Val's Musings

Week 5 - Self Portrait from a photograph

2012-02-03T03:41:00.000-08:00

Yeah! Yeah! Before you take a sneaky look at my painting, there is a little artistic licence, I must admit. No, not really, just that I used a picture of myself taken about 30 years ago. Well, this week it was about our inner self, and I still feel a lot younger on the inside than I look on the outside!! Anyway it was great fun, and the Workshop was by Kylie Fowler, an Australian Portrait Artist. There are over 1000 of us who have signed on for this Life Book 2012, so from the tutor's point of view it must be extremely difficult to meet everyone's expectations, impossible I would say! Kylie started the video with two black and white computer printed photos the same, but one was a mirror image. We then cut out just the face of the mirror image and transferred it onto the watercolour paper using gesso - this was a first for me. (I'd done it on fabric - not with gesso though) I rubbed rather too much of my face away, but it didn't matter, as the original was there for you to draw the face back in(with biro). The idea was to make a type of cartoon, and fill in whatever you wanted for the hair and body etc. adding a crown or something, as this was representing your Inner Goddess!

Kylie's second video was using a printout of her face, stuck onto watercolour paper and then colouring with watersoluble crayons. She used all sorts of weird colours on her face, like olive green, prussion blue and red, as well as flesh, orange and yellow etc. I decided to have a go on my face, and was quite delighted with the results. Kylie's face was obviously still smooth paper when she coloured it, and mine was very 'rubbed up' and rough, but even so, the result of the weird colours I tried stll surprised me, which was the best bit of the whole exercise for me. I'm really not into collaging - not yet anyway!!
If you want to join in the fun, click on the moving Logo - it's still not too late!
Till next time .........

Week 3 - Workshop with Bonnie Rose Bryan

2012-01-23T02:37:00.000-08:00

This Life Book on-line course is turning out, at the moment, to be rather 'deep thinking'! Bonnie Rose (this week's tutor) writes in her introduction: "This project is all about using symbolism to depict the very differet parts of yourself, coexisting in balance and harmony. It is a deeply personal and intensely introspective project .... to look inward into oneself, and represent, using archetypes or other imagery, both the light and dark aspects of your inner being . This is no small task!"

Bonnie illustrated the Workshop by drawing two Goddesses with various attributes written down, but she illustrated her drawings using ink, (a ballpoint pen) and hatching and cross hatching to create the shading and depth.

This I got very excited about, so ............

Here is the beginning of my two 'goddesses' (one public on the left and one private on the right). You can see I've been working on the left hand side with more hatching. I started by pencil drawing the portraits (not very much shading) and going over the drawing with the ball point pen, then rubbing out the pencil. Point of no return is when you start hatching with the pen 'cos you can't rub out!

Anyway, this is my finished page, with a little colour added representing day and night or light and dark or sun and moon. and a few words. The idea is to realise everyone has 'two faces' but they work in harmony.
This is the first time I have tried drawing in ball point pen - I loved it and will certainly try again!!
The next workshop is around the 6th Feb. so till then .........

New Beginnings

2012-01-05T02:35:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year to my blogging friends (and anyone else who pops by of course!) To encourage myself to learn how to draw freely, I have joined an on-line workshop called Life Book 20l2, run by Tamara Laporte who is based in Brighton, Sussex. She is a very caring, sharing person, who incidentally has only just had her second baby, just before Christmas, and has organised this YEAR LONG Workshop, which includes at least fifteen other Tutors from around the world. It started on the lst Jan. and Tam did the first workshop for the first page of the Life Book, explaining that we are all goddesses (over 700 people have signed up!) and to include all our best qualities onto this first page, after painting the inner goddess we all have! Well, this is my first page ........

It is the first time I have tried to draw/paint a face, using an oval shape as a base, let alone a three-quarter face. It was familiar though, as I have made and painted faces on fabric dolls, so I did understand the instructions, although you wouldn't think so. It is amazing how drawing is one thng, then adding paint can completely change the expression etc. I am hoping to learn a lot from all these brilliant tutors over the coming year, and will post each page as I go along. I should then be able to see if there is any improvement!!

We are going to bind all the pages together, into a book, at the end of the year, and the 'flap' shown here was part of Tam's instructions. She did say to stick collage paper on the back to form the 'hinge' but I don't have any suitable, so I used some fabric paper I made ages ago - worked a treat!

This is the back of the page, which will show as the book is opened. I can always draw/write something on it to link to the next page, when I know what the next page is ....!
If you would like to know more about Life Book 20l2, or even join in, click on the button on the left. Life Book 20l2 is also on Facebook and Flkr.
Till next time .......

A small gift for a special Friend

2011-12-23T05:39:00.000-08:00

Each Christmastime I receive one or two christmas cards that really inspire me, and I now have quite a collection. This particular little fabric and stitched quilt was inspired by such a card I received several years ago, and reminds me somewhat of Zentangles. The design appears to be hand drawn, and filled in with amazing detail, down to drawn lace and small embroidery lazy daisy stitches. Anyway, my friend Alis was delighted with her little gift, and I would like to share the quilt wth all my blogging friends, to bring you all

Christmas Tidings.

Here is the inspiration. Unfortunately I do not know the artist, to be able to give credit where it is due. I do hope you all have a lovely Christmas, and a very happy, healthy and creative New Year.

Fairy is finished .....

2011-12-13T02:07:00.000-08:00

Following on from my last post, this is a scan of the painting actually, so it is a little larger than shown here - there is quite a few more leaves on the bottom and it is a bit wider. It is all water colour, except for the green background, which is layered acrylics.

This is also a scan of the finished Angel I posted some time back - now has a dark background, again using acrylics.
Bye for now ......

Getting there - slow but sure

2011-11-23T02:17:00.000-08:00

Further to my last post, I've been working on this drawing I did, using a photograph of some toadstools I took for the background. First of all I used a sepia pen to go over the drawing lines, then rubbed them out (very gently!)

I then added colours to various parts, using water soluble wax crayons mostly, then started to put the details in, plus some shadows. The fairy is only very lightly coloured (nowhere near finished). I am concentrating on the leaves mostly at the moment, and haven't quite decided about the background at the top. Lots to do still, but I think it's coming on.
It's great for me to compare the pictures of the process, if only I could remember to do more scans as I went along!
Bye for now .....

Foraging for Fungus ......

2011-11-17T04:12:00.000-08:00

Actually, to be honest, I was foraging for Fairies ........

but looking at the texture on these Honey Fungus (which is what I think it is) no wonder there were no fairies around. It looks so spikey and rough, but really amazing. The patterns are truly so inspiring!

Further along the lane I found these - much smoother, but still no sign of any fairy .....

wonderful Autumn colours though. Even these round smooth ones were fairyless!

I reckon they must have heard me approaching .......

and just took off. I felt quite bereft, so decided I draw one .......

There you go - I just knew they were there really. I'm off to add some paint.
Till next time ......

Another Fairy ......

2011-10-19T12:18:00.000-07:00

A new experience for me - I'm using A3 watercolour paper! My Sketchbook is only A5, and smooth paper. What a difference textured paper makes, as well as paper four times the size ........ Anyway, herewith my sketch. Thought I'd give her feathered wings this time.

Add some flesh coloured pencils and paint, some water soluble crayons (her skirt) and some colour to her wings - plus a whole lot more graphite!

She now has blonde hair as you can see, and I stippled the background with blue red and black acrylic paint and added some gouache white paint. I did a lot of fiddling with her wings too. I have to revisit all the flesh parts (lots of fiddling to do there!) and work on her skirt, and generally put a lot more detail in. Still, she is getting there, slow but sure.
Bye for now .......

Bunbury Challenge completed

2011-10-16T03:56:00.000-07:00

Here is my piece for the Bunbury Patchwork & Quilting Group in Australia. The colours are a bit brigher than the picture shows, especially the edge of the leaves!

To recap, this is the challenge fabric - 11" square - 80% of which has to be used in the design somewhere. The theme is Wonderland, and the quilts are for their Exhibition in 2012 - so I am in plenty of time!!
I'm still considering whether to add a couple of small 'pieces of leaves' at the bottom - or leave well enough alone. What do you think? (OMGoodness - I've just noticed the pun!) I've decided to call it Autumn Wonderland.
Till next time .......

More Sketchbook stuff ...

2011-10-05T02:12:00.000-07:00

A sketchy beginning ..........

Added background using water soluble wax crayons and salt ....

Popped into the garden to find some leaves - for colour and shape ....

Added a bit more colour ....

Ta Daa! I reckon she is done. By the way, my sketchbook is A5 size.
Till next time ....

Sketching, stitching and painting

2011-10-01T11:44:00.000-07:00

Further to my last post - herewith the finished drawing/painting of my latest fairy attempt. As you can see, I did add something in the background and also the berries at the bottom, to cover those weird shaped arms a bit! I have lots of beautiful berries on the trees and in the boundary hedges in my garden at the moment.

I've also been dyeing, stitching, painting and more stitching. I decided to enter the Challenge of the Bunbury Patchwork & Quilting Group in Australia, under the theme 'Wonderland' - well, how could I resist?

This is my effort so far (about 20" x 30"). It doesn't have to be in Australia under February 2012, so I have plenty of time. The Challenge is , however..........

to incorporate this piece of fabric into the design. It is only 11" square, but I can't overdye it or bleach it or change it in any way, and I must use it witin the design, not in the borders or on the back!!
I'll keep you posted as to how I get on ......
Till next time.
PS. Any body else out there taking up the Challenge, or anyone know of anybody who is?

