When it's cold, grey and wet, make felt.

                       

Both the pieces are Nuno felt but the blue piece is made with silk organza and the other with silk chiffon.

I made the mistake of using some Lanarte Sumo wool with the chiffon, not realising it was only 50% wool and so I struggled to get it to felt. Have to say that the texture has turned out really well although it doesn't show it in the photo.  And all this because I went to a bag making class on Saturday with Chris and Barbara. We made a basic tote first and then should have moved on to a more intricate bag in the afternoon. The trouble was that I spent too much time on the quilting of my tote so didn't get started on the second although I realised that it was an ideal project in which to use felt - hence making a start on the felt today. There are  photos of the class and the bags that were made if you follow the link to Chris and Barbara's blog. I have said it before but these classes take you back to the real joy of quilting and are excellent value for money if you live close enough  and if you don't live close enough - travel!

This is the tote, together with a padded heart with hare that I made last week from a Tone Finnanger pattern.  The assistant in the RSPB shop was most impressed when I used it today and everything except 2 x 12.5kg sacks went into it!

... and close up of the amount of quilting I did.

You may remember the book I purchased recently by Charlotte Ziebarth. I couldn't resist having a play with her techniques and made a cover for a small sketchbook.

  

Good fun and it also gave me a chance to play with some of the automatic patterns on my machine.

I joined Dale's Holey Moley class before Christmas but seem to have had little time to get anything done. except a piece from one of the layers classes. I have used the technique before but like the results. I used a heat gun on the right hand side of the piece and a soldering iron on the left hand side. There is virtually no difference except that the soldering iron allows for more precise control of the burning and the heat gun is much quicker.

 

I really should stop enrolling in classes unless I have the time to give them my undivided attention. I also enrolled for Susan Sorrell's Fertile Earth class. I haven't even finished the first lesson yet in which we had to use a vegetable as our source. Mine went from this ...

to this ...

and finally to this, which is still in progress and requires a lot more stitching plus some beads I think ...

Bet you wouldn't have guessed it was celery if I hadn't  shown the first photo.

My only other news is that if it snows again I will be able to get up and down my road and my drive. I got so fed up over the last cold spell that I finally decided to exchange by lovely BMW (sob, sob) for an All Wheel Drive car. I was going to show you a photo but it is black and it is dark outside. My window cleaner was most impressed today that I had bought a "Scooby". (I just need the right kind of baseball cap and drug dealer connections to go with it - only joking, honest!) I thought that I might have made the biggest mistake of my life but I love it - it's fast and fun!

Having bored you for long enough I should now go and try to get some actual sewing done.

Enjoy your creativity.

Maggi

Bits and Pieces.

I actually managed to get the car out yesterday and go out for some essentials - mainly the cat's fish and fresh veg. Since then it has been snowing off and on again with more forecast for tomorrow and Monday. The one advantage that this weather has had is that it has given me plenty of time to watch the antics of the garden birds who have been arriving in droves and eating me out of house and home. The only time that the blackbirds seem to stop squabbling is when the starlings turn up - perhaps that is down to those very sharp pointy beaks. Apologies for the quality of the photos but I was taking it from inside and it was snowing.

I love the way that this one bird just didn't seem to notice that all the others had been startled by something.

I did some colour and line sketching the other day and decided to experiment by transferring them into stitch. This one was done by using two similar rayon threads through the needle (except for the red) and is something that could possibly be developed further.

It may, however, have to wait a while as this came in the post today ...

I think that I may be in for some serious playtime!

Create well.

Maggi

Well it made me laugh

For all those of you out there who are disappearing under ever-increasing depths of snow, I found this on a couple of TQS blogs today. I had had to walk a mile down to the town to do some urgent shopping, (which turned out to be quite heavy), only to discover that the bus was not going to go up our hill for my return journey - it was too slippery! At least I was able to use it to get up the first hill. I then found this cartoon which made me chuckle so I thought that I would share it with you.

The postman made it, the milkman made it but no sign of the bin men and no sign of anyone filling our grit boxes, which ran out last week. I suppose that all the walking will keep me fit.

Nothing much to show on the creative side except a postcard for the PP swap (another reason for going down to the town today). The subject this month is imaginary holidays. I have always wanted to go to Norway and I would also love to spend time studying wolves so what better imaginary holiday than combining the two?

If you are up for a challenge, why not check out Shelagh Folgate's blog. She did a couple last year and although I was only able to join in with the first it was good fun. You have until the beginning of February to sign up.

Have a good time being creative, and if you are likely to be snowed in, make sure that you have plenty of sewing supplies.

Maggi

PS. For those of you who are regular readers I have changed the comments setting to moderation but only because that is a quicker way to respond to those of you who are kind enough to leave comments - nothing more sinister than that.

Happy New Year

Here' wishing all of you everything that is good in 2010.

I am even keeping up my resolution to blog more regularly, at least when I have something to blog about.

My theme of red kites for the Popular Patchwork Square Dance mini quilts continues. The technique for this month was freeform cutting. As this is something I have done for years I decided that I would include the use of embossed metal pieces and some feathers made form vanishing muslin (which I believe is now called Thermogauze). I was really please with the way they turned out and also with not having to wash away soluble fabric and then dry the piece!

Also finished was the last of my JQs, this time using sheers. Took me a long time to get this one done as it was not my favourite technique.

On the more traditional quilting side I am doing a block of the month called Sampler of Psalms. Block one was the Tree of Life.

... and block two is Birds In The Air

I am not going to buy anything new for this project so hopefully I can finish it with fabrics that have been languishing in  my stash for many years.

Deciding that resolutions are usually made to be broken I have decided, like some others of you out there to set myself goals for 2010. One is to do something creative every day and another is to make sure that I do some of my OU work every day. I have been somewhat lax in this lately and now have to try to remember the vocabulary that I have already done.  So off to try to do some of both of the above.

Until next time, happy creativity.

Maggi