the patchwork dress

gold, green & blue

from the weekend...

gold, green,...

..and blue. Such a rare thing in Scotland, I had to take a photo... not a cloud. Those 2 'wee guys' flew into the picture just as I snapped. They wanted to record it for posterity too!

Then, today I received these lovely artist date cards from Barbara. She made them from photos she took of a visit to a mosque in Aleppo a few years ago, stuck to postcards she didn't like. I love these images and the rich patterns. Unfortunately the photos I just took were a bit blurred... so they are featuring as a backdrop to my other favourite green thing at the moment...

the Strickpuppe (german for knitting doll) which I pur-chased at the Quilt Show Traders Market a few weekends ago. I haven't quite got round to figuring out how to use it. I used to do something like this called french knitting as a child - with 4 nails sticking out of a cotton reel. You can weave or knit a kind of cord. I was strangely drawn to buying the Strickpuppe... for a bit of fun.

Also because she reminds me a bit of a Russian Doll, and is quite East European looking.

...and for her smiley face!

there's nothing on the telly!...

So goes the famous warcry of the Togs, a very British institution from the morning BBC radio 2 show hosted by Terry Wogan.

So if you are short of things to watch this weekend, I have been watching lots of short films for my course and had to select 3 of note... Jack-Jack Attack by Pixar (this is a naughty link on Youtube, but it can be purchased through Itunes and is on the dvd of 'the Incredibles), In God We Trust, which is again an abridged version of the original that I saw via Spiritual Cinema Circle, and The Furniture, which is part of an amazing PBS site offering all sorts of interesting independent documentaries - from people doing amazing things, to just beautiful cinematography.

this sweet little package arrived in the post from Jessicah in Australia.

a while ago I sent her some bits and pieces I'd hoarded for jewellery making, but would likely not get round to doing - and she made and sent me this lovely necklace. I really like it, thanks Jessicah! There are more for sale over at her Etsy shop - so please check it out if you'd like one. They are so unique and one-off!

I also heard from Alisa with whom I did the scrap-swap last year. She sent me a photo of a lovely bag she made from a fat-quarter of black and cream fabric that I had also sent in the scrap-swap package. I had 2 pieces, and the idea is that we would both make something and compare... I think I've got some catching up to do!

**ETSY FLASH! THERE WILL BE SOME NEW RECYCLED CARDPACKS IN THE SHOP - probably this weekend, once a customer has chosen which ones she would like.. so coming soon...

oh joy!

Last week got a bit dry, setting up things for my writing course - like doing all the online stuff (including joining Facebook, something I didn't really want to do, but decided to embrace - as it is a really good way of keeping in touch with those on the course... if you are anyway mildly interested in what I look like, it's now or never...) - also doing more spaceclearing in the 'writing space' so that it is organised and set up to manage my coursework.

...so you can imagine my joy when this unexpected parcel of things arrived about an hour ago from Victoria at dearmeagan.blogspot.com in...

!

...full of fabric bits and lovely magazine images, just the sort I would use to make cards, but am going to keep this lot, Victoria, thank you, for my own scrapbook!

I got a bit confused initially because I'd had an email from another dear blogger who said she was sending me a parcel, so I thought this must be it until I read the envelope and card! How wonderful.
Also included was this Irish linen teatowel which goes so well with this older post - I wonder if she knew? It's funny thinking these were made in Ireland, as the colours do seem from warmer sunnier climes!

On Saturday I visited Lomond Shores which is a favourite place of mine to go for a wander and have a coffee looking up the loch to Ben Lomond. It also houses the "gateway centre" to the National Park, so is a funny mix of outdoors and retail park. I like the architecture and think the whole scheme was very bold. Unfortunately the Drumkinnon Tower, which is an amazing circular building based on a Scottish broch has become a bit of a theme park where they keep otters (I'm not even getting into that debate) - I know it has 2 or 3 theatre/cinema screens inside and think it would make a great centre to show and host a variety of arts and media connected to Scotland (but then that's just my gig). Sadly too the outdoor clothing shop and bookshop have both closed, and it does feel as if it could do with some rethinking, as it has loads of potential.

