I am pleased to report …

a more successful bag making experience using the tutorial here. Very different to the magazine pattern – this one is  clear and accurate and goes together quickly and easily – I made both of these this afternoon.

Why fraternal twins? Because I wanted two bags to tidy up my workroom shelves – which they do, very nicely, being a perfect fit on the 30cm shelves. [The thing next to them is an old sweet jar full of manipulated fabric samples from C&G.]

The blue fabric I used is very thick, which is why I made the straps and base from a different fabric – and as this is stash reduction year – again – I used some ‘end of dyeing day fabric’ – when I put the cloth I've been using to mop up drops and slops into a bucket with a gobbet of soda solution and all the left over dyes. The results can be – er – interesting – and surprisingly often, orange [yuk] - and it is sometimes hard to know what to do with the cloth – but it brightened up this boring dark blue quite nicely.

Wensleydale has come up with an idea for the sow's ear bag – it was gently suggested to me at college that instead of folding the 2D piece I roll it round a cardboard tube. W. realised that the tube was  about the same length as the odd shaped sow’s ear – so it has become the 2D carrying bag. I still don’t like it though!

I mentioned that we were going out last night – which proved to be cold but snow free. We went to the Watermill Theatre – remarkably, without Mr and Mrs Cheddar for once – to see ‘Bronte’. It was thought provoking and moving, although I suspect that if you knew nothing about the Brontes it might have been a tad confusing as well. W and I are off to Yorkshire again this month, and another visit to Haworth is on our itinerary, so it was a good time to see this play.

And finally  - another of Quality Control’s sleeping places, also now removed following the completion of the redecoration.

‘Cardboard box[es]? Luxury!’

They were nearly right …

You may recall that I commented on the Met Office’s prediction of a ‘chance of snow’ today. I reminded W. about this as we sat eating our lunch in the conservatory in beautiful sunshine.

Then the clouds came over and we had a hailstorm.

And now the sun is shining again, and I have retreated inside because it is too warm in the conservatory … Still time for snow, I suppose – especially as we are going out this evening.

No embroidery or sewing to report on as I have started what I intended to do over Easter, and cleared out a lot of stuff from the sewing room. I can’t do ‘before and after’ photos because I neglected to take ‘before’ – and you probably wouldn’t be able to spot the difference anyway. But now many of my storage boxes are emptier than they were and the recycling bin is full of the paper ephemera I was keeping in case I eventually saw the point of journaling, and the cardboard boxes I was keeping for no reason at all.

This may seem like procrastination – and in a way it is – but I do work better in a reasonably tidy space – that’s ‘tidy’ in my terms, probably not in yours.  ‘Tidy’ means there are only a few bits of fabric draped over the chair [at the moment, 2.5 curtains] and you can see the majority of the floor. I even vacced it yesterday, although you probably wouldn’t think so to look at it now…

I’m still ‘stuck for bobbins’ as my mother used to say, as although Cheese Minor assures me that he has posted the envelope of bits, it has not yet made it from Surrey to Hampshire – and no post today, of course, as it’s a Bank holiday. I blame the ash cloud …

We have achieved one thing this weekend, though. W. has been ‘developing his skills’ for a while by redecorating the dining room, including laying a hardwood floor, which looks great. As he has nearly finished – apart from rehanging the door [which had to be shortened to go over the higher floor] and moving most of the furniture back in – we decided we would hang the new curtains, the replacements for those blue ones.

So we hung them and had a celebratory cup of tea. And then took them down again as one of the brackets holding the curtain pole had come loose. I didn’t dare mention ‘developing skills’. The screw hole has been drilled out and filled with a bigger wall plug, the curtains are back up, and we are keeping our fingers crossed.

I had reservations about them when we bought them [they’re black] but I like them now they are up. Quality Control is sulking because she has been napping on the folded curtains, [black curtains with grey furry bits?] but who’s in charge round here?

On a completely different topic – is anyone else suffering from a rash of blog comments in what I assume is Chinese? I reject them as I have a very suspicious nature, but I’d like to know if it’s just me who’s lucky!

Fed up of the election yet?

Thanks to Margaret Cooter for the link to this lot. which may cheer you up a bit.

Apart from that bit of disillusioned cynicism – to paraphrase Margaret – it’s been a disappointing week. College was OK – I got qualified approval to go ahead with what I’m doing - ‘as long as I justify it and don’t just go for the obvious approach’ - [thinking – that’s difficult!] - but I am still waiting for the bits of textiles from Babybel and Co. Nagging has taken place, I admit it – which has been followed by a deafening silence.

