Take 5

1) I thought it was about time I shared some yoyo love.

 

I've been hand sewing these here and there for the past couple of months. The plan is to use them on a quilt, and I'm itching to start the quilt, but I'm being quite disciplined and want to finish Maria's quilt first.

There's a little pile on the left not spread out, I got a bit bored arranging them towards the end! I counted them back into the box though and there are 106 of them. I think this might be enough - especially as I could easily get more than a bit bored sewing them all on the quilt when the time comes!

 2) Speaking of Maria's quilt...

Not very speedy progress to report, but I have got one more block done. This one is a 'pocket block', with a little bird hiding inside.

He still needs an eye.

3) And an update on fish sewing too...

The daily sewing resolution has slipped quite a bit, it's not been the best few weeks and there have been a good few days when I haven't made it to the sewing machine at all - which in turn adds to it not being the best few weeks! Last week I started to try and get back in more of a sewing groove, and it was great to have the fish as an easy and quick project to pick up and get me going again. Something that needed minimal thought and effort.

So generally I think it's been more daily therapeutic practice, rather than the daily creative exercise I was hoping for more. And that maybe shows with the fairly boring fish that have come out of it. But I'm OK with that, and hopefully they'll start to be a little more adventurous at some point. Today's fish was slightly more that way and is one of my favourites so far...

Still very simple, but I like the black and white effect.

You might also see a connection between the colours of all these fish and the colours of those yoyos! They've all come from very small scraps left over from yoyo making, and it's great to be able to use such little pieces so immediately.

This shoal was all from the edges of a napkin, the centre was a solid red which I used  for yoyos, but I didn't think the stripey parts worked so well in a yoyo.

The girls have been quite intrigued by seeing a growing pile of fish, and when I explained the thinking behind it they really liked the idea. So much so that I cut them a good supply of small oblongs of pale, sea coloured paper and they can draw a fish (or sea creature) whenever they feel like it and stick it up on their own background - just the bottom of a cardboard box.

I think quite possibly they may help provide some fish pattern/shape/design inspiration to me along the way.

 4) I haven't shared any thrifted finds with you recently, and there have been a few! Some gorgeous embroidered tablecloths...

I do have quite a large number of embroidered table cloths and napkins now, and I've been trying to come up with ideas to use them - so I don't feel guilty buying more when I spot them at bargain prices! Especially as, although I very much like my quilt top from embroidered pieces, I'm still too scared to quilt it so making more quilts in that way is not so likely in the near future. I've come up with a couple of projects so far, one all finished but I'm afraid I have no photos as yet, so that will have to wait.

Another interesting thrifted find was a little bag of haberdashery goodies. My favourites from this were some old, small, square self cover buttons and these 3 giant safety pins.

These are each just over 15cm long and I think I'm going to enjoy coming up with novel ways to use them. Any thoughts out there? What would you do with giant safety pins?!

 5) I'm trying, and not really succeeding at the moment, to adjust to wearing reading glasses. It's not something that is filling me with any kind of enthusiasm. I have nothing against glasses generally (although personally, on me, I don't much like them!), but I think the depressing element is very much that they are a clear sign of aging. My body is starting to deteriorate! Obviously this is inevitable and natural and has been happening for quite some time in lots of little ways, but suddenly needing to wear glasses does make it all very real.

You don't get to see a photo of them on me - very few people have actually seen this sight. And, needless to say, the children are among the privileged few and all laughed like crazy hyenas!

But as much as the aging element is depressing if I allow myself to dwell on it, what's causing me even more grief is the practicalities of using them. I only need them for really close up reading, anything other than that and they make my vision blurry. So it feels a real pain to use them unless it's a concentrated period of reading and nothing but reading. And even then I'm struggling to get used to having the frames in my peripheral vision - they irritate me! I'm sure it's just a matter of perservering and eventually getting used to them, but any words of advice or comfort or sympathy will be much appreciated!

Sally.