Sewing Has Come To A Full Stop

Last night I was carrying on with my sewing, wanting to get my pages to a more completed stage when my machine jammed.  I thought it was an empty spool/bobbin but when I looked there was still a little on it and  it was something else.  The metal arm that goes up and down (don't believe it, now I cannot find my manual either so don't know the names of these things - update, found the manual - the cotton is jammed somewhere around the "thread take up lever") has some cotton well and truly jammed in it - there was a bit of wire came out when I was fiddling but I think that was from wired ribbon I was sewing close to, hope so and that it is not part of my machine.   Doh!

Today the shop is closed so cannot even get to there to see if Wendy can fix it for me and don't want to unscrew a panel at the back in case I invalidate the warranty.

So my book remains unfinished, but not to worry as I loved doing it and want to do more.  I am making more pages and then I can sew them back to back.  On my way back from the hospital I called at Abakahn to match some fabrics up that I had been using over the weekend - closed - and no opening times displayed.  I gave up!  Now I have decided it is NOT MY DAY so I am showing you Four of the pages I have done so far - will show you the others tomorrow - it may be that there will be more stitched on at a later date or it may just be more pages - I will blog them as I get on and blog the whole thing when (IF with the luck I am having) it is finished.

 

Image transfer (Church window)

  

Padded Heart

  

Painted Fabric (Lynn Perralla stamp)

(pinned and waiting to be sewn)

  

Soldered Fabric (sheer over image)

(pinned and waiting to be sewn)

Hope you enjoyed looking as much as I enjoyed making - it really has got my creative juices flowing - I just loved doing this and cannot wait for my sewing machine to get repaired and ready - in fact my mum's old Singer might just have to come out for a bit of straight stitching until this one is repaired.

Workshop Overload?

First of all I must say "Welcome to my Blog" to my newest followers.  So nice to see you here and I hope I am going to keep you happy with what is coming up in the next few posts - and afterwards.  Welcome!

Oh My Gosh!  I am tired!  I did the taster session on Thursday (well, did the morning and the afternoon one) as in my previous post, and then on Friday I went to the ArtsyCrafty one which started before 9 am and ended at 9 pm! Yes, a twelve hour workshop - but oh how I did enjoy it.  Not stressful, but not finished - how can I not finish in all that time?

This was a new medium for them to have a workshop in and it was quite a new medium to work with for me.  It was all about fabric and sewing; so my all singing, all dancing new machine went with me. Thank goodness I was sat with my friend Wendy and her friend (who is now my friend) Edwina - both of them having travelled up from Wales ...

Wendy

Edwina

... and just behind us was Freema (right), Lou (left) and a lovely lady called Angela (centre) - think we were the naughty corner but this time we were good because we all concentrated so much on what we were doing there was no time to get rowdy.  That's me in the mirror taking the photo - ooer!

Well, I must say that Leandra and Lin have the most wonderful and meticulously planned workshops I have ever been on.  Everything is there for you and it is all so organised that it is a pleasure to take part in them.  We were making a fabric book and every single page had a packet, clearly marked and cram full of whatever you might possibly need to decorate your own page.  Plus there were "stations" up and down the room with equipment on that you might need to use and extra fabrics, laces, ribbons etc etc.  So much work had gone into the planning of this - so sad that this is to be the very last ArtsyCrafty weekend.  Yes, you heard right, this was the last one - I will so miss them but hopefully the two of them will still have PlayDays together and they will pass things on via their blogs (see my right hand bar for the links).

Not only have the workshops I have attended been interesting, fun and been so worthwhile but they have also forged many friendships amongst the participants that it was a joy to see so many old friends once more.  I even got to meet Sally who I have been in touch with via email for quite a while but never actually met before.

Anyway - I will leave it there for now and get on with a bit more sewing on my fabric book and then show you what I actually did. Here is a quick peek at one of the samples.

and a view - down the room - see how much space we had only three to a table.

Back later with my pages -  hopefully.

Di Day

On Thursday I went with my friend, Lorraine, and met up with Sam and her friend Maz (who had the most incredible nails) in Harrogate when we went for a Pan Pastell Taster Session with Di of Art from the Heart.   I won't say how much it cost us for one session (we had two - one in the morning and one in the afternoon although some people only did the one - personal choice) but we got the whole amount back in materials and therefore we got Di 'thrown in' for free!

I won't tell you much about the sessions in case she is repeating them but when left to our own devices (ie left to "play") I am afraid I got a bit carried away with the Dylusion Sprays and now know what everyone is talking about.  Bright, fabulous colours and no clogging!!! Some of my bits that I brought home have got Pan Pastells on them but to be honest the sprays are taking over a bit.  Here are some of the bits and pieces I did - just as brought home and not worked on any further (that will come later):

Now for our friends over the water and anyone else who has not visited her fantastic Alladins Cave (ie shop/studio) here are some photographs of the corridor you walk down to the work room - I did ask permission!

Fabulous tag of tags

Just love these tiles (and the Ranger goodies)

Some of the HUGE canvasses

The workroom where we had our Taster Session

My friends with Pastelly Hands

(Sam, Maz and Lorraine)

and me with Di

Hope you enjoyed this little peek and maybe in a few days time I will have some more of the brilliant images I stamped with worked on so that I can upload them to my blog.  In the meantime I have a fabric book to work on as I was on another workshop yesterday and am on another tomorrow.  No wonder my heart has gone tickety boo again!

