ALLSORTS

First though I must tell you all. I found the glue. Hahahahaha. I now have a stack of the stuff.

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So many wonderful things have been arriving for me of late, I am so lucky and never forget it wouldn't be but for all my lovely WWW Blogging friends.

Here is a perfect example of people's kindness, Pat C has sent me this cute card, charms, and fabric, and it is a huge piece, I shall have fun using these Pat, many  many thanks go to you. and yes I do love yellow...

See, it is huge

In the same post I had these two wonderful fat quarters from my friend Marian, aren't they fabulous, a big thank you to you Marian, you know my weaknesses..

Also, on this wonderful post day, I received this Green Rainbow ATC from Fiona, she tells me on the back she had used her Embellisher and Heat Gun on this, Whew! It is just great Fiona, many thanks to you...

This fabric Postcard is from Jo in our Yahoo group, it is a wonderful piece of her sun-printed fabric with butterflies - not real ones I hasten to add!! - thanks Jo, I love it.

This next Postcard is done on an Embellishing Machine, I am in a swap for these, we had the choice of a Landscape or a Seascape to make, this is what Maria made for me. Isn't it fabulous? I was totally gobsmacked when I saw it, I said to my hubby 'oops, I am in the wrong group' There is no way I could compete with this card even if I wanted to, which I don't. I struggled with my card, thankfully I didn't have to send to Maria, some other poor soul will recieve my card, I have done a Landscape but can't put it here until it is received. But here is Maria's card, Enjoy. Thank you Maria it is superb.

Something different but still a gift. Ros sent me some Anemone corms way back, and just look. Here they are in flower, so thank you to you Ros, they will remind me of you every year, I love them they are so pretty, that red one is such a vibrant colour, we can see it from inside. Wonderful.

I really must be the luckiest person to have such generous friends, some I have never met and possibly never will, but that is by the by, we are friends never the less. Thank you all of you for your gifts and thoughts. I really do appreciate them.

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Now, you are going to have to take my word for this, there was a black bird on this table, our new bird feeder table, it was gorging itself and didn't spot me creeping up on it, until the camera clicked and wouldn't you know, it flew away faster than the shutter clicked, better luck next time.

Hubby has been very busy in the garden pottering about here and there. Here are some of the potatoes he is growing again in those clever bags, they were scrummy last year...

I can't remember what this is called - Kalanchoe??? - Annette gave it to me as she is not too good with house plants or any plants really, she just starts sneezing poor thing...

Plants in the greenhouse hubby is doing, there are more now he has pricked them all out, plants are everywhere, we don't have that big a garden either!!!

Hmm, not a good picture, but the best I could do in a quick minute, this was on my washing, can you see, it is a ladybird but it is BLACK with RED spots. Very odd, a real ugly looking thing, I was going to catch it but I think it sussed that out and flew off, hope it doesn't come back either...

Well this was a Kodak moment if ever there was one, I didn't put that little ted there, it fell offf the pile as I was moving them to the other room, I thought it was so funny, it looks like it wants a go on my machine - the quilt is the tea cup one I am doing for Tonya...

So there we are my friends, some pictures of what has been happening for me over the past few days or so. I have actually been sewing a fair bit, but I cannot put the pictures here yet as everything I have done has been for swaps and until the folk get them....I don't wish to spoil their surprise. As soon as I hear they have arrived I will put them on. I have completed Postcards  -  ATC's  -  Blocks  -  Quilts, oh I have been a busy bee

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Oh yes, I just have to do a bit of nana boasting. Rebecca is having swimming lessons, she has been since January this year, She was actually quite afraid of the water so Annette thought this would be good for her, and of course she is quite right. Anyway, Rebecca has taken to it like a fish to water so to speak, and guess what. SHE CAN SWIM. She is doing so well, the teacher has moved her up to the next group. I am so proud of her, she is really enjoying it now and is no longer afraid of the water. Well done Bab.

