Yesterday morning I had all this laid out on the table.....or should I say piled haphazardly on the table. I looked, I chose, I mixed and matched, I changed my mind a million times. I then folded neatly and voila....I now have these. (it wasn't easy to choose.....really, to decide on which pieces went where)
Nine packets of embroidered and printed cloth.....that's ''morceaux de tissu broders et imprimes'' to those of you who aren't up on your French...and I include myself in that.
Today it's puffs, counting and packaging, mounting paperworkand packaging. My list is slowly getting ticked off...prepare yourself for more French.
Snippets, samples, scraps, paper, cloth.....pages for artist books. Three new pages were put together last night, gathering has happened for other pages. These artist books have now become ''urgently need to put together'' books as opposed to the ''as and when'' books they were a few weeks ago. Another fifteen pages (guessing here) are needed....wish me luck. One thing this should show you is that never throwing anything away is a good choice. Fabric snippets, offcuts come in handy for many things....including ledger work.
(The lace cloth marathon is nearing completion which is a huge relief. )
In addition to having lace clothcoming out of my ears I also have a titivation production line going on. Suffolk puffs, fabric beads (padded puffs) and other such things for adorning edges and surfaces are being created in abundance. I'm thinking little bags of mixed things, a combination, flat and padded.......like little bags of sweeties or candy.
There was a point in time last week when I thought I was going to lose it, to become so stressed that I couldn't go on. That has passed, calmness has descended again and although my ''to do'' list remains long it's not unachievable. My days from now until next Sunday...flight time 9.30 am.....will be filled with finishing touches, labelling, packaging, packing boxes to pack into suitcases. I will not be making any more ''large'' pieces such as pockets or wraps or pillows, there's no time left, it's the little things which I need to attend to now.
Yesterday was a ''day off'' of sorts. Thanks so much for all James happy birthday love. I think he had a good day??? We went to Manchester to eat and I left him there with his dad so they could go and see a band and do other manly things....I drove home through snow, yes snow. I wasn't expecting that.
The video below is a brief overview of my new class ''stitching a story'', first posted on here a couple of weeks ago. I will be closing the shop before I go away and will re open it on April 25.
A new pillow, doodled silk, chain stitch, cutwork prairie points, applique, gingham and spotty fabric. It's cheerful if nothing else, brightens the day. I'm not sure if this one will come to France with me.....just a niggle that I can't quite put my finger on. Does that happen to you? I will decide last minute. I suppose I could take it but not get it out of the suitcase.......
I'm out today, for most of today anyway...celebrating with this gorgeous little man who is not so little any more.
Happy birthday James. Love you to the moon and back.
I made you a video of me painting the new, pink background....I did, honestly. OOps.....something went wrong and it was unwatchable so you had a lucky escape. To compensate I have posted a similar video from last week. Watch, don't watch, entirely up to you. In the video you don't get to see I mention that I am a bit of a ''one trick pony'' when it comes to painting...same shapes over and over. What can I say....I will say that I am hoping these paltry offerings will look very different when added to pages in my little artist books......I can hope.
Finally, following on from yesterday....the next part of the story.
''Do you remember the house we lived in as children? Do you remember the stitches we were taught at school? Lets embroider a picture of our old house and let's see how many different stitches we can work into it.''
What am I doing here? I'm assessing, considering, questioning, wondering, faffing, being indecisive, wondering what, how much, how many of each, make more, don't make more, add buttons......and on and on. Ingredients for goodie bags are being considered by someone who hasn't a clue what to put in them.
What would you choose from this selection to put in your goodie bag? Or...what would you like to find in a goodie bag you acquired out of this selection?
And.....I bought a new book because I definitely need another distraction...not........
This book could be written about me and you. (I'm assuming you like to sew and that's why you are here) Deanna made me aware of it and I am so, so happy she did. It's a story of two ...and I quote.....''old, old sisters'' who spend their life in bed, a ''long, long'' bed. They become bored, they wonder why, they then decide it's because their quilt is plain white so they decide to embroider their white quilt as they spend each hour in bed. I'm going to put a quote on here now, directly from the book which is taken from the section where they retrieve their work boxes from under the bed and which inspired me more than I can say.....
''and they opened them. They were full of scissors and thimbles, pins and needles, buttons and bodkins and hooks and eyes. There were scraps of silk and satin, rolls of ribbon, lengths of lace.''
Sigh...do you see what I mean?
I really want to share more of this with you. I will try and post another quote tomorrow. This book has landed in my life at just the right time (New class...Stitching a Story...and I am given the gift of knowing about this book which is essentially ''stitching a story''...fate?)....thank you Deanna.
(I bought this from Amazon in the US very cheaply, it's a used copy. The available copies on UK Amazon are ridiculously expensive. Postage from the US for this was also very inexpensive...I got me a bargain. If you are in the UK consider purchasing from the US)
Finally......can I apologise if I am slow responding to comments and e mails. I really am snowed under at the moment but you are on my mind, I am really feeling guilty, I appreciate the comments and e mails more than I can say, truly. I WILL respond but please bear with me.
Two images today, both lace cloth, both from times when I was consumed by lace cloth. The top image is a ''wrap'', a ''throw'' , a ''shawl'', a ''wrapping cloth'' which I made a few years ago from pieces of embellished lace cloth which I then hand pieced creating a veil like piece of cloth measuring approximately 25 x 25 inches.
The second image is my lace cloth obsession from now, twenty pieces in progress, each measuring 10 x 10 inches......eleven made, nine to go. These pieces of lace cloth will provide a base for the hand embroidery I will be teaching in my workshops in France.
eleven made, nine still to make......eleven days.....no problem.....
It's books again, well kind of. It's a single page with a little bit of paper I painted and a scrap of lace cloth. It's also a little chat.......and nine pieces of lace cloth.
These little books are filling up gradually...there's no rush, a few pages here and there as I get time. Well I say no rush, next week actually, around ten days left to make sure each one is crammed. It may be that next week I will need to make space for a ''book afternoon'', finishing these, adding more snippets of cloth and doodled paper. I plan on painting some paper scraps this afternoon to be added to these. I will be taking an hour out fromthis and making little marks, floral marks with watercolour paint onto a blue speckled background. You will get to see my efforts when those little scraps of painted paper appear on these pages....
A piece of silk, a piece of gingham, a pen, a quick five minutes doodling, add stitch add a few prairies points and hey presto....a pillow top. This one is light relief from my current sewing machine duties, Spring like and cheerful. I do love my cloth which is being created on the sewing machine but if I'm not careful, if I don't take a break with something completely different every once in a while it will become a chore. We don't want that do we.
The reverse of this one is being planned in my head as I type this today. The edges are also being considered, debated. There is another piece , similar to this one but not identical in progress too. A matching pair, a complimentary pair.....by the end of the week I hope.
In case you missed them, or have forgotten about them....a few pieces of previously doodled and stitched cloth.
