Just in time for Valentines Day

The swap at Textile Challenges this month is for a padded heart to be made in time for Valentines Day.

Well, unusually for me, I am on time and here is my heart.

The heart panel is made from layers of singed organzas and lots of free machine embroidery. I don't think they show but there are little hearts embroidered with the gold thread.

I have stitched little pink roses to the panel and added some little beads round them. I didn't think this needed a lot of beads or the gold hearts would disappear altogether.

The heart itself is made of patterned velvet and the whole thing is lightly stuffed.

It measures 6ins long.

It will be on it's way to Pam very soon.

New Project

My long time friend Jan and I have started on a major project, something we have been meaning to do for quite a few years.

The subject is Mesoamerica. We are very excited about this and will be posting our progress at our blog "Textiles for Two".

We very much hope you will pop in and visit ;0)

Dezdamona

Meet Dezdamona.
Let me tell you about her.

My hairdresser, Dez, loves Girls Aloud and in particular their song "The Promise"
He entertained the salon over Christmas with his own rendition of this song complete with all the right dance moves. I think he really should have been on the stage.

So the idea of Dezdamona was born.
I thought, at first, I would make a doll but changed my mind and decided to just make the front of a small doll and appliqué it to fabric.

The background is hand painted cotton. The base of the doll is calico, tinted with fabric pastels. Her dress is made from layers of silk and organza with free machine embroidery.

Dezdamona herself is padded and quilted to give her her lovely curves.
Her hair is made from fancy threads and yarns. She is in need of a hairdresser I think although, she has some little beads in there to give it sparkle.
Her jewellery is made from seed beads.

I have added the words "The Promise", "Starting to fade", and "Dezdamona" using transfer paper printed on the computer. A sprinkling of crystal stones adds to the glitz.

I mounted the piece onto board so it can be framed or hidden in a drawer ;0)
It measures approx 9 x 6 inches.

Oh by the way. Dez loved Dezdamona and she made lots of friends being passed around the salon.

Latest knits

I love knitting. It keeps me sane. Well according to my family nothing can keep me sane, but I love knitting just the same.

I made the bag so I would have a posh bag for Christmas Day. I finished it just in time. The outside that is, I still have to line it.
I'm not sure about the handles. They came out shorter than I expected. They are felted in with the bag so I am giving some thought as how to make them longer or replace them altogether.
I did use it on Christmas Day, however, and it matched my outfit beautifully.


Wrist warmers or fingerless mitts, whatever you call them, have become my favourite thing to make and wear

Great for dog walking as they keep my hands and wrists warm but I still have full use of my fingers. Very useful when dealing with a playful terrier!
I make mine longer than the usual ones so I can hide the tubigrips I sometimes have to wear and so don't have to answer the question "What have you done?".

I really like this pattern with the cables up the front knitted in 100% wool they are lovely and warm.
I did make a mistake however. The TV must have had an exciting moment. Can you spot it?
No prizes as it does rather leap out at you I think.

On to the next knit now ;0)

Study in Purple

I have a passion for purple and messing around on box canvas.
The result can be seen here.

The backgrounds are painted and stamped with acrylic paints with dry brush sweeps of Twinkling H2O's.

I was trying out an old fashioned quill pen and acrylic inks so the backgrounds have doodles and writing on them too.

I love the two images of the vintage ladies. They have a ghostly look about them and the lace veils that they hold worked very well with the pieces of purple lace and net that I had in my box.

I am happy with the first one and named it "Passion" but the second canvas ("Haze") seems to be lacking something.
I'm not sure what so it will hang on my wall a little longer.

Streamlining - at last!

We were all supposed to streamline in the year 2000. weren't we?
Well we did in a way. When we moved to the West country we moved from a 3 bedroomed house with outbuildings to a one bedroom flat!
We got rid of a lot of furniture and boxes of valuable family ornaments had cloths draped over them and became coffee tables.
Thankfully that only lasted for a year.

Now I have a confession. I hardly downsized my craft stash at all. I had it all hidden away in large plastic boxes. I couldn't wait to find somewhere bigger so I could play with it all.

Over the last 7 years the stash has been added to and added to. I stopped making bears and paper took over. Of course that meant that the dyes were replaced by paints and along with all this I just had to have more rubber stamps didn't I!
So now the stash is out of hand and something has to be done.

I don't use half the rubber stamps I have now as many won't work on textiles. I should get rid of them but just haven't the heart. Back into boxes they will go and fill the under stairs cupboard.

So the first picture is the studio after becoming the Christmas dumping ground - totally unusable. The tidiest place is the scrapbooking corner, I think that is because we haven't done any scrapping for over 12 months.

I decided to start with the bookcase. It isn't the best place for it but it will have to live there for a while longer. Half way through the process I began to think it was all a bad idea but perseverance paid off.
The bookcase is now tidy, the books in categories and they are now all catalogued so I don't buy the same book twice.
I know the shelves droop, it is secondhand after all. A new bookcase will go on the needs list.

It is a good start I feel. And as you can see Mitzi Cat thinks so too.


Now on to the rest of it ---- oh my!!