Drum roll please...

It's here at last. My bag, knitted and felted and finally finished.


Remember this....
















Well this happened to it....





and it came out like this....



and after the flower was added it looked like this...




.....so no longer a WIP but.....
I may still line it with some pretty fabric!

Spring is here!

What a beautiful day it has been. We finally got out into the garden to give it a bit of a spring clean. The cherry tree is flowering and I found some other beauties hiding.

I dug over the veggie patches and started to weed some flower beds. It is hard work but the sun was shining and the birds were singing and it definitely felt like spring was finally here.

I was watched carefully by the robin and as soon as I moved away from the newly raked earth, he was there looking for some big fat juicy worms. Lucy popped out for a while but she much preferred to lay in the sunshine in the bedroom.

I will be back tomorrow with a post about my bag which is no longer a WIP!

A trip out to Bankfield

Hubby went into work today so I was left to amuse myself which is unusual for a Saturday. I popped into Halifax first to do some essential shopping and bill paying then I decided to call in at Bankfield museum. It is a short drive away from the centre of Halifax and owned by Calderdale County Council. The Museum started life as Bankfield Mansion and was bought by Colonel Edward Akroyd in 1838. Akroyd was born into a textile manufacturing family in 1810 and cared greatly for the welfare of his workers. He commissioned George Gilbert Scott to design the village, mills, All Souls Church and recreation grounds and he called it Akroyden. Not modest then?

Inside the museum there are the most friendliest and helpful staff you could find anywhere. At the moment there is an exhibition on called The Art of Embroidery which shows some of the fantastic collection of embroidered textiles that the museum holds.


This embroidered cloak from 1880 was exquisite. ( above is Dress Fabric C1700-1730, Silk threads in satin stitch with silver gilt metal threads.)



and this sculpture was a bit spooky. Called The Veiled Lady, by Bazzanti 1860.




















The entrance hall is beautifully painted with designs inspired by Pompeian and Herculanean frescoes.


It is well worth a visit should you find yourself at a loose end in West Yorkshire anytime.




I have to acknowledge my Blogger Award sent from Sal at Doolallysally thank you and I promise to name my 7 things and nominate my 7 blogs soon. Sal I have also finished the bag so will post about that too!

Mono printing

So you see that Mono printing workshop came in handy. It was research you see. Today I was teaching my oldest children (age 10-11) and we did a mono printing lesson based on their drawings of fruit and vegetables. Two hours of-
"Miss I need more ink"
"Miss the inks dry"
"Miss I can't draw a strawberry"
"Miss can I have more paper?"
"Miss can I wash my hands?
and "Miss will it wash off my shirt?"

We did have fun though and I think I have enough to wall paper the entire school not just a display. Excuse me, I now need to go and lie down in a dark room!

Tulips

Remember those tulips I discovered the other day, forgotten in a pot, hiding behind the bin, well in the sunshine on Sunday they opened up and looked happy.....

We have managed to save two baby mice from behind furniture this week already. I think Lucy must of found a nest and she has the patience of a saint! Anyway we are keeping her locked in the house tomorrow to try and break the habit.

Happy Mothers Day Mum!

cakes, cats and crafty buys.

Saturday was the my local Cats Protection Spring Fair. It was such a lovely sunny day, a bit chilly inside the scout hut though! When I arrived I was asked to man the cake stall-well I had bought six fairy cakes before the public were allowed through the doors-stall holders privilege! We had a steady stream of customers for the next few hours but the cake stall is always very popular and we had run out of cakes and biscuits before the end of the fair so my fellow stall holder and I could have a look around the other stalls and what they had to offer. This is where I messed up- I had forgotten to take my camera so have no photos of the fair to show you-sorry!

There was a stall full and overflowing with soft toys of every sort, a bric-a-brac stall, the usual tombola and bottle stalls and a lovely stall selling all beautiful hand made things, dolls, teddies, jewellery, cat beds, knitted cushion covers and painted glass.

I had a rummage through a box at the side of the stall with some bits and pieces in and found the most lovely embroidered small table cloth and two embroidered tray cloths-£2 for the three-Bargain.

Then I bought a cat nip mouse for Lucy on the Cats Protection Merchandise stall and a knitted cat because I couldn't resist him.

The lady at the stall told me her mum had mad 14 of them, all different colours and if they all sold (£1.80 each) she would make some more. So I picked out the fawn coloured one and went to get a cup of tea and slice of cake from the cafe. As 2pm drew near and customers had dwindled I started to help stack chairs and fold tables, pack away unsold goods and collect cups I noticed that there was one lonely knitted cat left. True he wasn't the prettiest of the bunch but sadly all his friends had gone to new homes. I just couldn't leave him there so guess what, yes he came home too!

