Final Project Spectrum Postcard

Love makes the world go `round

Project Spectrum is now over (until 2007 - hopefully Lolly will set this off again in January). This is my final postcard - which I made as part of clean sweeps month. I currently have a blank space on my cubicle wall for this little postcard between my orange/yellow and natural colours postcard. Unfortunately I had no swap partner - so will be putting both 1 copy in my album with the other wonderful cards I got from my global swap partners.

I thought I had based the postcard on a proverb but I think its actually a song lyric : "Love makes the world go around". This is based on the principal that love is the force behind human life. In medieval theology, it was held that love literally set the universe in motion.

The Birthday Season

Starts today! Today is the first of 7 birthdays in a period a little over a month long. I have created this little number as a sweet way of presenting some birthday clothes money for my SIL L. Not everyone will be getting hand stitched goodness in their birthday presents, this is a special birthday as L hits the big 3-0.

The majority of the birthdays are for very small children so a bumper buying session at a toy shop is on the cards. As I am such a geek I have calculated that the average age reached is 11, the average was elevated by the aforementioned L and K, my sister.

This little keepsake cache is stitched together from a project from a book by Kumiko Sudo "Kokoro-No-Te" - Handmade from the heart in English. I have made a few projects from this book mainly useful things like pincushions and needlecases for myself and buddies I know who actually sew (apart from my C&G class - these people are few and far between). I decided to use some of my guilty quilt fabric purchases for this project as well as some pink viscose wool felt I had left over from previous projects and some silk/cotton mix for the buds. The little beads were subsituted for the recommended larger beads because I couldn't face trying to find my bead stash in the loft.

The projects in the book are exquisite and generally are straight forward - although like any project its worth reading it through beforehand. They are quite time consuming because they all almost exclusively rely on hand sewing. It would be difficult to construct the projects on the machine without signficant changes in the nature of the finished result. By the time you had done that you may as well have made it by hand.

All good things come to an end

This was my "final" postcard for Project Spectrum using neutrals. I say final but I want to make one more, as I didn't start participating in the swap until the second month. Therefore I will be creating a red one in the clean sweeps month of September.

Don't forget to pick the Daisies

Handmade felt with detached chain stitch, french knots and running stitch in tapestry wool.

Made for a friends birthday - I was inspired by the last line of a poem I recalled, which she wrote for her husband who is no longer with us:
"I'd pick more daisies,
I will pick more daisies.
Won't you join me"

Goodbyes

"Home is where the heart is"

This week has been one of farewell. A student at work has left and a good friend has packed up and is leaving for an exciting opportunity in a far away land. I don't know where they consider home, but I offer this additional life rule/proverb (of my own) "It doesn't matter where you are its who you are with that matters", whether that is yourself, loved ones, old friends or making new friends.

Dried Apricot Jam

This is the recipe for August which I would usually post on my stitching blog. Now I have a place for recipes I place it here:

Makes about 6lb

Ingredients:
1 lb dried apricots
1 oz almonds
3 lbs sugar

Method:
Cut apricots into quarters.

Pour over 4 pints of boiling water and allow to stand 48 hours.

On the third day bring it to boiling point and boil for 1 ½ hours.

Add sugar and almonds (blanched) and allow the whole to boil for another hour or until setting point is reached.

Pot and cover in clean, sterilised jars.

Wot no stitch?

Sorry, being geeky rather than stitchy at the moment. You may notice a little tweek to your left. No, no, no not the profile being cleared off - if you want to read that you are going to have to click the "About Me" link. The new Categories drop down list. It is not fully populated yet - I would have to go back and do a lot of re-posting. But it is something I can now add to for future interesting posts. Typical! as soon as I have it all figured out blogger beta comes along and provides labels properly! Anyway switching to that method now - less leg work in the long term.

I have also been out and about on my bicycle and down the allotment. I have also been a little more active in the kitchen.