The Altar Cloth In Progress

At the weekend I made some progress on the dreaded altar cloth. This was designed as a commission for a local prep school by a very talented machine embroiderer, with the aim that it would be a group project. The embroiderer was unable to carry on with it, the group of volunteers lost their way and I agreed, in a weak moment, to complete the commission. Don't get me wrong, it's a lovely design, but it's someone else's design and work that I'm continuing with and trying to make it work. Tracing and cutting out the dratted leaves took 2 evenings of cutting mind-numbing pieces out in front of the tv, I lost count after 250...

Today I made 2 more ATCs for the Beautiful Trees swap, summer cherries and another autumn tree. I've used 3 different tree stamps and have several more. Hmm... need to stop buying tree stamps!

At the Stamp Attic on Monday I made up for the lack of Get Well Soon stamps with the one on this card as well as the words themselves. This is for someone just diagnosed with breast cancer and I wanted the up-beat message for it. Clear flower stamps were used with fluid chalk inks.

I also got another Tilda stamp while I was there, the way you do. I have to work tonight so I'll have to wait for another day to play with her.

Oh, I did one more card with the flower stamps, for no one in particular, while the stamps were out.

September Birthdays

Quite a few birthdays are listed on the calender for September, so I took advantage of a quiet day to get some cards made. First one is a very glittery, girly card for Sarah. I haven't seen Sarah since her family moved to Spain a couple of years back when she was still pre-school. Hope she hasn't changed into a tomboy since.

I've been holding out against the Tilda stamps but now I've been checking out their challenge blog I've given in to the temptation.

The other card is a birthday card for Morag. The challenge card shown in an earlier post was from her birthday last year, it's not that she has two birthdays in September or even two cards! It's a similar style to the get well soon card I made earlier in the week...

I got some lovely ATCs from Ali of UKATC Yahoo group yesterday. In addition to my cards she added in some yarns to use and a bonus card, as well as some pictures cut out for backgrounds. All these goodies came in a decorated envelope; she's a very kind as well as talented ATCer.

Tomorrow I'm teaching Beginners Quilting at Lorne Hill Farm in East Garston http://www.lornehillquilts.net/. My class handouts are all prepared and I just need to sort out some fabric and the rest of my kit for demos.