Happy Halloween!!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

 

Evening All, hope you have all had nice days? Mine was a little stressful but it has been made much better by pumpkin carving and cake making. 

I thought this year I would do something a little different from the norm, and spent a while on Pinterest yesterday looking for inspiration for my pumpkin. Do you like my owl?

The Mother sent me a themed parcel this week and it had lots of different Halloween related objects in it, napkins, the paper pumpkin, the little wooden pumpkin ornament, balloons, cake sprinkles, sparkly black felt...even Daniel (The Brother) contributed to this parcel and sent me a catnip mouse!

I decided to use the innards of my pumpkin to make cupcakes!! And as far as I can tell, they have been a roaring success. It is a recipe I found on the Internet and adapted to suit my own tastes, but is essentially a spiced pumpkin cake mix with a maple syrup and cream cheese icing- plus The Mother's Halloweeny sprinkles of course! (Sprinkled on by my lovely assistant Lucy)

Cream ATCs

 Afternoon!!! What...interesting...weather we are having lately. Last night the rain came down so hard I could barely hear myself think as the wind lashed it against the windows!! Luckily I was snuggled up on the sofa, surrounded by cosy blankets and in a creative state of mind. Always a good thing to take your mind off of the outdoors!! So these are this months colour ATCs, hopefully we won't run out of colours anytime soon because I really enjoy this swap and looking through my folder to see a rainbow of colours!!

Ooo, how about a quick colour overview?

Yep, definitely want this swap to continue!!!

Happy Inside

Hello my Lovelies!!! What do you think of my new zingy flower pot? The bright orange colours make me feel all happy inside.

Another thing that is making me feel happy inside is the completion of my Christmas Houses for the ATC group. I hope they fit in well with the other ladies' streets as I am very pleased with them. (I might make a few more to make my own street longer!!)

Firework Postcard!!

Evening All!!! I had some very exciting post today- well, sort of- it arrived at my countryside home (how posh!) so I asked The Mother to open it and send me a photo (I take no responsibility for the blurriness of said photo). This is my return for the Great Big Stitched Postcard swap and it has flown all the way from Texas which I find incredibly exciting.
The creator of this lovely card was my fab swap partner Judah, who was inspired by the song, Fireworks, by Katy Perry (the link is to the music video on YouTube). I love the simplicity and colour in this card!!
If you are interested in seeing what other cards were made and posted around the world, then check out the Flickr page to see more!!

Post & Projects

Look Look Look!!!! My Christmas Cactus is flowering again!! I am so pleased with this little plant, it doesn't seem to mind that it lives in a very dull room and doesn't get watered often; it travels around with me between houses without even a dropped leaf!! And it flowers about twice a year for me, which is all I can ask for really.

 

It is horrible and gloomy here, I've had to try and take photos whilst sitting on the doorstep of the utility room because it is the lightest place I can find and even then it isn't very bright so I apologise for the following photos as they might be a bit dull.

 

 (By Eileen)                                                 (By Paula)

 

ATCs!!! Let me talk to you about ATCs. I so love these little cards and it is always a surprise when they come through in the post (usually because I have forgotten that I have sent some away), and they are always beautifully made/crafted/designed by very talented ladies. This weekend has been fabulous because I have had nine returns in the last two days!!! The ones above and the one below are part of the Beach Hut swap.

 (By Hazel)

 

The Brown & Gold Swap:

 



 (By Annie)                                               (By Alison)

 

 (By Paula)

 

The September (Seasons of Mists and Mellow Fruitfulness) Swap:

 



 (By Hazel)                                               (By Paula)

(By Wendy)

 

And so some swaps come to an end and others are nearing end of production!!! I have been working very hard on this years special Christmas swap, you may remember last year the group worked together to create a patchwork wall hanging? (My pieces are here, and the returned pieces, here) This year is a row of Christmassy houses and I am thoroughly enjoying it!!! Currently I have finished two and have nearly finished the third with only one more to go!! Can't wait to stitch together my Christmas street!

 



I have also been working on another monthly project, you remember myself and The Mother signed up for the Sew & Stitch magazine? It comes out on a weekly basis but because we subscribed we get monthly packs instead and mine came the other day with the first lot of free gifts!!! Hugely exciting!!

I think my favourite bit was the folder as I have really enjoyed organising all my magazines and putting in wallets to hold all the fabrics and threads that come with each issue! I do like to be organised.

So issue two was a ribbon patch.

And issue three was a bunting patch (which isn't quite finished in these photos, it now has all of the triangles properly sewn on and some birds in the distance).



Can't wait for next month's package!!!

Fun With Fabrics

 
Yo Dudes!! 'Sup? How are we all this evening? I have spent the last two days in the studio playing with fabrics and techniques. I have discovered a bonding film which is kind of like bondaweb except it looks like a thick cling-film, and have been bonding all sorts of things! My current favourite is bonding sequin tape to various fabrics as it means I can melt and distort the fabrics and they will stay in whatever position I put them in when the sequin tape cools and hardens.

 
The centre of the shape below is a looped and couched wool which I have melted with a heat gun. The wool kind of shrivels in on itself and when it burns, goes yellow(!) -which I thought looked like a sprinkling of pollen so I am happy with that technique.

See the peachy centre of these flower-like shapes? This is an example of the bonding between sequin tape and silk dupion, the other colours/fabrics  are just free flowing.

On another piece I have started experimenting with centres and shapes that haven't been structured. I think I prefer the structured shapes though.

This is a bit of a jumbled sampler, with pistil stitches, frilly bits and silk rose type shapes. I think I like my more organic shapes more as they have more texture in. What do you think?

Now all I need to do is start working on the backgrounds and bringing back in my landscapes. I think Photoshop can help here!! I have also started playing with bleaching lots of different fabrics; currently in the washing machine there are lots of different fabrics which were being bleached this afternoon. My purple velvet has gone a rather vivid orange!!! I will show you that when I have done something with it.