Autumn Sonata at Craftwerk.ee

Information here regarding this challenge.

Having just completed the finishing touches to my bag of squares, now named "Autumn Sonata", I came upon the abovementioned challenge while browsing Sharon B's Pintangle blog.

I used fabric from Interior Design sample books, a bit of creative recycling. The pattern I saw in a craft magazine, right now I can't remember which one.

I really had fun piecing the squares together, adding the embelishments, finally to end up with a useful gift for someone.

Stars....

I have had stars in my eyes this weekend. Some time ago I soaked a piece of calico in the coffee pot before getting rid of the granuals...the result was the background cloth in this piece. After I had rinsed it and hung it over the radiator to dry it found it's way back onto the pile of cloth I have under my work table....every now and then I take it off the pile and look at it trying to get inspired....This weekend the inspiration came and this is the work in progress.....

Postcard Swapping......

Last month was a very busy sewing month for me..it all started over here. I was interested in the birthday swap Gina E started but was too late to join in the swap so I decided to start Another birthday swap. What fun it has been. Next month it is my turn to receive cards...my first one arrived today... thanks Allyson.

But one swap was not enough so I joined another...started by Barbara Lockwood , I have been looking on in envy at the cards being received by the other ladies in the group but last week I received the pumkin one from Barbara and today I received two two more one from Dakotah and the other from Allyson, thanks again ladies.

We each made 9 cards for this swap...I really enjoyed making each card (see below)...now I am at a loss as to what to do next....

I did see over at SharonB blog, a bag challenge is being organised details here I think that will have to be my next project.

In the mean time I am getting to grips with a new sewing machine I purchased and attending to the interruptions to my life such as house work and ironing!

Distractions......

My blue coat has taken a back seat for the moment, progress is very slow.....

Right now my attention has been concentrated on the making of fabric post cards. I started a birthday swap over at http://stitchinfingers.ning.com/group/fabricpostcards . This is proving to be most enjoyable 'meeting ' like minded people in cyberspace. There was a time in my life when I was very solitary. This interaction would have been just great at that time but I have moved on now and my life is very full, I'm really lucky.

The other day I passed an Interior Decorating shop in our high street and noticed that they had put out a few sampler booklets for sale on the pavement. One of the booklets with plain fabrics in a rainbow of colours caught my eye and started the imagination cogs rolling. I snatched this up in a minute and could not wait to get home to do something with the fabric........Later.... a trip to the local treasure trove called Thread Bears I saw a piece of canvas work that I thought I would try out.......this is the result.






Then there have been other distractions such as candle lit dinners, spider watching, long walks in the Surrey countryside, housework, travels on the train and visiting with family.

Kew

Just recently, when the weather was glorious, DB and I spent a day meandering around Kew gardens....definately a do over....

Disguising the big blue......

...and so the disguise begins....

After I added the blue petals I noticed that the white ones disappeared...... to counter act this I added more white stitches and it worked quite well....I'm not sure that I have completed the motif yet, for the moment I am going to live with what I have done and move on to the other pocket.....clear my mind with a new task.

Big blue pockets...

Oh my just look at those blue pockets...... that aren't.... now the task is to disguise these blue patches...at the moment all I can see is two huge blue spots.....

the alteration continues....

I don't seem to be able to stay focused on anything at the moment. I really don't have an excuse because I have loads of time.

Anyway enough....

I have been busy here and there with the denim shirt I started to alter, slow progress and perhaps big dreams..

Some sketches of where I want this project to go but I think I might be getting myself into a spot of bother.....prehaps a bit ambitious...we'll see.

Putting my drawnings into reality has not been that difficult and Iam finding that having the drawing as reference quite useful...new ground for me as I always keep the picture of my intended project in my minds eye. The end result is never anything like the picture in my mind as I always have such grand designs .......

Well here is the start of the alteration of my beloved denim shirt. The design has been inspired by work done by Jude Hill over at spirit cloth.

Good News

1. My dearest friend and her husband have been granted work permits enabling them to work in NZ......

2. Her duaghter told us that we are going to be grannies again.....a brother or sister for James.....

What a week this has been.

I am slowly making friends with my computer again.....it died on me a few weeks ago since then I have just not had any inclination to be friends with it....

From now on everything will be saved on my external hard drive....a really painful lesson learned....

"Love does not alter where it alteration finds...." Shakespear

I certainly hope that this will be the case by the time I have altered this denim shirt. I have had this shirt for so many years, it holds so many memories for me, it was so comfortable to wear.....so why would I want to alter it? In an effort to reinvent myself, to give myself a more feminine look, I decided that I did not want to part with this denim shirt which is a bit manly, I would try to feminize it.

I started by removing the collar, then the pockets, the cuffs, preparing the "canvas".

