New Work 2

More updates
My beaded star - yes for the Christmas tree

 Have a guess what I used these for. I found them on a walk on the beach in Gran Canaria!

 A new piece of work for an exhibition entitled Coast. Any thoughts what my inspiration was for this piece?

 Another Coast piece of work started

 A beaded Christmas Tree - yes more Christmas work.

Postcard Swaparoo

Anyone like to join in the next postcard swaparoo? Go here and join in the fun. I love exchanging work that I've done and have made lots of new friends as a result.

New Work

I thought I might share with you two swaps I made recently. I made a piece of embellished felt using silk and wool fibres and a chiffon scarf on black acrylic felt. One small piece made a postcard that went off yesterday (see the picture at the top of this post.) and another became a needlebook that was sent to a friend in Needlework Haven.

I hope they both enjoy my efforts.

Embroiderers' Guild Swap

This year I decided to take part in the Embroiderers' Guild on-line forum fabric swap. I sent a small bag of fabrics and embellishments to Elizabeth in Queensland, Australia. In return I received these lovely fabrics from Dian in Mt Eliza, Australia.

This is what I made with them. My Kookaburra Hanging

 Detail 1

 Detail 2

 This is the thank you card and brooch I received from Elizabeth. Thank you so much. The brooch goes so well with my shirt, don't you think?

I forgot to take a photo of the card I sent to Dian, she has posted a picture on the Guild Forum Gallery. I tried to download my photos but for some reason they wouldn't go so I will post a link to my blog instead. I finished it just in time for the September 1st deadline JUST! However I was out last night so didn't get the photos up.

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.

APTT Garden Party

Yesterday I hosted a garden party for the APTT (Association of Part Time Tutors) We had a fantastic day. The sun shone and the food was an amazing spread. Everyone contributed. Many thanks for that. There was good company and conversation. The last person left at 9pm and I was in bed by ten.

AWOL

Yes I have been AWOL for a while. I have given myself time off from my daily blogs to do WORK, look after my new family of cats and go on courses.
So here goes with my update.


1. Didi and Holly are now well at home going outside, except in the rain over the past two days.

Holly knocking over the plant-pots while chasing frogs

 Didi sitting on one of my houseplants

DH has now made small stakes to dissuade her from making this a permanent sleeping spot. The plant dies back occasionally anyway and will recover soon.

2. My pretty pink and blue papers are now safely in new poly pockets in a new lever arch file and nowhere near my dye solutions.

3. I have completed Purple Rain 2 a felted and beaded wall hanging.

3. I have been to three exhibitions recently, I may have told you about some of them, Helen Cowan's Exhibition at Paxton House, Stitch-in-9 exhibition in Sunderland and Influences plus exhibition by It Happens at the small Bailiffgate Museum in Alnwick. Oh and of course I went to Hampton Court Flower Show and two small textile and design exhibitions on the South Bank.

4. My garden has taken some time to look after as everything is growing so quickly and I am having my bi-annual Garden Party on behalf of the APTT  next Sunday 24th July so please keep all fingers, and toes, crossed for good weather. Here are just a very small sample of the 130 photos I took going round the garden the other day after coming back from London.

Cucumbers

 Tomatoes and other veg in pots

 Clematis over the stumps of two trees

 More seedlings in the shed

 Holly investigated the shed, the wall and next door's garden

 I have a few of these chimes around the garden

 I got this one from my sister

 BIG strawberries 

Passion flower

 Cabbages

 Garlic

Update on the Stone River

I think I had better stop as you will be tired of the tour. Thank you so much for visiting.

Another busy week

  After the accidental dyeing incident last week I have sorted my wet papers and dried them out and the majority are still readable. So the file has been reconstructed. They are such pretty colours. The mop up cloth fabric is starting to look quite pretty but the large poly-cotton drip cloth still needs a bit more work.
  On Monday I went on a visit to Alnwick Gardens and had a lovely day with DH, DD and friends.
  On Tuesday I went to London with DD and partner, Wednesday was a trip to RHS Hampton Court Flower Show and a meet up with DS. 
  Thursday was a visit to the new Embroiderers Guild headquarters at Walton on Thames, a short train journey from DDs home. In the afternoon I went into Central London and visited The Design Museum and the Fashion and Textile Museum. This was a busy day and ended with a walk along the South Bank of the Thames with DS and a mediocre Greek meal.
  Friday back home and a lovely weekend outside with the cats loving the freedom of the garden. Holly got stuck on next door's extension where the roof tiles were so slippery she could not hold on and kept skidding  She had to have a helping hand (wooden board) to return to the garden wall.
  There are photos to go with this post but they will have to wait until later when I have time to download and process them. Thank you everyone for your kind thoughts and comments about my accidental dying.

Accidental Dying

Why do things go wrong when you are at your busiest? I am preparing for visitors. All my dying bits and pieces were put into the garage as DH does not like it lying around the kitchen! This morning I went to get something from one of the boxes and I noticed that my cat litter tray with mop up cloths and files soaking wet!


I blamed a leak in the garage roof - no said DH dry as a bone. I took the file and fabric out of the tray to remember that I had decanted dye into jars - separate tray - and not wanting to waste the drops left in my dye bags I had filled them up with a bit of water to perhaps use later.

Of course some of them had leaked out and the water + dye had wicked up over the week through two pieces of fabric that I was going to dye later and the poly-cotton drip cloth that really wasn't very messy after the dyeing process. All fabric is now prettily tie-dyed and all papers in the loose leaf file is soaking wet.

 I have stood all afternoon separating papers and remembering my paper making placing them between J-Cloths. Fun.