Lovely morning

We had a very enjoyable morning yesterday as Sheila, who we met through the blog, came up the mountain to visit us. We sat in the sun with a coffee and cakes that Sheila had kindly brought, chatting. Sheila brought some of her lovely work to show, including some gorgous cross stitch items using 40 hpi, then we showed Sheila round the miniatures and bits and pieces. It was so nice to chat about the crafts with a like minded, enthusiastic person, probably the kick I need to get going again. Thanks Sheila, look forward to our next meeting.

The almond blossom is appearing daily and this year is quite pink, very pretty.

I was showing Sheila these little bags and realised I had mentioned them on here before but never did follow it up. These are actually made from newspaper pictures taken from a travel supplement, just normal paper not glossy, a backing is applied then everything is machine stitched to please. After stitching the piece is dampened and pieces of the paper removed to reveal the backing, after drying a wax solution is applied and buffed and hey ho you have a piece of newspaper that feels like leatherette ready to make up. This one started life as a sunset scene,

and this one was a picture of 3 lion cubs in natural habitat. Here I added seed beads for interest. Amazingly if they started to dry a little, by adding another coat of wax they return to being flexible again and quite usable.

DH has been making these blacksmiths tools ready to go into the victorian box scene, I think it might be bricks and the furness next.