Wide Eyed Wonderfuls

Breakdown Screenprinting Course

2011-10-10T22:57:00.000+01:00

This weekend I attended a Breakdown Screenprinting course at the MAC, led by Emma Jackson. It was a fabulous weekend. We started by building up print paste and dye on the back (face down when printing) surface of the screen, and then pressing various textured objects into it to make impressions in the paste.

Another way of working was to draw onto the screens with print paste using bottles with thin nozzles, with the drawn lines transferring to the finished prints.

The screens were left to dry overnight, and the next morning we came back to them, and picked out all the embedded objects.

Then the big fun began. We laid the screens down onto the (pre-treated) fabric, applied either clear or coloured print paste, and pushed the squeegee down across the screen. Initially heavy areas of dried pastes were acting as a resist, so applied colours only came through the thinner areas. As the paste got wetter and broke down, more and more transferred onto the fabric, meaning that each screen placement resulted in a different print. While the process was hard to tame, it wasn't entirely unpredictable, and produced beautiful results.

Sadly, someone accidentally picked up two of my three finished pieces of fabric so I can't share them with you at the moment, but the MAC are trying to get them back for me.

From Print To Stitch

2011-05-09T22:05:00.005+01:00

I'm now a fully paid up member of Birmingham Embroiderers' Guild, and had a marvellous evening at the members workshop, where we were printing with collograph printing blocks of leaves.

We applied the leaves to stiff board with double sided tape, and then inked them with rollers, applying the print firstly to paper:

My paper print was a bit light, so I inked it a bit more, then printed onto a batik fabric:

If anything, this was probably a bit dark - I think I pressed a bit hard with the brayer.

Here is the collograph print block, apparently they keep rather well & can be reused:

I'm certainly going to experiment more with this technique. It was an easy way to get some lovely prints. For now, I'm going to stitch into my print, to add definition and texture.

If you like the look of the Guild, then pop along to their blog (which I also run!) to find out more about how to join.

A Pair of Seahorses

2011-04-05T20:44:00.003+01:00

I recently joined the Embroidery Hoopla Swap (Round 4, diptyches) over on Craftster, and was paired with Kanawinkie, who said she loved seahorses. I decided to stitch her a pair of seahorses, with the pair being opposites, so one would be warm colours, and one cool, and one would have a heavily worked background and plain seahorse, and the other a plain background and embroidered seahorse, and with the outlines reversed, so they could be facing toward/away from each other

Here's what I stitched up:

The embroidered seahorse has a watercolour pencil tinted body, and wide bands of raised stem stitch* for his belly:

Most of the rest of the seahorse is variants of back, running and satin stitch, in a range of DMC embroidery cottons. The background is a simple running stitch design in DMC perle, to mimic the sea on the blue hoop.

While I enjoyed stitching the seahorse, I loved sewing the sea hoop - I really enjoy heavily textured pieces, and including beads and a range of stitches in my work:

The middle ground is many many rows of running stitch in a range of colours, graduating from light, to dark to medium, broken up with little triangles of colour breaking into the next rows. Stitching this area was really meditative.

I filled the bottom third of the hoop with lots of very dense stitching, both patches of broadly circular stitches, and long linear rows. I took lots of pictures of these areas, so click through to flickr if you want to see the full size images!

The bottom left, lines of wheatear stitch, with seed beads tucked in, and two widths of gorgeous shiny rayon tape woven through, and a few colonial knots** for good measure:

This is the second clustered area I did, and it has quite a few wheels (both whipped and woven spiders webs & buttonhole), as well as clusters of colonial knots, castons, the wonderful bullion knots (the squiggly coils round the left hand part of the area), a button applied with needleweaving, and more beads for good measure!

I also discovered Fly Stitch, and how lovely it looks in long rows overlaid, with some rows having beaded tails. The blue feathery line across the middle is something I invented when trying to do something else, it was the first bit of the bottom area I did, and I've forgotten what on earth I did now, apart from that I whipped the middle:

This is the first clustered area, which gave me the confidence to really go nuts with the second. Lots of different threads here - DMC cottons, DMC perle and some great threads from a texture pack I bought:

The far right of the hoop has long lines of chain stitch in two different shades of variegated perle cotton. I wanted them to visually mirror the tall reed like lines on the other side of the hoop. There's also a big shell like ring shaped bead, secured then incorporated with needlewoven bars:

And here is the seahorse, outlined with a dark blue backstitch, and with a line of chain stitch in perle in warm shades to contrast with the coolness of the hoop overall. There are also little bits of orange beads and knots tucked into other areas, to add interest:

All in all, I'm really rather proud of it, and Kanawinkie likes it, so all is good!

* I can't find a particularly good description for Raised Stem Stitch. It's actually really easy once you get going, and looks lovely
** I can't do French knots!

Hoopla kit packed

2011-02-21T08:26:00.001Z

My hoopla swap stuff is all packed up, ready to sew during lunch times at work this week.

Ivy

2011-02-17T08:08:00.001Z

I spent yesterday evening working in my sketchbook. The current module is about adding interest to pages through cutting and adding extra paper.
The page standing at the back is a practice piece for the ivy page, with leaf outlines cut and folded out from it. I applied pastel to the sketchbook page off the inside of a stencil, this is the one which is going to have the leaves cut and folded from it.
Tonight I'm going to do the cutting, and work on the page below which will be revealed through the cuts.

Beautiful Tulips

2011-02-14T07:51:00.001Z

Yesterday, Simon surprised me by popping up for the day, instead of sleeping. We had a wonderful day, ate lots of lovely chocolate, and he brought me these beautiful purple tulips. I don't own a vase, but they look great in this purple vase on my dresser.

Pretty vegetables

2011-02-13T19:58:00.001Z

I was making one of my favorite suppers the other night (scrambled eggs with lots of veggies in), when I noticed all the pepper slices stacking up on the knife in a pretty little row. Lovely.

Swap Partner Stalking Assistance

2011-02-12T11:12:00.003Z

I'm getting back into swapping on Craftster, and have signed up for the Embroidery Hoopla Round 4 Swap on Craftster. With that in mind, I thought I'd make this helpful post for future partners.

So, if we've been partnered in a swap - hello! Here is a bit about me:

Things I love:
Spending time with friends, geeky board games, cooking, reading recipe books, baking glorious cakes, exploring, popping to the farmers market to pick up tasty bread, cheese and veggies, reading (especially young adult fantasy & sci fi, apparently!) and my favourite authors are Roald Dahl and Jeanette Winterson. I also enjoy playing my ukulele, lindy hop dancing & taking photos.

Crafts I do:
I'm a bit of a Jill of all trades - I dabble in knitting, crochet, sewing, quilting, spinning, embroidery, cross stitch & crewel, machine embroidery. I enjoy zentangling to unwind. At the moment I am getting over my fear of drawing, and working towards a City & Guilds qualification, which I am really loving. I want to do more papercrafts - altered books, ATCs, etc. I also want to develop my machine embroidery skills.

Music & Movies:
I enjoy a lot of (British) folk mysic, my favourite group are Oysterband, but I also like Billy Bragg, Eliza Carthy, Kate Rusby, Mumford and Sons, Stornoway, Noah & The Whale, Chris Wood. I love how folk music tells tales that are beautiful and moving, and still relevant to life today. I also like bouncy pop of all varieties, bits of country, and lots of other things. For a better idea of my musical taste, here's My Spotify Profile (needs Spotify to view it).
My favourite films are Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Moulin Rouge, Amelie, Stranger Than Fiction, Juno. I love Pixar movies, and am hard pressed to pick a favourite amongst them, but if I had to, I think it would probably be WALL-E or Up, and the Boundin' short.

How I like things:
Bold, confident, bright, burlesquey, striped or polkadotted, natural, oceanic, jewel toned, soft, comforting, Gorey-esque, playful, elegant, symmetrical/patterned, odd, kooky, well made, thoughtful.

I collect:
Driftwood, shells, rabbits, hand carved wooden spoons, 1980s Ravensberger childrens board games, keys, leaves, conkers and other natural things, BPAL perfumes (foody, spicy, woody, not floral scents), art & craft supplies, buttons. I also have a set of the 5 Nat West Piggy Banks from my childhood which I love.

I'd rather not:
Pastels, cutesy, gas masks & post apocalyptic themes, gore & horror, excessive swearing!

I'm really looking forward to swapping with you :)

(With thanks to Knickertwists for the inspiration & headings.)

