WOYWW

 Good morning all.

Isn't this a lovely sight.  

A brand new box of beautiful oil pastels.

I gave my own, old box to Maxine so that Ben could use them for his artwork, as he loved using this medium. But I decided a budding talent really should have a lovely new set to work with. Don't they just look tempting- all fresh and new and ready to go.

Below is the little collage all ready for free machining. Neet asked how I made the little girl in the window on my bags.

I love a bit of free machining. It's like drawing with thread. I just stitch over the edge of the fabric and then do the fancy bits like the hair and the facial details.

I have a few more bags to do -I just need the time.

I have put 4 bags of workshop packs ready for Tilly. Two are sunflower packs, one lavender fields and one poppy set - so that's a total of 56 individual packs. So, as you can imagine, it doesn't leave much time for other crafty activity. I love doing it so it's not a problem. 😃

Well that's me for this week

Have a great week all 

x x Jo 🌈 

WOYWW

 

Good morning all 

I'm back from my little break in Llandudno. We had a lovely time with walking, train rides and laughter. It's so good to meet up with old school friends.

We walked in Bodnant Gardens.   

Then we walked along the pier in Llandudno and saw this on the prom. There are so many seagulls waiting for a chippy snack.🤣

On Thursday we had a train ride down the Conwy valley and I snapped this little steam engine in Blaenau Festiniog. We saw herons and egrets on the river bank.

I even snapped a salmon leaping the falls at Bettws y Coed. You might have to enlarge the picture and look closely near that timy fall of water. It is there, believe me.🦈

So that's my busy little week.

I am back to helping Tilly Tea Dance this week but hopefully I will have time to visit your desks 

Have a good week.

 x x Jo 🌈 

WOYWW

This week has flown by - yet again 

We are having a couple of days in Llandudno and paying a visit to Bodnant Gardens too, so I may not get round to visiting desks until later.

Here are my part done card toppers all ready to sew and embellish. I've used up all my background piece so now need to think of a new idea.

Below are just a few snaps from my front garden....lots of purple - lavender, hebe and my beautiful "Happy Birthday" clematis that little sis bought for me a few years ago. We thought it had died but this year it burst into bloom and twined its way through the Mahonia and up the fence .

Short and sweet for me today.

x x Jo 🌈 

WOYWW

 

Good morning all.

I'm a bit late posting today. Let's be honest ...I was out yesterday and completely forgot today was Wednesday 🤣 Where does the time go?

I thought I would show you my sunflower cards which I made using my background fabric that I created a few weeks ago. They are a bit random but I like them.

Below is an old school photo that my friend showed me this week ....

I'm on the top row, fourth from the left. Look at the hair! I'm guessing it's the mid sixties. Happy days! 

I hope you are all enjoying this lovely weather.

Keep cool and drink plenty of water ☀️☀️

x x Jo 🌈 

WOYWW

 

Good morning all .

At last I have put my ATC collection together for you. Thanks to Kyla, Mary Anne, Jan, Annie and Julia.

 I love them all and don't they  beautifully reflect our multi talented bunch of crafters? 

Thanks lots to you all.

This week I have been using up my background fabric for more cards. I really love making them and have come up with a few different designs.

I've made lots more - sunflowers and clematis amongst them.

 I will share them another time as I haven't taken photos yet and I might keep one or two secret as they will make lovely birthday cards for later in the year.😃

My orchids have all burst into bloom this week.

The pink one is a poor specimen with only one shrivelled leaf but it produced the one perfect bloom.

 

I have had the peachy one for about 7 years and it still produces beautiful blooms each year 

So that's me for this week 

Have a good week everyone.

x x Jo 🌈 

WOYWW

 Just a quick one today.

I've a few jobs for Tilly before I drop her stock into The Bog Centre on the Stperstones.

Yet more beautiful little sheep needle felted picture.

They are so bright and cheery and just fly off the shelves.

In a spare hour or two I used up a bit more background fabric and made two more cards.

And then with one of the last small pieces, I made another WOYWW ATC 

So that's me for this week.

The rain is doing the garden good but not so good for trips to the coast!

x x Jo 

WOYWW

Good morning all 

Well here we are again, moving into our 17th year of friendship and sharing. It was lovely to link up with our friends who joined us on our Zoom meeting on Saturday. Thanks to Sarah for setting it up for us. It gave Annie an excuse to pop round so that we could link up together. It's always good to spend time with my little sis!

I've had another busy week sorting artwork for Tilly. Here are some little felted sheep pictures all ready to go to a gallery in Yorkshire.

Below is a tiny orchid that Annie gave me three years ago. This week, the three little buds have popped open to reveal these stunning tiny blooms.

Now....

Remember my motherboard? Spider suggested that I scanned it so that it could used as a background paper when printed off. So here is the result.

If anyone would like me email the scan to you, then email me and you can have it. 

So that's me for this week.

