Cushion Cock-Up

Pam is doing another tombola for the Quilters Guild in May so I thought I would be very very organised and make a start on a few things for it now. I've also been very good and used up some of my left over fabrics to make a Log Cabin cushion cover. Now you would think that something so easy would be easy - well it wasn't. Even though I've made plenty of cushion covers in the past everything that could go wrong did but never mind I will get there in the end.

Today was much better and I made this bag.

Then I used up some more scraps to make this zip up bag which I gave to Pam. This is the front.

This is the back.

Yesterday I had a call from John the picture framer to say my holes were ready so Neil was despatched to go and fetch it so I would have it ready to take with me on Wednesday to the next Spectrum meeting. This will give Gina a chance to check it over before the exhibition. 

We have had a busy week in the shop with Thursday's social stitching being no exception but we had a special visitor Julie came all the way from Grantham to see us. It was lovely to see her and she bought some of her work with her to show us. The work was lovely and it was so nice to see what Julie had been up to first hand. I'm now going to go and make some more cards.

A Birthday Treat

It was my birthday last Tuesday so on the Saturday before Neil and I went to London to the British Museum to see the Grayson Perry exhibition (which has now been extended, so if you fancy making the trip it is now on until 26th February).

     

The only photos you can take of the exhibition are of his motorbike. I was really pleased to have been able to see the exhibition. It's very varied using pieces from the museum's own collections alongside pieces made by Grayson and some that he had designed. The displays give you a brief insight into Grayson's life which is very complex. I'm reading his biography at the moment, I haven't read a book in ages so you can tell how good it is.

On Saturday evening we went to the Tower of London to watch the ceremony of the keys. We had a Yeoman Warder as our guide. They do not like to be referred to as Beefeaters, they see that as an insult. It relates back to the days when they were paid with an allowance of beef. Did you know that there are 44 plus families living inside the tower grounds? To become a Yeoman Warder you have to have served a minimum of 22 years in the armed forces and it is a job for life. We were told a lot of other interesting facts but I can't remember them. This is a free event and takes place every evening but you do have to book.  

This was the view from our hotel, we stayed at the Grange City hotel. The hotel building used to be Midland Bank's head office mail centre (in the days before HSBC) and in the mid eighties when Neil worked for the Bank in the City the staff canteen was on the top floor with this view. This seems to be a trend as he worked in two other buildings in the City that have now been converted to hotels, perhaps we'll try those soon!

I am so pleased, I've finished my holes. Lacing the fabric over the mount board took a while. I had to work with all the gathers and pleats but I got there in the end. I'm going to take it to the framers tomorrow.

Holes

Yesterday we had a meeting of Spectrum and I was able to ask Gina for advice on colours. As you know I wasn't at all sure about the purple thread I had chosen. Gina was convinced that it was actually the right colour and I needed to work some more knots to be able to get a true picture. She was right.

This is a sample I made using four other colours none of which looked right. Although I enjoyed making it as the thread is beautiful to work with.

Anyway I have now managed to work my way around one of the big splodges. I wish you could see this in real life the colours are so much better than they appear on here.

Here's a close up, but the colours don't look much better. I must have worked thousands of knots and there's probably thousands more to do. Guess what I'm off to do now!

Absence

It's been a long time since my last post, I haven't been getting on with blogger at all. It wouldn't load my pictures, I kept trying for days then when it did it took 5 hours to load 1 picture so after weeks of trying I gave up and then last week it decided that I wasn't allowed to comment on other blogs saying that I had no acess to the pages. Well I'm sure you can imagine my frustration and what I wanted to do to the computer, then last night Neil asked if I'd given up for good which made me even more frustrated thinking a stupid bit of metal and plastic had beaten me, so here I am again having another go and so far so good. If this post works I'm going blog hopping tonight to see what I've missed so fingers crossed.

I have been very busy and there's been lots going on in the shop that I haven't been able to post about but never mind.

I've been busy working on my holes. I'm really enjoying the hand embroidery it's proving to be very therapeutic. Last week I started to use one of the purple colours but it doesn't look at all right it's difficult to see from the pictures. For the first picture I laid it over the dark purple fabric that will go underneath when it's finished.

This picture was taken with it just laying on the table, the purple thread looks very stark. I think I need to use paler shades of purple or not bother at all. I'm going to try the paler ones first of course before making a decision.

Something else I'm working on is getting into the Xmas spirit. Time seems to have passed by so quickly this year I really don't feel at all ready for it and have no desire to go Xmas shopping. We have already had two cards and it's not even December. More importantly though it's Steph's birthday on Saturday and I know I bought her a card a long time ago (as always because birthday cards this time of year tend to be naff) and I put it somewhere safe but can I find it? I haven't got long to find it because we are going to Wales on Thursday for a few days and a couple of exhibitions at Newport.

Anyway I have digressed, back to the Xmas spirit. Today I have been making Xmas trees, here they are on the floor of my sewing room.

More pieces waiting to be put together.

Fingers crossed this posts successfully.