Sketchbook - pencil and water colour

2011-09-28T09:08:00.000-07:00

I've been dabbling again in my sketchbook, inspired as usual by Linda Ravenscroft and her beautiful artwork. I've collected a few 'poses' from Sunday supplements and magazines etc. that I thought might give me a start, and the one above is the one I used - just to give me a shape to go by, not to try to copy the image itself.

I washed the background with watercolour, then drew the image with a graphite pencil. I should have taken a scan before adding any paint really, but forgot!

Added water colour to the wings and a bit more detail to the hair.....

Added more colour and more detail, with coloured pencils as well as the graphite pencil.
I know the image itself is not very good, the more I coloured it and added detail, the more I could see her nose is too long and her body too thin etc. but generally, the shading and colouring is not too bad. Just as well she isn't supposed to be a copy of the original! She is a fairy from another world after all!
She isn't finished yet - I want to add more detail to her wings, and something in the background, and perhaps some fairy dust here and there! I'm off to have another go, with a different 'pose'. Hopefully the next one will be better.
Till next time .......

Last but not least - the fifth piece...

2011-08-12T08:46:00.000-07:00

I think this is my favourite of the five pieces, although it could be a close second to the white silk trees!
Again, it is a wholecloth quilt, with a dyed (in a cffee jar) background. Since discovering acrylic ink there has been no stopping me!! I drew the design on the fabric (the tree shapes) with a permanent white marker pen, quilted the outlines with black invisible thread, and some of this was eventually picked out with white gouache. The small painted flowers in the centre are just one layer of acrylic ink, and the blossoms on the trees are several layers, up to nine I think, to get the brightness of white I wanted. I made up the pattern for the 'mound' under the right hand tree as I went along, and filled in with acrylic paint afterwards, and added tiny blobs of gouache to look like beading (Oh how I wish I could do beading!)

Here is a closeup of part of the centre section.
I'm on duty tomorrow and Sunday, and we take the Exhibition down on Monday. It has been a huge success, with lots of quilting friends coming quite a distance, and lots of people visiting RHS Rosemoor Gardens just stumbling across us. It has been a wonderful experience, but very hard work, I must admit.
Till next time ........

Fourth piece for our Exhibition

2011-08-08T03:01:00.000-07:00

Whew! The Exhibition is going very well - the weather has been quite kind really - sunshine and showers. When the venue is an RHS Gardens, the sunshine brings them to visit, and the rain sends them inside!!

Anyway this is my fourth piece, which I call The Copper Tree (for obvious reasons!) The pieced background was inspired by Kay Neilsen and the tree itself by Virginia Skerrett.

Here is a closeup - the quilted background is more obvious here.

I also made a few postcards for the sales table.......

I think they have all been sold, so I'11 be off to make a few more, as I am 'on duty' again tomorrow!
Till next time ......

Third piece for our Exhibition ......

2011-08-02T03:47:00.000-07:00

As I said (on the 20th July) in the first post I did about these five pieces of mine, most of my inspiration comes from the Swedish artist Kay Neilsen, and quite a few of you might recognise this as being from his fabulous illustration of The Twelve Dancing Princesses. In his piece there are twelve dancing princesses along the bottom, dancing through the trees, on their way to the ball!
The background is hand dyed cotton fabric, and most of the applique is with silk, in its many forms. I made silk paper for one treetop, used a silk hankie for another, silk rods for tree trunks, as well as paper string and mulberry bark! Quite a bit is embellished with the embellisher machine, and I also hand stitched with silk thread on the tree tops!! There is lots of hand stitching around the bottom too (I don't do hand stitching - that's why I mention it!) If you click on the image, you should get a bigger picture.

This is a closeup of the little fawn. I call this piece "Rendezvous" as I reckon she is waiting for her friend.
We are hanging the Exhibition on Thursday, and I am really looking forward to seeing all twenty pieces together. We reckon this is our best yet!
Till next time ......

Second piece for the Exhibition ....

2011-07-27T05:22:00.000-07:00

This is the second of five pieces I have created for Kindred Spirits Exhibition "Following the Footsteps".
It is a 'wholecloth quilt'. I first painted the fabric with walnut ink, then I sandwiched it up and free-machine quilted the 'flowers' in the middle. I did not mark anything - just kept stitching until I reckoned I'd done enough. Then I added the reeds (grasses) at the top and the water at the bottom, and finally the tree.
I then picked out some of the shapes with more walnut ink, and finished off with sepia acrylic ink.

The only coloured thread I used is the berries on the tree. The binding is a piece of hand dyed fabric. This closeup will be in our calendar for 2012. The quilt is mounted over a wooden frame 20" x 30".
Till next time .....

Macro Sunday - Celebrations

2011-07-24T01:30:00.000-07:00

We were in the garden yesterday evening, sharing a bottle of wine as it was my husband's Birthday. The sun was still quite high, and as I got up to go inside with the empty glasses I noticed the glorious colour the wine had left.

Just couldn't resist a photograph, to try to capture it.

I love the way the wooden slatts of the table make a pattern through the glass too!

My Bella Donna Lilly flowered yesterday too. It is mostly leaves, as you can see .....

but the flower is beautiful. It looks as if I have three this year - whoopee!
Click on the "I heart macro" button to see what the others are up to, or better still, why don't you join us?
Till next time .....

Exhibition coming up at the beginning of August

2011-07-20T10:33:00.000-07:00

Kindred Spirits is a small group of four, and we have our third Exhibition coming up at RHS Rosemoor in Devon, at the beginning of August. We have each made five pieces, inspired by our chosen theme 'Following the Footsteps ...' . Vinnie chose 'pattern in glass'; Dot chose 'still life'; Sarah originally chose 'pattern in old lace' but has digressed I think (!) and I chose 'fantasy' (obvious choice really!) I love the Art Nouveau with the lovely natural flowing lines, did some research into illustrators of childrens fairy stories, and came up with several brilliant artists, but was struck by two in particular, Kay Nielsen and Edmund Dulac.

Both of them were influenced by Japanese art of the time, and both created beautiful fantasy trees. I have been greatly influenced by both of them in the fve pieces I have created for our Exhibition, and thought I would share pictures with you over the next couple of weeks. All my pieces are 20" x 30" and are mounted over wooden frames.

This is a closeup of the middle section, showing the castle ruin. I actually took a photo of the concrete outside my back door, changed the colour in Photoshop Elements, and printed it out on fabric, to use for the stones. I also took a photo of some ice on a window, edited it and used it for the wall beneath the steps, to denote brambles!

This is the whole piece. There are an awful lot of french knots on the top of the tree - of which I am very proud, as I don't do a lot of hand stitching! The rambling rose creeping over the ruin is embellished (with the embellisher machine) hand dyed strips of silk, and the roses are free machine stitching. All the fabrics I have hand dyed or painted.
If you click on the picture you should get a better view, hopefully!
Till next time ......

I love Macro Sunday

2011-07-17T01:27:00.000-07:00

I have a book by Linda Ravenscroft called 'How to draw and paint Fairyland', and in it she suggests the study of nature, to find their habitat, and flowers to fill it, to take photographs etc. for inspiration. She also suggests looking at flowers from a different angle.

Well, take the humble Nasturtium for instance. These are growing in my hanging basket - what beautiful shapes they are from the back. This one reminds me of a humming bird .....

and the colours are so pure.

Mother Nature has gone a bit wild with her paintbrush on this one .....

and this one .....

but the symmetry in the centre of this one if just amazing. I just love using my macro button - I then get time to have a drool over all the detail I can't really see/notice with my naked eye!
Till next time ......

Texture Tuesday

2011-07-11T06:07:00.000-07:00

is PINK!

Before .....

and after.
Bye for now .....

The magic of white acrylic ink ....

2011-07-05T03:10:00.000-07:00

Following on from my Flower Cloth, I decided to have a play with a more controlled colourway, and thought I do all the painting with just white acrylic ink. I found this small piece of dyed fabric (my last actually!) sandwiched it with some flanelette and drew a couple of small sunflowers and a tree trunk. (oops - Blogger has put it sideways again!)

I free machine stitched on the drawn line and added some acrylic paint within the lines. Did a bit more drawing (the hollyhock) stitched it and painted it (oops - still sideways!) Now to do some leaves for the trees ......

Ah! right way up - thanks Blogger! Drew some leaves and a lilly, stitched and painted, added more paint on some bits, like the lilly flower, the leaves on the hollyhock, the sunflower and extra paint on some of the leaves on the tree.

Okay - I think I've done touching it up - added some blue in the middle of the flowers with a Sharpie permanent pen - well maybe I added a bit more white ink too - then mounted it over a wooden frame, which measures 8" x 20".
Bad news was I've no more dyed fabric - good news is a dyed a whole lot more yesterday, so will have more playtime - I rather like this.
Till next time .......

Weeds or Wild Flowers ..

2011-07-02T23:53:00.000-07:00

I'm into white flowers at the moment - I'll tell you more about it in my next post. This post if for 'I HEART MACRO' and this morning, across the lane from my house, I spotted this in all its glory.

About 4ft or more tall, my Wild Flower Book tells me it is of the umbellifer family, and could be a Hogweed, or a Hemlock ......

Right next to it was this one still in bud and as it is pink I like the name Wild Angelica much better!!

This weed we all know, but the flower is so pretty don't you think? It would look lovely in with some garden flowers, sll that fluffiness, if only it didn't bite!!
Click on the "I Heart Macro" Button opposite, to see what the others are up to.
Till next time .....

I love macro Sunday

2011-06-26T11:32:00.000-07:00

Trying to find something in my garden that is an interesting shape when viewed from an unusual angle is quite difficult really! I seem to spend an awful lot of time on my knees ........

