A Brightly-Coloured Embroidered Piece

Having a bad day today with my ME, probably as a result of everything that went on last week – going to the hospital was a bit stressful, and being left in limbo regarding whether or not I have to have further surgery. I’ve also been pretty busy with things, and this week doesn’t look too different, with two separate visitors.

I spent most of the day resting on the recliner, trying to catch up with some of the TV recordings that have been mounting up, and being on the computer. I did manage to do another piece of embroidery for the bed half-tester, though.

I am very pleased with this brightly-coloured piece. I didn’t put any sparkly thread on this one.

Here’s a detail shot.

I really wanted to spend some time in the studio today but I was just too wiped out. Hopefully tomorrow I shall feel better again.

WOYWW 325

Well, I have actually got something on my desk today to show you, but nothing very constructive as yet!

I want to make a get-well card and a small gift for our neighbour who we have become friendly with, who recently came home from visiting family, having had a serious accident while away, and she is now mending and recovering, and needing a little cheering up! She loves butterflies, and last year she gave me a lot of lavender clippings from her garden, from which I made some infused oil, as well as having sufficient flowers left to dry for sachets. I made these for my fellow chemo-ites when I started my chemo, and thought I’d make her one as well, in its own little box, together with a small bottle of the oil, and possibly a lavender soap. Something else to keep my angels project on the back burner!!

I have been feeling so poorly since my last chemo that I haven’t been able to make a start on this, so this morning I had a rummage through my stash and selected a few cards and papers to make a start on the project. If I don’t get going soon, she'll be better before she gets it! Lying on top is a fabulous piece of silk paper that a mixed media artist friend gave me several years ago and which I have not yet put to use, and I thought I might add a bit of this. Silk paper is something I want to start making one day.

I have another project in the pipeline as well. Until now, I have been wearing a butcher’s apron in my studio and this doesn’t really offer me much protection especially once I’m let loose  on the spray inks! It has been on my mind to make myself some sort of smock to cover me up a bit better.

Recently while surfing Pinterest, I came across this gorgeous “slouchy smock dress” and knew this was exactly what I wanted, and it has a free downloadable pdf pattern.

On a fabric website I found some linen-look heavy cotton fabric which is 60 inches wide and ideal for my purposes because it shouldn’t allow any bleed-through of paint or ink onto my clothes underneath. This is now washed in case of shrinkage, and waiting to be ironed once I have enough energy.

I shall make the sleeves longer, and put cuffs on them.

If I like it, I shall probably make it again, as a dress for normal wear!

Regarding my chemo, I have not been doing so well after my fifth treatment on 14th August, and am only now starting to feel more myself again. The peripheral neuropathy has been more severe, and I’ve noticed some loss of sensation in my feet and fingertips, which I shall report to the oncologist. She is most likely to reduce the chemo dose a bit more, because this is something they take seriously, as it could become permanent. I have been very wiped out too, sleeping a lot, and feeing pretty poorly generally, and unable to shift a very unpleasant sour taste in my mouth, and my appetite has been poor. All this means that I haven’t achieved much in the last week!

Yesterday, though, my new laptop arrived, and I’ve been busy getting it up and running, which is taking some time. My old one has been playing up quite a bit recently and is on the way out, but until it finally dies, I shall keep it as a spare.

So that’s been Shoshi’s week.  I hope yours has been a bit more productive! Happy WOYWW everyone.

A Spoily Day

Today I had a day of spoilies as my hubby calls them – he has been waiting to give me a spoily day ever since I’ve felt better after the last chemo, but I’ve been too busy with my mystery projects and had no time to go out.

Our first port of call was the Ricky Grant Day Unit for my bloods (not that that was particularly spoily!). For once I wasn’t kept waiting very long at all, and a nurse I hadn’t seen before called me in, and in no time at all, she had the gripper needle in, the port flushed, and the blood out – I hardly felt a thing! It was the most painless and hassle-free ever. She was very nice (as they all are) and very friendly. I asked her for more of the cow cream and she gave me a new pot, and I handed in my MRSA swabs. Back again tomorrow for chemo session #5.

Last time I was there for my chemo, I got into conversation with a lovely nurse who told me that her husband and her daughter were in the army, in the Royal Engineers. I told her that my grandfather had been in the Royal Engineers in the First World War, and she was very interested in that. Before going today, I had a rummage in my buttons box and found the Royal Engineers uniform buttons I’d inherited from my grandfather with all his other buttons, and took out two to give to her. She was totally overwhelmed and thrilled with this, and said her daughter and husband would be thrilled too – she said I had made her day! Actually her lovely response made my day – it was so touching!

