Sneak preview

From a proud grandad!

See Angela's earlier post today too!

Waiting Over

Well she is finally here. Nicki had been in labour since last Wednesday, she saw the midwife on Friday who said baby would put in appearance at the weekend and after several visits to hospital over the weekend they finally kept her in on the fourth visit and got things moving along. Ellie was born at 10.06pm yesterday and how about this for a play with numbers she weighed 6lb10oz. Mum and baby are fine Anthony is on cloud 9. We are going to see them this afternoon so there will be some pictures soon.

I'm really enjoying working on this hanging. I unpicked the stitching I didn't like and now I'm doing some running stitch but I have to keep stopping to make sure I don't get carried away and do too much. The silk thread is lovely to work with and it has a lovely sheen in the light. I think I'll be making at least one more of these.

Still Waiting

Get the balloons out I've finished something! It's a cushion cover cover for the tombola that Pam is doing to raise money for the Quilters Guild.

I saw a quilt on a blog and liked the pattern so I thought I'd have a go at making one myself and this was was my test block. It worked as you can see, so rather than just put it to one side or in the bin I've made it into a cushion cover.

This is my purple square that has got to be handed in to teacher next month. The next and last one is pink and I'm all out of ideas.

Remember the bumper and quilt I made for the crib, well it's now in-situ and waiting for baby - just like the rest of us.

Look at the size of her, you'd think she'd get a move on wouldn't you. She is fed up now this was Nicki two days ago.

Anthony said I had to show you this. He wants baby to to wear this when she comes home from hospital, Nicki doesn't, she wants her to look like a little girl. I think Anthony is little over excited.

Last weekend we had a heart bargello class with six ladies on the course so that they had plenty of room to spread out.

This is Caroles quilt, she's looking pleased as punch and so she should.

This is another Carole with her quilt. Carole was so pleased with herself for getting this far considering she arrived late on Saturday.

Here's Polly with her quilt and grinning from ear to ear she was so pleased with the result.

I think they all did a great job and the ladies who didn't finish haven't got much left to do but didn't want pictures taken because they hadn't finished but they looked just as nice and have promised to bring them back and show us.

This is a hanging I'm making inspired by the yellow square I made a little while ago. I have started doing some hand embroidery on it but I'm really not happy with it. I looked at it again this morning and I'm definitely not happy with it so it's coming out.

Having Fun

These prints are from the mono printing that I did last week at the Spectrum meeting. It was a great day and such a fun technique. It really is very simple and you don't need a lot of equipment which means it doesn't take long to set up or clear up.

The green ones are done using acrylic paint and a drying extender. I wouldn't bother to use that method again the results are not that good but at least I tried it and now I know.

The blue ones are done using a water soluble oil paint that Gina bought with her and very kindly let us try out. The oil paint was much more sucessful and I was very happy with the results. I'm going to get some of these paints and do some more printing I enjoyed it that much.

The brown ones are done using the oil paints as well. The leaves I used for the prints were found on a nature walk that teacher sent us on very close to the village hall.

These three prints were done by laying the paper straight onto the paint and drawing on the reverse. I'm sure this technique would not have worked if I had used the acrylic paint and drying extender, I think the paint would have been too wet.

These three are my favourites, of course the poppies found their way in.

There will definitely be some more poppy prints.

Time

Where does all the time go? Looking at my last post it has clearly been a little while since I last blogged but the time has gone by so quickly.

Steph is still suffering with her headaches and has been prescribed Beta Blockers and pain killers.

The baby is due a week tomorrow, Anthony is so excited and Nicki is huge and fed up.

Last week was the start of a new term and the first meeting of Spectrum. I had a lovely day. We spent time having a catch up with a show and tell, it was nice to see what everyone had been up to. There was certainly a lot of nice work and some wonderful sketchbooks. I spent the afternoon having a go at Mono Printing and I really enjoyed it, I'll show you the results another time.

I handed in the two squares I'd done during the summer break. I really like this turquoise one and I'm going to make a hanging based on it. The picture doesn't show it at its best, I think there's too much light and you can't see the stitch detail or the beads.

This is my blue one, strips of fabric laid down and some hand embroidery. I used just one stitch (fly stitch) and various thicknesses of thread. It's not one of my favourites.



Now all that's left to do is a purple and a pink square, think I'll go and make a start.