However, I find it very exciting when some of my pictures come up on the computer, and are quite unrecognisable, but still beautiful.....

This is the same plant, different colour, but viewed almost from the top down (not sideways, which is the way I generally see it)

Know what it is yet ......

This is a slightly different angle - I think the leaves give it away ...

A real closeup of the top - yes it is a Lupin, but isn't it just exquisite viewed at this angle?
To enjoy other Macro pix click on the I Heart Macro on the right .
Till next time ....

My Flower Cloth is finished (I think!)

2011-06-24T06:38:00.000-07:00

Well, that's weird. In the photo album this picture is the right way up. Why Blogger transferred it sideways, I've no idea. Sorry about that - but this is the finished piece - stitchwise anyway. I may add some more paint - haven't really made up my mind.

A few closeups of the lower half - you've already seen the top half. A path I mentioned .....

These seem a bit lighter than the real thing - maybe it was because the 'flash' was on my camera! The sideways picture of the whole piece is more like the real colour.

The only blue bit ...........

I loved the way this red/pink went acros the piece of dyed cloth so I just stitched 'grasses' into it .....

I just had to have a blackbird in it somewhere, didn't I. He visits us every minute of the day for some currants. He is feeding the family at the moment, and is looking very bedraggled.
It was great fun, and I really enjoyed working on it.

I've also been playing with Photoshop Elements, and having a go at turning some of the closeup pix of flowers into water colours. This is the Iris ....

An Aguilegia .....

and a Poppy seed head. Some photos work better than others.

This, as you can see, is a picture of Hollocombe Water (turned into a water colour) which is just down the lane, at the bottom of course!

Talking of water, this is not a water colour, but a cropped picture of just the reflection in the water, of a picture taken at the same time as the one above. With all those lovely ripples and strange shapes, it makes a beautiful abstract, don't you think?
Till next time .....

Texture Tuesday - School's Out!

2011-06-21T01:26:00.000-07:00

The challenge for this week from Kim is to use a 'people or person' photo.

Last Half Term my husband and I visited Woodlands Theme Park in South Devon with some friends.

This is a picture of us trying out one of the slides! My friend is a teacher, hence she was on Half Term Hols. Her husband had broken his foot - hence he was on sick leave! He obviously couldn't take the ride, but he took this great photo!

I've played with it in Photshop Elements, but must admit I couldn't say what I did, except I used Gradient Maps to make it lighter, then added 2 layers of Kim's freebie texture Granny's Cupboard. I'm quite pleased - I feel it has definitely added something to the 'warmth' of the picture. Click on Texture Tuesday to see more 'people pictures'.
Till next time ...

Macro Sunday - a walk down the lane

2011-06-19T02:05:00.000-07:00

Where I live in Devon, we have quite steep banks each side of the lanes. Apparently, before the days of the car, the carts wore the lanes lower and lower, and the bankings got higher ad higher!!

Anyway, on a recent walk down the lane, I spied this tree stump, quite high up. It has weathered to this beautiful silver colour ......

and the patterns on it are amazing. Going in even closer, you could see some lovely quilting lines. Reminds me of a piece of work I did last year, with quilting lines based on driftwood.

This is a pic of the whole stump, must have been there

a hundred years or more .....

Further down the lane I found this amongst the moss - right at eye level. I know it must be a fungus, but anyone know the name.

I've looked in my Mushroom and Fungus Book - nothing that resembles this. It was enormous.

The closeup is in the top right hand corner, but the fungus covers the whole picture, as you can see. I actually took the picture in the Spring, as you can see from the primroses!

If you would like to see other macro pictures, click on the I HEART MACRO flower opposite.

Till next time .....

Shape and Texture - I love Macro

2011-06-11T01:39:00.000-07:00

Up close and personal! This post is for 'I heart Macro'. Click on the button on the right hand side to see what other people are up to.

We all what know this is, but take another look. The pattern and colours are just beautiful. If I crop it any more it will break into pixels, but I love to look real close.

The pattern of the veins, and the light on the left. Those veins in the bud on the right .....

Wow! all those different colour blues in there - and the shapes. Looks like a purple ice cream cone on the right!

This is the original picture - before I cropped it.

Can you recognise this - looks like a group of swans having a chinwag! Love the soft blue colour.

Same flower - different shot .......

Beautiful Granny's Bonnet (Aquilegia) that self seeded - what a gift!
Till next time ........

Update on my Flower Cloth .....

2011-06-08T02:03:00.000-07:00

I've been busy stitching, in between gardening, but as it is raining today I thought I would share my progress.

I've been filling in the gaps, and also touching up the petals with more colour, and using a black Sharpie marker pen in some of the middles.

I've added more white acrylic ink too .....

This bit is new stitching ...

more white acrylic ink on the tiny flowers, once stitched ...

Some new shapes too. I'm quite pleased with my progress so far - must start thinking about a pathway I reckon.
Till next time .........

Texture Tuesday ...

2011-06-06T23:44:00.000-07:00

Kim's challenge for this week is to use words, in any way we choose. I thought of a lot of beautiful poetic things, then I remembered this mug!

Before ........

and After. I used Kim's Linen texture twice, rubbed over the words and added the mask to get the lovely raw edges. Click on Kim's button, Texture Tuesday on the right, to see more creativity.
Till next time ...

Poppies .......

2011-06-04T10:12:00.000-07:00

I'm posting for Macro Sunday - so if you like closeup pictures (not necessarily flowers) click on the 'I heart Macro' button on the right to see what other people have been up to.

This is an oriental poppy 'Patti's Plum' in its prime, and I was quite sad to see it going over, except when looking further it was still sooooooo beautiful, even though it was going to seed.

Just look at those colours and shapes ...........

and that sugar coated top. I hadn't realised, to be honest, that it was pink!!! I hadn't looked really close - all poppies have black middles don't they?!

This is the centre of an opium poppy, just opened this morning .......

what about that lemon sorbet top ..............

Another oriental poppy, just about to open all that beautiful silk. What about that hairy outer casing then?
Yep - I really do love upclose pix!
Till next time ....

What a hoot!

2011-05-31T00:56:00.000-07:00

Kim's challenge for Texture Tuesday is 'Gardening'. I've had a whale of a time rushing in and out between showers, trying to take some inspirational pix of the 'tools of the trade' we have in the log house, inside an old wooden wardrobe!

Perhaps I should explain the loghouse is an original stone and cob smithy, a place for shoeing horses, about 200 years old. It was reroofed when our home was built, and we keep all our gardening equipment in it, plus all the logs for the fire - thus Log House!

More tools, at the bottom of the cupboard ....

Gardening to me definitely means slugs, snails and slug pellets .......

The very old rusty wheelbarrow we inherited with the house, when we moved here 20 years ago!!
We bought the old tools with us ......

Well, I quite like this image, perhaps I could do something with that. These three items are in constant use at the moment, mostly for weeding ......

Some good pots, some bad, and some in between - lovely texture on that rim!!

Well, I finally decided to crop this one and have a play in Photoshop Elements. The free textures I used from Kim were Yesteryear, History, and the new one for this week Old Linen.

This is really what gardening is to me (as well as the hard work and all that digging!) A poppy I bought some years ago called Patti's Plum - and she makes all the hard work well worth while.
If you'd like to see how the others have risen to the 'gardening challenge' do click on Kim's Tuesday Texture button, on the right hand side.
Till next time .....

On a recent walkabout .....

2011-05-29T01:40:00.000-07:00

I'm getting quite excited (!) about some of the photosgraphs I've been taking lately, using the 'macro' on my camera. I love the ability to be able to look up close at something, and see the beauty that you can't really see with the naked eye.

Just look at the perfect circle of the curly bits around the edge of this newly emerging fern. You may be able to click on it to make it a bit bigger, before it 'pixelates'!

Same with this dandelion. It is just magical to be able to see all those seeds!

The may blossoms were wonderful this year, but until I got up close to take this picture, I never did realise that some of the stamens are pink!!

Till next time ........

A closeup for Texture Tuesday

2011-05-24T01:14:00.000-07:00

The challenge from Kim this week is to use at least one layer of her free texture Yesteryear.

I took this photograph in my garden yesterday of a Foxglove (and a cheeky insect!). It's a wild foxglove, they pop up all over the place. Did you know the wild ones only flower on one side of the stem. (Cultivated ones flower all around the stem)

I cropped the picture and then used two layers of Yesteryear texture. Comparing the two, the unedited version is much clearer - but then the idea was to soften the overall feel.

Not too sure I don't prefer the unedited version! I used a 'rubber' to remove some of the texture from the inside of the flowers - yes, I reckon I DO like the 'misty' effect I achieved!

A Flower Cloth - in progress ....

2011-05-21T05:53:00.000-07:00

Inspired by Christi Beckmann's article in the Quilting Arts Magazine Issue 50, I decided to have a go at making a Flower Cloth. I already have quite a few pieces of dyed (in a coffee jar) fabric, so I decided on a brightly coloured piece, then stamped it, stencilled and sprayed it, drew on it etc., sandwiched it up and started to stitch it. I've done some more work on it since I took this picture.

So far I have only quilted the top third, but it is coming along nicely, so I thought I'd share it with you. The piece is approximately 15" x 33" and below are some closeups of the finished bits, so far.

Lots more to do, but I am rather enjoying the process, and will keep you posted as I progress.
Till next time .........

Texture Tuesday - Vintage

2011-05-16T12:14:00.000-07:00

This weeks challenge for Kim Klassen's Tuesday Texture is 'vintage' - however we choose to interpret what we consider vintage to be, using at least one of Kim's lovely textures.

