Bit of a funny moment ...

I've been extremely tired lately - it's part of my illness - but after a few rough days I felt like making ATCs again. Just look what I came up with, it's a wee bit strange I know!! I've got quite into doodly zettiology sort of stuff and that's sort of what happened with this. The word "pods" and the head are both from Teesha Moore, whose style I really love, and I like the way you can read the words of the background paper.

Then - I don't know what happened - I just started to doodle on it, and I have to say I rather like the result! It could just be that my brain is responding oddly to being tired, or (and I hope this is the case) I may be exploring something new. Who cares? I'm just gonna enjoy myself!

LOOK!! ... I made some ATCs

Two Central ATCs now traded - left and right still available.

I know it probably doesn't seem terribly exciting to you, but I am so pleased that I actually made some ATCs yesterday! The thing is although I usually love doing them, and made far more than I ever managed to trade, I'd sort of stopped dead. Don't know why, it just happened ... and I missed it! So I was delighted when I found myself able to sit down and just make some ...

I seem to have been having a funny five minutes with the green one, and not quite sure if the lower pink one works - I had 3 goes at that one!! Anyway if you like any of them, how would you like to do a trade??

This is the piece I've been working on for some time, but I couldn't show you before because it's part of the new Awfully Big Art Adventure challenge to do a bird related piece. Years ago I bought this birdcage in a hardware store, and have been waiting for inspiration to strike ever since. It's original colour was a rather nasty attempt at verdigris, so I spray painted it cream.


I antiqued it a little using brown chalk inks, and added a few gold highlights. I also made a template for the base which I covered in cream and gold paper. The nest with the eggs in the base was an Etsy purchase, which I absolutely love, and is completely made of felt. I wanted ivy to trail artistically down the cage, and it took me a long time to figure out how to do this.

I found an ivy leaf image on the internet and pasted it into a Word document, making different sizes of leaf. Then I backed each sheet with dark green card, cutting out each individual leaf, rubbing dark green chalk ink along the edge to get rid of the white paper edge. I wanted to seal the leaves so each side got a coat of Mod Podge. You're beginning to see why this project took so long aren't you?


It was a real labour of love to stick each leaf on individually, and to try and layer different sizes to get the trailing effect I was after. There were some metal "branches" on the mesh of the cage (which opens from the top) so I painted these a soft green and added a few flowers.

I added a perch for the bird - who is NOT hand-made but another internet purchase. I would be ashamed to show you my dreadful attempts at bird-making, which is clearly not my forte!!


I'm planning to hang this piece from the ceiling by a chain, but I'm not completely sure that it's finished. I have it in mind to make some dangly pieces to hang from the perch, but I haven't designed them in my head yet!

A scrolled banner behind the bird says "I know why the caged bird sings" which is a poem by Maya Angelou, and also the title of her autobiography.

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings

A free bird leaps on the back of the wind
and floats downstream till the current ends
and dips his wing in the orange suns rays
and dares to claim the sky.

But a bird that stalks down his narrow cage
can seldom see through his bars of rage
his wings are clipped and his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing.

The caged bird sings with a fearful trill
of things unknown but longed for still
and his tune is heard on the distant hill
for the caged bird sings of freedom.

The free bird thinks of another breeze
and the trade winds soft through the sighing trees
and the fat worms waiting on a dawn-bright lawn
and he names the sky his own.

But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams
his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream
his wings are clipped and his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing.

The caged bird sings with a fearful trill
of things unknown but longed for still
and his tune is heard on the distant hill
for the caged bird sings of freedom.

SO FAR SO GOOD

I made this paper bunting to welcome my daughter home ... and I think she liked it! We're settling down together and went to Ikea to get some stuff for her room today. After all my foolish worrying, I think it will probably be OK.

THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM?

This is my youngest daughter's room, empty because it's awaiting her return home tomorrow. She's moving back in and I feel very mixed about it - scared mostly. We have a fabulous relationship that is a delight to me, and I'm afraid that living together again might spoil it? I should explain that she's 25 and has lived away from home for many years, with a brief return 3 years ago between university and the big city.

She said to me "Mum I can't seem to get ahead - all the money I earn goes on rent and travel, and I never get to clear my overdraft, and I'm so tired of it". So she's coming home to live with us, looking for a job and a chance to clear her debts and start over. I'm proud of her for making this brave decision.

Since my mother in law lives with us it's not as if she'll be invading our privacy, it may even turn out to be a wonderful new stage in our lives. So why do I feel so scared?

