STILL SEEING SPOTS

Hello my lovelies. I hope you’re all enjoying some kind of fine weather. Here in my little corner of the northeast of England, the sun is shining and the garden are growing greener and the blooms are beautiful.

I promised I would be today with some kind of progress. Well here it is.

 

My circle quilt which was inspired by one of my art journal pages is layered and ready for quilting. I finished the fine hand appliqué work over the weekend and added the scrappy pieced border this morning.

I went on to layer it up in readiness for machine quilting. It measures 41” square. And I purchased absolutely nothing extra to complete this project. It feels so good to use up what I’ve got. All to often I have started a project with the best intention of using up what I’ve got but find that I haven’t got enough of anything to complete it. This time I seemed to have everything I used at hand! It may never happen again. So, I will enjoy this sense completing something with any extra purchases just this once.

I have already started planning my next project which is also inspired by my art journal pages. This time I hope to produce a small row quilt which I can use as a wall hanging. I have a few blank wall spaces in my hallway that are crying out to be filled. I have chosen the a few art journal pages to work from and I look forward to drawing the blocks over the next few days.

Well, my lovely friends, I suppose that’s my news for today. I hope you all have a super cosy evening doing something you truly enjoy. Until next time,

Let’s all keep on stitching; it really does make life better.

Lucie x

WEEKEND NEWS

Hello my lovelies. I hope you’re all well and enjoying life to the fullest. I’m still quietly stay home and social distancing in order to stay well and healthy. The sun is shining brightly as I compose today’s post. I might even step out into the garden to do a little tidying up while the going is good. Who knows what next week will bring?

It’s day 60 of my self-imposed and slightly extended challenge. I haven’t posted for a few days because I had a family health crisis to get my head around. And although I did not post I still worked on some simple art journal pages. Here are Day 58, 59 and 60 …..

When I was working on day 60, I was so determined to make something different when I realised that if I wanted to do something similar to a previous journal page it didn’t matter. In fact, as it’s my art journal, I can replicate the same page everyday if I want. The whole point of doing this art journaling is to keep my mind occupied while times are strange. I can’t ever remember stranger times in all of my sixty years on earth.

Now that I have reached 60 art journal pages, I will switch to another art journal book. The next book is a little larger giving me more scope. I will most likely repeat my favourite designs over again while combining them differently. And I will most likely get a great sense of fun and accomplishment when I can stand back and look at what I have created. I am still planning on translating some of my designs into patchwork blocks and quilts. I’m still doing the fine hand appliqué from the first art journal pages I chose to turn into a quilt top. It’s just circles but it looks pretty good.

I mentioned the other day that there was a family health crisis. Well I can now tell you that my beloved 82-year-old mum fell and broke her hip on Tuesday morning. She was in agony. Well she has now had surgery to put the broken hip right. And apparently the surgery went well. I haven’t spoken to her myself but she is keeping in contact with my brother. My family are in Canada so it makes this quite difficult to get my head around. As things stand at the moment I cannot fly to Montreal and even if I could I would have to quarantine myself  for 14 days and I wouldn’t even be allowed to visit her in hospital. I’m not moaning; I’m just trying to make sense of it all. I’m doing my best to keep a positive head on. I will be very glad when I can speak to her myself. My mother is the bravest person I know. She faces everything head on. I have no doubt that she will work hard in order to get home as soon as she can. Home is where the heart is. And my mother too!

So, it’s been an interesting week to say the least. I look forward to seeing what will develop next week. Life is just getting better every single day.

Well, my lovely friends, I guess that my news for today. I shall be back on Monday or Tuesday hopefully with some positive stuff to tell you and some interesting progress on my projects. I hope you all have a super cosy weekend doing lovely summery stuff. Until next time,

Let’s all keep on stitching, one quilting stitch at a time does it.