I looked up the word 'vintage' in my old Oxford Paperback Dictionary and it says, among things such as vintage wine and vintage cars ..... adj. of high quality, especially from a past period. Well I have this very high quality Simon & Halbig doll, this very old but high quality Frister & Rossman hand sewing machine my husband bought secondhand for me when we were courting,and some high quality but rather worn beautiful hand made lace, as the photo above shows.

I played with the image in Photoshop Elements first usng a highpass filter on soft blend mode 100% opacity, then Kim's Golden Texture on multiply mode 100% opacity followed by two layers of Worn Thin Texture from Shadowhouse Creations.

I had another play, this time I reduced all the colour to a soft sepia using Hue/Saturation sliding the hue button until it changed to a colour I liked, then added just one texture layer History. Did you notice the old wooden cotton reel ..........?
Till next time

Favourite Foto for Texture Tuesday

2011-05-09T12:25:00.000-07:00

This week's Texture Tuesday challenge is very simple - just to link up with our favourite photo that has been layered with any of Kim Klassen's beautiful textures.

I took some pictures of the amazing hoar frost we experienced here last Winter, and this one, I think, is my favourite. It really does look very unreal and is a photo of the top of a Devon bank, the dried ferns were everywhere, but I honestly don't know what the straight plant is that had been frosted, probably what was left of some dock. The whole scene was really magical.

I played with Layers in Photoshop Elements, and used Kim's Textures Silence and Start, using both blend mode on soft light with the opacity at 100%. Amazingly simple, and I love what happened, especially to the sky!
Please do click on the Teacup opposite to see what the other people have submitted for this Texture Tuesday.
Till next time ...........

Tuesday Textures with a vintage cup

2011-05-02T05:34:00.000-07:00

This week at Kim Klassen's Cafe the challenge is to use a coffee or tea cup and use any textures we wish. This is a bone china teacup and saucer, made in Japan.

I wanted to try for a 'pale and interesting' look, but I think there is too much 'pale' and not enough 'interesting'. Quite pretty though!

I then decided to go for something more English ...... English cup and saucer, Earl Grey English Tea and Lilacs gathered in the spring (again). Can't get much more English than that ....

Interesting, but the lilacs are far too pale!!

How about adding some interest with English Literature ....

Not bad - but I've realised I don't like wonky cups ....!!

Just a cup, saucer and lilacs then .......

Love the reflection in the tea - very poetic ...!

One more go with the Earl Grey tea - love the background with the various colours.
I had great fun playing - do click on Kim's Teacup on the right hand side to see what everyone else has been up to.
Till next time....

Easter Sunday Evening ......

2011-04-25T11:44:00.000-07:00

We went for a walk in the beautiful evening sunshine Easter Sunday, and as we left I took this picture of one of my neighbour's barns .....

I've played with this in Photoshop using Kim Klassen's texture Serendipity and another texture History - doesn't the rust colour 'pop'?

As we carried on down the lane I noticed this plant was covering the banking for many yards - I don't know what it is, but it is so pretty....

Down to Hollocombe Water and this is one side of the bridge ..

and this is the other side. The water is very low at the moment. It is usully rushing along at quite a pace, but Sunday it was almost still.

Bit further along, and some bluebells embracing the water's edge.

Up into the wooded area, away from the water ....... the evening light was amazing.

I have played with this photo too, adding two layers of the texture Serendipity. Makes it look a really magical place .....

by the path was a mass of these flowers, some pure white and some with a dash of pink, like these. I think they are wood anemones, but not sure.

Along a bluebell path ......

Couldn't resist it - had to add just one layer of Serendipity to this ...

and finally home. I took another view of the farm Barns next door to where I live, as I came down the lane.
Lovely end to a lovely day - hope your day was good too.
Till next time .......

Broken fairy wngs .........

2011-04-23T11:42:00.000-07:00

Oh Dear! I do hope she has grown some new ones!! I scanned the wings and then transferred the picture to some hand dyed fabric........

sandwiched it up and quilted it - well most of it!
VERY HAPPY EASTER to all my blogging friends.

Cherry blossom pink and apple blossom white bluebells!

2011-04-18T07:42:00.000-07:00

I'm surrounded with gorgeous blossom in my garden at the moment. This Cherry is breathtaking when you look up into the branches.

This week Kim Klassen's challenge is to use two of her free textures, Silence and Sweettreat.

I chose this blossom, and used three layers of Silence (white) and three layers of Sweettreat(pink).

I love the 'softened texture of the finished picture.

I've also got some white bluebells ......

so I picked a few, popped them in a vase together with a spray of lilly-of-the-valley ....

and played with the same textures, until I arrived at this.
If you would like to see what other people have been up to, do click on the Texture Tuesday button on the right hand side.

I finally caught a picture of her ........I just knew I had seen one .......

Isn't she lovely ..........?
Till next time.

Texture Tuesday Party .....

2011-04-11T10:40:00.000-07:00

Well this Tuesday Kim Klassen has invited us to share a photograph that has been edited in Photoshop Elements, and which we particularly like, in fact our favourite one! I haven't been doing this very long, so haven't achieved many favourite ones, but this one in particular fits the bill, as it was when I discovered the text tool that writes horizontally!! I must admit I did get pretty excited....

There were over two hundred people who came to the party last Tuesday - if you want to see some of the amazing creativity, click on the Tuesday Texture button on the right there.
Till next Tuesday ...

Tis Tuesday again already .....

2011-04-05T02:29:00.000-07:00

This is my offering this week for Kim's Texture Tuesday Party. I took the photo below last week with the specific purpose of trying to improve the image, which I think worked really well. I used Kim's free texture WarmSun three times, with the soft light blend and opacity between 55% and 75%. It certainly warmed it up some!

My neighbour popped in last Sunday morning (Mothering Sunday) with this lovely bouquet from her garden.

It was soooo pretty - I thought I would share this with you too. Hope you all had a great Day.

Kim Klassen's Texture Tuesday

2011-03-29T04:36:00.000-07:00

Kim has started a Texture Tuesday where participants share a photograph each week that has been edited in Photoshop Elements. I thought I would have a go, but whether I will be able to get into sharing my Blog with all the other ladies is another, quite different, challenge! However, I will give it a try.
In the meantime, this is my effort for the kickoff - A Host of Golden Daffodils - using Kim's free texture Chamomile. Try clicking on the Texture Tuesday button to find out more ....

See what I've been up to ....

2011-02-23T08:43:00.000-08:00

I've managed at last, thanks to my friends Maggi and Linda, to use a 'mask' in Photoshop to give some pictures a 'rough' edge. I'm delighted with the reslts and this is the first one.

An 'after' above and a 'before' below!

The photo is of Hollocombe Water, which I pass on my daily walks, and was taken last Spring.
It was a beautiful day and the reflections were really wonderful.

Same with the iris ...... using a different edging. I rather like how in this one I've incorporated a very soft original backgrouns.

The iris was in my garden last week, but has since disappeared!

This was a layer with its own rough edge. Certainly makes a real difference to the overall colour of the picture.

The cockerels live at a farm just down the lane from me - they sell farm eggs too!

Now we get to a page from my sketchbook. A watercolour of some leaves on a white background that I scanned.

I used my own 'layer' I scanned of a textural experiment I painted, then added a text layer. and 'rubbed out' some of the layers over the leaves to make them pop.

Same leaves, but used different layers, this time the background is a watercolour page from the sketchbook, and played a lot with the opacity button etc. and managed to make the leaves really stand out.

Finally, same leaves stretched a bit by the look of it, and a third layer (wallpaper that I painted and scanned).
Till next time .....

Catkins ....

2011-02-18T03:53:00.001-08:00

Catkins and daffodils in a vase, this time of year, always remind me of my childhood.

There are loads of catkins in my garden at the moment, but no daffs yet, not in bloom anyway!
I must admit, I have never noticed the little red tufts on the top of the buds before, until yesterday, when I had my nose up real close to get some pictures. Aren't they just amazing - such a bright colour.

A couple of little red tufts here too, among all those lambs tails (which reminds me I must try and get a good picture of a newborn lamb.)

I picked a twig of catkins and took some photos indoors, to play with Photoshop Elements .....

Before and ..

after. I'm delighted with this - I used two different textures from Kim Klassen.

Another 'before' - love that little red tuft on the bud ....

and 'after'. I think this texture also came from Kim, though it could be a picture of my baking sheet!

Finally, I did play with one of my snowdrop pictures. I'm quite pleased with that too - I have managed to make the flowers look quite papery, and I love the 'misty/out of focus' background.

Till next time ......

Happy Valentine's Day

2011-02-13T11:14:00.001-08:00

Hope you all have a loving Day, whatever you maybe doing.

Here are a few pix of my altered book Dreaming of Love.........

Come February - Snowdrops abound ...

2011-02-12T01:32:00.000-08:00

Even though I live in Devon, we are situated 500ft. above sea level, and the farmer next door tells us we are three weeks behind the general growing and flowering seasons!

I have to wait a little bit longer for nature to do her bit, but when it happens it is just magic!
Up come these wonderful white jewels among all the winter ditritus to lift the spirits .....

I've been trying to get some pix from different angles ....

and some closeups to maybe enhance a bit in Photoshop Elements.

The daffs are following behind - won't be long now .....

a cyclamen has crept in here .....

soooooooo pretty ......

even against the light they create a lovely silouette ...

and what a colour scheme ...

in the shade ..

Oooops! how did that get there - promises of things to come ....

Till next time ...

In the January garden .......