As I am now living in a colder climate I thought I might line it to ward off the chills of the UK weather.

Going through my stash I found this piece of shweshwe fabric that I have had almost as long as I have had this shirt so perhaps it would be good for them to come together.

I also have some fabric from a shirt I bought at the clothes market in Malawi.

Some ideas I have been trying out..... MDB is not keen on the square where it is......anything is possible.....

PTC Spring Swap

Laurie organised a PTC Spring Swap, here is the card I received from Laurie:

Spring PTC Swap

Laurie organised a "Spring PTC Swap" I received this card from Laurie

And I sent my card to Cindy

Sharon's challenge this month - Assisi Work

I'm not mad about Assisi work...for me it is too restricting....however I think that I have really stretched (for me anyway) Assisi work to the very limit.

Not knowing quite how I was going to tackle this challenge, I decided to delve deep into my stash and found a photo copy of a design I came upon in a library book so long ago......it was saved at a time when I was looking for inspiration for designs I could put onto pots I was making at pottery classes.....my word that was eons ago....

I transfered the design on to this pink piece of material I bought last year. As I started to sew trees started to appear in the design, so this month I will call my piece "Assisi Trees".

Again I have had so much fun doing this piece, because I have just let it evolve....

Trellis Stitch

This month Sharon's challenge is the trellis stitch. Looking at examples around the Blogs I thought I could give this a try, I like textures, this stitch looked like one which would do just that. Finding a practice cloth and thread I started to practice the stitch.....mmmm.....not as easy as it looks, I found it difficult to get an even tension, try as I might it was just not working for me. To avoid frustration and throwing the cloth to the back of the cupboard to die an uncertain death, I decided to go with the flow......

Here are examples of my some of my practice stitches.

I then put these away, so as not to be influenced by them, because I have to say that I did not feel confident about the end results.

A few days later, having browsed the community, seeing what other gifted ladies were turning out, my confidence began to wain even more....not to be put off completely, I took myself out...out of the sewing room, out of the house, out of our little village and away to clear out all the cobwebs.

This was the result, I just went with the imperfections and had fun.

Trellis Stitch

Another month another stitch here is my attempte at the trellis stitch details can be found here

Snow..heaps of snow...

For this African the recent snowfall in the South East England, Caterham, where we live, has been truly awesome....yes I know that in some parts of the world this is but a mere dusting, for me it has been amazing! For our dog it has been an experience in "feel the fear and do it anyway", poor baby (an African too).

Having to go out with a coat on nog al!! What decent African dog goes out in a coat...tsk ...tsk "Only in England!!"

Here the DB and I braving the snowflakes....awesome!!

It has been a magical experience for me, one I will never forget. I believe I have seen snow before when I was a very little girl back in South Africa (the land of my birth). My father even built a snow man for me...but that was a long time ago and the memory is not mine, just a story I have been told....Now I have my own memory and wow what a memory!

Chicken Scratch Stitch

Since having landed in the UK in July last year, I have had a stitchers block. I have worked and a few things but have not been able to stick to one thing at a time resulting in many WIPS. I did not complete Sharon Boggins Take it Further Challenge last year, although I did do some sewing on a theme of this challenge but when looking at what I had done did not think that the finished project was worthy of a posting.


However I think that my stitching block is over and I am on my way to completeing the now WISPS and ready to take on new tasks. Over the months I have been sitting at the computer looking at many blogs but one I keep coming back to is this one http://spiritcloth.typepad.com/. I have to say that I have been so inspired by the work being created here.


This month for the stitch challenge on Sharon Boggins blog http://www.pintangle.com/ I have used an inspiration found on Spirit Cloth blog http://spiritcloth.typepad.com/spirit_cloth/2009/01/undoing-pattern.html. My thanks go to Ms Hill for the inspiration for my challenge this month.

Cyber Fyber Peoples Choice

Last year when I received Susan Lenz' request to send a post card and an ATC for the Cyber Fyber Exhibition in January this year I was quite surprised, but not nearly as surprised to receive the Peoples Choice for my ATC. That is the crooked little one on the left. I was'nt going to send this little ATC because the border was crooked and it looked imperfect, but then I was living in Malawi at the time and nothing in Malawi is perfect, so after much umming and ahing and advice from Carol's sewing group I decided to put it in the envelope and send it to Susan.

I thought I would post the picture I took of my post card too, since I took them together I feel that they belong together.

For a clearer picture you can go http://cyberfyberexhibition.blogspot.com/to and read all about the exhibition see other PC and ATC made by heaps of talented people.

Many thanks to the ladies who left comments and especially to you Susan Lenz for giving me the opportunity to exhibit for the very first time ever!

Thanks also to Mary my trusty post lady who made sure that my parcel made it way from Malawi to the USA almost by hand all the way.....