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THANK YOU ALL

Thank you all of you for your concerns and advice. I am fine, really, back to normal as it were. If I ever were normal that is!!

I shall be putting some pictures on here tomorrow of stuff received and sent, and, I really do think it is time I had a give away. A real give away, not one where you have to pay postage like my friend Pat had to do!! I will do that as soon as poss, I have to search for something to give away first.

OUCH

The other evening I was searching for some glue sticks - in the dark - well it was almost dark, and as I leant forward to look in a mug, to see if it was in there, my forehead came in contact with the corner of a shelf. OUCH! I cannot describe the pain, and the feeling I had was most perculiar. I felt I was being drowned with foamy water, it was really odd. My eyes kept spurting water, but the pain was hideous. I couldn't see properly and eventually gave in and went to bed. I didn't wake up till 10 the next morning. I have only just got back to normal - if there is such a thing for me!!! Strangely no skin was broken and there is no bruise, just pain.

I still haven't found the glue sticks!!

FABRIC AND THE ARTS - MY WAY

Lovely fabrics arrived for me today in various ways. These are all from the lovely Marian. She gets us fabulous fabrics from her market at the bargain price of £2 metre. Brilliant or what! Thank you Marian.

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These two Batiks I bought from John Lewis in Milton Keynes yesterday [Monday] when Annette and myself went over on the bus, Rebecca was at school. It was great, we didn't have to go in Build-a-bear. Yippee!

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This is a gorgeous fat quarter  from Irene, I organised a fatquarter swap on our Yahoo group, aren't I lucky this is just perfect Irene, many many thanks.

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Watch out here comes the Arty bit!!

I am going to 'play' with this to see what effects I can get, so you best watch this space...

Mmm mmm Valdani threads - this is how they arrive, all individually wrapped...

Then open them up and  -  Gorgeous aren't they...

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Again on our Yahoo group another swap - 'M is for - a great card very cleverly done don't you think...

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ARTY bit again...

I am doing a little Book making course online with Myfanwy and shall be using papers like this - pretty aren't they...

I am most definitely changing in my views toward the 'Art' style of things. I am really enjoying what I am doing with Myfanwy. These little Books and the Embellishing machine lessons. I still obviously love my Quilting, that will always be my first love, but this is really stretching me and you know what. I am enjoying it.  I seem to be learning a new language too along the way. I guess each craft has it's own language.

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Talking of language. Today was a pretty bad day regarding the hideous neighbours. I had opened my post and was trying to read the booklet about the Puff Paint. The dogs next door - one in particular - kept up a persistant bark bark bark, I just couldn't concentrate. Hubby went out cos we could hear 'her' next door, and shouted across the fence for her to shut the dogs up. Hmm, no response. Bark bark bark bark bark, it went on and on. You have no idea how annoying it was. Anyway, I flipped. I stormed outside and yelled, you do not want to know what, although I didn't swear, at her to shut her dogs up or I would do it for her. She shouted at me to ----Oh shut your ******* face -----. Now, if anyone swears at me or mine, that is like a red rag to a bull. I came in and rang the Environmental Health people---AGAIN --- the person I needed to speak to was out of the office but he will get the message passed on --AGAIN-- and will ring me sometime in the next 2-3 days. I am ready for that call. I have had enough. Over 15 years of sheer misery with that family next door. This time I want something done about them and the dogs they have. It is not much to ask is it. I know I am on a lose lose lose situation. It is just so unfair. The weather of late has been fabulous hasn't it. I bet you have all been sitting in your gardens if you have one. We can't, cos it stinks out there of dog urine or the other, it just chokes you and is unpleasant to say the least. So indoors we stay, well I do, hubby can bear it for a while, Rebecca too for a short time, then they have to come in. It is not right is it. An Englishman's or woman's home is supposed to be their castle, ours is a prison. I swear if today I had access to an axe I would have gone round there and committed a massacre, truly I would. I was so angry I am sure my blood pressure went way off the scale.

