It is nearly April

Well March is nearly over and I don't really know where it has gone. I have been busy. Health-wise not so good, I won't dwell but it has involved lots of doctor and hospital appointments.

So what have you done in March? I hear you ask. Well I attended Region 15E  Quilters' Guild Regional Day followed by a course with Yvonne Brown, an inspirational teacher and prolific quilter. Below you can see my tidy desk on the course, well it's tidy for me! Then the photo of the workers at the end of the afternoon. I'm the one with very little done and gingerly holding all my little experimental scraps together when all the rest had a quilt block finished. Photo three shows the blocks I made 1/3 completed the next day. It has progressed on since then but I don't have a photo to show you, yet!

I've made several ATCs and Postcards, here are a selection

This is a selfie done on my iPad

I went to London to visit my daughter for my birthday she took me to see War Horse. That was a fantastic show, If you haven't seen the stage production do it's amazing. Those who know me will say but your birthday is in February, why a birthday treat in March?Well to tell the truth DD said when do you want to come down? and I said March because there is a stitching show at Olympia and I had never been before. Here are just a few of the goodies I got.

Beautiful fabrics from Burma

 Stash laid out on my bed

a little book made by Gilda Baron and some felted pebbles I made at a workshop with Ailish Henderson

 Back home and here is a small book I made when playing with some newly acquired artists inks, it really is quite small/

 Playing with disperse dyes

 Finally my small memory pin cushion which was actually made on Valentines Day in February. I don't think I have shared this with you but I love it.

 The image is my Mum, my Gran and my great Gran

I have done other things as well this month because I am working towards an exhibition at Wallington Hall in Northumberland in the summer with the textile group TWYNE. I'll tell you more about that in a later post when the advertising poster is completed. I have finished one item and am planning two more so will have to pull my finger out and get going.

That's all for now. If you are interested have a look at this link on our upcoming Creative Weekend.

Inspirational Weekend

On Saturday I went to our Region 15E Quilters' Guild Regional Day. Whow was it good! In the morning there was a talk from Dorothy Osler entitled "Insight into Durham's Traditional Quilting Communities from the Diaries of a London Lady" amazing how these entrepreneurial ladies in the 30's - 50's made Northern Quilting as well known as it is now. In the afternoon, after a raffle, show and tell (when I showed my Mandy Patullo Sweetheart Pincushion) and Linus Quilts we heard about the Life of a very inspirational lady Yvonne Brown.

I was interested in Yvonne's story, not just because of her interesting life and inspiration quilts but also because of her married surname - Brown. Before I was married I was Sheila Brown. No relation whatsoever! There are lots of Browns in the UK.

When I became aware that there was a place going spare on Yvonne's workshop yesterday (Sunday) I just had to sign up. However I quickly realised that both my sewing machines were in Tully's in Sunderland and I wouldn't get them back until Monday I was bitterly disappointed. However Anne our  lovely treasurer came to the rescue and lent me her Bernina, just like mine so there was no trouble doing free machining on it.

On arrival at 9.30 in the morning Anne was already there and had set up the machine for me. I then turned round and saw an old friend from the Embroiderers' Guild, Norma, turned round again and saw Melitta who I've known for quite a few years and another friend Kate who was in my C&G class and is now on the EG regional committee with me. Call it a small world! The stitching community of Embroiderers and Quilters are so generous and I have made friends through my various craft activities because of it.

Thank you QGGB Region 15E for being so welcoming.

Sorry Blogger is not letting me post the photos I wanted to share. So you will have to make do with my report.

Thanks for reading
Sheila

Beautiful fabrics

I've just washed and ironed my beautiful fabrics. Some are over printed, some are not. Some I like, others I'm not too sure of. Some look better on the back! Some have had a mask put over while drying, others before painting. There are two colour-ways. One green and yellow. The other reds, blues, purples and a small amount of other colours. All have been painted at least twice.

I show the mop-up cloth underneath because, although it is not beautiful in it's own right, there are some lovely markings on it.

What do you think? Please let me know as I love hearing from you.

Can you see any hidden marks I have missed?

Zoom into the first mop-up cloth and see if you can find the small yellow lines.

Winter is back!

Forget what I said yesterday morning. Winter is back with a vengeance because we had snow overnight. Not much but it has left today feeling very cold and dark. However I promised you a picture  of catkins and here it is.

During the morning I discovered Cat no 1 (Holly to give her her proper name) rooting around under the TV.

We are decorating this room so I wondered if one of her toys had ventured under there. Later on I discovered this little felted ball in the hall. 

So I returned it to it's home inside my lap tray. can you see it?

Every time I went into the room I found the small felted ball somewhere else. So I decided to stand and watch what happened, camera in hand. Here goes. 

What is this?

Gone!

 It's not me honest!

Later in the afternoon she decided that she had had enough of that game and lay down beside me and fell asleep

Or so I thought! One eye is still watching!

You might notice that I have my apron on because I had just been playing with my fabric journal and the papers that I showed you the other day. The fabric journal is starting to move on. I have stitched some new papers into it. A magazine bought by mistake - I'll never do some of the projects in it - but it was beautifully set out with some lovely torn papers decorating the edges of some of the pages. So out they came and torn up into strips.

