Glad to be home

I know I don't like unemployment but I do like being home - especially as the world looks like this...... - my back garden - currently 6 inches deep (I measured it!!) - never seen snow resting on a fence side like this before and it is still snowing heavily !!I am sure glad my interview was yesterday! Time to get back to sewing watching the snow!!

Forgot to show you...

Sorry forgot to show you the little pouch bag I made to go with the white bodice. It looks a little too cream here against the bodice - its the light - as it has just started snowing and the light in this room is rather odd.

Keeping Busy

Much as I hate being unemployed - and the job hunting is really disheartening I am keeping myself busy. You have seen the white bodice - Well here is the new project (the Titania costume is currently on hold whilst I work out the next phase)....... I found this lovely home dyed cotton in the studio (it's draped over the ironing board after I ironed it).... Close up - Next remember the Zentangle piece I machined (click here to see it) - I have done this so far today.... very labour intensive ! Here is a pic of the piece of fabric I have been working on - any idea what it will end up being ???? :-)

White Bodice Complete

The White bodice is now complete and ready to sell - Where to sell it and how much to ask?? There was a small amount of my fabric left so I am making a small pouch bag to go with the bodice.

One World One Heart

I am taking part in this giveaway again this year. For more information or to take part - please click HERE

Awesome Winter Indoor Rust Dyeing

The other day I found four disposable hand towels in my studio. These are no ordinary hand towels but posh ones A3 in size ! (disposable non woven fabric) from an exclusive showroom's bathroom. I had obviously just washed my hands so the towels were clean - rather than throw them into the bin I brought them home and washed them out. As I love rust dyeing so much I decided to try these towels on Boxing day. The un-dyed area looks like this.... so you can see the type of towel they were...I used the following rusty items.... wrapped them and put them into plastic bags and into the airing cupboard. I took them out today - the long stake before unwrapping, close up... the tins close up before unwrapping and here are the four pieces, rinsed and ready for drying. Can you see the heart? I think I may turn these into a quilt? Seem to want to make a quilt - will add it to my list of things I must do this year.

NEW YEAR - START AS YOU MEAN TO GO ON....

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!! Someone once told me that you should start the New Year as you mean to go on, so if you party and start with a hangover hmmmmmm what will your year be like?? I had a quiet start to the year - my children were back at their respective houses with their boy/girl friends and I watched the fireworks on TV whilst stitching!! So I hope my year will be a creative one!!

What was I stitching? - well the white bodice of course (although in daylight I have realised there is quite a lot of cream/off white in it). Using my favourite Sorbello stitch and the mother of pearl buttons that I have rather a lot of.I went to bed at around 2am and was up again at 7am. The first thing I did when I got up was put the bodice on the mannequin to see how it looks so far.... There is still a lot of work to go. Then it was off out for my walk. It is beautifully crisp outside today. Frozen puddles.... which are very inspirational - could this be a quilt?? Moss and Lichen which sparkle in the sunlight.... The hedgerows have been trimmed back a lot over the last few weeks so now you can really see the delights of the brook... Pretty footprints in the frozen muddy footpath..and of course, my friends the chickens.... some of whom had escaped under the fence on my way back and I was able to get these lovely close ups.. Now its back to blog reading and then more stitching!!

New Year - Keeping the Dream Alive

I have done a little bit of tidying up in the Studio - this was the right hand side of my window cill - you could not see out of the window to my small back garden.... it now looks like this... (A little bit tidy and with the view back!).

I had a second lovely surprise on Christmas Eve - My daughter arrived 1/2 day early too!! I had the best Christmas with my two children (can you still call them 'children' when one is 22 and the other is going to be 25 on Jan 5th? To me they are still my babies!!)

Any way I had a tearful present unwrapping, but they were tears of joy at the thoughtfulness of my son. I may have mentioned to you earlier during the year that I have been planning a trip (by myself) to New York for June 2010 (the month when I reach the land mark age of 50). Well, with having lost my job at the beginning of December I realised that this trip may have to be postponed indefinitely or at least until I get another job.

One of the gifts my son gave me was a book on photographing New York with a card enclosing a large cheque and notes on flights for June!! Inside the card he had written: Keep the Dream Alive! - I am getting tearful just writing this! - We have agreed that when I do get a job, he and I will work out the best flights and hotels etc. for the trip whenever it happens. IT WILL HAPPEN!

I have decided that 2010 will be the year of Keeping the Dream Alive. I have many dreams and will work towards fulfilling some of them.

So to continue this I have started a journal for my trip to New York for whenever it happens. Yesterday I took some of the photos from our trip to NY back in December 2009 and printed them onto some cotton fabric. Added some tape on which I had embroidered stars and made a cover for journal. Gave the journal a title - 'Liberty keeps a journal too!' Here opened out to show back and front! The journal will contain notes on where I want to visit (I have already done all the tourist sites so this is more for textile related visits), what I want to see, what I will take (in the form of sketching, sticking stuff) and room for keeping notes, sketches (a diary) etc. I also painted a few of the first pages. (I will continue to paint them if necessary on the trip).

Now as the year closes I must get back to my current projects:

a) white on white bodice (which will be for sale)

b) Titania's costume continuation

c) Oberon's costume starting

d) Dandy Highwayman costume notes

and several other items!!!!

I WOULD LIKE TO THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR GOOD WISHES AND WISH ALL MY BLOGGING FRIENDS A VERY HAPPY, PROSPEROUS AND CREATIVE NEW YEAR - HAPPY 2010

Another new project and a lovely surprise

Whilst I think about the next stage of Titania's costume I decided to start another project - this is the pile of fabrics and they look like this now.... but you will have to wait and see what happens next !
My lovely surprise........Whilst I was laying these fabric pieces out on the table in my kitchen, yesterday afternoon I glanced up every now and again to watch the traffic passing around our roundabout. At one point I looked up and saw a car which I thought looked very much like my son's old style Mazda MX5 with a driver who also looked rather like my son - The next thing I knew was a knock on the door and there stood my son!! Yippee two days early, home for Christmas!! All I need now is my daughter to appear tomorrow (as planned) and I will be the happiest mum this Christmas!!

This morning although not snowy just mega frosty my son decided that we should go out for the morning taking photos. This was a great idea except for the fact that his drivers door does not open so every now and again we would stop - 'Mum quick get out, so I can get out' - I was in and out like you would not believe so that he could clamber over the seats to get out of the car and take pictures. Believe me an MX 5 is not the easiest of cars for me to get out of!! Still we went through Sandy Lane down to Lacock and some of the views were gorgeous. If only we had more snow!.....