dear diary : part 19

[Not all features of this blogpost will work when viewed as an email, to view it on my website click on the title above]
12/10/20
This is my first blogpost since my website got updated and things look different, it looks much more plain, so I need to
add a photo here

and I need to make this paragraph quite long so that when you look at the main page for my blog the excert that it shows contains more than a single sentence. That’s what I’m doing now, making this a more substantial paragraph, maybe with another photo? How will that make it look?

I’ll just carry on writing and see what it looks like when I publish it. Here’s a round up of my postcard swapping activities, this is September’s doodlebombed portrait …

and here’s a sneaky extra one I did as a Sender’s Choice card…

The person I sent it to lives in Albuquerque, there’s a prize for the first person to comment below with the name of the song I was referring to on the card.
16/10/20 EDITED TO ADD: the correct answer was given, you can find it in the comments below 🙂


Here are the cards I received in return..

The artist said…..

“For this I’ve tried myself in blind contour drawing as a base. First I thought: that’s scary, better make a new try. But then I thought that it’s not the goal of blind contour drawing to make something pleasing for the eye”

And this one…..

I can’t remember if I showed you the “Stamp Art” card I sent ..

or the one I received. By the time it arrived it had lost it’s stamp, which had a bird on it. The sender offered to send another one, but I said she didn’t have to, it’s all part of the story that the stamp was lost, in my opinion …

What else have I been up to? I’ve mostly been making Dangling Decorations. I’ve made them before for gifts, but I’ve never tried selling them because they are so tricky to photograph. But I had a go on my phone and found out it’s pretty easy to make and post videos on Instagram and Facebook from it. My first attempt was a bit Blair Witch Project-y, but after a few goes I had managed to stop the shaky hand held spooky footage vibe. I’m now using a disco mirrorball spinner to turn the danglers whilst I concentrate on keeping the phone steady. I’ve made short videos of lots of danglers and listed them on my website, you can see them here
Today I was looking around for some more fabric to make into danglers and I happened upon this piece that I did when I was doing Stitch Meditation , you can read about it here

I had to gird my loins to cut it up, but cut it up I did and tomorrow I shall make videos of the resultant dangling creations.
13/10/20
Right so, here they are…

I’ll be listing them on my website soon.

Recently I took part in an Instagram based challenge called September Textile Love or #septtextilelove2020 in Instagram-speak . You can see all of my posts for it here
One of the prompts was “Disappointment” and I wrote this…

“When heavy hints were being given that we might be heading into a 2nd lockdown I decided I needed a project ready to work on if , like the first time, I lost my sewjo. Get it sorted in advance, so I didn’t have to think about it, just do it. Something I could handstitch if I couldn’t face my sewing machine.

I bought this hand embroidered tablecloth in a charity shop and I thought I could cut the embroidery out and use it to decorate a jacket. If I’m put a lot of effort into handstitching it I should make it for myself as it will end up being too expensive to sell, if I added the hours up.
 So I had a look on ebay and found one that looked promising. It was describe as  Size L, which I guessed would be a size 16 minimum,  so it should fit me. It was a nice shape. I went for it.

Disappointingly, when it arrived it was marked on the label as a  Size 14 and it’s too small for me.
So it’s not going to be my lockdown project, but that’s ok, because the 2nd lockdown didn’t happen, at least not yet.
I will still decorate the jacket with the embroidery, but I won’t keep it, I’ll sell it.
If I had been going to keep it I would have dyed the jacket and tablecloth before starting, as I am far too clarty to wear white. But now I’m not keeping it, I might just leave it white. What do you think?”

Today I started cutting out the embroidery from the tablecloth and pinning it to the jacket..

I then noticed a stain on the arm that I don’t think was there when it arrived, or after I washed it. Must have been me, as I said, I am a clart.

So this has made me decide that I am going to dye it, and I should do that before I start stitching because the thread I use will not take on the dye, so if I dye it first I will know what colour of thread to use on it.
I’ve got at least 3 Dylon Dye pods somewhere, I know I have because they were sitting on the sideboard in the kitchen for months, waiting to be tidied away. Now they are not there, when I need them. And that is why tidying up is a bad idea, my friend.