WOYWW 491

GOING NOWHERE, IT'S REALLY SOMETHING
GETTING BUSY, DOING NOTHING...

I know last week's post was a long one, but it was great to see that so many of you enjoyed the tale of the felty day!  It's a shorter post this week but I have three desks-worth to share!

I'm going to be running the local WI Craft Club with Janet (felting partner-in-crime) - we had a good brain-storming session on the hour long drive back from the workshop. The first is going to be felt Christmas ornaments, so I had to make up a couple of samples:

Just playing!

The crafters can either make something like this, or pink the edges and do running stitch around the edge. And use a fabric scrap for the wing or just some felt. Use a wooden button or a coloured one...it'll be interesting to see how the choices pan out!

I've booked a table for the WI at the local Christmas Carnival fair, where we'll be making a variety of products to raise some cash...jams, chutneys, lemon curds, mincemeat, crafts, pine cone firelighters, bunting. I've done these as my contribution:

Desk No 2!

Maybe some of the Christmas birds will end up on the stall as well, who knows?!

I dug out the Christmas fabric from my stash as well, in order to make bunting. Funnily enough, I don't have that much, but am determined to use it all up!

Desk No 3!

I also got out some fabrics to run up 4 more drawstring bags for my brother Steve to sell to his dancing classmates, to keep their dancing shoes in - all in aid of the RNLI.

This makes me happy!  I have had time to do more makes this week, as my left ankle (hypermobility syndrome = poorly/sore) has curtailed my walking a bit. WHICH I AM NOT HAPPY ABOUT!!! Ah well.....

We popped up to Llandeilo yesterday - the autumn colours in the Towy Valley were stunning - and I had to pop in to Deb's Wool Shop, where I got a huge hug :-D  I needed to buy some of the tinsel wool for a Christmas project...

Do you think a Christmas mini skirt is a good idea??! ;-)

Have a great crafty week!! xxxxx

WOYWW 490

IF A PICTURE PAINTS A THOUSAND WORDS...

Week 490! That means there's only 30 weeks until the big 10th Anniversary of WOYWW in week 520 - I'm already excited about the prospect of the CropTen get together in Shrewsbury, big thanks to Wipso and Twiglet for organising it. I may have already booked a holiday cottage for that week, lol! 

I have a very different desk to show you this week - last Thursday I went on a wet felting picture workshop with my mate Janet from WI. It was up near the Cardigan coast and thankfully, the flood waters from the previous weekend had really gone down.

Our teacher was Ali Scott, a noted textile artist - not only does she exhibit all over Wales but she helps run events including the Wool and Willow Festival at the Minerva Arts Centre in Llanidloes, Wales. Her website is here, do have a look, her work is amazing! And she loves hares....my kinda gal :-D

This is a picture heavy post but I'm not apologising!

Ali's workshop was in her back garden:
It was a lovely place to spend the day!

...with amazing mosaics made by Ali - gorgeous!

I knew we were going to have a good day when we walked in and saw this wall of colour!

There was an instrument of torture....
the twin drum carding machine!  

Boxes of silk bits (can't remember the technical term sorry!) and other textile embellishments, bags of yarn - ooh, it was paradise.

And a very lovely teacher!!

In the morning, we learned how to felt from the background fabric up - here's Janet starting 
to lay down the white rovings....

..like making a woolly canvas!

...then we just played, getting the feel of how to use all the bits and pieces.

Me putting the finishing touches before we then laid a net over the whole piece, soaked it with water and a touch of olive oil soap and then fun part of the felting began. Rolling everything up in the bamboo mat and rolling back and fore - very good for bingo wings!

Then we got our pieces and slapped them down on the desk to matt the fibres even more - this was my favourite bit. I have a hard thwacking technique, apparently :-D

Then our pieces were hung up to dry while we had some lunch.

This was Ali's WiP....I loved the rolling 'clouds'...

...and her woolly equivalent of a scraps box!!

In the afternoon, we tried to remember what we'd learned in the morning (!!) and had free rein to create any picture. Ali had asked us to take a pic for inspiration - I took two and, true to form, didn't use either. Sound familiar?? 

We had a lovely couple of hours playing nicely (and remembering most of the techniques!). I'd chosen subdued yarns in the morning so went for something more colourful here and decided to do Savernake Forest with bluebells, near where I lived in Wiltshire...

Taken before felting....

Janet went for these beautiful bold colours - love it!

And after a long time of wetting, rolling and bashing about, we ended up with:

What a fab day it was - Janet and I loved it! I'm going to embellish mine further with embroidery floss and beads and then it shall hang with pride on the JanCave wall!

Hope you've enjoyed our lovely day - I'll try to make next week's post shorter!



