Scrappy Flowers

I'm beginning to realise that at this time of the year, even with some day light getting good photos is proving to be difficult, still I will plough on :)

I've been working on the next row for the Row Robin swap that I am taking part in. Now this one is different as Mary has asked that her blocks not be joined together but just left as they are. What a quick, easy and fun pattern she has chosen.

Another one that is perfect for raiding those scraps and small pieces I've been hoarding.

I think she is going to have a really fun quilt at the end of this swap!

Mary said that she will be embellishing with some scrappy leaves and things once it's put together so I'll be looking forward to seeing the finished top.

I don't have much space in my little house and with these not being joined together it was super tricky for me to try and get a photo, but I laid them out on my bed and did the best I could.I wonder what the next round of this robin will be throwing my way?....

Black and White

Anyone who pops by regularly will remember the row of kitties that I made recently for a row robin swap. Well it's my turn now to work on my first row for someone else.

I'm working on Susan's row and she has decided on a black and white, any block pattern goes. I went and raided my stash for black and white fabrics in all their variations and my immediate thought was heck I'm going to need to go shopping.

But I'm proud to say that a little while later I remembered that one of the main reasons I wanted to join this robin was to try and help me in my long term goal of reducing my stash of fabric so I just got stuck in and yes I had more than enough already to make my five blocks for the row :)

Amish Diamond

Nine Patch Variation

Ohio Star

Log Cabin

Spinning Four Patch

I decided to stick to relatively simple block patterns as I thought this would suit the colour scheme. Here is a picture of my row added to Susan's original row. (Susan's row on top)

What a great quilt she will have at the end. I'm looking forward to getting the next one to work on too. I wonder what it will be......

Crazy Cats Row Robin

Over the last few evenings in amongst housework, looking after MIL and working on other projects I've also been trying to get my Row for the Row Robin done and am pleased to say that I got it finished last night so let me introduce you to my bunch of crazy kitties.

This is where I probably sound slightly crazy when I say that when I picked up the basic blocks each of the kitties whispered me and told me what they wanted to look like so they came together very easily..

Blue kitty was full of love so he wanted a heart and some hand stitching.

Brown kitty is a bit of a misfit, he's had a tough life and is by no means pretty with his odd sized eyes and scruffy patches.
Green Kitty, loved the patterns in his border fabric so decided he wanted to be dotty, and he loved the idea of having different eyes. Orange kitty, is a bit snooty. He loves his pristine coat and wanted nothing more than a collar and tag.And pink kitty spied some scraps which hadn't yet been clear away on the worktable and knew they were perfect for him. It was difficult trying to get a decent picture of the row joined up, this shot of it pegged on the line was about as good as I could get.

I also made a very basic journal to send round with my quilt, cover made from an old greeting card I had in the draw.
I decorated the pages with plenty more kitties! My row is now all packed and ready to begin it's journey across the pond, I can hardly wait to see what this is going to look like in a few months time when it's ready to come home again.

Spirit Doll

I'm feeling on top of the world today. I have to admit that I think since getting back from my vacation and being hit by a virus straight after I've been suffering from a bout of depression (I've been suffering with this horrible life stopper since Mum died). I'm still so far behind with my swap commitments, my house is a mess and work has been stressful all this although not really hugely important in the scheme of things has just felt a bit overwhelming.

Well yesterday Mark and I had a total chill out day. We did something we haven't done since university, stay in bed until mid afternoon, chatting and watching movies. I probably shouldn't admit what a total slob I am but we didn't actually bother getting up until nearly 4pm!I feel like a naught teenager again indulging in some wasted time.

I think the recharge did me good though as I'm feeling totally chilled and in high spirits today. Speaking of spirits I thought I'd share some pictures with you of my doll from the second beaded RR that I have been participating in. She came home to me last week and I adore her. Here is the post which shows what she looked like when she left me. Here she is in all her finished glory.

As you can see some of her sides are totally covered in beads and others are less beaded. I had first thought that I would fill in all the blanks but actually I have come to love her just as she is. I think the different density of beading one each side just makes her even more interesting.

Today I am planning on making some more inroads in clearing out the spare room so that I can finish moving all my craft stuff in and hopefully I will find some time to make a few postcards too I really need to get back into the creative habit to catch up on all that I am behind in.

More Mermaids

Well this is going to be my last post for a wee while as I am off on holiday to Scotland for the week. If anyone needs me I'll be here, lol!

Before I go I just have to post the last installment of the mermaid doll round robin. The final doll I had to work on was Barbara's. It was a real challenge due to the scattered beading that had already been done on the body.
I decided to keep it simple and added some fish and flower beads to finish her off. She's on her way back home to Barbara now and I'm sure she will be loved.

