altered life

testing

2010-07-26T07:51:00.000Z

testing

Dinky baby

2009-11-04T16:50:00.002Z

This doll is from this pattern by Vicki Riley . These are rather lifelike and can be dressed in small baby clothes. I'm ambivalent about these (as well as Halloween). The pattern is great, it comes with a CD with very detailed step by step instructions, and it is quite easy to do. I learned a bit more about soft sculpting, making fingers knees and faces. I just don't want to stray too far into reborn territory, although I find them fascinating in a creepy kind of way.

Halloween stuff

2009-10-30T13:27:00.002Z

I've never really celebrated halloween since I've been a grown up, although I'm sure I went to a few halloween parties as a child. I have very mixed feelings about it for a number of reasons. The part of London where I was living until recently has a high Muslim population, and I became aware when I was teaching that some of the parents of Muslim children thought it was an evil celebration, and worse, thought it was a Christian celebration. I tried to explain that it's much like Father Christmas (although I think he is an invention of coca cola), in that it's a kind of tradition, and not a religious festival. And my local church, held parties of light for the children to celebrate All Saints day and were preaching the evils of halloween. Living in a multicultural part of the world I realise that there are lots of festivals around this time of year, Diwali, the festival of light, for example is celebrated by both Hindus and Sihks, often with amazing firework parties.
So in the spirit of the event being just an excuse to dress up and have fun (which seems to be the American way) above is gothic Annie (from a pattern by bowlsnannies), and below my halloween decoration of a pumpkin, crow, moon and cat (from a pattern by threadbare primitives)

back from outer space

2009-09-16T08:40:00.003Z

Been absent a long time after my frenzy of doll making. The move to Windsor didn't go as planned, our house purchase fell through, we are now living in a rented house with our flat unsold and nowhere new to move to. And Christopher doesn't like his new school, and I'm not too sure about it either. So all in all it hasn't been a great success. And the queen hasn't even invited us to tea!
As a result of all this I had no time to make anything, and even if I did I felt as if I should be doing something useful like painting the flat or sorting stuff out. I have developed a very ambivalent attitude to my dolls because when we were trying to pack up, the dolls and all the associated making stuff really became clutter. I did get rid of lots of stuff, fabric went to the school, someone got a huge free bag of wool, there is nowhere to keep stuff in this new place, and I woud like a clutter free life. I have just retreived my sewing machine from storage, so maybe I can get going on something.
The picture is of a beach on Kefalonia, where we spent a week, the highlight of my summer. I have a half formed plan to spend a whole summer in Greece next year, or soon. I just love the sunshine. Apart from the fact I haven't chosen a place I'd like to stay, although I'm thinking Corfu, Durrell country, I haven't the faintest idea how to fund such a venture. The only thing I have worked out is that I must find a teaching job, as that will enable me to have the summers off:) Maybe I could organise sewingy textile retreats: Anyone want to join me?

2009-06-09T18:30:00.002Z

Don't know where to start really. This morning after 3 months of waiting and much expense on various surveys and solicitors fees we were finally about to exchange contracts on our new house when the vendor (a bank) suddenly decided they couldn't go ahead at this point. So you can imagine there were a few tears and tantrums in this house this morning. So it's back to square 1 and Christopher at this point in time doesn't have a place in any school for September. So I'm back house hunting tomorrow.
On the brighter side I have been doing some machine embroidery digitizing. Well very basic digitizing, but digitizing none the less. The cat on the purse above is a purchased design, but the purse itself is an in the hoop design that I digitized by following lessons from Sue at memories in thread . I have also made a crazy patch square, but I haven't got a picture of that.
So now I am looking for clipart to digitize. While I was on my search I have come across many interesting websites:
I can't remember what led me to this one but there are loads of tutorials on stamping and related techniques. I found it via an embroidery design.
http://melstampz.blogspot.com
posts of interest are the embroidery patterns and the birdies. There is so much on there I have to go back and have a good look round.
The site she links to, ladiesinred seems to have disapeared, or been taken over by one of those annoying search sites that pretend they are the original site you were looking for. I found where they had gone by asking Jeeves. I had forgotten about him after using google for so long. The ladiesinred are now here http://www.tostetoes.com/redwork/. Loads of free hand embroidery designs.
More free designs here

2 of my projects finished

2009-05-16T09:39:00.002Z

I have finished 2 of the projects from the last photo! I am particularly pleased with these and have set up a folksy shop. I have no great hopes of selling, but I certainly won't sell them if I leave them in the cupboard!

Too many projects

2009-05-13T17:27:00.002Z

This is my dining room table this morning. I started a whole lot of things in one go because my sewing machine is heavy to lift up and down, and when I get the paints out I like to have a few things to do. However, I think I overdid it this time. I've got lots of ideas for new dolls, but I should get one or 2 of these finished first!

Race for Life

2009-05-12T16:15:00.002Z

Hi all, I will be taking part in the Race for Life on Sunday 28th June 2009 in Richmond Park. All sponsorship gratefully accepted. You can sponsor me here .
I have started my training, I plan to run the course (very slowly, lots of people walk faster than I run).

A different type of doll

2009-05-03T14:35:00.004Z

I took an online class with Gritty Jane . I have had bad experiences with previous online classes and had concluded they are a waste of money. But this one I managed to complete, and produce a reasonable looking doll, although not in the same league as these, which were where I got the idea I wanted to make cloth and clay dolls. I found it interesting, but I'm not sure if I shall make another.

More Annies

2009-04-21T06:03:00.004Z

Been making more Annies. I never used to like them much, but they have become something of an obsession now. These are not childproof due to the nature of construction, I have been puzzling over how to make them play toys, because they really look as if the y should be played with. But these have limbs handsewn on. My handsewing is never as strong as machine sewing. And the hair isn't very secure. And the clothes don't come off. I have been reading Valerie Janitch's book, and her dolls don't have removeable clothes, and the hair is handsewn, pretty much as I do mine, but we are all so safety conscious these days, and the rules on rag dolls for children are very strict. And I would hate a child to have an accident because of something I made for her.

Hi to anyone who's still there

2009-04-15T06:52:00.003Z

I've lost most of my old links through messing about with my blog layout. Which is a shame, but then I have to go out and find new ones, which is a good thing. I've put it back to it's old layout though, because I decided that some things must change and some things should stay the same. And I can't find another one I like as much.
I have been busy making dolls.
As I suspected would be the case, my son didn't get a place in any of the schools we selected. I chose the 4 nearest apart from an almost failing school with a bad reputation. And which school did he get allocated? So our best option is to move. It was all going along quite nicely, I found a house near Windsor where he will get a place in a nice school. We made an offer, it has been accepted, it's in the hand of the solicitors surveyors etc now. But the surveyors report has thrown up a couple of worrying things. Although to be positive, he has said in sort of negative surveyor speak that these things shouldn't dissuade us from going ahead. The main problem that I see is that the house has been empty for a long time, and all the services have been turned off. We have been advised that these things should be turned back on and checked before we exchange contracts, and I am worried that the bank, who own it, will be difficult about it.
I have lived in this block of flats for 25 years, so you can see this is a huge change for me. The big advantage (apart from the schools of course) is that if this particular house goes ahead I will have my own sewing room again.

cosma

2009-02-15T19:53:00.003Z

Excuse the ever changing colours of the blog, I decided to play around before I put any links back up, so there's nothing to lose. I've been editing the html, a case of a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.
This is Cosma finished. She doesn't bear all that much resemblance to the original, and there's lots of mistakes in her, but she is a prototype, I may do some more, I'm quite taken with the embroidered face. I have to learn to do my own artwork.

fed up

2009-02-10T10:03:00.004Z

I was supposed to be doing a 2 week contract. I agreed because I could do with the money, but I was worried because teaching full time, even for a couple of weeks is a LOT more work that day to day supply. Last week I did all the stressful bit of getting up and ready making lunches, nagging Christopher to get ready, to find that his school at least was closed, then I spent a stressful hour trying to find out if I was supposed to be going in and what to do, since I have no backup childcare. Then Tuesday all the schools round here were closed, which was fine, but that means I lost 2 days money.
Yesterday, again,I did all the stressful bit of getting up and ready making lunches, nagging Christopher to get ready, actually got to school, set my lesson up. Phone call: come and get your son, he is sick. Panic, what to do now, I feel even worse as the supply teacher because now the school has to get back up for the back up. we are still at home today. I feel totally stressed by the whole thing. I have a sick child (not so sick today), I feel I have let the school and my class down ( I think of them as mine even after 3 days).
I would like to stay at home, but I need to work for the money for now and the future (didn't make proper pension plans when I should have). So like a lot of working mums I feel totally torn, and like I'm doing nothing properly.
Anyway, while Christopher has been lying on the settee watching tv I have been working on another doll.