Soup

2010-11-21T22:31:00.004Z

It has been, among other things, a weekend of soup, stirring and simmering, and now my freezer is stocked with lots of tasty lunches for the next few weeks.

On the way back from my holiday last weekend, I picked up a copy of Saturday's Guardian, which contained a 'Soups and Stews' supplement. So far I've made two soups from it, and both have been wonderful:

Lighter French Onion Soup

Serves 4

150g haricot beans
50g unsalted butter
900g onions, sliced
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tbsp wholegrain mustard
3 tbsp white wine vinegar
1 bunch of thyme, tied with string
1.5 litres light chicken stock
50g parmesan, grated (plus a piece of rind if you have one)
A squeeze of lemon juice
2 tbsp parsley, lightly chopped

1 Soak the haricots overnight. 2 The next day, melt the butter in a pan and add the sliced onions. 3 Cook gently for 20-30 minutes, until soft and starting to caramelise, then stir in the oregano, mustard, vinegar and some seasoning. Lob in the bunch of thyme too and simmer until all the vinegar has reduced away – just a few minutes. 4 Drain the haricots, tip them into the onions, cover with the stock and bring to the boil. Toss in the rind of the parmesan now, if you have it, to infuse the flavour. 5 Once the soup has come to the boil, skim off the froth, reduce the heat to a simmer, and cook until the beans are soft and tender. This may take anywhere between 1-2 hours (it depends how old the beans are). 6 When you're sure the beans are cooked, check the seasoning and make sure you are happy with the thickness (simmer it down to thicken, add some water to thin). 7 Remove the rind and bunch of thyme. Stir in half the grated parmesan and finish with a light squeeze of lemon juice. Sprinkle with the chopped parsley and the remaining cheese once it's in the bowls.

Moroccan Carrot Soup

Serves 6

½ tbsp cumin seeds
750g carrots, chopped
30g butter
80g rice
250ml milk
1.2 litres light chicken or veg stock
2 egg yolks
Small handful of mint, chopped
Sprinkling of paprika

1 Toast the cumin seeds in a dry pan until you can smell their flavour, then crush with the side of a knife. 2 Wash and roughly chop the carrots into 3cm chunks, then sweat them on a medium heat in the butter for 10-15 minutes. 3 Cook the rice in boiling salted water for 12 minutes or until ready, then drain. 4 Once the carrots are beginning to go golden, cover with the milk and stock, bring to the boil and simmer until tender. This will take about 10 minutes. 5 Blend the soup to a rough consistency, then tip back into the pan and add the rice and cumin. Simmer for a few more minutes. 6 Pull off the heat, whisk in the yolks one by one, stir in the chopped mint, season well and serve immediately with a sprinkle of paprika.

Both utterly lovely soups, light and tasty, and easy to make, with a nice amount of kitchen pottering, and time to knit while things simmer. There are lots more lovely recipes in the booklet, I think next I will try the Salt Cod Macaroni Bake

Leaving Stirchley

2010-08-24T18:35:00.004+01:00

So, in 7 days, I will be moving out of Stirchley. I've decided to move to Moseley because it's a part of town with a lot more going on (6 pubs! A farmers and arts market! A folk fest!)

And just my luck, as I plan to leave, Stirchley starts doing stuff. Today was the second Stirchley Market, which I went to. While there I purchased this rather beautiful cupcake:

Which is a lemon & earl grey cupcake by Frost and Snow Bakery. It was delicious, lovely light sponge, perfect for a pre swimming snack.

While there I also found out about a cycling cooperative who are going to help me get on the road on two wheels. I was tempted by a pizza fired on site by Loaf, but decided the cupcake was enough.

I'd recommend the market if you're passing through, it was lovely.

Blackberries

2010-08-08T22:05:00.002+01:00

Mum and Dad came up to see me yesterday, bringing a tub of blackberries from their garden.

Finding myself at a loose end at 8 this evening, I decided to make blackberry crumble muffins:

And had far too much crumble tpping, with spare blackberries, so 4 cute little crumbles happened too:

Now off to taste test them, though my sources say the muffins are good!

Busy Day

2010-07-04T21:19:00.003+01:00

It was my birthday on Friday, so today I made cakes to take in to work tomorrow:

53 cupcakes and 24 cookies

Mocha, orange, lemon and vanilla

Here's the orange cupcakes ready to go in, and Piggy Wiggy, the spatula my colleagues bought me, which has worked hard today!

Also, mum & dad gave me these lovely flowers. I don't have a vase at the moment, so I arranged them in a set of jam jars:

Tired and accomplished!

UFOs

2010-07-03T15:45:00.002+01:00

Current UFO Pile:

Lace Mohair Scarf - ever ongoing
Manos Vest - stalled because I have too many YOs in the wrong place - need aunty Helen to help me make it Go! ;P
Denim dress which needs fixing
Purple Linen skirt - just needs the hem turning up
Laptop sleeve - lots left to do. I got bored.
Hemming for a lady at work - really should do this.
1 x Top Secret Crochet Project - just need to join pieces
Part finished blouse - slow progress being made
Crewel picture, lots of circles - I think I'm nearly done with this then I can frame and hang it
Textured embroidery butterfly pic - nearly done, got a few more areas to add to, stitch the border, frame and hang.
Petticoat - loads to do on this, however I now have a bias binding foot for the sewing machine, and a ruffler foot for the overlocker, as well as Hot Ginger as an excuse!

Hrm... There are probably many more UFOs lurking forgotten in cupboards, but these are the ones I can call up straight away!

How many have you got, crafty peeps?

Embroidery Threads

2010-03-27T23:16:00.002Z

Yesterday I discovered that Sharon B, who writes my favourite Stitch Directory, was teaching an embroidery course through Joggles.

Despite being half way through already, enrolments were still open, so I took the plunge and booked myself on. So far, it looks fantastic - loads of great instructions going from design to stitch.

The first activity involves working in monochrome - all white/cream threads - to focus on design and texture. I knew I didn't have many suitable threads, so decided to find all the heaps of cottons I have stashed around the house, and tidy them, so that I can pick up some more.

Having found all my stashes, I had:

Including a lot of blues and greens:

And almost no blacks and whites:

I tidied these away into my two Gold Concept boxes:

Blanket

2010-03-24T13:13:00.002Z

Now Christmas is a distant memory, I can post about the gifts I crafted for people. I made David a blanket, as I felt that he could do with a hug or two.

It is 144 squares, using the Harmony pattern from 'Start Crochet', and is the biggest yarn craft thing I've made. I loved seeing the piles of squares grow - I crocheted and seamed it everywhere while waiting for my PC, on trains, visiting people...

Many of the yarns were from my stash, so had happy memories of other projects, including my first handspun, yarns I'd dyed myself, the yarns I used for my Treat mittens, the first yarn I'd bought, etc.

I'm really proud of the blanket - it's warm and drapey, and David likes it.

Drawing

2010-03-21T21:32:00.002Z

I've been doing quite a lot of crafting recently, knitting and trying to allow myself to relax more.

I have a lot of ideas for projects, embroidery particularly, in my head, but because I am not a very good artist, I struggle to get them down in a form where I'd be able to execute them. To that end, I've been trying to do more drawing. I've been using the poses on Pose Maniacs*, set to 90 seconds, and drawing the people as displayed. This is my first foray into life drawing, and I am pleased with the results. They're not perfect, but they look like people:

I'm intending on doing more drawing, then hopefully both being able to produce my own ideas, and going to a life drawing class to further my skills.

*The site displays a massive range of male and female figures in many poses, some quite challenging. They're displayed as muscular forms, rather than naked flesh, so should probably be safe for most workplaces. I've certainly been drawing from them on my lunch hour!

Tortoise

2009-09-09T12:43:00.002+01:00

Mr Wonderfuls and I spent Bank Holiday Monday at Earlswood Lakes, where I bought some gorgeous thick wool felt squares - red and black, which I am going to sew into a rabbit, and green and brown. I saw those two colours and knew that they would be a perfect tortoise.

Meet John:

He's hand sewed, the shell is circles and semi circles stitched into hexagons, and his legs and head were my first attempt at 3D limbs - I am rather proud of them.

I named him after my Grandad.

Pear

2009-09-08T22:05:00.002+01:00

I've had a long standing fear of drawing. Until module 4 of my course, I'd not done any drawing for the sake of it since I was about 14, so 14 years! I did bits for that module, but fell out of it. Today I got my sketchbook out, and drew the pear on my desk:

I am happy with it, and I want to keep on drawing things!

