We have had some reasonable weather recently so, as well as doing some fabric dyeing, I've been out painting papers (and the grass!). I've also been doing some gardening and found loads of poppy seed heads which I've cut down and put in a vase.

The shapes fascinate me so I've been filling pages in my sketchbook with poppy heads in all different media. I'm a great fan of Cloth Paper Scissors and, although I find some of the articles, rather 'American' in their sameness I enjoy the different techniques. One of which I used for the double spread - drawing the poppy head outlines then filling some of the areas in with pasted pieces of newspaper before painting over. I'm quite pleased with how it worked out, for a first attempt, although I have to say it looks better in the sketchbook than in the photo! C'est la vie!

I just don't seem to get the time to sew at the moment. 'Real' work is taking over and of course it's the summer holidays although the children are being brilliant with the fact that I have to spend so much time at the computer rather than entertaining them. I think the 15 year old is quite content but my (nearly) 10 year old needs her mum around still.

Anyway, one thing I did with her yesterday was fabric dyeing. I've been meaning to do this for ages after the great weekend I did with Ruth Issett some months ago. It was a reasonable day so we did outside (and dyed some grass in the process). I had completely forgotten how some fabrics take dyes better than others so we had a range of tones of colour, mainly in my favourite reds, pinks, oranges. They looked like flags on the washing line drying later!

I'm also pleased to see that the Embroiderers' Guild Auction is now up on the Twisted Thread website ready for the Knitting and Stitching shows (still saving up!). This is a great opportunity, not just to refill the Guild's coffers, but also to buy some lovely embroidery!