Enjoy the beauty of the clematis

Hi,

Today I am bringing you some pictures from my garden, our neighbour planted this clematis in their garden, but they have some large round conifers in front of this trellis that they put on top of the wall, so they cant see the clematis.

Over the last few years its has gone mad and grown over the trellis, which is the boundary to our gardens and now we have the whole beauty of it.

This year I took some pictures of this lovely plant and e-mailed them over to them so they could enjoy the beauty of their lovely plant.

I feel guilty that we see this wonderful display and have all the pleasure of it. I just hope they don't pull it up as I am beginning to look forward to the plant flowering every year.

I took some lovely pictures and thought I might use a few of them for some cards

I hope you have a lovely weekend and what ever you are doing the weather is kind to you.

Thank you for visiting my blog, I hope you enjoyed this blog

take care
Hugs
Margaret

Parchment Peel Off cards

Hi,

Another lovely day here, they said it was going to get cooler, we had cloud this morning but now the sun has come out its warmed up and in the sun its quite hot. They say we might get an odd shower, my garden could do with some rain, the lawn is looking quite brown in patches.

Today I am bringing you two cards, both made the same way and on the same card stock. They are both on parchment and with peel offs which I have embossed from the back and cut around the design and mounted onto a mat gold card, finished off with gold peels offs to match the design.

The swan card sold on Saturday and had a lot of viewings before it went. So I am sorry its a bit late on my blog

I hope you have enjoyed my blog today and look forward to seeing you here again soon. If you would like to leave a comment please do so it would be nice to know what you think of my blog.

Have a nice day

Hugs Margaret

Stitching Cards

Hi,

Its been another lovely day here in Somerset, but now its cloudy and rather heavy. They said it was going to cooler today but it felt just as hot as yesterday. As my husband Vernon has been out doing some gardening I expect it will rain tomorrow.

I thought you might like to see my latest stitching card, this is my own design which I drew out and then punched out to stitch.

Penny farthings are a thing of the past but they are easy to stitch. This card has been stitch with a pretty gold multi colour metallic thread. I then mounted it on gold card and then finished off with gold peel offs.

This picture shows the penny farthing before I mounted and put it on the card. Stitching is easy and the simplest designs can made the most unusual cards and look outstanding using different threads. The metallic threads are best well that's my opinion and then the threads shine.

When punching out the design try not to make the holes to large but large enough for the needle to go through without making the hole any bigger. one tip don't use knots on the back, a small piece of sellotape to secure the thread on the back is enough.

This card was stitched on a stitching peel off, and has beads in the middle of the flowers. Stitching peel offs are easy to use and easy to punched the holes through the peel off and then stitch.

This card is also a stitching peel off and stitched onto the card and also has beads in the design and finished off with corner peel offs

This card was stitched some time ago I did it in Chelsea colours for my father in law as he is a Chelsea fan, the image came from Kerry, I punched out and stitched it, I mounted it on silver card and then added football peel offs.

And finally my cat, this is stitched with multi colour thread and a bow and bell added around the neck, mounted on blue card and finished with silver peel offs. This was a stamp design but I printed it out and then punched it out for stitching.

Simple designs can be found in the most unusual places and can be easily adapted into a stitched picture.

Please if you have enjoyed reading my blog please leave a comment, it would be nice to know what you like or dislike.

Look forward to seeing you again.

Hugs

Margaret

May Friendship swap card

Hi,


On this beautiful day of lovely sunshine, not a cloud in the sky and at last hot, it looks like its going to get cooler. I hope this is not the end of our summer.

Today I have my do crafts friendship card for madebyhel on the May friendship swap. The stamp was a new one that my husband brought me at the show at Shepton Mallet.

I heat embossed it and mixed several colours of embossed powers together. I wanted to make the feathers different colours like the colours a peacock would be. I then mounted it on silver board and added flowers from Joanna Sheen, the backing paper came from stock, finished off with silver peel offs.


I hope you like my latest card and you are enjoying this wonderful weather.

I look forward to seeing you again as I have some new bits to add. If you would like to leave a comment please do so.

