..let me introduce you to...

...Giselle....

..well...

...a partly finished Giselle who's been keeping me company for the last few days.



I've been faffing around...

...flitting from one indulgence to another...

...and THOROUGHLY ENJOYING MYSELF...

..playing with all those things that I love doing, but haven't given myself permission to do for quite some time now. (Or so it seems anyway!)

I'm definitely embarking on "things new"...

..well, new for here I suppose...

..and letting my soft, red, ..even pink!, gentle, home-makey side have a turn.

O yes, the "Tribal" stuff is still out in the workroom...

...and various themed sketchbooks are filling up at quite a pace...

..but new ventures are now giving me the opportunity to do all this lovely stuff!

Craft fairs are being booked, and retail things sorted. It's an exciting time. A new adventure begins....

...and of course...

...any new adventure starts with some new fabrics :-)))))

Just look at THESE!!!






..beautiful "French General" fabrics by Moda.

They're from the "Lumiere de Noel" range....and they're luscious!!!!

These will be used to make the clothing for my new 'damoiselles...

...all of whom will, of course, be given French names!

Hopefully, a new sewing machine will be perching on top of the small workroom table before too much longer...

...and more red cross-stitching and printing will be done...

...along with some serious thread dyeing over the next couple of weeks.

I'm gonna be a busy gal!

Printing fun....without the sun!!

What a drab....dull....depressing...

....apology for a "summer" we seem to be having here!!!

Grrrrrr!

...and looking at the jet stream forecast, I can't see any respite for this week AGAIN!

Top temperatures 18 or 19 degrees and that's about it!

But,

...never mind she said to herself......

...let's get the printing gear out and have some fun...

..making "summer type things"...

...for a craft fair later in the year :-)))


The first thing that needed to be sorted was some replacement Prayer Flags....

...as mine have been ripped off and tossed to the wind...

so these....



..were done with this beautiful Tibetan hand-carved print block.....



(singles look like this...)



..and larger ones...



...are done on this...even MORE beautiful block!



Happy enough as I was, to get those done, I had been asked to make some bunting for a friend...

..so...

...more print blocks were pressed into service to make these...



and these.....



...and these...



...and then these...



Now, all I've got to do is stitch them onto their tapes!!!!

The Time Thief's been around again!!!

I can't believe that it's been almost 2 weeks since my last post here...

The Time Thief has certainly been around ...

...stealing the precious stuff!

Since passing the BIG 50....

..I really think that the clocks have shifted up a gear...

..SCARY or WHAT :-(

But...

..hands have not been idle at least...

..in fact I've gotten quite a bit done in the Thief's bag time.


AND IT'S PINK!!!!

Not normal for me at all - pink...

..but my friend's daughters would like it a lot!

It's that time of year when samples and examples need to be done for workshops and courses...

Oh Dear! ...playtime has arrived :-)))))

...and these are for a new "Paper, Print and Stitch" workshops ready to run from Sept/Oct this year.










These particular ones use some small pieces of fabric from one of Ger's "Pink Packs"...



... that arrived in the same pack as this little beauty...





..her "Mood Indigo" piece that I just couldn't resist :-)

(Don't you just LOVE having things like this drop through the letterbox?)


..and...

..as well as PINK....

...RED...

...is also making a comeback!

..in these...



..and these...







..which are destined to be the centrepieces of some small patched bags, cushions or bookcovers...

Thoughts are beginning to turn back around to home-stuff too...

Some time back we had a woodburner installed...

...in a corner of the living-room that had no fireplace or hearth or chimney!

Some men with a magnificent drilling machine were invited to make a 10 inch hole...

...through a 2 foot 8 inch thick wall...

...at EXACTLY 45 degrees..

..PRETTY PLEASE!

This they did in about 35 minutes! WOW!!!

...and last winter, when it was minus double figures...

..we were not cold :-)

There's just one thing bugging me...




...what to put in that 55 inch-wide space above the fire?!!



...and then...



..there's the kitchen to finish off.... :-o


(Hope that Time Thief stays away!)

"Tribal Cloth" on ETSY

New shop opens today! (Click the ETSY banner on the sidebar)

The pendants listed in the last couple of posts are in there...

...with more bits to follow as and when :-)

..new pendants...

I've been having a really good time over the last few days...

...making a few more pendants.

Here they are...





There are even more waiting to be finished....

...but before I do, I'm going to get on with making up those little Kuba panel bags I said about a while back...

:-)

..a tale of two surfaces...

There are two distinct working areas in my studio at the minute...

..one looks like this...



...the stitch it...bead it place...

...and the other...



..the cut it..bend it..bang it place :-)

I have to work in this manner...

...because I don't have a desk/table that is, in itself, large enough to accomodate the various different processes that go into making things like this...



...one of the latest pieces to have been finished.

Here's another brooch that's ready to go too...



I'm enjoying making jewellery!

...new bits...

I finished the Kuba-inspired brooches...




..and then set to work on some new ones....






..using bits of my hand-dyed fabrics and threads...


..more to follow next week...


..have a good weekend everyone :-)