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2015 A celebration of work in my studio

            Tessa’s throw

             Disappearing 4-patch

             A4 Soldered quilt

             Region 13 Wall hanging

                   Horse in a wall

              Dolphins in a wall

              Turtle in a wall

              Rainbow gardens

             Birthday tweets

               Sampler quilt

              Crochetted lampshades

              Floral shade

             Bird sampler

              Charity quilt

                Floral calendar

             Thread posies

           Floral strips

             Scrap quilt

               Scrap quilt in situ

              Needle cases

             Ella’s chair and cushion

               Katie’s cushion

               Free for applique

           Picket Fence throw

            A trio of trees

            Robin cards

              The girls!

 

 

BLOG 279

BLOG 279

It’s that time of year again and all my focus is now on the coming festivities. I love every aspect of Christmas (apart from the piped music in the shops from October onwards!) and look forward to wearing myself out for the happiness of others.

As far as crafting is concerned, I have spent more time on my felted guardian angels which I will give as an extra gift to those who I think will appreciate them. I enjoy making something different every year and these are inspired by something I saw in a craft shop. This is the working method that I used:  The legs/arms are rolled in one long sausage, the head in a ball, the dresses have been needle-felted flat in a semi-circle and the hair was purchased.

        Ready

The edges of the dress were needle felted to form a cone. Ribbon was threaded through the head to form a loop. The legs/arms were manipulated into shape and secured with a strong thread.

         Components

The ribbon loop goes into the top of the cone and one leg/arm is threaded through to hold the limbs in place. The ribbon is tightened and knotted at the top of the head.

            Construction

 Once they are secure, hair is stuck in place and glitter glue is added to the edges of the dresses to give sparkly detail. Phew, glad that’s done: one less thing to think about!

            The girls!

Talking of ‘The Girls’, one of our group quilt members has fallen and broken and cracked several bones and done untold damage to the nerves of her arm. So someone made a Christmas tree following my instructions in previous blogs and the rest of us made a decoration to adorn it. She was thrilled.

            Jenny’s tree.

I too had a surprise this week because I have spent a lot of time preparing the patterns for our group quilt next year. I too received something Christmassy, a lovely wall hanging. I was delighted!

 Dilys’s wall hanging

        And I wanted to share this with you as something that made me laugh this week.

           The fireplace is dressed

        The patchwork tree is laden

          And a robin has landed; what’s not to like?

You know, Christmas isn’t about the biggest and best present and the non-stop socialising with tables laden with food as the television would have us believe. It’s not about how much you spend or what bargains you can find and how wonderfully you can wrap your presents. It’s simply about loving and sharing and where better to find that than at home. And with that thought I wish you all every happiness for Christmas and Peace for the coming New Year. Next week I will be doing a reprise of all my projects for 2015 in answer to that perennial question: ‘Where did the time go?’

PS I have pondered a lot recently about whether to continue with my blog, wondering if the 2 hours spent every Sunday is worth the effort. I get little response to it and many of the people who tell me how much they enjoy it, aren’t registered as followers. But then my sister talked to Carole who I used to teach at Alston Hall and she just happened to say how much she looked forward to reading my blog every Sunday. So  for you Carole, I will continue.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BLOG 278

Blog 278

 

I bought a pack of gold cards for my robins; I like the richness of the gold as a back drop for the little fellows. I prefer simplicity too, so that is all I am doing to these cards, apart from signing them and giving them to my crafty friends.

             Robin cards

 And so it’s that time of year again! The old advent calendar, made from a pre-printed panel, is out on display and the grandchildren are making sure that I keep it up to date.

                Advent calendar

Boxes of Xmas ‘stuff’ have been brought out of the loft and the clutter will fill the house until it is all in its allotted space.

            Xmas clutter

               Tree decorations

 Willow has adopted her favourite position under the tree and, taking the evidence of the rotating snowman, she seems to have resumed her favourite pastime of batting them!

              Willow

You might have guessed that I love robins and so a new addition to Xmas this year is a printed robin cushion; I love it and will probably keep it around all of the year. After all, a robin isn’t just for Xmas!

                Printed Robin

He will sit quite happily alongside my ‘painterly’ robin wall hanging which is on the wall all the time.

              Painterly robin

I have managed to construct one of the felted Angels and I have topped it with the mohair that arrived last week. The idea isn’t original; I was inspired by a felted angel seen in a community art shop in Chester. Before I make up the others, I think I need to make longer felted arms/legs to help with the construction of the angels. I hope you are enjoying the inevitable cascade towards Christmas; it will be here before we know it!

            Felted angel

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BLOG 277

 It’s that time of the year again! After completing the Xmas tree project, I have been trying to prepare some Xmas cards and gift ideas. Felting seemed like a good idea for a change so the wools and machine were taken to Suzette’s this week. And how did we know that we were at Suzette’s? Because there is a dog called Cookie! Here she is in a relaxed state and at her most shambolic!

             Cookie

I always get excited when I look at the felt that I have to play with and I can’t wait to get started.

             Palette

 

I began by mashing fibres together to form a small 3” square base; this takes no time at all with the embellisher.

             Mashing fibres

 Onto this base I started to define the back of a bird.

               Back of bird

 

And then I added red and white to look like a robin

            Robin

               Another robin

 

I made 6 in a relatively short time and they are now waiting for machine stitching to define them more fully and bring them to life. These tiles will then be stuck onto a card and sent to special friends. They were quick and fun to do and what’s not to like!

              Robins

 

I did a bit of free-motion, naïve stitching on the robins and love the result.

            Stitched robins

 

Perversely, I really like the backs of these little felted tiles. I think that I have mentioned in the past that I don’t particularly like the fact that the holes are so obvious when felting by machine. I will log away that fact for future reference.

              Wrong side

 

The last thing these little guys need is some light in the eye; this I have done with Tippex!

               Finished tiles

 

Another project I wanted to try was to make angels out of felt. Balls have been rolled, long strips for legs and arms have been fashioned and dresses have been felted. More work is needed on this project to construct the angels and make wings.

              Potential angels

Here is the fibre I have just bought from New Forest Mohair for the angel hair. The bags make my mouth water with their luscious colours and wonderful textures. I hope you are making headway towards Christmas and enjoying the journey rather than panicking about the destination.

              Angel hair