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.....

Cleaning up but not clearing out....

In preparation for the New Year I have been bringing in the new and getting rid of the old.

The New Year ahead will bring many changes for me, milestones to chalk up and challenges to face....

Looking forward to the road ahead...............