Happy New Year

Happy New Year

and a big thank you to everyone who has left comments and e-mailed me since starting this blog earlier this year. Your encouragement and kind comments have helped me continue creating and stitching over the last few months.

Thank you

( I should now post an appropriate picture but can't find one at the moment:) )

Short Track Racing

Todays motorcycle race offering is from the UK Short Track Championship meet at Scunthorpe Speedway stadium earlier today.

Scrap Challenge #4

Emptying the red scrap bag again, I found two crazy blocks about 8 inch square.

presumably left over from making these pincushions earlier this year

So I joined them together, bonded scraps of sheer fabric in red and blue, then scrounged a stamp from my mother who is a card maker.

Found a decent sized scrap in the bag to use as a lining.

And made myself a sketch book wrap.

Machine wrapped elastic gold cord to finish. size 4.5 inch x 7.5 inch. Thanks to Fibre and Stitch and Sue Bleiweiss for instructions.

Boxing Day Evening...............

............was spent playing some new and traditional games in an effort to stay away from the computer !!

We played Shut the Box

Stack the hedgehogs

and Crokinole which is a game we used to play a lot in the pre computer days.

In fact anyone who knows us may well remember when we used to have a full size arcade pinball machine in our main room. It eventually went to a new home where it was fully restored and loved and we have used the space to store assorted motorcycle parts over the years.

Wild and Woolly Boxing Day

We always try to take our niece and nephew out on Boxing day and over the years we have attended a wide range of events. This year it was the Wild and Woolly Scramble at Blisworth, Northamptonshire, organised by the Northampton Motorcyclists Club. A wet and muddy time was has by all.

Photo courtesy of nephew

Photo courtesy of nephew

scrap challenge #3

Fragment #1

size 3x5 inch

Scrap of dyed muslin, handmade felt and recycled wood? beads. Handstitched and finished as a postcard with machine stitching.

scrap challenge #2

The red scrap bag contained a lot of handmade felt offcuts which I teased together and bonded onto a sheet of acrylic felt.

I then machined straight lines to hold it all in place

I then added sequins and beads from my stash

Result, new cover for last years travel journal. ( I usually use the same cover year after year so I have several books that need covering)

The real weather

Yes, the bike photos make it look like such a glorious day, here is the real story!!

The car was well frozen

The road was frozen

The big wheel looked more like a cobweb in the fog

Cold and frosty Skegness

Sandracing once more

It was cold, frosty, foggy but we still ventured out and after a slow drive arrived at Mablethorpe in glorious sunshine!!

Even Santa showed up!!

I

Scrap Challenge #1

The fun challenge from Fibre and Stitch discussion group came from comments on what people do with their scraps, especially since most people do not throw anything away. So we had 15 mins to gather scraps together and the challenge is to create without buying anything further. I metre additional fabric from stash is ok so is any embellishments, fusibles, etc.

I already had two plastic bags packed with scraps that had not been touched since earlier this year so decided that I would try and use these up simply to free up some space!!

So watch this space over the next couple of weeks to see if I come up with anything.....or maybe I will just open the bottle of whisky and put my feet up :)

contents of blue bag

contents of red bag

The Bike Spot

Sunday 23 December is the last sand race at Mablethorpe before Christmas, if anyone is interested sign on is at 8am, racing generally a hour or so later depending on the tide. We will be there ,as long as it isn't tipping it down , so watch out for the MZ hats.

Discharge printing

on the Fibre and Stitch discussion group, the topic of conversation has strayed to the use of kitchen implements etc. This is work in progress, black velvet printed with cream kitchen cleaner ( the thick one with bleach) whist taking all the usual precautions of wearing gloves, covering all surfaces etc. The original print has been cut up and mounted on black velvet background.

Thanks......

to everyone who left comments and e-mails recently, I am now getting over the worst of the wretched cold and I hope it clears before the weekend as we will be going to the sand racing again. Anyway the recent frost reminded me of these photos from last winter.

