Buttons and Bags

On a couple of occasions I've spied these Cath Kidson tins in John Lewis but whilst in Cambridge this morning I could resist no longer! I think they are so pretty!


The button tin is nowhere near big enough to hold all my buttons but it makes a good container for all the really bright coloured ones.

Talking of buttons... I've been making more of the reverse applique buttons, this time revealing some printed fabric with tiny bees! The one on the left is hand stitched with three layers of fabric cut through - not something I'll be repeating in a hurry. The other one was machine stitched through two layers.

I've also been sewing some tea towel totes! Pam brought in a lovely bag to our last C & G class made from a pair of tea towels so I thought I'd give it a try.

In less than an hour I'd made two completely reversable bags... and a pot af tea. Very quick and easy. You can find a tutorial for making them here. While I was in the garden taking the photos this woodpecker was pecking (silently) away at the grass. He's a frequent visitor to our garden. I always imagine he has a hangover when he pecks the grass rather than the trees!

I love his colouring! Tomorrow I'm at the Knitting and Stitching show. I'll be on the Missenden Abbey stand from 10am until 12.30 pm so come and say hello if you are there!

Redressing the Balance

I started this blog 15 months ago as a way of charting my progress through my degree - a sort of visual diary to keep me on track. But it has evolved into so much more. Cakes, sock creatures, family life... not to mention the occasional pair of pink pants, all seem to have taken over. So I thought it was time to redress the balance. This semester I'm taking a module called Cultural Stitch and for my first assignment I'm looking at the reverse applique Mola work of the Kuna Indians from the San Blas Islands, Panama.

I've started with some sketchbook work, looking at the designs, the techniques and the colours.

I've played around with some different fabrics.

And some more cut out designs using patterned papers.

Which in turn have led to a sample using patterned fabric.

More playing in my sketchbook and I've been looking at things that are revealed and concealed, especially snippets of text.

I've changed the scale and started to look at tiny bits of text revealed

Which in turn has led to these little reverse applique buttons.

I'm not entirely sure where it is all eventually leading but I'm having a lot of fun playing. Talking of Opus... or more specifically Prism (the Opus exhibiting group), I can share my good news with you now that I've had official confirmation. My piece of work has been accepted for the exhibition in the Mall Galleries in March 2009 - but not only that, it has been retained to be photographed for publicity photos. I can't tell you how excited I was about that! When the publicity comes out I can share some pictures with you!

*****

Totally unrelated... there's a 200th post giveaway on Itching2bstitching to high light Breast Cancer Awareness month so do go have a look.

Plus I'm taking part in Indigo Blue's Christmas decoraton swap - thank you Kitty for sending me the code for the link on my sidebar!

All is revealed

For the past few months, three friends and myself have been plotting, planning and scheming to organise a charity fund raising event in the village.



We hired the village hall, spent hours untangling the glitter curtain, cooked vats of chilli, sourced an amazing disco, booked ourselves some entertainment and found ourselves four debonair bar staff (we're actually married to them so they didn't have a lot of choice in the matter!)

And we were all set for our ladies night... "A Pink and Pleasurable" evening for ladies only. Nearly 100 women came and danced all night long.


During the evening there was an appearance by a rather dubious looking "lady"

Who entertained us with a very rude rendition of Gloria Gaynor's "I will Survive"

Lots more bottles later they were still dancing.

Until finally, our top billing for the night. Nine years ago we organised a similar event and four members of our am-dram group very gamely did a spot of entertainment for us. Last night they returned with an extra member of the team to treat us to a repeat performance... dancing to Tom Jones's version of "You Can Keep your Hat On"

They may not be young...

They may not be pretty...

But boy... they were amazing!!!

As you can see... our audience thought so too.

The women sreamed, shouted, laughed and gave them a standing ovation! These five wonderful men have been reheasing in my living room over the past few weeks, never once taking themselves too seriously. They were amazing! And what's more we think we have probably raised nearly £2000 for some very good causes. Off to do some clearing up now!

Sweet Sixteen

Thank you so much for all your well wishes. They obviously worked because I'm feeling much better! Today my youngest baby is sixteen....

It's scary...

