Creepy Crawlies

DD and DS are off to an all night party, DD was pleased with the little touches to the hat and liked her clock made from offcuts of fluorescente greens, orange, yellows.
The little pumpkins were made from wool and the dark spider from mohair.




This little chap crawled his way on to the hat too



This one is looking after a little book of spells which will probably hang from the hat as well

I have been working on this miniature mat in between other projects, but at last it's finished and ready for one of the rooms in the house. I designed the pattern then changed the borders as I wanted to make it larger. I was quite pleased with the end result, even if I do say so myself lol

Kantha Elephant

It's been another sunny day here, although the evenings are getting really chilly, we have already started lighting the log burner at night. DS has been a great help with the garden, especially in the veggie patch where he uncovered 14 pumpkins, an aubergine and a bucket full of green tomatoes ready for some chutney making.

I have posted another Indian Kantha project, where I used sheesha mirrors and beads, I mounted it on an artists board ready for framing.



Today I have been making hallowen projects as DD came home last night and upon presenting me with a bag of offcuts asked if I could make something for the party she is going to tomorrow.
At least she gave me a days notice, usually its that afternoon.

Recycling carrier bags

When we are all trying to do our bit with regard to recycling it can be quite challenging to think outside the box and repurposing items. We do this quite alot when making the miniatures, small round plastic tops from toiletries can be turned into little foot stools, or the strong card from the cat food boxes make ideal panels for sofas, we have a box of not sure what to use it for but it will be used lol.

One way to recycle plastic carrier bags is to turn them into a fabric. They must be the strong ones and not the flimsy supermarket ones and ones that have writing on them can produce an exciting surreal piece. Mixing colours and thicknesses or perhaps adding other components like wax crayon shavings add to the texture. Protected heat and you have your textural form. The plastic performs in it's own way so you never know what will be the end result.

The idea for this project formed when the 'fabric' reminded me of a coral type of formation. To raise the various sea structures I used a variety of items, large button for the sea web, melon seeds (washed!) for the fish, a dried kidney bean and even a piece from a pop out pill packet.


Then doodle with the threads.



This bag is made from ordinary kitchen cling film. This time trapping fancy yarn between the sheets and applying heat. It is surprisingly durable.


Making fabric from newspaper is another fun thing to do, but maybe I'll keep that for another time lol.

Kantha and Sheesha embroidery

Life has been throwing its large rocks again this last week but it seems things have returned to normal. We had a lovely day yesterday as it was DS's birthday, he was 30 - how did that creep up? the years seem to have flown. We celebrated with family and friends with a lovely lunch at our local restaurant and a very enjoyable evening.

I was asked by Sheila, my new found fellow stitcher, what was Kantha embroidery so I thought I would put up a couple of pics. The basis of Kantha is a running stitch, rather like Sashico but usually using finer threads, especially silk. I love the rhythm of doing this kind of embroidery as you can get lost in its simplicity, the stitches seemed to flow and go where they want, they certainly did on this one as I just made it up as I went along. I incorporated the sheesha glass which gave it more interest.

A Bushkiri Bag

Sheesha glass pouch

I also wanted to thank everyone who has left such nice comments.

Mini meeting

We had an enjoyable meeting with the miniature club and they carried on making the jewellry chest that DH designed, to be finished next month where they want me to make the jewellry to go inside the chest. I have already made a few items but need to get my thinking cap on.

The chocolate mayonese cake was well received. Its a really easy cake to make as eggs and butter are substituted by the mayonese, hadn't made this for a long time, so was pleased it turned out ok. I was very remiss though and forgot to take a photo - again! DH made his lovely cheese scones so everyone was well fed.

Just put the post up and sure enough double clicking works, now I know what to do when I come across piccies hopping around on various blogs.

Stitching and baking

I had a nice comment left by Sheila, who it seems, is in my neck of the woods, amazing how blogland can bring people together who would otherwise never know they were there. Still not sure of the protocol of answering comments, so sorry if I have neglected anyone and thank you for your comments.

Yesterday I received a surprise, DH went to the post, his second outing since his adventure and when he returned there was a package from Australia. Well I really don't know how, but with all the curfuffal of the last two weeks I had completely forgotten that Judith had awarded me a prize for the number of gifts completed in her Early Bird Christmas crafting. This is what I received, isn't it pretty?




