The Day of Diversity...

It's still quite shocking that speed of uploading information isn't it? I have been asked to do some workshops in the Summer for MK Arts for Health and they requested some suitable jpegs to illustrate one of my proposed workshops.

So, in less than an hour I was able to design the block - a polystyrene pizza base and biro ( all high tech stuff), print a few colour combinations....

And then whizz up to the bathroom (best light in the house) to take the photos.

Uploaded them, turned them into Jpegs and sent them on their way to the project.

Not a bad afternoons work.

Bonjour Le Camping....

We had a lovely half-term in France on the Ile De Noirmoutier.....the days were long, sunny and got warmer as the week went on. We had a treat too, staying in one of these tents rather than having to set up our own. We have learnt to our cost that France is always further away than we plan, often getting stuck in some detour around a town which holds us up.

So this year, we went for one that came fully equipped and didn't need putting up as dusk falls and the rain clouds open.

This was how close we were to the beach and sea.....I had forgotten to take my 'camping fish mobile' so had to make one there, a cross I was willing to bare. They look lovely swinging in the breeze and I like to think they bring some luck - wishful thinking most of the time, but this week worked a treat.

Step out of the tent and this is the view, the boats just bob about, don't really see who owns them. This time of year the area is famous for shell fish and the campers in the 'know' go out every low tide with rakes and a basket collecting their lunch or dinner. They spend the whole summer months on the site and probably get annoyed with the pesky English interrupting their holiday this week.

We spent a couple of hours on the other side of the Island one evening watching the sunset. This was about 10 0'clock and rather lovely...

We also managed our first family frisby session, Smallest bean No.3 is now old enough to catch and throw the frisby and we did manage a whole round a couple of times - a Charles Family First :-)

Oh and did I mention my stitching? Inspired by a recent vintage purchase and my new camping fish, I cut out 9 squares of felt and embroidered them with fish. The colours of fish matched the felt and I just swapped them over to create and balance the design. I often suggest this simple technique to my stitching learners and it works well most of the time.

I used a paper template and an air fading pen to work out the design and then space the stitches by eye, still work in progress as we speak, but I hope to finnish it off soon.

Spring in the Garden

Things move too quickly in the garden, don't they?? Sometimes for the best and sometimes for the worst.....Spring suddenly arrives with new shoots and lush green leaves, like on this Golden Hop:

I love these bleeding hearts, but now as I blog this, they are past their best :-(....

This was a great week though, they looked lovely:

And this euphorbia looks great, but the stems are now quite long and need propping up.

We have a lilac tree in the garden, it smells just lovely, I didn't manage to capture is though and now the flowers are turning brown which is a shame. We're off on holiday for a week and the one thing I rush home to check is the garden, what has bloomed, grown or sadly not enjoyed our vacation and decided to wilt.

Hope the neighbours and in-laws remember to water my tomatoes at least!

I've had a busy week!

Living so close to London, about 45 miles, you would think it was easy to 'pop' down for the day to see an Exhibition or do a 'bit of shopping', sadly or probably sensibly it does not happen very often.

But with some child care shuffling and a friend who wanted to go to, I was able to escape and venture to the Victoria & Albert Museum in Kensington to the Vintage Quilt Exhibition. We were not disappointed. For those in the Quilting world, you may have seen reports in the press about the collection and projects inspired by this amazing collection. It's going on tour after London, look out for it in a City near you!!

I knew there would be danger in the air of course, a spending mine field of temptation, I would have to be restrained. So I didn't buy a guide. Will probably regret this and have to back to get one, a false economy if ever I saw one. The V&A in an inspired merchandising ploy have got together with Liberty and produced a range of Reproduction cotton lawns and this is where I tripped up. Oh and the 2011 pocket diary, with a good selection of photo's from the exhibition and textiles collection. It could have been worse, believe me.

My other problem is that it was very dark and dimly lit to enhance the beauty of the quilts, and preserve their colours, so I could not take photos. mmmm, you will just have to go and look for yourselves, sorry :-)

However, in the courtyard cafe we found some lovely lemon trees with real lemons. Yes, lemons in London in May!

I know!

And then on the outside, there were a couple of Elephants. A London wide parade celebrating these endangered magnificent creatures and bringing colour and fun to the streets of London. A great idea, the children would love to spot them and it probably means we will be popping down with them soon to do such a thing.

Just encase you cannot get there yourself, have a look at the website and donate here :-)
So we had a great day, thanks for coming with me Sophie, I will probably have to go again it would be a shame not to......

Handmade & Vintage arrives in Stony Stratford.....

I have seen 'Handmade & Vintage' mentioned many a time in other lovely blogs, promising just that- handmade treasures and vintage or pre-owned delights.....oh have I dreamed. What has stopped me going to such an occasion? Life. They are always too far away, or we are busy doing something else or I have missed them (note to self, do a bit more research perhaps). Of course the other problem might be that I am too easily drawn into NEEDING new and lovely things and our house is already jam packed with 'stuff' and children :-(.

