Weekend W.I.Ps

 Plenty of bits'n'bobs going on...

....catching up on lost time.

First up...

...another of my "Old Amsterdam" house panels...

...house details done...

...then leaves cut and applied before machining.

Text from the Book of Taliesin...printed...(Ancient Welsh)

......translated to read... (Modern English)

Pages made to go inside a tiny book...

...all ready for the "creative bit"!!

A little while ago, I challenged Ann and Becky down at Busy Bees Patchwork...

...to fill one of these tiny books each...

...the pages being cut from one piece of A4 paper.

No more...no less...

...and both sides of each page to be covered in "something"

Come Christmas...

...we'll see what we've each done!!

Hey Ho

Looks like a few weeks indoors...AGAIN!!!

Have a good time whatever you are doing.

x C

Bits n Bobs

All of my packs/kits are now finished and packed ready for Paris....

...and my stand sign has been cut n stuck!


Jobs done...

...I have been playing around with some pages for my Summer School/workshop at Busy Bees...

...Indian Adventure book...

...and I'm loving the colours!!

Hey Ho

x C

Time to begin putting things in order!!

After an afternoon visit to Busy Bees yesterday...

...where I had the use of a huge worktable to spread all my UFOs on...

...little did I realise just HOW MANY things need to be finished off!!

Having been away from home for about 4 months in total this year...

...I made sure that I prepared plenty of stitching to carry me through periods of travel.

I knew that I'd done quite a lot...

...but, seeing it all laid out made me realise just how much I have actually done...

...despite being on the road teaching workshops all over the place!

So...

...this morning...

...one piece has (finally) been finished...

...and to my satisfaction I might add :-)

This is a wooden box that I bought at The Works...

...cheap and (not very) cheerful...

...but with a coat of paint and some printing & embroidery...

...it becomes a lovely thing to store bits'n'bobs.

It is a sample to inspire for my stand at Nantes.....

Here's a closeup of the top...

...and the finished box...

It makes my heart glad to have something actually DONE!!!

Now for the rest........ :-o

x C

ps

Anne and I talked yesterday about more workshops at Busy Bees next year... both of mine in November and February are full....but it looks like more will be in the pipeline soon..... :-)

..a couple more bits of stitching...

Here are a couple more bits of my "Tribal Print & Stitch" samples....

...I'm going to try and find a bit of time to write a website page for workshops sometime over the next few days...

...but I have a load of other things going on too. (As ever!!)

Saturday, I'll be down at Busy Bees for their 2012-13 workshop launch....

...where I'll have the opportunity to meet loads of stitching folk. :-)

....and after that...

...I'm working on half a street of little houses for Festival of Quilts.

You may have noticed (or not :-o) ...

...that I've changed something in the right side bar here.

My new work "Stitched in Stone" will now have to be shown properly at Harrogate rather than FOQ....

This heart problem has caused all sorts of problems and I've gotten really behind with things. I've calculated that I've lost a good 6 weeks of working time over the last few months. I've had to call off choir until October too ....

...just struggling to cope with it all.  :-(

Hopefully another appointment with the consultant will help.

Only 2 weeks away....

....then....

...two weeks later....

....all the fun begins to happen! :-)

Tea and Leaf Tuesday

I'm certainly in need of my tea indulgence today...

...and it's nice to have it include lovely memories of my little French sojourn way back in March.

I found a delightful tea/coffee retailer in Chartres...

...who had a small range of locally-themed teas!

Today, I'm partaking of "Baiser de Chartres"....

...and considering the leaf is green and there are not a whole lot of obvious flowery or fruity additions....

...the flavour is simply sublime.

Full and flowery....

...and looking good in this tiny Japanese tea cup that I found in a shop called "KIMONOYA" in the Rue du Pont Louis-Philippe (Paris).

On the leaf is a little bamboo plate with a spoonful of a beadmix that I call "Byzantium".

It's for the "Magic Lantern" that I'm making for that Busy Bees workshop...

...more in a couple of days when I've finished it :-)

...picking up the threads....

It's been a while....

...but I've not been feeling exactly brilliant for the last few weeks.

All sorts of weird stuff going on with heartbeats/rate...

...a bit scary at times.

Saw the cardiologist last week, and he said it's not life-threatening...

...but it IS still very draining and uncomfortable....

...especially when it decides to do it for hours and hours at a time...

...and through most of the night, thus disturbing sleep! :-(

He's prescribed some beta-blockers, and I'm now waiting to have a 24 hour monitoring box so that he can see exactly what's going on in there.

Anyway....

...it has all contrived to slow me right down, and I haven't felt like hanging around on the computer much at all. I haven't even been to choir for the last 3 weeks!!!.....

...but I've been plodding on with a few things and am feeling a bit better this morning.....so here goes...

On top of getting my expo work done for August, I've also been working on another workshop project for Busy Bees (Feb 2013). The workshop programme deadline is fast approaching, so I've tried to crank up the speed a bit this week and get the background done for what will be called a "Magic Lantern".

I started with a "sandwich" of fabrics and cut through after stitching...

...I'll be upstairs with the threads and beads for the rest of today trying to get it completed....or almost.....

I've also done another "Mayan Glyph" piece.

This one's painted and ready for a bit more hand-stitching with some newly-dyed threads.

Talking of threads...

...the dye-pot and bags have been on the go quite a bit too....

...and there's a nice wee pile of new cottons ready to photograph and put in the shop later in the week....


I hope everyone has a good weekend....

...maybe I'll feel like a cuppa on Tuesday.....

...Busy Bees workshop panel..

...is a bit further on....

Printed rectangles machine stitched over....

Beads made from Angelina fibres...

Hand dyed threads for French knots and stars...

Knotted and wrapped sari-silk yarn....

...are all making for a delightful workshop project in October.

Full panel picture soon :-)