Over a year ago I started making a large album about my dad, but had to set it aside in favour of the smaller one that I wanted to make for our niece. This large album is a project I want to take up again as soon as I can. All I have done so far is the ancestry pages, one of which is about Grandpa in WWI, and I am going to take this page in for the nurse to see tomorrow. On it is one of Grandpa’s buttons!

After this we came home, and made plans about our lunch out. My hubby had suggested we went out for lunch today, and our original plan was to go to our favourite place on the sea front, and then trundle along looking at the sea – it would have been the first time I’d been out on my buggy for months! However, the weather was awful today and it was more like November than August, so we had a change of plan. I asked if he would take me to Hobbycraft in Newton Abbot so I could pick up some of their own brand polyester filling for my angels project – I’ve been recommended this as one of the best around, and it will certainly be better than the awful lumpy stuff I’ve got!

So we went to the Passage House Inn, right down on the River Teign, where we have eaten lots of times in the past. My hubby had the carvery, and I had steak and otter pie – I was a bit worried about eating otters until they reassured me that it was Otter Ale!! It was absolutely delicious. I was very good and didn’t have a pudding – I’ve put on 4 lb in the last fortnight and I’m anxious not to gain too much weight. Although I have abandoned my diet until I’m through all the surgery and chemo, I have been trying at least to maintain my weight at a constant level!

Hobbycraft was brilliant. I hadn’t been before, and there was loads of great stash there! I got my polyester filling and then had a good old rummage through the whole shop. After a while my hubby went and sat in the car to read his book, and I am afraid I succumbed to temptation despite my resolution not to spend any money on more stash this month lol! There’s no hope for me – I’m an addict.

Here is what I bought.

At the back, the polyester filling. Middle row L-R: Tim Holtz tissue tape, Twinkling H2Os (I’ve wanted these for years!), a glue stick, some clippy attaching thingies by Tim Holtz. Front row: 2 packs of fat quarters with small prints to make angel clothes. Love how they are packaged with the ribbons and labels!

I signed up for a loyalty card and got £5 off my order.

In the shop they had quite a few different embossing and die-cutting machines, and I saw the Sizzix Big Shot Plus for the first time – what a dream machine! I am soooo tempted… I have had an old-style Cuttlebug since I started and it works just fine, but it is very small, and the idea of being able to emboss up to A4 is extremely attractive! Has anybody else out there got one, and what do they think? I’m not thinking of doing anything straight away but it did look gorgeous.

Then it was time to come home. I was pretty tired by then, and had a cup of tea and a sleep.

I saw something that amused me today – while I was waiting outside the hospital for my hubby to come with the car after my appointment, I was sitting outside the Physiotherapy Department and through the open door I saw this crutch:

You can see it propped up against the wall in the corner. Anybody using a crutch like that must need physio lol lol!!

WOYWW 319

I’m feeling quite a bit better now, as the second week advances after chemo treatment #3, so I’ve been a bit more active on the creative front.

My desk today.

Annotated for your delectation and delight! You will be glad to hear that true to her cheapskate character, Shoshi has rescued some little twists of wool from the back of the settee – these obviously got down through the recliner mechanism to the floor since I completed my knitting project! Not one to throw anything away, however manky if it can still be used, these now sit in all their glory on my desk waiting to be cleaned up! You can see also that my paint water remains suspiciously clean.

Moving on, I have two lavender sachets remaining from that project, and as tomorrow I am seeing the two ladies I became friends with in hospital, I thought I would make up two more boxes to put these in. One of them will have the little chemo card inserted – she and I are neck-and-neck in our treatments, mine being every 3 weeks on Fridays and hers every three weeks the following Mondays (sad that the hospital is so badly organised that they couldn’t do us both together lol!!). The other one’s cancer was so well confined to her bowel that she didn’t need chemo (don’t I envy her!!).

You can see one of the box pieces waiting to be embellished. I am in the middle of sorting out which rubber stamps I want to use for this, and have got a selection out. The set on the right is a new Chocolate Baroque set that I haven’t used yet.

As always, there is stuff lurking around (usually carefully hidden out of shot!) waiting to be put away, and underneath the desk are a couple of Really Useful Boxes (RUBs) waiting for a home to be found for them, and the top one now contains various bits and pieces for art doll making.

Last week someone asked what I was using a screwdriver for! I was a bit mystified about this till I realised she must mean my Bosch hot glue gun which is a bit of a monster, I admit… It lives at the back of the desk on its charger.

