Colour My Life

 Isn't this wonderful? It's a dinky little DAB radio in a leather duck-egg blue case. Bought by my son   Mike and his lovely partner Vicki for Christmas ESPECIALLY to fit into the summer house. It just looks so PERFECT in there.

     Looks equally good on the shelf or on my little pale green side table. Just THE PERFECT gift!

  My Cosy Stripe Blanket (Lucy from Attic 24 pattern) I omitted a couple of her colours and changed   the order here and there. Not too fond of the spice (orange) but accept it is part of the autumn colour scheme she chose. Actually, we think it feels quite Christmassy.

   Below, some crochet shapes I've been experimenting with. The first circles are crocheted in Noro   Secret Garden - I love the variegated nature of this silk/wool yarn.

 
Granny Squares. I get a bit fed up fastening off and restarting but I do enjoy the way the colours blend.This is of course good old Stylecraft Special DK. Cheap as chips and lovely colours.

Now then, this was an attempt at free-form crochet, which turned into a kind of wavy circle… I may carry on, do a little decreasing to mitigate the frilliness, and see if it becomes a shawl…. the yarn is Lisa Harding's Amitola which is a 4-ply wool/silk mix. It looks wonderful in the ball, but I hated the way it crocheted in rows, the colours do not meld together very well in lines. However, I do like the way it works in an ever increasing circle.

Here you can see a basket of yarn and the beginnings of ANOTHER blanket - the Granny Stripe no 2. I started out looking at Lucy's Harmony Squares colour scheme, but then decided to do my own version. Same shades as the granny squares above. My Granny Stripe Mk1, made about 5 years ago, will move into the caravan.

     Below, some felty colourfulness in the sewing room. Also known as The Black Hole of Calcutta!

     My collection of pro markers, for all that "grown-up colouring-in" we are so fond of these days!

       And to finish up, a couple of photos of some brightly coloured pottery in my kitchen. Love it!

I hope these colours have brightened up your day - they certainly keep me feeling happy. This will be my last blog-post this year, and maybe into 2016 - but I shall definitely be back! I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and a happy healthy and fortune-filled New Year, and I will be back very soon.

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.

Bangles and Baubles ....

I make no apology for using a similar header photo from last time, as I have been continuing with the felt work this weekend. Refining the process of creating the bangles is a delight, as more and more ideas emerge. I have been feeling a bit under the weather, both meteorologically and physically, lately, and have needed the 'colour fix', and felt has certainly fitted the bill!

So more pincushions have arrived, giving opportunity to mix colours and create texture with chunky stitching and appliqué.

Ideas buzzing in my head for decorating the bangles. Still debating to bead or not to bead!

A change from the bright primaries, more of a 'woodland vibe' with these, and using a smaller core.

Also I have designed another large angel panel - it uses a LOT of felt but I love the effect of the layers.

I start with a design on freezer paper. Then I colour the outline of each layer so I can see which one to cut in which felt. This is the 'master copy'. I then trace, again on freezer paper, each layer seperately, and cut them out, iron onto the appropriate colour felt, and cut out.

When I layer the felt pieces up there are often minor adjustments to make. I'm starting to think now, about how each piece will be embellished, and time is spent very happily making my selection of threads.

Here you can see the start I've made on the wings. I try and do as much embroidery as possible on just two layers, to avoid trying to get the needle through too much felt.Also, it's easier to manipulate smaller pieces.

I also finished the Wingèd Heart which you saw as cut pieces in the previous post.

So there it is. And I shall be stitching today as well. Though I wouldn't want you to think I have been neglecting the shopping / housework / mum stuff/ ironing .......oh, well, perhaps I have neglected the ironing, but there's no change there! I hope you have kept yourselves warm and happy over the cold weekend.

Feltastic!

I hope you are going to enjoy a burst of colourful felty fabulousness to brighten up this miserable November morning! I am suddenly consumed by a passion for felt, and have been stitching away for the past few days and no let up in sight! My threads are tangling again ......

.... but as it is Work In Progress I think I'm excused. I'm heavily into a tactile and colour sensory overload and it's brilliant! Of course, I've been working on the pincushions for a while now, so there's nothing new there, and you will remember my Angel and Wingèd Hearts  (need to make some more)

Gloria was begun at a Madeline Millington workshop quite a few years ago, and of course, as it is more or less a Madeline design I cannot sell her, nor copy her for sale. But I have been working on some designs of my own and hope to get round to making them up some time soonish. (Oooh, can you spot something rolled up at the back there? I have rediscovered my rag-rug work!)

The Wingèd Hearts are my own design - well, an adaptation of a very old image really, it's been around a long long time. I know one went to Penny  and Victoria bought one ...I must have sold them all so need to replenish.

