MORE FROM MY UK VISIT

 

One of the main reasons for going to England at this time of year is to be able to attend the annual Gage Halloween party thrown by Kevin and Justine every year for at least 20 now. This year the theme was games, traditional or computer.  Here's my favourite photo with Jimmy dressed as Batman.

 

Here I am with Stephanie, my middle granddaughter, dressed as Lara Croft.  Sorry I can't seem to rotate the pics, hope you don't get a cricked neck!

 

Eldest granddaughter Kirsty with boy friend Barney.

 

 

There were 2 black queens, I helped Mandy to make her crown.

 

Justine and Kirsty having a fake fight in the kitchen.

 

Young Sarah had fantastic make-up to match her green hair.

 

Jo and James came as Reverend Green and Miss Scarlet from Cluedo.

 

Justine and Kevin were characters from the arcade game they have in the pub,  Blue Valkyrie and Red Viking.

 

I made a quick sketch trying to visualise my skirt with a hula hoop to hold it in shape, sadly the hoop ordered from Amazon never arrived.

 

Drawing Justine's costume while she worked on it the day before was quite a challenge.

 

There was plenty else going too, one day Justine had a skating class and I spent a morning in Guildford shopping and drawing the famous clock that hangs over the high street.

 

Another day we went to Loseley for a picnic lunch with her friends who also volunteer to work in the gardens.

We went on some lovely walks in the countryside too but you'll have to come back next week to see where we went.

OCTOBER CATCH UP

 

What a busy month I've had so far! I'm off to England next week so I've been really busy making stuff to take for birthday and Christmas presents.  So here is a catch up of a few recent projects, but some will have to wait till later in the year!

 

Firstly this is the needlepainting I made of the sketch of the river at Chinon using organza, painted with acrylic inks for the water and in the trees.

 

In case you missed it here's the sketch that inspired the embroidery.

 

 

One day, sitting by the sea I was attracted by the different colours I could see in the water and when I came home I got out my fabric and yarns and stitched this little piece. I realised it was the perfect shape for a bookmark so I tidied up the edges and ironed on some backing, then gave it to Joanna who was staying at the time. 

 

 

Since then I've made several and given them away as cards with a simple mount that allows the bookmark to be removed for use ( for those of us who still prefer paper to electronic books!)

 

 

 

My friend Luba has given me so much inspiration with the fabric samples from her time as a fashion director that I wanted to make something special to say thank you.  I embroidered the picture while the lilies were in bloom and then bound it onto a notebook.  She was delighted when I gave it to her last weekend.

 

Here is one of my lily sketches from last year.  This year I sat by the pot, stitching and copying the shapes of the petals and adding the wasp when I realised that they were more attracted to the flowers than the bees were.

 

My lichen embroidery turned into a book cover too, a present for someone special.

 

I found a few scraps of this fun fabric from 'Get Cutie' in Brighton, part of the pack Justine gave me for my birthday.

 

 

I made them into a pencil case for Jimmy to go with the book I made for him in August.

 

 

Here's the book which he loved and drew lots of pictures in when he was here  for a few days holiday.

 

 

And finally my new hat.  No, I'm not planning to wear it in public, it's part of my fancy dress costume for Justine's party in November.  The theme is games and I've chosen to go as the black queen chess piece, hopefully I'll have some photos to share with you when I come back home in a few weeks!

 

I've prepared my sketching kit and a few yarns and fabrics to be working on while I'm away and I'm even hoping I'll be able to pluck up the courage to do some embroidery on the train to Paris and then the Eurostar (with Justine's encouragement).

 

JUSTINE'S FANCY DRESS PARTY

 

I've just returned from my annual autumn visit to England to see my family and fortunately for the first time it coincided with Justine and Kevin's firework party.  They hold this every year with a different theme and this year it was Game of Thrones.  I had never seen the programme so I researched the costumes on the internet and discovered a wealth of beautiful mediaeval dresses with pointy sleeves and wrap over fronts. 

 

 

I had a search through my fabric box and came across Bob's old Japanese kimono with a dragon on the back.  He hadn't worn it for over 30 years, preferring something with less encumbering sleeves.

I completely dismantled it, keeping the red lining with each piece as the outer black fabric was very thin and slippery, and recut a long wrap over jacket using a dress pattern I converted.

 

The dragon just fitted on the front as the main feature and I used the front corners of the dressing gown to make those fabulous pointy sleeves.

I edged the neck and sleeves with some gold lycra from the stash and had a lovely couple of days sewing and fitting my new design.

 

The collar of the gown was lined in the red and long enough to be used as the ties which wrap across the front and pass through a hole in the right side seam so they can be tied at the back.

 

To finish off my outfit I decided to make a necklace using a bit of snake printed leather and the rest of the lycra.  I used a piece of Bob's electrical wire to stiffen it and make the spiral, then added some extra glitter paste to make it sparkle.

 

Justine said "wow!" when she saw my costume as I emerged on Saturday evening ready to party and I said the same to her in her amazing warrior costume and blonde wig.  Kirsty had also made a beautiful dress and here we three are waiting for the guests to arrive.  Everyone had made a special effort to dress up and after watching a few episodes of Game of Thrones on Sunday afternoon I could recognise a lot of the characters who had been represented.  By the way that's a dragon on my shoulder that was lent to me in my role as the "Dragon mother-in-law"

We had a fabulous evening with a very professional display of fireworks by Kevin and I was able to catch up with all of Justine's friends I've got to know over the years.