Moving downstairs to Desk #2 (!! – my table in front of the recliner) I have got my doll making stuff out.

I downloaded a Tilda doll template from Pinterest last week, and sized it to what I thought would be suitable. It’s coming out quite small so I’ll probably redo it a bit larger, but I think it will be OK. You can see I’ve started stitching the pieces together. I know this would be a lot quicker on the machine but I am not able to sit in my studio for extended lengths of time yet and quite enjoy being in the zone with tiny back-stitching on the comfort of the recliner. On the left is a collection of cut out pieces of card comprising another angel template, this one a multi-layered felt one, inspired by an image I found on Pinterest. I’ve got a big bag of felt scraps and will cut it from these, and add some embroidery to embellish it. At the back of the table is the fabric I’m making the current Tilda doll from (the body is made from a beautiful old Egyptian cotton sheet which is so fine that I am having to use longer pins than my usual ones because they are slightly thinner, but they are still leaving marks which have to be smoothed out. I am using a fine Betweens needle to sew the pieces.

My tools and other bits and pieces are in a tray taken from one of my RUBs. Useful little compartments.

And now for those of you who haven’t visited me since the last WOYWW, I’ll put you out of your misery. Here is the “sneak peek”:

You can see the “funny stuff” as part of the embellishment. Here it is in all its glory.

It was part of some pot-pourri we had years ago and I saved it for art stuff. You can read all about it here. Nothing to do with angels!!

Finally, I thought you might like to see how the brainless knitting is coming along.

Progress is slow, but at least I’ve made some! It’s good to work on while having the chemo (till I start to feel too poorly to do it) and also if I feel up to doing something, but nothing too involved. In addition to this, this week I have revived Inkscape (free, open-source, very powerful vector drawing software) and have been designing some things to cut once I eventually get my Cougar cutting machine up and running again. (Long overdue…) I can do this on the computer with very little effort and it’s highly creative.

I am hoping to have the rest of this week, and all next week, feeling a lot better and managing to work on projects again. My angel project is moving ahead extremely slowly but I am still not putting pressure on myself to complete it by any given date. I’ll keep you posted.

Happy WOYWW everybody. I’m joining pretty late in the day so I hope you are all still there!

Edit – I have just signed up for WOYWW, only to read of the devastating news of the sudden death of Eliza, one of our regular members. It makes my last sentence take on a whole new meaning. I shall miss her posts, and the regular news of her beautiful cat Yoda who always made me smile week by week.

Practising Doll Faces and Completing Doll Body

Doing a bit more work on my angels project. Today I practised drawing doll faces according to the instructions of Patti Medaris Culea (links provided by Judy). Not as difficult as I thought, and working from right to left, I think I am gradually improving!

I used some coloured crayons and some pens. I worked on a strip of unbleached calico ironed onto a piece of freezer paper to give it a bit more stability.

I also completed the body of the large cloth angel.

I had awful trouble stuffing this – the polyester stuffing which I have had for many years is really not very good quality and it came out all lumpy, so I had to pull most of the stuffing out of the body and tease it out again and restart the process. This filling seems to do better with narrower pieces like arms and legs than it does with larger volumes, which work better if I don’t attempt to put too much stuffing in. I’m on the look out for something of better quality but so far my online researches haven’t come up with anything definite – if there’s anybody out there (UK) who can recommend a decent polyester filling I’d be grateful.

I also spent a bit of time in my ARTHaven this morning, tidying up, and putting all my Dylusions sprays, paints and Ranger mini-blending tools together into one box, after painting a dab of paint on the top of each handle so they are readily identifiable.

The effects of my third chemo treatment are definitely not as severe as those of the second. The reduced dose has definitely helped.

Foiling Success, and More Calico Lavender Sachets

I’ve now had the chance to complete the foiling project which I started the other day.

I applied the foil glue to the fabric by painting it onto a rubber stamp and stamping carefully onto the fabric. To get a good impression, and because the foam on the cling mount of the new stamps is rather hard, I used a foam mat under the fabric. I left the glue to dry fully, and then laid the foil, shiny side up, over the glue and rubbed it firmly with the back of a fingernail, peeling the foil back carefully to check that I had not missed any.

This is the result.

I am quite pleased with this. These small rectangles can now be made up into more lavender sachets. This fabric is rather thin, so I may need to back these pieces with calico before making up.

