Green Shoots.

There was a discussion this morning on the radio about 'the green shoots of recovery' , all about the supposed economic recovery which we ought to be celebrating, according to some politicians. I'm not going into a political rant, don't worry, although I would say that there are very many UK families who are a long way off feeling the fiscal benefits of the period of austerity we have been experiencing.

No the green shoots I am pondering on are the literal and the symbolic in my own life.

Our garden is bustling with green shoots at the moment, the grape hyacinths, crocus, and chives are well on their way. Much as I am thrilled to see them, I worry that we will be getting some hard frosts and possibly snow and ice which will at best, stunt the growth of this brave young greenery.

CHIVES

GRAPE HYACINTH

CROCUS

DAFFODILS!

More symbolic green shoots are the direction my stitching is taking me. The last six months of 2013 saw me abandoning fabric for wool and wool felt in the sewing room, and moving away from quilts towards smaller items such as the pin cushions and bangles. I am having so much fun making these items, and they seem to be finding favour with quite a few people.

Staying with the wool, I'm working on this throw which may end up having some kind of quilting stitchery on it, but it isn't really a quilt, and won't have wadding ....probably.

Another new direction is Open Studios which I am dipping a tentative toe into with Yvonne when she opens her home in May when Open Studios begins. I've no idea how successful  will be..it all depends who walks through the door, doesn't it? But I know it will be enjoyable and I'm thrilled to bits to have the opportunity to join in . Big thanks, Yvonne!

Musical green shoots is the development of the Red Cat Sessions, the traditional music session which began round my kitchen table last year and has now moved to our local pub. It is a very tender young shoot at the moment, we have a small number of us, and if two or three folks don't turn up we feel the loss quite acutely, but we make a decent noise and the paying punters seems to enjoy our being there. We are learning new tunes each time, sharing our own favourites and discovering new ones. I hope we encourage other players to come and that we grow and evolve over time.

Sometimes green shoots develop at the expense of other things dying off. Sadly, for a multitude of reasons, I have resigned from Ouse Washes Molly Dancers; I shall no longer be playing fiddle for them. I will of course be following their progress through the year, but won't be there with them. It's been a lovely two years and last year in particular was filled with fun and festivals and I will miss all that. Happily, my lovely fellow Mollies have said that I must never say never, and consider it as having a sabbatical, which other people have done on occasion.

So there we have it, are there green shoots appearing on your own horizon?

Colour Schemes

Amidst the present buying /Christmas menu -planning / card writing /etc etc I am playing with wool and felt and threads and fabric. You have to have balance, after all!

I am taxing my brain at the moment selecting  colour schemes for my bangles. I originally came up with the ambitious idea of making them in seasonal shades. I thought I would give them cute names, thus:

Spring Blossoms, Summer Holiday, Autumn Woodland, Winter Solstice. I had a rough idea which colours would match each season - poor old Winter Solstice remains a tad boring being merely reds and greens, but there you are. Then I thought I needed to expand upon this because I made a bangle in greys to go with my "Fifty Shades" outfit (I do wear a lot of grey, 'tis true.) And I wear a lot of blue so I wanted bangles in blue shades.... so I combined them and came up with Blue Lakes and Rocky Shores (I bet all you Girl Guides are singing along now, aren't you?) Then my gaze fell upon a particularly scrumptious hand-dyed wool-felt  in purples/greens and I thought Heath and Moorland might be another nice colour way.

                     
                                                                     Spring Blossoms

                                                                   Summer Holiday

                                                                    Autumn Woodland

         
                                                                        Winter Solstice

                                                       Blue Lakes and Rocky Shores

                                                                Heath and Moorland
Excuse the poor colour, the light is bad, I'm a poor photographer and my camera also is very selective when it comes to accurate shade depiction. Also, I need to say that of course I will dip into other colours which pop up which seem to belong in a particular scheme; only I had about reached my toleration limit for faffing about sorting these out for you!

Then I was reading the deliciously colourful eye-candy blog Attic 24 and was gripped by Lucy's latest crochet project in her signature saturated colours and knew I had to make a bangle to match. The best match I could come up with in my colours was Summer Holiday, where I can indulge in all my brights, but somehow it begged to be called Carnival when I had made it.