This is very experimental. I used my embroidery machine software to digitize the face from the artwork on the pattern. I also digitized the other body pieces. Just to see if I could, I don't think it saves any time. I tried and tried and tried to turn the hands but I just could not , and I do have all the right equipment, tiny hemostats, finger turning tubes. So I put a satin stitch edging and left them unturned. Quite a complicated process involving water soluble stabilizer and apllique methods. Do you like the embroidered finger nails? Anyway that process still needs refining, don't look too closely at the arms. The next thing I had problems with was putting chenille stemps in the fingers, partly due to the sticky residue from the stabiliser which I obviously hadn't washed out as thoroughly as I thought I had.
I haven't quite worked out how I am going to put it all together, it's another one of those patterns with attach the arms and legs instructions, without specifying how to do it.
It's a fantastic pattern, though. The doll is supposed to be gessoed and painted, but I decided to do it all differently, although I do plan to do a painted one and follow the instructions. I am most pleased with the face. One day I will paint my own faces and digitize those.
The doll pattern is here.

That's what you get for messing around

2009-02-07T14:32:00.002Z

I thought I would have a little play with my blog layout. Now I have lost all my old links because I foolishly believed that when blogger said it would save my whole template that it included the links.

Snow days

2009-02-03T16:24:00.004Z

I was supposed to start a 2 week contract yesterday, but Christopher's school, and mine, were closed. I have spent the day browsing the internet and finishing off projects. Teddy made from very expensive mohair, and Russell Crow,an in the hoop project from embroidery outlet.
I think the media are making too much fuss about the snow in London. So we all had to stop what we are doing for a couple of days. I'm sure lots of people could and did work from home (via that internet thingy), and if I was relying on the bus to get to work then I think I would rather know that there are no buses than wait for one in the cold for an hour and then not be able to get on it because it's too full. I was just fretting about the inability of the schools to make a decision about whether to open today or not. We were being warned not to travel unless absolutely necessary, surely that applies to children and teachers as well? Just get me on that grumpy old woman program.

The business of selling

2008-12-15T09:30:00.005Z

I have a day off today and should get down to some sewing, but here I am messing about on the computer. I have had a couple of commiserations about my lack of success at the craft fair. Thankyou for your kind words. I've done a few of these now, so I didn't expect very much, but my friend with whom I shared the stall was disappointed. I regard it as a way of focusing on craft for a while before, and a nice day out. And in this case it also involved a day away from the computer for my 10 year old, an added bonus for me. Preparing for it makes me think a bit more about what I am doing, and this time I thought a bit more about presentation. I decided to get some business cards which could double as hang tags. I thought about those "free" ones from vista, but the postage is expensive, and you have to wait a long time for them. I decided on mini cards from moo, using my own photos. 100 for £10, 10p each. But they are fun, aren't they. On the back I have my blog and my website (http://sites.google.com/site/lizisdolls/), which is something else I have been working on.

This is an interesting article from the guardian about people who are making a success of it. My friend Gill and I concluded from this that we are not working hard enough at it. Somewhere near the beginning someone mentions that there is not much profit in bags, and more money to be made in jewellery. I have a long way to go before I can compete with Jackie, though.
There is a definite interest in the business of selling crafts, with etsy and folksy, and I have just discovered a new one coriandr. However, I'm not sure that there is a corresponding interest in buying them.
Footnote about my website : I have learned quite a lot about the process of doll making, and I wanted to preserve that information in one place, not scattered about over a blog, so I decided to set up a website. It's a work in progress, and I haven't as much up there as I would like. Google sites is free, but not particularly easy to use, I feel.

this and that

2008-12-14T17:47:00.005Z

I have been ill and I have been busy with Christmas and work and other things, but I did make a few more dolls for the craft fair, where as expected we sold nothing.
I have been knitting, as I often do at this time of year, a scarf made out of Sirdar foxy and boa, stripes of 4 rows of garter stitch each colour. All my own pattern!

Some other bags made for the craft fair, the embroidered fronts are designs from embroidery library, and the little corset purses are from the purple hat.

craft fair

2008-12-05T12:04:00.004Z

Tomorrow I am going to help out a friend who has taken a stall at a craft fair at her local primary school. I have my bags that I already made, a few dolls, and I also made a few little make up bags. These are some that I made using these designs from BFC creations.

More angels

2008-11-03T17:57:00.002Z

3 more pages for my book of angels. I think this may be all I do, as I have run out of ideas for it. I would be no good at scrapbooking, obviously. So It will be a very slim volume, just got to attach pages to each other and a cover now.

2008-11-03T17:24:00.002Z

Genie has given me this blogging friends award. I always find it quite hard to know who to pass them on to, but I try to do it as it's a good way for people to discover new blogs. Now the rules of this one

The Rules of this award are

1. 5 People are allowed to receive this award

2 4 dedicated followers

3. 1 New follower to your blog who lives in another part of the world.

4. Please link back to the person who gave you this award.

Right, I can link back to Genie who gave the award, but I'm not sure about dedicated followers. I don't think I have any! So I am going to award it to
Lynne, who has recently taken up quilting with a vengeance
Carina, for all her colourful posts
Viv who always leaves me encouraging comments
Jenny for her inspiring posts
And Julie because I like reading her blog
OK, I haven't got anyone new in there, or anyone from another country, but some of you are from the North of England, that's almost another country (ducks, covering head).
As usual feel free to join in or not:)

And Now For Something Completely Different..

2008-10-29T20:51:00.006Z

Well it's not dolls, anyway. First my ATCs for UKMixedMediaATC swap, theme of angels. These are made by the fusible applique method.
Next, I have been thinking of making a fabric book for some time. I decided to make one using the angel images I bought to make the ATCs before I decided to do the applique.

I have made these 3 pages so far. I notice on the photos that nothing looks straight! I cut and place everything by eye apart from the base page which I cut out as accurately as I can with a rotary cutter and quilting ruler. The blue one gave me all sorts of ideas to think about - blue angel = blue fairy, blue angel = Marlene Deitrich, which set me off on "You talk like Marlene Deitrich". (My head is full of old pop songs!) I tried embroidering those words on the page originally, but I didn't like it when it was done, so I cut that piece up and attached it to another page with eyelets. The quotation on the first page is from Macbeth.
added later: I realised that I have misquoted Macbeth. It doesn't make sense as it stands (much like that annoying L'Oreal ad that starts "I don't mind winter"). It should say though the brightest fell. don't know if I shall change it though. They don't look quite as skewed in real life as they do on the photos, but I might start using a ruler. Only might.

The arms of an angel

2008-10-24T14:28:00.003Z

This doll is from this pattern by Wendy's Cottonthread cottage. An unusual attempt by me to follow the pattern more or less exactly. An easy one. I am quite please with her, she is really a bigger version of the original tiny dolls I made some time ago.

The doll obsession continues

2008-10-22T09:33:00.010Z

I have made this little doll from this pattern by Julie McCullough (magic threads). I shall be trying some more of her patterns. This was easy to put together, and I already have another one on the go.
Here are some dolly links that caught my eye.
This ebay seller seems to have some success selling her dolls. They are interesting, the sorts of things I would like to make myself. She has an ebay blog but she doesn't keep it updated. It's a shame, I would enjoy reading her blog.
A blog about freaky dolls.
Marzipan babies
I found the above link from here, she thinks they are creepy, as do I, or at least they are not to my taste, but I do think it's clever to be able to create something so lifelike.
The magic bean asks if you are an engineer or an embellisher when it comes to doll making. I am definitely an engineer. I like simple dolls made out of jazzy fabrics.
Another doll blog that I like.
This is nothing to do with dolls, but what a lovely skirt.
I keep adding to this post, maybe I should have done it in draft first, but I keep remembering more things I wanted to say. Check out the free patterns on Calamity Kim.

Selling stuff

2008-10-20T12:49:00.002Z

I'm selling stuff. Not anything I have made, but books and magazines, a few crafty things among them I thought if you live in the UK you might be interested. Here is the amazon link. Here is a link to ebay. Items for sale are on the left hand side. Flair, stitch and knitting magazines in the main.

Ruby

2008-10-07T12:33:00.003Z

I made this doll from this free pattern. The books behind look good don't they? I didn't make them though, that is the cover of a book on making fabric journals. I reduced the pattern to 70% because I like small dolls, even if they are difficult to turn. She measures about 7".
There is a giveaway at this blog, in order to take part you must link to her blog, which is what I am doing:) I found her via Viv.

Finished dollies

2008-09-26T10:50:00.004Z

The fairy says she wouldn't mind taking the place of the Danish Little Mermaid while she is off for her trip to China.
A lot of hot glue was used in the putting together of these dolls. Not sure what I think about glueing cloth dolls.