I am very pleased with the Jones Tones foiling kit that I bought. There are some cases when you really do have to use the right equipment for the job, and no glue in my possession was working properly. I am keen to try more foiling in future as I love the effect. I have discovered that you can also apply foil using iron-on interfacing and I am eager to try this technique too.

Last night I completed five more lavender sachets made from calico, onto which I had stamped different images using archival inks in a selection of colours.

The top one, with the blue butterfly, has been edged with pale blue ribbon. All the others were edged with finger-crocheted yarn (finger-crocheted because I couldn’t be bothered to go up and find a crochet hook!).

I have now completed a total of fifteen lavender sachets – I am not sure how many I shall need, but I’ve got a few more pieces of fabric cut and ready to make up, so I shall complete those and hope it’s enough! Next step is the little boxes to put them in, and these will have to be made in my ARTHaven as I really can’t bring all the stuff I need downstairs! I am hoping to get these completed by Friday, when I go in for my second chemo treatment, so that I can start giving them to my fellow chemo-ites.

New Stash, and More Lavender Sachets

New Stash

For my birthday, my friend Shaz sent me a beautiful card with white heat-embossed dragonflies on it, and I asked her what stamp it was, and she told me it was a set from Papermania, and how very reasonably priced it was, along with some others she thought I might be interested in. I promptly went and had a look, and yes, you’ve guessed it, I succumbed! Thank you Shaz!

Like Shaz, I have now cut the stamps to separate them from the original single stamp.

Now that I shall be doing more with textiles (this was my plan for this year, but so far it hasn’t materialised in any large degree) I thought I would finally get around to getting myself a decent craft iron. Ages ago I found one online but it was consistently unobtainable, and the website said they would inform me when it was available again, but it never has been… In the meantime my hubby lent me his little travel iron but I have to say it was rubbish and didn’t heat up enough! Anyway, this is what I have now bought for myself, and it’s a really powerful little iron, with steam facility too.

As you can see, it comes with its own little drawstring bag and a tiny jug to fill the water tank with (this opens via the oval rubber cover at the front end of the top of the iron).

The design is very ergonomic, and it feels very nice in the hand. All the controls are recessed below the surface so there’s no danger of operating them inadvertently.

Finally, the iron has a little clip on the front, and you can wind the cable around the iron and clip it firmly. Nice design!

I also bought myself a nice ironing mat, which has a foam back and a metallised surface to reflect the heat back. There’s no way I can carry our ironing board upstairs to my ARTHaven, and this is the ideal solution. Here it is, folded over so that you can see the back as well as the front. The foam back makes it quite non-slip as well as giving a nice spongy surface, and the whole thing can be folded away when not in use.

It is resting on one of my large ultra-heatproof mica mats from Presspahn. See my sidebar for details of these – I wouldn’t be without them, especially after warping so many cutting mats with my heat gun! They will withstand much higher temperatures than I’m ever likely to generate in my studio, even if I were to get myself a butane torch! I have now brought one of the small ones downstairs and it’s under the cutting mat on the table in front of the recliner, should I want to do any sewing downstairs which might require pressing.

The final thing I got recently was a Jones Tones foiling kit. I have a couple of sheets of gold and silver foil that I bought at a craft show ages ago, and the other night I tried stamping and foiling on some fabric to use for my lavender sachets, with complete lack of success! It wasn’t easy to find good answers online but eventually I discovered Jones Tones who do quite a few foiling and other products, and I thought this little starter kit was quite a good idea – for a very reasonable price I’ve got quite a few different coloured foils and a small bottle of glue.

You have to put the glue onto whatever surface you want to foil, and leave it to dry completely, and then place the foil shiny side up over the glue and rub it, and the foil transfers onto the glue but not elsewhere – there’s a transparent layer on the top of the sheet from which the foil is transferred.

I tried painting some of the glue onto one of my new dragonfly stamps, using a foam brush, and this is the result so far:

Not very impressive, I grant you, but we’ll see how well the foil transfers once it’s dry.

Lavender Sachets

Three more completed lavender sachets.

The one on the left is plain red fabric with a strip of quite stiff, open-work lace laid over the top. The little red checked wooden charm was in my stash, and I added some black ribbon and the signature heart charm that’s going on each bag.

The middle one ended up a bit lumpy because I had quite a job stitching down the three ribbon flowers – these wired flowers were part of the gorgeous box of crafty stash that my friend Marlene sent me for my birthday. The one on the right has a collection of wired beaded flowers and some pink stamens that were also in Marlene’s parcel, and some sequins and beads. Both these green bags have gathered ribbon around the edges.

