It’s been another busy week but unfortunately not in a creative way, my day job has been going more than a bit crazy. It’s been as much as I can do to make myself eat something before crashing into bed each evening. This weekend I have really thrown myself into textiles to make up for an otherwise rubbish week. It has been a very productive weekend though…
Mr TB was out on a stag night on Saturday so I put the evening to good use, watching trashy TV while applying wax to an apron I rainbow dyed with blues and greens that morning:
This is the batik pattern I have been doodling, it’s taking a surprisingly long time, 4 hours so far and I’m only half way finished…
I plan to over-dye this with a deep purple and then spray with plasti-dip spray to waterproof it so I have a felting / dyeing apron (no more soggy felter’s middle for me!).
I have finished a couple of C&G “samples” that I started last weekend, the assignment is to explore natural wools with a view to creating a wall hanging but to my mind these pieces are too large (approx 40 x 60 cm / 16 x 24″) to be samples and I like them as wall hangings in their own right:
Do you remember this piece of ice-dyed felt from a few weeks ago?
Inside the front flap:
I plan to do a lot of hand embroidery on this piece, mostly blanket stitch around the edges and bit of embellishment on the front flap. If I can get it finished in time I will submit it to the Yarns in the Cathedral exhibition in May.
And finally, some blue tits have been showing a lot of interest in the bird pod I hung a couple of weeks ago. I can’t decide if they are nesting in it or just stealing the cat fluff I put in it as welcome present…
Linking up to nina-marie, off the wall Friday
Can't wait to see the apron when it's finished. It looks great so far. The top natural wool "sample" is my favorite and looks like a wall hanging to me. The bag turned out great too. Good luck with the birds.
Can't wait to see the apron when it's finished. It looks great so far. The top natural wool "sample" is my favorite and looks like a wall hanging to me. The bag turned out great too. Good luck with the birds.
I also love the first wood sample, it turned out great. I know what you mean about the day job and coming home feeling like a zombie then trying to do it all on weekends. I've enrolled in an online felting workshop with Fiona Duthie and that started yesterday, I made my first sample today. Hope the birds decide to stay and nest, they're fun to watch.
Beautiful pieces Teri! I can't call them "samples" they are too good! Ice-dyed felt is amazing!
thanks Ruth 🙂
thanks Ruth 🙂
Thanks Laura. I am very tempted to join Fiona's online course too, from what I have seen it will be a lot of fun, I just need to free up enough time to commit to it properly, let me know how you get on?
Thank you Felicity, I love the iced dyed wool too, it's just so colourful! I have a new bag pattern to try so might have to dye some more to play with 🙂
I love the ice-dyed bag and it'll look great with a few stitches.
I hope you get birds using your pod.
According to the RSPB, the entrance hole size depends on the species you hope to attract:
25 mm for blue, coal and marsh tits
28 mm for great tits, tree sparrows and pied flycatchers
32 mm for house sparrows and nuthatches
45 mm for starlings
I really like the first C&G sample and I think you could hang it just as it is.
I'm looking forward to seeing your finished apron – it's a lot of painstaking work.
Thanks Lyn, I've just been out to measure my bird pod and think the hole may be too big, it's 50mm. We have a few nuthatches but no starlings and I definitely don't want the nasty magpies (they mob our rather dopey cat) moving in.