Dolly update

2008-09-23T16:45:00.004Z

EPB dolls in various stages of (non) completion. The fairy will have some legs, the first set fell apart while I was stuffing them. The pattern, although simple would be no good for beginners, as it says things like "attach the arms" with no indication of how to do this. I have tried several methods, mermaid has hers messily sewn on. Fairy with no legs has hers sewn through buttons, which I think is a nice neat way, and angel has the best looking ones, hot glued on, but I'm not sure how durable that is.
Here is someone else's mermaid and fairy.

Sandown Park

2008-09-20T20:31:00.005Z

Yesterday I went to the Creative Crafts show at Sandown Park. It's a fantastic venue, and I always go to the stands to eat my lunch, there's no horses, but you can see trains and aeroplanes and sometimes there is go-cart racing. This show is not usually up to much, but I felt in need of some inspiration, so I decided to go. It was much busier than the last one I attended there, which must please the stall holders. Not an awful lot there of interest to me, it seems a bit unfocussed to me, a hotch potch of unrelated crafts, but Oh the books, they always get me. Much as I love amazon, I really like to have a look through the craft books. I bought several, my favourite is this one (photo here I hope, but who knows with blogger). There were lots of these art to heart books, I really had trouble choosing one, and I wish I had bought the others I was looking at, but I am trying to curb my spending on things I buy and don't use. I decided on the Christmas one in the end, not so much because it was my favourite but because I thought if I started now I would have a few things ready as little presents.

I already made one Bethlehem place mat, I spent 3 hours last night tracing bits onto bondaweb and cutting out little bits of fabric and sticking them down. Today I started the actual sewing. My original plan was to make 4 of these, for myself, but I don't think I have the patience. I might make 3 other different place mats. Nothing else matches here, we don't go in for matching.

I also started some nativity ornaments, one is here.

Some doll patterns that I ordered from joggles on Wednesday arrived this morning (I think that puts some UK mail order companies to shame, doesn't it).

I have already cut out one of each of the dolls, and started sewing up the mermaid.

And I have started a Christmas present scarf. In addition to all this (and anyone who knows me in real life won't believe this bit) I have tidied up, hoovered and washed the floors.
The reason for all this productiveness? Christopher's dad took him away to visit. I had a whole evening last night (the first for a very long time) without having to stop to make dinner, find lost things, organize baths and read stories. Not that I mind doing those things, but it made me realize how little time I get to myself. We are fighting for space all the time. And I like silence. When Christopher is home he has the tv on all the time, or some noisy computer game, and I can't think. He was supposed to be back tonight, but his dad rang to say the car broke down so they will stay another night. So I get tomorrow morning as well. Yippee! Maybe a dolly will get finished.
Here are some interesting links:

Heather Bailey posted this about her mother in law (Elinor Peace Bailey of the doll pattern above)
http://heatherbailey.typepad.com/heather_bailey/2007/08/mother-plays-wi.html
I hope she doesn't mind me posting this bit from her blog, it amused me a lot:
"You know, the night I met my husband (I was 16, he was 21), he asked me what I liked to do and after a long pause I blurted, "I like to make dolls." He replied, in a perfectly matter-of-fact fashion, "My mom likes to do that." "

scrappy crows, I love crows : http://ginaferrari.blogspot.com/2008/09/flock-of-crows.html
Julie has one on her blog too : http://mixedmedia-jem.blogspot.com/2008/08/scrappy-crow-giveaway.html
but you are too late for the giveaway now :(
Jennyflower is having a giveaway if you haven't already seen it http://jennyflowerblue.blogspot.com/

heart to heart

2008-09-18T15:22:00.005Z

Well I give up with blogger I can't make the photos appear how i want:( Anyway, this is what I have spent DAYS doing. I bought some heart designs from Amazing Designs. They are much bigger than I wanted, I thought I might make jewellery out of them, brooches perhaps, but they were 3" x 3", too big. So I have spent ages trying to resize them. Which is not as easy as it sounds. If you just resize a design it keeps the same number of stitches, so it stiches out far too dense. And breaks needles. So you have to mess about with this thing called stitch to block, which somehow changes the number of stitches as you size up and down. The first heart I sewed out after that, but it was still too dense. So I had to fiddle about using a combination of stitch to block and resize to get the sort of density I wanted. I then decided that on a smaller scale the design needed simplifying, so I reduced the number of colours. That's my final one. It now measures about 1.5"x1.5" which would be OK for a brooch, except I don't wear brooches. So I thought maybe I would sew the 2 together with a loop and make a pendant out of it It is still a little too big for my liking, so I will have to resize again. It actually would have been easier to digitize my own heart from scratch, I think.
What I should be doing is sorting out where my son is going for his secondary school, but it just depresses me. All our nearest schools are faith schools (Catholic or C of E) or girls schools. The next nearest school is a failing school, and after that we are 4 miles away from the next school. Now that probably sounds really close to anyone who doesn't live in London, but there are an awful lot of children living within a 4 mile radius of any school round here, so we will be right at the bottom of the list on the basis of distance for all schools bar the failing one.
On the up side I went to a presentation at his current school for the week long trip they are planning for year 6. It looks a great deal of fun, canoeing and surfing and go karting for a week. I want to go.

What I might make next

2008-09-12T21:28:00.002Z

http://www.joggles.com/store/catalog/product_info.php?language=en&products_id=1511

and I also like these
http://www.bonniecolonna.com/kits.html

and I am very taken with these designs, but rather expensive, I think.
http://www.allbrands.com/products/abp15420.html#Click%20for%20More%20Images

However, I am thinking hard before starting anything new. I realise that what I like to make are dolls and stuffy things (Like crows). And I like my embroidery machine. But what do you do with all those dolls and things once you've made them? The last lot went to the charity shop, where they probably sold for about 50p each, if they didn't go in the bin.

Decisions

2008-09-11T16:11:00.004Z

I have made something, though nothing concrete. I have made a decision. I am going to sell my embellisher. I already have a buyer. I feel I am being held back from getting on with anything by large amounts of clutter. A lot of it is projects that interested me once, but no longer. I haven't used my embellisher for 6 months, and it and the stuff I bought to use on it, are taking up space. I seldom sew clothes any more, so I am also getting rid of some fabrics. I feel better already. I might even get my embroidery machine out.
I threw out 6 carrier bags full of broken/useless toys today while C was at school. I haven't told him, and I don't suppose he will notice. I may tackle the videos and books tomorrow, although they will be recycled rather than thrown out.
I finally got round to uploading my holiday photos to the computer today. I bought a waterproof camera before I went away, as I have already broken 2 cameras through getting sand in them, and waterproof is also sandproof. I tried it out underwater to see if it worked. I am quite pleased with this picture athough it is totally by chance, as you can't see what you are getting in your picture when you are under the water!
Below is a video taken in the aquarium with the same camera.

2008-08-30T16:13:00.002Z

Make your own sticky at http://wigflip.com/superstickies/ . Found at Lynn Viehl's blog.

links

2008-08-04T20:28:00.002Z

Thanks everyone for the comments left recently:) I actually have shelves of books culled from Colchester and Chelmsford charity shops, mostly 70s and 80s general craft books. I find anything worth having is generally overpriced in the charity shops these days, so I was particularly pleased with my finds.
I came across these links that anyone reading this might like:
Free subscription to an e-magazine :
http://subscriptions.creativelivingmedia.com.au/subscriptions/
And this just amused me
quilt

2008-08-03T07:26:00.002Z

I am on Mersea Island, staying with my mum while dad has a holiday in Norway. I have been here since Tuesday. It's difficult. It has been made more difficult by the fact I injured my foot the week before and have been unable to put my heel down. I don't like to leave mum and Christopher on their own for too long, but I have to make visits to the NHS walk in centre in Colchester every other day to get a new dressing put on. Yesterday it felt better enough for a walk around the shops, and Colchester has many lovely charity shops. I found these books in the Oxfam shop ranging from £1.99 to £3.99.

It almost brought the muse back, especially the doll one. But of course I have no suitable fabrics or anything here:( I fancy to make the doll. But I tell myself that long intricate projects like that are not for me anyway, I always get bored before I finish. So I have contented myself with doodling in my notebook.

Awards

2008-07-19T15:13:00.002Z

I've been meaning to do this for days, but I couldn't work out how to get the images on my page! Anyway I've made up a way of doing it, I saved the images and just posted them the way I post all the other pictures.
The brilliant weblog award was from Viv,

The rules for receiving this award are

1. The winner can put the logo on her blog.

2. Link the person you received your award from.

3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs.

4. Put links of those blogs on yours.

5. Leave a message on the blogs of the people you've nominated.

The other one is from Jennyflower
I'm not sure what the rules for this one are, so I'm making up my own, and passing both awards on to Kate, (even though she's probably had both of them already) who was the first person to discover my blog, and has been a HUGE inspiration to me, and many, and we all miss her when she isn't posting.

