using my stash

Well not all of it obviously :)

I wanted to make something to give to someone special and this piece of fabric jumped into my hand. 

My sewing skills need work but I am proud of the fact that this was the first time I have made bias facings, and they lay flat - yippee.

diy

Spending time in the diy store waiting for my paint to be mixed is not my ideal.  So I wandered off to the wallpaper section and saw one or two big and bold embossed wallpapers.  I picked up a couple of nice big samples.  This is a mustardy coloured Markal stick on white cotton rubbed over one of the samples.  I can see what I did wrong, masking tape and a few pins will make all the difference!
Once again the hardest thing is waiting (for the paint to cure so I can dip this into a dye bucket.) 

and..

Murphy stood in soft poo this morning and trod it into the carpet in the study. 

It is one of those days when the duvet looks very inviting.....

why oh why

Why do I change things that aren't broke?

My broadband provider is putting the monthly fee up by £5, their letter made it clear that this isn't negotiable and if I wanted to change to another company, so what!

Enraged by this cavalier attitude and swayed by a special offer of cheap internet and calls, I decided to switch.  Filled in my on-line application and sent it off.  I got an acknowledgement everything was in order and I would be connected on Thursday (of last week).  The new router came on time and I waited with great expectation to be told I was connected.  Waited some more.  Sigh.

On Friday I rang the 'service' centre and the 'nice' gentleman told me that I had filled in my on-line application wrong and the only thing they could do was cancel the order and start again.  I think he may have been a robot because when I asked what I had done wrong he simply repeated himself. Sadly we were disconnected.  I can't believe he would be so rude as to hang up on me!  I said a rude word and Brian rang them back.  He spoke to a 'lovely' man who more or less repeated what had been said but told B that he would do the re-order himself and make sure we kept exactly the same promised deal.  He also promised to ring back after 8pm to confirm everything was good to go.  The date for connection would be Tuesday.

Guess what?  He didn't ring back, but I did get an email saying the order had been placed. 

Yesterday we received a returns envelope for the router.  I didn't really understand why they would have to send a new one, so put that to one side.

So It is Tuesday.  The day.  I followed the link to the order to look at the status.  It said completed.  Yeh.  sigh! 

I did managed to speak to a human this time.  (I may have 'accidently' pressed the wrong button when the telephonist robot gave me options) I started by telling Jason that I understand that none of the above is his fault but.......

I have been assured that both my phoneline and my broadband will be connected on Friday, that the router I already have is the one I will be using and I will receive a text on my mobile phone to let me know when I am connected. 

If you don't hear from me for a while you will know where I am..........

sods blinking law

I repainted the walls in my kitchen a couple of months ago.  This looks lovely but has made the rest of the house look a bit shabby. 
Murphy threw up all down the stairs, I did my best but in the end I had to get the carpet cleaned.  I thought I may as well get the living room and study carpet done at the same time.  In order to be able to move downstairs, I humped all the books/bookcases etc from the study up into one of the bedrooms, (put the furniture from the living room in the kitchen).  Apart from the desk the study is empty so I thought I would paint the walls in there before I move on to the bigger jobs.
I chose the paint to co-ordinate with the kitchen so that I get a nice flow through the house.  Went to buy it and the diy shop locally doesn't stock that type.  Went to the next town, (Grantham) they don't have it either. On Friday I was in Worksop, so I went into the big diy store.  They have had a fire recently and the paint sort of blew up.  No paint.
I got out my paint charts to find a similar colour but I really wanted my first choice.  So on Sunday I drove to Lincoln and hurrah, they have my paint.
Monday, I got up early, masked everything in the room, lay dropclothes to cover every inch of carpet and the desk and got on with it.  Hmm.  It didn't look quite right, but paint does look different wet so I carried on. 
I think the technical term for the colour is HORRIBLE!  Not really - it is a lovely sky blue, and I do like it, but it is not anything like  the kitchen paint, not anything like the swatch on the chart and oh so not what I want on those walls. 

Anyway for a few days, until I rest my hand enough to start again, I will be enjoying blue sky, both inside and out if the weathermen are to be believed

Autumn is coming

Two rainbows, great light, pity about the telephone pole.

Slightly better composition.  Both pics taken on my mobile phone.  Autumn is definately on it's way.

playing with print paste again

I called in Homebase the other day and had them cut some mdf into 18" x 24", I got 4 for £11.  Two layers of polyester felt stapled over and I have 4 new print boards.  Bargain! 
I had some perspex blocks in a drawer.  I glued little wooden door knobs on the back (no more nails glue) and they are now really easy to use.

The first piece has a base cover of lemon yellow.  I added turquoise to the leftover paste and used it to print using one of my perspex blocks.  It is batching now, because I have no idea what to do next.

The next started with lemon yellow.  I added turquoise and indigo blue to my paste and printed using a square block.  The circles were made using a jar lid, same dye paste but with extra indigo added. 

I used a credit card to get the print paste onto the fabric on this one.  First I scraped on lemon yellow (I mixed up a big batch this morning, gotta use it up).
I added a little golden yellow and indigo dye and used the edge of the card to print the block shapes.  Then scraped a tiny bit of scarlet in places.  I kept adding layers until it started to go muddy.  I used bottle tops in various sizes to stamp the circles.





Friends know that I hate green and rarely use it, but a lover of everything green has been heavily influencing me lately.  I know that I will be adding orange or red to the first two prints at some point though. 

Thank you Leslie

Did I mention that I spent too much of my day at the FofQ watching Claire Benn and Leslie Morgan demonstrating?  I am not sorry.
Inspired by Leslie I did a little printing yesterday.  I started with scarlet and slapped it onto the fabric using a credit card.  Then I went over it with wine red print paste.
Of course then I went a bit mad and added black.  I was good and left it to batch overnight, and rinsed it out today.

Here's a peek at the rinsed fabric.  I am sad that I lost the glow of the vibrant scarlet, and there is some bleeding, but Leslie was right when she said 'the original marks own the cloth'. 
This has been well rinsed, but not washed in detergent yet, it will be back in the soda bucket ready for more work later

I won a prize

I won a prize at the NEC FofQ and it came today.  I didn't know what to expect, but I was very happy to recieve a set of 7 blue cotton fat quarters from simplysolids
Will I use them as they are or will I give in to temptation and print on them ?


Perhaps I could do a hop, skip and two little jumps today..

sweeties

I had a bit of a tidy up in my studio, re-arranged a few things.  Tried to put the inspiring stuff on show and the ordinary everyday stuff in the cupboards.  I need to do lots more work but have one or two nice areas.  I smile now whenever I see these, instead of ignoring the mess that used to be on that shelf.  I am hoping to be more inspired to use my stuff.

sometimes only orange will do

You may need to wear your sun glasses to read this one :)

Imagine a little grey haired woman, doing a tiny skip and just one jump.  That was me when I pulled these out of the washing machine.  How could anyone not be happy with orange and yellow all around...

My ironing leaves a bit to be desired, sorry about the creases.  The plan with these bits of cloth was to over dye them in a bucket of magenta dye.  But I like the yellow!!!  I may keep one piece to cheer me up on the grey winter days and fiddle with the rest.  The first is a candidate for having blue added to give me a forest-y effect.   I have some bits that will be discharged before going in the bucket too. 

wishy washy revisited

I re-soaked most of the wishy washy pieces in soda ash and put them back into the tray, dyed again with the same two colours of procion dye.  Robins Egg Blue and Bronze.  Left it for 24 hours before rinsing this time :)    Now I have light and medium coloured pieced.  I will be re-soaking some of these and dyeing again to get some darker pieces of cloth.