More leaves and a commission

The scan doesn't do this postcard justice. The background fabric is a rich chestnut with a lovely sheen. The right hand leaf has been made by sewing two layers of green taffeta together, turning right side out and then top-stitching. The centre leaf is a digital image printed onto fabric, and the third is made by using the original leaf to stamp in gold onto a turquoise batik. The whole is the work of Lourdes on ArtWeMail.

I have had fun making another Sock Monster. He is called Nastertius. He is a little too cute to be a real Monster, so I have it in mind to make another one of the same outline, but to have it the other way up with the eyes on the ends of what are now the legs, and the tail becoming an extension of the head!
Sitrus, my "first born", went down well at the Craft Exhibition on Sunday, and I have been commissioned to make two more for the grandsons of a friend. One has asked for blue stripes and the other for green, but if I can't find any green striped socks, he will settle for blue, but he does want a green tongue!

A Quick Post

There were three items in the box today. From Mary P the Three Leaves; Three Techniques swap from ArtWeMail. One stamped leaf, one appliquéd leaf and one cut out from a skeleton leaf. I was thinking along those lines myself, so I shall have to think again!
From Diana B in New Zealand came a picture of the statue on the hill, with beads sewn on to represent the illuminated halo. This was for the Fibre, Fibre, Fibre swap on ArtWeMail.
This jolly rooster eyeing up an amuse bouche is a private swap for my Wild Bird, and came from Faye.
About this....more later...

New kid on the block

Introducing Sitrus the Sock Monster. He is the result of an hour's slash and sew on Sunday. He is very basic; just a test piece really, as I know that my Elna hates knitted fabric, and the Jones has given up the ghost again. Surprisingly, the machine sailed through the firm fabric of the sock, and the only hand stitching was the mouth, eyes and stuffing hole.
Just in case you are wondering what he is leaning against, it is Kez the Fez wearing a strawberry hat and a Fake Fairisle hat. To the right is a stack of three knitted aubergines/figs/plums?
They are more purple than blue. Kez is wearing the baby size, and the other two are larger. They will actually accommodate my noggin, but are aimed at children. They are worked in short row garter stitch, and each has a different leaf or leaves. I have enough wool left for another baby size. The strawberry hat is strawberry, not the washed out orange it appears here. The white balance on the camera is set to auto. I think I'll have to play about to see if I can improve the colour rendition of the camera, as I can't always drum up the Tuits to open a graphics programme to sort it out. Just in case you think I'm expecting a baby boom in the family, I must explain that these are all going into a basket of hand-mades for the Emaus Childrens' Home in Calpe. We are having a Craft Fair to raise money for their Three Kings presents, and any that are not sold will be added to their stash! I have another ball of strawberry to knit up. If anyone would like to have a go, it's the Urchin hat off Knitty.com, and the leaves are from Nicky Epstein's Knitted Embellishments.

Wild Thing....

Isn't this an eye opener? A zingy lime green felt square, stitched onto the background with gold thread, and embellished in the centre with black bugle beads. It came from Jane O'Fallon on Artwemail.

This is the first of three postcards for the Fibre, Fibre, Fibre swap on the same Group. The only stipulation was that we used at least three different fibres. The background for the first two is a jungle print chiffon, cut from the hem of a dress that I shortened for someone. The vertical stripe is black denim that has been sprayed with copper paint. It's a shame that the scan doesn't show this well. It looks rather washed out, whereas in real life it glows. The horizontal band is gold angel hair, overlaid with navy knitted lace with a little lurex sparkle. The feather yarn is not quite so pink as it appears here.This is the second postcard, made from the same material as the one above, but with some frayed viscose, some raffia and a piece of yellow plastic netting.
The third is on a background of rust dyed polycotton with more of the copper painted denim, the frayed viscose and a square of squirrel silk from an old tie.
These are two ATCs, made mainly with leftovers from the Fibre, Fibre, Fibre postcards. Waste not, want not!