Swimsuits

2008-07-16T07:02:00.004Z

OK, I'm using lots of photos that aren't mine at the moment. One of the things on my to buy list is a new camera:( Something else that has been occupying crafting time, is swimsuit shopping for my Greece trip. Now it's not much of a fun occupation, but it is considerable less painful than it used to be. M+S have quite a number of supportive swimsuits in large cup sizes, with proper integral bras! I knew I should have patented that idea. I used to make my own swimsuits, it's not that difficult. There are 2 books I can recommend on the subject. KWIK SEW SEWING SWIMWEAR, and Sewing Beautiful swimsuits . My preferred solution to the swimsuit problem used to be either: to use the leotard pattern from the kwik sew book, and try it on with a bra underneath it, and then cut around the arms, neck and back to make a swim suit shape that didn't show the bra. Then I just wore it with an old bra under it. Or: I made a normal swimsuit again from the Kwik Sew Book and a matching bikini top from the Beautiful Swimsuits book and wore the 2 together.
Here's a link to making a bikini top using an old bra as a pattern
http://www.taunton.com/threads/pages/t00111.asp
And here is the link to the FREE pattern for the swimsuit in the picture above. I haven't tried it but this lady has, and she says there are a few problems with it, so maybe not for your first attempt.
If anyone is interested I can post more about making a swimsuit, I learned a few different things that worked for me.
For now I am not making one, I am going for this this and this from Simply BE, to be worn all together.

Sewing

2008-07-16T06:43:00.003Z

I haven't been doing much crafty stuff recently, but in between visits to the dentist (broken tooth leading to root canal, yuck), optician (I need bifocals), and osteopath (don't know where to start with that one, it's fun getting older, isn't it), I have been SEWING.
It all started when a neighbour asked me to shorten some trousers for him. I don't mind doing this because a) it isn't very difficult, and b) this particular neighbour has helped me out lots in the past, and he is quite prepared to pay the going rate. So while the sewing machine was out I thought, well you know I really should make those trousers that I bought the pattern and fabric for months ago. And so with help for the friendly folks at UKSEWING on the best way to deal with the drawstring I made them up, and they FIT. That's a picture of them above, very easy. The pattern is Burda 7966, if anyone is interested.
So flushed with that success, I have a skirt and top cut out from McCalls M4844 , and another one or 2 things in my head. I plan to spend today making it up, and maybe there will even be a picture of the finished item.

wordle

2008-07-09T09:31:00.003Z

One of the blogs I read and should really put in my favourites , is Lynn Viehl at paperback writer. Today I found on her blog a link to wordle, so of course I had to have a go. Wordle looks through your text and produces a picture based on words you use a lot. You can, as I did, put in a link to your blog, and it reads what text is available to it. I didn't know I was so keen on ebay! Just know things is a pretty good summary I think. I'm surprised the word decided came up at all, as I very rarely decide anything! I haven't decided who I will pass the awards onto yet, for example!

machine embroidery

2008-07-06T13:02:00.003Z

Despite having plenty of time to do crafty stuff I feel uninspired, and have done nothing for the last 2 weeks. Today I decide to just do something in the hope I would get going somehow. I bought some digitising lessons from Sue at memories in thread weeks and weeks ago, didn't have time to do them when they arrived, and then of course the moment passed. I'm sure you are familiar with that feeling! So today I decided to have a go. The lessons are for digitizing stitches for crazy patchwork, and I have digitized a wheel, and then spent a bit of time playing with it. It has a kind of fractal feel to it, I think.
I have been the lucky recipient of 2 awards!
Viv and jennyflower both presented me with awards. More details in my next post.

In Kew gardens

2008-06-23T18:15:00.004Z

If you are a Ralph McTell fan you might recognise the title. In fact I live only a few yards or metres from Kew gardens, but that few yards is filled with water called the Thames, so I have to go the long way round across the bridge. We went today to do the new treetop walk. Here are a few other random pictures from the afternoon,
This one is the view from the treetop.

ebay

2008-06-21T20:55:00.003Z

I've listed a few of my things on ebay, just to see if there is any interest really. Here's the link ( I hope!) I'd be very grateful for any feedback. If you buy on ebay I would be interested to know what you think, have I included enough information, for example. If you have had any success on ebay I'd love to know what you think as well. There has been very little interest in the things I have listed as buy it now items, but I know the prices are high. I have at the moment decided against etsy as I think there are just too many similar things, and the standard is very high. I am hoping that on ebay these things may just stand out as being a little different. That's my theory, anyway! I've added about me information, etc in the hope that the longer someone stays around the more they might be inclined to buy something.

bags

2008-06-15T16:18:00.003Z

I sat down to finish something today. This little bag made from Laurel Burch fabrics. I am very pleased with it, but I really don't need another bag. Maybe it could be the start of my selling stock, I'm thinking of ebay. I know about etsy, but I always feel that you need more than 1 or 2 things on there.
Where do you have success selling?

Time for a holiday

2008-06-15T16:05:00.002Z

Here is a photo of me and 2 friends on a holiday in Greece. I'm the middle one.
The thing is of course, that this really is me, but the photo was taken nearly 30 years ago, back in 1980, or thereabouts! The other 2 would kill me if they knew I had posted this on the web, but they'll never know.
A few weeks ago I decided to book a holiday to Greece with my 10 year old son. In a moment of madness I asked these 2 girls if they would be interested in coming along. Neither of them has any children, so imagine my surprise when they both said yes. So we are going in August, finally managed to get agreement from everyone and booked it on Friday.
I think we are all due our midlife crisis, so this could be the start of it!

garden swap

2008-06-15T15:58:00.003Z

Long time with no post:( The blues haven't really lifted and I have been endlessly distracted with other things. I haven't been to work so I have had time to do lots of creating. What have I done? Nothing!
This lovely piece of art arrived yesterday from Susan. It has a tiny clock and key attached, both are symbols I think about a lot. She also sent me some beautiful threads and a charm and other bits and pieces. I must do something with them. I scanned a picture, but I don't know where it's gone. Anyway, it's all very beautiful and I'm keeping the picture by my bed in the hope that Susan's inspiration will rub off on me:) Thanks so much susan, if you are reading, I love it.

A murder of crows

2008-06-05T12:39:00.003Z

I am feeling blue like Kate these days. No particular good reason, just lots of things that I don't know what to do about, like should we move, so that Christopher can go to a decent secondary school? What shall I do instead of teaching? I had been distracting myself by sewing the primitive dolls, but unless I can set up shop and sell them by the dozen it will remain a distraction. I sent Susan one of my crows, a pink flowery one, so I wanted to wait until she had hers before I posted this picture. They are completely useless, but fun, I think. I particularly like the collective noun for crows. I don't know who sat around thinking up these things, and I'm not sure if they are really used, or if they are just anecdotal. There was a film with the title. Maybe I will try and rent it now!

ATCs completed

2008-05-26T15:01:00.002Z

Here are my completed ATCs. I am very pleased with them, though they are entirely someone else's idea. I haven't made them exactly the same. I didn't have purple felt, so I embellished purple chiffon to black felt before I started. When I first looked at the ones I copied I thought she had used crystals, but I realised later they were beads. However, I liked the crystal idea so I wnet with that. And instead of lace I used some dyed scrim. So they are similar but not the same.

jewellery and little dolls

2008-05-23T17:55:00.007Z

I ordered a few cheap beads from ebay, and made a few things, the pink and the red hearts are cheap ones, the green bead is an expensive one from the bead shop. On the photo you can't see much difference, but in real life the expensive ones do look nicer. Not sure it would bother me, though, as at present I buy my jewellery from the supermarket. A boy in the class I was teaching asked me if the studded heart I was wearing (£4 from Somerfields) was real diamonds!
And here are my little dollies finished. The yellow one hasn't got her trousers yet, but the camera had a short burst of working properly so I snapped a picture of them partying on the balcony.

Something that sometimes stops me from getting on is unfinished projects that have lost my interest. I have 2 of those at the moment (not including the poor yellow doll with no trousers). I started this parrot, I got quite a long way, but it requires wire in the legs and seems terribly complicated to attach the feet. But I have been unable to get on with anything else because it has been waiting for me. I don't think I want to finish it, and I don't think I will. I am going to put it in the bin. Also for some reason, I started crocheting a strawberry shortcake doll. I have no idea why I thought this was a good idea. I think this may go in the bin too. Then I will feel better, and may even get my embellisher ATC done for UKEMBELLISHERSWAP group . I am going to make one like this. I have already received my printed images from joggles. I have a black and white laser printer, and so cannot print lovely pictures myself. However a sheet like this will last me quite a long time at the rate I use them, and I bought 3!

And the winner is....

