I have a deckchair......



I have a new deckchair, its lovely! now all I need is time to sit in it . The house is still  full of kids having sleepovers  [boy, is that ever a stupid name.]  and Mr shed man has decided to build a new deck....





 the maniac dogs have been helping.

so, not a lot of sewing, some here, and a bit of work on the Janet Bolton piece, she has layers of edges, and they often are a little wobbly on purpose to keep the folk theme going,but, at the moment, the centre is empty, 
  to me,    its a big fenland landscape but it really should have something in it, I am going to spend some time on this ,because  I want to get it right.



Working on the frames first.




do you see the little edge peeping out?
Tomorrow I am off to the lazy daize studio for a get together with Trudi [quilting prolifically] and Angela[fenland textile studio, ] I am bringing cake and looking forward to a quiet sewing day.....



CALM AND SPACEY......

Its been a hard week, slaving over sweaty children, who keep asking for meals and constantly expecting to wear clean, ironed clothes,   grrrr  grrr.Luckily, my life has been saved by this woman,  who restored my will to live. About 30 years ago, I took my eldest son to the library and we took out a book with lovely patchwork pictures in it.   It was the first patchwork I ever saw and I fell in love with it .
I never expected to be doing a workshop with the author 30 years later.........

Janet Bolton, and her wonderful box of delights  came to enchant us this weekend, and we were inspired!
she gave us a talk and a workshop and showed us all her marvellous little folk art pictures.Her pictures are very spacey and calm very simple and elegant, very nostalgic.....

 we all tried very hard to make ours as good as hers........



Trudi based hers on her allotment garden- theres a pumpkin coming.



some were based on the seaside.

there was even a flying fish.



some got more done than others





mine isn't here, it needs work, I have to remove the kitchen sink!



BUSY, BUSY BEES.



The young quilters in the house  have been busy, busy bees this week, finishing their quilts for the competition at the quilters guild AGM.






Though I haven't done them for them, I have supervised, which is quite nerve wracking really,I am really proud of them and I hope they keep it up, because I do wonder how many people will be quilting in 30 years from now
,   Its hard to promote  any handicrafts   when ,increasingly, our kids live, learn and play in a virtual world , I think, rather than teaching them the slow, exact and accurate methods of sewing ,its better to attract them with quick, easy items to make and plan to teach them proper techniques later on, when they are hooked......

   Now they are done, I can finish my book cover here and think about  making my next book cover,there are three options that I want to explore,a small ravioli parcel book wrap, already started,or something recycled, either using an already re purposed Indian newspaper carrier bag which could be exciting but I am not sure how to do it
Or, re-use an old Indian cushion cover that itself is made from old re-used Indian embroidered sari fabrics.Its marvellous to think this started life far far away, its lived a whole life already, then a second life here being a cushion, lurked for a bit in a charity shop, and now its hanging about in my house, I absolutely love second hand textiles, I dont know why but they have a feeling to them that I dont get from shiny new fabrics,



Got to be the cushion cover, really, too gorgeous not to.........

But ,now that I have taken the old cover apart, I am a bit shocked at how delicate the sari fabrics are and  I realise I need to back each piece with something, perhaps a soft iron on vilene to suport them before I do anything with them...sugestions please....?

TIRED BUT HAPPY....

What a lovely mothers day weekend it has been,yesterday I enjoyed a delicious three course lunch with other mothers as our scouts cooked us a lovely meal, and today we went to the good old British seaside. Hunstanton to be exact.
we played on the beach and built mermaid shell palaces.

 we watched the tide come in......

gave the baby his first glimpse of the seaside...



we ate ice creams




had a ride on the fairground..



And finished the day with a fish and chip supper,going home, we sat in a traffic jam and gazed at the rain
An absolutely perfect day
, thank you family....I have done some sewing go here  to see it.