Saturday 19 December 2009

Peacock bag - finished at last


I finally finished the bag I've been embroidering for the past couple of weeks. I wanted to use metallic threads to give a shimmery effect to the peacocks, but when I started I had no idea how difficult they would be to work with.










I had a false start when the knots at the back started to unravel after I had cut them off too short to re-tie (five hours' work down the drain and I had to start over). I sought the advice of my swap-bot girls and one of their tips was to use a bit of Fray Stoppa. It worked a lot better for keeping the knots intact, but made them super stiff. This, along with the general unco-operativeness of the thread ends, which refused to stay put when I tried to weave them into the backs of my stitches, forced me to spend quite a while neatening the back of the embroidery with plain thread:

Sunday 13 December 2009

What are they?











Today I got out my fabric paints, a few left over bits of fabric, felt and embroidery floss ends and messed around with the button kit I bought a few weeks ago. I didn't want to make buttons so I pulled out the shanks and will shortly be supergluing magnets to the backs. I figured they can be either fridge magnets or worn as a brooch with another magnet on the other side of the clothing.

I kinda like the painted ones which were just improvised on the spot with the bits of metallic embroidery floss that I've been using these past few days.

Sunday 6 December 2009

Garden growth

Here's a view of the garden as it looks now from the same spot as this post. I've just realised what a bad position I chose for my comparison photos (I take the same shot every Sunday evening) because the tomatoes get lost in the greenery of the tree in the background. However, during the week I did discover a nifty website called Nearmap.com ("View high resolution PhotoMaps from multiple angles and observe changes to the environment over time. We have captured these PhotoMaps to feed your curiosity and encourage you to add to the site") on which I will be able to chart the progress of my garden without having to take my own photos.

Amazingly, these tomoatoes were all planted on the same day. It just goes to show how random gardening is for me. The larger ones will soon need to be staked to wire which I'll run between the two pickets. Perhaps a job for next weekend. The two little plants towards the centre of the bed are basil, and they have just grown their second pair of leaves.

A couple of the beans have really taken off. They are almost at the top of their trellis - where will they go now?

The strawberries are slowly growing under their net. I caught a white moth in there the other day, but I can't find any sign of grubs so fingers crossed it was just flying through.

Two of the eight to ten cos lettuce seeds I originally planted have come up and only one is looking any good. I put a few more seeds in last week but nothing has come up just yet.

In the meantime the rocket is doing well and a few have gone to seed which is good. Rocket seems to be the only thing that is foolproof for me, and even then I have to plant lots as it tends to bolt very quickly. Same with coriander and spinach - for me it's just not worth putting them in, although I love them dearly.
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