2008-05-19T17:41:00.003Z

The winner of my olde soule, picked by Christopher (torn away for a few seconds from playing spiderman on the playstation) is.... Viv!
Please send me your address and I will post him off to you. He says he is not sad but grumpy as he is perfectly entitled to be, being olde.

art for boys

2008-05-18T12:40:00.004Z

My local Somerfields, which isn't very big, has now given over 1/2 its floor space to Peacocks (cheap clothes chain). great for cheap summer T shirts etc, in fact most things I have on today are from that very shop. However, they appear to believe that boys of about 10 (Christopher's age) don't need any clothes. There is a whole aisle devoted to pretty girly things, and absolutely not 1 item of clothing for boys of this age:( I find it's the same with arts and crafts everywhere. Lots of books on how to draw mermaids and fairies, and lots of lovely glittery art kits with a girly theme. Not much for boys though. So 10 year old boys don't need clothes and don't like art, apparently.
I did buy this book.

We spent an hour or so yesterday playing with it. But I know he won't want to do this again for quite a while so I need to think of something else. I have the book "making creepy creatures" which I bought instead of making fairies, which I would have preferred, so maybe that's next. Here are the results of our attempts at lettering.

GIVEAWAY!!!

2008-05-12T13:39:00.003Z

I was the lucky recipient of not one, but two giveaways recently:) So I feel duty bound to do my own give away. I have missed all the milestones of my blog, 100 posts, a year of blogging, just went by without my noticing. so this is just because.
If you would like to win the olde soule pictured above, then leave me a (nice) comment on this post. I will pick a name at random next Monday.
The olde soule is my first go at the proper grunging process, he has been painted, sanded, and rubbed with cinnamon and coffee (he smells quite nice). he is made of calico, and has embroidered tummy and face, and one button eye. he is stuffed with polyester toy stuffing and is about 10 inches tall. he is made from a pattern by threadbare primitives .

making small dolls

2008-05-09T15:21:00.003Z

I bought this pattern a few weeks ago. I am a little disappointed with it. The shapes are fairly basic, although they are nice shapes. What I was hoping for was something in the way of instructions as to how to sew such small dolls. Turning the pieces is very difficult. All the pattern instructions have to say about it is that you will need a wooden skewer, nothing about what you actually do with it. I have various turning tubes, which wouldn't fit, and eventually I decided that patience with the hemostats was the best way. I think it just takes a bit of practice. I also resized the 2nd doll by about 10%, which helped a bit.

Happyscape and Excellence

2008-05-04T07:59:00.008Z

It really has been my lucky week! I received this lovely happyscape from Carina . It really is very happy making, and I am very fond of bright colours.
And Kate has awarded me this trophy.
Thanks to everyone who left me comments about my idea overload and my cupcakes. I am feeling much better. But I haven't done any sewing this week, which is bothering me. I am going to the fair with Christopher today, so no time today. Maybe tomorrow.

I realise that I haven't posted my own nominations for excellent blogs. The trouble is with my butterfly mind I skip around and different things interest me at different times. The five I have chosen today are:
Jackie
Becky
Carina
Amanda
Annette
Please feel free to accept the award or not, I know some people don't like these things:)
I just want to thank all those people who share so much on the internet, it's a great source of inspiration:)

more distractions

2008-05-02T13:07:00.004Z

Inspired by these I made cupcakes! Mine look like they were decorated by a 5 year old, but never mind. They are made with wholemeal flour, therefore all the sugar and E-numbers in the icing are of no consequence.

jewellery

2008-05-02T07:04:00.002Z

Like Genie, I have a butterfly mind at the moment. On Wednesday I went to a jewellery making workshop in Winchester, which is a very long way from here. It was well worth attending, though despite the torrential rain, and the extortionate parking charges. And there is a C and H fabric shop in Winchester. These are what I made, earrings, a pendant and a charm bracelet. The course was £20 not including the beads, and of course I didn't buy any more beads while I was there, and of course I haven't since been on ebay looking at beads.
The shop in Winchester is World of beads .

I'm a winner!

2008-05-01T13:24:00.002Z

I entered the give away at artisbliss and I won this beautiful blue bookmark:) Blue is my favourite colour, what luck. I found out I also won at Carina's craft blog . What's more my son arrived home with a game of tri-ominos , which apparently I won with my raffle ticket! So my luck must be changing. I should go and buy a lottery ticket quick.

olde souls

2008-04-27T12:39:00.004Z

Here is the result of all my frenzy. I very much enjoyed making these, a very simple pattern, and no clothes to make:) I haven't perfected the grungy look, despite following the instructions, but I have my own ideas for this pattern, the ginko one for example made in quilting cotton. My favourite part was embroidering on their tummies. I have some more cut out but I don't have much fibrefil left. I want to make some little goddesses this afternoon if I have time, so I'll save what I have for that.
This is nothing to do with dolls or sewing, but just look at these fantastic cupcakes on this site!

This is me

2008-04-26T12:20:00.002Z

This is how I feel at the moment! I am a caffeine addict, do you think it might be a problem? Blame EthelandEdna for the animation, I saw it there first. If you want your own go to http://www.meez.com/

It seems there are lots of us out there struggling with too many ideas. Thanks for all the comments. The problem for me is it really does get in the way of actually doing anything, but I have calmed down today and tea and coffee dyed some fabrics to make a prim dolly. More later.

inspiration overload

2008-04-23T13:31:00.005Z

I have so many ideas I don't know where to start. I recognise the symptoms. A manic collecting of input. Soon I will be posting that I never want to craft again and putting my sewing machine up for sale on ebay. In the meantime I wanted to record all the inspiring websites, I thought here is a good a place as any, this is really for me, but if anyone is out there reading, you might find it interesting too. I did some actual sewing today, 3 little cosmetic bags for birthday presents.

UK fabric shops
http://www.buttonberry.com/
http://www.creative-fabrics.co.uk
http://www.thefatquarters.co.uk/catalog/index.php
http://www.thehomespunloft.co.uk/store/Default.asp
Doll patterns
http://www.buttonberry.com/
http://www.creative-fabrics.co.uk/store/WsDefault.asp?Cat=CraftPatternsKits&Sub=110&isThumbs=Yes&Thumbs=150
http://www.primitivetreasuresatgingerbreadcottage.co.uk/
http://threadbareprimitives.com/195-sg.html (fantastic doll patterns, particularly these:
http://threadbareprimitives.com/217-oldesouls.html

Bag patterns
http://craftydaisies.com/2007/04/26/simple-makeup-bag/
http://www.buttonberry.com/
http://buttonberry.typepad.com/photos/charm_pack_tote/charmtote_pattern_image_final.html
http://buttonberry.typepad.com/photos/posh_pick_n_mix_bag/index.html
Books + magazines
http://www.contentedcat.co.uk/Graphics/Magazines/Q&E-Fall-2007_640.jpg
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sew-Pretty-Homestyle-Irresistible-Projects/dp/0715327496/ref=pd_sbs_b?ie=UTF8&qid=1208899006&sr=8-1
blogs
http://www.rosaliequinlandesigns.typepad.com/
http://www.sewamazin.com/
http://tildaddict.wordpress.com/
http://highlandquilter.blogspot.com/ (she has been making the charm bags)

graphics : image on this post courtesy of
http://www.primlicious.com/primliciousmain.html

tilda
http://tildaddict.wordpress.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/quiltmatters/2338373142/

tags
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/LOT-of-PRIMITIVE-HANG-TAGS-folk-art-BLACK-CROW-make-do_W0QQitemZ150237024827QQihZ005QQcategoryZ1217QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD4VQQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp1638Q2em124#ebayphotohosting

machine embroidery
http://www.cassandrasembroidery.com/PrimAngel.htm
http://www.oregonpatchworks.com/items.php?did=20398&pid=36546

a few links

2008-04-22T23:16:00.004Z

I've started to feel that my "I made this" style of postis becoming uninteresting. I am at the moment exploring new things. I have spent so much time surfing recently, and found all sorts of places and ideas that interest me, and it seems that things I have been thinking about, someone else has already had a similar idea!
I would like to learn to digitise my own designs for my embroidery machine. When I first bought it. about 5 years ago, I did actually make my own designs using a celtic knotmaker program and the autodigitise function on the software. I was much more adventurous then:-) I made bags and embroidered my designs on them as thankyou gifts for all the teachers and assistants in my son's reception class. (There seemed to be a lot of them, I've never had so much help.) They were most impressed and said I should become a bag maker. But I decided to become a teacher.
One of the things I have been thinking about digitising is small dolls, as I mentioned on a previous post. I think I would like to digitise a little primitive doll. I keep on about these dolls because I like them. I have found some others at hatched in Africa. And I had been thinking that small plushie-type toys would be fun to make on the embroidery machine as well. It has already been done by emblibrary. And they have been made up by sewamazin.