But something else has been nagging away at the back of my mind for ages. I've been interested in African wrapped and coiled jewellery for some time - again, texture and colour, very attention grabbing. And lately I've seen a lot of jewellery made from felted wool; I love the effect of felted wool but just don't want to go down the wet-felting route, or even the needle-felting route, come to that. So I had to devise a way of utilising my felt and wool felt to make the coils I wanted. So, remember those felty worms from the last post? This is what they were destined to become!

I have to say I am pretty pleased with them. It took a while to work out how to make the base coil, and the 'faff factor' is quite high. But each one I made I refined the process and think I have just about got the hang of it now.

The embellishment part is the fun bit - but even here there are improvements to make and different effects to discover.

I shall be experimenting with various embroidery, and am debating whether to add beads. I do have the odd bead stashed away, as you might have guessed! The bangles are less chunkier looking when worn than it appears from the photographs, but I might experiment with various size cores.

So there you are, last post's mystery solved! I'm chuffed with them, hope you like them too!

Great Times

Well now, I'm aware I'm a tad late with this post, and so much has been happening I don't know where to begin and as for choosing which photographs to include..... anyway, I shall just dive in. Here you see Colin, one of the Ouse Washes Mollys musicians, and Bryan's back, one of the dancers who plays a few instruments himself. We danced out last Monday night at the Ship Inn  at Brandon Creek, with the Coton Morris side. We danced outside the pub....

I gave my camera to a Coton Morris man at this point and he did warn me he was pants at taking pictures...... anyway, here's one of us musicians as we always get left out!!

You can just make out my hat and coat of many colours. Well, coat of a few stray bits of fabric!

And we danced inside the pub, then we had a bit of a session which was lovely. I packed my fiddle and my melodeon - I'll need a bigger car soon, or get myself a Roadie!

                                                                      Step Dancer

             
                                                                   Nicky on clarinet

                                      Bryan on mandolin and Elin on fiddle.

Last Wednesday - second in the month - was Stitch and Bitch which was lovely as some of us haven't seen others of us (!) for a while what with the holidays and such. I finally finished my wool/felt Bird and Flowers cushion cover.

And yes, they are pins which you see at the bottom, simply because this photo was taken before it was completed and I forgot to do one after I finished! But it is, honestly!

 And in the evening it was the Very First Kitchen Table Session round at our house. Nine of us sat round our table with a mixture of instruments and a brilliant time was had. It was a tight squeeze at times, so Jim has sorted out a space for us round the corner at our local pub. Next month, however, as I'm in Wales, the session will be at Rob and Marj's. We've been talking about this for quite a while and finally just got on and DID it. This Wednesday saw me zipping up the A47 - again - to Dereham for Folk Club at the King's Head, which is always a good night.

Today has been a REALLY lovely one. Jim took mum's shopping and did all the Saturday Morning stuff for me so that I could go to Norwich  - that A47 again! - to visit this :

 I went principally to see Amanda - Amanda Colville of Mangle Prints who you will have read about here before. I bought one of her beautiful prints but it's for a gift so I won't show it yet. And of course I bought too many cards! Then I went for coffee at a lovely little place called The Bicycle Shop, all old wood, pews and saggy cushions and great coffee. The sun shone in and Vivaldi was playing, a gentle whiff of incense and peace - it was wonderful.

After which I popped across the road to a very interesting little place which called to me:

Go on, you'd have crossed the road too, wouldn't you? And don't worry about the Closing Down bit....

             Gorgeous things to buy, and fabric, and oil-cloth, and cards, and prints, and..........

a big room at the back where the Proprietor, Kay Spalding, holds all kinds of workshops: printing, felt-making, knitting and crochet, sewing and textiles, silver jewellery-making....... what an amazing place!

Kay specialises in locally sourced vintage ad hand-crafted gifts and jewellery as well as running the workshops. Next month she closes the shop HOWEVER, after a short break she will be re-opening at new premises nearer to home, in Park Lane, in January. Nearer the time I will let you know the full address and you can pop along yourselves!

And hey, Go Me! I have finished another pincushion! Just so you don't think I have gone Off The Boil!

I'm quite chuffed with it actually. What d'you think? Soooo quick and easy peasy and fun to do.

So here are the three of them in all their glory - on a tray with Morning Glory! Ha! Set up or what! (It wasn't actually, it's only just struck me, but there you are, serendipity strikes again. I'm rambling.)

Definitely time for me to pack in! If you have lasted this long, well done for sticking with it! I must try and write more frequent, shorter posts, but then, I said this before and it never happens. Hope you all have a happy, sunny Sunday, looks like the weather is going to be kind again. Bye for now!