Biscornu and other happiness

2009-09-07T12:54:00.005+01:00

A while ago, I was having a bit of a crafting hiatus, struggling to find something to knit. Inspired by this Craftster post, I set about looking out the instructions I'd found a couple of years ago for biscornu. These quirky pincushions had always appealed, but I'd never quite got round to making them.

In a fit of madness one morning, with minutes before I needed to leave the house, I grabbed a skein of Caron watercolours thread and a piece of aida that had an unfinished piece for a long forgotten Christmas card on the other end, and started stitching the Indian Biscornu pattern. While Mr Wonderfuls and I were in Chester, I finished the Indian one, and a heart one, and started on the provincial pattern on the way back. Last weekend, I began the Happiness one on the way to spend the day with David in Liverpool. They are fabulous fun, simple patterns, but challenging enough to keep me alert, very portable and just what I needed to get me out of the crafting rut.

You might have noticed a lot of beginnings above. Well, I've now finished two of them:

I love them. The shape is gorgeous, and now my mind is full of thoughts of both more biscornu and other embroidery.

A big source of happiness at the moment is this little poppet:

My new nephew Joshua, who arrived yesterday. I can't wait till Friday when I will (hopefully, traffic permitting!) get to meet him.

I am also loving Mr Wonderfuls, for he replaced the router! The other source of consternation at the beginning of last month was that I could not upload any photos. Well, we got a very nice new router, and I uploaded 250 in one day, without having to compromise on image size. Thank you, wonderful man!

Another love for today is Florence + The Machine, check her out, the music is simply superb. I am trying to resist the urge to go and buy tickets for the gig this Sunday, as we'll have spent the weekend visiting family, so I suspect I will be very tired!

Expect more posts soon, a lot has been going on!

Toys In The Garden

2009-08-27T12:17:00.004+01:00

I've been on a bit of a toymaking kick recently, having made 4 Kates, 7 Bobs, a Giraffe, and a Dolly, among others.

I took them round to Spinonehalf's house on a gorgeous sunny day at the end of June, and had a bit of a photo shoot. (I did try to write this blogpost last month, but my computer was not being very helpful, and I've been a bit busy since then!)

Giraffe relaxes in a tree:

Dolly thinks the flowers are beautiful:

The Kates have a huddle...

...and decide to do some skipping...

...then they relax and do some cloudwatching:

Meanwhile the Bobs decide to use the skipping rope to play tug'o'war!

HEAVE!

The purple team won!

Shaking noses:

Stripy Bobs found a flower!

Camoflage:

All the toys I knitted...

...and the yarn I had left over:

I did all of these with Cascade 220, which is absolutely lovely to knit with. Great stitch definition, doesn't split easily, very economical (all the kates, the yellow bob and the giraffe all came out of the same single ball!) and my new yarn of choice, certainly for toys.

Module 4

2009-08-05T08:51:00.003+01:00

I posted about the collages I'd made for Module 4. The rest of the module was about stencilling, punching, piercing and spraying. Here's are the pieces I submitted:

The green piece is attached to this next page...

Which has butterfly shaped holes cut out of it so I could spray ink thorugh onto the next page:

For this page, I masked off the birds with stencil apertures, then painted the page with calligraphy ink, bleached out the sun through a stencil, and sprayed bleach to mottle the sky:

For this one, I cut a (very complex!) hinge stencil, made a sprayed background to look like door pannels, and stenciled both black and gold markal thorugh the stencil:

The next one is my favourite piece of work I've made so far. Firstly I made a watercolour wash in blues and purples on the front of the page, and applied pastels off the edge of a mask to the back of the page. I tore a strip off the side and folded the page, punching holes along both the torn and folded edges. I laced them back together, adding buttons along the fold, and edged various areas on the watercolour side with iridescent markal paintstik.
Front:

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Back:

View Larger

Hiatus

2009-08-05T08:01:00.004+01:00

Long time no post! I've not been doing very well with crafting recently. It seems that the things I have ideas for, I don't have the materials to execute, and my stash isn't exciting me at the moment.

This has been compounded by a few failures - I tried to make a cabled calorimetry, lovely looking, in pink Cascade 220, but it barely went from the top of one ear to the other - no hope of it fastening around underneath my hair! A friend gave me a scarf pattern that she'd used to make a gorgeous scarf for me, so I cast on for it in some lovely black alpaca I have, which is plied with a thin ply of white. Got a little way in and decided to do some maths - worked out that my finished scarf would be 25cm wide by 45cm long. Not really a scarf, so back into the frogpond that one went. I've cast on for the same scarf pattern in a much thinner mystery stash yarn, which I have 3 balls of, but as it is off white, I now think it looks like a dishcloth.

To compound matters, I have a gorgeous new camera, but I am struggling to upload the images it takes to Flickr because they are too large. I am torn between slowly slowly uploading them at full size so that they are available on there, and shrinking them to speed up the uploads. It doesn't help that seemingly any uploads to Flickr kill my net connection.

I did module 4 of my course, which was very good. I'm making slow progress on Module 5 now, it just feels like I've made no progress at all, and that there is no time for me at the moment.

It'll get better in time.

Here's a picture of me at Big Session back in June, when the weather was sunny:

Collages

2009-05-30T22:04:00.003+01:00

Today I've been doing some more coursework, namely making collages from geometric shapes using complementary colours:

I chose the papers for the background of this one, then realised that they are fire and water!

This one was great fun to create, I loved choosing the papers for the square.

This one is inspired by this image from a collection I made last module. It was great fun to tear all the pieces of various papers and colour them.

Creative Sketchbooks Module 3

2009-05-29T23:43:00.000+01:00

I handed in Module 3 of my course last week.

It was an enjoyable module, I had to collect inspirational collections of images.

I then used one of these to paint a range of papers using colours drawn from an image of a bird, and further worked into the papers with oil pastels and PVA glue.

The biggest challenge for me was the drawing part of the module, where I had to sketch various plants. Having not done any drawing for about 13 years, I was rather scared of that part of the module. Hannah gave me some good suggestions, the most helpful of which was to set a timer and just sketch for 5 minutes, getting down whatever you can in that time. I did these 3 sketches of plants int he conservatory on holiday:

I need to get into a habit of drawing more things, so that I can keep on working at the fear of doing it, and hopefully get better!

The next module looks fun, lots of work with collage and stencilling.

DJ DJ!

2009-05-28T19:52:00.000+01:00

On Tuesday Night, Helen & I DJed at Stitches'n'Hos, a local knitting night at the Hare & Hounds pub in Kings Heath.

We'd volunteered to do it a couple of weeks earlier, armed only with our impeccable taste in music! We'd never DJed before, and had no idea how such strange equipment as decks and mixing desks worked.

We spent a couple of our Tuesday evening get togethers planning the kind of things we'd like to play, and picking the first hour of music, to give us time to get used to the decks and make sure the crowd weren't throwing knitting at us because they didn't like the tunes!

We had a fabulous time, got some knitting done, and played lots of songs we love. Some of the tracks are available on Spotify, so here's a Spotify playlist of those I could find.

There are so many good songs we didn't get to play, so we're looking forward to the next time we can get the CDs out!

Tiny Robot Love!

2009-05-14T08:53:00.002+01:00

I can't quite remember how, but David discovered these fabulous little robots:

Their creator makes them and sets them off into the world, with a destination on the flag, but they can only travel in straight lines, so they need help from passers by to make it to their goal.

Check out Tweenbots, the video is wonderful!

BARG#4

2009-05-10T09:23:00.007+01:00

Yesterday, Mr Wonderfuls and I went off to join the BARG peeps for a day of fun at w i d e o p e n s p a c e, a day of games based round the bullring and Curzon Street.

The first game we played was Hat Snap, which involved wearing a rather fetching newspaper bonnet with a number on the back:

There were about 10 of us, and the object of the game was to take as many photos as possible of other people's numbers, while trying to stop your one getting snapped. It was great fun, with all these people who had moments before been strangers running round after each other, sliding along walls, sneaking out from behind pillars and generally bemusing people who were having a quiet afternoon shopping in town.

I won! I got 22 points, partly I think due to my camera having quite a good zoom in comparison to some of the camera phones in use. It was great fun, and I caused many giggles walking through Smiths looking for batteries with my hat on, though when I told people what I was doing, they wished me luck.

