Focus on Felt

My local village craft group organised a trip

to the tiny village of Hardraw, near Hawes,

to visit Andrea Hunter at her studio:

'Focus on Felt'.

we could not have picked a better day for it.

Not only is the countryside beautiful,

 

but Andrea's original felt artworks

are awe-inspiring...

 

Shelves packed with beautifully dyed

Merino wool, just waiting to become artworks...

 

Small artworks for sale...

And Andrea!

A very generous artistic spirit,

who kindly demonstrated her technique

and had us all in amazement!

She (and my fellow crafters)

kindly allowed a little Kalico to see what was going on...

(until luckily she fell asleep in her buggy!!!)

 

Andrea's demonstration piece...

 

The technique...

 

The rolling...

 

The rapture :) ...

 

Ah! So that's how she does it....

 

A splendid day out...

... in a beautiful studio...

Thanks Andrea.

We hope to see you again sometime soon...

October is Birthday Month!

Another birthday... Another cake...

DS2 turned 6! And he wanted a pirate party!!

Lots of sugar-filled pirates invaded our house!!

October is a busy birthday month for us...

Baby-Kalico,

my niece, my nephew

and my Sister-in-Law celebrate next!

Wordless Wednesday - Alphabetti-Spaghetti!

Grabbing Stitches Here & There!

Not only an hour a day...

but a stitch every minute I can :o)

 When baby-kalico naps...

Mummy gets the odd stitch in...

 

One more rose-star!

 Another half as well!

 And some bits to square up a corner....

 These 3 pieces make a square edge:

 Pinned on and ready to be stitched.

 

I enjoyed an official 'hour a day' for the

month of September with Bonnie.

 

Perhaps now that it's October,

I had better start thinking about

the 'C'-word!

(Crafting for Christmas may have to

put this project on the back-burner!)

This is what happens when...

....You leave your sewing on the sofa...

 The sewkalico-cat moves in!

 And doesn't want to move off!

 

*****

 

This is what happens...

...when your son turns 8!

 

You attempt to make him a lego cake

using fondant icing

(for the first time!)

I think it's fair to say...

...that I do manage an hour a day.

Some days, I may not,

 but then I'll make up for it

with 2 hours the next day!! ;o)

 

This is it!

No more on the length.

I just need to make a few more stars,

a few more halves and the 2 corners...

 

In the above picture you can see where I plan to stop.

I need to square it off on the right like the corner below:

 

And the opposite corner/the left 

will need to be squared off like this:

 

I am linking to Bonnie's:

One Hour of Simply Needle & Thread!

Because she's made me

aware that I really do need that hour a day

of sewing just for me!

Rose-Star Surprises

Look what I found in the postbox yesterday!

Kandy sent me a rose-star that she had made

to thank me for getting her started.

 

Thank you Kandy!

I am pleased you are pleased,

sometimes I wish I'd never started,

but I hope to be finished soon.

 

*****

Wendy has asked me to show

how I do my half blocks.

I'll do a little tutorial soon.

I mean it's all very well making the stars,

but one really needs to be able

to finish them off :)

There are several ways to square up,

and I'll show you mine soon....

FB Giveaway!

'Like' my Handsewn page on Facebook...

And when I get to 100 'likes'

I'll be giving something 'handsewn' away!

An Hour A Day...

... keeps the blues away!

 And if you manage a bit

here and there...

you suddenly find...

 that you're almost done...

 Well maybe not almost...

But I'm getting closer every day!

(The last photo is my favourite

because it shows my son's hand with

his wooden spoon that

he was nagging me to stick some 'hair' on

and all the lego that seems

to be mysteriously attracted to the floor!)

Wordless Wednesday - Beans Means Blocks!

Bean Addiction

Oh dear!

I've got the 'Corn and Beans' bug bad!!

Day one I made 9 blocks...

And today I finished another load...

(I will need to count in the morning,

but there must be more than a dozen!)

 

I laid the first 9 out on the studio floor to photograph

and then went in the house.

I couldn't rest knowing they were just on the floor (OCD?)

So I went back to the studio

and found that 3 spiders like this:

were keeping them company.Ughh!

Bean Salad

I couldn't think what to title this post,

but I thought because it's a bit of a mix

of things, it's a bit of a bean salad ;o)

 

First up:

My first scrappy Corn and Bean block

a-la Scraps & Threadtales!

These blocks are such fun to make

and I plan to make them super-scrappy

thanks to Sio for getting me itchy to make them

and another friend who gave me the most awesome scraps!

(Yes, it's true - other people's scraps

are always better than your own!!)

 

*****

Another 2 rose-star half blocks:

And loads more cut out!!

 

*****

I was rather penniless

at the Great North Quilt Show,

but these came home with me:

As did these gorgeous Owl fabrics.

I'm sure I'll make something out of them

for Baby-Kalico

 as I rather like owls at the moment:

And a ruler - made out of perspex,

but bought with plastic ;o)

The pencil case was bought at a local supermarket

(couldn't resist!)

 

*****

This week was 'Back to school!'

My baby boy started Year 1:

I think they were both almost as happy

to go back to school

as Mummy was to send them! :)

 

Walking up to the bus on the first morning:

Baby-Kalico misses them terribly

when they are at school...

But she's a joy to have around.