Today I’ve done some more printing on calico using archival inks – this time utilising most of the colours that I have.

First of all, more sepia ones, this time using some small seashell stamps.

The next one is one of Ryn’s leaf stamps.

Using one of my new butterfly stamps. OK, I’ve got loads of butterfly stamps, but can one ever have enough butterflies??!!

Finally, something I’ve been wanting to do, random stamping of tiny butterflies in different colours. These two little stamps are part of a larger set that I’ve had for ages.

Time to get these new calico ones stitched and made up!

Drapes for Half Tester–A Mock-Up

I’ve decided to do a temporary mock-up of my bed drapes. I haven’t done any more embroidery for a while, but when the pieces are finished, they will go around the top.

This is what the frame of the half-tester looks like without the drapes:

You can see, from this photo which I took in the evening some time ago, that there is a light attached inside the frame – you can see the pull cord for it hanging down.

There are still 3 banana boxes remaining from when we moved house, which I still haven’t unpacked (!) and one of these is in the bedroom, and marked “Bed Drapes.” I opened it up today and got them out, and put up what I could onto the half-tester frame. It’s a mock-up and looks a bit messy but it gives me an idea of what needs to be done to make the drapes fit properly.

The curtains with the dark red patterned outsides and green linings were designed to go at the four corners of the four poster and are unfortunately too narrow to extend the full length of the half-tester, but I have put two curtains on each side. Eventually I shall probably sew them together to make one. Also, each curtain is made so that the lining is attached along the long sides, apart from a short distance at the top, to allow the curtain to go on the outside of the frame, and the lining on the inside, sandwiching the frame in between. Because of the diagonal struts supporting the top of the half-tester, I had to unpick the seam a bit further down the length of the curtain, to enable it to go past this piece of wood.

The red woven strip with the wool tassels on it (can’t remember where I got that – probably from some ethnic shop or other) was also in the box, and I’ve pressed that onto the single line of Velcro on the frame as a temporary top edge until I can complete the embroidered pieces – it sticks OK for now, because the fabric is fairly soft and fluffy. It is not long enough to extend the full length of the sides of the half-tester frame, so I have just pressed the ends down onto the Velcro that goes along the top edge of the frame for now. (That Velcro will eventually hold the top canopy.)

The dark blue piece hanging at the head of the bed is supposed to overlay another length of fabric, but I can’t use this until I’ve altered it. The soft Velcro is on the front, because originally it was stuck onto the outside of the four-poster frame, against the wall at the head of the bed, and the half-tester frame is up against the wall and I can’t get at the back of it. It used to hang flat (ungathered) but it is too wide now, so I may cut off the excess, or I might put it up gathered – I haven’t decided about that yet. The dark blue piece is also too wide, and is gathered at the edges at the moment, so that it fits the half-tester frame, but it’s a bit wrinkled and doesn’t hang quite right. This piece was originally going to be covered with shi-sha embroidery but I never got round to it! Probably a good thing, if the piece doesn’t fit properly! I’ve got more of that material and I may cut another piece to fit, but I’ll live with it as it is for a while and see how I feel about it.

Because the half-tester is screwed to the wall, the knobs on top at the head end are very close to the wall, and I cannot hang the big tassels over them because their cords are too thick. I’ve just laid them on top of the frame and stuffed the excess down behind, and it seems to work! The tassels at the foot end aren’t a problem, of course, as I can just hang them on the knobs as I did with the four-poster. These tassels are actually curtain tie-backs that I bought to hang over the knobs of the four-poster, as they looked so rich, and co-ordinated so well with the drapes.

Also in the box of bed drapes I found the two long pelmet pieces I made for the bedroom in our old house. They have rufflette tape on them, and I pulled all the gathers out when I washed them, and folded them away in the box. There were two windows in that room, and I think the pelmet piece from the smaller window may be just enough to go round the inside of the half-tester frame, to cover up the wood and provide a backdrop for the front pieces once I’ve made them – I might not be able to gather it very much. The green bobble trim on the pelmet pieces matches that on the bed curtains. The longer pelmet piece I may use as a pelmet to go over the window which at present doesn’t have a pelmet at all – a wooden one would have to be made, or perhaps a purchased pelmet rail? Not sure about that yet. Anyway, if I do it, it will all co-ordinate.

I need to attach more Velcro onto the frame, so that the top pieces as well as the curtains can be attached. I have been using the self-adhesive hooks and the sew-on loops, but after a while the glue on the self-adhesive hooks tends to fail, so when I redid the first lot of Velcro, I stuck it on with extra-sticky double sided tape as well, just to make sure. I’ve also got to adapt the pleated canopy I made for the four-poster as it is much too large at present.

