a container

A new workshop

by textile artist Debbie Lyddon

She makes amazing work

mostly inspired by the coastal area

where she lives in the UK

She demonstrated how to make a container (vessel, pouch)

for some treasure

(to find for yourself outside

or in the house)

In my search for something special

I landed with a box with a collection

of ladybugs

(the ladybugs used to be in the downstairs toilet,

but when that got renovated

the ladybugs went into a box

and never came out of there again)

I painted the fabric, made a template and started sewing.

The fun thing is the peep hole in it

where you can see a tiny bit of what's inside

I like it

(and am thinking about some other treasure

to give a special hiding place !)

stitches by machine and hand

This sunny week started

with a "bunting-day"

because our youngest grandson

came to us from school on his birthday !

(special vegan brownies by granddad)

The new backpack as a present needed

a bit of a personal touch !

A bit of sketching,

a trick to transfer it to the felt

and then I took my machine out to stitch.

Here the result ready to insert into the plastic sleeve

in the flap of the bag !

AFBLIJVEN

(Hands off)

One happy boy

*

Because the free challenges of TextileArtist.org are now finished

(and it goes on as a subscription per month)

it doesn't mean that there is no more stitching !

There was one piece in the challenges I liked very much :

blue, and there were lots of leaves in it

and a lot of stitching!

I asked the South-African lady if it was okay

if I used the leaves too.

So on my normal glue-stitched background

I added some leaves

and started stitching as usual.

Done !

(I like the result, though it's not totally mine)

*

The challenge of Christine Chester
was sent to a dear hard working health-care friend,
with 5 older stitched pieces to thank more people.
*

Sunny days

so the garden needs water !

But then

you get something !

Iris germanica

I heard once that you don't have to be too nice to those bearded irises :

we weren't very nice with all the digging for the new fence,

was surprised they even survived ...

BUT

love the result !

garden problem solved

We had a bit of a problem in the garden :

when the terrace was raised

it appeared that the drain of the downspout

didn't work properly.

(and we couldn't find where it went :

under our house or the neighbour's ...)

But that wasn't a big problem since it was dry for weeks on end.

BUT

it finally started to rain

Hmmmm the galvanized basin would surely be enough ...

 NOT !!!

After one heavy shower

it filled up very quickly and overflowed !
(we had to carry buckets to the water next to our garden, and it filled up again !)
We could hardly imagine
that  MUCH  WATER coming from the roof !!!

Between showers we "fixed" it

with some makeshift solution we managed to bring the water

to the stairs

pffffffffffft !

(but that rain was great for the garden :
everything lush and green !)

But finally yesterday

(in the bright sunshine again)

things were really solved !

First a mess,
and after some time the terrace was whole again !

So I used my mother's day to clean up and rearrange some things.
(see : our christmas tree waiting to "serve" another year)

I also replanted a rosemary bush
in front of the fence.
It will take some years before we have a nicer and greener fence
but I'm working on it !

My pride tall Alliums

(I'm waiting for the lower and darker "Purple Sensation")

The bluebells are gone (only seed heads remain)

and are being replaced by Ajuga reptans

Just beginning :

Sambucus nigra
(a variety with dark leaves and pink flowers)
*


P.S.
finally had time during the rainy days to make
my birthday-puzzle

(shopping in the garden center)

straight lines

The Textile Artist.Org stitching challenge

continued for another week
(yeaaaah)

Christine Chester

who works mixed media, not only textiles,

had a very "strict" exercise :

repeating a "round" shape in a square (5x5cm)

defining the shape and the negative "rest-space"

in stitched straight lines

(first on paper, later in stitch)

Christine started with a wavy shape and I did that first,

but soon had other shapes too

like a full circle and a heart.

I decided to take some quiet gray as background

and why not bright yellows to go with it ?

my first "sunny" attempt

I noticed on the FB page that many stitchers

couldn't stop at four little shapes.

When you start thinking and drawing

there are so many possibilities ...

so I decided right away to make another one !

nearly there ...

still to do the outside.

YES

a fun exercise.

(especially thinking about "rest-space" !)