My second favourite activity.

Oh - the acquisition of stash, second favourite only to stitching.

Well, you see, I say that, but actually I really enjoy the many rituals associated with this craft.

I like to browse through various shops, mostly on-line, selecting and rejecting items before making that final choice

I love to wind the new threads onto named bobbins and store them alphabetically or numerically.

I love to sit and turn the pages of the new chart or magazine, flicking backwards and forwards, making mental notes.

I like to select the threads and fabric. I even enjoy binding the fabric to stop fraying.

I LOVE to start something new, I think I even enjoy feeling guilty about not quite finishing the last project. I justify this by saying to myself 'This is a hobby, a pleasure, if it stops being that - then there is no point'. This means I can lay something down and hope to go back to it eventually. Easy isn't it?

So this is my new stash. I got this from the Sampler Guild. It consists of some Staci Nash primitive charts. These are beautifully presented with parchment covers and ribbons -especially nice to have ( even if I never work from them!). The Tokens of Love Quaker pinball book - see those long darning needle things on top of it? They are the knitting needles!! Mmmmm!!! Also the perpetually Engaging Diary and some Mail Art designs.

It is just awful weather here today, torrential rain, windy and totally unpleasant. So I guess I will just have to sit by the fireside and sew. Shame!!

Thank you for you lovely comments.
Irene
xx

Next.......... Beading.

So this is my beading-without-a loom attempt.

The little legs are not actually attached here, just popped on for effect.

Yesterday I stitched the back and front together, much as we do a cross stitch ornament, but much messier and more out of control (eeeek!) and now I will need to fill him with lead shot and stitch on his legs permanently. When he is finally finished he will be .........

A mantle ornament. Yeeah!!!!!

But that's all right, because I have mantles, so he can ornament them as soon as I hear the first 'O Come..' being played in my local supermarket - so that would be any time now.

He is from a chart in Jill Oxton's Cross Stitch and Beading magazine and is made with Delica beads - in case you want to rush out and have a go.

Managing to keep up with more frequent postings - phew!

Love to all

Irene xxx

A patch to be proud of?

Or grammatically speaking - 'of which to be proud'!

Well no, not really. In fact I think in real life it is slightly better than it looks here, some of the patches seem a different colour, but they're not really, and I think, I believe, the seams are straighter than they look here.

Oh, OK!

It is exactly how it looks here, but it is my first try and I learned a lot.

I hope that when I embark on a full size quilt , it will be better. I have decided this block will not be part of my future masterpiece, which will be awesome, so I have finished it with a binding and will use it as a place mat. A single place mat - ooooh how stylish!

I think this pattern is called 'Butter churn' and I 'ditch' quilted with the machine.

Good grief! So much to learn and I am just getting to grips with WIPs and UFO's and RR's and stuff.

I am making an effort to post more regularly and have already stored pictures of my beading and some stash I acquired recently. So watch this space.

Love to all

Irene xxx

Happy Returns!

People are so kind aren't they?

I'll tell you the story.

Angela, who doesn't have a blog, is a friend of Patti, who does. I sent Patti a little needle case I had made for her, and Angela saw it. She asked via my blog about the fabric I had used inside the needle case and about the tag I had used on the bow. I had a little of the fabric left, so I sent her it to try, along with a few tags.

And look what she sent in return! How lucky am I? She has repaid me thricefold ( is thricefold a word?). A newsy letter inside a pretty card from Cyprus, five lots of fabric, some different tags and beautiful ribbon.

This is especially nice as I know Angela is particularly busy at the moment with a poorly close relative and her daughter starting college. I know Rula will do well, Angela, and just go on being as supportive to your husband and family as you have been.

The fabric is particularly welcome at this time as I have begun a couple of new crafts - yeah, like I didn't have enough to do!

Both if them involve the acquirement of more stash. I know, I know, but somebody needs to sort out this economy and I've taken it upon my shoulders!

Firstly, patchwork - see how useful Angela's gift will be?

My LNS is running a series of classes and so far I have made one block.
OK, so one block does not a quilt make, but it is a start. I have a photo and will post it tomorrow.

Then bead weaving. Again classes run by my LNS.

Well, as a stitcher, I have a fair quantity of beads, only about 10 of those bead boxes with 18 compartments all full, which I toted gleefully to the class. The teacher looked, shook her head sadly and directed me to the bead displays.

Aw shucks!!!