I can't tell you how satisfying this one was to make. The wool felt is gorgeous - from Jean at Oliver Twists, really soft and wonderful to stitch. The perle 5 thread is 'confetti' from Weeks Dye works, and is an overdyed fibre which just SHOUTS carnival to me!

I think now I have dug a hole for myself - perhaps I should abandon the idea of colour schemes and just make bangles as the fancy takes me. But then, I do like the idea of being able to just gather felts/threads in specific colours when I start to work without all the deliberation each time. It is helpful. And to be honest, I just like giving things names. I love playing with words. What do you think? And what, apart from festive concerns, has been taxing your mind at the moment? Have you any spare time or mental capacity for anything else? See you soon -ish!

Winter Warmth

A spot of pure loving warmth on a cold, grey day earlier this week. Mmmmm! One of those gorgeously indulgent special coffees made in Jim's machine and presented to me in one of my favourite mugs, with a colourful ceramic spoon to scoop up the froth!

I spent much of the day in the sewing room, stitching away with wool, and felt, and lovely threads. Over two days I completed these four bangles. I bought some wool felt at Harrogate last month. It's gorgeous. I bought it with bangles and pin-cushions and angels in mind. I wonder how many of you can identify with my feelings of reluctance to cut them up and start using them? I used to feel like this about special fabrics I had bought - perhaps I'll save them for making something REALLY special... only sometimes that REALLY special project didn't present itself. Hence despite all the quilts I have made over the years, I still have a considerable fabric stash of 'specials', despite not having bought any for some time. So now I find myself having to say aloud "Just use it up, Lynne. You can always buy more should you need it."

Stitch and Bitch yesterday. Cards and presents exchanged, mince-pies consumed, much laughter and some stitching. Yvonne bought me her bangles to photograph, and Victoria was wearing hers. Warmth abounded.

And this commissioned angel was handed over to her new owner, along with three more pincushions. Feeling very warm indeed! I hope there has been some Winter Warmth in your life this week.

Stitching down the Wind

Wow! What a storm! I do hope that you aren't among those poor unfortunates who have lost their homes, or have had to move out while repairs are effected. We escaped here in our corner of West Norfolk but up on the North Norfolk coast they took a real battering, and I know in other parts of the UK the wind, rain and high tides have wrought devastation and loss of life.

In expectation of a couple of days of bad weather Jim and I planned for staying home and 'pottering' - home chores, long coffee-and-crossword breaks, and blissful hours to tie flies and order from fishing catalogues (Jim) and sorting threads and stitching (me). Mind you, the wind was so strong on Thursday afternoon in the little conservatory that is my sewing room, that I thought the roof would be ripped off and judiciously repaired to the Big Table in the dining room!

I made more headway into the task of tidying up the thread straggles - you know, when you cut into a skein of thread you always end up with an impossible tangle eventually, so I have started to wind the threads onto bits of card. It's a deliciously mindless occupation, high on the list of anyone with OCD I'd imagine! If you do it before things get too bad it's not such a task.

I did a little more on the Farmhouse Quilt. Some of the fabrics are quite gorgeous to quilt through, and this pale flannel here is one of them - see how the stitches just melt back into the cloth?

All the applique pieces will be embroidered when the quilting is finished and I have bound it. Yummy!

I'm using one strand of a hand-dyed 21st Century Yarn 4-ply cotton to quilt with - so much softer than quilting thread against the flannel, and I love the way the variegated colour changes just add a little something to the stitches.

A little Christmassy felty something. Bet you can't guess .......

And some more wool felt bangles. On a roll with these now. The bowl in the top photo contains tiny felt squares ready for embellishing the bangles. I must get my bead boxes out and see which ones will work with the wool.

So that's how I've spent these last couple of stormy days, stitching down the wind and really quite enjoying being 'stuck in the house'. I hope they have been good days for you, and if not, my good wishes to you.

Now then before you whizz off to your next blog stop, do me a favour and pop over to Potter Jotter, as Cathy is doing a really fab give-away of some of her lovely ceramic buttons. Hop across and say hello!

Bye for now and thank you all for your lovely comments these last couple of weeks about my lengthy wait for a hospital appointment. Believe me I know I am not in dire straits and other bloggy friends have been having a much more drastic time of it, health-wise. But it has been so good to read your remarks, thank you.

