All about dogs!

Ive got a naughty greedy broccoli munching cocker, who has recently discovered my yummy veggies growing! Caught the little bugger green faced - as opposed to red handed (or pawed :o) I didnt manage to get a photo of her unfortunately - she might of got the wrong idea and thought `mom wants her to eat them `cos she is happy` - I really wasnt! Jesse had been watching me harvesting purple sprouting brocolli for dinner... she must of clocked what it was and went back later (when the coast was clear) to help herself. The trick is keeping her out of it now, shes a sneaky madam. Im gonna be in trouble when the tomatoes start to ripen... Jess luuurves tomatoes!

A friend of Garys has just had a litter of springer spaniels born... we`ve been able to `hand down` lots of puppyish equipment; whelping box, puppy pen & heat lamp etc... its nice that they are being used!

Hearing about their adventure is bringing back lots of memories of our lovely puppies... Amber, our golden girl had 3 gorgeous boys a couple of years ago. And since I dont have any other photos to share with you today & Im feeling distinctly nostalgic about my boys, thought Id share them with you :o)

Left to right; Alfie, George & Rolly

This was when they were 8 weeks old

It was such a lovely feeling cuddling an armload full of warm happy puppies! Calling them and hearing their paws scrambling as they came running, little tails waggin` like crazy... lovely.

x

Tinkering today

Today I have been tinkering round, sourcing supplies and finishing off long standing UFOs (unfinished objects)... Ive taken photos of one that Im really pleased with! The batteries on the camera went though before I could take anything else... so for now...

This is a cuff Ive been visualising, planning, collecting materials for - for 6 months now!

Doesnt it seam ridiculous that its taken me that long?! Its not like there were a LOT of bits to collect!

I have patched jeans using this sort of random OTT stitching before & love the effect :o) its a bit mad (like me hehe)

These pewter buttons were booty brought back from the Reenactors Fayre in February, they`re really weighty (which I like, you know they are solid & good quality!)

I also wanted to show you what my daughter made for her teacher. The school year ends next week & my little one will be going up to High School (already? my baby?!). She wanted to felt a butterfly for her teacher to hang in the garden... so Sunday she designed it & we got all the necessary stuff together, I got her started & she has created the most beautiful butterfly.

Its not the first one of these that she has made, and I did lend a hand with the rolling - she started feeling iffy & has since come down with what seems to be the flu. Its double sided and measures 14"x9" - I think she did a cracking job. We are going to put it on fishing line so it can hang and look like its floating & fluttering.

OK, off to dish out paracetamol & strepsils to the patient...
x

Plodding on...

Hey folks, hope you have had a great week! And plans for a fun weekend?!

Its been a while since I last blogged... things have been a little hectic, getting called into work at the last minute (seriously - 15minutes after the person who didnt turn up should of started their shift... I only had to drive 7 miles through 3 sets of road works and morning traffic - the air was blue in my car I can tell you, I was steamin` mad!) Im gonna start growling about it again if I think about it ... so moving on :o). That was on top of my other shifts.

I have managed to get some of my fancy felting embellishments listed over on my Folsky stall, non of the hand dyed stuff yet though.

I have sari silk goodies

Silk caps & hankies

And curly locks

To be honest Im feeling a little artistically challenged at the moment. I had a simple project in mind a couple of weeks ago, make a lightweight & sexy wrap for my moms birthday. Simple! Yeah right! I made 2... each one ended up taking me a whole day (one took 9 hours solid!) and I didnt get what I wanted GRRRRRR. I actually like the finished pieces, but they just werent what I wanted for my mothers birthday present! SO, totally sick and tired of wraps I decided to make something altogether different... I cant share just yet though cos she does check out my blog from time to time & sods law she will end up seeing it before her birthday! Will post soon...

Hope Im back to my normal self next week - I dont do `down` very well (or maybe I do it too well?) Anyway, enoughs enough - maybe I should hit the Red Bull?!

Anyway, whatever you are doing - have a lovely weekend :o)
xx

A feltmaking convert?

Had a wonderfull day yesterday with my friend Nicola, who is a very talented artist, she mostly does painting and illustrates. A couple of weeks ago we decided to have some `swapsie days`- she felts with me & I paint with her... Yesterday was our first swapsie day :o) and Nicci had her first ever experience of felting. We made felted corsages from Liz Houghtons Felting Fashion book (have you noticed that I like that book? :o) It was a lovely girly day with lots of chat & laughter, veggie sausage sandwiches & buckets of tea & lots of fibrey fun! Perfect.

Nicci did a fantastic job! I sent her home with some fibres & bubblewrap so she can play some more... wonder if she will get hooked?

Camera shy!

Close-up of Nics roselike corsage - isnt it lovely

And this ones mine

Im really looking forward to our next swapsie - painting day! I havent painted since I sat my GCSE Art exam 20 years ago! Unless you can count painting the house, or faces onto art dolls - but painting a picture?! I wont know where to begin. I have wanted to paint for a while... so this is good, it`ll make me get on and do it :o) I am NOT promising to share the results though hehe it`ll probably be awfull!

Apologies for the crazy spacing on this post... blogger is behaving rather oddly at the moment - wont let me get it right!

x

How does my garden grow?

VERY well, thank you :o) This weather & lots of watering are doing wonders!

My purple sprouting broccoli is, well, sprouting :o) Not sure when its ready to harvest... its about 2 foot tall & veeery bushy, with little sprouty bits on a couple of `em. What do I do? Pick off the sprouting bits as they appear & it`ll keep on cropping? Or do I leave & pick the whole thing off & then the plant is finished? If anybody knows please tell me... there was no info on the tray of seedlings & I cant find it even googling.