2011-02-11T02:31:00.000-08:00

Wandering round my garden in January is not really one of my favourite things, specially when it's cold, but a bright morning, with a camera, is something else.

I was looking for the last remnants of colour, and was surprised to find some. Against the blue sky, the sprays of berberis looked lovely. I really must have a play with this picture in Photoshop Elements, and add a few layers in the background! A frosted ice plant, and some honesty. Hopefully they have seeded!!

This berry really shows up against the 'drab' of January ..... it grows horizontally really, and droops down covered in these berries. The birds love it!

and here this looks like Autumn but isn't - I have caught the early morning sunlight on the bottom of the trees and shrubs, which really does add some warmth.

Amazing what colour is in the January garden when you really look.

Till next time .....

Happy Xmas and a very creative New Year

2010-12-20T04:31:00.000-08:00

First of all I would like to thank you all for your support and friendship during the year, thanks for dropping by, and I wish you all a Very Happy Christmas and a happy, healthy and creative New Year.

Above is a photo I took of some dried holly leaves from my garden and some red berries. I put them on the top of my washing machine (white background) then played with layers in Photoshop Elements. Still not very good at the words (couldn't get them to move over - so gave up!!) but still very pleased with the result.

This photo I took this morning of the tree I was intending bringing inside to decorate. I have bought a load of new white decorations to go on it, but waking up to this tree covered in snow, I thought to myself can I do better than Mother Nature. I have 'softened' it with a few layers, but it still looks very pretty. If it all melts by Friday I will put all the new decorations on it! If not, I will leave it where it is .....

Just thought you might like to see the Wonderland that is my back garden at the moment, untouched by Photoshop.

The trees covered in snow just take your breath away ......

What wonders we behold when the sun comes out - sunshine and shade!

Have a wonderful Christmas - I'll be back, hopefully, in the New Year.

Till then .......

Brrrr........

2010-11-30T09:26:00.001-08:00

We haven't had much snow at all, just what came last Friday, but same as everywhere, it is jolly cold, and what snow is left is truly frosted.
This is a view of part of my back garden, obviously taken from the patio ...

and this is it given a few layers of textures etc. What about that signature then - I've managed to make a new brush/stamp of my own signature!!!

To warm things up a bit, this is a view up the lane from my front porch, of a sunset earlier in the year .......

considerably warmed up with lots of red and yellow layers - over the top a bit I think? Ne'er mind, it looks a lot warmer in this pic than it does from my front door at the moment, I can tell you. You can see a name brush I made here as well, but that was using a font. The one above is the one I will stick with because I actually wrote it. I just need to remember how I change the colour of it now - black doesn't always show up!

Bye for now .......

A bit of 'nostalgia' .......

2010-11-26T12:25:00.000-08:00

I know this isn't very nostalgic, I took this photo in my dining room this morning, BUT if you think old oak instead of G Plan and peely walls instead of the wallpaper, and an old cottage somewhere, a 100 years ago ...........
what do you think? As you can see, I am enjoying playing in Photoshop Elements and actually looking forward to the winter, so I can spend all the time I want on the computer, with a completely clear conscience!

It has started snowing here this afternoon, and they promise the cold snap will last at least a couple of weeks. Hopefully not sounding too selfish, I hope they are right - I shan't have to move from this spot....

This is the view from my studio window overlooking the field next door. I took it early one morning when the low early sun was on the trees. I just used one layer of texture which was a scan of a kitchen paper I had used to mop up red and yellow paint - Constable eat your heart out!!!

Be back soon ......

Having fun in Photoshop Elements

2010-11-20T02:08:00.000-08:00

Back in June, this delightful creature decided to pay our garden a visit, and stayed for a couple of months. He got quite used to us popping in and out, and we became very friendly, that was until he ate all the tops off my rudbekia plants!! Anyway, I reckon there's enough for everyone in my garden .....

I thought I would play with the photo, and started off by making it black and white and gradually adding back some colour ........ After layer upon layer upon layer, I have finished up with this.

I am quite pleased with the result - looks like a painting, which was what I was trying to achieve. I even managed to put back the light in his eye and paint in his foot, which got lost somewhere along the line! I've just noticed his foot is the wrong shape - Ah well! Back to the drawing board!

Following on from yesterday ....

2010-11-16T03:58:00.000-08:00

Just thought I would show you this. It is a picture of an orchid that is flowering indoors and sits by my front door. I used it to play in PhotoShop Elements last week at the beginning of the free Online Course with Kim Klassen. Following instructions, I cropped it, then put the word in and coloured the word. I then saved it (as instructed) as a Photoshop Elements File. This morning I went back to it and put more layers of texture over it, having had more tuition from Kim. I'm thrilled to bits and feel I am now getting somewhere ......
Where I started ........

Now I'm done (I think!) .....

I'm off to do my Homework for today - watch this space!

Don't forget, if you want to take Kim's free PSE Tuition click on the button on the right and register.

Be back soon ......

An interesting Summer

2010-11-15T02:38:00.001-08:00

During the summer months I took a couple of online classes, and met some very creative and talented ladies. It really is amazing how new horizons open up! During one such class on Shabby Chic Journalling (see my blog post of July 11th) I met Linda Vincent, who not only does fabulous journalling, but is also an amazing digital artist. Of course, I wanted to have a go, and Linda introduced me to a FREE course coming up and run by Kim Klassen on Photoshop Elements. This started last Monday the 8th November and continues until the coming Friday.
I've been playing like crazy until my brain hurts, but I think I am getting there, albeit slowly!
Anyway, I thought I would blog my first effort I am reasonably pleased with, although I appreciate I have a heluva lot to learn ........
This is a picture of the view I have across the lane from where I live...
BEFORE ............ and AFTER

Hopefully, I will learn during the week how to erase the telegraph lines!!

If you would like to register for Kim's class the next time she does it, go to the button on the right. Do visit Linda Vincent's blog - you won't be sorry. You can click on her link from the list of the places I like to visit, also on the right.

Bye for now .....

July Swaps .....

2010-08-10T09:33:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm just not very good at this .........
as this lovely Zentangle should have been at the bottom of this post! However, here will be just fine. Lise Pederson from Alberta, Canada tells me she has just started drawing these, so thought she would make a card and send it with my swap, which is below. Not bad for a beginner!! (I really am kidding, honest)
Now this little beauty is an ATC and was sent to me by Margeeth in the Netherlands.
Margeeth says it is Evolon, a non woven fabric, and she used transfer dyes to create the colours.
She also says Sifra's cat hairs are an additional embellishment that shouldn't really be there!

This is the ATC I sent to Margeeth to complete the swap. It is made from hand dyed silk rovings with black chiffon over, then stitched around and about, a lot!

I did another swap with Suztats (she of the gorgeous tatting). What about this Seahorse then - isn't she just lovely.

This is what I swapped with Suz which I called Neptune's Daughter! She is worked on dyed velvet and her hair is dyed scrim!

Now, Unlimited Textiles swap for July was a 7" Quiltie 'Carnivals Festivals and Events' and this Carnival Mask I made for June, who I must say was delighted.

This wonderful Quiltie I received today from Lise Pederson who lives in Medicine Hat, Alberta Canada (who sent me the delightful Zentangle card at the beginning of this post) In it Lise writes:

'For my July Block I chose to do a crazy quilt block to represent our celebration of "The Stampede" which is the last week of July. The rider on the horse represents the events that go on, such as calf roping, bull riding etc. The picture of the Indian Chief represents the name of our City "Medicine Hat". The legend is that a Medicine Man lost his headdress near the shores of our river "The South Saskatchewan River", and so hence the name chosen for this City. The yellow and orange flowers are wild flowers that grow in the prairies and the wild roses are the flowers that represent our Province "Alberta". The pines are for the hills of Elkwater Lake which is about a half hour from our city. Hope you like it. It was fun making this.'

Nah! I don't like it - I absolutely LOVE it! If you enlarge the picture you will notice a tiny charm of a horseshoe and riding crop on the bottom left of the rider picture, an Indian spearhead to the left of the medicine man, a howling coyote (I think!) just under that in the middle of the quiltie, and over to the left just above the ribbon roses a tiny Alberta badge. Oh yes, and there is a Canadian Flag (badge) flying among the pine trees! The hand embroidery of wild flowers etc. is just amazing, and the beading is beautiful. I'm a very happy bunny!

Hope you enjoy looking at it as much as I do.......

Till next time .....

Kate North's Little Quilt Swap

2010-07-28T10:06:00.000-07:00

The fourth Little Quilt Swap that Kate North runs has just completed. It was the first time I had anticipated, and I was absolutely delighted with my swap.

This little quilt 'Cornflowers' was my contribution - made with my own hand dyed fabrics and just one commercial one(dark green). I fused the cornflower petals onto the pieces background, and machine quilted it. I sent it to Margeeth in The Netherlands, and her blog can be seen here.
This little quilt was made by Andrea who lives in Flintshire, and is machine appliqued with the finest buttonhole stitch, and hand quilted in the centre with machine quilting in the border. I just love trees and this one is absolutely delightful. Andrea's blog can be reached here.

If you would like to take part in Kate's next Little Quilt Swap you can find her here.

Till next time .........

Swaps for June ...

2010-07-13T12:02:00.001-07:00

This ATC is called 'Pink Wisteria' and was made for me by a very talented lady in Ontario called Susan Cuss. Her blogging name is Suztats (cos she does tatting I assume!) and she can be found here. The pic is slightly bigger that real life, so you can imagine the intricate detail - Suz says it was worked with size 40 Yarnplayer's hand-dyed thread in the colour 'peace'. Thanks again Suz - I love it.