Have a nice day
Hugs
Margaret

More Tatting today

Hi,

This is the most wonderful day of the year, its hot and the sun is shinning with not a cloud in the sky.

I have been in Craft Fair at The Cheese and Grain in Frome in Somerset today, and I am feeling very up beat as I had a good day, the best days takings I have had this year.

Its amazing how many people have never heard of this ancient art, which dates back to the 15 century at least, It is worked with a shuttle where the Cotton is wound around in the middle, some designs such as the daisies are worked with two shuttles, but the butterflies are worked with one shuttle on a continuous thread.

I thought I would bring you some more tatting items, the daisies are something new, I found an old pattern which I have never done before, but then adjusted the flower a little to look more like a daisy, the original pattern looked a bit over the top with large picots. I thought this look more simple and still has eight rings and looks to me like petals. I had a lot of comments on them, I did several colours but there is always someone who wants something else and yes I was asked if I had a black one............. I am not sure if daisies come in black, I like to make flowers no matter how I am making them in the colours flowers are.

This a smaller version of my knitted and tatted picture, I have sewn the flowers and tatting onto card and made a small butterfly, then made a card frame and gold peel offs in the corners and down the sides.

The tatting in this picture has been worked in embroidery silk, with three strands and with a few beads added for decoration. The knitted Foxglove has been knitted on number 14 needles again with three strands of embroidery thread.

The picture below has a motif, its something that went wrong, well not really wrong but it was supposed to be a cross, only I just went on around instead of going down to make the cross. When I finished it I found it made an interesting motif so I mounted it on card and then in a card frame, with gold peel off around the frame. The other picture is of one of my butterflies which again I have mounted and done a card frame with gold peel offs around it.

I hope you have found this blog interesting and have enjoyed reading my piece, I look forward to seeing you again in blog land.

If you wish to leave a comment please do so, I enjoy reading comments from anyone who has taken the trouble to visit my blog.

Have a nice weekend

Hugs

Margaret

Commissioned Wedding Anniversary card

Hi,

What a wonderful day, the sun is shinning and its quite hot, a real summers day, and at last hopefully the summer is here.

This is a commissioned card, not quite how I wanted it to work out but I hope they like it,

They wanted a wedding anniversary with two Harley Davidson's bikes as they are into bikes and have Harley Davidson bikes, I thought a a sun set but the images would not fit quite how I imaged it, I downloaded the images and then could not make them smaller, so they ended up on the card as pictured.

While I am with wedding anniversary I have made a few others for my craft table, I am in the Cheese and Grain in Frome this weekend,

This card has stitched hearts, stitched with gold thread on a gold background.

The on the left under this posting has a stencil of a rose and mounted with red shiny card on the back and gold backing, with red flower paper and down the side stitched edging.

Then the next one under this posting has heat embossed flowers in red and silver cut out and mounted onto red card with red gems in the middle. A silver vase and silver ribbon down the sides. The last picture is a close up of the flowers.

I hope you like these cards and have enjoyed visiting my blog today, I look forward to seeing you again soon as I have some new stuff to add.

Have a nice day
Hugs Margaret

My Knitted Mats

Hi,

Today I thought it was time I showed some of my knitted mats. These are a selection from my craft table that I have, I usually go into the Craft market at Cheese and Grain in Frome once a month.

This peach one is my latest coffee mat, the left is a picture of the whole design and on the right is a close up of the centre.

Some of these designs are from German patterns, there is a big difference between English and German patterns, German patterns are done from grid where as English patterns are written in full.

The picture shows the whole mat and the other a close up of the middle.

This another large mat again the picture of a close up of the design and on the other picture of the whole mat.

The next few are a selection of smaller mats, in a variety of colours and designs.

This design below is a German pattern of a knitted star mat, quite easy to do start the middle on a set of four needle and then take a small number of stitches and do each point at a time and this makes a star design.

All the mat are knitted in merchandised cotton no 20, on size 12 needles, a set of four for the middles and then the larger ones are transferred onto a round needle.

I have put another selection of knitted mat at the bottom all in different designs.

