At last- back to real life!!!!!!

At last!, the two quilts are finished, wrapped, labeled, and boxed and on their way, phew,
enough
 already
,now I can read blogs again yaaay! and sew stuff again- double hurrah!!!

 Happy dancing is called for !

Here are some pics of the quilt that was just a picture in my head when I  filled in the entry forms, that was certainly flying by the seat of my pants!
Remember the doily that I bought in the charity sale?
Well, it became my sunshine, happy sunshine  in fact.

This quilt is entirely recycled, even the binding is cut from a friends linen shirt, buttons and buttonholes included, I haven't told her what I v done to her shirt, but its alright, she doesn't read blogs....

I really like this doily, but I had to paint it twice as frankie said it looked like a fried egg ,
 and she was right......
.
It would have had a lot more layers and stitching on it- if it hadn't been so stiff...

...
I know I am always banging on about second hand/ recycled  ahem-  vintage[ that's the nicest word] fabrics,

 but I love them, they have an aura, you  can feel the life they have already had  I don't see why you shouldn't celebrate that life, show the wear holes,  use the frayed edges  At the moment I really love the raggedy raw edged look, so we will have to see where it takes me...



Anyway , the second quilt is the one I didn't finish last year, as we moved house.  Its 18 inches wide and about seven feet long, its called Marmaris
 and its inspiration was the silver fish in the lovely turquoise sea around -yes you have guessed it -marmaris
.    I couldn't photograph it in one bit and I had boxed it up before I realised the photos aren't too good and I do really love it but ooh, it feels so good to be back in blog land, reading when I should be stitching.


.

 mental note for next year----have a quilt AT LEAST three quarters done before I fill in any forms.... good night now, I am off too bed to dream lots of happy dreams about stitching stuff
 the world is my lobster..

service suspended

 I am sorry. I cant post at the moment, as I did a silly thing, foollishy, I entered not one but two  quilts for birmingham, one was last years that I didnt finish because I moved and one was an idea in my head !yes I really did that and boy, am I busy, like 10 kids and a toddler group and a village hall wernt enough to keep me busy-   and the ironing of course, so..... until I am finished I will say see you later-- comments and encouragement are welcome... tina

OH! WHAT A LOVELY DAY.





I have had such a lovely time today, this morning I popped down to Leasingham village hall for the st. Barnabas hospice grand sale, fill a bag with fabric for a quid! wow   -had to be there.
There was stufff ,  lovely stuff   everywhere I felt like I had died and gone to heaven.....



I found a bag of sparkly, glittery brocade offcuts, I feel a bag coming on........



assorted embroidered lace doilies, God I do so love old stuff, it has a history, a life, character and wear  and tear, I get such a buzz just from handling old textiles.



I found a gorgeous hand knitted jumper body but the arms were missing, its a lovely shade of cornflower blue, if I sew up the edges it will make a lovely pram blanket for our youngest pipsqueak-- who actually rides about the village in a pram!
And does this round doillie say yellow to you? yes, definitely yellow....



and look at these lovely square shell sequin like things, a whole bag.yayy!



how about this marvelous olden days baby bib, the stitching is so tiny and it was spotlessly clean, clearly made in the days before spaghetti hoops..

Look how tiny this rolled edge is...cant actually see the tiny stitches in the linen.
And I found some lovely crewelwork fabric[ book cover, or bag?]And some old linen and two tablecloths and two boxes of buttons, one of which I managed to drop all over the floor and everyone helped me pick up[ and well done leasing ham, that was a very clean floor].
.

I missed out on a big Euphoria in a pot, shame, as mine died this winter, and then I had tea and cake, with tablecloth and  small vase of flowers, and then Frankie walked in, so I went back to the fabric stalls and we found some offcuts of wool men's suiting's, which is perfect as Frankie has gone all Sue Spargot and we are going to do something from her book soon.

Then we had more tea and cake, and Frankie, who has just returned from Malvern, brought me  a lovely unbirthday present of some gorgeous threads from the African lady, such a kind friend, then I bought some homemade cake for Mr, shed man, who has finished the decking and is now mending my car, he is a good lad, and sadly for him. he isn't married to a woman who bakes[it would cut into my sewing time and create unrealistic expectations]



After dashing home to drop off my purchases and pick up the sprogs we shot over to spalding to the unique farm studios for their wool day,



look at the baby Alpaca, isn't he lovely, ooooooh  I  want one



 Angela was dyeing wool  in a microwave, sadly she couldn't boil up her daffodil heads for dyeing as it was way too windy to light the gas burners, hand painting wool really is great fun..



there was GIANT knitting..



Nigel was doing big french knitting .there was weaving and spinning and felt making and fleece dyeing and some  really gorgeous handmade  honey soap- also made by Angela 



and of course, sheep shearing, some very agile Australians were divesting the Jacobs of their warm winter coats.




not very dignified, but effective.




Before
and after...



the alpacas were napping as we left tired but happy.
I had a really nice day, it felt like a weeks holiday rolled into one day, lovely

And if you want to see what happens to the lace doillie--go here.







SCOUTING, CAKEING, THINKING,NOT MUCH SEWING....

THINKING------I was in primark last week, and I saw these four great little brooches on a card, for £1.50
bargain!
And I thought, wouldn't they be great, pinned onto the front of a personal book cover, as a gift for someone.[ notice how I am completely fixated on book covers at the moment?]
Bish Bash Bosh!spent all week making a book cover for my daughters friend, and I have really enjoyed it!



Last year we made Amelia a fabric birthday card, and its been on her wall all year, so I knew it would be appreciated, sometimes, you make something as a gift and its not really wanted, so I am care full who I give gifts to.



I really really enjoyed making this but, it has created a number of requests from other people for similar items.
Number seven asked me to make a book cover from her favourite [torn ]trousers and you know how I love re purposing fabrics,so,
here we go again.....

CAKING---------Seem to have eaten about , a ton of cake recently two family birthdays plus Trudi, plus, this week,- Frankie, happy birthday Frankie!  

here are some pics of the famous ice cream cake, loved by all of my family, contains no cake whatsoever, only ice cream, and layers of sweets, very easy to make,  yum yum......

SCOUTING----That's why I haven't been about much, packing, tenting, camping, unpacking, washing, practise tenting in garden,
not much sewing.......

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!