bee handmade

christmas cards

I've been trying to think of an idea for my Christmas cards this year. While I'm deliberating I'll show you one of the cards I made last year.

I cut out this rubber stamp

Then used an embossing ink pad and powder to transfer the design onto folded card.

I also decorated plain brown paper to use as Christmas wrapping. I like having a theme for my wrapping - one of the things I get obsessive about. I love the tradition and ceremony of Christmas; choosing and decorating the tree (real of course), using tree ornaments I've had since I was a a child, hanging my stocking up ... Peter Pan mentality!

This is my collection of stamps.

finally

I've finished it. A very modest selvedge project and my first attempt at free motion quilting. Not the most elegant finish but not too bad for a beginner's effort. Next time I'll try layering the narrow strips rather than sewing them together as I think this would ensure a neater result. A benefit of the freemotion quilting is that it helps to mask imperfections!

you've guessed it

More beach pictures - I think I might be obsessed.

a windy beach near Seven Sisters last weekend

a trip to Northumberland a couple of weeks ago ...

Dunstanburgh

Bamburgh at dusk

Hopefully I'll be back during the week with some pictures of my finished selvedge project.

stopping by

How on earth is it November 10 already? Halloween gone, Bonfire night gone. I feel like I need to stick a pin in the month, press pause and catch up. I have loads of ideas swirling round in my head but some are going to have to be consigned to the 'maybe in 2009' pile.

I bought this book recently. It has some lovely quilt ideas and is easy to read and, I hope, follow. Here is a picture of the cover.

I'd definitely recommend it if, like me, you are new to quilting. I'll try and have something that I've actually made in the next post!

selvedge

This is a little detail of something I'm working on at the moment.

I admired Treefall's pincushions a while ago. They really appealed to me as I've always liked the way selvedges sort of offer you a peek into the inner workings of the fabric and it's design. The colour references are like a mini paint chart (another favourite). It sounds trite but I never tire of looking at colours. Particular shades can really make you sing inside and, like smells, can transport you back to other times and places. Anyway, I've been saving the selvedges off scraps of fabric and then stumbled across the made with selvedge flickr group. How exciting. The work on display here is really beautiful and inventive. I by no means have enough scraps to create something significant but I thought I'd play around on my new machine. You can just about see the traces of my attempts at freemotion quilting. A lot more practice needed I can tell you. I'm not overly patient with the process of getting there when I'm excited about the potential of the end result!

I'll leave with some beach photos from my recent Northumberland holiday. It was pretty windy!