I hope you have enjoyed looking at my knitted items, I have been knitting since I was three, my mother taught me to keep me quite when visiting my grand parents, who were very Victorian. The children in their eyes had to be seen and not heard. A vast difference to life today with the modern children.

Have a nice day and look forward to seeing you visiting my blog again soon

Hugs Margaret

Hi,


I just had to add this to my blog, I was sent this and as many computer screens dont get cleaned very often so I thought you might like yours cleaned ..... try this link for a spring clean http://www.raincitystory.com/flash/screenclean.swf

Have a nice day

Hugs
Margaret

James Hunt and Wedding Anniversary Cards

Hi,


It would be nice if the weather warmed up a bit, the clouds are threatening today but so far only a few drops of rain on and off.


Firstly I must repeat this little story, Janette left me a message about being a F1 fan and I was a dark horse as she did not know. Well I have been a fan of F1 for long time and I go back to James Hunt.


In 1974 my father brought a car for his retirement, at the same time James Hunt brought the same car and they were both delivered to the dealer in Sutton Surrey close to where we used to live. He took delivery on the 1st July three days before my 21st, close to where we used to live. The cars were the same colour, same model everything including the engine size. My father told the garage it would be the last car he would ever buy, well that was true because he died on the 3rd November 1974.


About eighteen months later a man complained to the garage that his car did not do many miles to the gallon, so the garage said they would test it on a track, Jame's car well he had played with it and ours was same as the mans so the garage asked if they could borrow our car, James Hunt then took it to a track and on a measured one gallon tested both cars, they both did the same miles per gallon. It turned out it was the mans driving that was making the car use more petrol, Anyway I was a big fan of James hunt and within a few months he became world Champion, you could say the car had a famous drive even through it was for a few miles.


Back to today and I have uploaded a card for my sister and brother in laws wedding anniversary tomorrow, I am sending the same card to a friend whose wedding anniversary is next week.


I have done an image from the Joanna Sheen range of Lofty in a gondola, I have heat embossed it with white embossing power on a purple background, the backing paper was a free piece from a magazine and mounted on cream card, with silver peel offs to finish it off.


This image I am very fond of and a must have, I have now been to Venice four times, the first time I was 2 years old and my parents considered I was too young for a gondola ride, then the second time the sea was too rough for my father, the third time it was too expensive. Two years ago I took Vernon (my hubby) to Italy and then I took him to Venice he was not keen but I got my gondola ride and he was fascinated with Venice. I hope to take him again to Venice one day, although he often says he would like to go back to Italy.


I hope you have enjoyed reading my blog and will visit my blog again, any comments are always gratefully received.


Have a nice day, and a lovely weekend.

Hugs Margaret

Fab candy Wiff of Joy stamps

Hi,

Today just a quickie, Wiff of Joy are giving away these lovely stamps they are the get well range, and the closing date for these lovely stamps is the 16th May,

Have a pop over to Wiff of Joy and see Katharina's to enter.http://katharina1704.blogspot.com/2010/05/big-well-blog-candy.html

Have a lovely day

Hugs Margaret

Jenson Button in Frome Today

Hi,

I realise that this is a craft blog but being such a big fan of F1. My love for F1 has been for years and my favorite race is Monte Carlo, I have been to Monte Carlo but not when a race was on, something I would love to do is to go back to Monte Carlo and also to go and see a F1 race. TV is fine but you don't get the excitement and atmosphere of a race live.

I can't let today go by without writing a small piece about our local boy Jensen Button.

Jensen has been in Frome today, our local boy has been given the freedom of the town and a bridge will be named after him. The presentation was made outside the Cheese and Grain building, in the cattle market car park, and the sun was shinning.

Jensen grow up in Frome and went to school in Frome, he is known as the Frome Flyer and there is a pub on the by pass named after him, and the industrial estate which has grown up around the pub has its roads all named after Jensen.

Last year the town celebrated when he became world champion 2009 I can only hope that he will win the championship again this year.

I hope you enjoyed reading my blog today, my next blog will be on craft don't worry I realise you have come to see craft but today is a big day in Frome, and I look forward to seeing you again on my blog

Happy crafting

Hugs Margaret