I finished my bird cage from Alli, little difficult to see but I added two colours of seed beads as flower buds. DH assures me that if we double click on the piccie it will enlarge when its uploaded, ok, we'll see. I finished the stitching part whilst waiting in the hospital with DH to see theconsultant who was running 55 mins late, so whilst I did receive some funny looks at least I was spared watching a spot on the wall for an hour.




DH decided to go flying with his radio controlled model planes this morning, so I decided to do a little baking. I tried a spinach and bacon quiche with a little goats cheese sprinkled on it, made many quiches before in previous years but never tried it with soya milk. We have an intolerance to dairy produce so have to either go without or substitute and hope for the best. Pleased to say that the soya mik behaved very well and the usual sweetness did not come through in the quiche, so bouyed by this I made fruit pies and a chocolate mayo cake, although that's for tomorrow when we host this months miniature club. Will have to be up early to put the frosting on.

Gota Fria

Our gota fria (which means cold drop) came and went, we managed to keep the power but lost internet and tv stations, we also got a nice top up for our water deposito and although some damage the garden managed to escape quite well.
Travelling down the mountain we came across some rock falls and tree damage but not as severe as previous years. DD and I had an appointment to attend in Denia, a town about 3/4 hour drive away, this place will flood with ease, but again all was well. On our return we decided to treat ourselves to a girlie lunch out and found a nice bar/restaurant in a little village with tiny streets and tall buildings. Note to self, remember to pick your camera up!
We had a very enjoyable menu del dia and whiled away a couple of hours chatting and enjoying each others company, with the promise to do it again very soon.

We are so looking forward to Sunday as DS will be coming out for his birthday, it is so nice to be all together.

Not having anything new to show you, I thought I would put up this project, 'The Tree' - another Stumpwork, using wrapped wires, beads and even some angora goat fleece which I saved from the shearing when being in Devon and we kept them on the farm, but that's a completely different story.





I did try my hand at spinning but with a thousand other things to do/try found it wasn't really my thing, well that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it lol

Some stitching at last

Well who would believe its over a week ago that we had our little adventure down the mountain. DH is being very good about not driving although still feeling sore and bruised is better. DD is supporting too by getting groceries as she goes outing and abouting.

I would like to say a big thank you to Fiona of Bubzrugz who came to my rescue about how to put buttons on blogs. As you can see it worked and I now have a button for the Simply christmas.

At last some stitching, ok WIP's but at least something has been accomplished, the little angel was from Lynette Anderson Designs, a little kit I purchased from Judith Tetley when she was having her sale. Not quite sure how to finish her off (if you know what I mean) but I'm sure something will suddenly have a light bulb moment


This little project was from Willowberry Designs - one of a series of BOM's which I have saved but have only finished this one - one of these days I will take a deep breath and get my head around making a quilt - I must admit I favour smaller projects, but the more I wander around blogland and see all these wonderful quilts the more I want one.



I saw this in Judith's sale and couldn't resist it for my SIL - she is training to be an animal healer and has various pets including Grace and Audrey who, I believe, at times appear haughty and just will not lay. Cannot decide whether to finish this as a wall hanging or cushion cover............


At last a couple of finished items, little stocking fillers, the rabbit needle case will be for SIL as she has a house rabbit.

I also made a couple of lavender rice bags for DD for her to use in her work as eye masks. She is a holistic and beauty therapist and wanted them to gently warm and use with her clients to help them relax into their treatments. If she wants a guinea pig I will be the first to put my hand up lol

Help please!

What a hectic few days! DH was whisked away by ambulance on Sunday and admitted to hsopital that evening, hooked up to various drips and an impending visit to theatre planned for the Tuesday. We often remark how bumpy the journey is in the car using our mountain road, after travelling in the ambulance, at speed, I don't think we will moan again. The road twists and turns as it zig zags down, in many places almost single track or for two if you are careful in squeezing. Must admit it was the fastest we had ever been through our town's high street, sirens screaming, through red lights, cars scuttling out of the way, an experience in itself. After a 35 minute ride we were pleased to arrive.
Anyway after a few days of trial and tribulations, DH is safely home, sore, restricted, but feeling so much better. No stitching done but I did trace out the bird cage design from Allie, so hopefully a little relaxing and stitching is what is needed now.

Can any one help me please?!!!
I have tried unsuccessfully to add a button to my blog, as I want to join in Kerryanne's Simply christmas. How do I do it? also how do I put a link to someone elses blog as I see many of you do?

Hope someone out there can point me in the right direction................................