Postcard Swaps

Anyone interested in taking part in a postcard swap? Have a look at this link. It would be lovely to see other people taking part.

Painting and printing for stitch

The last three days have been so enjoyable. Rachel Lombard, our tutor, had us painting and printing kitchen papers. Yes you read correctly, kitchen papers. From one sheet, once painted you can get two sheets - so two for the price of one. bonded to Vylene these sheets can be combined so quite large paper 'fabrics' can be created. These are then overprinted in several layers to create quite sumptuous fabrics which can be further embellished and decorated with stitch both by hand and machine.

Here are some of her beautiful pieces of work.

 The presentation and show and tell

I decided to use trees and bark as my inspiration for my work. I did quite a lot of research while doing my C&G course a few years ago and often go back to these pieces. It must be my fascination with texture that draws me to this subject. This determined my colour palette, shades of orange, brown, yellow and red. Amongst the artefacts I have are a set of small cup mat made from a sliced nut case. I used this in my printing and nut shaped marks appear over the design.

 My attempt at recreating a paper creation

Thank you and apologies

Thank you to everyone who replied to my last post. It seems that a post a day is out. I certainly don't have the time to do it anyway. There are much more important things to do, like my sewing and my journaling. Yesterday I went to a brilliant event on Lindesfarne - Holy Island is a beautiful place and full of inspiration even on a rainy day. Yesterday started sunny, there was a rain shower which lasted about 10 minutes and then the sun came out again. I was there because a friend of mine is part of the Viking re-enactment society. The Priory was full of Vikings and Saxons camping in the grounds and talking to people about their lives. There were battles between them especially the historic battle for Northumbria. Well done a brilliant day.

I also have to apologise for my lack of reading of your blogs. Time on the computer has been restricted as I am now getting ready to go up to Wooler where I am doing a course with the Embroiderers' Guild. I'm really looking forward to meeting everyone again, it is usually a great 3 days, hard work but fun.

Bye for now and thanks again for reading. I promise to get back to posting a few photos soon. The one advantage of not doing it now is I can show you a whole chunk when I finally do download my camera.

One a Day Blog posts

Now what do you think? Should I do more short posts or do one longer posts every now and then? I would value your thoughts. 


Recently I have been absent as time is running away from me.
What have you been doing? I hear you ask. 1. Taking part in a metal work/stitch workshop, 2. Visiting Edinburgh for the start of the Fringe festival. Saw the Preston Pans Tapestry while there, it is in St Mary's Cathedral. 3.Then home and a quick turn around to go to Leicester to visit FiL and SiL and while there a trip over to Birmingham to the Festival of Quilts at the NEC. Met up with some good friends and did an Altered Book course. Photos of that to follow - I haven't taken them yet!


Stitching wise - 1. I have almost completed my Seams Recycled piece for the E.G. exhibition in Bishop Auckland this October. 2. I've been adding my metal samples to my altered book, most of which include some stitching! 3. A few stitches have been added to my Memories hanging and that is almost completed. 4. Finally my Australian fabric piece is almost completed, just one more element to complete and then finishing off, this is the part I hate as I feel I don't finish things off well. I won't be able to show you that as the reveal isn't until September.


That's all for now as the sun and the garden is calling - tend me, tend me.