The Two Week Catch Up

OK so I am a little behide with the Blog ! Hope you all changed your clocks this morning !

Last weekend we were visiting my parents and going out for Mother's Day Lunch at Mum's favourite cafe =) A manic drive home due to hold ups on the M25 and the snow !

Monday was a little stressful as DH had an interview which went ok and he reached the final two ... but was not selected. Had he been successful this entry would be telling you about our house move so he could be closer to a new job !

Instead we had a pleasent afternoon in Petersfield picking up a few bits including my MIL birthday gift. We are visiting my parents in law next weekend which just happens to be her birthday =) .... although the visit had been planned so that we could go into Liverpool to see the France MacDonald exhibtion - but more about that next week.

Tuesday evening I should have been at the local Embroiderers Guild meeting. A practical was planned on buttons. See above. I was down to run a workshop on make covered embroidered buttons and these were my samples. Instead I was stuck on a train =( ... Although I did get quite a bit of cross stitch done.

This weekend, well Saturday, spent a bit more time working on a speical birthday gift for my sister... as I can not show you that or tell you about it in case she is reading this. Full set of pictures in June.

I thought I would tell you about a new tool I have been playing with !

The silent setter - a easy to use device to add eyelets to things... well its designed for paper , but I have been playing with it on fabric.
Here is a couple I tried yesterday. Works quite well. Although if you have more that one layer of fabric you need to stamp the initial hole in each piece as the stamper can not get though a thick piece ...
The 'T' shaped handle on the left is connected with one of the black heads on the right to make a hole. Then you place a eyelet in the hole. Eyelets shown below. Then you swap the head in the handle above from the black one to the silver head which is paired with the black head.
You have the eyelet face down , the shank coming through the fabric. The silver head sits on the top and you push down ... and its all finished =) Works very well !

Flights of Fancy

Spent Saturday teaching a day school for my local Embroiderers Guild, on making fairy dolls, using the pattern from Quilting Arts. It was a small class but we all reached the end with 7 completed dolls as you can see below.

View all the pictures at http://good-times.webshots.com/album/558116276yVjxXW

Friday the lastest Cloth Paper Scissor arrived ... My answer to last months readers question has been printed again =)

As the weather this morning has come out nice, going to get some jumpers washed.
Planning to spend the rest of the day finishing off a quilt square to send to my friend Z, kit up a inuit chart DH & I like (which will become a cushion on the day bed in my studio) and thinking about the other C&G work I still need to finish =) Although I have some more of my sister's birthday gift ready to stitch... sorry you'll all have to wait until JUNE before I can display what i am making her =) I have so many other projects which keep knocking at the door, but I know if I start them I'l never make the C&G dead line. Been making notes on them in a sketch book and hoping I'll still want to follow them up after July !

Had a major sort out in my studio yesterday evening, well really it was a sort out of the cupboard. Mostly I wanted to b able to get more of the stuff sitting around the floor into the cupboard. WOW what crap I was keeping. THREE bin bags later plus a couple of charity bags and I have only a couple of boxes standing around the room, it looks less cluttered and the cupboard is in some kind of order that I might have a chance of finding things !

Thanks for all the comments on the dragon , both here and on the email ! I'll be adding some bell pull ends and hanging him in my studio where the light can catch the metal threads.

Been off work with flu most of this week. Here is what I worked on to keep me going !

Yoda he say

Here is the little guy all finished and with his own light sabre =)

The Creature Grows

A little more work with Sainsbury's bags and arms appear. Each arm is formed from one half of a standard bag. I am currently working on the body to give it a little more form and strength. Also considering the feet ... errrmm =)

Dianne - Glad you enjoyed this little guy. I think he is really cute =)

Sculpture in Blue

Had this idea while thundering to and from London on the train about using a bag to create a 3D creature. So Friday started to work on a piece. Below you can see images of stage one. Head & body complete, now for arms and feet. All the thread used is DMC and it takes quite a bit of thread. As the fabric is a plastic bag you are limited on how much you can pull it about before th plastic gives. The bag has not been cut in any way.... just using the stitches it has been sculptured into a new form. I am not sure the photos do him enough justice but gives you an idea.

My husband has nicknamed him "the little blue Yoda" . He also said he would not have expected me to make such a thing as my other textile pieces have not has as much 'fun' in them !

Chris asked about iron bags and if they melt ?

Well the iron is melting the bag and forcing the plastic to return to its original state. So you need to use baking parchment/grease proof paper to protect the iron and ironing board. Place your bag between two layers of baking parchment before starting. Also remember you should iron in a open room and only work in small steps. Melted plastic is HOT, so watch you hands, and can if completely melted created fumes. The best method is to apply the iron for a few seconds then lift and check the effect, then repeat. The plastic does cool quickly but do give it a chance to do so !

More Experiments With Bags !

During the week I have been trying out a few more ideas with carrier bags. How do you knit a bag from a bag ??

First take your bag ...

Cut bag into pieces and KNIT !!! Well cutting the bag into strips as above gives you the mess below. This is due to having to keep joining the pieces .... Not great. Found a suggestion on the web to cut the bag horizontlly to created loops, then into lock these to create a long chain... I went for cutting the bag in a spiral , first cut the base off, this give you a tube you can cut into a spiral...

This was infact an idea from my friend L ... Knit the carrier bag with wire ! So below you can see the finished piece. Looks better in real life ! The bag (WHSmith) was spiral cut as explained above.
THEN you iron it .. Here is a close up of the piece after being ironed. Love the effect as the plastic has melted into the wire ...
So what next ... Well a whole weekend of playing. I hope to have time to make paper... Friend L also suggested using some knitted wire as the net to lift the paper, just not then remove the wire .... May try this, just have to get round to doing more knitting. Also had an idea for a creature ..... but we'll leave you to wonder until I have the details sorted and the first one made =)