Better late than never!

I finished the scroll this morning. I went out for my walk on Tuesday despite the torrential rain and wind! It was invigorating and I also wanted to find a twiglet for my scroll. With the amount of trees around here, and there are many, and the amount of 80 mph winds we have had you would think that it would have been an easy task. Well it wasn't. I found plenty of twigs but for one reason or another they just weren't right. I was almost at the end of my walk and giving up hope when I found the one you see in the picture. Of course I had to clean it up and leave it to dry. I wrapped the scroll around it this morning.
Here is a closer view of the piece. As I said the other day I was inspired by a tutorial in Workshop on the Web by Val Campbell-Harding. Val used white felt as her base which I didn't have so I just used what I had in my studio.

I cut a piece of pelmet vilene and stitched some rainbow coloured ribbon in a grid over the pelmet vilene. I then stitched a satin stitch design in between the rows of ribbon. I then cut some snippets of various different coloured chiffon and stitched them down using a narrow but long zigzag stitch. I painted the whole piece with some leftover undercoat paint (Val suggested using white emulsion paint but I didn't have any so used what was left from my studio being painted). Whilst the paint was still wet I overpainted with black Quink ink. (Val suggested using walnut ink but again I didn't have that). Because the pelmet vilene was white the reverse of the piece looked a bit bright and so I painted it with a deep blue silk paint. The silk paint didn't penetrate through to the front thankfully.

I wondered what it would look like with the addition of some extra texture and so I painted over the whole piece with Xpandaprint. I then added some gold pearl-ex powder to the remainder of the Xpandaprint and painted little bits over the whole piece to give added colour. I had some blue and grey Stef Francis textured threads and so I mixed a couple of each and I free motion zigzagged them together to make the cord to match the scroll.

What do you think o the finished piece?

Here's my finished sewing studio. The room is actually longer than it appears in the photograph. I decided on a white wallpaper with a rather nice silver/grey design on it. I don't intend rehanging the curtains instead Norman has put up a silver venetial blind, the kind with the perforations which will be great in the summer as the room gets a lot of sun.

I finally sorted out all my magazines and books. This is so much tidier than before as I tried to pack so much in with the result it was difficult to get any book out!

This is the double cupboard at the opposite end of the room. I have all my quilting magazines in there and the majority of my books. They are all easily accessible. The laser printer is on the floor and on the right of that I keep the sewing machines I don't use very often. I still have more work to do as there is still stuff lying around in the spare bedroom and the master bedroom. I cleared out the things I had lying in Norman's study so at least that's done.

I was sent an heirloom from Canada!

I used to have lots of things hanging on the walls but I have decided to leave them clear. I have a couple of things hanging up and was thinking I might put one other piece on the wall facing the door. I hadn't made up my mind just what to put in there when Norman came in to my studio on Tuesday as I was busy re-organising with a parcel for me all the way from Canada!

Imagine my surprise when I opened it and there inside was the most beautiful wall hanging all beautifully and carefully wrapped in tissue paper. It is an absolute treasure, an heirloom which has been handed down from grandmother, to mother to daughter. I am truly honoured to have been given it I can tell you. I plan on having it mounted under glass to preserve it and it will hang in my studio - in pride of place. Tonniece, my very dear friend, thank you. You have touched my heart. I still can't quite believe it. I am honoured to have been chosen and trusted to be guardian of such a lovely heirloom.