In which I crocheted some slippers

I crocheted some slippers for myself.  It might look like they are children's shoes, but that's just cos my feet are very little.  Took me about a week, I kept getting bits wrong!  The soles are made with garden twine to be extra hard-wearing.  This was from a pattern on Etsy, but I can't find it there now...

In which I mess with your mind...

I recently took part in the Phat Quarter swap on the theme "Blinded by science".  My swapee was Mr X Stitch  himself, so no pressure there!  I liked the idea of being blinded by science - your eyes seeing one thing but your brain receieving it another way. So I thought I'd have a bash at an optical illusion - I've not seen this done before.

The idea is that the lines of squares move or bulge diagonally. If you let your eyes unfocus slightly, or look slightly away from the piece it works best.  It works better in real life than as a photo of an embroidery on the net!

In which I receive a wonderful piece

For the last Phat Quarter swap, I received a piece from the swap organiser, the fabulous Olisa, aka cocoaeyesthestitcher.  Check her out if you need some more Vitamin Fabulous in your life.

She sent me this wonderful colour wheel, based on one drawn by Isaac "The Silver Fox" Newton.


I just love this piece - Olisa's work always pops with such amazing colour.  The paper pieced hexagons are a perfect background to the colour wheel and the Morse code on the side is great.  There's something about Morse code using French knots that really tickles me - it's such a simple idea and so effective!

You can read more about the piece in Olisa's blog here. 

In which I buy some random shit...

I went to the car boot sale yesterday and bought some stuff. 

• A brochure describing needlework techniques you can do with "Peri-Lusta" thread
• Lancashire's smallest loom - sadly missing a part but I couldn't resist it
• A 1920s (?) broach containing a photo of a man with a moustache
• Two ceramic doll legs

It's just how I roll.