Last night we had a tremendous thunderstorm. We had about half an hour of really heavy rainfall, so our gardens will be breathing a sigh of relief at getting a long drink at last. I hope some of it managed to soak into the parched ground 

x x Jo 🌈

WOYWW

 Welcome to my WOYWW opportunity to share my crafty activities with anyone who pops in to see what I'm up to.

This week I decided to make another Masterboard although I think I prefer to call mine a Motherboard even though I know that's something completely different 🤣

Here's my bag of green bits and bobs that I use for collage....

I snip strips of various fabrics and lay them onto a plain fabric - white poly cotton in this case.

Gradually, I build up an entire background.

Then I overlay a piece of very fine net and finally run several rows of leafy machine embroidery over the whole piece.

Here we are.. all ready to cut up into smaller pieces so that I can add detail with hand embroidery and more collage .

The little embroidery piece I showed you last week now looks like this..

I hope you enjoyed your V E day celebrations if you had any. G ran his model railway as a V E Day special and invited folks to pop in and see it. Just a bit of fun.

We had a walk through the park at Attingham. The azaleas and bluebells were pretty and the birdsong was lovely.

So that's me for this week.

x x Jo 🌈 

WOYWW

 Another week, another Wednesday. Welcome to my work desk. One day I will show you round my work room but I will need to do a bit of clearing up first.

It's been a busy week.

I had a little birthday card to make for my great nephew. The dinosaur is a favourite cut from a piece of printed fabric. I hope he liked it 

 And here is the card I made for my little sis and her hubby for their anniversary....

I do enjoy a bit of fabric collage and you will see that I used the fabric  "masterboard" that I made last week.

My latest job for Tilly was to create 28 packs for her new  Lavender fields workshop. Each pack has 24 different colours of fluff so you can imagine the fun I had creating those! 🤣

This is the sample sheet she gave me. The colours are more lavender coloured than this photo copy 

And this is the pack...

The colours overlap a bit when they go into the cello bag. Each one also has a square of card and linen and a small piece of prefelt and a small amount of white merino fluff. 

And finally, a few photos of my walk round The Dingle in Shrewsbury. A stunning little oasis, originally created by Percy Thrower and his team.

Enjoy your week. Warmer weather is on its way for the weekend so that's good 

x x Jo 

WOYWW

 Good morning all 

So we are back to chilly days again. What a shame. We all enjoyed that couple of weeks of sunshine.

We have seen a couple of swallows so, hopefully the sun will be back soon.

I have had a busy week with all sorts of activity.

 My craft table has been covered in fluff once or twice

I made about 30 little fibre and inspiration packs for Tilly. I always add a few lengths of textured wool yarns which can also be felted into pictures 

My next job was to make a piece of fabric as a background for some cards.

I cut up toning strips of fabric which I laid onto a plain fabric and trapped under some fine net..

I used my machine to work patterned stitches to hold down the pieces. 

The first card was a Golden Wedding card

The next was a birthday card for Tilly. . She won't see it here so I can share it with you 

I have made another but I will share it next week.

I've also had a day with Ben which left me exhausted. I'm not sure if it was the penalty shot footie or the tennis on our lawn that wore me out. It was good fun at the time!

I hope you all have a happy Easter time. The year is flying by. 

See you next week 

x x Jo 🌈 

WOYWW

 Good morning all.

Here we are again sharing our crafty activity for the week.

I have had a few spare hours so I have been busy in my craft room for a change.

Unusually for me, I began making my Christmas cards nice and early. I fancied doing a bit of fabric collage.

I made several background pieces made with strips of fabric Bondawebbed onto a piece of white satin

Then I created little fabric poinsettia and holly leaves and berries.

Each one is different and I really enjoyed making them.

Then, my friend asked if I could make a little Christmas placemats. Out came my scraps of Christmas fabric to create a little patchwork with a collage beside it. Cute isn't it. I put a red spotty border and backing on it 

Sadly, I forgot to take photo of the finished mat.

I have more fabric now to create another one for a little boy. Maybe a little elf collage for this one.

This week I will be edging bookmarks and making up workshop packs for Tilly Tea Dance. Hopefully folks will get their orders in to her early so that she can get them posted out before the Christmas rush. She has a well stocked Etsy shop at the moment. 

https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/tillyteadance

Well that's me for this week.

Have a good week all.

x x Jo 🌈 

.

I spent a little bit of happy, crafting time making cards for friends and family this week.

The above is the flowery collage I made for my much younger sister!

Below is the little seascape that I made for a friend who loves the Isle of Man.

They are just made from tiny scraps from my fabric stash.

I have drawers full of colour sorted fabric and it's fun just to dip in and use some of it.

I use Bondaweb to secure the fabric to the backing piece and then machine in place.

A few hand stitches here and there and that's it. Probably an afternoon's work though.

My latest twiddler is intended as a Halloween themed one but, of course, I can't make them scary, so I went for a suitable colour scheme, pumpkin face, cats, buttons etc and a few twiddly knitty/crochet bits.

So, that's it for this week.

Hopefully, I am meeting up with Sarah B at Tilly's workshop in Shrewsbury on Friday - really looking forward to it.

Have a good week all.

xx Jo