They’ll probably never speak to me again now I have published this on the world wide web.

A digression

Why have people taken to referring to ‘the internets’ in the plural – does anyone know? Have I missed some stunning technological development or is it just an affectation?

Back to the plot

The second disappointment was an outing to an embroidery exhibition yesterday – not going to say which one, but it is a group whose work I've seen before and found quite inspiring. Not this time.

About half of the exhibitors had chosen to  show groups of very similar pieces – same shape, same size, same colours, same subject, same technique, same price – anything up to a dozen or more, rarely more than A4 in size. One larger piece would have looked great – lots of small ones meant that individual pieces got lost. Although each exhibitor had her own style and technique, the result was still very samey.

So I went and spent money in Hobbycraft instead. And had chocolate cake and coffee in Haskins.

Today I decided I wanted to make a bag. Of course, I have lots of bags – but there was an interesting looking pattern in a magazine I bought recently – again I’m not going to say which one – so I thought I’d try it. I spotted fairly quickly that the measurements given for the straps were wrong – a shoulder bag with straps 40cm long? – but I think some of the other measurements must have been wrong too, because the bag ended up long and narrow – even after I’d added a sort of yoke to the top to make it a bit deeper. It would make a great knitting bag if I hadn’t put long straps on it!

So that was a wasted day. Wensleydale said I  was developing my skills, but I’m not sure what skills I’ve developed apart from swearing, sulking, and trying to turn a sow’s ear into something closer to a silk purse [but not much closer…]

And of course, because it is a Bank Holiday weekend, the weather has turned cold and drab. Not that we go out on Bank Holiday weekends, but it would have been nice to sit in the garden and listen to the planes.

So a bit of disillusioned cynicism was exactly what I needed …

P.S. The BBC’s weather website says ‘chance of snow’ on Monday. They cannot be serious!

I’ve been sidetracked …

after coming across this tutorial for little felt purses. I have felt, I have zips, I have nothing better to do.*

* Not strictly true.

So this is my first one – slightly modified from Julie's original, because my felt was quite thin so I lined it – which made it quite stiff and difficult to turn out - so I gave it external seams. Oh, and I worked the appliqué before I made up the purse.

Then my eye fell on Diana Lampe’s ‘More Embroidered Garden Flowers’ which has been sitting on my bookshelf for – er – quite a long time. Which led to this [unfinished] version.

Of course I don’t do representational embroidery, or flowers …

[Looks like Lampe’s book has been reissued, combined with her first book, under another name  although believe me I didn’t pay that much for it … ]

 

This is the third one under way. I have three more zips of a suitable size with felt to match – and then my inherited zip stash will be reduced to long zips for dressmaking  which I don’t do. Which I definitely don’t do, unlike embroidered flowers.

Now purse making may seem like procrastination, given that I have a 2D piece to make – but it isn’t really. Honest.

My rationalisation is that:

1. I am waiting for the bits of textiles from Babybel and her mum and dad and can’t make my final design decisions until I get them – and
2. tomorrow’s session is another ‘independent work and tutorials’ day and the things I can do to the 2Dpiece will fill the time while I wait for my tutorial.

But truthfully – it was lovely to sit in the conservatory, enjoying the sunshine and the view of the garden, and doing something just for fun!

It’s the real thing …

and a bit scary. This is the base fabric for my 2D piece – freezer paper resists, bleach, anti-chlor and a rinse. Now all it needs is a bit of embellishing, some appliqué and a heck of a lot of hand embroidery.

I’ve already embellished two circles at the top to represent my parents – a bit of embroidered hankie for mum – the last person I knew who used real hankies – and a bit of tea towel for dad – who had a bit of an obsession about washing up…

Now I need to go back to sampling – trying out ways of embroidering the embellishing, and different techniques for the lines which will run top to bottom. Just need some good telly to listen to while I do it – unfortunately although ‘Wallender’ is on tonight it won’t do as I have to look at the screen to read the subtitles.

It was contemporary Textiles yesterday but we will pass over that in silence. ‘Textiles’ was stretching it a bit – think brown paper, string and wire – and although I liked what I did yesterday – I don’t today.

It was the first class …

of this term yesterday. I thought that everyone else would be miles ahead of me, as I’d lost so much time over Easter.

Turned out I needn’t have worried – and as someone quite rightly pointed out, I'd started a lot of stitch samples because that was all I felt up to. [Notice I said started, not finished ...]