This ATC was made for me by me friend Alis - who can be found here. We made dolls together recently, with fabric we had constructed, and this is a piece oeft over from Alis' doll. She calls it Devon Violets - which I think is extremely appropriate. Thankyou again Alis - it is just beautiful.

This one was made for me by Sandy as part of the swap we had at Unlimited Textiles last month using the theme Orange, Purple and any other colour ......

this one was made by Alis.........

and these are the two I made for Sandy and Alis, adding pink!

The Quiltie exchange for June was Here comes Summer, and this gorgeous Sunflower was a gift from Pam in Port Talbot, Wales. The petals are one piece of fabric, but the way she has stitched it, it really looks as if each one is appliqued.

and this is the Quiltie I made for June in Coventry.

I really must get cracking on the Unlimited Textile swap for July

Till next time then ..........

The Garden Journal is finished!

2010-07-11T02:17:00.000-07:00

This is the Front Cover ....................

this is the inside of the front cover...........

and this is the inside of the back cover - there is nothing on the outside Back Cover - just fabric!
I've really enjoyed this online Workshop with Carole in New Zealand.

She mentioned doing another Journal Workshop soon - if you are interested pay her a visit, you won't be sorry.

Garden Journal

2010-07-03T02:37:00.001-07:00

I am enjoying a brilliant Journal Workshop online with Carol in New Zealand, whose Blog can be found here. Carol has encouraged us from the start to leave threads hanging, and stitch using free machine stitching and black thread! This I find very difficult - not that I am a tidy person naturally, heaven forbid! I am making this Garden Journal as a raffle prize, so there is my dilemma! I need to use matching threads, as I don't know who or what the person will be like, who will ultimately own it (well that's my excuse anyway!). So .......

Here are the three signatures with pages inside - showing various lacy (ragged) edges. All the signatures are watercolour paper painted using teabags......

Here is the front of the first signature (introducing the viewer to the Journal) ...

lots of empty pages to be written on - notes to be made .........

Front page of the second signature .......

turned, to reveal a pocket (for seeds or dried flowers?) ........

more empty pages, decorated with laces, etc. .....

a reminder to make a daisy chain .........

and chase butterflies ........ it says 'chase butterflies' on the reverse of this decorated insert.

Another pocket for pressed flowers? .......

and finally the back page of the third signature.

I will probably embellish one or two of the pages, once I know how to stitch the pages together, and have made the front and back covers and embellished those inside and out. As it is a gift for a stranger, I don't want to go 'over the top'!

I have a smaller one ready to embellish FOR ME! This one I will use black thread on cream lace etc. and try harder to go 'scruffy and ragged'!

Nearly there .......

2010-06-15T09:36:00.000-07:00

For the last couple of months (yes I know, I know, but I need a lot of thinking time) I have been busy creating some fantasy trees, which are heavily influenced by the brilliant work of Kay Nielsen, who was born in Denmark in 1886 and died in 1957. He illustrated childrens books and my piece is from an illustration of his from the book Twelve Dancing Princesses. Obviously I haven't put twelve dancing princesses in mine!

I started off dyeing several pieces of cotton in jam jars, for the background. I love the way the colours merge and create 'magic' on the cloth. Then, using kozo, I stitched down loads of skinny tree trunks, and embellished a couple of tree tops using lilac and green sheer organzas. The tree on the right (over the organza) is 3 sections of 'peeled' silk hankie, the tree in the middle is lutradur, cut into pieces with a soldering iron and painted several times, and the tree on the lower left hand side is lace, with the top covered with shaped raw silk throwsters waste. The trunks near this are paper string, topped with felted wool shapes. Not a lot has happened here, except that a lot is stitched down and there are refelted tree tops on the top left hand side and a tree top on the top right hand side made from raw throwsters waste but with the gum still in, so all I did was spray some with water, shape it and press it dry (just like making silk paper from gummed cocoon strippings)

I'm getting there now, and this shows where I am at the moment, together with my working drawing. I am pleased to see/say that as I have progressed, the piece gets less and less like the original drawing. There is actually some hand stitching (single lazy daisy stitch worked in silk thread) in the tree tops on the top left hand side. I will be hand stitching the tree top on the right hand side too, with seeding stitch.

I've been playing around with the forest floor, with some various paints and deciding if I will put a 'point of interest' in somewhere - to replace the twelve dancing princesses I guess!

Anyway, I painted and cut out this little deer from some lutradur, which I reckon I will use, and also tried out some 'rocks/stones' from some silk paper (cocoon strippings). I decided I don't like the paint much - doesn't really go. Just as well I tried it on a bit of scrap fabric!

I'm still thinking, but I rather like the way the little deer wraps around the tree trunk, which is made from peeled layers of silk rod, as are the whispy bits of 'grass'. It is only pinned at the moment, but unless I come up with any other ideas, I shall be stitching the whispy bits down and adding some stones here and there, and I guess it will then be finished. Oh - I shall add a couple or so painted stars in the sky for good measure! It measures 20" x 30".

I'm now thinking about the next piece ........ so until next time (another couple of months no doubt!)

Postcard for Pam and a Sketchbook Cover

2010-04-19T11:35:00.000-07:00

We are swapping postcards this month at Unlimited Textiles and this one I have made for Pam Jones in Port Talbot, Wales.
I 'made' the fabric recently for a doll I'm working on with a Group I belong to, and thought I would use a piece left over. It is a mixture of fancy fabrics covered with chiffon, free machine stitched all over, then blasted with a heatgun. I added the three little green inches, as this was part of the fabric, but missing in the postcard! Blue and Green should always be seen - that's what I say!
I recently bought a fantastic book by Patti Medaris Culea (who introduced me to Cloth Doll Making) called Creative Cloth Explorations, in which she explains how to create a flat image of a face in cloth. I highly recommend the book - the illustrations are wonderful and full of inspiration.

This is the pattern I created, following Patti's instructions, but using a drawing from the Linda Ravenscroft Book I have on How to Draw and Paint Fairies - another book I would highly recommend!

You can see here that I have attached the 'hair' to the face and fused her to the background, having first made and stitched down her wings........

Now I have free machine stitched (thread painted) her hair and stitched her down to the background .....

Here she is finished, surrounded by silk blooms and twine ......

The sketchbook is A5 size and along with its cover is my contribution to the raffle prizes at our 2nd Kindred Spirits Exhibition coming up at the end of the month.
Till next time ...........

Before and After ....

2010-03-28T06:37:00.000-07:00

Finished at last .....

Just to recap, this is a picture of the silk painting I did at the end of January, in a Workshop with Barbara Weeks.
Here it is finished. I must admit the pictures don't look that different, but if you click on them you can see the extra stitching of the trees, two colours , and all the stitching and blending in the 'reflections'. I've even hand quilted around the moon! It is 14" x 21" finished.

Here are the other two pieces for the Kindred Spirits Calendar 2011. This one if February...

and this one is June. Very painterly aren't they - must be all this watercolouring I've been doing lately!
Am just putting the finishing touches to my pieces for our next Exhibition at Okehampton Museum at the end of April (mounting them on frames actually!) There is a great Preview in the newest edition of Popular Patchwork, under 'Out and About', that Vinnie arranged.

The Goddess of my Garden - a Bottle Doll

2010-03-04T01:54:00.000-08:00

I belong to a Doll Group called Dolly Mixtures (as we all make a mixture of very ifferent types of doll). We meet every two months and in February we made bottle dolls. I should have used paverpoll as it sticks anything to anything and you can obtain fantastic textures in layers, all at the sticking stage. I didn't have any so I used pva, as I did last year when covering a wooden lamp base.
As you can see, it is rather flat, but the wine bottle has a nice wonky neck which gives it a bit of attitude. I used paper, laces, leaves and scrim etc. then painted it with gesso. If you use paverpoll you don't have to use gesso, as it paints over extremely well. I took the doll to class in this condition.

The lady encouraging us at the meeting provided us all with a face she had made from Fymo using a mould. This is what my doll looked like when I got home, having painted her first with dark brown all over, then adding various shades of green, and some metallic.

Once home I added some hands (not too sure about those!) finished her face and added a lot more paint in various layers until she looked okay.

Decided against the hands, but used some leaves instead (up her sleeves) and added her collar of

fungi that I picked off the treetrunk in my garden. Believe it or not, these are not painted, they are the colour they have acquired during the winter and match perfectly. Last autumn when I picked a few, they were silver grey!

The Goddess of my Garden is now complete (I think).......

If and when I made another one I will use a perfume bottle. They are a lot smaller and some of them are beautiful shapes that would lend themselves very well to this sort of thing. I might even buy some paverpoll!

Till next time.....

Stitched Landscape .....

2010-02-10T01:21:00.000-08:00

Well, the first picture is another watercolour (from the 30 Minute Watercolour Book)!

It is a 'wet afternoon' although it does look a bit snowy I must admit. The clouds look quite stormy though and the hedgerows are decidely soggy! This is the stitched landscape - first of three I am doing for the Kindred Spirits 2011 Calendar.

The background is painted on cotton, the fencing is painted fusible web and there is some sheers laid down first for the background hills. The hedgerows are various types of silk waste, some are embellished and some stitched, and the tree itself is some dyed pieced cotton ('cos the bit I had wasn't big enough and I wanted to use that colour! The tree branches are stitched from the back, with a thick silk thread in the bobbin.

This is the same piece but I scanned it - the difference in the colour is amazing! The real thing is somewhere between the two. All three pieces are to be 12" x 8".