Lucie x

SEEING SPOTS

Hello my lovelies. I hope you’re all well and in good spirits today. Life is pretty good here in my little corner of the northeast of England. It’s good but it’s not perfect. Perfect comes later after you’ve put a little more effort in but there’s always something to be thankful for.

I’ve done all my new normal usuals this morning. A few chores, walk the Maisie old girl pup, gave Sarah a ride and then I dragged my art supplies out and worked on this …..

Another simple art journal page. It’s now day 57 of my ongoing challenge. This little time spent playing with art supplies grounds me on days when I find it difficult to shut myself away in order to keep myself safe. As you can see, today’s effort is simple again. This is how this page started off …..

I spent a little time doing some fine hand appliqué work last evening. It’s amazing how quickly to get back into the groove after a long stretch of not doing any fine hand appliqué. I credit my success to using the finest thread I can find, Invisifil by Wonderfil. I have been this particular thread for fine hand appliqué for many years and it has given me such good results. I highly recommend it.

We are experiencing some really good weather here in my little corner of England. Plenty of sunshine, a little breeze and the gardens are greening up beautifully. Glorious.

Well, my friends, that’s my little bit of news for today. I may not be posting for a couple of days as I have a family health crisis to work out. I hope you all have a super cosy evening doing whatever makes you happy. Until next time,

Let’s all keep on stitching and messing around with art supplies.

Lucie x

BANK HOLIDAY BLESSING

Hello my lovelies. I hope you’re all having a brilliant bank holiday. It’s been a good weekend here in my little world. Today is Monday the bank holiday. Contrary to the usual, the sun is shining brightly, the wind has finally died down and it’s a splendid day. Quite often our bank holidays are a total washout. So, it’s a real blessing to have such a such brilliant weather today.

As I promised on Friday, I have set some time aside to be creative. Here are the art journal pages I created over the last three days …..

Here’s what this page looked like before I added embellishments.

Here’s what it looked like before the collage was added.

Here’s what this page looked like before embellishments were added.

Messing around with art supplies has somehow become the new normal from day to day. I do a few chores, cook some meals, spend a little time tidying up in the garden which then gives me permission to play with paint and paper etc. What a difference a couple of months makes. My thing would normally be to play with fabric.

Something I have recently noticed, I do far more cooking from scratch. Because there are very few visits to the supermarket, I do not purchase ready meals anymore. I’m not a super-duper cook but we are eating well; plenty of fruit and veg and I even started baking a little now and again.

Well, my lovely friends, that’s my report for today. I hope you all have a super cosy evening doing something you truly enjoy. Until next time,

Let’s all keep on stitching and messing around with art supplies.

Lucie x

BANK HOLIDAY BREAK

Hello my lovelies. I hope you’ve all had a great work week. It’s a beautiful bright morning here in my little corner of the northeast of England. It’s rather breezy but the sun is glorious and most welcome. We took Maisie for her morning walk and she was quite lively in the breeze.

Now, I’m coming to you early morning today because I have a few bits and pieces that need my attention. It’s day 52 of messing around with art supplies. No, I haven’t given up yet. In fact, I’m really getting into it. So, without further ado, here is today’s effort …..

All is Bright ….. now that should really cheer us up. There are 217 days left until Christmas. Doesn’t it make a nice change talking about something cheerful rather than how many deaths due to the invisible enemy!!!!! Once again, I kept this art journal page simple. Once the background was prepped …..

I added some cut outs, a wee bit of simple text and some wate colour pencil shading. Voila …. Now I feel all cheery. Has anyone started their Christmas shopping yet? Hahaha

So, my lovely friends, it’s a bank holiday weekend here in England. I shall be taking the long weekend break from blogging. Rest assured that I will dedicate some time to being creative. And I will be staying home in order to be safe. I hope to have one or two interesting projects in progress when I return on Tuesday. I hope you all have a super cosy weekend doing all your favourite things. Until next time,

Let’s all keep on stitching and messing around with art supplies.