I love this doll pattern by Rosalie Quinlan. These are the sort of thing I had in mind to make on the embroidery machine. In fact all her patterns look great, and the site where I found them, http://www.buttonberry.com/ looks like an invitation to spend money. I want this book. And I want to make this bag (free pattern can be downloaded from the blog, here).
This is just a small selection of the things I have been thinking about over the past few days, do you think this is why I can't sleep? I have been doing a lot of thinking and playing about on the internet, but no sewing (or housework or anything else for that matter.) More tomorrow, or rather later today.

I relented

2008-04-18T16:22:00.004Z

I don't have the energy to fix the floppy head, but I hemmed her dress and gave her a face and hair and she looks quite jolly. She will just have to sit somewhere where her head is help up by the wall!

more dolly pictures

2008-04-18T15:20:00.004Z

I finished Crow Annie this morning, and grunged up her dress a bit by soaking it in tea, drying it on the radiator and not ironing it. I quite like her, except I think her arms are too long, although I did (unusually for me) follow the pattern exactly. Christopher says she needs hair, but the pattern doesn't call for it and I like her without.
The other and as yet not (possibly never to be) finished, is the dolly mixtures pattern from Crafts Beautiful magazine. You can find the pattern here. You have to sign up to the site to download the templates but it's free. It all went together very nicely, I used cotton jersey as the pattern said, and I cut it out with the stretch going around the doll (which is the way you would cut for sewing clothes), the pattern didn't specify. Of course it makes a chubby doll, then. So I didn't stuff her too firmly because she was just getting very fat. So now her neck isn't firm enough to hold up her head. I messed about with the dress pattern making it a bit wider and hemming round the neck instead of doing a double bodice ( I told you I don't follow the patterns properly). Messed being the word, the dress is a mess, as is Crow Annie's but it kind of goes with the primitive look. I realise that although I like putting the dolls together I don't much like making their clothes, I am generally bored by then! She has a very nice shape, what I should do it open up the body and stuff it a bit firmer and make her a new dress, but I don't know if I will. She would be a perfect little girl's doll becasue she is so soft and cuddly. I like the look of her, but I've lost interest. I'm not much good at fixing things once they have gone wrong.

primitive dolls

2008-04-16T15:57:00.004Z

Well I've spent far too much time surfing in the last two days. I've have 2 new obsessions, one is digital scrapbooking, which I have no idea how to go about, but I have found a few links with tutorials I want to have a go at!
The other is primitive grungy art. This is a doll I made today from this pattern. She still has a bit of work, her dress is covered with loose threads, and her arms are not sewn on, and she needs a face. But I was quite pleased with her.
I love these dolls, here are some links in case you like them too.
http://www.sassafrashill.com/store/WsDefault.asp?Cat=PrimitivePatternFreebies
http://www.angelandthecrow.com/intro.html
http://www.twodancingcrows.com/
http://www.sweetprims.com/catalog.php?category=11
I don't know what the significance of the crows is, but I want to make one.

What I'm sending

2008-04-08T07:02:00.004Z

My quilties for UKEMBELLISHERSWAP. They are chiffon and yarns embellished onto denim. They have 3 layers as a quit should (so I have been told) and the quilting is fancy embroidery stitches from my machine. I added patches spelling out art. A page from here was my inspiration. These quilties made from embellished denim are very solid, I don't think I would like one on my bed.

At the bottom you can see some of the things I am sending out for my art bits package, embellisher cords, embellisher beads and charms, plus some pewter charms and paper beads.

I found the embellisher beads on black felt quite tricky to roll round straws in the normal way, as the fabric is so thick so some of them are rolled and have a glue "seam", some of them are rolled round a straw and have a sewn seam, and some are made by taking a square, folding to make a triangle and then sewing the seam.
Thanks to everyone who left nice comments yesterday, lots of people feel the same way, obviously:)

other people's art

2008-04-05T16:21:00.003Z

I received these fantastic things in the post from Susan. I thought after my last post bemoaning the fact that I can't seem to get a professional finish on things I would post some pictures of some things that really are professionally finished. Unfortunately I didn't make any of them. On UKEMBELLISHERSWAP we are doing an arty bits swap. We made inchies, cords and beads on the embellisher, or using embellished fabrics, and then include in the parcel something not embellisher that you made, and something that you use but didn't make. Susan sent me lovely hand marbled fabric as the thing she made, you can see it in the background and beautiful beads that she uses. She also put in some handmade envelopes. Everything is so beautifully finished. The quiltie is part of another swap, but is also from Susan. I haven't made mine yet, I am a little behind with these, but I will catch up. I only hope Susan is not disappointed with what I send. This does worry me in some of the swaps, as other people's workmanship seems so much better than mine. In my defence the arty bits swap was all my own original idea, I didn't even steal it from another group:) So I can take credit for the idea if not the actual execution of it.

finished hobo bag

2008-03-23T15:01:00.004Z

I finished my BFC creations hobo bag. It took a very long time to make all the little pieces on the machine and then sew them together, so I sewed strips together for the back. It looks OK, but as usual I found it very difficult to finish it off nicely. Putting the lining in and doing a satin stitch edging was very fiddly, and the end result is not very professional. However, it is yet another finished project, I'm getting much better at this:)
Except it is not quite finished, it needs a fancy button for the closure.

It's my birthday (really)

2008-03-22T12:46:00.003Z

I got a cheque from my parents earlier in the week, and I already spent some of it. I found this fantastic shop , which has loads of great projects. So I bought some of their papers, which you can see peeking through around the other stuff, and some other bits and pieces. The book, of course, came from Amazon. I bought the tags with the idea of maybe creating versions of my own. The trouble is I am like a magpie, I bought all these pretty things, and I don't want to use them. I just want to look at them.

rubber stamping and cards

2008-03-22T12:35:00.005Z

I've bought some scrapbooking papers (see next post). Here are some cards I made ages ago using scrapbooking paper and some cardboard flowers. I like them a lot, and I wish I'd kept the magazine with the instructions. It was some kind of papercraft mag I think, Papercraft inspirations? If you recognise it leave me a comment

This is some rubber stamping I did at another of Susie Jefferson's workshops last week. Still not great, but I'm getting a bit of a better feel for it now.

Wilhemina

2008-03-09T09:12:00.005Z

Wilhemina is finished! She has been sitting on the table waiting for hair for about 3 weeks. here she is sitting on the ironing board. Far more useful if she did the ironing.

machine embroidery

2008-03-08T19:15:00.004Z

I am making this bag from BFC creations. It has taken me all day to embroider and piece the front. I haven't the energy to piece and embroider the back, so I have sewn strips together, which I may embroider on tomorrow. I like it so far, so here is a picture of the front before I spoil it by trying to put it all together (often happens).

lichen and shrink plastic

2008-03-02T15:10:00.006Z

This morning out walking I found a stick. I brought it home and took a photograph because it is such a lovely colour!

Yesterday I went to a workshop at Blade Rubber Stamps
where we learned how to use shrink plastic. I have never tried it before, and my little book isn't very good. Susie Jefferson who taught the class has a great website too. And she lives near me. Check out her photos of Brentford.
I shall revisit the shrink plastic when I get to that bit in the Creative embellishment book .
In the meantime it has given me some ideas for mini fibre books. I still can't get to grips with rubber stamping. did I mention that before? Maybe on the journal of inspiration blog. I just can't do it. All that happens is I make a mess:(

ATCs

2008-02-23T12:24:00.003Z

Because I haven't had much time recently I haven't been keeping up with the blogs I read. I almost missed this . There were just a few ATCs left to trade, and I am going to trade one of mine (pictured left) for this one .
When I was making my inchies (see this post) I was having trouble zigzagging round the edges. Amanda suggested stabilizing them with paper, which I did. While I was doing that I thought how nice they looked sewn down on something, even if only white paper, so I thought it would be interesting to put the inchies onto an embellished background. When I saw Susan's ATC which was exactly that, an embellished square on an embellished background it was just too much of a co-incidence, so I have made my own version. Using Kate's rule of 3, of course.
I am pleased with these out of all proportion to their actual wonderfulness.

crop a dile

2008-02-22T09:34:00.005Z

I love my new toy, the crop a dile arrived yesterday. several of my inchies now have eyelets as a feature.
Here's a video showing how it works in case you are interested.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyHffZ-e0Xc&feature=related

Sherrill Kahn

2008-02-19T13:47:00.007Z

I have this book by Sherrill Kahn. I have decided to actually make the things in it. I started with the beads, which I have made before, so I knew what to do. Here they are ready to be further embellished with fibres and little beads. I thought I might do a chapter a month, next months will be air dry clay. If anyone would like to join me leave a comment, we could link to each other's pictures.