I recently went on a wonderful five day Retreat with South West Quilters to Beer - a beautiful little fishing village on the south east coast of Devon. Our Tutor was Barbara Weeks and we all had a fabulous time with her. The Workshop was Bonded Impressions, and working with silk, we all painted silk first, then stitched our pieces using various inspirations we had brought along. Above is my inspiration (a Christmas Card I kept) ................

and this is the piece I created. It is nowhere near finished, in fact it has only just started. I painted the background onto the silk, then painted a much finer silk with which to create the water refections. The foggy/snowy piece at the back of the trees is white silk chiffon. The trees are stitched using an embroidery hoop direct onto the painted background, then it was sandwiched and I have started to stitch the water. The piece is about 14" x 21", or will be when finished. I have to leave it now, as I have pieces I need to finish for the Kindred Spirits Exhibition in April, but I will post this one again, when I have quilted it.
Till next time ............

Another watercolour .....

2010-01-23T13:43:00.001-08:00

This is the beginnings of another Exercise in Paul Talbot-Greaves Book 30-Minute Landscapes.

Actually, that's a laugh 'cos it took me four days to complete it! Anyway here I did the 'middle' pale colours first (he tells you what colours to mix on the palette) then came down the right hand side for the bushes and over to left for more bushes, then the green tree in the middle (as the pale colurs were then dry) and finally the path.
Now I've added leaves in the top left hand side and more colour underneath ....

Then I added the tree trunks and suddenly I had depth.

Finally I added the shadows on the path and a few under the trees on the left, and titivated a little bit - I think it is done. This one was the most complicated I've tried so far. I'm almost ready to try a photograph of my own following his techniques - just have to get the right picture!

Acrylic, watercolour and gouache

2010-01-13T11:43:00.000-08:00

I've been playing again in my sketchbook, and this is the result. I used acrylic, watercolour and gouache paint all in the one piece, each for a specific reason, as explained in Linda Ravenscroft book. My sketchbook is approximately 6" x 8"

Firstly, I drew the picture in pencil, then outlined the drawing in sepia pigma pen, and rubbed out the pencil

I then stippled the background using acrylic paints. On reflection I should have masked the toadstool shapes and stippled them afterward - thus avoiding that ragged edge you can see!

I've now added water colour, painting the toadstools and covering the green area with some of the watercolour to fill in all the white bits (except of course for the fairy slippers!)

Now I added the gouache paint, hopefully rescuing that edge on the toastools. It is better than it was, but next time I will think about masking! Watercolour is transparent but gouache is not, so the majority of the paint under the toadstools is gouache. I painted the fairy slippers last - made out of holly leaves with a berry bobble of course!
Finally I used the pigma pen to outline the original drawing again, as most of it had almost disappeared under the paint. I might try to add some 'frost' to the leaves under the toadstools, when I've had a bit of practice!!

Till next time ..........

Seascape watercolour and some stitching!

2010-01-07T02:11:00.000-08:00

I have been having another go at watercolour painting from the book I bought...

Again, it doesn't look much like the one in the book (but it isn't supposed to is it?) but I am chuffed with how it turned out. I did it in the wrong sequence of course (!) and I've got too much yellow in the reflection but I'm still chuffed with it. I like the reflection of the rocks in the water - and following the instructions it actually worked - amazing!!

This is another exercise in Linda Ravenscroft's book - I drew the mushrooms first by copying them from the back cover of her book. The background is stippled acrylic paint, and the rest is watercolour on the top. I love the way the background comes through the watercolour. The stalks of the mushroom are just white paint - all the colours are the acrylic showing through. Magic!

Here is another exercise using wax crayon on a painted background then scratching it off to try to create Fairy Wings. I used copper and silver metallic wax crayons.
If you click on the picture you should get a closeup view.

Finally, just to let you see I am still stitching ......... just a little scan of the piece I am working on
for the next Kindred Spirits Exhibition. I'm stitching into a piece of rusted fabric I did last Summer - quilting it to death so to speak!!

Till next time ......

Watercolour landscapes and more .....

2009-12-29T08:57:00.000-08:00

T This is the watercolour book I've recently bought by Paul Talbot-Greaves called 30-Minute Landscapes, and I've been having a play ........

Now don't be ridiculous........! Of course I didn't paint this - it is a photo my daughter took recently of the sunset over the church in her village of Roborough. I WILL have a go, but the reason I have shown you the picture is because I used the silouette for the one I did paint.

I followed one of the 30 minute exercises and finished up with this - I was quite pleased for a first effort, and will certainly do more. The colours used are cadmium red, cadmium yellow, cobalt blue, french ultramarine and permanent rose. Paper size is 9" x 6"

The instructions are very clear and easy to follow, and although my painting looks nothing like the one in the book, and took a bit longer than 30 minutes, all the elements are there to catch the mood of a sunset.

Another book I bought recently is this one, by Linda Ravenscroft. I am still very much into fairies (I also bought her How to draw and paint FAIRYLAND) Both of them are amazing. Linda uses all sorts of colouring media in the books, and the technique exercises, which is what I am doing here are all laid out step by step.
Here I've drawn leaf shapes (from the book) first, then added watercolour, but I didn't have the exact paints - it still looks okay though. This is the wet on wet technique, but I have a bit of wet on dry at the top left hand side - that's what comes of 'fiddling' after the paper has dried! Looks okay though......

Now I've added the colour for the leaves, and added the veins using paintbrush.

Had a go at painting just leaves onto the white paper (wet on wet) and added the veins with a brown pigma pen. I should be using 140lb cold press paper but this sketchbook is hot press paper and very smooth, so whatever I do it will look different anyway (you can imagine it looks nothing like Linda's in her book - but I am learning a lot!!)

Just finishing up the paint with these two leaves, but they look so different on that background - which is 140lb cold press paper which has already been painted with acrylic paint. Delighted with these, you can almost pick them off the paper! (I drew them from leaves from my garden)

Must do some more using watercolour on top of acrylic paint.

I'll post again as soon as I have had an opportunity to try out some more exercises.

Painterly Skies

2009-12-21T04:04:00.000-08:00

I don't know if it has anything to do with this cold snap we are having at the moment, but over the last few days I can't stop taking pix of the sky - sunrise and sunset, and some in between.

Last night's sunset ... You can just see my house through those trees

Sorry about the telegraph wire ....!

View from my workroom window (you can just see the image of my camera bottom right!)

If only I could make my watercolours do this ......

Sunrise ....

and again...

I've joined a painting group, and ordered a book from Amazon. Watch this space!!

November & December Swaps

2009-12-14T11:03:00.001-08:00

This is an Arthur Rackham drawing entitled Fairies in Hiding and was the inspiration suggested by Pat for the Calendar Girls in November.

I went with the title and decided to advertise for some fairies! I made this card for Carol McFee using my embellisher. The tree bark is made from painted crumpled brown paper.

This was the inspiration for December supplied for the Calendar Girls by Neki and is entitled Fractals.

Again, I used my embellisher, and meshed wool roving and silk waste into black felt until it loosly resembled the inspiration. This I made for Pat.

Unfortunately, the Calendar Girls will be disbanding at the end of the year, but if you want to see what the others did with these inspirations, do click on the Logo on the right hand side.

The theme for the Quiltie this month with Unlimited Textiles was Christmas (naturally) and this wonderful 5"x5" was made for me by Pam Jones in Wales.

She used the stitch and slash technique to make the tree, and has also beaded it - it really looks quite 3D, and is just delightful.

This is my interpretation of the Christmas theme, that I made for Linda Doughty.

My embellisher came out once again and I used wool roving onto white felt, then added a sequined sheer. I then free stitched the tree using a black and silver metallic thread. My idea of Christmas is going for walks in crispy weather and getting home to a lovely glass of mulled wine!! This is probably the only 'white Christmas' I will see .....!

Finally, a few Christmas Postcards for some friends .......

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and look forward to a happy healthy and creative New Year. Thanks for dropping by - see you in 2010!

My October Swaps

2009-10-28T02:43:00.000-07:00

This is the inspiration for Calendar Girls this month - artwork by Alphonse Mucha. Gorgeous lady, but just look at the beastie ........

This is the card Doreen made for me. She used a hand dyed fabric for the background, then added a circle of rusted fabric. The leaves are made on her embellisher using felt and scrim. She then added a paper flower with a button middle. Thanks again Doreen - I think you captured the essence of the inspiration beautifully.

This is my interpretation, which I made for Jenny. I had this gorgeous (fabric) lady, and fussy cut some other suitable fabric to complete the ensemble, then free machine stitched them onto a piece of felt.

You can see what the other Calendar Girls got up to by clicking on the Logo on the right.

UNLIMITED TEXTILES

Our theme for the 5" Quiltie this month was AFRICA

I had great fun sorting out my 'Africa' fabrics for this one, which I made for June (who unfortunately doesn't have a Blog!)

This Quiltie was made for me by Jill, who says 'I painted a face of sorts meaning it to be either human or animal, using wax resist and layers of paint'. Look at all that hand stitching .... I just love it! Thanks again Jill.

My swaps for September ...

2009-10-05T09:43:00.000-07:00

This is Pat's choice for inspiration for September Calendar Girls swap of postcards - it is by the artist Hundertwasser.

Susan made this postcard for me, and apparently she used a pleating machine to create the background. Do visit her blog here where she tells how she made it. I must admit I haven't seen it yet as it won't be in the post until tomorrow, but I wanted to blog it so I 'pinched' her picture - I do hope she doesn't mind. Can't wait to get touchy feely with it! I love the Shisha mirrors representing the trees.

