Hello all

No you're not imagining things, I'm still in Italy and I have the use of a laptop, hurrah. I've taken lots of photos of lovely trees, surprise, surprise, stones, rocks and pillars. No I'm not uploading them yet, you'll have to wait until I get home.

We've sketched details from all of the above using pencil and Aquarel crayons (water and dry). We've painted our observations in Co in Noor paints (water colour dyes). Oh and yes we've stitched some of our pieces, they are all small samples using different techniques and this afternoon we all sat needle-felting 'stones'. It was so funny seeing everyones hands going up and down felting the wool to get it firm enough. Tonight we started stitching into the stones but I got tired so came out to 'talk' to you.

Speak again soon.

Italy

Italy here I come. I travel to Stansted this morning to travel over to Italy tomorrow morning, bright and early - 7.30 flight that means 5.30 at the airport. I know I'm an early riser but that's early even for me. Then on to Masseria della Zingara in Pyglia. I'll be there for 6 nights and doing a course with Jan Beaney and Jean Littlejohn. 'From sketch to stitch' Now if anyone has seen my sketching then this is the biggest laugh - I'm useless, but I'll have a go after all it will be great back-up work for my course.

I'm quite nervous though as I've never flown before on my own, always had DH's hand to hold on to. I'll just have to grip the seat hard on landing and take-off. I've got the new copy of Somerset Studio to read, one hour to Stansted and two hours to Italy, seems strange that it's so long just to get to the other end of the country.

Well, bye for now as I'm about to turn the 'puter off and I'll tell you all about it when I get back.

October

Sorry I haven't been around much. College work and reorganisation of workroom has got in the way.

First here is a picture of my October TUSAL. I'm just pushing things further and further down and there's still room for lots more.

Then college well, I've completed my study of Italian Embroidery, that was very interesting and I think you saw the pictures of the withdrawn threadwork I did. For my three country studies I just have to do a sample for the African one. I've also completed my eight backgrounds for stitch, some are stitched and others not.

There are lots of other pieces in another file but I had to choose the best eight and I've included a couple more on the front cover of the fabric book containing the main eight samples.

























Finally here's a picture of my before shelves and one of the cupboards that are being built. A long way to go yet! Sorry about the poor quality but they were taken with my phone.

September TUSAL

Well better late than never I say. You can see the white threads a the top of my jar they are the withdrawn threads from a sample I'm doing for my Italian study. The piece isn't quite finished but I'm nearly there, I'm doing a pulled thread piece next but that will be a contemporary piece - watch this space. I know the lines don't look straight but that's just because of the tightness of the fabric in the frame.

I've also done some colouring of fabric with Markel sticks and acrylic paint mixed with fabric medium. The first piece is a sketchbook page of cut up painted sheets like the second picture.












There are then two bark rubbings done with Markel sticks









and finally a coffee and tea shibori dyed piece. Unfortunately you can't see the leaf shapes I tied on the piece, it was a bit of a failure. If you click on the thumbnail you might just be able to see a leaf shadow in places, they should have been clearer.






We are nearly finished bedroom #2. the carpet is coming tomorrow so DD and friend WILL have somewhere to sleep.

New bedroom

I think I told you a while ago that we were changing my office into a spare bedroom. Well it's done. All I have to do is get some tie backs for the curtains and DH has to bleed the radiator. Wow are you impressed it's taken such a short time to do. Unfortunately as we have used part of our bedroom carpet on the floor we have to start decorating that straight away.
The light from the window doesn't show up the curtains very well - sorryOh yes my workroom/office is a mess again as I've been very busy with the work I have to do before college starts again. As a result I've only just started putting things away from our two recent trips.

As far as college work is concerned I've completed the back-up work for my tree trunk vessel and also two country studies (looking at the embroidery in Africa and The Canaries) Now I'm on to Italy so if anyone has any info or good links about Italian embroidery then I'm interested. Bye for now as I'm off to do a bit more clearing up. Thanks for reading my rambles.

sfilature

You might be wondering at the title of this post. I am doing some research and the Italian word is 'sfilature'. The nearest I seem to be able to get as a possible translation is what we know as 'pulled thread work'. Anyone out there know any better? Doing a Google search gave me pictures of drawn thread work which is where I got the definition from. If you know any better and can help me please post. Many thanks.