Gnome from Gnome

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I've come across this little fellow a few times lately in Blogland, and couldn't resist having a go. I like knitting, but hate sewing up, so I adapted the pattern for knitting in the round on a circular needle. The pattern for the head/body starts at the top and works down, so before I did the last row and the "break the yarn and thread through the remaining stitches" bit, I made the bean bag bum and pushed it through the opening before I fastened off. This meant I had to stuff the rest of the body and the head through the small hole on top of the head, but this wasn't difficult. I started the legs at the toe and knitted them like a toe up sock, and did the arms the same way, leaving a bit of waste yarn for the mitten thumb and picking up the stitches later. When it came to stuffing the hands, I decided not to! I liked the way the hands became quite expressive when left floppy. I am not 100% happy with the brim of the hat. Maybe I used the wrong Cast On technique, but it didn't want to lie flat, and where I have stitched it down it has gone a bit blobby. The colour isn't true to life. He looks all washed out and a bit orange here, but he is a proper Christmassy red. I might do another one in more Autumnal woodland colours as I have some whiskery yarn that would be good to use.

Edit; I've had time this afternoon to correct the colour on the original photo

I'm a lucky sewandsew...

...I received a supersquishy from Kate N! Lots of yummy 5" charm squares, including many oriental designs, and the larger strip of "oriental dartboards" that you can see at 2 o'clock in the picture. The picture doesn't really do them justice as the stack has to be 2" high, butI was too impatient to wait until I had fanned them out singly!

Craft sewing is on the back burner this week as I have a big bag of alterations to work through. I suppose I shall have to acknowledge the fact that Ch£!$[µ@$ is just around the corner, and some people are already buying their gladrags. The local Craft Fair is booked for the 25th November, and I have had an email asking if I will pick up the fliers and distribute them. I don't mind distributing them, but I get cross that the organisers only print fliers in English and don't have the courtesy to at least have the main points in Spanish as well. I refuse to ask the Spanish shops to display them as I feel that it is downright rude. Not only that, but if they were in Spanish, then we would attract the many other nationalities who live in our town and make the effort to learn the lingo...but it seems my complaints fall on deaf ears. Add to that the fact that Women in Business are holding their Christmas Bazaar on the same day in another hotel further down the road, and it could go one way or the other...people coming out from the town centre pass our hotel first, so maybe if we have large enough posters outside in a variety of languages, we can pull in the customers first ....

Squares and Triangles

Here is today's effort. I have used the same purple as in the last one. It used to be a sheet way back in the groovy 70's, then most of it was used in a quilt for 0j0, but I still have some strips left in my purple/maroon bit box. I have tried to reflect the flowers in the border print with the sequins. It doesn't show very well in this scan, but I have stitched them on with green rayon, and added a fuchsia lined glass bead to their centres. My points still are far from perfect, but the worst one is disguised by the fact that the adjoining pieces are the same fabric. I shall get there eventually.

Owning up...

I didn't watch Ugly Betty last night. I discovered Rebus was on at the same time, and he is much more my cup of tea! I did try to knit, but after knitting a full round on one sock with the wool of the other sock, I gave up.
So what am I doing today? At the moment I am eating my lunch and checking mail, but I have been working on a second Squares and Triangles card, and if I don't get too sidetracked, I'll finish it this afternoon.

Birthday cards and Postcards...

...have been the order of the day. There seem to be a lot of birthdays this month. I have sent two off without remembering to scan them, but these are a few of the others I have made.


I made this last week after being inspired by a couple of Emilia's cards. Her's are much more elegant than mine, but I was stitching the flowers on at Craft Club on Monday, and the girls asked if I would do a demo. next week. As there isn't actually much to it, and I wasn't altogether happy with the silver pen drawing for stems and wording, (I have mislaid my white gel pen) I had another attempt and came up with this one.
The flowers on both of them are punched, and the other bits are free hand cutting. I used an old cream envelope as the paper is just thick enough not to jam up the punch, and one strand of embroidery floss for the stamens.

