Very Berry Handmade ATC Swap: Home Sweet Home

Yesterday I posted a pic of the wonderful Artist Trading Card I received from my partner in this round of the swap organised by Ali Very Berry Handmade.  The theme for this round is "Home Sweet Home", and here is the card I made for my own recipient.  It is called "Waiting to be Let In".

I hope my partner likes cats!

Do check out the other cards in the flickr group - they are really amazing.  It is hard to remember that these cards are only 2.5 x 3.5 inches - it's a fun constraint, and it's always fascinating to see how each member of the group takes the current theme and runs with it in their own way.

I was so grateful for all the helpful (and very tactful) comments about the spare room dilemma #firstworldproblem - of course it did have to become a room for eldest child.  She is ecstatic at the idea and already planning the purchase of many things made of coloured plastic to put in it and I'm currently distracted by moving bits of furniture around, and trying to find a home for the Mountains of Stuff.  

We've also just been on holiday, have lots of photos of stately homes and daffodils to be sorted through, and there are always many other excuses for not managing to do anything remotely creative, but I did get back and find the results of someone else's creativity waiting for me and I'm so happy.

I've been taking part in the Very Berry Handmade ATC swap again, and this is what I received:

Isn't it fantastic?  I really love it as it reminds me of many happy childhood holidays.  Look at the wee sheep! The theme of this swap is Home Sweet Home, and I would happily live in this house on a hillside, waking up to the sound of baa-ing lambs, although my husband would go mad if there wasn't a coffee shop nearby with good internet access.

The ATC arrived along with a card by the same artist, Sue Forey.

Sue has a shop on Etsy  and it is worth checking out for more of her beautiful work.  I feel very lucky to have a little piece of my own!

Now that I've received this the pressure is on, but my own card will be on its way to its recipient shortly.

The eclipse...

....was interesting, in a theoretical kind of way, as viewed from the inside of my cardboard box, but outside the box the morning light was beautiful and the clouds were rather pretty!

Moral dilemma of the day

Turn spare/junk/play/guest room into:

a) room of her own for eldest child, or
b) sewing heaven with incidental guest bed

What would you do?!

Sea Glass Waves

I'm linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts with a finish today.

This quilt started as an experiment a couple of years ago.  I fished it out of my basket of other experiments-which-haven't-come-to-anything-and-are-looking-at-me-reproachfully and cut it up with no plan, other than to see what would happen.

I re-ordered the cut up strips a little, and added linen in between and all around - but I wanted the original pieced strips to still look somehow linked so I added more quilting which runs right across. Then I quilted a series of boxes round the central panel using 28 weight Aurifil, a beautiful weight to quilt with if you want some definition to the quilting.

Finally I raided my hoard of beach glass and sewed pieces all around in a gap in the quilting, using an Aurifil embroidery floss, and this really beautiful hand dyed skein of No 5 perle I found at a quilt show.

If I do something like this again I might try piecing in, or appliqueing, little chips of coloured fabric, instead of the glass.

The floss has a lovely sheen.

I really love the texture of this quilt.

I made a hanging rod out of an old  piece of plumber's copper pipe - I hacksawed off a suitable length, polished it up a little with Brasso leaving it just a bit tarnished,  and super-glued a marble in each end.  I sewed tabs for the quilt, but they are only pinned on.

It was difficult to get a picture because it kept blowing away despite my helper's best efforts!

Actually though I think you get a better idea of its nature close up.

Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts.

WIP Wednesday

Having such fun working on this mini quilt - more about it here.  I solved the quilting dilemma by quilting round and round the central panel in a series of 'boxes'.  I've also added some more quilting in coloured threads which runs across all the strips, linking them together. 

Nearly done.

Linking up with Lee today for WIP Wednesday.

Spring in Scotland

From these frost ferns on my windscreen...

to this, in one week...