Textiles and promoting tolerance.

Well, the past week has been rather a blur - trying to get my quilt finished, getting to know a new member of the household and making sure Coco didn't get too upset. Hence the tolerance issues.

Stitching sheer fabrics to create texture

My quilt is rather further on than this photograph shows, but I thought you might like to see the fun I had making textures using various layers of sheer and satin fabrics.

Coco

Coco is the cat who rules this household. A very dear friend, she is now 18 years young. She has a reputation for going round each of the neighbouring houses and sampling the food of the cats living there. 

Last weekend we had a visit from both my daughters, the elder of whom brought a dog along. The dog had been found wandering the streets of Macclesfield and Liz had been trying to trace the owner. Coco ignored this dog for the duration of the visit.

A couple of days later, Liz had successfully traced the owner. Very sadly, the owner did not want the dog back and so ownership was transferred to us.

Ella

Ella is now the new member of the household. Six years old, a Husky-Akita cross, she is getting to meet all our neighbours and explore the local area with us when we go for walks together. She is a delight, and is lying behind my chair as I type this post.

Coco is getting used to Ella, and is quite happy to be in the same room as long as Ella does not approach. Since she used to live with cats, this is not a problem.

Both animals are getting a lot of love and attention, the only thing we ask in return is tolerance.

Ah well, off to the sewing machine and getting Ella used to the various noises it makes.

Memories are made............

Memories, in this instance are definitely made of fabric and thread.

I was taken back to the time when my daughters were aged 10 and 8 (back in around 1993), when I found these items.

My husband had been taking boxes down from the loft (roof space) when one of them collapsed. The boxes all belonged to my elder daughter and were to be taken to her new home so she could sort out what she wanted to keep.

I used to make quite a lot of my daughters' clothes and these two pairs of culottes (one in brightly coloured cotton, the other in crepe de chine) alongside the cotton shirt were made years ago. I had forgotten all about them.

We used to have a lovely fabric shop in the local town. Called Harts, it was a favourite haunt of myself and my daughters. They chose the fabric and the patterns, I did the sewing. They usually liked to wear the same things, so my younger daughter had pairs of culottes exactly the same as these.

The clothes were summer weight and the culottes would have been worn with colourful t-shirts.

The last item here is something which my dear husband returned to me after sorting through a drawer of stored items. I had stitched the insert to my own design on 32 count Aida (or was it 28?), in 1996 as a present for my mother-in-law. It was found, safely wrapped and never used after her death some six years later. It is one of those lovely pottery bases with a kit lid produced by DMC. Do they still produce these?

I remember stitching one of a completely different design for my own mother. Her container sits on the dressing table in her bedroom. Another of my designs, originally contained within a card sits in a mounting as part of a small clock in her bathroom........

Why the photo of Felix? Well, my dear little friend has been spending most of the time I have been typing this trying to get me off this chair! Cats!!!