Anyway, back to the plot, I was invited by the lovely Shelly to join her for a new venture just up the road from myself and I fair jumped at the chance. This delightful day was yesterday and I was not disappointed:

The only problem with these photos is that it looks quiet, believe me it was not! It's just I took these at the end of the day when things had gotten quieter and I had some space to snap away.

My new egg-box display idea took along time to arrange, too much tweaking for my liking but I was happy with the result, what do you think??

The table mat, was one I rescued from my Nan's house when she moved onto the big Charity shop in the sky, I have a lot of her vintage treasures and cannot part with them. I have lots of ideas for up-cyling but not always the time. This however, seemed the perfect occasion to stitch a much needed sign for my stall. One day it might say 'for your home and your coat' but I ran out of time. It did provide a good place for my cards though, so perhaps it will stay blank.

And then there were the cakes......mismatched tea sets, vintage Royal wedding mugs and a whole lot of Union Jack flags made for a lovely tea time feel all day long, I think we were British and Proud of it!

York House In historic Stony Stratford provided the perfect setting for this occasion and there was a lovely array of both Handmade and Vintage, it's just this blogger is a bit scared and not famous enough to ask to take photos....one day perhaps.

This is my friend and she didn't mind, thanks Yvonne. A lovely talented lady, always wise and funny. Her beautiful jewellery made from handmade felt, textiles and vintage beads are lovely and she had a great day. (Thanks for the donut Jeff)

Other attractions included a proper ice-cream lady, you can see her wares being eaten in this picture I think. She ran in at the end of the day, sad that we were packing up and she had been too busy to come and look.

I didn't speak to an unhappy person, it was a joy of a day. I sold to new and returning customers and bought a couple of things, there was more temptation of course, but I was very restrained and remembered the size of our house.

I'll just knock up a quick tree if you don't mind?

You can imagine the scene - "oh yes, that's a good idea I will exhibit a tree in an exhibition. It's just sitting on my window ledge after it's last outing and needs a new adventure...."

Time passes......

Oh, but the exhibition is to showcase textile decoration- dying, printing and embelishment and my tree does not tick those boxes so I will just have to re-make it!! No pressure....

So last friday morning, I set about printing my 'bark-ing' design onto some previously dyed fabric, as you do. It wasn't proper fabric printing, meaning that it takes forever to dry but does the job eventually and you probably cannot wash it. This is not such a problem for Mr Tree though, he is not to be worn.

I worked out a template for a leaf which would tally nicely with it's self and set to work. The print was created very quickly with a polystyrene pizza base and a biro pen. After a day on the line and a day inside, the ink still wasn't dry so I gave it a quick go over with an iron, job done.

Now to make it pretty, or just work which ever came first.

Some machine stitching is always a good start, then some hand stitching.....and then "why not, some vintage inspired embroidered flowers" I have been looking for a reason for months to have a go. I plan out my design.

After about a couple of hours solid stitching I had great fun inventing new blooms from my limited range of suitable stitches, you can see here it is mounted onto some interfacing to give it more stability:

I found a large piece of vintage polka dot fabric to use as a backing and stitched rs together.

With the help of a bamboo cane, a bag of mung beans and alot of stuffing, the tree was standing up for itself:

Now for the leaves and a couple of friends to chat to:

Ta Dar: Mr Tree No 2 is now finished but more of a Mrs I think, plans for more when I have a bit of time in the future I hope.

Well this was my day....

There is a trend in the crafting world to show where you work, mmmm. I work in the same room where everything else happens in our house downstairs. There is only one room, apart from the kitchen. My trusty husband has gone out of his way to make space for me and the 'stuff', I have lovely Ikea fabric boxes stacked on lovely Ikea shelving. Sadly my 'stuff' takes up most of the floor space in-front of these shelves too. mmmm. Not to mention, the rest of it, the book shelves and the large cupboard in the local Community Centre I rent out! Hey, ho.

So I don't have a lovely work room and probably never will, our youngest is 6 so perhaps in 15 years time at the earliest we might have a spare room for me to work in.

This is the chaos of my day, I a too ashamed to show you the corner/pile. One day perhaps, when the queen comes to tea?

To give me space and time, Chris has taken the children out for the day! A car and train trip to Norfolk.

Hurray! A whole day of stitching. It started off well at 8.30 when the postman arrived with my new business cards :-) In the middle of a Bank Holiday and needed for monday, perfect timing.

I of course, made the most of the day, getting through my worklist (in my head, not on paper, that would be too efficient) and coming up with some new spontanious work.

To add to the day, there was also some sunshine - I know! So a rushed to the Photo studio - ha - and took some pics too, busy lady.

To finish my perfect 'me time' day, I am now going out to a friends house for a girly curry evening. Lush. xxx