The weekends go so quick

Last weekend saw us going down South and visiting our 2 sons and their families.  Little ones grow up so fast and so much has changed in their lives recently.  Sophie our eldest granddaughter is now at school, our eldest grandson, Leo, is at pre-school and our youngest, Freddie is now crawling and walking around the furniture and Isobel, Sophie's sister is talking a lot more than when we last saw her.  It was also good to catch up with my Mum & Dad before we headed back up North again.

I haven't been up to much last week but I do have a new toy.  Nothing to do with sewing, but could come in useful perhaps.  I have a Big Shot die cutter, which can also emboss items too.  I had some in texture plates come with it which I tried out on some sketch paper.  I will get around to getting some dies to go in the cutter as I have seen some "stackable" ones of basic shapes that stack inside each other which will come in useful.  In the meantime here are my attempts.

These samples were from the basic texture plates

The samples were on green foiled card and on kitchen foil glued over card

 

And this is the Big Shot machine

Yesterday as it was a lovely if cold day David and I went to Skipton on the trail of sheep in the town.  These were the "Flock to Skipton" sheep and armed with a map of the town went looking and photographing the sheep. Quite a few of them are on my facebook page, so click on the facebook badge on my sidebar to have a look.  We could not leave without visiting a bakery shop - Wild's, of course - where we bought a Yorkshire Curd Tart. 
After lunch we went on to Bolton Abbey just a few miles further north of Skipton.

The ruins of the abbey are fascinating and both David and I were clicking away with our cameras.  The sky was turning cloudy by now and with the autumn colours of the leaves they made for some good photos. These ones below show the doors on the church adjoining the ruins I was quite taken with the fancy hinges - quite a work of art

And at Bolton Abbey we even found a beach!

More cards (again)

Seems that Blogger has picked up that I've done a blog post with "More Cards..".  I'm getting into card making a few more at class and having a go at techniques I've learned at home the next day.

So this was what I made at class - I think this could be a form of monoprinting - putting ink onto a craft heat mat and spritzing with water and spreading onto the card from the mat.  Wasn't too impressed to start off with, but with the stamping and addition of rubbing on more ink around the edges they were looking a lot better.

Here are samples from class:

A Christmas themed card, matted onto silver card on white cardstock

Another distressed effect card.

Then these were the samples that I made at home, bearing in mind my limited resources, though my collection of bits and bobs for card making are growing slowly. The first one I stamped and embossed roses and after the paint effect I stamped over pink roses, rubbed on stamp ink around the edges followed by a gold stamp pad on the very edge.  The purple bit is meant to say roses but these alphabet stamps aren't terribly good.

 And this one below I messed about with the stars stamp pad embossing some and stamping with a blue pad after and stamping with the remaining ink on so that some of the stars were faded.

I'm quite enjoying the Wednesday morning playtimes with the radio playing. There won't be a class next week ;o(( .  I'll have to find what I can have a go at next.

This and That

Here are the photos as promised from my last post from the Friday Night Sew In.

Before the binding was hemmed

...and after.

Seeing all those colours in the backing is rather startling, but it works well with the stripy binding.  

As mentioned in the previous post here are the Wiggly Bags.  They're now ready to go in the post.

 
Earlier in the week I had a go at painting having another go at painting with transfer dyes. Once the paper has been painted it can be placed face down onto poly cotton or any fabric with synthetics in the fibre and ironed onto it. Haven't done any transferring yet, just painted the papers in red, purple and lime green and mixtures of the three colours.  I also printed some papers using the shaving foam monoprinting method.  That's using shaving foam and dripping colours onto the foam before spreading the mixture on a flat plat (I used a glass table mat)before placing the paper on top.  As more prints were taken the more the colours merged and turned into a lovely pale green with bits of the colours in it.  I quite enjoyed having a couple of hours playing.  A reminder that I wouldn't be doing this if I was working.

Here are my papers using the shaving foam printing

Transfer dye painted papers drying on the floor

 

 

Papers made with acrylic paint rolled on with a brayer with elastic bands wrapped on it.

 Earlier today David and I went to Cannons Hall just outside Barnsley for a walk.  We'd passed before but never visited as the car park is pay and display and never having the right change!  Wonder how many other people are put off by pay and displays to go off elsewhere - we can't be the only ones!  It was a nice sunny autumnal day for a walk around the gardens and went inside the house for a wander round.  Whilst there I took photos of some metalwork sculptures made by "Paul" who was the person to contact to buy them.  They look really lovely so I couldn't resist taking the photos (shame I wouldn't have anywhere to put one).

