More news from the hive

Meaning I'm TRYING  to be a very busy bee!!!! Since my last post I had great plans - not many working out I hasten to add. It was Clock Tower Quilters on Saturday 20th and I hoped to get a couple of things done, however not all went to plan and the only thing I did achieve was some reverse sewing. I took along 2 projects, one to put borders on and some hand work for later! First up I thought I would add some borders to my 'Jackalope' embroidery, I found just the right fabrics at Malvern for borders and backing.

these are from Lewis & Irene (I love their fabrics)

However not all went according to plan! First up we were only a very small band of 4 stitcher's due to holidays, family commitments etc and I did not set the machine up, as I forgotten some of my 'stuff' plus we got chatting as you do at these gatherings so by the time I had coffee and the obligatory biscuits and got down to work it was lunchtime (slapped wristies here!!) So I decided to have my lunch then continue working on this Seed Heads design by Jane Davies (whom I did the Modern Kantha workshop with at Malvern last Oct)

Wrong, VERY WRONG, in fact, I love her work, but this is a different technique to my usual embroidery projects. It seems I had not read the instructions properly, The instructions said tack the fabric to the black felt (which will be the backing!) 1st mistake - I didn't! Next - trace the design onto tissue paper and tack this to the fabric, then tack over the rest of the design. I did not have any tissue so I used greaseproof, I carefully traced all the lines, tacked the pattern to the fabric and tacked along the lines of the design, next it said tear away the paper to leave the design tacked onto the fabric, BUT it would not tear, I tried to score along the lines with some pointy scissors - no joy!! Instead the paper kept pulling all my carefully tacked lines out. In the end as last resort I simply undid the lot and went back to the drawing board as they say. Since following the instructions it now looks like this. I think you can just see the design, but as we finished up early to go home I have not done any more to it. 

I have not been idle since then  at the end of the month I went to the Severn Valley Quilters Meeting where we listened to a very interested talk on Mixed Media techniques by Angie Hughes who so inspired me to 'have a go' I bought the Book... whether or not I do try out her methods remains to be seen (I have no excuse as I already have some of the materials) but it was a very inspiring talk and the book is a good read.

As usual I have been doing quite a bit of knitting, my knitted UFO pile diminishes as I work my way through all the projects in there and of course I have one or two more new ones in the pipeline. Finished recently is this waistcoat/vest, started approximately 30 years ago (YES! really 30 years!!!!) for my Mum. I made several from the original pattern during the 70's including 4 sweaters/cardigans and ran out of steam as they are made on gigantic needles (20mm & 10mm)

I have a little of the chunky yarn left and I may make a scarf, in the same way as its knits up really well and being all Garter stitch it's really quick. Next up was this sweater I started for myself in 2006, It looks quite crumpled as it had got all screwed up in the box, I will need to give it a wash and dry it flat before I wear it.

I have a new sweater for Little H planned and that will be my next project to be ready for winter, and tho I said I would NEVER do another picture sweater EVER AGAIN, this is what she has chosen from my pattern file

Not quite so fiddly this time, only 3 colours, she chose a really rich purple for the main part but the puppy will still be in black & white. Of course I have to also have a project that can fit in my handbag, so I have made a couple of Beanie hats, I won't bore you with pictures of the plain ones but this one I am quite pleased with, I generally knit these in the round and wondered what I could do to make them more interesting, not wanting to just do cables (I've done loads of those) so I worked out a method of purling one stitch which I off set on every round and produced this 'Spiral' hat. I did not bother to work the spiral into the decreases but I think it worked quite well with a plain top. What do you think?

On the building front things are progressing, the roof is on (see last Post) and today Mike & DH started to put the ridge tiles back, they have not done anything up there for a few days due to the heat wave, but today was cool and cloudy so up they went - till it rained! unfortunately we are still waiting for the window company to deliver the new windows which were promised for last Thursday - and are now promised for tomorrow! it was hoped this would be something they could do if it turned wet (they can be put in from inside apparently!) however in order not to waste any time they took out the existing landing window which will be re-used as the 'new' landing window (you can see where it will go in previous pictures) So now the real mess indoors will begin...

 This is how it looks from the doorway of my current workroom, there is now a large sheet of plywood nailed over this gap, which I must say looks 'very elegant'. but hey I guess it's all gotta look worse before it looks better, and I've been wanting the hall stairs and landing redecorated for several years!!!

 This is the back of new room when viewed from the 'gap' and  here's the front view.

 and here is the space where the re-sited window will go.

Well that just about brings me up to date on all fronts, tomorrow afternoon I am doing a shift at the Museum and I'm there again on Saturday, then I may go to the Thornbury Carnival if the weather is OK!

Byee for now

Lxxx