We headed over to Curzon Street next and set up a chalk labyrinth for a few goes at The Lost Sport, where a blindfolded runner needs to work their way out of a labyrinth guided by the rest of the team who are walls and cannot give any guidance other than humming.

This is what the game looks like from the outside:

Here's a little Wall's Eye Point of View:

After a few people had worked their way out of it, I decided to have a go. It was a thoroughly bizarre experience - you're trying to balance going as fast as you can with not falling over, crashing into people, or treading on too many toes. There were several moments where, apart from the humming, it felt as if I was all alone in a wide open space, and plenty where I was walking into the walls. The turns were particularly difficult - you're heading along fine, and suddenly you crash into someone and need to work out what way to go next.

duncautumnstore recorded a couple of audioboos of my run, which are here and here, complete with many apologies and giggles.

We also played the 'Waving At Trains' game, as lots of the train lines out of the city run past the car park where we were playing:

Quite a few people waved back (more on local services than cross country ones) and a few train drivers even honked at us!

There were more games later on, but Mr Wonderfuls & I decided to head home. All in all, a fabulous day, thank you to Nikki for organising it, we'll be looking out for BARG#5!

Very Crafty Weekend

2009-05-04T22:01:00.004+01:00

This weekend I've made rather a lot of things. As well as the finished quilt top for Thomas, I made two skirts.

I ordered a couple of Clothkits in January, and hadn't made time to sew them till this weekend. First, I sewed up the Trellick Tower skirt:

I love it. It's ever so slightly crackers as a skirt, but is really rather fabulous.

Here, thanks to the wonders of Zemanta, is a pic of the actual Trellick tower, in London:

Image via Wikipedia

The second skirt I sewed was their 'Hold Me' skirt, which is an absolutely beautiful design from a papercut by Rob Ryan, an artist whose work I recognise, but never knew, and am now utterly in love with.

The way that the Clothkits work is that they send you a piece of preprinted fabric with all the pattern pieces marked on. You chalk the side lines onto the skirt pieces, cut them out, and use them to cut the lining.

The fabric as it arrives

You then follow the nice clear instructions (as much as I ever follow instructions) and make it up into a skirt.

I'm really pleased with the Hold Me skirt, the colours are gorgeous:

I also carded 5 merino-silk-wensleydale batts in beautiful sea blue-greens, and sewed all the ends into my Treat scarf. All in all a good weekend!

Finished Top

2009-05-03T12:34:00.002+01:00

I've been working on Thomas's quilt, and yesterday I pieced all the squares into 6 strips to form the central panel. Today, I've sewed it into this:

The observant among you might notice that it differs slightly from the plan. When I was assembling the strips, I seem not to have managed to put the squares together to make a railfence. I'm calling it Crocodile Whirlpool.

Now to do more crafting before going to Wrapped In Wool's birthday crafty shenanigans, and more sewing is planned for tomorrow, including teaching Mr Wonderfuls how to sew cravats.

Happy Bank Holiday Weekend!

Sunlight Through Bracken

2009-04-28T12:29:00.002+01:00

On Sunday, Rikk, David, Anna & I went for a walk on the Lickey Hills. We started off at the visitor centre, and all the area round there is new to me, as I've only walked round the side near the viewpoint when doing a geocache

This is my favourite picture from Sunday:

More photos here

For David...

2009-04-26T20:49:00.005+01:00

My friend David celebrated his birthday recently, so I made him this little guy:

The pattern is Grumpasaurus from Kat Knits, though he rapidly got renamed 'Davidasaurus'

I love this picture of Davidasaurus roaming across Blanketscape:

Last week, David had to go into hospital overnight, so to keep him company I made him Little Nurse:

I based her on the pattern for the Black Apple Doll, at the size as printed (not enlarged) with a few additions, namely her belt, collar, nurse's hat and shoes.

I made the shoes by cutting two pairs of foot shapes out of red felt (slightly larger than the doll's feet), folding one from each pair in half and cutting the dip out of the top. I blanket stitched them round the edges and joined them to the feet by threading a needle with six strands of embroidery thread, making a tiny stitch on the back of the shoe, through the leg and back out through the shoe again, then drawing the thread through till the tails were of equal length. I knotted this, rethreaded my needle and made one stitch on each side through the foot with the tails, coming out at the front level with where I wanted the ties to start. I tied these off in a bow and trimmed the tails to a nice length.

I'd not had a chance to take photos of either of these two before I gave them to David, but he & Anna visited this weekend, so I took these then. While they were both in the same place, Davidasaurus and the Little Nurse got quite friendly!

I had a great time making both of these, and I'm very proud of how Little Nurse turned out. I'm planning on making a couple of these for the girls for their birthdays, so it's nice to know that the pattern does what I want it to do!

Musical Raindrops

2009-04-25T08:13:00.000+01:00

this is a fabulously beautiful little toy.

Thanks to Keri Smith for the link.

The Wrong Season

2009-04-24T13:28:00.005+01:00

I'm making good progress on the Treat scarf to go with the mittens I mentioned in this post.

(The yarn is actually cornflower blue & jades, same as the mittens,I took the pic with my cameraphone)

It amuses me that the weather is, on the whole, beautifully warm here. I reckon I'll finish it, wear it once 'just because', then pack it away with the mittens (which I'm still wearing) as something to look forward to in October.

I'm also really proud of this photo of a seagull I took at Beaumaris on holiday:

It was a long way up, I was zoomed as far in as my camera will go, and I got lucky!

First Toy Society Drop - Pickle

2009-03-30T12:59:00.005+01:00

Having discovered The Toy Society last week, at the weekend I made this little chap:

While he was being made, I named him Pickle. He sat on the bookcase for a couple of days, and I knew that if he was going to be dropped somewhere, I had to do it soon, before I got too attached.

This morning, I packed him into a bag, with a note and a tag inviting people to take him. I left for work a bit early, and hung him outside a local school, waiting for a small person to find him on their way in:

Although the pavement was empty and the roads quite quiet at 8:10 when I was hanging him there, I felt quite nervous, but excited. I hope he makes someone's Monday.

If you want to be part of it, just check out The Toy Society blog, and join to get all the info :)

Edit: My drop is now up on the blog here

Little Giraffe

2009-03-23T12:51:00.002Z

I knitted this Little Giraffe for my new niece/nephew, who isn't due till September.

Little giraffe likes flowers, the nice warm lamp on my desk, bananas and yellow bowls, though he's not too sure about pea and pesto soup, even if it is home made!

The pattern was great, a quick little knit. I made a couple of modifications:

Worked it on two circs instead of DPNs

Knitted an extra row of yellow before starting the body chart to secure all the legs together

Rearranged the stitches so the ear flap was on one needle, and worked an extra row there so the yarn was in the right place for redividing the stitches to work the face.

Also, I made sure to catch the yellow yarn in on the middle stitch of each spot, when I didn't do this, the legs got very tight. Next time I'd leave an even longer tail for sewing the ears and making the horns, and I'd embroider the eyes before stuffing the head.

Now I just need to pack it away till September & not forget where I've put it!

Ahead of the game

2009-03-18T13:38:00.004Z

I'm in a funny place here. I think they call it Organised. I've finished a good friend's birthday present, with over 3 weeks to go till their birthday, and cast on for my new niece/nephew's knitted giraffe I'm making for when they are born in September.

I've got a list with all the people I want to get gifts for this year, and while it contains lots of gaps where I don't have ideas for specific people yet, the next things I am going to make are a couple of Christmas presents. Christmas. An event which is 282 days away!

And I'm not the only one. Spinonehalf has started her Christmas knitting too.

Maybe it took a few years of last minute December cramming to get us to learn that we really should start early. I'm just not sure March was when we'd planned to!

Maker Faire

2009-03-17T13:10:00.003Z

I'm still editing my way through the photos* I took at Maker Faire this weekend, so in the meantime, here's some video footage to give you a taster of what went on:

* though my camera appears to have lost 100 of my photos!

Technology is Awesome

2009-03-14T22:48:00.003Z

Miss & Mr Wrapped in Wool, Mr Wonderfuls and I are up in Newcastle at the 1st UK Maker Faire. The website was a bit vague about what was going to be on, but we decided to trust our gut intuition that Make:/Craft: would put on a fabulous event & trek up here.

When we arrived in the marquee, we made a beeline for the Tinker.it/Folksy joint stand, where I got to sy 'Hello' - it was great to see Folksy at the event. We were quickly distracted by the local weaving/spinning/dyeing guild, who were demonstrating weaving on an Ashford loom, tablet weaving and needlefelting.