I think my temporary mock-up looks quite cool, but it’s going to be soooo much better when it’s all done properly! I’m not going to be able to do anything more about this until I am well and truly over my operation, but I wanted to get something up over the bed as I was getting a bit fed up with looking at the bare wooden frame! The mock-up will do for a while, and may give me the impetus I need to get the job finished eventually.

Decorations for Half-Tester, New RUBs and a Health Update

I haven’t been blogging much lately because we’ve had major problems at home with Mum and I’ve had a bit of a reaction and felt very poorly, and the stress has made my creative mojo take a walk! However, I’m feeling a bit better now, and now I’ve started the embroidery on my bed decoration pieces, this is something I can do while in the sitting room, and I am making slow but steady progress, and really enjoying it.

Embroidery

I have completed the embroidery on a few more pieces – one or two I had worked on before, but felt they needed a bit more, and some starting from scratch on the machine applique. Here are the four latest pieces:

and here are the detail shots of each one.

I added a lot of French knots on this one! Love the bobbly texture.

It’s very disappointing how photos never show up sparkly stuff – the metallic threads look quite lost in these photos, looking more like raffia! The top one has red and gold lurex thread, the second two gold, and the bottom one has copper. The little shi-sha mirrors don’t show up that well, either, but they really twinkle in the light.

If you look closely at them, you can see that the shi-sha stitch encases the edge of the little mirror, like the setting of a cabachon jewel. The stitch is a variation of chain stitch with two parts to it – you stitch alternately around the four-sided scaffold you work initially to hold the mirror in place, and into the background fabric. I love doing this stitch. You can use it to attach other things too, and I’ve done experimental pieces in the past, attaching shells and flat pebbles. I’ll have to dig out the piece sometime and photograph it, because I don’t seem to have any photos. I did a talk on shi-sha at the embroidery group I used to belong to in Plymouth and this was one of my demo pieces. I also made this purple bodice with a mount-board frame as an example:

Here is a little box I made, using the technique. To open the box, you squeeze the ends together. There is a shi-sha mirror on each of the three sides.

Looking back at this work, it makes me think I really should be getting back into embroidery again – I love it!!

Hopefully I’ll have some more photos of the bed decorations to show you soon. I’ve got a lot of work to do before I can start making them up, and then I shall make tassels to go on the end of each one – something I am really looking forward to doing, and I am already collecting images on Pinterest for my inspiration.

ARTHaven Organisation – RUBs

I have started adding to my existing collection of Really Useful Boxes (RUBs) again. Eventually nearly everything in my ARTHaven will be stored in these, and I am also collecting them for the shelves under the counter in my en-suite bathroom. I am delighted that after doing a lot of research and endless measuring and comparing, I have discovered that there are boxes that fit exactly in the various spaces I have! The effect is so much tidier than my endless scruffy cardboard boxes; they also keep the stuff better, and you can see through the box to see what’s in it. They have a nice uniformity of appearance whatever their size, and are starting to make my ARTHaven look really good! As the pennies allow, I shall add more in time.

On the RUB website, the prices are quite reasonable, but you have to pay postage if your order is less than £500 (and I certainly can’t afford to pay £500 all at once for boxes!). I have discovered a lot on Ebay, and you can sometimes buy multiple packs (2, 3, 5, 10 etc.) of a particular size, and many of them have free postage. Even when the price per individual box is a bit more than on the RUB website, in the long run it saves money because the postage on the RUB website bumps the price of each box up quite a lot, and also, you don’t have to buy a whole lot at once, and there are some good deals to be found.

In this photo of the floor units under the window, you can see I’ve supplemented my 9-litre collection, and also got some of the 9-litre XL boxes, which have tall lids. These are very good for storing bottles and jars, and anything that sticks up above the top edge of the box. The capacity of the box itself is the same as the regular box. The shelves in the floor units are just right for both these sizes. On the left, this large pull-out unit on casters had been a complete mess since we moved, full of a mixture of Dad’s old workshop tools, some of my tools, brackets and fixings, and my decorating stuff. This has now gone into the RUBs and once I manage to spend some time organising the contents properly, I should be able to lay my hands on what I want with ease.

I love how the blue handles clip in place, locking the lids.