She did shut the dogs up then and each time they so much as whimpered, she was yelling at them to be quiet. You see, she can do it, so why doesn't she keep them quiet all the time.hing is you see, I have noticed of late I am beginning to hate all dogs and that is just not me, I love animals, it is the lat next door I can't stand. Oh I know it is not the animals fault, but quite honestly that line of thinking is of no help to me. One day I will flip too far and be locked up, either prison or the mad house. So if I go missing you know where I am.

LOOK WHAT NEARLY DROPPED IN

We were sitting quietly having our meal and heard this 'roar and hiss', we knew what it was, a Hot Air Balloon Gas thing being set off, BUT it was soooo close. I had to desert my dinner to see how close. WOW, it was right outside, just over Connie's garden next door, I dashed !! indoors to get my camera to get some pictures, I had a chat to the people inside the basket. I really thought it was going to crash land. Luckily it didn't.

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I have been making some more fabric postcards with the Hydrangeo petals Rebecca and myself dyed the other week, this time I put them with some Angelina Fibres, and I am really pleased with the results, particularly the two with the trees I free machine stitched on top of everything, I think I shall do more like those two...

This one is petals and twigs of the Hydrangea plant, done over a piece of patchworked fabric strips, a piece of voile over the petals to keep them in place, then free machine stitched on top with some metallic thread...

Petals of the H plant laid on top of a piece of white sari silk with Angelina in opposite corners, a pice of voile on top of the lot then free machined feather with squiggles in the centre...

Dark blue background, Angelina across the middle with petals laid on here and there, plus small flower punch shapes, scattered around, voile on top, free machined feather with circles in centre and round edges...

Another blue background, with two flashes of Angelina fibres, large petals threough the middle, voile on top, a few circles free machined opposite way of Angelina...

Angelina fibres of mixed colours all over a piece of background fabric, petals scattered all over, a piece of voile laid on top then I free machined a tree in sparkle thread op top of the whole thing, I really liked this effect, so did another..

...but this time I did three trees - I like this so much I may have to keep it - for a while anyway, as I said at the beginning, I like these last two very much so am sure I will be making more very similar to these, I shall experiment with different coloured voiles to see the effect on the petals and different sparkle threads...

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The next lot have been made for Lisa with the scraps of fabrics I had left over from all the other stuff I made for her, seemed a shame to waste it, and these may give folk an idea of what to make for new parents instead of buying cards, there is nothing like hand made items to make it really special don't you agree?

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So there you have it, what I have been doing with my time of late. Oh, of course I have been doing other things, but I can't tell yet as they haven't been received by folk, and I don't want to spoil surprises for anyone!!

PAINTS AND DYES AND A HEATGUN

BOOK CLASS
I had some fun painting and using dyes again today. I started my course I am doing with Myfanwy, which is to make Little Books, the link is here,   http://www.myfanwyhart.co.uk/online-workshops

you have until the end of the week to sign up, I should if I were you, it is great fun. Without giving too much away, we had to paint some paper, I didn't want to go outside -cos of the stink from next door- but the sun was out and a fabulous day. So, I set myself up in the Sunroom, almost outside so to speak. Doesn't this look good? I put a little table on the top of the big table and put my instructions on it, so I didn't have to keep bending and it wouldn't get messed up with the paints and dyes. Clever eh! You can see I remembered the rubber gloves this time too!

Here are the papers I 'dyed' they are very wet I can tell you, I am not allowed to do anything to them until tomorrow, I just hope they will seperate, if not I will have to start all over again darn it...

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PAINTING LACE

After doing those papers I was really in the mood to do more painting !!!! So I went and chopped up a batch of lace and found my fabric paints, then set to. No rhyme or reason to the colours, I just slapped it on. I hope it all dries properly and doesn't leave a sticky 'goo'. I have plans for these pieces of lace, well some of them I do. The rest will be there if ever I need it, as and when so to speak...