Time to Get Thinking About Those Men

Well, here I am with a card for a man.  It was my turn to choose a theme at Artful Times and I decided that even though I don't have a dad to send a card to for Father's Day there are a lot of people out there who do. Those men cards are not always the easiest of things to do so I thought that if we could get some inspiration from others it might help with those special day cards.  Of course, it is not restricted to that day, you might have a brother, son, uncle or someone special you want ideas for with male cards.

I do hope we get lots of entries so that we can build up a portfolio of male oriented cards - here's mine:

I decided to use the image from Art Journey of the two men walking away from the viewer and then wondered how to portray them.  I thought of an open door and as I had just been tidying some stamps up I remembered that I had two that might be suitable.  Both were fine but I chose this one and I am sorry but I have not a clue who it is by - Just know I liked it.

I wanted to use the door and have it open to reveal the men but I didn't like the inside being just plain white so I very carefully (with tongue peeking out of the right hand side of my mouth in anticipation) stamped it open after I had cut into the image.  Don't reckon I did bad if I say so myself.

I also stamped a extra row at the very top of the door to give it a bit more stability when it was stuck down and people were going to open it, and put a row of Spellbinders Fleur de Lis diecut down the side to finish off.  As it is BIL's birthday soon I think this could just be his card.

Thanks for all the wonderful entries again these past two weeks, real beauties and a terrific mix of ideas and techniques.  On behalf of all of us Thank You One and All!

I am also entering this into the Stamp Man Challenge which is making a card for a man - great minds think alike.

WOYWW 157

Well, celebrations over more ways than one.  If you are in the UK as I am it has been a weekend (on and off wet!) of Jubilee Celebrations as well as all the WOYWW'ers celebrating three years of Julia's brainchild - What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday?

That meant that, in some cases, trading could not be done with the ATC's that we were swapping as addresses had to be exchanged and the PO's were closed for a long Bank Holiday Weekend.  Still, I got mine from Annie and Mary Anne so here they are - and both beauties!

This came from my partner Mary Anne and was wrapped up in purple tissue with a lovely bow on and then in a delightful envelope (shown below with the atc).

This came from Annie and was a picture of poppies (my favourite flowers - cups, plates and pictures are around in my house as well as silk ones) - done by dumfing!  I was well impressed!  Here it is with the lovely card that accompanied it:

Love the pot of gold the rainbow falls into

As all of mine have not yet been received I am holding back showing them but several have winged their way across the waters and along the roads to some very lovely people.

Thanks Julia for a wonderful idea that has culminated in so many friendships being formed.  Here's to the next  anniversary and here's my workdesk this week. Sewing is the order of the day!

And before I forget, for those who were here last week - my new cupboard - needs painting like the other one.

and lastly

My battered, wet Poppies in the garden

But look how many buds I have to come out yet - hope this rain stops and I can enjoy them.

If any of you want a scan of the template for producing the pyramid box in the previous two posts send me an email and I will scan one through to you.

Done One More

Well, between watching the Regatta and other things I made another Pyramid box - this is for a friend of mine who was not at the class yesterday and who likes Steampunk.  Still like my green one with the leaf lid the best though - it must be the colours I like.  I did them with chalks ages ago but then just left the whole thing and decorated it on Saturday at the class.

 Inside (click to enlarge)

 Outside (click to enlarge)

I wanted to use my Vagabond but has it has not been used for simply ages I found that I had lost my lead in the big tidy up I have been having of late.  Frantic!  Frantic!  Frantic!  All hands to the deck and all that.  Anyway, at least I put some of the things down in my inventory that I had missed whilst looking and then when I had given up and whilst Chas was wading through a pile of electrical leads I spotted it - on the hostess trolley by the door.  That was a real Phew moment I can tell you.

Anyway, I managed to run some cogs through it for the said box and did some with the Spellbinders Sprightly Sprockets too.  A few stamped images and it was ready for assembly.  Here it is

Complete with some dangly bits made out of shrink plastic and hanging from jump rings on the edge of the top piece.

The inside when opened out

Thought I would flatten and show you the images that make up the outside of the pyramid - I had very few images that would fit but then I always prefer to use partial images anyway as I sometimes think the small ones look a bit lost.

Without looking back through my blog posts I cannot tell you the name of the stamp company they came from but as it is no longer in existence I guess it does not matter.  Shame, as they had a good selection, especially of Steampunk.

Entered into the following challenges
Blessings inc
2 Sisters
Catch the Bug Challenge
Secret Crafter

If anyone wants the template just email me (see right sidebar) and give me your addie and I will scan it in for you.  Self explanatory.

Victoria Stampers

Well, it was the monthly meeting of Vicky Stampers yesterday and I was leading the workshop.  Lynne, our Programme Officer had seen some pyramid boxes at my house the last time she was here and she asked if I would do a workshop on them.

Now these were done for Craft Stamper a few years ago and I'd taught them at a workshop since the publication had arrived at the shops, given most of my samples away (obviously the better ones) so was not that enthused about them.  Consequently I did not start preparing for my workshop that early and when I did I found that the "wings" needed a bit shaving off them to allow for the holes to be punched for the satay sticks so it meant a whole new set of drawings had to be done.

By late Friday evening I was ready and set off yesterday morning with two very old samples and one partly done which I intended to complete at the club.  Well, it went much better than anticipated and here are some photographs of my latest sample and of what the girls made:

This shows the outside of mine and the tiny starbook for inside

(not decorated yet) (pale green pages measure 3/4" across)

Could not resist showing you the second one Sheila made - her funky Jubilee Weekend Pyramid - isn't that fab!

Inside they open to reveal more pictures

Hope you enjoyed this trip to Vicky Stampers!