I was excited to get my own doll back this week too. I don't know if you can remember but this is what she looked like when she left me.

And here she is now complete with a beautiful bottle in one had and the catch of the day in the other! She also has a great new face which I think gives her a whole different character.

I absolutely love her and am very grateful to the talented ladies who where in the robin with me for creating such a beautiful little mermaid. Well I still have some packing to do so I'd best get on with it as we will be leaving in a few hours. See you in a week!

Oh yes a quick PS. A few people have left comments or emailed asking where I got the sequins I used on Sirena. Here is a link to Cartwrights a great store for sequins!

Another Mermaid

Ok now I am probably starting to bore you with all this beading..... but I shall forge on regardless. As I am behind with everything at the moment I had a total of three lovely mermaids staying with me. Sirena from yesterday is now on the next leg of her journey so it was time to tackle the next beauty belonging to Noel today.
Ok I am going to shock you all now by saying that the orange beading is not mine! This is how she came to me. I just love the way the other ladies have beaded her front so I decided again to tackle something on the back. Before starting on the back though I added a silver bead to each strand of her hair, I think you can just about pick this up in the pictures. My contribution this time was again on the doll's tail. Granted my colour choices this time are not so zingy as for Sirena but I tried to concentrate more on texture than colour this time.
Here is a closeup. I really had trouble picking out my colours so I decided to divide the area up into three and tried to progress the colours across the tail, pink moving into purple then blue. I can't really think how to explain what I mean but I got the effect I wanted anyway, maybe the blues could have done with being a bit darker but she is done now. I used lots of different sizes and shapes of beads, stacked some up and stitched some down tightly to create bunching etc to try and add some texture. I don't think the picture really shows the effect too well.

I have one more doll to work on and then I will have fulfilled all my commitment in both of the beaded doll RR's that I signed up for. The last one is going to be the hardest because the beading that has been done so far is quite scattered so I have no defined area to work but I'm hoping to get her done in the next couple of days. As these robins are drawing to a close I'm getting excited to see what my dolls will look like when they get home!

Sirena

As promised here are a few pictures of the little mermaid doll that I have been working on as part of the beaded doll round robin I signed up for.

This lovely doll form was made by Sharon and she called her Sirena. Here is the work that has been done on her front so far. There are still two more rounds to this robin before the doll will be complete. I decided to leave her front as is and add some detail to the back.

I bet you can't guess which bit I added, lol!

Ok so here is a close up of all the lovely orangeness that I added. I started with some sequins to echo the sequin work that another participant had already added to her front. I than added a mixture of seed and bugle beads to complete her tail. The final touch was to add a couple of fishy friends. I hope Sharon likes my contribution. I think she is going to have a beautiful doll once the final two rounds are complete.

Beading

I am still plodding along trying to catch up with everything that I got behind with while Dad was ill. It seems it only takes a few weeks to get behind but five times as long to try and get back on course and catch up, sigh! I will get there and I can only say a continued thanks for the patience that everyone is showing while I make such slow progress on catching up.

I have been beading like mad these last couple of days trying to get back straight with my doll round robins. I just finished work on Edna's doll which is the last in the spirit doll round robin that I have been in. Edna's theme was earth.
Here is the finished doll. I had three sections on the front to fill to complete the doll. Mine are the bottom two, once section completed with wooden beads and the other stone chip beads which I hope add some earthy textures. The other section I did was the one above the stone chips which I filled with a mixture of seed and glass beads. The doll is now on it's way back to Edna. I hope she likes it and I am looking forward to the safe return of my doll in this RR soon.

I am part way through beading one of the little mermaids that I have with me for the other RR, so hopefully I will have some pictures of that one to share in the next couple of days too.

Beading

Yesterday I got busy beading. As you know all of my family drama has meant that I have slipped behind with my swap commitments. I am now seriously holding up the beaded doll RRs that I'm in so I thought it was about time I did something about it.

I sat and beaded my part of two dolls yesterday, yes it was a mamouth effort and I have a stiff back today to prove how long I sat in the same position, lol! Sadly I didn't manage to get any pictures of the work I've done before we lost the light and images with the flash just don't work on these dolls as there are too many sparkly bits.

As I don't like to post too often without pictures I thought I'd share some closeups of the faces of the dolls that I have with me at the moment. I took these pics before I started working on the dolls myself.
As you can see I've a lovely variety of dolls vacationing with me at the moment. I have really enjoyed being part of these round robins but I think it will be a while before I join another. My beading skills are just poor compared to the other ladies who have been working in these robins so it's just highlighted that I need a lot more practised at this before I dare to do anything like it again.