Friday Night Sew In

No photos yet so I'll post those this evening.  Yesterday I took part in the Friday Night Sew In, though it was a case of sewing in front of the telly!  I had some binding to sew down after putting that onto a quilt earlier in the week and got it all done, so I am pleased that I set aside time to do this.

Earlier in the day I completed 5 "Wiggly Bags" to add to 5 that I'd done earlier in the week and before started on the quilt binding I'd threaded tape through the casings of the bags.  I found this tutorial a little while here on Florence's blog a little while ago and now I have some time out decided to make a few and will send off to the Liberty Rose Trust an organisation supporting children with cancer.


David and I are off to Peterborough today - he wants to go to a model railway exhibition and I'll go and have a wander around the town.

Will catch up with photos later.

More cards

I've been for a second cardmaking lesson last night and am really learning quite a bit.  I made 2 last night using Distress Ink pads in different shades and rubbing those on with a sponge pad to create a light middle and darker outside to the cards.  As last week I have a bash at what I've learned, but because I make do with what I've got the results are very different but quite pleasing.

This was a card I made last night with a pale orange to dark orange around the edge

Two shades of blue over the pearl paint and dark blue snowflakes

Out of class the cards I made this morning with a bird stamp embossed on top

I've used a dark purple pad to stamp the bird and embossing powder on top (which I shouldn't have done as the powder stuck to the bits it shouldn't).  Having learned that the powder wouldn't come off easily I then used a cotton wool pad to wipe away the excess and have a circle of it around the bird on the purple card.  For the blue one I stamped and embossed the stars first before running the ink from a blue pad over it.

As for sewing it has not been neglected.  Here's a pic of what I'm working on and since this pic was taken on Saturday I have now put a border on so the quilt is getting there.  Here it is - a quilt for Freddie - long overdue (the quilt that is - he is 10 months old now).  I can see myself working on this on the Friday Night Sew In which is this Friday 15th October - I'll go and correct that, what a Wally!

Cobwebby pics

Couldn't resist taking these photos this morning.  It's bin day and going out to collect my empty bins this morning (a foggy one there was still a mist hanging around) I went and got my camera and took pictures of cobwebs.  Don't they look pretty?

Had to duck under this cobweb so I didn't break it.

A whole line of cobwebs along the top of the wall

Of course there's always a cobweb gathering on the rotary washing line

And a few on the patio chair (on top of the table from when the grass was last mown.

Now for something completely different

This should be a sewing blog (it started out this way) but as you know I do divert to other places and things and I've decided to get to know .....cardmaking!  Don't know why but I am attracted to the special effects of stamping and the artwork used.  I do have a small collection of rubber stamps and stamp pads and as those who have had postcards from me will know that I have a personal stamp that I put on the back of them. So I've been to the craft shop at Elsecar Heritage Centre and joined the class there on Tuesday evenings and this Tuesday learned about alcohol inks, which are used on non porous surfaces so made a card front with a shiny card surface and another from cardstock primed with acrylic paint. Below is the result of the class.

I just had to have another go and went to my nearby garden centre which sells and see if they had any of the inks which they did so bought a couple.  I then made a bookmark from the shiny card remaining from the evening before and stamped over that with a flower stamp which just about shows up.

The quilting hasn't taken a back seat though.  I have just finished a Christmas present last night (so can't show on the blog now) and last week I finished sewing all 18 Christmas swap postcards (so can't show those either!).  There are a couple of items that need sorting and will get onto that this week.

Going back to Saturday I went with Janet to Quilters Guild Region 14 Regional Day at Clifford, near Boston Spa.  I did get us a little lost in getting there but we did get there on time.  We met up with Hazel who has blog called Cotton Cocktails, and although I've followed her blog it was the first time I'd met her.  I was a good day with a very informative talk from Carolyn Gibbs from Sheffield, followed after lunch by a mini workshop.  The workshop provided by Beryl of Leven Crafts was of a mini notebook.  Measuring just 2" wide and 4" high this was really sweet and handy for a little present. Having made one I can see a few more of these being made.  I really enjoy the regional days and its really good to meet up with other quilters.