...it was a bit cold for icecream...

On Sunday I attended the John Sayles masterclass as part of the Glasgow Film Festival. It was my first artist's date in ages. Sayles is a screenwriter, author, actor, director and film-maker. He talked about making his own films by investing his own money into the production through a series of working really hard writing for others, and reinvesting in his own projects. Although I'm not so familiar with his own films, I was really interested to hear him speak from a point of process ie. about actually being a writer and filmmaker and what makes him tick. I wasn't disappointed, he was eloquent, informative and amusing... you can see why he's had so much work yet even within Hollywood he has kept down to earth.

big steps

I feel as if I have taken some big steps over the weekend. On Saturday I attended the induction day for a post-graduate course in Screenwriting at Edinburgh's Napier University.

This is the amazing new building they have renovated especially for the Scottish Screen Academy, just off the Napier campus. There was even a village style newly built Starbucks on the corner, a spanking new Tescos and a Chocolatier around the corner. Someone up there likes film-makers!

I must admit that I was having mixed feelings until that point of whether to do the course or not - many subconscious fears coming to the surface! I'm sure there will be moments when I will want to run away, but these seemed to equal the excitement, potential and stories that were running through my head on the way home. Fuelled possibly by a day of drinking coffee, in between being handed scary sheets of paper with words like assessment, number of hours, script etc typed on them.

So a mixture of excitement and feeling slightly overwhelmed, tempering with ideas popping out of my head all over the place, rather like the bulb shoots in the garden. If I was dial-up before, I feel as if my head, and energy have now gone Broadband. How am I going to manage keeping up my blog, all these assignments, and being a freelancer? Quick, another cup of coffee and do my blog to get it off my chest.

I recently caught BBC radio 4's From Our Foreign Correspondent presented by Kate Adie - and although I'm not usually a fan of news programmes, if you are fed-up with new media and 'news at ten', listen to this . A return to correspondence, journalism and storytelling we hear 4 or so reports from BBC journalists around the world with a personal voice. They take the big story, bring it zen-like to earth and transforming it by mentioning their daily life, how their lives as correspondents relate to the story they are reporting and the contacts they meet. A previous week's journalist told of the barrier fence between two warring countries through the journey of a man snuck through a hole in it, in order to go and buy a mattress - returning disappointed with a box of crisps and a crate of coca-cola. Another spoke of the Ivory Coast where the end of civil unrest has meant the postal service could be reinstated after 5 years of no delivery or collection! Each piece is well crafted, funny and human. The voices that come through these pieces as well as Adie's herself, are powerful, very listenable - and like the old BBC - trustworthy.

(the show was also issued on the World Service, incase you can't access the BBC site from abroad, with a different announcer).

This package arrived from my dear friend Barbara last week. Ever since I heard about Fine Cell Work (through Selvedge magazine, I think) I've been fascinated by the idea of these prisoners making these beautiful embroideries and patchworks as a positive skill and product while they are serving their sentences.

They recently had a small exhibition at their offices in London, and Barbara went along and kindly sent me this package of bits and pieces they had for sale - including the little cushion/'lord-a-leaping' xmas decoration which has been made by an inmate. It has a little cardboard tag on it with a reference number so he/she will get some money from what he makes. Think I will use it as a needle cushion as they tend to disappear into my pincushion.

It's a wonderful and very interesting scheme - and if you have £50-£100 to spare, you can sponsor an inmate to make you a cushion or a quilt and receive the training and materials required. Once the cushion is received, FCW encourage you to write and thank the prisoner who made it, which increases their feelings of self-esteem and value. It would make a worthwhile gift - perhaps for a wedding instead of a toaster!

room with a view

Yesterday the doorbell rang and a delivery man asked me to sign for a box. We were expecting a delivery of one of these, but after I signed for it, realised that it said "M&S flowers" on the box. (Snapdragon Jane, look away now!)

