It’s a winner

Back in June Cameron, of Cameron’s Threads, announced a competition to design a clip that could be used with her beautiful jackety-shawls. She sent all the entrants a clip which we then had to transform. I was so thrilled when I heard yesterday that I had actually won and will be getting one of her jackety-shawls as a prize. All the entries are now up on her blog so do go over and take a look. She makes the most beautiful felted pieces so be prepared to drool!

I painted the clip with metallic bronze paint (took 3 coats plus a primer!) and then rubbed gold sparingly over it. I then made three flowers using metallic fabrics (stainless steel, bronze and copper) which had been heated to give iridescent colours. The metal fabrics had organza stitched over them, a lot of which was cut back. I put the three flowers together with beads and attached it to the clip with superglue. I love the way in which the colours change depending upon the background they are against.

On Saturday I went to  Living Threads workshop with Linda which was taken by Viv Denscombe. We spent a very enjoyable day playing with the embellisher and were very productive, in spite of being surrounded by what appeared to be chaos. Neither of us remembered to take our cameras with us so no photos of the day but these are the pieces that I made. They are unfinished as yet, needing more sewing and beading. To see Linda’s do visit her blog.

Some time ago I showed the quilt tops that I had made from  Chris and Barbara’s first class of the year -Starter for Nine. Finally, I have one of them finished. It was meant to be a wall hanging but I decided that it looks better as a table runner. Just one more to do now.

Another quilt top finished too is the Mystery Monday 5. I played around with several arrangements and decided that I liked this one the best. Just needs to be sandwiched and quilted now. And just in time for the start of MM6 next week.

Because I didn’t have enough wadding I had to go to Quiltessential yesterday and, as I also wanted a copy of the Complete Works of Shakespeare, (don’t ask!) I decided to go to Scarthin’s bookshop which is just up the road from the quilt shop. On my way there I found a wonderful shop, called Inspired Earth, selling all sorts of ethnic goods and clothes so had to go in and browse and buy but the best part was that the ‘carrier bags’ are actually made from recycled newspapers. The organisation that makes them supports the care of street children in Delhi, enabling them to go to school and play instead of pulling rickshaws, polishing shoes, rag picking and worse. I can see this bag being recycled further at some stage.But back to Scarthin’s. If ever you go to Cromford it is well worth a visit if you like books and good food. It is an absolute treasure trove and sells everything from rare antiquarian books to brand new titles. I got my copy of Shakespeare for £2.50. I also decided to have a coffee and a slice of the most delicious carrot cake while I was there. I would have had a real meal but had to get back to the car before the parking ticket ran out.

A visit to Staffordshire Patchworkers and Quilters last month by Annette Emms inspired me to  make a start on a fabric book. The cover is made from foiled velvet with organza and scrim embellished onto it and with wool gauze used as a backing and embellished over onto the front to cover the edges of the velvet which do fray badly. There are a couple of nigella seed heads that have been added by machine but there is a lot more to do with it yet. Annette is a wonderful speaker. She calls herself a story teller and she is just that. For me the evening was far too short.

To those of you who are regular followers of my blog and who might have wondered where I have been, I apologise for both my absence and lack of comments on your blogs. I have been battling with depression for a while now, the onset of which took me by surprise as I thought that I was able to recognise the symptoms better.  I first suffered from this fifteen years ago and have no idea why it returned at this time but I do feel that I have finally turned the corner and feel like both doing things and communicating once more. I certainly hope to get back to blogging more often now and although I may not always have commented on your blogs I have certainly been reading them, so thank you for your patience.

Until next time, enjoy.

Maggi

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