The open road calls

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fleece, scrim, silk

fleece, scrim, silk
Originally uploaded by guzzisue

no stitching but grabbed 5 mins on the embellisher late last night

Look what I got

Many, Many thanks to Hippopip, as usual I should pass this on to five of my favourites, well right now my reader has 161 blogs in it and I simply cannot narrow it down so if your name is on my sidebar it means I LOVE YOUR BLOG.

postal treats part two

This morning the parcel man woke me up, knocking on the door and shouting through the letter box that I had a letter from America. Well, that got me up from my sick bed, wobbling down the stairs whilst trying to look halfway decent ( at least covered up) I just love getting letters and prezzies through the post especially from bloggers who I have e-mailed over the last few months. I am slowly getting to know some of this wonderful group better and thank you for making me so welcome on the net.
Have you noticed that when you meet fellow fibre bloggers, they are just like you! talk over a coffee and it's like you've known them for years. Blogging and the associated challenges set by the likes of Sharon have filled the empty space that had previously been filled by C&G studies.
This lovely parcel was from Marie, A T-shirt (yes it fits) Quiltfest programme, Harley Davidson carrier ( thats the biker in me :-) card and the cutest pair of socks Pacific Northwest Quiltfest. Thanks Marie.

postal treats part one

Sorry about the brief gap in blogging, a tricky virus (human not computer) has had me confined to bed for the last two days or so. Now on the mend and well enough to show off the treats received in the post.
This is an ATC challenge set by Kate, simply create an ATC using some of the fabric and the embellishments (optional) and return by the end of September. Thanks Kate, watch out for the postie next month .

The bad news is that the virus now has hold of Ian so its fingers crossed that we are both fit for our next trip.

Take it Further Challenge (August)

Finished- previous comments and thoughts here

International Quilt Festival 2008

I had a great time yesterday at The Festival of Quilts a t Birmingham. It rapidly developed into a day for chatting and meeting for coffee. Amongst the people I spoke to were Lise ( will e-mail you when you get home) Julie, Sally, Artmixer, Maggie and I loved having the chance to see Ferrets quilts up close - she deserved the awards.

Later, just reread what I wrote: meant to add well done to Sally for your strippy and to everyone else who entered such brilliant quilts...mental note, do not blog when half asleep!!!

Somehow, the halls didn't seem as crowded as last year and after 4 o'clock there were plenty of chances to take photos.

Found this gentleman hanging about

did a small amount of shopping, trying not to add to my stash too much.

Rounded off the day by getting the train back to Nottingham and going straight to hen night, yes I was there, blowing up balloons and making animals as well as rather rude structures in the middle of a pub in Nottingham AND I WAS SOBER!!

Take it Further Challenge (August)

Decided to go with the sketch....work in progrss

Take it Further Challenge (August)

Sharon said "I my chaotic and hectic life I often admire people who are able to maintain balance in their lives. What is balance to you? Do you maintain a balanced life? How do you balance aspects of your life? That is the challenge this month - balance."
I sort of touched on this subject last month here and at the moment I seem to have reached a creative black hole with regard to this. Possibly the balance between work and real life is tipping the wrong way or may be its just that as I get older, I want to spend more time doing what I enjoy doing...............I'm only 48 so waiting to do everything when I retire is not an option.......
Anyway, I have spent time this month playing with my new toys and need to spend time planning our next road trip so all I have for TIF so far is a couple of Sketches.




Will have to let this one simmer for a while.

Festival of Quilts Birmingham NEC

I don't have anything in the show but will be wandering round on Saturday taking it all in, and taking photos. If anyone else is around I will try and stop by to say hello.

How to make distressed celtic atc

1. trace design onto soluble paper, 2. layer chiffon onto velvet, 3. layer black organza on top, 4. machine stitch design, 5. back of the work, 6. ready to dissolve paper, 7. add gold markal stick, 8. blast with heat gun


Please ensure that you burn/melt in a ventilated workspace!!


Mount onto your favourite backing of vilene or card, cut to size, machine round the edges and enjoy trading.

Where in the world would you want to study stitch?