...far more exciting than the logmaker (or is it?...), it was a delightful surprise delivery from my friend Jill as a gift for our new home. I'd not really done anything about spring bulbs when we moved in, as with so many other things to do, it seemed like a bit of an indulgence. But I do LOVE them. So this was a very nice surprise, and a promise that Spring will arrive. Although it would probably look good by the front door, I put it in the garden just outside my sewing room window so that I can enjoy it everyday.

Speaking of which...

..still a work in progress, but I was keen to post about it now, as it will never be 'perfect' - the chances of me catching it on a tidy day with sunlight and all the pictures on the wall may be a few months off yet! So here it is Stage 1!

BEFORE... (as it was when we moved in)...

...hm, in need of some t-l-c I thought...

and for several weeks it was like this...

...war torn dumping zone...

So I much prefer it like this!

...there's the ol' sewing machine... cutting mat... ready for action.

Total cost of revamp £13.99 for the stripey Ikea rug.

We pulled up the carpet to discover the blue floorboards, which I may repaint, but quite like and will do for now.

The cream blinds had a scalloped edge and braiding that I didn't like, so cut it off and hey presto, got 2 new plain blinds! Luckily the 'weighted edge' was above the scallop, but you could always trim and rehem an old blind, as usually they are much longer than the window anyway.

The pine chest at the end of the room is holding all my secondhand fabrics. It was originally in another room and most of the drawers were stuck. With the aid of a can of Pledge and a rubber mallet (!) - oh the Boxing Day fun we had - we got the drawers out and N planed them down. If he'd taken any more off he said, they would have become trays.

The Hornsea pots on top were charity shop rescues which now hold & keeps tidy - threads, strings and things. (That's the Creative Café coffee pot there too, where we put our written intentions inbetween meetings. We then pull them out at the next meet, usually having forgotten what we put, and are surprised to discover that one if not several have come true. Mine was moving house!)

The Ikea clear fronted chest under the sewing machine was a giveaway from my friend Suzanne. Now I have a bit of a confession... I saw in a magazine a "gift wrapping table" - it looked like a huge tupperware table with legs like a wallpaper pasting table - and I exclaimed WHAT! are you MAD? - a table to store giftwrap and all your ribbons etc on extending legs. Madness I cried. Then thought, what a good idea, I'm fed up with rolls of wrapping paper stuffed behind wardrobes and squished ribbons - so they all fitted in the bottom drawer! neat and tidy. If I read this elsewhere I'd think 'anal', but actually the satisfaction of having it 'out of the way' does exceed this.

There is still the unseen end of the room which is housing some piles of magazines and some storage boxes, but it generally all is much neater and more organised and feels more efficient. Magazines come in the door, go to the cutting table, recycle bins underneath, scraps into the logmaker, cards out the other end!

Watch this space!

thread connections

Well, I'm not sure who's birthday it was supposed to be, but I met up with mum on Thursday and she gave me this that she been working on...

It's not everyday you have a wee cry in John Lewis café, but I was very moved... it's beautiful, and so much time and labour has gone into it.

Plus, mum didn't know but I have a cherished Chrysocolla bear that I bought on the Taos trip, and there he is at the bottom of the embroidery.

I love this, and have a plan, along with a few other little bits and pieces I'd like to frame and hang on the 'ancestors/family' wall in my sewing room.

I had a good day in there yesterday, as suddenly I could see where everything needed to go, and had a rearrangement. This involved emptying things out of storage boxes, regrouping by use, and re-storing. During the process I considered what I use often, what didn't really need to be kept (in there), and also what I wanted to have to hand as a reflection of where I'm at now, and what I intend to be focussing on in the next months.

Arriving home after on Thursday night there was also this wonderful package waiting for me, a swap I'm doing with Kate Headley at Redheadedsnipit.

Kate was clearing out this owl tapestry from her sewing room recently, so we agreed to do a wee swap. My heart leapt as soon as I saw this, as I have been hearing the occasional owl hoot here at night - so I'd like to do something at the cottage with it, although not quite sure what yet. Thank you Kate! Check out her beautiful shared photoblog with her friend Laura Crow Miller.

Kate also included these other goodies of fabric scraps and magazines - including this lovely Anthropologie brochure, which reminded me a bit of Toast clothing... beautiful styling and interiors of a romantic life!!

