'If you make happiness your goal, then you're not going to get to it… The goal should be an interesting life."

Dorothy Rowe

Sunday 19 October 2008

I am finding it hard to settle to anything at present.

I think this is because on Friday it is the first session of the 'Contemporary Textile Workshop' I have started to replace C&G. I have been pottering around with my sketchbook for the class. I find this disruptive because I slosh paint on - go away while it dries - come back and stick in pictures - worry that there aren't many actual 'sketches' in the sketchbook - tell myself I ought to be doing some drawings - paint some more pages - forget the other things I was going to do like experiment with Inkaid - etc. etc. etc.

I have been working on my little pot book [going to pot, you could say]. Sorry for the quality of the images - I am still cameraless. Cheese Major thinks he may be able to get the 'deleted' images out of my camera, provided I don't use it in the meantime - so I have to wait until he can do it.

This is a stuffy pot, with a hand made stamp and doodles on the other page.







This is wonky wrinkly reverse applique. The opposite page is strips of hand made paper and layout paper sewn together, so you can just see the stamp on the next page through the layout paper.





There is one benefit to my restlessness - I am also finishing off UFOs - three so far. This is an illuminated letter from the 'Embroidery Now' class I took with Florence Daisy Collingwood [wonderful name!] last month. We could choose between B [for book - it is on a book mark] or N for needlebook. As the class was just after I had finished the infamous needlecushions - I opted for the book mark.




Having completed the bookmark, I had to find a suitable book to put it in. We don't have a family bible - it may say something about my forbears that we have a family dictionary. It belonged to my great great grandfather. I assume that he was trying to better himself through evening classes, as he was born before compulsory state education was introduced in England - indeed, he died the year it was introduced, leaving a widow and three children under seven.


Having finished the book mark - I have to decide which of three other pieces from the Embroidery Now classes to work on next, including this 'sweete bag' I started yesterday with Jenny Adin-Christie. Her designs are beautiful and although I don't buy kits - I bought a kit for shadow work - a rose lavender bag, if that makes sense!



i also want to make one of these - the blanket, not IgglePiggle. I have bought a piece of red fleece but I have never worked with fleece before. I know in theory I don't have to hem it, but I will, of course, have to put blue blanket stitch round the edge. And looking at the edge - I think it would be better hemmed or rolled. Any one out there with more experience of fleece who cares to comment?

2 comments:

Sharon said...

As fleece doesn't fray at all you can choose any option to finish the edges. I've cut a scalloped edge on a small quilt and then blanket stitched with cotton perle in a contrast colour or bias bound the edges with a print fabric.

Kitty said...

Go for it with a needle and thread with some blanket stitch? I haven't used fleece in years - I mainly used to make jackets for various offspring produced by my sister and sister-in-law. I have a fleece blanket on my desk (my office is too well air conditioned) which was given to me as a work award (I'll explain offline) and it is not overcast - just a chain stitch like the one here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Merrow_narrow_blanket_stitch.jpeg over the cut edge