In the past week it has been really cold and the snow froze. It was a beautiful sight to see but I hate the snow and I can't stand the brightness. I am really relieved that it poured last night and we are virtually snow free.
Here is a picture of my garden after the first snow fell.
Today it is lovely and sunny and I am hoping to go down to the 'Craft for crafters' show at Westpoint, Exeter.
I have had a busy week sewing. I have been doing my own thing with free style quilting. I was so impressed with+Rayna Gillman's book I couldn't wait to have a go. It was quite difficult to let go and be really free with my stitching. Anyway her are a few pics of what I have done so far.
These are a few of the pieces I first made. I wanted to get away from traditional patchwork so I started with an uneven square or rectangle and then stitched in a similar way to log cabin. I wasn't quite sure of where to go next so I had a look at+Alicia Merrett's blog and decided to put them together the way she does with her chequerboard pieces. I stitched some long strips together and then laid the uneven edge onto it and cut with the rotary cutter along the uneven edge.
Here is the first strip with batting and backing, I have machine stitched the red side borders. In the next picture is a close up of the way the shape was stitched in to the long strips. I am going to hand embroider the centre parts. I will post more images as and when I produce more interesting work.
Today I have once again dipped out of doing what I should. I am supposed to be at my unit at the antique market in Wellington but my ME has decided that I can't manage it today. Why is it so unpredictable? I would have thought that after 14 years of it I would know how it works, but I don't.
I am going to get some lunch now and be ready for when my husband gets home to take me to the Craft for crafters show. Bye for now, Pauline.
I have just finished 2 pieces of handmade fabric which have taken me for ages to complete. I am sorry in a way that they are finished because its a bit like saying goodbye. Sounds silly I know but once I get on with some of the many other pieces which have been started over the past few years I will get that familiar feeling back again.
Today I am not feeling too well but I am pushing myself as always to carry on and try to forget about the pain. My husband has gone to do my shift at a little antiques centre in Wellington, Somerset where we have a small space for selling things. I have mostly pieces of furniture which have been with us for more than thirty years. I used to have a small antique shop in Newbury, Berkshire and also a unit in the Hungerford Arcade. Many of the pieces are the residue of my time in those places. We need to get rid of them as we are busting at the seams and as you get older you feel the need to slim things down. I hope I might be able to sell some of my work in Wellington, but people don't seem to have much money spare these days.
It is a beautiful sunny day here in Devon but very cold. I just love to see the sun, it's a real treat after the aweful summer we had last year. I had an interesting book for Christmas called 'Create your own free-form quilts' by +Rayna Gillman. What a joy not be told that all the seams have to meet and match up and you can't have this with that. It's a completely break all the rules book. I love it. Thankyou to +Rayna Gillman. I love making patchwork quilts but they do rather take over your life. I have decided to give them a break for now and only get involved in them when teaching. It's like having your cake and eating it.
This piece is made using wool tops, small pieces of fleece cloth, yarn, towelling, felt, embellished by machine with hand and machine embroidery.
This piece was made with wool tops on the embellisher for the base cloth with small pieces of manufactured felt inserts, all hand embroidered.
I would like to take this opportunity to mention Cally of +'Cally creates' for highlighting ME as an illness which is too often maligned and has become the non illness. I don't think so, speaking from personal experience. Thankyou.
A new year and hopefully some new inspiration to help me get blogging. I am nearly 72 years old and have an insatiable appetite for work. I live in the beautiful County of Devon.
Although I have had ME for 14 years I still work very hard and battle with pain continually. I was surprised to see how many other bloggers have the same condition as me. They are the ones who really understand what the illness is about. I thank them for exposing ME to the public view as it is often pushed aside as a non illness. It is quite the opposite.
I am interested in many facets of creativity. I like to paint, print, sew, garden, take photo's, play music and lots more. There are never enough hours in a day to do the things which I have in mind to do. At the moment I am making quilts and doing free style quilting and crochet. I gave 3 of my 4 grandchildren a quilt for Christmas. It was quite a marathon. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures worth showing here. I also have a beautiful classic car an Austin A35, 1957. It is so lovely and wherever I go people always smile and wave to me. It's really just the car they are smiling at. When I find out how to get pictures from my computer I will post some but just at the moment I haven't got the foggiest idea how to do it. There doesn't seem to be a heading for this.
I managed to work it out. Here is my lovely little car.