Here are some glimpses of the pages now. Some stitched, others waiting to be stitched. You can't really tell from these photographs the relative sizes of each piece.

The last one still needs to be stitched. The small beaded piece was something I picked up at a Vintage Fair and I felt it fitted into my theme of erosion. Most of the beads are still there but if you look carefully they are starting to come away. I think it looks a bit like a butterfly or a jeweled moth. This is going to be a very small book that will sit inside the pocket in the journal.

Last of all to show you - thank goodness you say - are my three new knitted beads. I think I will make a series of the same for my next necklace. The yarn is beautiful, short runs of colour with a sparkle through it. The photo doesn't really do it justice.

It must be Spring!

Oh yes despite the weather I feel Spring is here. Why? you ask. Yesterday I walked down to the local shops - just 5 minutes away - to collect my good Winter coat (which I don't wear very often). I had taken it to Mendys on Front Street and asked them to replace the pocket which for several years has had a BIG hole. BUT I hear you cry why pay someone to do a job you could do yourself? That is true I had intended to do it, however I know that I would not have done it well and because it was an expensive, good looking coat I didn't want to spoil it.

I digress, while walking in the sunshine I realised I had gone out in a jumper and fleece waistcoat and I didn't feel cold! 

Then in one of the gardens I saw some small catkins. I didn't take a photo as I didn't have my camera with me. I have to do the same walk today so must remember to take it with me.

The days are finally starting to draw out and we have had a few days of partial sunshine - not today which is dull and damp.

I am in a flurry of sorting and clearing and cleaning. Yes I do clean - sometimes. I'm having a 'short' break to have a cup of tea in the middle of cleaning the kitchen sitting at my kitchen table. However typing is quite difficult because cat number 1 insists that lying between my arms, sitting in front of the screen and walking up and down in front of the screen is a good thing.

Final Point I have had a 'spring clean' of some of my crafting stash. Regular followers will know what I mean.

Coming back to the title of this post - all of the above make me feel that 'Spring has Sprung'. At the same time I am aware that those of you who live in the south of the UK will not agree with this sentiment. I feel so upset that so many people may have had to leave their homes and possessions behind.

Well my tea break is over so I must review this post and get back to it. Bye for now and thank you for reading to the bitter end.

Tidy V Disorganised?

Well I usually know where everything is! That is until I loose something! Then I realise that it really is time to tidy up my workroom.

I have searched the house for something that is quite precious to me and my family. I really don't know where I have put it. While looking I have found:-

1) I can no longer access my family tree on Genes Re-United - it's been so long since I visited.
2) The lovely trolley full of stuff that has been there for a year - I know because it was filled with the remnants of a course I did. Now everything is back in it's rightful place because I will need the trolley soon.
3) A blanket to replace the white one the cat has been using for a bed.
4) A metal box that will be great for some of my beads
5) I can now walk into my workroom without tripping over things.
6) Yes I can throw things out because they are really of no use any more! Not much though!
7) I now have no time to do my creative 15mins but I can console myself because this is what I created today on a course with Mandy Putullo

It is still looking a bit lumpy and bumpy but it will look much better after a little more tweaking. 

The ladies in the photo are my Mum - Agnes, her Mum, my Gran - Isabella and her Mum, my Great Grandmother and there is my problem. I can't remember my Great Gran's first name. She was always Granny Connell to us. So I have been searching for some photographs and old newspaper articles I know I have - somewhere! Then I can add her initial on the left-hand side of the pin cushion in pins. yes the other two initials are in pins!

Time for bed now. I will have to resume the search tomorrow!

New beaded necklace

Just finished this tonight. It is quite a heavy necklace to wear but I've put a proper clasp on it this time. In reality the purple beads are much darker than they look in this photo. I hope the small magnetic clasp does it's job.

Over the last few days I have been working on some papers - I showed you some on my last post - working on the theme of erosion. Well I got this lovely book by Francis Pickering - Under the Cover: Paper and Fabric Books. I now knew what do do with my papers.  

  

The journal is nowhere near finished yet but I'm still working on it.

Erosion

Last week I shared with you my trip to York. I have been playing with some of the photographs I took while walking along the walls.  Nobody but my DSis guessed what I took photographs of.

                        Yes it was the worn paving slabs on the wall walk. 

It got me thinking about erosion and the photographs I took quite a few years ago on the beach in Whitley Bay. I've had a search for them but they could be anywhere so I'm afraid I can't show you the one I am thinking of. You could imagine lovely sandstone rocks with water eroded pits in it. they can be found in so many places including the lovely sandstone pavements at Malham Cove. Do a Google search and you can see what I mean.

I was playing with magazine papers, Gesso and Koh-I-Noor paint and had a bit of a disaster when I stacked them all and they stuck together! The top paper however pooled and I took the heat gun to it and got these beautiful markings.


Could I repeat the marks on the salvaged wreck of my other papers? No not on these ones but I did get some lovely marks after adding more paint and drying again. They look a bit like intestines

You can see the markings more clearly on this paper