Its all lovely and lush down the side, as you can see :o) Lots of tomatoes & courgettes are coming, and the strawberrys have already provided a lovely big bowl full ...

Beans, herbs and rhubarb are coming on...

Elsewhere the tayberrys are ripening, & potatoes & onions looking good. Rachael is entering the junior section of a local gardening show in September - she has a dahlia and savoy cabbage growing for that :o) Will take pics & post another time.

Latest hat

Well here it is...

I made this one from Lizzie Houghtons Felting Fashion book. Anyone who knows me knows how RARE it is for me to make any project in a book, let alone for it to look remotely like the one in the book. But this little hat just looked so sweet, and I like the colours & just happened to have similar stuff in my stash, so...

Its 3 layers of merino, with oodles of locks & silk fibres, 100% silk velvet (YUM) plus silk/rayon blend velvet... notice how different the 2 look? The silk velvet felts in like a dream... doesnt even need locking in, the silk/rayon has felted in well but is more textural when finished & does need to be locked in just a little. I liked using them both together, its made the felt very tactile. When the felt was dry I did quite a bit of random machine embroidery, then sewed it up & added some more embroidery.

Just got to get someone to model it for me to take a photo now... getting bored of seeing myself under my hats :o) and Gary ran a mile when I reached for the camera.

Im off to enjoy the fabulous sunshine now :o) Have a good weekend folks xx

Fun felting

In between days at work and other mundane essentials (like shopping & housework) plus making the most of the sunshine with the dogs over in the fields :o) Ive done some really fun felting projects!

A few days ago I read a post on Daily Felt, Inger was asking if any feltmakers wanted to make & send starfish to a group supporting children with cancer. The group are having their 5th annual funday & want to give each child a starfish. Its a really touching post, and immediately I wanted to make a starfish & send it to help bring a little happiness.

More organised than usual :o) I took photos step-by-step...

I started out by covering the star shaped resist with lovely lime green Icelandic wool; I wrapped around fine strips of batt until it was completely enclosed... I did 2 layers of Icelandic (the 2 layers perpendicular was interesting! :o)

Then I covered it with 3 layers of my favourite cobalt blue merino top.

For decoration one side was liberally sprinkled with sari silk fibre, and on the other side I layed out a design using a homespun boucle plied with a metalic thread. I crocheted a `wagon wheel` on a big hook to go in the centre.

Turns out the handle on our new French doors are perfect for drying this sort of thing on!

It made a really strong, sturdy felt... the sari silk twinkles & shimmers and on the other side theres just an occasional glint of metalic thread sparkling. I`ve stuffed it with clean / soft fleece from a local flock of free range organic sheep... Its very cuddly & tactile & measures just over 10".

I also made another hat! This is from Lizzie Houghtons Felting Fashion book (great book!) A little pillbox hat, as a sneak preview heres the top before felting...

Well, thats it for now... Have a good weekend x

Ahoy mateys

Had a good day working at the Pirate event yesterday! Perhaps because I didnt have to ` oooaaaaagh` myself hoarse this time lol... trust me, its happened in the past! I spent the day working on pirate eyepatches with the children :o) The weather was beautiful till about an hour before the end when the heavens opened... I was close to a `pirate DJ` & steel band - luckily not playing at the same time.

The event was at Haden Hill House (lovely) which is one of Sandwell Museum Services sites. For anybody nearby its well worth keeping an eye open for upcoming events; theres quite a bit planned for the summer (as usual). SMS have a fan page on Facebook - Sandwell Museums and everything thats going on gets posted there, plus photos of the sites & news etc.

Not sure if Im just a bit tired today... or feeling unmotivated cos I know Im at work Tuesday & Thursday - so any big project I start is going to be interputed... Ah well, time to shake myself off & wake myself up & GET TO WORK!

Have a good week

x

As promised...

This is my new bag, that I finished making yesterday!

I was inspired by the lovely bags that Heather at Wool Love Functional Fibre Art made & blogged about a couple of months ago... at around the same time I felted a big flat piece, trying out my goodies from the Reenactors Market. I decided at the time that it was going to become a bag... but Ive only just gotten around to actually putting it together!

First of all I had to find just the right leather belt for the handles... a few weeks scouring local charity shops got that sorted, its a nice well worn brown leather one - about 1 3/4" wide; I cut it with a stanley knife down the length to make 2 handles. I didnt cut all the way to either end though, which made it easier to sew on (with my leather needle in my sewing machine).

And then there was the lining. Eventually I found a lovely piece of fabric while mooching through my moms stash; its from one of my nans dresses - not sure exactly how old it is, but I think its safe to say its vintage :o)

It has a nice zippy compartment & strong magnetic snap fastner

Today, Im dyeing a silk lap, impatiently checking whether the silk I dyed earlier this weeks dry yet...no! And photographing & preparing supply listings.

Have a good weekend folks - whatever you are doing... Im working at a pirate event on Sunday :o)

x

The week so far...

has been pleasantly productive :o) in a gentle, plodding sort of way. I played with the silk saris on Monday...

This is the chiffon, with added banana silk (this is the chiffon I overdyed with gold)

Green peacock silk sari in cobalt merino, with loads of sari silk fibre & yarn

.

Im wearing this scarf today :o) its all long `n skinny and feels really elegant to wear (you know when you feel like you look nice in something?!)

Plus Ive felted and sewn together another cushion cover... so now I have a pair; sun & moon...

More Icelandic wool

And yesterday I dyed a load of silk ... which is still drying. I`ll post tomorow with photos of todays work, and hopefully yesterdays silk too.

x