Ben Nevis inspired hanging

I have been working on my Ben Nevis inspired hanging since last Wednesday. Thanks to Helen Cowans our lovely tutor. We had a three day intensive workshop and I've been working on it since then. There is still a bit of tying in to do (that is tying the front to the backing) and I need to get a better hanging device, this was the only piece of wood DH could find in the garage. Hope you like it. Sorry the perspective is a bit off.

HD All the unwanted bits

You might remember that last week I made a fabric bowl. Well the girls I was making it with started to throw their 'waste' bits away. I rescued them and this is what I produced.

TUSAL August

Well sorry I forgot to post my TUSAL progress last month, but here it is. It looks as if the jar is full but there's plenty of room. The top piece is an offcut from a project that wasn't used and will flatten down quite a lot. I can't believe how much I've collected in just two and a bit months. There'll be more this weekend when I come back from Wooler where I'm doing an EG workshop with Helen Cowans.

Fof Q update

Thankyou Tracie for a great day on Saturday. Tracie is a fantastic teacher and helped us all paint some fantastic pieces. Even my FiL thought the butterfly looks very real.

Here is Tracie with some of her work.









This is the piece I created. The only stitching - at the moment was to stitch on the butterfly. I intend to stitch the whole onto another background with some wadding so that it becomes a small art quilt. I've also bought some materials to create the rusting effects you can see in the background of my piece. I want to quite a few experiments with this technique and have quitea few ideas running through my head.

The quilts were fabulous - as usual. I was so surprised to see a small block the same design as my very first ever quilt . It is based on an exploding square and I made mine for my DS a few years ago. If you would like to see my quilt then go here. Yes it is a King size quilt. It was a mammoth undertaking and took me about 3 years to complete.

Festival of Quilts

I'm away from home for a few days at FiL's in Leicester. Tomorrow I have a Day masterclass at The Festival of Quilts with Tracie Huskamp from The Red Door Studio I'm quite excited about it as I've never done a Mixed Media workshop before although I've been playing around with MM for a few weeks myself.

In the evening I'm meeting up with a friend in Nuneaton and on Sunday I'm going back to FoQs just to look around. I'll let you all know about it with a few pictures after I come back.

ATCs

If you have been following my blog you will know that I've just started exploring the wonderful world of ATCs and Art Journaling. If you want to know more then look at Frieda's Blog she has some fantastic examples of ATCs and some Journal Quilts. They are fantastic.

Here are just some of my ATCs. They are a series of 8 and the first two have been given to my friends Sue and Lee.I want to keep at least one of each series and this time I remembered to take photos. The last set I forgot before they went out.





















Here are the two I'm keeping for myself.
If you would like one then I might just have one for you. Just let me know and I'll make a draw at the start of September.

Bowl

I made a soft bowl a long time ago from 'Fast Fun & Easy Fabric Bowls' by Linda Johansen. On Thursday we made some more bowls here are mine.













ROFL it's actually only one bowl. It is reversible. I used fabric hand dyed by Helen Cowans and the other was one I bought from E-quilter quite some time ago. I choose the piece that toned in best with the other two as the whole piece had a lot of colours in it.

This small post card was made as a thank-you to a friend who lent me her flat in Edinburgh. DH and I had a lovely time at the start of The Fringe Festival.

Oops

August is slipping away quite fast and the weather is starting to take a turn for the worst. While still quite warm and muggy the rain didn't really seem to want to stop. I had a short time clearing out the pots in the shed. The cucumber plants needed to be potted on and the water in the self watering trays needed changing. Why oh why do some of my pepper plants have little bugs on them. The ones on the kitchen window-sill don't have them and one has actually got a baby pepper starting to grow.

We went up to the start of the Edinburgh Fringe over the weekend. It was great fun and my did we walk. We saw one free show and several stand up and an improvised show, that was good. The best was a flamenco circus. 6 dancers/musicians who were also jugglers and acrobats. An excellent show. The Royal Mile was heaving. We had a great time.

I've been working on a new set of ATCs (Artists Trading Cards) They are not complete yet and I will have two or three to give away. If you're interested in getting one then please leave me a comment and send me a private email with your snail mail address. I'll get DH to pick some names out of the bag at the start of September. Sorry no photos until they are complete and sent off. I think there will be 10 in the series but the theme is embellishment so most of them have a few beads or dangles on.

