Prayer Flag Course Update & More Cushions

The Prayer Flag course last night went very well. We had 26 say they were coming on Facebook, but only 5 turned up. That was just as well as we only had 3 machines to use and we would not have coped with 26 people - simply not enough room.

Fiona using my New Home My Style - 20 years old -the machine. Never give a girls age away!

Paula hand sewing ( Queen Bee of Colchester Slack Space)

Crystal -  who says she hates sewing on the machine ( she always makes something good)

This is an old Necchi Lydia machine probably 40+ years old

Retro Divas on a visit.

Dawn on the Singer Featherweight. She was making a flag for her Reiki treatment room.

The Singer and Necchi were donated by a friend of mine. They work fine and were quite easy to use. No instructions so a lot of head scratching on the threading up. We were so busy I forgot to take pictures of the finished flags!

I've made 3 more cushions, all on a lemon, lace and daisies theme. Oh and 2 cat ones.

I used one tablecloth, which was a rayon fabric, not very stable, so I could only use small pieces of it and patch them onto curtain lining. The fabric seemed to have a mind of its own and would not stay with the warp and weft straight. Had some lovely polycotton and laces that went really well. All glammed up with some machine embroidery. 18 x 18 with button fastening.

My friend Val2 - I have 3 Vals :-)) came round with  two black bin bags full of fabric and these two fronts were in one of the bags. They were under the needle quick and I did a lot of machine embroidery on them. 16 x 16 with a fruity curtain backing and button fastening. 

Apologies if the pictures are not big enough my Microsoft Picture gallery has crashed. I've uninstalled as they recommended and now it will not reinstall. Grrrrrrrrrrr more computer problems.

It was Church Home group at mine today and they caught me hoovering. There were gasps of horror and offers of support. They were so shocked I was cleaning not crafting. Oh and I had forgotten they were coming too. I'd run out of milk and only had digestives to offer them. Been a good day for me then. Try again tomorrow.

Busy with Retro Divas

This week I have been trying to get a stock of Retro Divas made.

A pair of 1950's girls with vintage doilies for skirts.

Lots of embroidery, done on my machine, on their hair and shoes.

This denim girl is feeling lonely as I sold her sister today. Didn't even get chance to take a picture. She's been snapped up and is now living in my friend Julia's camper van.

Nothing gets wasted, middle of the doily used as a hair decoration.

Close up of the denim diva. I've made the arms a bit longer and soft stuffed them so you can fold them.

Oh and they also now have knees, this really makes them easier to pose, but harder to stuff. You have to leave a small gap at the knee, its easy to forget and then you have to un-stuff a narrow leg!!!

Denim Diva just had to show you how nicely she can cross her legs.

I've got a new tool for stuffing the legs, a wooden chop stick. It's really good, narrow and pointy one end and wider and square at the other. It's also longer than the previous tool, a size 10 crochet hook.

I've got 6 legs and 6 arms stuffed and ready for the next 3 dolls.

Just to let you all know my eyes have responded well to the new drops. I've got into a routine with the 7 doses of drops and am getting better at putting them in my eye and not on my cheek. Tomorrow I go down to 6 doses. Now what shall I do with those few extra minutes?

Thank you all for your messages, prayers and support.

Valentine Heart - Tinfoil & Paper Mache

So some spare time and I got on and finished another sample for my class at The Ideas Hub.

To the basic shape I've added vintage lace and doilies.

A lace butterfly and some Edwardian text.

All wrapped up in gold thread.

A broken faux pearl necklace, vintage lace and that mystery gold mesh, again wrapped with gold thread.

Hiding on the other side - could this be the mistress or does the lady have a secret friend?

Cut work from a doily and another Edwardian image.

Some lines from an Edwardian verse.

You can make up your own story from the images. All images and text are originals, gleaned from a magazine called Pall Mall.

What are you making for Valentines day?

The Girls are Strutting Their Stuffing on Etsy

Today's work was listing my lovely vintage inspired Happy Scrappy Dolls on Etsy.

Group Photo

Aurelia

Indie

Petunia

Rose

Florelle

Bless they were good. All that posing and having your bloomers photographed too!

Indie & Aurelia More Happy Scrappy Dolls

Phew just finished number 5&6 in time for a visit to The Chelmsford Community Pop-up Shop Tomorrow. I hope they are going to have room for me to squeeze these in on my cushions stand. At least the dollies will be nice and comfy there.

Number 5 is Indie as she has lovely blue hair and Indigo is a blue dye.

Here she is sitting on some of my vintage cushions, with Pompii my Teddy bear. I've had him since I was 6 months old. He came to visit the  Ideas Hub last week.

A close up of Indie's face, she has little hearts for her cheeks and cotton bullion fringe for her hair. I think this fringing makes super doll hair.

This is number 6 Aurelia, she has yellow highlights and aurelion is a yellow colour. I have it in my watercolour paints. She's sitting with Blue Ted, I've had him since I was about 2. They are also on some of my handmade cushions.

Aurelia has little bunches - really tassels on furniture fringing. I'm having lots of fun with the fringing you can make loads of different styles with it.

So it's off to be sold for these two and number 3&4. Hope they make someone happy this Christmas.

More Dolls 3 & 4 & Help from the Artists Way

My Happy Scrappy Dolls are coming along. Two sets of clothes made today, finishing touches, hair and faces also completed.

Happy Scrappy Doll 3 is Florelle she has a flowery skirt so took the name from that theme.

 A big lacy bow in her tasseled hair, a blue crochet doily shawl and a little bow button on her blouse.

She also has blue and cream lace hankie and embroidered flowers on her feet.

Next is number 4 Petunia.

A heart pendant has been sewn onto her shawl, which is a drawn thread mat. Her hair is a mix of embroidery silk and a pink crochet doily with with ribbons.

Her dress is a wonderful hand embroidered piece of muslin. It's got a few shabby bits and a hole but the embroidery is just wonderful. Her petticoat is made from a very early lace window panel.

Here they both are sitting on my dresser with the emergency lighting.

This week at The Hub our group that is following The Artists Way by Julia Cameron discussed stopping a habit that is holding us up time wise. The book suggests  - stop reading- but we all agreed that our computers are worse culprits. So I am banned from being on my PC between 8.30 and 18.30 hrs. Failed at lunch time, had to check ebay watched items and play a game of scrabble. Will try harder tomorrow.

I'm going to be demonstrating those Dolly Peg Angels at The Hub, hopefully Heather will remember to email me the times :-)

Very cold here - had to wear my fur ear flap hat, two pairs of woolly socks and Molly was happy to have her coat on too for our walks today.

Little Treasures, Ready for Stuffin' & Clothes

Here are my friends naked and awaiting clothes. They've snuggled up in the cream and white doilies and lace box.

One of them is made from old curtain lining and the other two are damask or linen table napkins. Those lucky two have tablecloth boots with embroidered flowers on.

Some less finished cousins, legs 1/2 stuffed or flat and saggy.

She's finished stuffing them  yesterday. So now some fab scrappy costumes are being made. And she's had some great ideas for hair.

So now I'm sitting on the Little Treasures shelf  which is really an untidy bookcase where she dumps things that she loves.

Must run now as I can hear her coming. Lots of Love 

Bluebell xxx