I fell in love with the loom weaving, it is such a relaxing process. We were using a plain warp, a novelty yarn weft and weaving slubs of a merino silk blend in every now ad again to add texture. I spent quite a while weaving and made a small felted brooch.

The Curiosity Collective had a fabulous stand with models based on proverbs. I especially liked the Watched Pot, which sensed when it was being watched and displayed how close to boiling it was.

We did some silk painting, which was very peaceful and relaxing, despite being surrounded by the sounds of many interesting electronic devices.

Wrapped in Wool and I went off to the Chiptune Marching Band workshop, and spent a happy 3 hours making fab battery powered, hand crank rechargeable noise machines, then proceeded, with the 20 or so other workshop participants, to flashmob both the faire and Newcastle Station with our interesting sound tubes

We rushed back to the main marquee to try to see all of the other stand which we mised when we were weaving and Chiptuning, including the lovely guy at the Howduino stall, the fantastic full sized animatronic horse on wheels, the Maker Shed store where I bought a tshirt and a LED picture kit, the lady who told us all about Gocco, and explained how they're not being made any more, and loads of other great stands.

We didn't get to do all of the events at the Faire, we skipped the Robot Wars in favour of workshops and stalls, and didn't have time to go to the discovery centre.

In all, it was a fantastic day, and I hope that the Faire will return to the UK next year, or sooner. I think next time I'd like to see more crafters sharing our skills alongside the more electronically minded folks, some examples of conductive thread/lilypad arduino projects (maybe a workshop with some stuff to take home) and even more shopping!

Morning Elegance

2009-03-12T19:39:00.001Z

This is just wonderful:

Eye Spy... Makes Me Laugh

2009-03-12T13:28:00.005Z

I'm a bit late for this week's date, as this week I've been a bit busy. Drobtinice set us the theme of 'Something that makes me laugh', and it has got to be my family.

People who meet my parents say that all my eccentricities suddenly make sense. Yesterday my dad called me, almost crying tears of laughter to tell me about an incident at his work resulting in the destruction of a modelling straw tower with a bit of lighting equipment. It's impossible not to laugh when my dad is!

From my mum's endlessly optimistic belief that she needn't do a gauge swatch when knitting hats:

To my dad having the sense of fun to still let us put his hair into bunches and ponytails, even when his girls are in their twenties:

Yes, some of those are held up with freezer clips

And my sister and I being on the same wacky wavelength:

I know whenever I feel a bit blue my family will cheer me up.

Eye Spy... Something that makes me Happy

2009-03-01T21:25:00.005Z

I'm playing along with Eye Spy Sunday hosted by Cindy of Bug and Pop, and this week's theme, courtesy of Iris and Lily is 'Something that Makes Me Happy'

I spent part of this morning folding my tiny quilting fat quarter collection using Kootoyoo's instructions, and the little happy pile looked so beautiful:

I've got some colour family groups, with possible quilts/projects in mind for these:

1. Amy Butler Midwest Modern (IIRC) - all these are long quarter yards so I'll probably pick up a few more co-ordinating prints and do something like the stacked coins with them.

2. Moon & coordinating prints - no idea what I want to do with these, I think I need a few more coordinating blues first.

3. Pink & Greens - I want to pick up some more co-ordinating small scale prints with these and do a star block or two with them. The one at the back is a long quarter, the other 3 are FQs.

4. Kaffe Fasset Floral - Got this one free on my last Cotton Patch shopping spree, no plan as yet!

5. Liberty print - I was given this print in a Craftster swap about 4 years ago, and I've been hoarding it until I can learn to sew clothes to fit my figure and then I'm going to sew it into a blouse. I've got a metre of it, so I think I'm going to have to find a lightweight black cotton to pair it with to make up the yardage. Kootoyoo's folding method also works with lightweight fabric (lighter than quilters cotton) up to a metre, and with quilters cotton up to half a metre.

6. Lovely flowery pink FQ - my sister bought this FQ about 4 years ago, wanting to make something for her (now eldest) daughter Chloë. She realised that she was unlikely to be able to, and gave it to me, so I am waiting until I find the perfect project for her to use it.

I love the pure, happy potential of a stack of beautiful fabric, and I've really enjoyed neatly folding it all. I've also been using the folding round a quilters ruler method for the yardage that I bought.

Does anyone have any suggestions of good ways to fold the long quarters?

Another thing making me happy this week is the mittens I finished knitting:

They are knitted from the beautifully soft and warm Mirasol Miski, baby llama fibre. They have a gap across the palm for sticking your fingers out of to get out your train pass or press the Pelican crossing buttons. The end of the thumb is open to help with that, but you can tuck it into the palm if it gets cold. I've called them 'Treat' because they were such a happy, easy knit - more pics here.

They're knit on 2 4mm circs, and are a quick easy knit. A friend will be testing the pattern for me, and then I'll have it available for download.

I'm off to have some home made lemon and ginger ice cream.

A Change of Plan

2009-03-01T17:52:00.004Z

After a visit to Cotton Patch, I appear to have totally changed the fabrics for the quilt. Mr Wonderfuls came with me, because he has a good eye for colour, and helped me choose the fabrics. We've gone for a subtle crocodile theme, hopefully something that is still little boy friendly but will grow older with him.

This is the final plan:

The backing will be turquoise, and I'm going to stitch the centre in the ditch, and probably do a wave pattern on the bubble borders, if I can get that looking good.

The fabric on the left is the backing.

What do you think?

Quilt Plan

2009-02-28T11:09:00.002Z

I've made quilts for both Chloë & Emma's birthdays, which they love- they go with the girls whenever they stay away from home. It is Thomas' 2nd birthday this year, so it is his turn to have an Aunty Quilt. Both of the girls quilts were late, and I don't want TJ's to be. His birthday is in August, so I'm buying the fabric today, and making it when I go on holiday in a couple of months time.

This is my plan for Thomas' quilt. I'm very lucky that the wonderful Cotton Patch is just down the road from me, so I get to go to the shop and choose my fabrics. I may not use the ones I picked for the mockup, as I'm sure there'll be lots of exciting possibilities once I get to the shop. I found picking fabrics for this quilt harder than for the girls - so many quilt fabrics are either pink/girly colours, or floral. I don't really want a kiddy print one so my choices are a bit more limited. I'm sure I'll be fine when I get there and am surrounded by lovely fabrics

I like making these mockups - I do them in paint using the pictures of the fabrics from the Cotton Patch website, and it helps me see whether my borders are balanced, etc. I know this is a simple Railfence block, but it's new to me, so I wanted to practice.

Spring Dawn

2009-02-27T07:06:00.002Z

This was the view from my bedroom window moments after waking up today - for the first time in such a long time it is light when I wake up. This makes it so much easier to get out of bed.

Glass Jar Frames

2009-02-23T12:19:00.003Z

I love Photojojo. They send me great photo tips, things to do with my images, great places on the Web to talk to photographers and they have the Time Capsule.

Last night, I (slightly guiltily) added two more clean jam jars to one of the many stashes I have round my house, thinking that I really should do something with them. I also have a lot of photos, sat in a box rather than round my house being displayed.

Cue photojojo!

Today's newsletter included this fab simple tip for using clean jam jars to frame your photos. I'm going to give this a go!

Knitting in Ends

2009-02-22T21:01:00.006Z

Image by chickeninthewoods via Flickr

Progress on my 'Something' is going well (about 15cm so far in the past 24 hours), but I didn't fancy knitting in ends for all my stripes. Sock Pr0n posted this method for weaving in both your previous colour and the tail from your new colour and it is fab :) I've been using it for the past couple of stripes, and hooray, no weaving.

I'm using some lovely, soft Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Astrakhan (Though not in this colour!), which is very forgiving, but it looks as if this method works well on the WS of smooth knits too!

Beautiful Necklaces

2009-02-22T08:18:00.003Z

LP jewellery on Etsy does these beautiful necklaces:
"Life is a Journey"
"Live, Love, Laugh"
"A Teacher Affects Eternity" (Helen & Helen, this one made me think of you :) )

I've been knitting and sewing busily and have lots of finished projects to share with you, as well as a few on the needles. I've just cast on a 'Something' in Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Astrakhan in chocolate, cream, lime, purple & jade. I don't quite know what yet - it is about 30cm wide and all knit, because the yarn doesn't have any stitch definition to speak of. I'm going to change colours for each knitting session, hopefully randomising the stripe pattern, and it might be a scarf, a shawl, or I might do several strips and make a blanket. No plan, just playing with yarn

Folksy Five: Snow Days!

