until I've forgotten my angst over them.

Thank you Sue and Debs for your kind comments. They were much appreciated as were Danielle's. Occasionally I get these attacks of the dismals and this must have been one of those days. On the whole I'm quite happy to send into the unknown and make no contact! Is there life on Mars? Probably not!
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At the moment I am faced with tidying up my workroom and hiding up my bits and pieces in the spare room as my daughter and children will be visiting at the beginning of February. I am looking forward to this and it is a good incentive for looking at the clutter and sorting it out. My biggest problem is room and I know that once things are put out of sight they go completely out of mind! The next big project is to make journals so I shall have to look out all the stuff I need and have it handy. At least this will use up a considerable amount of saved 'I'm sure this will come in useful' stuff! You all know exactly what I mean!
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Well I must now actually go and do something. I have only ten pages more to finish my book and it is going to be hard to actually do something until I've read it but I'll try! I'm feeling really good as I managed to copy a VHS video onto DVD last night and it worked! This evening I'm going to try putting my Husqvarna instructions onto DVD. As I don't have TV or a video player this is a real break through for me. I knew giving my mum a new digital recorder a couple of Christmas's ago would come in useful. Why has it taken me so long to actually do it!

Fruit blocks

This is the last one of the fruit appliqué blocks I'm doing. There are nine in all plus the strawberry border. The picture above is of the block before it's been stitched. I used fabric pens to colour and add to the leaves and grapes. The tendrils of the vine are coloured in with pencil and I will overstitch with straight stitch.This is one of my favourite blocks; the others that I like particularly being oranges and plums. Eventually I will turn them all into a wall hanging. I have had great fun doing these and will feel a gap when they are finally finished.
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I am doing some lessons on designing over the next few weeks and will start off dealing with colour and line. I am looking forward to these lessons and will stress the importance of proportion as it is so easy to have a good idea and yet never have it reach it's best because of poor proportion of elements in the design. I shall spend the next week of two making samples to underline what I am saying and I'm looking forward to this. I'm thinking of running a series of work as I go on the blog as it would be a good record of what I have done to look at in years to come. It is amazing to think that I have been blogging since early May 2005. I have lost the first few posts that I made as I changed my format and didn't realise that this would lose what I had written to date. But even going back to the first post that remains on the blog it is still very interesting and informative. I have to say that I was more involved in the beginning than I am now. Sometimes I have to make myself write and I know that my interest in blogging isn't as great as it was. I have to ask myself - do I blog for myself or to be read by others? The lack of comments makes blogging for others more of a chore so I suppose really I blog for myself. The fact that over 56,000 hits have been recorded means somebody somewhere is reading it but isn't sufficiently interested to comment; either positively or negatively. And I notice that lots of blogs that I read in the early days have bitten the dust and are long gone. I wonder if they felt the same! It's a bit like putting a letter in a bottle and casting it out to sea. Wondering if anyone will find it and reply!

Where is the year going?

Already thirteen days of this month have gone! The New Year isn't new any longer. Where has all this time slipped away to? I didn't make any resolutions this year; new or otherwise. I try hard but I never keep them! So this year I'm just going to continue as before but with more effort.

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This year I am going to make more effort to achieve my original plans rather than making do with what is easiest. This is one of my besetting sins that I can be happy with something that isn't what I actually wanted. With regard to life this is probably a blessing but when it comes to my textile work it means that I am never getting the most out of my endeavours. But all that is going to change. I'm going to set myself challenges and then I'm going to follow through to the bitter end. However long it takes! This isn't a resolution it's an extension!

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So far this year I have managed to finish several UFO's which has cleared the decks and I am well into another UFO at the moment. Soon they will all be finished and it is amazing how uncluttered my mind is becoming as my workroom clears of piles of unfinished stuff. I tried clearing out some of my cupboards but found I just couldn't bring myself to re-home(sell, give or throw) anything. It has got to the stage where most of my stuff, cluttered or not, is now useable. If not now then definitely useable in the future. I do have to decide as to what direction I want to go in and only keep stuff relevant to that. Maybe a few things that don't fit any category but not box loads.

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And I am setting aside time for thinking! Quiet periods for reflection will enable me to plan my time better and work out ideas so that they can be excuted in the best possible way. As well it will allow me to dream! Dreams mean designs so can't be bad!