Lucie x

INSPIRATION FOR APPLIQUE WORK

Hello my lovelies. I hope you’re all enjoying our beautiful summery days. It was so nice yesterday that we had the barbeque going to cook our evening meal. Oh man what a lovely day it was.

Yesterday was quite an exciting day. It was our step out to collect our click & collect grocery shopping day. It took us a few weeks to be able to get a collection slot but I persevered and we got there in the end. Now I don’t have to hit the supermarket at all. I must admit that I feel safer and more relaxed knowing that I don’t have to set foot in a supermarket. I do miss clothes shopping. It just goes to show you how we can learn to adapt to situation beyond our control. My shopping list is getting longer by the week.

Now, today is day 51 of messing around with art supplies. This is today’s effort …..

Once again I kept it simple. I added some more stencilling, some paper tags, washi tape, pen doodling and water colour pencil shading. This page started off looking like this …..

 

 

In between a few household chores, I prepped a few more art journal pages. Here are my next six endeavours ……

A little paint and some stencilling make such a difference to a blank page. The most difficult part of art journaling is actually doing some with a white page. That first splodge of paint is such a relief. I try not to think about it hard. I choose a colour and add it to the blank page. Once that’s done it gets easier. I don’t worry about spoiling the pages anymore.

I mentioned that I was hankering after doing a little appliqué work using one or two of my art journal pages. Quite a lot of my journal pages could be translated into appliqué work. They would have to be resized but would work quite well. They wouldn’t look exactly like the journal pages but quite similar if you closed one eye.

So, my lovely friends, I guess that’s my little report for today. Rest assured that here at happy stitching manor, life is ticking over nicely. Things are getting done at a slow and measured pace. We are settling into the new normal. I hope you have a super cosy evening doing something you truly enjoy doing. Until next time,

Let’s all keep on stitching and messing around with art supplies.

Lucie x

EVERYDAYNESS DAY 45

Hello my lovelies. For those who don’t know what day it is …. It’s Friday. I hope you’ve all had a lovely week. I seem to be more aware of the days starting and ending nowadays. I am settling nicely into the new normal because at the end of the day and for the most part it isn’t much different than what my old life was like.

So, today is day 45 of messing around with art supplies. It has become part of my everydayness. The art trolley comes out and I mess around with whatever I fancy. Here is my effort for today.

You are enough dear heart, just in case you didn’t know. Once again, it’s a simple art journal page. A bit of pen doodling, water colour pencil shading and come cut outs.

This piece started off like this …..

It’s been an interesting week. Isn’t it funny how with a little new info you can make really positive life changing decisions? The latest government directives have eased restrictions making me feel a bit more relaxed. Somehow there seems to be a pinprick of light at the end of the tunnel. I’ll be joining thousands of other people this weekend when I head over to the tip to drop off some rubbish and recycling. The pile has been accumulating over the last few days. I am really looking forward to going out for the first time since last Saturday.

Well, as boring as that report may have been, that’s my news for today. I hope you all have a super cosy evening doing something you truly enjoy doing. Until next time,

Let’s all keep on stitching and messing around with art supplies.

Lucie x

43 AND COUNTING

Hello my lovelies. I hope you’re all enjoying the midweek day. We’re almost halfway through the month of May.

There’s not much going on around here today. I settled down at the table with my art supply trolley and soon created another two-page spread for my art journal. Number 43 and counting. Here’s how today’s effort started …..

And here’s how it looks now …..

 

Once again, just a simple art journal page. A little pen doodling, some cut outs and water colour pencil shading. I went on to prep a few more pages in readiness for the next week or so.

Time sure does fly. We are now in our 8^th week of lockdown. The restrictions have been eased a little but nothing affects me for the moment. So, I stay home like I’ve been doing for the last couple of months. Creativity helps with the boredom.

Well, my lovely friends, that’s my report for today. I hope you all have a super cosy evening doing something interesting. Until next time,

Let’s all keep on stitching and messing around with art supplies.

