Various Miscellany
I apologise in advance for the lack of cohesion of this post. I keep waiting until the weather is good enough to take some new photo's and until I have more than five minutes to piece my thoughts together and until I actually have something to show you. And I think that that way lies disaster! Or at the very least, a very quiet blog indeed. So in the interests of keeping this thing rolling, I present a jumble of images and thoughts.
First off, I recieved this wonderful birthday present last week from Lesley .
I was so very touched when Lesley asked me for my address and then even more so when the postman dropped a lovely parcel through my letter box a few days later and I opened it to find this beautifully embroidered picture.
I love it and must say that when a friend of mine saw it she sighed and said 'you have so many lovely things' and she was purely looking at the wonderful work of my fellow bloggers. And I realised as we discussed it that it's only been since we have been stone broke that I've become the proud owner of such lovely things. Back in the day when I was still a recognised member of society and earnt my own money, if I wanted something I popped out to a store and bought something immediate and generic. If I wanted to change the look of a room I would pretty much be able to do it in one day, with one shopping trip. Which is all very well, but so little of what I bought was original and none of it was actually made for me! And I know I keep banging on about this, but I LOVE that I'm looking at real art, made by real people. And I also love the fact that my friends are a little jealous!
So a massive thank you to Lesley! We've all said it, but it's so worth saying again - the kindness and generosity of the blogging community is just amazing.
I meant to post this picture on Friday as part of Fiona's WIP Fridays. But just didn't get around to it, so I guess this is now WIP Monday.
A couple of piles of mattresses, a couple of disgracefully tardy fruit patches and some princesses. And in the background the start of a new topsy turvy doll - assuming that the fabric works. I'm a little worried that it may be too stiff to facilitate the topsy turvyness.
I've been meaning to show you this book for a while now. I just haven't been able to work out how to crowbar it in to a post until today.
Trapunto has always made me a little nervous. It seemed to me to be rather complicated and something that I should just avoid. For those of you that aren't familiar with it, trapunto is not a type of car (as Jim has just suggested!) but a form of (usually) whole cloth quilting that results in a raised surface. The pattern on the quilt top is often something like a vine with leaves and fruits that is stuffed with cord or batting.
It's a nice effect but not something that has really caught my eye until I bought this book. As I've said, trapunto is usually used for vines etc, but this (slightly crazy) book uses it much more interestingly. Just look at these crazy toaster and breadbin covers!
Mmmm, beige towelling!
But dodgy fabrics aside, this book really did simplify the method for me and gave me some cool ideas that I want to try out. I really like the look of the tote on the front cover. And I don't know if you can see it, but that apron has little trapunto mushrooms on! Lovely.
And finally (I think), I've been wanting to wait until they were all finished and ready to go in the shop before I posted new Coney Rabbits, but the speed I'm working at the moment means that that may never happen! So here's a peek at some of the new rabbits, with still more to come.
There are blue and green rabbits still in various stages of evolution that I'm hoping to have done this week and then I'll be updating the shop. I've also got at least one quilt to add to the shop and maybe a couple of other little pieces. But that could just be me mistaking my life for someone elses!
