Painting on/with fabric

 Hello! I'm playing catchup today.  

I was hoping to have more of this piece done before I posted about it, but I need to, and have been felting as I have orders to complete so I think this will have to be put on the back boiler until...who knows when.

 I was fancying a change and decided I wanted to do a collage. To be more specific I wanted to do a portrait in fabric collage. I sketched a face in pencil on fabric and started cutting out bits of fabric but I couldn't do it. It didn't work, I wasn't at all sure what I was doing or how to go about it really so... I gave up! Tut tut!

 Instead I got out some paper and drew another face in coloured pencils. I used to do a lot of portraits when I was a teenager but only in pencil never in colour. Colour was too scary! In fact I still find colour a bit scary. I do struggle a bit with it. Anyway I'm getting off the subject.

 Now being the kind of girl I am, I don't like to be beaten so I went back to my pencil sketch on fabric and added some colour (after all I couldn't do it any harm could I?) but something exciting happened. I really liked it, I actually enjoyed it but what to do next? I still hadn't done what I set out to do so...

 I added a scrap of fabric here... and another piece there and then stuffed it under the sewing machine and whizzed about a bit. I actually whizzed about at bit too much because I managed to stitch the foot of my machine under a piece of fabric! That took a bit of jiggling and snipping to cut it free I can tell you, lol.

love Fi x

Birthday Weekend.

Hello you lovely people!

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Look at these beautiful flowers.

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They were from my lovely boss, a gift for my birthday yesterday.

And this scrummy cake too. OOPS! There seems to be a SMALL piece missing.

This magnificent chocolate cake was made by my 14 year old daughter. All her own design and craftsmanship. What a sweetie!

My Mum and Dad came up at short notice for the weekend, which was a lovely. Mum always takes great care with her parcels. They are always beautifully wrapped and tied with real ribbons which I snaffle away.
But the best part of her present was this amazing bag that she had made me. Yes that's right, she MADE IT! I'm only going to show you this one photo as I think it deserves a closer look. Next time we'll take a closer look at it, so I'll save it till then if that's okay with you?

Still on the subject of home made gifts.(I luuuuurve homemade gifts, don't you?)

This little bear has been knitted by my lovely friend Sam. I'm not sure what she's saying with the specs and the pearls, but the needlework is definitely me!

Look, isn't she fantastic! It must have taken her many evenings after putting the children to bed! It's soooo beautifully made. Thank you Sam you make me smile, and I miss you. (Especially because you are a total nutter!)
The pretty gift boxes from my mum contained a bundle of old fashioned cream cotton lace, wrapped in the most beautiful floral tissue paper. Don't they look at home on the top of my newly painted larder unit?
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Oh, you've not seen my cream and pink larder unit, have you?
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Well it's still not finished. I'm just waiting for the pull out counter top to be rescued from the depths of the shed! And when I say rescued, I mean RESCUED! You wouldn't believe how much wood it's hidden under. I'll take us the best part of a weekend to dig it out!


There it is. At the end of the kitchen in all its ice-creamy, creamy, pinkie loveliness. Hmm, I think we'll have to take a closer look at that too....when it's got its counter top of course.
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Lastly I'd just like to say a big thank you to my Wonderful Man and best friend Carol. They very sneakily arranged for Carol to secretly travel the 120 miles from her home to our little village, where she leaped out from behind the fruit machine in our local pub and surprised me soooooo much I burst into tears and blubbed all over her shoulder!
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What a weekend! I hope you all had a good one too.
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See you next time for some close ups of that gorgeous embroidered bag.
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Love Fi x

Kirstie who?

Hello my lovely bloggy friends.

I don't know quite where to start today. I've been dibble dabbling in a few different things lately. I've been knitting, sewing, crocheting and most interestingly of all... painting!

Do you remember this old, old, old kitchen cupboard from this post last August? No of course you don't because it was an embarrassingly long time ago.

Well we've finally started to do it up. We've been waiting for some decent dry, not too windy weather to take it outside and sand it down; it doesn't say much for our weather here does it!

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A quick recap: We spotted it laying on its side in the rain, outside a cottage in a neighbouring village. Cheekily left a note written on the back of an old receipt asking if it was being thrown out. Twenty four hours later three of us were straining to lift it into the back of our car (it weighs a tonne!) Eat your heart out Kirstie Allsopp!

Strange as it seems, I wasn't too keen on the 'battle ship grey' paintwork, so its being painted cream and pink. I can't wait to get it finished.
And I think my new Sanderson fabric might be ok behind the glass of the cupboard doors. We'll have to see when its finished.

Oh and I've been really enjoying making more cupcakes. Calorie free of course!

Love Fi x