Beating the Glums

Oh isn't it annoying, when you just can't drag yourself out of the Glums? Especially when you know that really, if you are honest, you don't have much to be glum about. In the Great Scheme of Things sinus troubles do not rank terribly high, and at the moment I can't say there is even much pain, just a dull discomfort, because , yes, once again I am on a course of antibiotics; infection nailed - swelling goes, acute pain abates. However, four days or so after the course ends the symptoms return and so the whole cycle begins again. And I guess until I get my ENT appointment at the hospital that is how it will continue.  So, you know, no-one died, I'm not on the critical list, and I can cope with the symptoms. But actually you do become a bit weary, and just want to bury yourself at home, go nowhere, see no-one. I'm very fortunate that my good friend Yvonne did the ferrying about last Friday and Saturday, or I wouldn't have got to Harrogate or to Jane-Ann's.

So I have been hunkered down at home for ages - no Mollying, no box lesson, even no weekly musical soiree with Rob and Marj last night - pootling about doing a bit of cooking and housework, and spending quite a bit of time in my sewing room.

 Audio book on the machine, surrounded by colourful yarn, threads, and fabric, it is quite soothing and spirit - lifting. Here, then, are some peeps at what I've been up to. It's cheered me up, I hope it does the same for you if you' re having your own personal Glums!

Another pincushion completed - and spoken for - and a couple more in the pipe-line.

A few more bangles completed, trying various colour combinations.

I started this quilt some years ago. It had been put away and almost forgotten. I just felt the need to spend some time gently quilting, and this quilt, with its soft flannel fabrics, was just the ticket. I've added some appliquéd text to the border as well. All in all it has been a very comforting, cosy reunion.

So, even an attack of the Glums can have its productive side, and it has been quite satisfying gathering this little lot together to photograph. How do you deal with the Glums when they arrive at your door?

Stitchin'

Still feeling like I'm hanging around, marking time waiting for yet another hospital appointment, I have felt oddly dislocated from everyday life. Obviously, some things get done because they have to - bit of shopping, bit of housework, mum's life to organise, but otherwise partly due to not feeling great, and partly because of the weather, I have hunkered down and just gone with the flow. So I've been reading a bit, planning new stitching projects, playing a bit of music - and stitching. Oooh, lots of stitching. But before I got into the stitching I was having another little tidy and decided, with all the new pincushions I seem to have acquired, I should really ditch this old one, which was beginning to shred on the underneath.

I've had this for goodness knows how many years. I always felt awkward to be honest, sticking pins and needles into it, I always avoided the face bit. Yes, I know, I'm daft. Anyway, as I'm about to throw it into the bin I can feel a needle buried deep inside the  mouse. So I think I'd better get it out, don't want the bin-men getting a needle-stick injury, do we? So I cut it open and pulled out the stuffing.

And discovered not one, but THIRTY ONE needles buried inside! Count 'em!

Incredible, isn't it? And some of them have been there a long time - see those really tiny sharps quilting needles? They are the very finest, and I haven't used them for years - I doubt I could see the eye let alone thread it!

Then I sorted all my little sewing baskets out and got rid of a load of rubbish. After which I got out the two felt projects I'm currently working on. Both are commissions, and I'm thoroughly enjoying working on them.

A new bangle, in Someone's favourite colours. Very much smaller than the ones I've already made as she has such tiny wrists. I think I may make a second version in slightly different colour combinations.

The second commission is somewhat larger than the bangle, you saw the beginnings of it in my last post. Here are some snippets to whet your appetite!

Loved stitching the holly and berries.

Now I love the effect of the stippling, especially with the variegated thread. But OH! It does take an age! You really have to be careful that you keep the depth of stippling  even , it is easy to over-work one area .

So there you are. I'm quite excited planning the next angel - I'm refining my ideas all the time I'm stitching, and gathering ideas from many folk - art sources. I'm having another stitch day tomorrow, hoping to have finished the angel by tea-time.

The weather is getting colder, it was 3 degrees this morning when I went into town. Fingers crossed it says reasonably OK on Friday as Yvonne and I are going up to Harrogate for the Knitting and Stitching Show. I'll tell you how it went next time.