Half term hooray

2008-02-18T12:53:00.005Z

I received this lovely box today from Sandra on UKEMBELLISHESWAP. The flower is made from a silk cocoon. Sandra also sent me a felted necklace, I don't know how it is made, I am hoping she will tell me:)

I have spent a bit of time catching up on my own swap commitments. Today I made embellisher cords, mainly following instructions from http://www.fibreandstitch.com/pdf/embellishercord.pdf. I think I should have tried making some before I suggested we made 20, as I don't think I really like them. I may do a bit more to them with the sewing machine and some glitzy thread.

I also made lots of inchies, which are in various stages of completion. When I get my sewing machine out I may try zigzagging round some stabilized on paper as suggested by Amanda
I know they are not charms, but I really want to put some eyelets in some of them, and I just can't seem to manage with the eyelet setter I have. So today I treated myself to a crop-a-dile, on order from an ebay seller. One of the benefits of doing paid work, you get some money to spend:) I have to go now and clear up the mess I made, fabric and yarn all over the floor.

My life as it is

2008-01-28T20:52:00.000Z

What I do at the moment. I go to work, I cook tea, I visit my parents and my friends on Saturdays, and I spend Sundays planning lessons for the next week. I watch Hollyoaks a lot (that's always a bad sign.) This version of Somewhere over the rainbow was on tonight.
On Thursday I have a retirement party to go to. Someone I used to work with a long time ago when I had a proper job in an office with a view of Big Ben. And stationery and anything you needed to do your job was provided. There are no pencil sharpeners in my classroom, and now my white board is finally working I discover that the children can't actually see it because the projector isn't very good. I want an old fashioned blackboard.
Anyway, I did finish my box for the UKEMBELLISHERSWAP group tonight.
The other photo is of another piece I did, which I will cut up to make inchies, but I rather like it as it is.

I'm back

2008-01-02T16:36:00.000Z

I received this sewing kit as a present from a friend. Last weekend I saw it in the Sunday Times Style magazine. I'm stylish!

All my loopa scarves found new homes among the little girls of my aquaintance, along with a request for another one (pictured here!) I made this one this afternoon while watching a dvd of Surf's up with my ill little boy.

I have wanted a pair of fingerless gloves for a long time. I knitted these from a pattern in one of the vintage booklets I bought from ebay. That particular phase has passed now, so maybe I will put them back on ebay!
My son has been recording the phases of the moon as his school homework. he became very interested in it, although unfortunately December had very many cloudy nights here. This is a rubbish photo of a particularly spectacular evening sky just before Christmas.
New year's resolutions
Becky has an interesting post about resolutions. Think of a word to influence your life. The words that most characterise my life at the moment are indecision, and reaction, in that I am not pro-active, I tend just to react to what is happening around me. I would like to be decisive and pro-active. There, I've written it down now, so maybe I will do something about it.
I start teaching year 1 full time for a term tomorrow, wish me luck:)

fluffs and fancies and felt

2007-12-19T14:39:00.000Z

I bought Margo Duke's embellisher book recently, which in my opinion is the best so far, or at least it suits my style best. These 2 pink things are the beginnnings of fluff and fancy pins, awaiting a bit of embroidery, a project from the book.
Today I also watched Beate's film again, and then made some felt bits of my own. I am quite pleased with them, although I don't know quite what I shall do with them. I shall just call them fragments, I think.
Fragment: small piece of work with unfinished edges; presented as precious. Sometimes a large piece that lacks charisma can be successfully recycled into several smaller fragments. These can then be presented as a series.
Series: Several works with the same theme, usually the same media, and possibly originating from the same piece. This is a good way to get additional mileage out of one bright idea.

From Creative machine embroidery, by Kirsten Dibbs

cleaning the kitchen

2007-12-17T20:19:00.000Z

I spent the day cleaning the kitchen, which is a phenomenal waste of time because it doesn't look any different. Not being very tall, there are lots of places that I can't reach, including the far corners of the work surfaces, so today I got the steps and the bleach and did all those things. Why?

I came across this website, lots of interesting ideas in it, especially if you follow the links
http://www.kerismith.com/howto.htm
She has a blog
http://www.kerismith.com/blog/index.html

I particularly like the entry on 10 things to do instead of shopping, and there is a link to gureilla Christmas which includes things like singing Christmas carols onto people's answer machines.

The picture is something I created in ultrafractal some time ago, I thought it looked like lace.

LOOPA

2007-12-15T11:32:00.001Z

I have been eyeing this little gadget, the Sirdar Loopa for some time, and I finally succumbed and bought one. I am very pleased with how my boas turned out. The so-called pattern (more later) said I needed 1 ball of WOW and 1 ball of vegas to make a 48" boa (the purple one). That is definitely wrong, it is only about 24", you need at least 2, I have ordered more to finish it off. The grey was some fluffy stuff I had lying around, don't know what it is, but I had lots of it, so I figured I'd have enough.
What I think of the loopa
Once you get the hang of it, it is quite a nifty little tool, I made the grey one in about 21/2 hours. It's fun, and will make nice Christmas pressies. It is a little limited, I think because I can't think of much else you can make with it, but then it is only £1.50.
But I think Sirdar are quite wrong to market this as a tool for non-knitters. It's very fiddly, and quite difficult to work out how to do it (myspace video, anyone?). If you are not used to working with yarn I think you would very soon give up. If you have the patience to figure this out you could just as easily spend the time learning to cast on and do garter stitch.
You need fancy yarns and also a binder yarn of something plain. The looping up the middle is effectively a crochet chain through the loops, and is much easier to do with a crochet hook than with your fingers as suggested by Sirdar.
In brief, it's a fun tool if you can already knit or crochet, but in my opinion not really suitable if you don't knit or crochet already.
This girl loves it
http://traceyscrafts.blogspot.com/2007/08/loopa-2.html
http://traceyscrafts.blogspot.com/2007/08/loopa.html

and here is a rant from someone who doesn't seem to have tried it, although I have to agree with some of her opinions about it:)
http://www.hauntedyarns.com/blog/?p=17

more loopa scarves
http://www.needleemporium.com/content/newsletters/2006-11-13.cfm
http://knityoga.blogspot.com/2006/06/jewellery-making.html (scroll down a bit)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/71042670@N00/113451026/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fromthesheepsback/260070647/

Here is the pattern.
http://www.angelyarns.com/sirdar/sirdar-loopa.php?pic=loopa-patternslg.jpg

Well it's not a pattern at all, just pictures with the yarns used to make the scarf pictured. And it's wrong, as I said, my scarf is only 1/2 the length the "pattern" says. However, I like having pictures to look at along with the info about what they were made with. But it's not a pattern.

And here is what a loopa looks like if you haven't seen one.

Finished poppet

2007-12-12T16:13:00.001Z

My poppet is finished! She has felt eyes with eyelids, lovely Sirdar Tuscany hair, and I crocheted her a dress. I'm very pleased with the way she turned out. She took a lot of time. I did this as part of the craftster poppet-along. Go here if you want to join in.

Christmas presents

2007-12-08T17:12:00.000Z

My first Christmas presents:) Of course I opened it. Lovely things from Susan, thank you so much, most unexpected, and very kind of you. I'm very proud to count you as a cyber friend.

icicle dolls

2007-12-08T17:05:00.000Z

My icicle dolls all ready for something:)
Here are some of them adorning my Christmas wreath on the front door.

here is my competition, next door (and our doors are literally next door). I think she wins this time:)
Kate is making wise guys instead of icicle dolls. They are great, might try them next.

November journal page

2007-12-08T13:53:00.000Z

I got quite involved in doing this. I'm not sure quite what it has to do with November, but it has dolls on it, so it sort of counts. I bought some different fibres because I found the colours I had were all of the biright very in your face colours, and I wanted to try something a bit more subtle. I cut some figures out from A Sherill Khan FQ that I had been saving for I don't know what. Some I embellished onto the background, and some I made into little stuffed dolls whwich I attached separately. The bits that look like orange peel are silk cocoons. I think it has the look of spirits rising from the fire, so I suppose it can be a bonfire night piece:)

October journal page

2007-12-03T17:40:00.000Z

Busy day today. I have not used my embellisher for a while, and I am behind with my journal pages. here is the result of today's playing. I have used one of my huskey design faces to represent what I was doing in October, embroidering faces on everything:)

Icicle doll

2007-12-03T17:34:00.000Z

Well I had to, didn't I?

You can find instructions here .

Other lovely dolls here http://judy-scott.blogspot.com/2007/12/brrr-its-frosty-icicle-doll.html and here

http://thefabricofmeditation.blogspot.com/2007/12/icicle.html

post number 3

2007-12-02T15:50:00.000Z

Wow, three posts in a day, to make up for not posting for over a week.

The Wendy chic scarf is finished (the one I thought I might not finish). I haven't got a photo though, it's just more of the same.