Moving over to the storage area on the other side of the room, I have the free-standing cabinet that the previous owner of the house left in my bathroom. I am delighted that each of the open shelves in the centre exactly accommodates one 19-litre RUB. I had a couple of these, and have now completed the set.

Unfortunately, because the doors occupy some space, I cannot get them in the cupboards, but that doesn’t matter because when closed, the contents don’t show anyway. The cupboards are full of fabrics, picture frames and Ikea mirrors for altering, amongst other things.

On the wall opposite the window is the large wall unit, and in this picture you can see the progress I am making. On the left, the shelves are filled with plastic containers that I got years ago from our local supermarket – they had contained things like coleslaw for the deli counter, and I asked them to save them for me, and some of them had margarine in them – I used to buy large quantities for baking, and saved all the boxes which have been incredibly useful over the years – in their first incarnation they were kitchen storage boxes, and like many of my kitchen things, eventually found their home in my ARTHaven! These containers will remain, and not be replaced by RUBs. They contain haberdashery. The centre shelves now house two 9-litre RUBs end-to-end, and one of several of the long 22-litre boxes I have, which are useful for storing rolls of paper. Not all the RUBs stack with each other, but I have found that I can stack two 9-litre boxes end to end on top of a 22-litre box. The contents won’t necessarily stay as they are – the whole thing is still in a state of flux.

I am so looking forward to replacing the untidy cardboard boxes! I shall be getting some 25-litre boxes to go on top of this wall unit, and on top of my mixed media wall unit over the other side of the room as well. The shelves on the right of the large wall unit will continue to be used for drawing stuff (my Zentangle stuff is there) and I shall keep the pretty box on the top shelf, which houses my metallic embroidery threads and embroidery sequins and beads. It all just needs tidying up and organising a bit better.

The bottom shelf in the middle at the moment holds all my soap making stuff. The brown plastic box on the left has essential oils and other liquids for soap, beauty and cleaning products I am going to make. The rest of the soap stuff will go in RUBs once I get them.

Once I get the large black shelf unit in the storage area better organised, I will show you photos of that. I am very thrilled that this unit, which is all that remains of a much larger unit which came out of a shop that was closing down, is exactly the right size for some under-bed storage boxes I had (not RUBs), and also accommodate the 22-litre RUBs end-wise, and the 9-litre and 19-litre boxes.

Health Update (Not TMI, I hope!! No need for the more squeamish among you to read on…)

I am now in the throes of preparation for my regular two-yearly colonoscopy which is taking place on Monday morning. On Wednesday I stopped taking my colitis medication and also my iron, and yesterday was the first day of the special low-fibre diet you have to go on. Today is the second day. During these two days I am not allowed any fruit or vegetables, and can’t have my lovely breakfast porridge (oatmeal) and have to have cornflakes instead – I always say there’s more nourishment in the packet than in the actual cornflakes! They are soooo boring… I can have white bread (I am eating French bread which I love) and butter and other dairy stuff (milk, yoghurt, rice pudding etc.). I can have potatoes with no skins, and white rice but no whole grains or nuts. I can have protein such as chicken and fish, and I can drink apple juice, tea, coffee and plenty of water.

On the final day (tomorrow) I cannot eat any solid food except jelly, for 24 hours before the procedure, but if I have my breakfast at a reasonable time that will be OK. For the rest of the day it will just be clear soup, apple juice, water, tea or coffee without milk (which I don’t like so will avoid, apart from green tea with honey). I am allowed jelly, and jelly babies for energy! I am encouraged to drink plenty of fluids right up to the time of the examination.

Tomorrow the worst part will be taking the powerful laxatives to purge my system. I have to take a bottle of senna, and then twice during the day, a sachet of Picolax dissolved in water. The effect of this is severe and acute diarrhoea, so I intend camping out in the bedroom so I can make frequent quick dashes into my en-suite bathroom! Previous experience has shown that my rear end gets very sore, and they recommend the application of Vaseline (petroleum jelly) to soothe the skin, and I am also prepared with two packs of unperfumed moist toilet tissue. The whole business is most unpleasant, and to make it easier, I am planning on surrounding myself with my laptop, a collection of DVDs that I’ve been saving for the purpose, my embroidery, books and my iPod!! Also containers of jelly, jelly babies, a Thermos of my best Jewish chicken soup (of which I could drink gallons, no problem!) made in advance, and jugs of water and apple juice!! With the kitties for warmth and company, I should be fine.

