The gift of giving

OK, I admit it, my two arty buddies are my guinea pigs! I'd seen a scarf made of some diaphanous material with strips attached & as I'm a strippy sort of person I decided to have a go myself & give the results of my experiments to my buddies at our 'studio staff party' We've been working together thru the year to either carry on where the printmking class left off or to just 'knit & bitch' - well, I didn't knit I was just working towards the exhibition & both of them were so helpful with ideas for it & stuff, I felt the least I could do was give them something for their efforts ;)

 So I gathered some bits & pieces, no mean feat, that as my corner of the Eldests room is becoming the second B&B room & an 1/8th of the Middlests room will turn into the sewing corner in 'our' room, as he's away at college/sea now. I think I'll have to suspend things from the ceiling...!  It's been great stitching in the studio but it's too cold to do much in there in the winter & anyway I can't store fabric as it gets damp despite the heating, yes we need some insulation which finances didn't run to when we built the studio & house, 11 years ago last week we moved in! Never mind it's on the wish list along with a sink & tap! I remember our builder laughing  when I suggested using sheeps wool - the amount of Country Living etc awards I've seen since then!

They like purple & turquoise

& turquoise & terracotta

I sliced up the stripped pieces very thinly & stitched them on, there were 16 each scarf & it was tricky stitching satiny fabric onto silk, I even had to resort to pins & even then it slid about in a higgledypiggledy fashion, but they won't notice & if they did I know they wouldn't mind. As for going into production with them, I'm not sure!

Here they are bundled up together. 

It was interesting seeing them against their clothes, one wearing dark grey & one deep purple,  the scarves looked a little pale - I hadn't thought of 'trying them on' & stepping back to look. I guess it's a question of taste & more experiments!

Made some labels & stamped the brown paper the presents came in, for wrapping. I'd love to have my own carved stamps for next year, like the glorious ones on Letting in the Light's blog - I just 'found' her again, hiding on the dashbord thing I forget about ;)

This is the first Saturday I've had in ages to myself. Last week I joined in to a community jam & chutney day - I've made jam once & chutney never (I did see our Kirsty making a ready to eat chutney in her last year's lead up to Christmas craft show, now that looked good, as for comparing crack cocain to fme...again,  I'm not too sure!) I'm not a foody, you'll never see a recipie here & yes, I'm one of those awful peple who forget to eat but boy, when I smell food, am I hungry! (I'm so lucky to have my own Maser Chef in the kitchen ;)

The pear & walnut we made is something else. What do you mean it has to sit for a month? It's nearly gone already!

I'm off to decorate the tree, it's been anchored & covered in lights that work by the DH & Youngest - he could hire himself out as the best untangler of lights in the country. I'm so lucky to have them here, get all nostalgic with my lovingly collected & handmade decorations (I've always collected one decoration per child each year, how delighted am I to now be able to make them myself!) by a warm fire, with the somewhat confused by it all dog at my feet, looking forward to the rest of my little family arriving next week.

Have a peaceful & enjoyable lead up to Christmas, this week!