Christina's spirit doll

Ok as promised here is some of the bead work that I have been doing for one of the round robins that I have been participating in. This time round I had Christina's beautiful Spirit Doll. Here she is before.And this is her after I had added my bead work.I found the shape of the doll difficult. Don't get me wrong Christina has made a wonderful form but I just didn't know where to start with the beading, no doubt that is just my beading inexperience shining through. Christina said that she likes texture so I added some stone chip beads around the face cab and then used different, sizes and types of beads to create some interest and different textures on the 'tail'.

Even though I am finding these dolls a challenge I am also really enjoying the beadwork. It takes quite a bit of time but when you have finished filling an area and it all comes to life it is very rewarding. I am already in possession of the dolls in the next rounds of both the mermaid and the spirit swap and am looking forward to getting started.

Arryanna

I spent a little bit of time beading yesterday. Not one to do things by half I signed up for not one but two beaded doll round robins at the end of last year. I really enjoyed making and sending my forms on their merry way but ever since this rounds dolls arrived with me I have been wondering why oh why did I ever sign up.

Apart from the lovely beaded tree spirit tutorial that I took with Ronda Kivett I have no beading experience whatsoever. I've been feeling totally daunted by the prospect of starting off on these wonderful little forms. As the end of the month deadline for this first round is fast approaching I just decided I had to sit down and get on with it.

Here is Sue's little Mermaid Arryanna before I started on her.Here she is after a little work by me. I'm fairly please with what I did to her and actually once I decided exactly what it was that I wanted to do it wasn't as bad as I imagined. I just hope that the fact that I am a beading beginner doesn't show my work up too much against what everyone else will do on this lovely little mermaid form.
Today I plan on finishing up a couple of birthday postcards, making a couple more fabric charms (I am slowly working on my little stitched hearts a few at a time), and thinking about how I am going to start beading the doll for the second round robin that I am in.

The Frog Prince

Yesterday and this morning I have been working on my pages for the last round of the meandering book swap that has been taking place over on Fabric-olics. I have really enjoyed taking part in this swap and am sad that it is coming to an end.

On the flip side I am excited to think that my book will be on it's way back to me sometime in the next few weeks and as I didn't get time to make my own page in my book before sending it off I still have some work to do to complete the swap.

This time round I have had Ingrid's beautiful book to work on. The theme is fairy tales. It took me a while to figure out what I wanted to do, but somehow my mind got more focused as the deadline loomed, lol.

I decided to go with the Frog Prince. Here is my front page.I know it's immodest, but, I am just so pleased with the way this turned out. I almost don't want to give it away. My drawing skills are pitiful so I got Mark to sketch the picture onto muslin for me. I then painted both the frog and the background with my Inktense pencils. After letting it all dry I stitched round the frog to make him stand out a bit more.

I decided to go with the FiberArt Friends monthly theme of texture for building the background. So added a couple of layers of dyed cheesecloth and then got merry with buttons, ribbon, sequins and beads.I decided to keep the back page pretty simple. It's made from green satin overlayed with a gem covered organza. It's so light and shiny it was difficult to get a decent picture. I think the pages look great layed out together. I hope Ingrid likes what I have done!

Goddess Book

My sewing machine is still out of action and will definately need to go in for repair, but today I dragged my old machine out of the cupboard and set that up so I can at least get on with a few things.

So today I have been working on some pages for the fabric book round robin that I am in for Fabricolics. Actually this book should have been well on it's way by now so I'm playing catch up and am glad to have the pages done and be ready to send the book on to it's next destination.

The book for this round belongs to Jo-Ann and she chose 'Goddess' as her theme. I decided to make one page inspired by the Aphrodite postcards that I made the other week. So here is my goddess of love page.

For the second page I decide to go with an Earth Goddess. I think out of the two this one has turned out to be my favourite. I hope Jo-Ann likes my pages!
I'm not sure how much stitching I am going to be getting done over the coming week. My sister has asked me to make her wedding invites. I am going up to visit her next Saturday and have promised to take her a few samples to choose from, so I will be working on those this week.

Morvoren the Mermaid

When I posted pictures of my spirit doll last week you might recall me saying that I had signed up for not one but two doll round robins. SO today I thought it was high time for me to get on with making my second form so that I will have time to go on it's first leg of the journey by the end of the month.

This second group I'm in has a mermaid theme. I made my doll form using a free pattern I found on the web. I will post a link just as soon as I can find it again.Rather than go for a traditional blue or green I decided to Jazz things up by going with my favourite colour of the moment, orange. As I'm not really a doll maker she turned out to be trickier to put together than I thought and some of the joining stitching isn't great but hopefully that will mostly get covered up with beading anyway. I used my InkTense pencils to draw out a simple face, as you can see I'm no artist but I think she has a cute kinda charm none the less.