Playing with rainbows

That's the title of my latest fabric book. I've shown you some of these pages as they've progressed over the past six months or so but now the book is finished at last. For those of you who are new to my blog (or indeed if you're not new but have forgotten - and who could blame you?) this is my attempt at stitching intuitively. The only rule I set myself when I started out on this particular venture was to not unpick anything so, if I didn't instantly like something I'd done I just kept stitching away at it until it improved. The idea was to play about with colour clashes in silk and beads and threads and see what emerged. So here is the result ...

 

I've also been busy organising my studio shelves (again). They were actually quite organised before but there was such a mixture of plastic boxes which really didn't look good so I bought some cheap box files and covered them in toning fabrics - pink of course!

I'm so much happier with the way things look now.
Whilst I was in the mood for tidying and prettying, I covered all my sketch books and work books too.

These look much better on the shelf too with their nice new jackets.

What with all that tidying, and trying to get on top of the gardening in the decent weather, not to mention a trip to London, there's not been much happening in the miniatures department but I did manage to fill this set of shelves with haberdashery items. This will be going into my Etsy shop very soon...

 

together with this sweet set of fabric covered luggage.

Today is a day for wild flowers

Today is not a day for working. Today is a day for sitting by the garden pond and watching the water surface disturbed by pond skaters, tadpoles and frogs.

 

 Today is not a day for seeing weeds and feeling the need to stir to pull them from the ground. Today is a day for seeing wild flowers.

Today is a day for seeing the beauty of secret places - even in a tiny space.

Today is a day for reflection on the joy of a sunny day and the colours in my garden.

Today I can dream that the sunshine will last all summer, that the vegetable plot will produce a rich harvest, that the slugs and snails will not destroy the new shoots. Today I can block out the sound of the traffic 15 yards up the road and imagine myself in my cottage garden in the countryside.

Yes dear blogland friends, the sun is shining here in Yorkshire and all is right with the world.

Today I have two completed pieces of lace to show you...
 

 The first is my hexagonal box ...

 ... finished at last.

You've seen most of the motifs before.

But here they are all stitched to the box that I made and topped with a lace covered bead.

The second is a lace covered mushroom. I love mushrooms and have quite a collection of hand turned wooden ones which I've picked up at a number of various shows. This one was intended to be a cane topper for the garden but I think this is a much better use for it.

I hope the sun's shining in your life today too.