Heart Swap

I had a lovely surprise today when the postman came. I received my heart from swap partner Jan.
The picture on the Textile Challenge site really did not do it any justice. It is so much more delicate than I expected it to be. Although I new it was going to be a little bag because of what I had read I was not expecting it to be filled with little goodies. I thought I would post some pictures of it close up so you can see the detail. Thanks Jan it has made my day.

Colour Contrast Challenge ATC

I took part in a colour contrast challenge. We were paired up and each pair had to make an ATC to swap using only two colours which we were given. Our colour was Burnt umber and Teal. I did not have any fabrics in those colours so decided to use fabric paint. I had done dome paper castings of a leaf tile which was exactly the same size as an ATC so I chose that. Once painted I sealed it with matt medium and then free machine quilted onto felt. I hand stitched the backing on and then glued the tiny beads to it.

15 minute ATC Challenge and More Snow

I was challenged by Marie on Textile Challenges group to not read the instructions until I had 15 minutes to spare. The challenge was to go straight to the work area. pick up five items I could find around me and make an ATC (Artist Trading Card ) in 15 minutes. Well I failed mainly because I had been sketching and reading so didn't have much around, only a bag of scraps left from another challenge which I will write about soon. I started of quite well but then the bobbin thread ran out typically. I then started to bind the edge and realised I had not put the backing fabric on. Eventually I did Finnish in 20 minutes which was about what everyone else did. There is going to be a weekly mystery challenge each week in February. I will keep you posted.





Having watched the weather forecast a few times yesterday and last night it all pointed to the fact that we would not get snow in our area, it was going to be on East Devon and Dorset, so I was surprised to hear a faint noise coming from the skylight above my head. When I looked up it was white so I took a look outside to see big snow flakes coming down. I thought oh we are on the edge it will pass. We went to bed and the Devon radio carried on after 1 o clock I think to keep in touch with the cars stuck on the roads waiting for the snow ploughs to clear the road. They were being told it could take 6 hours. When I got up this morning to put the rubbish out it was still snowing. There was nobody out, no car tracks in the road only foot prints from the birds. The dustcart was not going to get hear so I didn't bother putting out the rubbish. The children and adults are out building snowmen now and while I was having my breakfast somebody came past on skis! I think I am going to spend the day in my workroom today.

Snow in Devon

Sun setting tonight (Tues)


View from the kitchen tonight

Front garden Monday night

From the kitchen when it started snowing on Monday

Just had to put up some snowy pictures. It is so rare to have snow that I had to take some pictures. These are taken of the front garden mostly from inside the kitchen.