There are two lots of pictures cos I couldn't fit it all onto one without being so far away from the lace, there are pieces of fabric here as well as I placed the lace on a piece of fabric then painted it, so I end up with a piece of prettily painted fabric as a bonus...

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POSTCARDS
These Postcards are my second attempt at using the Heatgun. I am very pleased with these, the top one has four of those skeleton leaves under a piece of voile, they are actually all a different colour although it doesn't show much now, I quilted the shell pattern round the outside of them, then zapped just the leaves with the Heatgun, luckily it stayed where I wanted it, amazing!!! I decided to sew a clump of pretty elongated beads to the base of the leaves as I felt it looked a bit odd in that area...

The one underneath this was me having a bit of fun, I just free machine stitched some circle [ish] shapes all over a postcard base made up of several layers of voiles and fabrics, to emphasise the shapes I then free machined zigzags in the spaces round the circles. Then it was zapped, just the circles again. Getting good at aiming the thing. I was going to leave it at that, but as I was doing the beading for the one above, I thought, oh heck, let's put some beads on this one as well, so I tipped a mix of red beads out and just stitched then in the circles as I picked them up, I wasn't picky about the beads, just whatever I picked up was stitched in the circle. I like this one very much, I think I will try other shapes, same principle...

The following two have to be my favourites so far. Both were done as before, layers of fabric and voiles, and I think there is even some lace under one of them, scraps of anything basically, voile on the top of the lot then free machining all over, no design just willy-nilly stitching because I knew I would zap them. Well, after zapping them I liked them a lot, but again, as I had my beads out, I thought, in for a penny and all that. The top one is beaded, the bottom one is done with sequins and beads. Glutton for punishment. But I hope you agree with me they are worth it. Nothing like blowing your own trumpet is there? haha

I am so pleased with my purchase of the Heatgun. Who would have thought it?

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This evening I finished 9+ Postcards, I was definitely on a roll today folks, got the camera out to take pictures and wouldn't you know. Battery flat. Ho hum. Tomorrow you will see those.

I HAD A GO

This is the one I bought by the way, and it came from STITCHYKITS. brilliant service, very quick.

I had a go with the Heatgun, hmmm, hubby just went 'mmm, a hair dryer could do that' - don't they drive you nuts sometimes!!!!! Rebecca went 'Cool'.  Well actually it was hot hot hot, but I think I used too high a setting. What I did you will see further down.

I had made some cards with the dyed Hydrangea petals Reb and I had done the other weekend. Some are OK some are -duff- so I thought, oh what the heck, burn them. Sorry, Zap them with the Heatgun. Better luck with it next time I thought.

Postcards made with the Hydrangea petals, with different sorts of voiles over the top...

I am going to zap this one I just do not like it, if it gets ruined, a lesson learned...

I like this one very much, I obviously took a bit more care in the choice of background fabric, and can you see the two 'things' hanging on the left? They are my very first hand made beads. I am so proud of them, Reb and I have been playing with fabric and glue and are making these beads. Well actually she is doing all the painting, I am doing the sewing part and the making of the beads, she is a bit nervous of them yet, give her time she will come round I am sure...

Here we go then, these two are the ones I zapped with the Heatgun, I had it on the first setting and it didn't seem to do anything, so I pushed it to the higher setting and whoosh, I started to laugh, the 'gun' went all over the place and here are the results of my first gun battle...

If you look closely by clicking on the picture, you will see I melted the voile AND the petals underneath, oops! Not supposed to have done that. They seem to be staying there though,  so I just finished the cards and popped them into plastic sleeves to protect them. If you fancy one of these do let me know, but not the one with the beads, sorry, that one is spoken for. No point them sitting in my box is there?

Today I zapped some cards I had made yesterday evening. Now THEY are better, much better, you will have to wait for the piks though, cos I forgot to take any today. Not feeling 100% actually so not a lot got done today.

I will be interested to see your comments about these, I know they are a bit naff, but it is my first go. Poor excuse!

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