The next card is paper piecing; one of Alita's designs. She doesn't have a blog as far as I know, but she shared this on my Teabag folding Group. I had it in my box at Craft Club, and a lot of interest was shown, so it looks as if I shall be doing this card the week after! After that, someone else can have a go. I made it a condition of taking over the running of the Club that I didn't demonstrate every week, but that each table would take responsibility for two weeks each session, either by demonstrating something themselves, or by bringing in an outside demonstrator. At least that way, everyone has a chance to do a craft they are interested in... well in theory ... but most people just seem to want to make cards!


This is rather more generic. That is not surprising, as it came from my stash of "ready for anything" cards...get wells, birthday or sympathy, according to the peel-off! This is for an elderly (97 is elderly) lady at the Residential home where I go bowling. She will laugh when she sees Many Happy Returns....
Now we move on to Postcards. I am in a swap with the theme Changing Seasons. I decided on Harvest Moon for mine. I have sent them all on their way, but this is the first one I made, and I have kept it. The colour on the sky was a bit blobby on this one. The others are all slightly different and as I don't know that any of the recipients read this blog, I'm not spoiling any surprises.
The last item is for the Squares and Triangles swap. I sat sewing the sequins on this evening while guarding Chancy as he ate his food down in the garden. There is a new feral Tom around, and Chancy, half feral, but neutered, is having a hard time. He is very, very nervous at the moment, and can't be left to eat alone, or he will be driven of his plate by the marauder. In fact, even the ring-necked doves find him a push-over!
I made it the paper piecing way, except that I didn't use paper. I drew it out on a piece of yellow dishcloth/duster on a roll that I bought in Lidl. It is halfway between batting and stiffener in texture, doesn't fray, and doesn't distort either. I also used it for the moon in Harvest Moon. I haven't edged this card yet, I'll leave that until I have done some more. I hope my points improve...I used tailor's chalk to mark the lines and they were a little indistinct, so next time I'll try something clearer...rollerball or gel pen maybe, and I will play about with the design.

Right, that's me done on the computer for now. 0j0 rang ten minutes ago, having just got in from work, to tell me there is a new series of Ugly Betty starting tonight. Just what I need...something entertaining that lets me keep half my mind on the lace pattern I'm trying for the first time on the latest socks on the needle.

Long time ...no see...

Yes, I know, it's been a while. Ten days more or less, but life intervenes sometimes, and sometimes life throws crap your way. I may write about it at some point on the Monkey Bus, but for today just a quick update on things crafty. The embroidered flowers above are from Dawn; "Wild Weeds" for the Anything Goes #3 swap on Artwemail. FME over silk flowers, with added sequins and dictionary definitions of the words Wild and Weeds.

The next two are from Jeri on Artwemail. The Autumn tree for the "Changing Season" swap, and the Flying Geese for the "Quilter's Delight" swap. The tree has a little bit of glitter that doesn't show up so well in the scan, and the geese are paper pieced patchwork. I haven't tried doing this pattern in that method. I must try, as it looks so neat.



On the postcard front I have completed my Changing Season cards and they are ready to go to the PO, and I have also completed this embroidered card. I won't show them until they have arrived at their destinations.

So what else? I have sent and received an envelope of bits to make an ATC for the FaPATCs Group. I received bits in two distinct styles, one modern, the other traditional, so I think I may make two cards as I can't figure out a way to combine them...I'm not sure if this will be considered cheating...

I have finished knitting another pair in the greeny-yellery-space-dyed yarn in a large enough size for Bossman to wear them as bed socks. I gave them a good long length of rib to roll over so they won't come off in bed so easily. I have also finished Red's birthday socks ready for him to claim when he comes over to visit. I still have navy blue wool left, so shall probably start another pair as I can now knit socks in my sleep...

Monkey Maker asked where we all knit. I did take some photos, and I do intend to post them, when I get round to cropping them a little, but for now, back to life...