Embroidery from the Adithi Collective Bihar, India ( own collection)

Earlier in July, I posed this question to friends on the Stitchin Fingers Forum

“Hi everyone, Now, if you had the chance to visit any country of your choice to study/learn their embroidery/textile techniques, Where would you go and why? “

Now, living in the Uk I naively thought that places like Africa, India, China would get the vote. I was unprepared for the number of people who suggested The UK, Wales, Europe in general.

The list included India, Japan, Guatemala, Vietnam, Wales, Native American, India ( many votes for this one) Peru, Japan ( very popular) Hungary, Italy Norway, Russia Morocco, Panama, Middle East, North Africa and the UK.

My thanks to all my friends who took part and if anyone reading would like to suggest a country or has any interesting links, please feel free to leave a comment.

work in progress

Today was meant to be a tidy up the house, garden, do the washing sort of day. Well, I did try, honest!! but it started to rain at 10 this morning and hasn't really stopped. It just doesn't feel like summer at all, I shouldn't have washing drying in the house in August!!

But, my free 10 moo cards arrived this morning and they are so cute that I think I will order some more after our next trip.

I did grab a few mins on the embellisher this afternoon before falling asleep ( I call it a powernap :-))

And this is going to be my holiday journal cover if I ever finish it.

Ian is out grabbing a few more landmark photos on the bike so I had better think about sorting out something for him to eat when he gets back.

Nottingham Big Night Out

Many of you may have gathered by now that we like to support local events in our city so when the local BBC Radio station organised a big night out, we had to go.
This time we had the opportunity to look round the inside of the Council House in the centre of Nottingham after watching the singing weatherman Des Coleman.

1. Nottingham big night out, 2. Nottingham big night out, 3. Nottingham big night, 4. Nottingham big night out, 5. Nottingham big night out, 6. Nottingham big night out

Embellisher experiments

3D potential


Meet aging hippy chick

Nottingham Riverside Festival 2008

Each year Nottingham has a free Festival on the river embankment, there is live musice, fairground rides, steam engines and organs.


Now, I can bring you the sights and the sounds . Unfortunately I can't provide the smell of the steam engines.

Playing with the new camera

no, the last one is not a cropped enlargement :-) bee was too busy to notice camera lens a centimetre or two from it's backside (fortunately)

addicted

Embellisher (Second attempt)

woke up early, empty house as Ian away and house guest has gone home ( suspect he is now addicted to Firefly ) SO JUST HAD TO PLAY!!

Embellisher (first attempt)

First problem.... couldn't get it out of the box!!!


Help, looks so new and shiney


It works on fleece :-)


It works on lace and chiffon :-)


Will play more tomorrow.

Lindisfarne Trip

1. lindisfarne causeway, 2. lindisfarne Priory 04, 3. lindisfarne Priory 03, 4. lindisfarne Priory 05, 5. Lindisfarne knotwork 03, 6. lindisfarne Medieval style 01, 7. lindisfarne knotwork 001, 8. lindisfarne Priory 01, 9. lindisfarne 01, 10. lindisfarne medieval style 03, 11. lindisfarne causeway 01, 12. lindisfarne knotwork 05

Typical, the hottest weekend of the year and we travel 200 mile to be in the sea mist , it was worth it though. We had planned to visit several of the landmarks for the round britain rally on the way up but only managed two as we were late setting off due to Ian having an interview Friday morning. The hotel had been prebooked, great rooms, pub food, TV (exciting for us non TV folks)
After breakfast on Saturday we walked down to the causeway to watch the tide recede then went back to fetch the bike to drive over. Decided to visit the Priory and leave the castle until we can return and stay for a few days on the island.
Medieval story tellers, musicians,swordsman and even a lovely lady working with natural dyes kept us entertained.

We took time later in the day to catch up with some more landmarks, two of which I will blog about in more detail once the challenge has finished in October.

The only drawback to the weekend was that the bike developed and oil leak so we had to nurse her gently home and hope that all is fixable before our next long trip.This means that I will miss this weekends rally in Essex but will have a little more time to play with my new camera and get the embellisher out of its box at long last.