...check out the bird duvet cover... and of course this latter photo is very much my look at the moment, cleaning out the mould from the skirtings in the sewing room... the rubber gloves that is. Most likely though I shall be wearing my new fleece (also a gift from mum!!) until Spring, when after having it surgically removed, I shall emerge, butterfly like - perhaps into some clothes like these.

abundance through the letterbox

I've been busy having a big clear-out this week, and it seems to be taking a lot of my time, but it's really good to do! Loads of old clothes I never wear - I've been in this process of spaceclearing for so long, I honestly didn't think I had anything left to discard - but oh yes! Wearable things I've sent to the charity shop, and the rest have gone in a bag to be recycled fibres.

The main point of the clearout is also to create a more harmonious storage arrangement for my card making supplies and a more fluid process for production. Rather than just move things around, it takes a reassessment and I find I end up pulling everything out, rather like a Kerplunk game, the rest seems to come tumbling after... Then I can reassess, throw out, group together and re-store. It's feeling much better already.

In amongst this and winter storms, I managed to catch some daylight today to photogaph some 'inspiration through the post' which came over last weekend.

These scraps of Japanese fabrics came from the lovely Sally Anne as a gift after I mentioned the quilt in this recent post. I just love all of these fabrics, and yet to have a clear enough head to think what to do with them...hm, watch this space.

My second surprise was from Meg Jewell of Dolly Dillettante, who won a gift package in the autumn mini-giveaway.

She very kindly sent this package with some of her work - 2 little patchwork pouches, a lavender bag made from her own garden, embroidery pattern, postcards of St Johnsbury, Vermont where she lives (I bet it is beautiful in autumn!), little xmas gift tags, vintage xmassy buttons and all wrapped up in a piece of lovely colourful fabric.

She is a very skilled seamstress and embroiderer, you can see the quality in her work. I now have a patchwork pouch for my crochet needles!

Thank you both very much!x

It felt like an abundant leaf-fall this weekend, as I also received both of my subscriptions to Selvedge and Quiltmania magazines, which I know I've mentioned before - but Selvedge is particularly feasty for winter eyes this issue...

...and I liked this quilt from Quiltmania. It looks fairly simple and very effective, and just the thing I'd like to curl up in this season. I think I would make it without the centre panel, just the simplicity of the contrasty stars works for me.

I'm never sure if it's ok to reproduce pictures in a blog, but if it inspires you to buy the magazines, I'm sure they won't mind!

bluebird

...this little chap arrived in the post a week or so ago from my friend Barbara. It's a cork bird made by the artist Kate Bradbury.

I asked Barbara to send me more photos of Kate's exhibition which she had attended, as she said there had been lots of these birds made, and I wanted to see them en-masse.

the exhibition looked like a lot of fun, and judging by the floor in this photo, others thought so too!

Kate uses a lot of found objects in her work (the corks come from her workplace by the way!).

I thought the bird could be the 'bluebird of happiness'. I saw a bluebird on my trip to the States, with Elizabeth, our mutual friend. It flew across in front of the car as we drove along, and I was amazed at the colour although only seeing it for a flash. I was reminded of this as I photographed the bird this morning - from the rear it suddenly looked like the native american thunderbird, one of my favourite images.

spot of blogkeeping...

Sun(!)day, it's been raining since yesterday afternoon..

...sleeves rolled up, time to do a little blogkeeping... you know, those things you mean to get round to...

First of all a big thank you again to Sally Anne at quiteahandful for this wonderful package she sent me...

I'd hope to wait until we had a better light to photograph them in, but really wanted to show these bright colours to contrast the day!

I love all of these fabrics, and colourful bits - and Sally also included 2 little embroidery kits and a great booklet to teach yourself embroidery. I think I will be needing it to work through some of the kowabunga hoard. I feel as if someone somewhere is giving me (and mum!) the nudge to do some needlework - Grandma probably! They are such lovely kits and much nicer than some of the slightly 'twee' ones that are about. I was just admiring some red/whitework on someone else's blog - so just the thing. I look forward to doing these, Sally, on days like this to come!

