Memories from the Park Day....

20th February 2016

Went to the park today to support our first 'memories' day.

Sadly it poured with rain so we didn't have many visitors!!!!

We were in our refurbished pavilion and had a gas heater so it was quite cosy....

grape hyacinths and miniature daffodils on the window sills...

.....Sophie, the event organiser, scribing the memories....

....using our crochet bunting and vintage cloths....

....also from the yarn bombing event....

.....more daffodils and Wallace and Grommit watching the proceedings....

....daffodils in my decorated jars looked great on the window sills....

....this 'table' was made from wooden pallets covered with a beautiful hand embroidered vintage cloth from my stash, cakes donated by local shops....

....some of the committee listening to stories.

Really looking forward to next weekend when we hope for better weather and more stories from park visitors as well as taking part in the planting of the 'living stage'.

Watch this space for more info and I would definitely recommend joining a group like this.....

One of Those Days!!!

18th February 2016

I decided to use my stitched indigo fabric for a tote bag using an old denim apron.....

....stitched the fabric onto the denim then Kantha stitched around the edge...

.....attempted to stitch the sides and my machine kept missing stitches, gave my machine a good clean and it wouldn't stitch at all!!

Off to the repair shop tomorrow.

These arrived in the post so was going to complete my book.....

....forgot how to do it and although I searched Pinterest couldn't see how to do it!!

Jack had to go to the vet's for his booster jabs, we gave him the 'calming' tablets so he wouldn't attack us and the vet when we put the muzzle on him, he was very good but wet my coat on the way in the car!! Dry cleaners tomorrow!

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On a brighter note....

...at new year I informed RD and SD that I wasn't going to cook every night and they could choose which night to cook and also decide the menu, WISH I HAD DONE THIS YEARS AGO!!

RD chose Wednesday for his day and yesterday made a steak in Guiness pie and it was DELICIOUS.....

... SD and I were very impressed with the decoration and the taste, RD was awarded 10/10 and I suggested 2 meals each per week, that suggestion went down like a lead balloon!!

We also decided we would try some new recipes, we are having chicken tagine tonight  and SD's wonderful meatballs tomorrow!

Will be knitting for the next few days while my machine is being repaired.......

Recycling.....

14th February 2016

The weather has improved this week, cold but sunny....

I had my first gardening session in the park on Friday, planting up some donated Sweet William...

...so lovely to see the the new growth in the beds...

....Karen and Avril busy planting!

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Our next park project involving the community and Left Coast....

....this is the idea for the living stage, so exciting!!

The next 3 Saturdays we will be hosting a 'Tea Party' in the park, cakes donated by local shops, all free, and asking people about their memories of time spent in the park. The memories will be used in a performance in the park in May on the living stage.

Today I have been decorating jars and bottles with hand made crochet mats bought at the charity shops and ribbons from my stash.....

.....these will be used as small vases for the 'pallet tables' when we chat and record people's memories...

.....posies of Rosemary and Periwinkle from the sensory bed will fill the vases...

....so glad I volunteered for this group when I retired 8 years ago!!

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We are taking the yarn bombing down this week and washing then storing for next year!

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As you know I have been enjoying my slow stitching and hand embroidery so treated myself to these two books with Christmas money....

....have enjoyed looking through them but haven't actually used any ideas yet!

Watch this space.....

Slow Stitching....

10th February 2016

Remember this.....            

....small 'squares' cut from my indigo shibori fabric.....

.....embellished onto calico....

....slow stitched.

Not sure why all the colours vary...

...still more to do...

....used some red thread...

....so many stitches and soooo relaxing.

Enjoyed a walk along the promenade, cold wind but SUNSHINE!!

Making the cover and pages for my Gardens book...

5th February 2016

I have spent some time over the last few days preparing pages and the cover for my handmade book ready for my course in March.....

....I covered 2 pieces of thick card with wadding....

.....stitched my flower embroidery onto linen (a napkin from my charity shop stash) for the front cover.....

.....attached the leaf onto another linen napkin using blanket stitch for the back cover....

......decided to decorate the lining paper pages using a variety of techniques...

.....this is the print from a small rolling pin that has string wound round it...

....Brusho and sponge printing...

...a piece of polystyrene gouged out produced this print, recycling at its best...

....string on a wooden block....

....just love using bubble wrap....

....the effect after wetting paper and sprinkling Brusho crystals....

....when dry!

Think I will stitch the book together on the course as I have forgotten how to do it!!!

A Creative January.....

1st February 2016

HAPPY FEBRUARY!

I have been doing lots of knitting and hand stitching while listening to audio books and watching Netflix!!

Finished a baby blanket, a very simple pattern which I can do while watching i-player/Netflix ......

....started another blanket using cotton/bamboo yarn which is lovely to use. This pattern has proved fairly challenging and I have to be in a quiet room on my own or I make a mistake and have had to undo about 6 times!! It will not beat me.

I haven't used my machine for ages so decided to use thread cut offs and dissolvable fabric to make a new fabric, not sure what I am going to use it for but I enjoyed making it.

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In March I am going to Cornwall again for a course with the lovely Anne Griffiths. The theme is Gardens so lots of scope to use my love of trees, flowers and leaves.

I am going to use this embroidery for the cover of a handmade book. The backing fabric was an experiment using my embellisher, I wasn't very happy with the result so added scrim and stitch, then saw this idea on Pocketmouse (Anne's site ) and have really enjoyed the very slow process of 'slow stitching flowers', added buttons and beads and am fairly pleased with the result.

I printed this fabric and used the leaf design to practice my free machining a long time ago, decided to add some hand stitching in variegated perle thread, think this will be the back cover.

Hopefully will make the cover and pages tomorrow, watch this space.....