Scrap Happy Baubles

I follow a Facebook Group called Stitch Meditations and one of the Moderators, Anne Marie Desauliniers, posted a picture of one of her embroidered orbs on Instagram which set me off on a mini obsession. I have two big bags of plastic garden playballs, so I used them as the base,

covering them with fabric scraps and then using yarn made of Silk waste from the manufacture of saris, from Yarn Yarn  to hang them up with.

This tied in with another recent obsession with re-using teabags

 

I sewed a strip of 4 together and then wrapped it round the ball,  sewing ends together. Then did the same with another strip. All the edges were then sewn down.

 

 

 

 

Some have gone to my grandchildren for them to paint and decorate (mainly because they find it so funny that Granny sits sewing teabags together)

and the rest are sitting in a bowl waiting for more inspiration to strike

Joining in with Kate and her happy band of  Scrappers.

Kate, Gun, Titti, Heléne, Eva, Sue, Lynn, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy,  Tracy, Jill, Claire, Jan,
Moira, Sandra (me), Linda, Chris, Nancy, Alys, Kerry, Claire,
Jean, Jon, Hayley, Dawn, Gwen, Connie, Bekki,
Sue L, Sunny, Kjerstin, Vera, Nanette and Ann

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Little Altars at Home

Anyone who has been reading this blog for a while will know how much I loathe housework, but these are strange times! Today found me actually wanting to give the bathroom a thorough going over!

As I was putting things back on the windowsill, I realised that every item has a special memory or significance to me.

Left to right:

There is an Umbrella plant, that I grew from a root cutting given to me by a dear friend who I see only rarely nowadays. She is currently staying somewhere in deepest India, unable to return home due to the transport system in that country being under lockdown. The glass bowl it sits in, has been with me since I got married in 1972, nothing special, not beautiful, but it has become an old familiar friend.

In a little pot next to it are some honeysuckle cuttings, waiting to see if they grow roots, so that I can give some little plants to my daughter as requested.

The fish shaped little dish holds a bumble bee that sadly died in my bathroom, I know Little Miss M (7) would love to see it, so I am keeping it for when she is able to come into my house again.

The clay dolphin was made by Miss E when she was about 8. I took her to some wonderful sculpture and stone-carving worshops when she was being homeschooled.

I bought the brass incense burner with the Ohm symbol when I was travelling in 1994 and visiting Buddhist communities all round the world – such powerful memories. It reminds me of chanting in the echoing valleys of the Himalaya Mountains.

The scallop shell was given to me by my neighbour, who is a diver, and brings me yummy scallops in the summer. The shells it holds all come from the beaches of my beloved Pembrokeshire, collected on my month in a treehouse by the sea.

Sea glass, collected on my local beaches, in times gone by.

A collection of tiny white pebbles – there is something so beautiful about them.

The twisted piece of wire with beads: this was a spiral Christmas decoration I had been making with my grandchildren

One of them sat in the bathroom, and after the twins came to stay – I found this one had been just too tempting to resist – I rather like the resulting tiny wire sculpture.

The jam jar has more honeysuckle cuttings,

and the shell on the right was given to me by my Mum when I was a teenager.

A whole lot of family, friends and memories on that tiny windowsill.

Do you have similar little collections about the house?