I've been busy putting together mini packages for the autumn giveaway, now all ready to post - and preparing for a scrap swap with Alisa that was organised by redheadedsnipet. Check out Alisa's quilts.. her industriousness puts me to shame. I'm really enjoying doing this swap, and sometimes I think I get more out of playing with the fabric than actually making something out of it..

On that note I thought I'd catch up with a couple of simple ideas for when you have little energy to create. A couple of people have asked about the photo printing onto t-shirts from a couple of posts back... but before that fortify yourself with some simple autumnal coloured soup...

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simple soup:

I've had a bit of an upset stomach this week, and not feeling like anything too fancy..

simple soup:
3 large carrots
1 potato
1 apple
1 pint water
salt & pepper
splash of olive oil
dash soy sauce
(chopped parsley)

Put all in a pot and simmer for 40 mins add the parsley and blend. Adjust seasoning to taste. Simple.

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T-Shirt "tutorial"

I feel a bit of a cheat calling it a tutorial and was surprised people wanted to know how to do this, as it really is crafting for the lazy! I then thought some folks don't feel so comfortable with image sizing and computers/printers, so I'll focus on that. But it makes a great simple and personal gift - good for men you don't know what to buy for. So many possibilities, you could add a photo, some text, or a drawing... photo/scan of a kid's drawing etc.

So this is more 'tips' than tutorial!

You need:
•1 teeshirt - preferable white, then you can experiment with other shades..
•a pack of iron-on tshirt transfer paper (you can buy this anywhere - good stationers, computer shop etc - you get about 10 sheets) I recommend if you can buy one from a company whose range you know works best with your printer - ie Epson, HP etc
• an iron
• a pillow case
• flat hard surface to iron on (you could use an old flat board on a tabletop.. or table top if you dare!)
•oh yes, a computer and printer!

1. read the instructions pertinent to your transfer pack and follow them!

2. if you have the technical ability to print out a photo onto paper, you can do this. If you want to size the photo, you can scale against your self in the mirror with a ruler what size the final image should be. You can adjust the picture under 'image size'. You probably want to keep the dpi quite high - so images off the internet blown up probably won't work very well (you might be lucky) but you could lose a lot of sharpness.

if you can, start with an original photo - or scan of a drawing, or computer art file. Add text if you like.

3. once you've got the image sorted, print it out onto A4 paper and just check it against the shirt, or hold up in the mirror until you are happy with the scale - make the adjustments now before you use the expensive transfer paper!

4. before printing onto the paper, you'll need to mirror the image so it reads backwards. You'll either be able to do this with your photo software, or in the print options that come up when you ask your printer to print.

5. take your sheet of transfer paper, which may have a notch cut off the corner to show which side to print on... (if you have a confusing upside down printer, mark a piece of paper with the words 'right side' and cut notch off in same place. If you print the image and it comes out on that side, then that's the right way!!)

6. follow the instructions for the print paper setting - mine says 360dpi ink jet paper

7. and print! cut the image down (if required) - leaving a small border about 6mm around it. You need this to help peel away the corner of the image otherwise you might damage the printed image.

8. make sure the iron is hot... lay the pillowcase flat on the flat hard surface (don't use an ironing board)..
use an even and heavy pressure (putting weight on it is the secret I have found) - iron as per the time and number as per your pack instructions. A slow and even movement.

9. let the image cool for a minute, but not completely, it's easier to do when still warm... gently peel back the backing paper. If the image is coming away you haven't done it for long enough/iron too cool/you weren't pressing hard enough - so if you can, just lay it back down and go over it a bit more.

10. all being well - hey presto! you've done it.

11. told you it was cheating.

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What's it like outside?

Hm, time for a coffee methinks.

inspiration through the post...

Another thing that arrived in the post in the last week is my new subscription to Selvedge magazine.

..a double whammy as the new issue must have just come out too..

I love their photography, articles and styling. Rich with texture, ethnic history and colour.

I have also been catching up on card orders this weekend...

this is one of my favourite images.