WOYWW 489

WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL
YOU'RE BRINGING ME DOWN
YOU STOOD AND YOU WATCHED AS
MY BABY LEFT TOWN

Very apt lyrics this week but with a completely different meaning from what the composer intended -you see, my son Rhys graduated in Winchester Cathedral yesterday, so it was a happy occasion mixed with sadness that we won't visit Winchester very much in the future. A lovely visit however, proud parent moment!!



It was a fantastic day, we enjoyed ourselves so much - it was also good to meet Becky, Sally and James again. We first hooked up at two Uni open days light years ago now, it seems, so it was good to share Becky and Rhys' graduation together as well xx

This desk pic is from last Friday when all hell had broken loose with the weather in this part of Wales...

So dark we had the lights on all day - there was an amazing amount of flooding in the area, so I stayed put in the JanCave, making something out of this fabric...

I really like this combo! It works well for both large and small projects....

I've been bunting making again but can't show you it as the person hasn't received it yet!

I found some little holly leaves in The Works and sewed them onto the Christmas puds - just need to stuff 'em with the choccies now :-D

Do you remember ages ago, I was part of the trio making a banner for our new WI? Well, it was unveiled last Thursday at a Group meeting we were hosting...

Didn't it turn out well? I passed it onto Belinda who added some embellishments and then on to Janet, who did an AMAZING job of adding the plane (Amelia Earhart made her first landing just outside our harbour on her historic flight), the clock on the church tower, the lettering...absolutely brilliant!  The Church represents St Illtyd's in Pembrey, it's a 12th century church with some amazing stories attached to it, not least the fact that I sang in the choir as a girl, was confirmed and married there and both our boys were christened too. The lighthouse represents Burry Port of course. Our group meeting went incredibly well as did the sketch, thankfully I do not have ANY photos to share of our act lol but the hats went down a treat!!

Have a great week everyone, here's hoping for calmer weather!

WOYWW 488

OLD WHITE OAK TREE LAYIN' SHADE ON ME
PICKING BLACKBERRIES OFF THE VINE....

Whizzy whizz whizz goes another week! More rehearsing for the WI sketch (those gals can sure put away some gin....!) etc etc.

But I have been busy with crafting too!

The felt is out again so it can only mean one thing - Christmas decorations!!  For a WI stall at the town Fair in November - I know it's early but I need them done and out of the way!

The old faithful templates!  The snowman one doubles up as a penguin too :-D

I've made a start on the embroidery bit and shall add the beads on whilst watching TV in the evenings, then blanket stitch them together.  I quite enjoy embroidery, simple though this is and am definitely going to make a start on the sashiko after these have been finished.

Short and sweet this week!  Two pics to show you of some impulse buys before I say farewell - there are some great galleries in Carmarthen and we saw some new work by a favourite photographer of ours - Georgina Hughes (for website, see here)  We already have one pic in our bedroom and spotted these in the gallery window.....

Entitled "My Grandmother's Blossom Tree" . Her photos always tell a tale so the lizard brooch and enamel trinket box probably belonged to her Grandma. The photos are like still life paintings I think, the quality of light is astonishing. G says the control of light levels and depth of field are really tricky and he'd love to know how she does it!!

But this is the one that first caught our eye:

"Blackberry Time in the Garden"  It's the sort of picture that you can see new things each time you look at it - the blackberries look like you could pick them out of the frame.

Both pics are in our kitchen where we can see them every day - makes me very happy indeed!

Have a great crafty week, lovely gals - see you soon xxxxxxx

WOYWW 487

SEND IN THE CLOWNS.....

Another super speedy week full of all sorts of fun has just whizzed by - at least it all keeps me on my toes!

And crafting has taken place too - woohoo!!


I really need to sort out my ribbons was the first thought when I saw this pic...what a tip. I made four drawstring bags to send to my brother Steve who is going to try and sell them for me to raise funds for the RNLI. The bunting is for the new grandson of Christine Bishopsmate, who asked me at the Crop if I could make some for her. It's in the post Christine! Obviously I don't want to show the whole thing until it's been received....

But I think showing the top flag would be ok! I've had good use out of that lighthouses FQ which was from Hobbycraft.

You get a twofer of desk shots today!


It's a long story that I shan't bore you with but I had to make a clown's hat based on a man's bowler that I acquired years ago (from a friend, I didn't hijack some city gent!!) As it's a quality titfer (I do love that word) I didn't want to poke holes in it or sew into it. Anyhow, I dug out my scraps and covered the crown, then sewed fabric around the rim:

It was fair bit of trial and error! I thought the bright green felt band would be useful for sewing things onto....like pompoms!

Et voila! That kept me amused for an afternoon and, more importantly, the lady who will be wearing it in the WI Sketch was very pleased!  The object behind is a feather boa covered boat steering wheel for my role as a bus driver in the same sketch! The things I get involved in.........

Bet you didn't expect to see THAT on my desk today, lol :-D

Have a great week!!

WOYWW 769

 WE'LL MEET AGAIN.... I'm going to take a break from blogging for a while - please don't worry, all is ok! - think I just need a...