Lucie x

CREATIVE WEEKEND

Hello my lovelies. I hope you’re all had an enjoyable weekend. With it being a bank holiday weekend, Sarah and I had even more time to be creative. It’s been quite a relaxing weekend so far.

It’s day 40 of messing around with art supplies. So, let’s reveal my new art journal pages. Here are two pages I added to my art journal for the weekend …..

The only way is Up … well as you can see I kept this one pretty simple.

Today’s effort includes a little more layering. I cut out some words from an old Mollie Makes magazine and pasted them down followed by some stencilling, a bit of pen doodling and some watercolour pencil messing around. All good clean fun.

I went on to prep a few more two-page spreads …..

When I look at the pages at this stage, I think to myself what a mess but I know once I start adding extras it will look alright. After all beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

While I didn’t get a chance to take of photo of my hexagon progress yet, rest assured that all the hexagons have been joined together and the plain border has been tacked in place around the outer edges. I am in the process of doing the fine hand stitching which will secure the plain border in place. I have secured two sides and hope to finish the job this evening. If the light is reasonably good tomorrow, I will take photos so you can see what it looks like now. I have been saving up to purchase the backing fabric but at the moment none of the local quilt supply shops are open. Finishing up the quilt will have to wait a little while longer.

For those of you who live in North America and/or any country that celebrates Mother’s Day today, I wish you a very happy Mother’s Day. I phoned my mother in Montreal this afternoon to have a chat with her and apparently the weather has been rather wintry. I must admit that here in the northeast of England the weather has been cold and blustery. The sun finally came out this afternoon but it’s cold. Brrrrr

So, my friends, I guess that’s my news for today. I hope you all have a super cosy evening doing something you truly enjoy doing. Until next time,

Let’s all keep on stitching and messing around with art supplies.

Lucie x

BANK HOLIDAY MONDAY ON A FRIDAY?????

Hello my lovelies. I hope you’re all having a lovely day. It’s an absolutely beautiful day here. What a shame we can’t go out and enjoy it. Let’s hope this is the kind of summer we’re going to experience. Most if not all our bank holidays are usually observed on Monday. Somebody had the bright idea to hold the Early May Bank Holiday on the Friday after the first Monday of the month in order to turn it into a celebration for the 75^th anniversary celebration of VE Day. Unfortunately, all the planned big events have had to be cancelled because of social distancing. Just something else to add to the pile of things the invisible enemy has ruined. I for one, planned to make the most of the day no matter what.

I dragged out my cart of art supplies and worked on an art journal two page spread ….. Yes, you read that correctly, my little bucket of art supplies that I started off with has somehow grown into a small cart. It’s amazing what you can gather from all the different nooks and crannies of my home. Things that were never intended as art supplies are being used. Without further ado here’s my art journal effort for today …..

I didn’t use anything I haven’t used in previous pages this time. And once again I kept it simple.

Yesterday I posted about a piece of fabric that I splodged some paint around. This one …..

Well, Sarah turned that bit of painted fabric into this …..

I politely asked Sarah if she had time to turn the bit of fabric into a zippered pouch. She found the perfect colour zip for it in her stash. It happens to be a zip that I surrendered to her a while back when she was looking for zips. Once again, we did not purchase anything new to make this zippered pouch. Now I wonder if Sarah and I can collaborate again in making something free using up some of our stash.

It’s been a pretty good day in my little corner of the northeast of England. There’s always a nice atmosphere on a sunny bank holiday. The sunshine makes such a difference. It gives me the energy to get on and do a few things. The washing machine was whirring a little while ago. Now it needs loading up again with another load. If I keep this up, I will have a weekend free of household chores.

Well my friends, I guess that’s my report for today. I am thinking about having a couple days rest from blogging but rest assured I will keep being creative and post about it on Sunday/Monday. In the meantime, I hope you all have a super cosy weekend doing things you thoroughly enjoy. Until next time,

Let’s all keep on stitching and messing around with art supplies.

Lucie x