It's my 31st birthday today and I think I'm having a bit of a mid-life crisis! Ok, so it's probably a one day mid-life crisis but it's a crisis none-the-less. There are certain birthdays that trigger you thinking back over what you've actually achieved so far and where you thought you might be by now. I'm always promising myself that I could do this bit of sewing and that jewellery but so often it lies undone and I carry on with the same old same old. I know that technically I can do these things or I could look up a new technique and be able to carry it off. But somewhere inbetween the idea and the practice I seem to freeze and the project stays undone. I'd love to be using my sewing skills for something. I'd at least like to make my own clothes but how about teaching newbies to sew, or selling beautiful work that I've created, or even using my artistic skills in a therapeutic way. So far these have all stayed as dreams but maybe my 31st birthday panic can be of some use. A push to make me do some of these things so that I don't feel the same way next year.

On to a more positive note...something that I have done. When I was tidying up a cupboard the other day I found some jars of old dye. I'd used it for a heat resist transfer printing workshop a couple of years ago then shoved the left over dye in the cupboard thinking I'd use it again. That as about 2 years ago so it was probably past it's best by now. Hating to throw anything it I thought I'd get some scraps of fabric and loosely scrunch them into the bottom of a bucket then poor the left-over dye over it. After drying I ironed them to heat-set the dye and I'm pretty pleased with the results.



I used pink, red and purple dye on the first pieces and blue and yellow on the second. I think they'll make perfect background for all this creative stitching I've now promised myself I'll do!