PEAROOM SATURDAY,

Hi everyone,I am afraid I haven't blogged much lately as I have been working on my quilt for the festival of quilts. As usual-leaving it to the last minute.Yesterday the pea room ladies set up their exhibition and today-we opened. The quilts were fabulous and we were mostly swayed with compliments-exept in one case.... I was hovering around my quilt when an older married couple examined it-closely-very closely-so- in stewarding mode,I said brightly "do you like it?" whereupon they verbally ripped it to pieces they were extremely descriptive in their dislike and criticisms--I shrank to the size of a mouse and crept away. on reflection it was quite funny really, it certainly takes all sorts to make a world..Anyway, the African fabric shop was there, and whilst I have made a pledge not to buy any more fabric till the F. O.Q. I can still buy threads beads and buttons and a really nice big basket that is both strong and soft,yahoo!
And when I got home I got out a journal page that I hadn't finished and I sat and sewed quietly for a nice long while.

happy stitching

I feel all nice and soothed now,I am back there tomorrow, and I will keep away from my own quilts!
p.s. two great blogs I have discovered- stitching life- a brilliant Yorkshire lady and a link from her blog[ I cant seem to load it up]called while I was waiting, check them out-they are great! p.p.s.- another blogger said if I really want to move then I need to stitch a cloth depicting all of us moving to a new house-- hey, its worth a try!

The long borders

So sorry I have been so quiet recently, really not like me I know. First off, I was very busy at half term fending off all the short people that kept hanging about possibly because it was granddads birthday, and then I was frantically trying to finish my quilt for the rufford competition and then my blogspot froze....... for a week!SO a week on, sadly I didn't get accepted for the exhibition but Angela did, its a clever and thoughtful quilt and I am very pleased for her,well done Angela!

Its called :the long borders: and is a long crinkled piece of stitching over a quilted background with my birdy at the bottom..

SCRAP JOURNAL BOOKS

Back again,been quiet for a few days whilst my injured pride recovers, anyway,-I have been reading textile traveler quite a bit lately and I am very taken with her idea of a scrap journal using fabrics and also I like her weekly journal quilts--so what if--I combined the two and made a weekly scrap journal quilt book? It would need to be a reasonable size to give me enough room for a bit of quilting and all the scraps of things I have done or sewn that week and it would need a firm backing to make it into a page ,pelmet vilene probably ,- like a giant postcard zigzagged round the edge not bound. and I would probably use a ring binder file and cover it, to allow for the thickness of the pages and I would write everything on the back so that I could make some sense of it a year later. Theres many weeks when I feel like I haven't done anything because I haven't made a proper quilt, but when I look at the bits I have saved for last week, I realise I have done quite a bit really...I will quilt and stitch into these journals just as I please, with no plan or design just stitching freely and enjoying the process and the texture and seeing where this idea takes me, exploring ,and maybe, if I am lucky, discovering something along the way

one week ago

the one week ago journal has two pieces of dyed wool wadding, and a felt flower for the sheep day, and three soft brushed cotton scraps for another baby jacket, a torn paper rose with blood red stitching for the evil rose bush I fell into, the green stripey painted background and a stitched piece of my birds tail feather for the proper quilt that I finished last week, and a net that I learned to make , and pink hearts trapped in it to show that mr shedman still captures my heart and 28 kisses as we have been together for twenty eight years last week.

Two weeks ago journal

The background is painted and then drawn on with markel paintstix and inktense pencils to repeat the Follow me; that I am running on expeditionquiltart, the postage label is from a parcel that patchandi sent me from Australia, the yellow square is little esthters dress, the two green patchs are from the two postcards I sent this week, the buttons are the buttons I saw at my feet in the high street whilst talking to Angela, the Galaxy wrapper is for the disappointment of losing the house I wanted to buy and the dangly label is from a pair of jeans my daughter bought when we went shopping. I actually did a lot more than I thought that week.

three weeks ago

I went back in time to three weeks ago,background is watered down acrylic paint, from some experiments, the yellow fabric and the cow fabric are for the little dresses that I am helping my little girl and her friend to make. The red square on a green stem is for this months guild journal quilt and the stamping was because I discovered stamping that week I will also add my first postcard to it as well, last but definitely not least the lovely curly blanket stitch I just learned that gives sooo ,much texture to a flat piece love it, love it, love it, busier week than I thought really....