OODLES OF DOODLES

While on holiday I bought a book about doodling, and this is the first layout in which I've tried to use the techniques. I love to scrapbook and always make an album of our trips. On this occasion what I wanted to record was the tropical storm which hit in the first few days. If you look closely you'll see I really wasn't exaggerating!!

I really like this style, which works for a sort of fun and funky look, and have used it on a couple of other layouts since. It also has the advantage of being very cheap! In case you're wondering, the arrows are an Autumn Leaves stamp set, and I cut the titles on my Cricut machine.

SUCCESS (sort of)

I am surprised and delighted to have got the quilt this far - its only about poster size, intended as a wall hanging. It certainly wasn't the small easy beginners project I'd envisaged!

I've been attempting to do free quilting in the green border but it isn't going very well at all - it is quite hard to do, but the problem I've been experiencing is that I keep getting a long "jumped" stitch and I don't know why.

Anyway, I AM working on an altered art project too, but it's for the ABAA Challenge so you can't see it yet ....

IT'S A STEEP LEARNING CURVE ...

For years I've dabbled on the edges of patchwork - I love to sew and have done since my teenage years, but mainly clothes and household furnishings. I've done the odd patchwork cushion - you know the kind of thing, squares from scraps or bits of log cabin, but never properly planned and thought out patchwork projects.

The last few years I've been buying books and nervously teetering on the brink, and I finally got a book of small "weekend" projects that I thought would be good to practice on. Wrong again - I see now that even though I'm only making a tiny wall quilt, setting out to do stars was a bit of a challenge for a beginner, and I might have done better with straight lines!

So for the first time ever I got out my patchwork ruler and cutting wheel, with a planned set of fabrics. I didn't find the cutting part too hard - it was easier than I thought to be accurate, even with my concentration problems (I have to read everything at least 3 times). It was when I started stitching the parts together that it got tricky! I had recourse to the unpicker several times before I got the measurements right.

You can just see a picture of the project in the top picture, and how I WISH I'd never embarked on those tiny squares! The unpicker has been red hot .... but I'm determined to persevere and learn this noble art, though I confess I wish I'd got someone to teach me. My goal is twin bedspreads but right now that's looking a long way off! If anyone can recommend helpful websites do let me know. They do say it's good for the brain cells to learn something new ....

TURNED OUT NICE

I'm delighted with how the knitted flowers turned out - they went in a hot wash and have felted very nicely. I actually like the fact that in some places you can still see the stitches. I've added a link for buying these kits to the previous post, so if you are inspired to have a go ....

As I said, it's highly likely that my friends and family will be getting these for Christmas - the kit includes brooch pin backs. Now where did I put those knitting needles?

KNITTED FLOWERS

I've been passing time in front of the TV in the evenings (the programmes lately are such rubbish that I need something to engage my brain) knitting these flowers! I warn you they're addictive!

They're knitted on 6mm needles with pure wool yarn, and the pattern is designed so that you put the flowers in the washing machine and they felt up - I'll let you know if it works. The flowers come out about 3" but of course they may shrink as well as felt.

It seems entirely possible that many of my friends and family might be getting a felt flower brooch in their Christmas stockings ....

If you want the kit which includes yarns and pattern go to www.knitting4fun.com.

New Look?

Well how do you like my new look? I think the header needs work, but that's not something I'm clever at, and the person who made my old one very cheaply has given up, so it may have to stay as it is.

I was feeling the itch to revamp - in fact I toyed with the idea of closing this blog down and starting something new and different - and it may still be a work in progress. I feel like a different person to the one who began blogging ... and my focus is less on ATCs than it used to be.

I'd like the new revamped blog to reflect and reveal more of me as a person - which I wasn't quite ready to do before - and the breadth of things I get up to. Hope you'll stay with me on the journey? I've also been meaning to apologise for the fact that I don't get around to other blogs as often as I'd like - computer time makes my neck hurt so much that I have to limit it, so I tend to focus on just a few.

And by the way - we found out last night that our third grandbaby will be another little girl - and my poor daughter was so hoping for a boy this time. You have to just love what you're given don't you? She'll be welcome whatever.

SNUGGLY

I used the beautifully soft and snuggly fleece fabrics I bought to make a baby bag/nest for what will be our 3rd grandchild. My daughter loves bright colours and stripes and since we don't know whether it will be a boy or a girl, the yellow was a compromise! I made the ties out of a fat quarter and I'm really pleased with the result - a soft little cuddle nest to be wrapped up in. In fact, I think I'd like one myself!! Once the need for a snuggle blanket is past you can open it out and treat it like a playmat.