Birch Blog Day 3

Many thanks for all your comments - I am enjoying them and I do read them all. Today was something of a consolidation day - putting in some solid work on the birch bark background and making more wrapped thread (more is still needed) and working some extra leaf experiments.

It started with a visit to Phil,the woodworking son in law. Started early, took my daughter.


As expected the WWSIL had just the right coating for the bark and we tried a sample. As it would take a while to dry the girls decided that we would have an outing to the local 'Treasure House'. Imagine ten car boot sales crammed together in a huge warehouse. A very cold warehouse. Both of my girls are treasure hunters - Fiona does vintage and Claire has a good eye for specialised toys which she re-sells.

Much later, lighter in the purse but heavier in the boot, we returned to find the wood dry and looking good. So I stole the spray from the lovely WWSIL and was home in time for lunch, travelling through atrocious conditions - gale force winds and icy rain.


Not a lot of time left after I had sprayed both sides of the birch.

However, I wrapped some thread and then started some experiments on using the die-cutter on flimsy fabrics. I had previously tried this and failed but a new process was discovered, which worked really well. I am going to be mean and keep it under my hat for now as I am writing an article for Workshop on the Web on cutters, so you will see it then.

I wanted some 'flimsy' leaves to contrast with the heavy Vilene and metal ones and this metallic organza is just the thing. It doesn't look very transparent in the photo but it is in real life. They look good with the leaves that I hand and machine stitched last night.

So tomorrow will be a whole day of putting it together. Hopefully it will be well on the way to being finished before the weekend.

Jane Lemon always says that you should leave your workroom clean and tidy to encourage you to make a start the next day. Hmmmn!