2009-02-02T19:41:00.004Z

Today I made it out through the snow, to work and back. I woke up, and put a spicy beef stew in the slow cooker, which was a wonderful idea - when I arrived home, the house was full of lovely cooking smells.

I travelled by bus today, wrapped up warm wearing a panta, hat, gloves, 3 scarves, knee high socks, welly socks, and legwarmers. I went outside and made a rather scary looking snowman before Mr Wonderfuls got home.

Folksy Five: Journalling

2009-01-19T12:23:00.002Z

I was given a wonderful book by my friend Hannah for Christmas. The Creative License: Giving Yourself Permission to be the Artist You Truly Are has got me over my fear of drawing. I bought a lovely little Moleskine journal - Moleskine Pocket Sketch-book and just got going. I'm loving the time I spend absorbed in it totally, something which I don't think I've experienced since childhood.

In honour of that, this week's Folksy Five is journals and related bits I currently love:

1. Handpainted Moleskine Cahier Journal by Illusio Creative - The cover art on this journal is so beautiful, a book that would just have to contain lots of lovely things.

2. Matryoshka Jute Bag by Beaky - You'd need something to go on adventures with, carrying your journal, pencils, and probably a packed lunch and a camera too! This little Matryoshka bag would be perfect for day exploring.

3. Mini Oz Inspired Sketchbook by KatysShop - This little A6 sketchbook would be perfect for popping in a pocket for drawing anywhere, and it has a Wizard of Oz cover, lovely.

4. Pencil Roll Up - Dragonflies and Retro Print - by RowSewCreative is beautiful, and would hold a set of pencils prefect for any picture opportunity.

5. Concertina book by Lapwing Printworks - a beautiful book that would be lovely recording thoughts and mementoes from a special holiday.

An honourable mention has to go to "& with these pencils", also by Lapwing Printworks, a fantastic little shop selling cards, prints and other paper goods printed in Norfolk. I was going to feature it in my Folksy Five, but I decided it was so gorgeous, I had to buy it:

Isn't it wonderful!

Happy New Year

2009-01-01T19:42:00.002Z

I've had a bit of a break from blogging, and have been spending lots of time with friends and family, celebrating Christmas, going to the Panto, seeing in the New Year in lovely (albeit poorly) company, and so far 2009 is going well.

I want to spend more of this year creating things, and journalling, both with photos, and getting over my fear of drawing and doing some real journalling.

I took lots of photos today, I think this is my favourite:

Happy New Year, I hope your 2009 is filled with many brilliant things.

Folksy Five: Comfort

2008-12-17T19:31:00.002Z

This week's Folksy Five is late because I was off work ill, so I have picked 5 items that would have been lovely and comforting when I was poorly:

I spent a lot of the past couple of days curled up on the sofa, so this London Underground Cushion by Mrs Gibson would be perfect to rest a weary head on.

I love this Under the Rainbow quilt by Knitz and Bitz - more happy childhood memories, and such a great use of fabric.

While alone in the house, some company would have been nice, and I think Vincent by Lilylola would fit the bill perfectly, and I think with his secret 'Heat' reading tendencies, he'd like all the Shameless I watched!

When you've had a cold it's important to wrap up warm when you venture back into the real world, and this Green chunky Ribbed scarf from urbanknit would be perfect for snuggling into when I first stepped outside this morning.

To go with the scarf, these fingerless gloves by Blackberry Crafts would be perfect for warming chilly hands when de-icing the car this morning.

What things are providing comfort and coziness for you at the moment?

Mini Festive Giveaway

2008-12-12T12:50:00.002Z

Have you made any cards using the Wide Eyed Wonderfuls Stitched Holiday Cards instructions? If so, drop your pictures into the Wide Eyed Wonderfuls Flickr Pool between now and next Thursday, the 18th, to be in with a chance of winning an 8 x 6 print of this gorgeous image:

Everyone putting one or more pictures of a card using or inspired by the tute will get an entry into the draw, which will be made next Friday.

There's still time to make a card or two if you've been trying to find the time to, as they are very quick, and beautifully effective.

Shop Update

2008-12-11T13:14:00.001Z

Just a flying post to say that the shop has had a quick update, with 4 more prints added today:

Folksy Five: Fairytales

2008-12-08T07:31:00.000Z

This week's Folksy Five is all fairytale themed:

Jack and the Beanstalk wallhanging, by 23BeechHill - this adorable wallhanging has so many gorgeous pattenred fabrics, and would look lovely hanging on the wall in my nieces' and nephew's new bedroom.

Fairytale Dancing Couple Resin Pendant, by A Resin Revival - I love the look of resin jewellery, and this whimsical dancing couple reminds me of reading Little Women books in my Uncle's cottage as a child. This would be perfect for dressing up a holiday party outfit.

Little Red Riding Hood Illustration by ArtQuirk - one of the first items I saw on Folksy, and an instant love. They depict my favourite fairytale, capturing the brooding danger of the wood so well.

Little Red Riding Hood Stud earrings by FluffsStuffs - I love FluffsStuffs stuff, and these earrings are no exception, even though I don't hve pierced ears, these are still so cute.

Frog Prince Wallhanging, by Tiddlywinks - such a sweet wallhanging, the frog prince is especially lovely with his little crown.

And the winners are...

2008-12-04T19:30:00.002Z

Thanks for all your lovely comments on my photos! With the help of Mr Wonderfuls and a random number generator, I'm happy to announce the winners of my giveaway are:

36 - maggie (from Canada, sorry Maggie from the USA!), who wins a print of Rockpools

25 - Bittycakes, who wins a print of Yellow Flowers

43 - Rather Be Whistling, who wins a print of Sheep In The Bracken

Thanks to all who took part, and thanks to Sew Mama Sew! for hosting.

Check back for future giveaways!

Give Away Day - Your Chance to Win Stuff!

2008-12-03T13:17:00.007Z

Here it is, the Wide Eyed Wonderfuls contribution to the Sew Mama Sew! Giveaway Day.

I'm giving away three prints from my Folksy Shop, and to be in with the chance of winning, all you need to do is leave a comment here telling me your top 3 prints from my shop. You've got until 6pm GMT tomorrow (London time, 4th December) to do so, and I'll draw the winners using a random number generator tomorrow, and will send you one of your top 3.

Good luck, and go here for more blogs doing giveaways.

Edit - to clarify, I'm happy to send these prints internationally, and I've extended the deadline as there are rather a lot of blogs taking part, to give people chance to join in if they like.

Contest entries are now closed! - thanks for all the lovely comments everyone. Now home to crank up the random number generator!

Folksy Five: Jewellery

2008-12-01T22:18:00.007Z

I've been doing quite a bit of mental shopping - lusting over items in lots of Folksy shops, here's my 5 favourite jewellery pieces at the moment:

From left to right:
All In A Spin pendant by ZoeWoods - I love matroshkya dolls, and the sweet whimsical style of this pendant is so sweet.

Teakwood and Silver pendant by Anita Curtis - this is such a beautiful, simple pairing - I can see myself wearing this for work, and feeling very grown up.

Bluetit Felt Brooch by Lupin Handmade - great stitching on this sweet little bluetit - he'd look great perched on a winter jacket collar.

The Wizard of Oz Kawaii Chunky Charm bracelet by Fluffs Stuff - This brings back happy memories of going to see the 'Ozzard of Wiz' with my dad as a child, the fabric is just so charming!

Quaint Kitchen Blue Fabric Necklace by Pennydog - I have a soft spot for good resin jewellery, and the colours in this one are great, and she donates £1 to the Retired Greyhound Trust, a charity my family also support.

How about supporting artists & crafters, and buying handmade this Christmas?

I'm going to be taking part in the Sew Mama Sew! give away day on Wednesday, December 3rd, so check back here then for a chance to win some prints from my Folksy Shop

Creative Sketchbooks Module 2

2008-11-30T23:52:00.003Z

I've just sent off the work for the second module of my Creative Sketchbooks course. I did most of the work for it on holiday, surrounded by gorgeous Welsh landscapes. It was nice to have the time to scan it in and send it off.

This module was all about colour, blending and mixing, and making colour wheels.

