Surprises in the Post

The Postman dropped two packages through my letterbox yesterday, one all the way from Sweden, and inside was this delightful Christmas Card from my friend Jeanette. The heart is formed from wire and is also beaded, and is just gorgeous. With the card were these wonderful Wristwarmers. The ribbons that form the flowers are so pretty and such lovely colours - all stitched onto fleece. Jeanette wishes me a wonderful white Christmas so I can wear them! I reckon I'll wear them all year round, Summer too, just to show them off. Do visit her Blog - she is so creative.

In the other package was this beautiful Postcard from Debbi in Australia. My scan of it really does not do it justice - it is so pretty. The writing on the background is a favourite stamp of Debbi's, and it has just a hint of angelina then the hand painted lace and the 'oh so gentle' picture, all beautifully finished.
Debbi also sent me this fantastic selection of paper napkins, with lots of writing on them! She uses a lot of napkins in her artwork and offered to share some with me, as I showed considerable interest in what she was doing (pestering with lots of questions - like you do!) There was more than a dozen in the package, all different. What a start to my collection.
While looking through all those beautiful napkins, and drooling somewhat, I remembered this Sampler Book I made, about three years ago. I attended a Workshop with a very talented lady called Josephine Edge for one day a week over a period of four weeks. The base of the Cover is maroon velvet, with napkin liners and Markal and chiffon and all sorts of other stuff ironed onto/into it, together with a PAPER NAPKIN, as you can see. I only used half the Napkin (the other quarter is on the back cover) and we first stitched a grid all over it, then we wet it! (the grid stops is falling apart) We then pulled it apart in places (hence the holes) and roughed up the edges (picked at them so they were no longer straight) When it was dry we stitched it onto the background, then, using all sorts of different threads, stitched into it until we were exhausted! Everybody made a different Book Cover as we all used different coloured velvet and of course different paper napkins.

Looking back, I can see now that this Workshop was my first introduction to mixed media (fabric and paper) and how excited I felt.

I am hoping to get to know Debbi well during the coming year, as we are both Calendar Girls and will be doing quite a bit of experimenting and swapping between all of us.