KEEPING BUSY

The last week has flown by and although I have managed to do a little stitching I have had even less time to write.  Now I am sitting here wondering where to start.

I will begin with a couple of explanations about the fabric dying.  The first time I ever used procion dyes was when I visited Linda in Queensland.  Linda showed me how to prepare the fabrics and mix the dyes.  It was a day of lots of fun and laughter along with learning a new skill.  We were lucky to have the whole day together and I learnt a lot.  Visit Linda at her blog  http://billabongs2bling.blogspot.com/ 

The idea for using the ziplock bags came from Three Creative Studios, technique of the month for last month.

http://threecreativestudios.com/freeprojects/tom/fabricpaintinganddyeing.pdf    Sue Bleiweiss suggested the ziplock bags in her tutorial.

Yesterday my daughter came to visit and we celebrated her 40th birthday with food and wine and I gave her the mask I made.  I am pleased to say she was thrilled with it!  

I  gave my middle daughter the wheat bag I made and that was also well received.  I had made a little sachet of lavender as well as it is her favourite fragrance.

This is the first time I have given my daughters  things I have made especially for them: it seemed to go down well so I will continue to do this in the future.

Oh talking of gifts, I received a parcel in the post from Judy.  It is a kit with the pattern and makings of pin cushions - one of my obsessions!  

http://judysfabrications.blogspot.com/   Have a look at Judy's fantastic crazy patchwork!   I will take a pic of the kit tomorrow.    Thanks so much Judy.

Oh gosh I nearly forgot the lovely gift I received from my friend Ann, from the uk,  who is visiting her family who live near here.  We had a day out last week and I hope to see her again on Wednesday before her trip back home on Sunday.

Well I think that is all for now.  Happy stitching everyone.

A parcel in the post and other things.

Today I received this lovely parcel of goodies from Elizabeth as part of the swap on the Country Bumpkin Forum.  There is gorgeous fabric, beads, ribbons and buttons to play with.

Visit Elizabeth's blog here: http://sew-in-love.blogspot.com/

This project will have to wait for a while as I have so many things on the go at present.

I have added some feathers to the mask.  The photo is not too good but I

am fairly pleased with progress so far.

Tomorrow I will do the backing and see how it looks.

This wheat bag is a gift for my middle daughter.

I have been quite productive the last few days which of course means that the housework is not being done!!

making a mask

I have been making a mask as a gift.  It is something I am making up as I go along and so far it is going quite well.

I started off cutting out the shape on a piece of medium weight vilene - I then added a piece of pellon another piece of vilene and then some lightweight black fabric.

I stitched it together with 6 strands of black dmc cotton using a blanket stitch.

The next step was to add to the basic mask to personalise it.  Bugle beads and tiny sequins secured with a bead form an arch over one eye.  Kind of like eyelashes.

I cut up some black lace which had beads and silver sequens  on flowers and leaves.  Each flower is attached individually.  I removed the silver sequins and added blue ones with black beads.  I am not sure about the colour.  I would have used black but my husband thought it needed colour.

To give it a bit more movement I added some black tulle to one side and behind the eyes.

This last pic is not very clear - I will take a better one tomorrow.