Big Knit Certificate

2008-11-28T08:59:00.001Z

I got home last night to find a certificate from nnocent, commending me for my Big Knit efforts

Hooray!

Gigs and Markets: Oysterband Weekend

2008-11-27T12:51:00.009Z

Last weekend, my mum visited and we went to the Oysterband 30th Anniversary gig at Birmingham Town Hall, which we'd been looking forward to since Big Session in June.

The German Christmas market was on in Victoria Square next to the Town Hall, so we went there before the gig for a bite to eat and a look round the stalls

There were many stalls selling all sorts of food and drinks, and I hope to go back a couple of times over the next month to try more of the treats on offer!

As well as the markets, the Christmas lights were up, and the tree had been decorated, producing beautiful reflections in the Floozy's pool. The Town Hall looked very grand lit up at night.

I took lots of photos, and tried to capture some typical fairground shots of the lights blurring, and I think I did well with quite a few of them! We went on the carousel and I went down the helter skelter, which gave great views over the whole square. Mum bought a strawberry hat, and I tried on lots of the wonderfully daft hats available.

More German Christmas Market photos are here

After that, we went over to the Town Hall for the gig. I picked up a copy of their new CD and a tour t-shirt, and we got a good spot right at the front.

The support act were Edward II, who I'd not heard of. This was their 1st gig after a nine year break, and they were fantastic, playing a mix of Reggae & Folk, which really worked. The audience were all dancing and having a great time. More Edward II pics here

Then the main event. Oysterband opened the gig with 'Over The Water', and spent about 2 hours playing wonderful tracks, with an audience who were really enjoying it. At one point, John and Chopper got down and walked around the audience singing. I love Oysterband shows so much, as they enjoy playing, and it is always an amazing evening.

They finished the show with 'Put Out The Lights' acoustic, like they did at Big Session. I was hoping to be able to record all of the song, as it is magical, but my memory card ran out part way through, so I can only share the first minute or so with you:

After the gig I got to chat to the guys in the foyer, and recommended Frank Turner to them for booking at Big Session 2009. They signed my CD and we talked about lots of things. More Oysterband pics here

Saturday dawned bright and early, but chilly, and Mum & I went to Moseley Farmers Market. I was hoping to pick up some Christmas gifts, but the stall I wanted to buy them from wasn't there, so instead we looked at lots of stalls on the Arts Market, and were there for the Bromsgrove Town Crier ringing the official market bell to announce that Moseley is the best UK Farmers Market for 2009:

I also got to take some nice photos of vegetables:

More Farmers Market pics here

St Marys Church was having a little Christmas fair, so I bought some bric a brac and breakfast (2 slices of toast with Marmite and a fairy cake!), before taking some photos of the church & churchyard.

This weekend is far less exciting - haircut and making Christmas gifts.

Hurrah! Folksy Shop Live!

2008-11-25T08:18:00.006Z

My Folksy shop is now open, and can be found here: http://wideeyedwonderfuls.folksy.com/, and for stock updates, etc, you can follow me on Twitter here: http://twitter.com/wideeyedwshop

Happy days!

And here's a shiny button link to it:

Love Graffiti

2008-11-24T13:05:00.000Z

Seen on a wall at the main gate to the University:

DON'T BE AFRAID

IT'S ONLY LOVE

It made me smile!

Five Go Adventuring

2008-11-24T07:49:00.001Z

Hannah, Jim, Helen / Anna (my mum), Rikk, me!

Not too recently now, (last month) my lovely friends and family went on a holiday to Criccieth, on the North Wales Coast. My astute audience will notice that the title states there were 5 of us, but the roll call (above) includes 6. My sister & her family were staying in another cottage just down the road in Pwlhelli, but had to go home early as Thomas had an ear infection, so my mum joined us in our cottage, rather than be alone in a strange house.

Photos from around the cottage

The view from the bedroom window, Shoes in the sunlight, a chcken on the drive, grandfather clock with no minute hand

Our cottage was in the middle of nowhere, a couple of miles from the sea. It had a lovely holiday feel to it, and had nice things like clocks and dressers full of plates, and somewhere to put coats and boots. It was on a farm, so there were chickens.

Welsh Highland Railway

Railway sign, Rikk & Heather, Train view / Steam Train, view, More Sign!

We spent the Saturday and Sunday settling into the cottage and buying a ridiculous amount of food at Lidl, then on Monday we went on the Welsh Highland Railway. This is a lovely little steam train service, about a 30 minute round trip with a museum at the other end. I took a lot of photos, which sadly my memory card reader ate, so all I have are little photos. Sadly this is the last season the WHR will be able to run trains due to a dispute over track rights.

Criccieth Castle

We went to Criccieth castle, which was very windy, but had beautiful views. When we had a rest on a bench looking out over the bay, there was a little robin flying around, attracting the attention of a lovely Mackerel tabby. They were also having a medieval day, where we got to look at various weapons and Helen struck a coin.

Criccieth Beach

The inaugaral outing for my flowery wellies, Rikk wandering on the beach, a view of the castle, my lovely silly hat, on my lovely silly boyfriend.

Rikk and I had a little afternoon out and went back to Criccieth, where we wandered on the beach. Again, it was cold and windy, so we wrapped up warm, and I proceeded to jump the waves. We had lovely fish and chips in a cafe overlooking the beach, and bought a lovespoon and a painting to decorate our house.

Pumpkins: Rikk, Hannah, Anna, Helen

Halloween came and went in a flurry of quilting for me, while the other cottage denizens carved their pumpkins, which looked very impressive next to the light from the fire.

Sygun and Beddgelert

We spent a nice day over at Sygun Copper mine, looking round the mine at the stalagmites and stalactites which had formed since the mines closed, and learning about the copper processing. Lunch at Beddgelert was provided by a bistro/antique shop, and then there was the cows incident.

Black Rock Sands

We called in on Black Rock Sands on the way home, which is a spectacular wide beach where you can drive right onto the sand. I've taken lots of lovely photos there before, in February, and took lots more this time.

Ice Creams at Cadwaladers

We stopped off at Cadwaladers for ice cream before starting the drive home. I had a coffee/toffee cone, sat looking out over the sea. Right after I took the photo of my cone, it snapped in half and deposited my ice cream in my hand. We had fun tootling ice cream flutes, and enjoying coffees and hot chocolates.

Over the course of the week, I also got a lot of crafting done, finishing Christmas gifts for Dad & my sister & working on Chloë's quilt, as well as gifts for two other friends.

We've already booked the next holiday, so we're off to Anglesey in Spring, which I can't wait for.

Christmas Cards

2008-11-16T22:14:00.002Z

I've made a lot of these simple but beautiful Christmas cards, so it is fitting that this week's collage should be some of them. They are really quick to make, and I've made a tutorial/template, which you can find here.

I've been selling these at work, with all the proceeds going to CHASE Christopher's Hospice, a fantastic charity who have supported my family. If you find the instructions useful, please consider making a donation to them. Thanks!

Organising bobbins

2008-11-16T11:19:00.001Z

I thought I'd take some time out from today's craft project to write about how I keep my bobbins tidy. I try to use what I have around the house to keep my craft area tidy, so my sewing bobbins are in a ziploc sandwich bag, rather than buying a new storage solution. This meant they were all getting tangled, something that I'm sure would still happen if I kept them in a box or clipped to the top of a spool:

These are the bobbins I took on holiday with me, they were only in the bag for a week but are already coming unwound and getting tangled.

I'd used plumbers tape (aka Teflon tape) for sealing things before, so already had a reel on hand, and it is perfect for keeping bobbins securely wound. Simply wind your thread tail onto the bobbin, cut a length of tape (10cm or so) and wind it round the bobbin, pressing it to itself to seal it. Plumbers tape is not sticky, it only adheres to itself, so doesn't leave thread or bobbins sticky. It is also easy to remove, just stroke the end of the folded down tape up, roll off & set aside until you finish using that bobbin. It does mean the sides of all the bobbins are white, but you can see what colour they are from the top, and I've started writing the colour code on the top of the bobbin with sharpie marker. There - tidier bobbin bag!

It is also useful for winding round cops. I love the 'COTTY' thread from my local quilting shop, but it doesn't come on a notched spool for keeping the thread tidy, so I simply wrap a strip of tape round the middle keeping the thread end tidy. Here's the box with my spools & cops of thread (stored on thin dowels), bag of bobbins & overlocker cones.

Best of all, the reel of plumbers tape is 12m long, so will go very far, and cost 99p. Hope this helps!