Normal service will resume

............as soon as possible, still raiding the tissue box, hot drink at the ready. Here's a design idea from one of my photos,

back with the bikes, well in this case quads at the sand racing. There must be some way of working with this, will think about whilst tucked up watching a film this afternoon.

cough, sneeze, cough, cough, sneeze

By the time I got home from work last night I was only fit for bed and woke up today with a full on cold so I spent most of today in bed aahhhhhhhhhh So here is yesterdays post

Christmas gift tags completed

Postcard received from Sue Bleiweiss this morning

Time to put the kettle on and doze in front of a DVD ( no television so have to use the computer)

Bobbin Lace with a twist

No stitching over the weekend as busy cataloging books and putting them back on the shelves, however, my stat counter shows that quite a few people have googled me over the last few days looking for bobbin lace references. With this in mind I dug out the following photo.



fashioned from basic bobbin lace made with beads and wire, chain crochet with wire and beads. If you click the photo it will enlarge and show the detail, I made it as part of my goldwork research for City and Guilds part 2

Swap display

I have been wondering for a while about the best way to store and display swap items. During the great book sort out I found a photo album which seems to be perfect for postcards, atc, inchies, bookmarks and 5 inch quilties and looks lots smarter that the shoe box that was their temporary home.

It was a wild, wet, windy day

and we were going to the Christmas Fair at Lincoln to finish the shopping. I had intended to take photos but we got so wet that we gave up and came home. However, we did take time out to visit Italia Moto to sort out a few spares etc for our bike. So here are a couple of photos of our favourite bike shop who always do a great job for us.




Now which Ducati do I fancy??

Houston inchies

Spent most of yesterday playing with the Internet, got to use youtube for the first time! and starting to catalogue my books. I did intend getting lots done this week but as usual events overtook me and I hate to turn down the chance to go out for a meal, cinema, shopping. Still it was a good break from the daily grind.
Postman called with so many envelopes that I suspect that he had been saving them up all week. Anyway, there was one with a nice USA postal label on it containing my Houston Quilt Festival plus size inchie swaps. If you recognize any of them, please let me know as only one had a name on the reverse.



I've found out that the top middle one is from Yarngoddess who has a blog called Sooner or Later
Thank you to all of you.

Yes, Yes, Yes

Now on broadband, Yippee,!!!!

I found them !!

Had a good hunt round and found the needles, so set about cutting up the fabric and making a box for the fibre and stitch challenge.

Looks like I might have found an idea for a lampshade.

Finished box, 3 inch square

getting nowhere fast

It all started ok, layer silky fabric and lace on thick vilene, cover with sheer of choice then machine to anchor down and create texture.
After machining half, disaster struck in the form of a broken machine needle, not usually a big problem except when you can't find the box that you put them in!!

So cut in half, save half for new needle, paint machined section green/yellow and wait for inspiration to strike(and clean up kitchen, wash clothes, and do all the jobs that need doing when you have a few days off work)

Nottingham and the Dragon

I've been meaning to take photos of the dragon for ages and today I happened to have my camera with me. It has been created by metalphysical.co.uk and details of its creation can be found here.

Nottingham is now in full christmas mode complete with outdoor ice rink in the market square and a German Christmas market selling gifts and food.

rust postcard

Played with the rust fabric this morning, firstly trying it with black lace but the lace I have is too heavy to let much of the colour through. The patterns on the fabric reminded me of rock strata so I ironed the fabric on to fused?wadding ( the type with glue on each side) then layered black chiffon and machined lines to roughly follow the pattern on the fabric.
I then heated it with the hot air gun.
I then chose patterns to fill with hand stitching, fused it to heavy weight vilene and sprayed the lower corner with Moon shadow mist burnished brass.

Then finished as a fabric postcard as usual. I still have enough left to make into an ATC later this week. Unfortunately the photo does not pick up the gold thread or the shiny paint.

Red Marley Hill Climb 2007

As you will have gathered by now, we are both passionate about bikes. We enjoy touring, rallying and also try to get to the more unusual events when possible. Earlier this year we went to the Red Marley Hill Climb where the basic idea is to ride your pre 1970 bike up a very steep hill without falling off ! The idea is to go over the top but this doesn't always happen, one person bravely tried it on a scooter and it was the crowds cheers that carried him up :)

Terracotta soldier quilted

10x8 inch

I have some time off work this week so hope to have a serious playday :)

Rust

After a day of housework and moving books (still at it) I finally settled down to looking at this rust dyed fabric from Anna. The challenge is to use it in a piece of art and send it back, keeping some for myself. At the moment I am enjoying looking at the patterns!


The terracotta soldier has now been transferred to fabric and is being simply quilted for now, size A4 There is a temptation to make a larger applique quilt from this at some point.