Afterwards I called in Wilkinsons and bought two lots of these stripy tea towels everyone seems to be talking about. They were also a bargain at 5 for£2 and they would be great as a patchwork. I can feel another WIP coming on.

When I got home it was too late to photograph my purchases so I did them this morning in the sunshine. The cakes I am afraid didn't last long enough to appear in the photo shoot!

Lucy loved her cat nip mouse by the way.

Today is Mothers Day and Hubby and I went out to lunch with my mum, my brother and his family. After a lovely meal we all went to visit her allotment (we looked a little out of place in our smart clothes strolling through the allotments!) she has had it since January and things are coming along. The raspberry canes I bought her as an early mother's day present are in and shooting away nicely. We then went back to my mums for a cup of tea, where her dog, Toffee was waiting patiently. This is a photo of her, she loves having her photo taken but usually ends up chasing her tail before you take it!

WIP

I thought I would show you my WIP I only found out what WIP meant the other day when reading another blog-sorry I read so many I can't remember who it was! Anyway my work in progress is a bag which I am going to felt when it's done. Sal very kindly sent me the pattern and I am taking far too long to knit it but I am enjoying it. Life sometimes gets in the way!

Hello Blackbird

I have been a bit naughty, well I feel naughty. My head felt awful but last night for the first time since Friday I had a reasonable nights sleep. It still feels 'full' I will spare the details but the antibiotics I got from the doctor yesterday seem to be working. I did not wake up till 9am this morning and don't remember Hubby leaving for work. I telephoned school to explain I had just got up but was told to stay home till tomorrow. So a day to relax and with very regular blowing of my nose I managed to watch a DVD and then about 1pm my little fingers started to twitch.
I absentmindedly ended up in the study and before I knew it I was making a felt blackbird! You see I had already twisted the legs and well they looked so sad sat there with no body.
So in about an hour I had made him whole and taken his passport photo.
I have also to tell you some sad news. Mouse didn't make it through the night. I went out to check this morning and he had made a little nest out of the straw I had put in the box and fallen asleep in a ball but was dead. I gave Lucy a stern talking to but she just gave me that look, the one that says "You can talk all you like, but if its small and moves I just have to catch it!"
Poor little mouse.

Mouse 1-Lucy 0

I was off work today with a really bad sinus infection and was all cosy on the sofa with my box of tissues, watching a Bob Hope film when Lucy brought in a mouse-ALIVE!

She dropped it and it ran under the cupboard. I spent the next hour trying to catch it and eventually I managed to get it into a box and put it outside.

I an not sure if it will survive (although it could run fast enough around the room!)

Anyway Mouse wins to live another day and Lucy will have to make do with her catnip mouse tonight!

New discoveries

While Shan and I were at Manchester City Art Gallery yesterday we stopped off in the gallery shop and made a discovery, well it was new to us any way!

Charley Harper and his wonderful illustrations. The shop stocked books and games using his images and we spent ages looking at them and I looked him up on the Internet this morning. He died in 2007 but his prints and books are for sale on many sites. The illustrations are so simple but very well observed and I believe he designed many things for non-profit making conservation organisations.

I can see I will have to save my pennies to buy the book 'Charley Harper-An Illustrated Life'

I did mention on yesterday's post the children's book I bought called 'Posy'-

It is written by Linda Newbury and illustrated by Catherine Rayner and is so gorgeous I had to scan some pictures to show you. I have tried in the past to 'link' to Amazon but they never work but it's worth looking up.

This is the back cover. ISBN 978-1-84362-510-0

I made some discoveries in my garden today too......

.......frog spawn in the pond.....


.....tulips in a pot.......

.....crocus in the lawn......

...and Lucy up the apple tree!

2nd BIG adventure!

Shan and I had our 2nd big adventure within a week. We met at Manchester Victoria (picture above right is in the refreshments room at the station, left top the Royal Exchange) and we walked up to the Royal Exchange. It's a large beautiful Victorian building built between 1867 and 1874 as a Trading Room in financial markets. It ceased trading in 1968 and remained empty until 1973 when a theatre company moved in and it now houses a modern theatre in the round built within the old trading room. They have a fab Craft shop and champion craft people from all around Britain.

After a coffee we gathered at the gallery corner and Lynn Kirkley talked us through her work and the technique then we had chance to have a play.

We tried different types of mark making with different types of paper. The time went quickly and soon it was time to sit back and have a look at our work.

We then went to have a lovely lunch at Pizza Express and a visit round The City Art Gallery where we saw some Leonardo da Vinci drawings and the large scale work of Paul Morrison. I bought a lovely children's book called Posy about a kitten. The illustrations by Catherine Rayner are delightful. I have quite a collection of children's books and one day hope to illustrate one of my own-it will no doubt have a cat in it!

Too soon we seemed to be back at Victoria and on separate trains home-I managed to not get trapped in the train door this week!
Another grand day out learning, laughing and living.