Weekly Collage 2008-11-09

2008-11-09T22:11:00.000Z

Lots of stuff going on this week, it was our 1st week back from holiday. I've not done tonnes of crafting, but did have a lovely weekend visiting friends down South and calling in on Milton Keynes (where I lived until I was 5) on the way back.

This Wednesday the Innocent Big Knit smoothies appeared in the shops, so I went along an got one for myself, my boss and my two colleagues, as well as one for Rikk. We had lots of nice hats, but I didn't see any of mine in my local Sainsburys. I also took a picture of my tea mug - I take a stacking pot of different loose herbal teas into work, and enjoy a different cuppa with my stripy mug each day. This is the flower which fell out of the big bunch on reception, so I adopted it!

Helen popped round on Monday & brought this lovely bread to go with our curried pumpkin soup. The third & 4th pics are sneak peeks of Christmas gifts I've been working on today.

There was this nice ivy in Milton Keynes - I liked the lines of the branches and the patterns of the leaves which were still attached. When I was younger, I remember the Concrete Cows, though I think I more remember people talking about them when I was older. I was surprised to see the cows in the shopping centre. I loved the Lego shop, which had this fab RNLI lifeboat, and I made a lego man - Clive - who has dashing blue hair & a smart suit. He carries a circular saw. We took Clive to Pizza Hut for lunch.

Next week, more Christmas crafting, and I am nearly done with the holiday photos, so hopefully a post about that too!

On my desk this week...

2008-11-05T19:50:00.000Z

I've not been doing lots of crafting, as I made a load of things on holiday, of that, more later.

What I have been making is stop motion animation videos, inspired by a complicated train of thought which led me to the Photojojo stop motion tutorial.

My first video was this little one with the conkers and pebbles from my nice little shelf:

Conkers And Pebbles from Heather on Vimeo.

I like this one, I think I got the light right, but I learned that I need to make sure that the camera is tight on to the tripod.

This is my second video - I need to make a found object colour wheel for my art course, and I decided it'd be a good idea to animate it!

Buttons from Heather on Vimeo.

I like it, but the lighting in it is inconsistent, and I need much brighter lights, both for future videos, and for general crafting - both my craft lights are not working, so I've borrowed my bedside lamp.

Spot the point where I got the colour wheel a bit wrong!

Then, when I was editing holiday pics this morning, I discovered that I had enough pics of me jumping waves on Criccieth beach to make a tiny vid :)

Jumping in the Waves at Criccieth Beach from Heather on Vimeo.

Hoorah for lots of pictures!

More desk posts here!

Apologies!

2008-11-03T23:00:00.000Z

No weekly collages/desk posts/other goodness from me, as I've been on holiday! I'm slowly working my way through photos I took of beautiful Wales, a job made easier if more annoying because the memory card reader I bought before we went away ate all my photos of our ride on the Welsh Highland Railway. This was especially annoying as the lovely drivers (Mark and Mark) had let H & I into the cab of the steam train, so I had photos of dials, gauges, and many other fantastic things, plus lots of photos of sheep from the window of the steam train.

So, yes, this is why there is no post. In the mean time, have a video of cows running down the main street through Beddgelert:

On My Desk This Week...

2008-10-22T21:36:00.000+01:00

This week I've been practicing free motion machine quilting, ready to do Chloe's quilt. I started by practicing on a couple of sandwiches made from left over cotton fabric from previous projects. I've also got a little blanket on the go for Thomas which started as a practice for digitising, so I've quilted that:

My quilting is slowly getting better - hopefully you can see in the bottom 3 images how my attempt at stippling is getting closer together, with less loops. I think it'll take a lot more before I'm confident.

Here are the sites I've found very helpful:

Sew Inspired - Free Motion Machine Quilting Tutorial
Anyone Can Quilt - Machine Quilting 101
Patsy Thompson Designs - lots of ideas for quilting designs, often beyond my current skill level, but nice to aspire to!
Dioramarama - Longarm quilting - I don't have a longarm, but some nice examples of patterns
Diane Gaudynski - good close up stippling picture
Crazy Mom Quilts - Free Motion Quilting
Quiltmaker - loads of good tips

I thought I'd also show you my favourite shelf in my study:
On it I have a lot of lovely old books (affectionately termed "Collage fodder") and gorgeous old OS maps - I love looking over them at the place names and contour lines (which my attempt at echo quilting, above, reminds me of).

In front of the books, I have my wind up 'alarm clock' which plays "London Bridge is Falling Down", two tiny conkers, two lovely pebbles smoothed by the sea which I picked up at Black Rock Sands, and a little wobbly headed turtle which always makes me smile.

I had hoped to post some pictures of the Birmingham Botanical Gardens, as I swapped my desk for a walk round with the camera this lunch time, but I'm still editing the pics and it is getting late!

More desk posts here.

This Week in Pictures - 13th to 19th October 2008

2008-10-19T22:19:00.001+01:00

R1: The moon was beautiful on Monday night when I went to Helen's house. I've been playing with treasury tags at work a lot this week, made them into this pretty star. The current secret knitting project is going well, but I did make a mistake which meant going back about 4 rows, and I wasn't tinking back that far, so I just pulled the needles out - very brave for me! This week's spiffing socks - Helen was wearing this fab stripy socks & tights combo on Chutney Day :)
R2: I've been practicing free motion quilting in preparation for doing Chloe's quilt soon, and it is going OK! Another top secret project this week involved this heap of fluff. Helen made lots of bath gifts while I was prepping the chutney & jam - these are the brown sugar & lavender body scrubs we made - we also made bath teabags & salts.
R3: We got together yesterday & made a lot of jars of chutney; 9 carrot & garlic, 9 apple & also 7 jars of pear & lemon jam, which is wonderful, a really delicate flavour. I had fun taking quite a few photos of the various goings on.

I would have had a couple more pics to share, of nice skies and swishing through leaves in the city centre, but my camera phone (which does take quite nice pics) isn't talking to my PC.

On My Desk This Week...

2008-10-15T22:29:00.000+01:00

I've been working on the activities for module 2 of my Creative Sketchbooks course, which has involved playing with watercolour paints and salt:

I've also been working on a birthday quilt for my soon-to-be-4 year old niece, Chloe. It is in lots of bright colours, and tonight I've been appliquéing the flowers on to it. Soon they'll be joined by happy singing birds and butterflies:
I thought I'd also share my work desk with you, so here's a photo of it at lunchtime today, hence the knitting - sadly I don't get to knit during working hours.My knitting bag is the owl one made for me by my friend Daina, and it always makes me smile.

So, that's 2 of my 3 desks! My 3rd one is the PC desk, next to the craft desk, and it's enough of a mess that it is a good thing I have a keyboard shelf, as that means I can write this post!

Go check out Kirsty's post to see more desks!

This Week in Pictures - 6th to 12th October 2008

2008-10-12T19:51:00.000+01:00

12-10-08

L-R:
Row 1: My neighbour has painted her front door & the ginnel door, from red to lime green. I snapped this pic when the ginnel door was still red, made me smile. ~ I bought two brushes for my art course, a Cotman 1/2 inch flat and a size 12 round sable, with a handle long enough to be a magic wand! I like using nice tools. ~ It was our second week back at lindy hop. This is our friend Rik, who enjoyed himself. Caught up with many old friends from last year's classes, too. ~ I've been enjoying lots of nice walks on the lawn at work, one of the evergreen bushes has these gorgeous red berries. ~
Row 2: Each week we have a different flower display in Reception at work, and this week was some gorgeous red lilies and blue flowers that kept shedding petals. The contrast of the blue on red was lovely. ~ A sneaky closeup of a top secret Christmas gift, the first one I've finished. ~ Talking of gifts, I'm making a quilt or two, one for Chloe's 4th birthday (in 4 weeks time, eep!) and here's the fabric prewashing in the machine. ~ I liked the swirls of blue paint in the water pot when I was painting.
Row 3: I'm still a very novice quilter, and it took me a while to straighten off the ends of the fabrics I was using, hence this large pile of offcuts. ~ I've had my lovely Clarks winter shoes for a month now, and I love how they show off my socks when I wear nice patterned ones! ~ Another top secret Christmas project, to go with the other one, and for the same person! Lucky lady! ~ Talking of work, with its nice lawn and fresh flowers, this is the building I work in. Makes Monday mornings much nicer.

Fab week in review format nicked from Scrumdillydilly - go read her blog, very cool.