The session was ‘independent working’ + tutorials, and as I’d bagged first place for a tutorial the last time, I volunteered to go last this time. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do in the interim, but it turned out to be very  useful to have 3 hours or so when I couldn’t do anything else. [Apart from drink coffee, look at other people’s ideas, gossip, and eat lunch – although I did manage to resist the chocolate machine …]

I started by pootling around with some design options. I  decided the best was the one on the left, only with a space at the bottom, lines that didn’t overlap, and more of the empty circles – what I call ‘ghost circles’.

So if you can imagine it with those changes, a blue background and blue and cream circles and lines, you’ll get the picture.

Then I finished some of the stitch samples, including trying out colours other than blue and cream. Not a good idea.

This is my favourite – heavily influenced by 50s embroidery and the Needlework Development Scheme.  [I can justify this – after the tutorial I can justify almost everything about  this design!]

A digression.

Over on Dog Daisy Chains, Jackie has been encouraging bloggers to produce a post in their own handwriting. I have resisted the temptation, because I am big-headed enough to assume that you, gentle reader, actually want to be able to read my words of wit and wisdom – and if I hand wrote them, you wouldn’t be able to. If I hand wrote them , I wouldn't be able to read them.

But there is writing on the sample above. so that is my contribution to hand written blogging.

Back to the plot.

After all my designing and stitching, I had clarified my ideas, so the tutorial was really a matter of confirming [and justifying] them – although I did get a few suggestions about how to add the bits and bobs of textiles from the family. Some nice things were said about the sample above and the work book - one advantage of having done C&G Creative Sketchbooks is that although I can’t draw, I can glue, or splash paint, ink and bleach around a book, and hope something emerges …

So I came away feeling quite motivated.

On the way home I visited Cheese Major and his partner, Ali - who has got herself into the Hampshire team, well done that woman!

‘Hampshire team for what?’ I hear you ask. Well, here's a clue – some of their contributions for the 2D piece. And if you can’t work out what that lot are for, here’s another clue. No, it’s not cricket.

At the moment I'm thinking of using some of the little bit of blue leather, which I think is a finger guard, and the blue bow string end I've bent into a heart shape, if that’s not too naff – but the feathers have a certain appeal, too.

After all yesterday’s excitement, this morning I made a full scale mock up, [C&G indoctrination] with some painted brown paper I prepared earlier.

Mmm – not a total success – but I did learn from the experience:

1. discharging Brusho need much more concentrated bleach than discharging fabric. Dilute bleach just makes it go paler. Neat bleach from a bleach pen will make it go white, however.
2. freezer paper doesn't come off paper anywhere near as easily as it does off fabric.

however, it has given me a better idea of what the piece might look like than the quarter scale sketches. I also tore the fabric 5 cms narrower because that was equivalent to 2 widths of the roller I put the bleach on with, rather than 2.5.

The bleached fabric has been rinsed, neutralised and washed and is currently drying – it’s looking good but I’ll have another look at it tomorrow and decide if it really is what I want. Otherwise I'll do another one – after all I still have 2.5 curtains to go …

When in doubt …

make a book. This time it isn’t procrastination. [No, really it isn’t. Honestly. Would I lie to you?]

For the 2D artefact  for the degree we have to keep a work book. This is my work book. Boring, isn't it?

You may be surprised that I am using an bought sketchbook – but when I started the 2D piece I didn’t know what it was going to be, so I didn’t know what sort of book it needed. [It is going to get a cover soon.]

This boring book is nearly full – you can see a bit of a sample sticking out at the bottom.

So I have spent the last couple of days making Workbook 2 – because now I now what sort of book I need. One like this.

Wensleydale says it looks like an old ledger – which wasn’t exactly what I was aiming at, but I did want something worn and tatty looking.

It is yet another mailer covered with old curtain [you are going to see a lot of those old curtains – I’ve got another 3 to use]. I whipped the edges because I wasn’t convinced that the curtain wouldn’t come unstuck. The apologies for tassels are where I joined on a new bit of string for the whipping– it took miles of the stuff.

I have also been playing around with more bits of old curtain and the remains of a tin of emulsion paint. These were made using a foam paint roller, either as it came, or wrapped in curtain lace, scrim or rubber bands. I also tried using freezer paper stencils as resists. [Yes, that is a hole in the piece top right. That’s how tatty the curtains are. And you can see how faded they are in the workbook cover.  Shame making, because we only took them down a few weeks ago …]

I’ve got a tutorial on Wednesday, so we will see how these go down with the tutor. I've done some more using bleach but they are still drying and not in a fit state to be photographed.