I have made a 3D Father Christmas (well 2D at the moment as I haven't joined or stuffed him) and a sort of topiary tree hanging-to-go-on-a-bauble-Christmas-ornament thing. Again not finished. The work is quite interesting, maybe because it is new, but repetitious. The repetitious aspect gives me false confidence and has resulted in a lot of tedious pulling back.
I have learned two stitches (who would have thought there was more than one?), straight stitch and peyote or brick stitch. This is bead weaving without a loom. Huh, who needs a loom I cry?
Again I have a couple of pictures which I will let you see if you don't look too closely.

That's all for now, sorry it's been so long. Hope you find me again.

Irene
xxx

Busy, busy, busy but 2 things to share!

I am so busy with a visitor here from America that I have no time to stitch, to post, to breathe!

However, I must just tell you two things very quickly. Patti is celebrating three years blogging and is having an amazing giveaway. She calls it 'the mother of all giveaways' and it is! So go on over and enter TODAY!! (http://tapestry-of-dreams.blogspot.com)

The other thing I wanted to share is, for me, equally amazing.

I was walking along the beach with my mum and the dog and chattering away as usual when suddenly, my mum stopped saying 'Sorry to interrupt, but what is that?'

When we looked, it was a pod of dolphins playing just off the shoreline. They were jumping and doing that lovely curved swimming thing and were just beautiful. We couldn't move, we just stood there transfixed by these creatures. We watched for about 20 minutes until they moved north along the coast and were lost to sight.

Now those of you in hotter climes must be thinking 'er yeah - so?' but remember this is the North-east coast of England, not the Gulf of Mexico and I have walked on the beach every day for 6 years and have never seen them before. We felt so privileged and our spirits were lifted.
Joyous!!

I will try to get some stitching done soon, and sort out a giveaway and finally give out the awards. Please bear with me.

Irene xx

Home again, home again, clippety clop

I am so disorganised it's untrue!

I returned from holiday early on Sunday morning, but since then my feet have hardly touched the ground. There has been so much to do. All the things I postponed until after my holidays had to be taken care of.

The sky was black with chickens coming home to roost!

I had a central heating unit to service, a tooth to be filled, hair to be cut, a dog to collect, a mum to return, a class to attend, meals to book, tickets to buy, letters to write, and two days work promised. Then you have to eat, so you have to shop, so you have to cook.

Hey ho.

We went to Southern Ireland for two weeks and what a beautiful place it is. I thought we were lucky here in the North of England, we have the Dales, the Moors, the Coast and the Lakes all within an hour or two, but Ireland - well - its something else.

My only tiny gripe is ......the rain.

And boy, did it rain -

river-flooding,
garden-drowning,
despair-making,
holiday-spoiling,
monsoon-copying
rain.

I became very expert at winding down the car window, snapping a quick photo and winding it up again before we all got drenched. In the end, it was so bad it was funny! We decided just to do everything we had planned anyway, but it was a shame. There were pretty villages and fishing harbours which we only peered at through the swish of the windscreen wipers!

I have pictures and I will post some when I am on my main laptop. This is just my netbook and I don't store them here.

I took sewing with me - Mary Wigham - but actually did none at all. There was certainly time, but somehow my mind was in a whirl and I just couldn't settle to do it. Now I am back I am trying to pick up and finish some of the smaller projects I started before I went but which were too much hassle to pack and take. I have a 'Welcome Baby' heart, a Christmas ornament and a needle case similar to the one I gave Patti well on the way.

I have had some lovely comments on my blog, some even talking about previous postings which means readers actually went back and looked at them. Thank you so much. I have had queries and tips and praise and I am grateful for them all.

As soon as I get my head together, I will finish choosing my award winners.
About time too, some would say.

Irene
xx

Too hard!!

I need to write a quick post to say that it is too hard!

Patti's 'rules' are that the award is passed on to blogs that are smile worthy and not necessarily to those of people who follow or comment regularly on your own blog. These rules are good rules.

But - finding only six blogs that especially make me smile from the very many that I read every day that make me smile, is just too hard. And because I was so pleased to get the award from Patti I don't want to award mine in a higgledy piggledy, devil may care, what does it matter, kind of way.

At the moment I have three definite nominations, but the other three........????

And tomorrow I go on holiday so there will be a two-week gap in my posts. So, if your blog is funny, or flippant, or wry, or dry, or just crazy, hold you breath......it might be you!

Well, OK - it is two weeks, you can have a couple of breaths if you really need them.

Happy holidays
Irene
xxx