How did he go from this....

to this so quickly!

(Even scarier is that my eldest "baby" will be twenty six next week!)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JACOB!

For his birthday cake, Jacob requested a toffee cheesecake. Not the most sensible request for a diabetic but I've carefully counted all the carbohydrates and we've worked out he can have a slim slice if he takes enough insulin. Which means fat slices for the rest of us!

That wasn't the only cake to be made today as I've been making more "pink" things for our event tomorrow... 120 pink cupcakes! It seemed like a good idea at the time but half way through icing them now I'm not so sure!

I shall finish with something totally unrelated and random, just because it made me very excited - my orange dress is part of a window display in "The Art of Interiors" in Barkway which is having an exhibition of textiles. How exciting is that!

I'm off to do some more "pink" planning. Have a good weekend!

We have a winner...

Thank you for such an overwhelming response to my 200th post giveaway... all names were written out onto slips of paper...

Folded up and put into a bowl.

I was then helped by my able assistant (aka Stewart)

Who picked out Sarah's name.
Well done Sarah - your prize will be in the post this week

That's all for today. I'm still feeling really grotty and I've got to teach tomorrow (a school near Southend), on Tuesday (machine embroidery in Letchworth) and on Wednesday (City & Guilds in Baldock) on top of which it's Jacob's bithday on Friday and we've got the pink pants event on Saturday. But for now I'm going to curl up under a duvet with a Lemsip. Normal service will be resumed soon!

What's on your washing line today?

I've been dying several pairs of boxer shorts a lurid shade of pink (flamingo apparently). Why... all will be revealed (and more!) next weekend...


I wasn't meant to be dying pink pants today. I should have been in London taking my piece of work in for selection day for Prism but I woke this morning with a streaming nose, achy limbs and a pounding head... a sure sign that I'm doing too much! Stewart came to the rescue and has been to London with my work. Not sure how much I'm supposed to say at this stage but there is good news which I hope I can share soon which makes all the tears, tantrums and staying up half the night on Thursday all seem rather silly now! As Stewart says... I'm a wally!

Moving swiftly on...

the box!

I managed to hack my way in and have removed three items, replaced three items and as of yesterday the box is on its travels again... will you be next?

I think I'm allowed to show you what I've taken out. First of all a lace collar because I love old bits of needlework. Then there were some rather lovely buttons. I can see a sock creature called "square eyes" in that lot!

And last but not least, I wanted to take out some rather gorgeous fabric but I was out voted by other family members and instead I got this chocolate fudge... which of course I had to sample. It is truely scrumptious so I have to conceed it was a good choice. Given the lack of dinner here tonight it is probably just as well we have something to sustain us!

I don't understand the label though.... "Keeps for a few months. Can be frozen." Why would you want to do that???

Come back tomorrow to see who has won the giveaway. Still time to leave a comment if you wish to be included.

Another Zigzag

A wonderful day today spent with my Zigzag group after a summer break of a couple of months. Our challenge for the summer was to produce a postcard sized piece of textile art based on either something we experienced or somewhere we visited over the summer. I decided to use my painting of grapes made in Tuscany as inspiration.

And as our our theme today was transfer dyes, I dyed some fabrics and stitched these to make my postcard which I'm not that happy with. Rushed it at the last minute unfortunately.

However the postcards from everyone else are fabulous and so varied in style and technique. This is Sandy's based on the tulip staircase at the Queen's house in Greenwich.

Lynne's is inspired by a statue by a French motorway.

Lynda went to Latvia.

Joan stayed at home but was inspired by an image in a book.

Bernice went on a course with Ruth Issett and made some printed and dyed fabrics which she used.

But she also went to Japan!

And Ann was inspired by French Sunflowers.

Joan also completed a stunning piece of work which she has been planning and working on for most of last year. She started with some extensive research on celtic designs, did lots of samples, tried different techniques and all her hard work has paid off with this beautiful piece of embroidery. The photograph does not do it justice.

The day was spent painting papers with transfer dyes and ironing them onto different fabrics . The collage below is just a small sample of the beautiful work done during the day.

I always enjoy working with this group... especially as we had cake today for Bernice's birthday!