I think I told you that my bark vessel is complete and I'm busy finalising the written support work for it. Here are two close up pictures of some of the details on it.
I've finished my turquoise bracelet and I'm so pleased with it.

Last night I started a soft bowl, I'm still doing some machine embroidery on it before I stitch the pieces together. I'll take a photo when it's finished. I made one several years ago and it became quite distorted after having heavy things (like fruit) put in it so this will be a replacement.

That's all for tonight must go and have some beauty sleep.

August

Flaming August? Well yes it was yesterday. DD is up from London for a few days and we went to The Summer Flower Show in Gateshead. We had a lovely day, wonderful flowers, lots of crafty items and plants by the pot-fulls.

We watched a demo on potting up hanging baskets by a local garden center. Even though I've done HBs for years he gave some good tips.

I bought, some new parsley, curly and flat leafed as I've used up all of mine and the stuff I grew from seed seems to have disappeared or isn't really ready to be cut. A new Abutilon, a baby bottle brush, another plant I can't remember the name of at the moment, a few bulbs and two cyclamen corms and finally at the end of the day we picked up - literally, three big glazed pots for ten quid. I have to say the herbs were half price as it was near the end of the show, the bulbs I got 10 for the price of 8 and the two very strange looking cyclamen corms I got a BOGOF. (Buy One Get One Free).









In the craft sales tent I got a lovely new necklace - it took me ages to choose which one and DD got a large ball of 'wool' to try out my big crochet hook.


Stitching wise I can't show you any pictures as I'm working on some new ATC's, the first lot went before I had time to take photos. I've completed my big knit bag. The two pictures show a before and after felting.






My painted pots are increasing in numbers and my first proper picture pot now has my shed and arch, the start of the fox gloves and some tobaco plant flowers on the arch. I never thought I'd be able to do realistic painting but Sandra - my tutor - is encouraging me all the way. Many thanks Sandra.

Garden party and update

Sorry I haven't posted for a while been very busy. The garden party went well on Saturday the weather was kind to us and we were outside until 7.30 moving down the garden as the sun disappeared over the roof tops. There was loads of food left and we are still drinking the wine! Great company and lots of banter. Thank you to everyone who came and supported us.

I've finished another felted bag. Here it is before and after felting it shrank in the washing machine by nearly half, starting off very floppy as I used my broom shank needles and 8 strands of pure wool.

My beaded bracelet is growing slowly but I'm on the last run through and am nearing the end, I'll have to decide what kind of clasp to put on it.


I've done nothing to my black and white patchwork portfolio bag this week, sorry nothing to show, maybe tomorrow.

Apart from that I've been packing boxes. My study has been moved into my work room and the small bedroom is being decorated and will be reclaimed as a spare bedroom. That way I won't have to clear my study/workroom every time someone comes to stay. Photos will be coming when I'm a bit more organised.

DD is coming tomorrow so looking forward to seeing her.

Weather

Don't you hate weather forecasts? After postponing the Garden Party yesterday morning at 10am when it was still raining and showing no signs of stopping. By 12 the sun came out but it did rain again at 4pm. Then today we have had glorious sunshine! RATS we could have had it today.

Never mind we had a great mini party 8 people total, a good time was had by all and we will do it all over again next Saturday.

Weather forecast right

Today has been a miserable day up here in the NE, rain and gale force winds. The poor garden is swimming and I've lost some of my outdoor tomato plants which fell over and broke. Fortunately I have plenty more and they hadn't set any fruit yet.

The BBC forecast for tomorrow sounds a little more optimistic but I haven't been able to do the last minute tweaking I had wanted to do for my garden party. Why oh why didn't I have it last weekend?

I'm sorry there have been no photos of what I've been up to recently. I hope this makes up for it. In between preparing for tomorrow I have painted some papers, I'm not quite sure what I'm going to use them for, completed my felted vessel, cut some fabric for a large patchwork portfolio bag, this will be done in the fractured colour technique I learned quite a while ago - more about that later.









I have also been working on my small beaded vessel and a blue/turquoise beaded bracelet