April Posy

For six days I have been out of action as I have an acute flare of spinal pain - but yesterday I managed a short hobble in the garden and I was pleased to find lots of violets haphazardly growing here and there.
So I made a little posy - the smallest flowers do more for me than all the pain tablets I'm taking .....
I'm waiting for a spinal injection - then maybe I'll get to do some crafting or painting again.

Arboretum

Yesterday my daughter took me to a lovely local Arboretum.
The sun has been shining for several days and Spring is really springing!
As she was busy pushing my wheelchair and at times I was walking wobbly on two sticks we didn't attempt to take photos ... maybe we will another time.

http://www.bodenham-arboretum.co.uk/


The pictures above are for Mosaic Monday on Flickr - from photos taken other years, in other places - my own little "Arboretum"!

Fabric Beads

I blogged about this pic on 30th March ...

.... this evening I found some matching beads and gilt spacers and threaded a necklace up on ribbon.
Later this month I'll be demonstrating the simple fabric beads at a small craft group - maybe by then I'll have some round beads made too.

... back to stitching ...

Tast 2007 revisited

I finished the Tast 2010 challenge three months ago but left working on the 2007 rerun as my arm and shoulder were so painful - now I'm attempting a little stitching at times.
I have missed the needles and threads!
This is 35 Sisha Stitch - attatching discs, and 36 Cable Chain Stitch, with filler Feather stitches.
The frame is virtual, from picnik, for display.
I found the Shisha challenging - neither disc is stitched correctly, but they are attached! Maybe I'll get it right one day.
Anyway, I'm pleased to be back stitching a little in between the Fabric Beads and 1000 Flowers sort out projects,
.... and tablets, rubbing gel and heatpads for my arm!!! LOL.

1000 Flowers

When I retired in 1996 I came upon a quote, "Let 1000 flowers grow." (Mao)
As we had always lived in the same house and had a flower garden I knew I had done just that over many years.
But I decided it would be a theme in retirement, in art and a variety of crafts. This was before I had a PC so all drawings, paintings, doodles and scribbles were in various sketch books and a fat A4 file - some pictures, textile art, and stitching were framed, most put into drawers or boxes. Now my craft room, well everywhere, is a chaotic mess of my collections and I must do some sorting and weeding.
So - a new project starts today - keep some drawings etc on disc, maybe add new ones, and discard lots. ("discard" is not usually in my vocabulary - it's going to be a challenge!)
Above is an early sheet of outlines, used for reference in making many greetings cards, which I sold for charity.

Some of the ideas were drawn onto small wooden tiles with felt pens. The squares are 'inchies' and ovals are 2x1 inches. I still have a few, although not varnished the colours have stayed bright



I doubt I'll really tidy up or reduce the clutter, but I will enjoy going through things - including re-reading many flower quotes I have saved ....
"Flowers have spoken to me more than I can tell in written words" (Lydia M Child) -
.... very true!