Friday 12th July 2013

Today I thought I'd share some photos of my new craft interest - patchwork and quilting.   Although I've dabbled with patchwork from time to time I decided I needed to get serious.  So I booked myself on to a beginners' workshop and loved it.  I'm really lucky to have a wonderful fabric shop with a great choice of workshops nearby. http://www.stitchcraftstudio.co.uk

Now I'm reasonably confident about the patchwork side of things and plan to go on a quilting workshop in the Autumn. This is the mini quilt I made which I turned into a cushion cover to stop me just putting it away in the cupboard.

My grand plan is to make a quilt for my spare room bed.  Ambitious for a first project, but then I like to be challenged!  Earlier this week I bought the last six fabrics that I needed and last night I cut them all out ready to be stitched together - but I'm going to wait for a rainy day, don't want to waste the sunshine by staying indoors.

In the next couple of months I hope to get all my Mississouri stars made up.  So far I've done ten of the thirty-six needed.  Enough to keep me busy for a while I think! The photos below are of a couple of them. 

I'm finding it quite fascinationg to start with a big piece of fabric, cutting it into small pieces, stitching them together tomake bigger pieces which eventually will be stitched together into an enormous piece. I will keep you posted on my progress.

Thanks for visiting.

Jane

Thursday 11th July 2013

           

Another scrapbook page to share today.  Leslie from www.thememorynest.blogspot.com kindly left a comment on my Friday page from last week http://www.purplejetlovescrafts.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/friday-5th-july.html#comment-form and left her link.  So off I hopped and found this wonderful sketch for a scrapbook page challenge.

The colours are just so cool!  I knew exactly the right photo to scrap and put together my page so quickly following the sketch. I often interpret sketches a little more loosely, but this one just seemed so perfect to capture the movement and colours in the photo of my two grandsons.  They had been watching the Isle of Man sidecar races during TT week and my son sent me this photo of them in their homemade motorbike and side car. So cute!

I wanted to stamp the curved lines at the top, but only had a straight stitching stamp, so I just curved it round on my block to give me the right shape.  I then punched the half wheel shape two more times and put them together to make the circle behind the title.

Supplies:
Ink: Ranger distress ink, brushed corduroy
Stamps:  Technique Tuesday, notions
Card & paper:  My Mind's Eye, the sweetest thing bluebell; American Crafts chap; American Crafts craft cardstock; & bits from my stash
Letters & stickers:  ep summer & from my stash
Embellishements: Baker's twine
Punch: Martha Stewart

Wednesday 10th July 2013

Well my blog has been up and running for a whole week now.  I've still got lots to learn, but I'm enjoying keeping a record of what I've been up to and beginning to feel more confident about posting. So exciting to get my first comments too - so thanks to Beverley, Jacqueline, Patricia H & Kylie.

So it's about time I showed a scrapbook page as that's what my crafty friends know me for.  I've been following Shimelle's Break It Down challenge on UKScrappers for the last five weeks. http://www.ukscrappers.co.uk Sadly there is only one more week to go and I shall miss checking out the daily tasks.  So here's my layout for week 5.

 Shimelle is my all time heroine when it comes to scrapping.  I'd reached a kind of deadlock once I'd scrapped my family history, family weddings and holidays and then I discovered Shimelle. Suddenly a whole new world opened up for me and my whole scrapping outlook and style completely changed.  Now I scrap anything and everything, current and old photos, all stored in D ring albums that can be added to in any order. http://www.shimelle.com/

Supplies:
Paper & card: Quick Quotes Paper, SU & from my stash
Stamps:Kaisercraft Botanical & Sentiment
Punch: Martha Stewart
Letters: American Crafts thickers, Iguana & October Afternoon mini market  cream & denim
Washi tape: from my stash


Thanks for looking!

Jane

Tuesday 9th July 2013

One of the reasons I decided to start blogging was to enable me to enter challenges more easily.  So I've had fun this last week seeking out challenge sites which appeal.  So today I'm trying another new challenge.  This one is from CAS http://cascoloursandsketches.blogspot.co.uk/  I love the colours from this challenge, really cool and summery.  Once again I've had to play creatively with one colour - pumpkin pie -  and used just one strip from my Kaleidacolor pad, meant the stamps I chose had to be long and thin or small enough to fit the strip. 

 

 

Supplies:

Ink: Adirondack, pool & willow; Kaleidacolor, creole spice

Stamps: Uniko Studio,  Flower Power #2 & Background Builders Chevrons

Card & paper: From my stash

Sunday 7th July 2013

So lovely to have some sunshine at last!  The sky here is so blue!  Decided to take advantage and walk round my village and snap some of the best bits.  I was also able to connect this to two Big Picture Class workshops I'm doing at the moment - The Phone Photography Project and One Little Word. http://www.bigpictureclasses.com/

I am trying to simplify my life and appreciate simple pleasures, or in jargon 'be present', so that's exactly what I  did.  It's so easy to take everyday places and events for granted and I'd forgotten just how pretty parts of my village are.

Saturday 6th July 2013

Today I've made a card for another challenge, this time from http://casethissketch.blogspot.com.au/
I was looking through my stamps for something suitable when I came across this See-D's set that I've had for ever and, I'm ashamed to say, never used.  Really like the big loopy daisy, so I can't imagine why I've not had it out before, must just have dropped to the bottom of my stash.  I've also picked up on the colours from this week's The Play Date Cafe challenge.

Supplies:
Ink: Adirondack, cranberry & stone washed; Kaleidacolor, creole spice
Stamps:  See-D's Garden of Friendship
Embellishements:  Rick-rack from my stash
Paper & card:  from my stash










I've tried to add their badges to my blog, but am not having much success at the moment - think I need to read a tutorial.  It's a steep learning curve for me!

Bye for now!

Jane

PS Also want to learn how to put a more signature looking version of Jane!

Friday 5th July

Having a go today at a colour challenge for the first time.  It's from The Play Date Cafe, challenge #189. http://theplaydatecafe.blogspot.co.uk/
I didn't have the exact colours but managed to find a burgundy and icy blue alternative easily, but I had to get a bit creative for the terracotta -I used just one strip from a Kaleidacolor pad. Decided to keep to a clean and simple style using Uniko Studio stamps as this is a new way of making cards for me.  WOW! What a lot of new this month!

Supplies:
Ink: Adirondack, stonewashed & cranberry; Kaleidacolor, creole spice
Stamps: Uniko Studio, Background Builders Round In Circles & Flower Power#2
Card & paper: from my stash