My Mobile Desk!

 My studio has been too hot to work in over the last couple of weeks so I transferred some embroidery bits into a tin lid and that has been my mobile desk!  It's accompanied me around the house and garden letting me settle wherever I want to and although the weather has cooled down a bit, it is currently on the table next to my armchair so I can watch the Olympics!  

In the lid is a jumble of everything I need - embroidery threads in the colours I'm currently obsessed with, some rust printed cotton and cyanotype printed silk that I have torn into squares, plus needlebook and scissors - all set for making card toppers!

I assembled a few cards yesterday with some of the squares but still have quite a few to do. These are in my favourite summer theme of the garden at night. 

I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW this week.

A Tidy Desk and WOYWW

 It's been an unproductive week craft wise but I have finished sorting through my textiles and pretty much fitted them into the space available - now that's something that doesn't happen very often!  This shelf unit is at the end of my desk where a large trunk of fabric used to stand with a vintage suitcase and decorative baskets on top of it.  Consequently the trunk never got opened as it was such a faff.  This doesn't look as stylish as the trunk but is much more user friendly!  Each box is labelled and despite having a massive clear out you can still see that two large pieces of fabric wouldn't fit anywhere so are wedged around the boxes (top left cube) and the lid won't properly fit on the decorative box (top right cube) as it is stuffed to capacity!  However it's hugely better than it was so I'm happy!!  The tall pile of plastic boxes next to the shelf unit are all for different ongoing projects.

And here's the most boring desk photo you'll see today!  You can see the A1 cutting board and where it  buckled along one edge due to heating something with the heat tool and forgetting to use the heat board - I turned it around and then did exactly the same thing to the other edge - soooooo annoying!

I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW this week.

Moving Away from Neutrals!

 On my desk is a little needlecase I made this week.  Last week I was wanting to move away from the neutral colour palette that I work with so often,  but despite envisaging a bright and colourful week of embroidery, somehow it just didn't happen!   

I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW this week

Emboidery and WOYWW

 I have been embroidering a couple of small panels for card toppers and I'm at the bead sewing stage now, hence the fluffy bead mat on my desk.  I also purchased a couple of skeins of embroidery thread to match some linen I already had - I was very pleased with the colour match considering it was mainly guess work as I purchased it online!  I am feeling the need to move away from neutral colours for a while!

Before mowing the lawn I took the opportunity to pick a few of these pretty weeds that have been springing up all over it -I used them for embroidery inspiration on one of the above panels. 

My last ATC of the swap arrived from Susan in Australia - it's gorgeous and features a string pull background, which is defintiely on my 'to try' list - and a lovely little envelope with it too.  I would have posted about it last week but I thought Thursday was Wednesday! 

I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW this week.

Embroidered Needlecase and WOYWW

 It's been too hot to work up in my craft room this week, but it's been the perfect weather to sit and sew in a shady spot of the garden - so to be productive I've made myself a needlecase for my beading and tapestry needles!  

This happy mail arrived yesterday from Julia - what a gorgeous ATC and card and such a delight to receive - thank you so much Julia.

I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW this week.

WOYWW and ATC Swap

 My desk has seen no activity this week, it's been a time for getting out the summer clothes, cleaning out and sorting the wardrobes and tackling the garden.

The sunshine has been so uplifting and it's been wonderful to slowly see the garden turning into a place we can sit and relax without looking at weeds and overgrown hedges that need dealing with!

Sitting on my desk is the most delightful ATC sent by Sylvia and it arrived in perfect time for me to have something to show today!  It's beautiful and I'm so enjoying the happy mail! 

I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW

WOYWW ATC Swap

 These are the ATC's that I made for last weeks anniversary ATC swap.

  

But now on to the best bit of the week - sitting on my desk today is an array of gorgeousness, all the little treasues that landed on my doorstep during the week -  I am absolutely thrilled with them. 

    

These are from Annie, Jo, Cindy, Caro, Jan and Zsuzsa...

...and these are from Angela (Felix the Crafty Cat) , Helen, Debbie, Angela (Crafting with Jack), Neet and Lynne.

Thank you all so much for the beautiful work and the little cards and extras that came with them.

 I had problems with one or two blogs last week, I visited and tried to comment on all of them but one or two took several attempts and still didn't look like they had accepted my comments - I don't know what was going on, I'm despairing of blogger sometimes!  

I am linking up with Julia over at WOYWW this week.

WOYWW 12th Anniversary

  It's the 12th Anniversay of WOYWW this week - what an amazing achievement, and huge thanks and appreciation to Julia, our host over at the Stamping Ground.   It's still the amazing, friendly and fun group it was when I first joined in 10 years ago.

 Last week I started hand embroidering a couple of ATC's for this week's celebratory swap but it took me so long to make two that I had to forego that idea and re-think the plan.  All ATC's have been re-thought and made - amazingly for me most have been posted - and the embroidered panels are very slowly becoming card toppers!