The witch is still WIP. Here is my poppet, sans clothes and eyes, but she will have both. If you want to see more about these visit http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=205341.0

Fire

2007-12-02T15:45:00.001Z

Last night we went to see Fire, a re-formed progressive rock band from the early 70s. It was a performance of "The magic shoemaker". I enjoyed it, as did Christopher (having listened to the music several times in the car) and his dad. The 2 teenagers who decided for some reason to come along with us were not impressed. They were under the impression that they were going to a big rock concert with hotdog stands and T shirts to buy. This was in a small hall with a bar. The band don't look much like the photo any more, but which of us does.

Selling stuff

2007-12-02T15:31:00.001Z

Or not, as the case may be.

I tried to sell some of my bags yesterday. My friend makes lovely painted glass objects, and had got a stall in Acton market. I agreed to share it with her. Just before Christmas would be as good a time as any, I thought. These many bags (pictured) have been made over a long period of time (years, rather than weeks) and sit in a big bag in the wardrobe. I didn't think it would hurt to give them an airing. However, it was very very very cold, no-one was out, there was no interest in bags at all, and I didn't sell a single thing. Maria broke even. I did quite enjoy myself, a day out, (I'm easily pleased), a chat, and lots of people watching. I don't think I want to do it next week though.

featherstitch and lots of WIPs

2007-11-21T10:31:00.001Z

These lovely featherstitch ATCs arrived yesterday. They are actually all much nicer than they look in the pictures, the one on the left has a lvely bronze thread which barely shows up in the picture. I don't know at the moment who it's from, I shall be popping into MixedMediaATCUK to find out later. The middle one with the flowers is from Julie. The tan coloured one, which has nets and foil (I think) is from Maria. The ones I sent in for this swap are here . The standard of these swaps has been very high.

I haven't posted much craft recently becasue I haven't finished anything. So I thought I'd post a few of my works in progress. The poor embellisher hasn't had much use recently, you will see that I have become something of a knitting fiend, because knitting is portable and can be done in front of the TV.

This is my mindless project, a garter stitch scarf in some feathery yarn I bought at Alexandra palace. It is such a fatastic colour and so soft I think I shall keep this one for myself.

I bought some Wendy chic, and this crochet pattern for a boa, but after several attempts at crocheting it I gave up, as I found it almost impssible to see the stiches in this very very very hairy yarn. I found a pattern online for knitting one, and I've modified it a bit to suit my purposes. here is my boa in progress. I'm not 100% sure I'm going to finish this because I may run out of the yarn. The pattern for the knitted version can be found here . I t can take quite a long time to load up the page. There are lots of other interesting scarf patterns there as well. I am not knitting 2 pieces as they suggest, I have cast on 15 stitches and I'm just having loops on one side.

Witch in progress :

Finally another thing I am doing, a pretty poppet sewalong at craftster . Here is a link to the original poppet. I've run out of stuffing stuff so here's the legs of mine for now, although I have sewn all the other bits.

To do lists

2007-11-19T13:44:00.001Z

Blogger keeps telling me about this blog, which is OK, but I think this is the best example of a to do list. I write to do lists in the notebook that Amanda sent me, and when I've finished that one,I have the one sent to me by Annette, pictured in the post below. My to do lists consist of mundane things like go to the post office and pay the electric bill. Until recently I had an entry most days that said look for a proper job, but I can tick that one off now, I have whole term of teaching year 1 full time in January. I am quite excited about having my own class for a term, but a bit apprehensive about doing the full time bit. Christopher is not very happy at being in morning care from 8 am and in after care until 5.30. It's a long day for him isn't it? That's one of the reasons I stopped last year. Still it's only a term and we'll see how it goes.

knitting

2007-11-17T20:27:00.001Z

I am knitting this witch from Simply Knitting magazine. Below is a picture of the arm with hand and fingers. Very clever pattern:)

You can see what else I have been up to over in Journal of Inspiration blog.

This weeks post

2007-11-10T14:11:00.000Z

A lovely brooch from Lorraine, thanks, I love it.

A notebook from Annette, I have shown it opened out here because it has a design that goes all the way across. It's really pretty, and I shall be using it.

My current obsession, old knitting pattern books. I can't seem to stop buying them when I see them on ebay.

Alice (for Kate)

2007-11-05T07:38:00.000Z

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=7133805

grunge

2007-11-01T19:56:00.000Z

http://www.art-e-zine.co.uk/grunge.html
http://www.art-e-zine.co.uk/susancohen.html
http://www.lkperrella.com/cgi-bin/itsmy/go.exe?page=8&domain=1&webdir=lkperrella
http://www.teeshamoore.com/thestudiozine.htm
http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/set?id=46893

The polyvore site is definitely worth a look. Things to play with.
I want to create the look or feel of this kind of art with my embroidery machine. I have hunted and hunted for designs I could use, but haven't found anything. Looks like I might have to learn to digitize properly myself. Scrapbooking and rubberstamping all use these collage elements, and I think it would work for embroidery. Make little bits and put them together, Redwork designs might work. Otherwise the best ones I have found so far are the huskey designs faces, and these .

Not Your Everyday Fairy

2007-10-29T08:07:00.000Z

The fairy from the pattern in Sewing World. (designed by Freya Perry) I have used a Huskey designs face resized instead of drawing the face on. I also used stretchy fabric instead of woven, which gives her a chunky look.

Why blog

2007-10-27T12:27:00.000Z

Don't feel like doing anything creative today, so I thought I'd answer Kate's meme about why I started blogging.

I started because there were several fibre based trades going on that I fancied to join, but they required you to have a blog. And also I have a geek soul and it wanted to know about blogs. I haven't actually joined any of the trades I thought I would like to, but I continue blogging for many reasons. One of them is that I have far more finished projects these days, because I want to finish them so that I can show them off on here:) And I have met many nice people through the blog, people with similar interests who I would never have come across in the real world. And it's really really great when people leave comments, and you know someone has made the effort to read what you wrote.

If you want to join in, leave a comment, or a link to your blog and your reason for blogging.

And because I don't like posts with no pictures, here's something I produced some time ago when I first got Kai's filters for paintshop pro.

Catching up

2007-10-26T21:32:00.001Z

Spent the day finishing up projects. First are feather stitch ATCs for MixedmediaATC_UK

Next are brooches for UKEmbellisherswap. The face was the first one I made, but I made that on the embroidery machine, so I decided that didn't really count. I beaded round the edges of the brooches and the ATCs. I don't really know how you are supposed to do this. What I did was to sew blanket stitch and just pick up beads on the bit that goes across.

Then I went back to my original piece for the notebook swap, cut the spine off the pink one and put it on here. I like this one a lot more. maybe it is the colours. I threw the rest of the other one away. I really didn't like it.

The yarn I ordered the other day arrived Wednesday. The scarf from Sewstylish is already knitted. I'm not entirely happy with the colours, that's the problem with ordering online, you can't really see what they all look like, but it was easy to knit, and will be a useful addition to my Christmas present stash. I already have many scarves, I like knitting scarves.

I finally finished this one from a Sirdar book, which I started last winter. I like this one a lot better, but it was much more work
So now I have the decks clear for my next project.

swaps agggghhhhhhh

2007-10-22T17:58:00.001Z

I made this little notebook for myself some years ago, and decided to try and copy the design for the notebook I am making for a swap. I have spent days doing this, and I'm not very happy with the result:(
Here are my 2 initial attempts - dyed batting, 1 with netting and 1 without. I don't like the look of the netting, and without it the batting won't stand up to wear and tear, should the recipient decide to actually use it (as I have the one sent to me by Amanda).

So my next attempt is dyed cotton fabric, embellished with a piece of felt and fibres and machine emboidery. The spine is strips of yarn sewn down in lines, to recreate the rughooking of Traci Bautista, but with less effort. Purple Missus did something similar, but I have made the cover in one piece so there is no need for a separate spine. The felt square is my first bit of felt made on the embellisher, inspired by Lynne. But it doesn't have the nice crisp look I was hoping for, and is very messy inside. It took a very long time and I am disappointed. Maybe it's the colours.

magazines

2007-10-21T20:27:00.000Z

Today I bought 2 magazines. S ewing World I have been avoiding, but recently there have been a few things that interest me. This month there is a pattern for a doll by Freya Perry , which is actually quite similar (I think) to Kate's doll. The other magazine is Sew Stylish gifts to make, which has a website (pointed out to me by Kate), with lots of info on it. I want to make the scarf. If you scroll down there's even a video to watch of the scarf being knitted. I haven't managed to find yarn much like the ones used, but I have ordered a selection of things that will do, very cheaply from Kemps wools . I can't tell you what the service is like as I have never ordered from them before, but the prices on the discontinued lines are very good.