Spirit Cloth 3

I'm so grateful for all the lovely comments I've had regarding my latest sewing project. Quite a few people have emailed and asked for details of the class (Jude Hill's 'Cloth to Cloth')....I hope you're now enjoying it as much as I am.
I decided to use ironed sari ribbons for my third Spirit Cloth...these are the colours from a skein I bought from The Threshing Barn in Staffordshire. It's a work in progress; I'm adding some tiny pieces of hand-made felt and there'll be lots more stitching.

The sari ribbon before ironing......

..and after.

I then discovered I could alter the ribbon by putting it through my embellishing machine...it ruches up like seersucker. I used a few of these mixed with the flat ironed ones.

I then tried it on other fabrics.
This is the effect on organza....

...and silk dupion. Saving these for future projects!

And finally....

I made this little landscape on my embellishing machine yesterday...I'm off now to do some hand-stitching on it.
BTW - if you're interested in embellishing machines, here's a link to see the Janome FM 725 in action. I found this on Lynn's excellent Squidoo page which is all about needle felting.
(She has a lovely give-away on her blog as well....definitely worth a visit.)
And absolutely finally....I can't go without a Peachy pic. He's currently kipping on his new mat (and yes...its a bath mat :-)

Digital Collages and Sari Ribbons

I felt in the mood for some digital scrapbooking this morning and used photos from my garden. This is a new plant this year called Francoa Sonchifolia - more commonly known as 'Bridal Wreath'. Very pretty and delicate....

 The Echinacea (or Rudbekia Purpurea) is settling in nicely and has produced loads of new flowers....

And the Alliums (or 'Black Garlic') were great this year.....so sculptural.....
(All digital bits and pieces are from Katie Pertiet at Designer Digitals.)

This week I've been fiddling with the sari silk ribbons and threads. I stitched them onto my ink splattered papers which I first bonded onto tea bag paper (from Jackie - she sells it in her etsy shop). Above are a few close-ups.
Its a work in progress.....still need to add some french knots, beads and hand-stitching.
Now I really must get on with my journal ....have a lovely weekend!

Oh No.....She's a Boy!!!!

Update on the princess......she's a prince! My daughter brought the kitten round today so my mum could see it for the first time. We were all sitting round the table after dinner and Peachy was lying on my lap when my son glanced at 'her' and said thats definitely not a girl! Then my husband agreed and I must admit I began to have my doublts. Poor DD was told by the person she bought it from that it was female so she bought a pink fluffy bed, pink dish, pink poo tray etc...........oooops, well she can't swap them now! For the rest of the afternoon we all struggled to say he instead of she..........don't think DD saw the funny side :-)
Who's a pretty boy then.........

Had a wonderful time on Friday; spent the day with my new friend Maggi (To Dream to Stitch) and she took me to The Threshing Barn near Leek in Staffordshire. It was a lovely journey; beautiful countryside almost all the way. When we got inside I didn't know where to look first; the rainbow display of sari silk threads and ribbons, the shelves of wool and silk fibres in every imaginable colour, hand-made items, books, beads, buttons, kits, tools, dyes..... I didn't want to leave! We even got to see the new piglets in one of the farm buildings. We followed that with lunch in 'Fresh Basil' ...then I was lucky enough to see Maggi's amazing studio.
Did I buy anything.....what do you think!!!

Sari ribbons, sari silks, buttons and beads.....

......plus a bag of mixed wool fibres.

Here's the skein of sari ribbon shaken free of its plait....my fav colours!

Maggi kindly gave me some silk and curly wool (Wensleydale?) that she's dyed herself. Clever girl.
Now I need to get felting and sewing.......

Thank you for a lovely day Maggi :-)

Oh I nearly forgot......I have been making something over the past few days.
I've been stitching cords on the sewing machine.......great fun!