On Monday morning my hubby will drop me off at the hospital, and they will give me a sedative before inserting the camera into my bowel. They usually need to pump you up with CO2 (they used to use air, but with the muscle relaxant drug they give you, this caused an unacceptable amount or discomfort from wind retention afterwards – the CO2 is absorbed painlessly into the body). Because people who suffer from ulcerative colitis are at higher risk than the normal population of developing bowel cancer, they will look for pre-cancerous polyps and remove any they find, and will probably take a biopsy as well. The procedure really isn’t too bad, and afterwards, because of the sedative, one remembers very little about it. There is a recovery period, and then they will give me some food. Last time I asked for brown bread egg sandwiches and a cup of tea (I had two large cups) and it tasted like a king’s banquet – even the disgusting hospital tea!! Once I am home, I can start eating normally again, and go back on my medication.

I’ll let you know how I get on…

Decorations for Half-Tester

My first post in 2015! One of the things I have resolved to do this year is to try and clear the backlog of UFOs (UnFinished Objects) in my ARTHaven, and also to get back into some more textile-based work. One of my oldest UFOs was a project to create decorative drapes for our pine four-poster bed – something I started and never finished. I made the curtains but not the decorative top part. Last autumn I got a new adjustable bed to help with my various medical conditions (I am sleeping a lot better these days) so the four-poster had to go, which I was very sad about. The whole of the top section lifted off and could be disassembled, leaving the bed intact, so we kept the top and disposed of the pine bed base. A local carpenter used the timber from the upper part to create a new half-tester which is attached to the wall above the bed.

As before I have a small strip-light wired to the inside of the frame, and in the picture you can see the pull-cord hanging down. You can also see the velcro strips attached to the framework, to attach the fabric drapes – I will need to add some more for the decorative top part.

When I started making the pieces for the top, I also cut some smaller pieces in the same design and fabric, and used them to decorate a bag that I made:

You can see the separate flaps, each embellished with machine applique and hand embroidery, and each one finished with a different style of tassel.

These are the card templates I made for the bed project. At the back, underneath, you can see the two templates for each piece – the larger one is for cutting the fabric, and the smaller one for cutting the heavy interfacing. After cutting these out, I tacked the fabric onto the interfacing so that the applique and embroidery would go through both layers, and to finish each piece off, the edges of the fabric would be turned in over the interfacing, and a backing piece added.

The smaller templates are used for cutting out the applique pieces which are first ironed onto some Bondaweb.

What I have decided to do now, is to make each finished piece double-sided, and to attach the tops to the outside and the inside of the frame, respectively. Hopefully they will hang properly, but if not, I shall have to make separate pieces for the inside and outside, and maybe add tassels only to the outside pieces.

The next picture shows the pieces I have already started, with the machine applique. Top right is a pile of more pieces – no room to spread them all out to be photographed.

The next photo shows some of the embroidery materials to be used to embellish the pieces. I have a collection of coloured threads with lurex – as usual the photo doesn’t show the sparkliness of these yarns – they are the large spools at the back. In the front of the basket is a selection of different coloured embroidery threads, and on the table in front, scissors, my mother-of-pearl stiletto and some crewel and chenille needles, and on the left, a selection of Indian shi-sha mirrors.

I have done a lot of embroidery using these in the past, including on my wedding dress. These little circles of mirror have quite rough edges, and no holes for sewing them down as you’d find with sequins; there is a special shi-sha embroidery stitch which anchors them onto the surface of the fabric, rather like a rubbed-over setting of a gemstone in jewellery. When these tiny mirrors catch the light, they wink and flash, which is very dramatic on any fabric in motion such as a curtain, and they give a very rich, exotic look. I love them! Originally they would have been made of flakes of mica, but they are made of glass these days – the mirrors are far from optically perfect and look rather dull and grey before they are attached, but they do reflect the light wonderfully well.

Here are the pieces to which I have added embroidery so far. Some of them require further embellishment. The stitches I am using are fairly simple ones – chain stitch with variations, and stem stitch. I have never been any good at satin stitch or long-and-short stitch, and love using chain stitch to cover areas with colour, and for outlining shapes.

As I progress with this work, I shall be showing some detail shots of the embroidery, but at this stage, this is just showing what I have done so far, after opening up the box and reminding myself what I have already achieved. I did all this so many years ago that I couldn’t really remember at all what I had done, and when I opened the box, was surprised to find my book on tassels, and also some wonderful notes from an embroidery day I attended when we lived in Plymouth – probably back in the 1980s! It was like Christmas, opening the box and finding all the lovely fabrics and shapes. This has to be one of the oldest UFOs in my possession, and high time it got an airing and was finished!