I am a proud new owner of a Pfaff Embellisher, and I used it to work my interpretation of Hundertwasser for Neki
It is hard to believe, but there are two layers of felt meshed together - one pea green and the other lime green - to form the background. The 'lines' are silk strips and the blue colour in the middle is also silk, both of which are worked from the back. The back is covered with a black chiffon and the trees are also worked from the back. I have worked some free machine stitching on the trees and I added a thick blue and pink thread in the bobbin. Neki was delighted so that was fine.

If you would like to see the other interpretations of Hundertwasser for this month, just click on the Calendar Girls Logo at the side of my Blog.

The September Swap for Unlimited Textiles was a 5" square Quiltie using a favourite photograph belonging to your partner as inspiration.

I was partnered with Linda and this was her photograph.

Again, using my embellisher I meshed a piece of hand dyed silk to a piece of white felt, then added some hand dyed muslin to create the sandy look! I then embellished the scaffolding poles from the back(a lot), pushing the white felt to the front, added a bit of green and brown each side for the moss and rust, and a touch of black marker pen for the shadows, and it was done. Linda was delighted.

This was my photograph as inspiration for my partner, and is a sunrise taken in my garden last November.

I was partnered with Pam Jones of Port Talbot, who doesn't seem to have a blog unfortunately. Pam made me this beautiful interpretation of my photo, which I think again she has worked on the embellisher, using hand dyed silk, although she hasn't said! I can see she has then added free machine stitching to represent the trees. The colours of the sunrise are just gorgeous - thankyou again Pam.

Now to get busy on the swaps for October ......

Another wrapped wire doll

2009-08-29T09:51:00.000-07:00

I adapted one of the patterns from Ray Slater's Cloth Dolls Book ......

to make a doll about 11" high - Ray's pattern is for a doll around 23" high.

I wrapped the wire with wadding, but this time I gave her a much more rounded body, so that hopefully there was enough to 'hang' a dress on. I then wrapped it all with strips of white silk.
Then came the dress - this I made by layering very thin ulled out pieces of wool and various threads between two layers of cold water soluble stuff, and stitching like made all over to form a new piece of 'fabric'. When I'd washed away the soluble stuff and dried the piece, I then added the lace 'bodice'. I found some feathers in the garden and just laid them around the bottom, for the scan. I haven't made up my mind whether to stitch them around the bottom of the dress, or not. I rather like the ragged edge.........

She isn't finished yet, as I want to make some exotic head dress, and some form of covering for her arms, but other more urgent things are calling, so I just tied some goat's hair around her head, to take the pic. It looks better than leaving her bald!

Dig those boots though ..............!

Kindred Spirits at the Festival of Quilts

2009-08-24T08:34:00.000-07:00

As some of you may remember, Kindred Spirits launched our first Exhibition - Myths & Legends - here in Devon last May at RHS Rosemoor in Great Torrington. Much to our delight we were invited to the Festival of Quilts, at the NEC in Birmingham, which really was 'the icing on the cake'! Well the four of us have just about come back down to earth, after a wonderful four days, meeting old friends and of course new blogging friends. The pictures below are of our Gallery F25, and for those of you who dropped by, many thanks, it was brilliant to see you!

Front Entrance .... you can just see our Banner on the far right.

Back Entrance - our pieces for our 2010 Calendar are on the outside. The small section of a black and white quilt you can see on the right belongs to Pauline Burbidge! Yes - our Gallery was next to Pauline .........

Some of Vinnie's and Sarah's pieces......

Some of Carol's (left) and my pieces (right). Quite a few of our visitors found the chairs extremely welcome.....! Sarah is in the background and Vinnie in the foreground.
Now for the bestest ever news.... Vinnie entered a Quilt (inspired by Ricki Tims)
into the Contemporary Quilts section and guess what .............

she won a Bronze. As you can see, it is a beautiful quilt and extremely well executed, and the prize is really well deserved. She hasn't stopped bouncing since Thursday morning, and we are all extremely proud of her!!

Kindred Spirits are now five - Vinnie Cable, Sarah O'Hora, Carol Rowland and me, and Dot Carter has now joined us. Vinnie and Sarah do not blog, but you will find a link to Carol and to Dot if you check on the list of links on the right hand side.

The five of us are now busy working on our next Exhibition with a theme 'Skimming the Surface' - so I will keep you posted!

July Swaps

2009-07-24T04:33:00.000-07:00

These two lovely books are actually a June swap that Alis of Unlimited Textiles made for me. Alis has not been well, and was a bit late with her swap, and wanted to make up for it! Well, as you can see, she certainly did that handsomely! The larger Notebook at the back I will use for special Quotations I want to keep, and the little book at the front is a mini star book - it opens out into a star shape when you 'turn it inside out' when putting both covers together. You can then hang it from the loops at the top of the spine.

It is so pretty, completely made of painted watercolour paper and other fancy papers, with lovely little treasures adhered inside. It is approximately 3" x 4" and even has a 'V' paper clip on the front! I love it and thankyou again Alis.

July theme for the Quiltie (5" x 5") was Seasons - and this little beauty was made for me by Sandy, which as you see is Fall. Sandy used ultrasuede for the leaf and added loads of beads - what patience! Just gorgeous Sandy, thankyou again.

This is my interpretation of Seasons, which is A British Summer - Sunshine and Showers! That seems to be the constant forecast this Summer - every day we hear it - more of the sunshine and less of the showers please - that's what I say! I made this for June and she was delighted.

And finally..... Calendar Girls swap for July

This was our inspiration, provided by Pippa.

This is my interpretation which I made for Debbi. It started off as a piece of crumpled kitchen foil adhered to some fabric, then I added gesso, some paint, bit more paint, some gauze, more paint, a bit more gesso, and more paint, till I was happy. Debbi has received it and is absolutely delighted.

Sandy made this interpretation for me. It looks absolutely gorgeous, and I can't wait to get touchy feely with it (I've pinched the pic. from Sandy's Blog - hope she doesn't mind!) but I do know it is on its way.....

There have been some super cards this month, and if you would like to see the others, just click on the Calendar Girls Logo on the right hand side.

June Swaps with Unlimited Textiles

2009-07-05T09:00:00.001-07:00

The theme for the June Quiltie swap was Birds Bees and Butterflies, and this little beauty was made for me by Jill. As you can see, it is all hand quilted, and the four blue birds with their wings joined, leaves a negative space which, if I had put the quiltie the right way up (!) looks rather like a flying goose. This is my interpretation of the theme, and I made this quiltie for June. The background is a piece of hand dyed fabric and the butterflies are hand dyed paper.

This I also made for June. It is a different swap, using the suggestion of an ATC sized mini book. The cover is snippets of fabric held down with chiffon and stitched in straight rows (lots of them!) then embellished with a grid. The 'heart' shape is dyed Tyvek. The edging is torn organza doubled over and tacked in place. The pages are gilt edged and each one has a gold tag protruding, with a bead attached. The beaded string is a bookmark, and the tassel is shop bought!

I've done some more .....!

2009-07-02T09:41:00.000-07:00

I've been away for a few days, and before I went I decided to try my hand at some more rust dyeing - I have only done it once before, and my stash is all finished up.
I rolled the calico, and a bit of muslin, around a rusty old chain and some bicycle bits and some very old iron nails, poured half a cup of malt vinegar and half a cup of salt over it, put the tin in a clear plastic bag, and popped it in the greenhouse.

Five days later it all looked like this - what magic nature does weave!! Maybe the very hot weather helped it along......
You can see the imprint of the bicycle bits, but on this particular piece I have green and blue colours as well as the rust - I am amazed and delighted! It might be something to do with the base fabric being old white cotton sheeting?

Another pattern - different base fabric.

Sorry this pic. is a bit blurred, I was shaking with excitement! I rolled a very rusty long chain into this piece, and the patterns are amazing. All the pieces look even better now they are ironed.

Talking of being amazed - look what's growing on the bark of a tree in my garden - it is very hard and firm, and the gorgeous surface of each one looks like velvet! Just beautiful.

A sketchy weekend ....

2009-06-22T01:33:00.000-07:00

I had a great day yesterday. My 'better half' and I popped over to our daughter's for dinner as it was Father's Day. He got thoroughly spoilt and I spent the day sketching! This is the view from our daughter's back garden - she overlooks Dartmoor - if you click on the picture and zoom in you can see Dartmoor miles away in the background.

This is my interpretation of what I could see using oil pastels on a blue spread (previously painted with Brusho) The sun was melting the pastels while I was desperately trying to be creative!!

This is a view from a farm gate on the way to our daughter's home, but worked on a beige background (corn coloured). When I got home I worked Winsor & Newton Liquin Original into it with a paint brush, which blends all the strokes of oil pastel.

The difference the background colour makes to the finished sketch is amazing.

The first one on the blue background is a lot 'greener' that this one.

The vertical marks each side are creases I 'achieved' as they were drying, after I Brusho'd the pages. I shall have to be more careful next time!

This is on the other side of the road, and I sketched this in coloured water pencil on a greeny yellow background. The right hand side has been 'watered' - the left hand side has not.
Aren't I lucky to live in such a green and pleasant landscape.

Calendar Girls June Swap

2009-06-16T06:58:00.001-07:00

This is Sharon's inspiration for this month - Ton Schulten the Dutch contemporary Artist.

This is Debbi's interpretation she made for me. She says she played with layers of sheers, but I think a lot more thought work and effort went into it than what she mentions! It is absolutely beautiful Debbi, and such a crisp finish. Thankyou again.

This is my interpretation I have made for Sandy. I dug deep into my bag of hand dyed fabrics, cut and pieced a few, then free stitched the trees and roof top. I hope Sandy likes it when she gets it!

You can link to all the Calendar Girls blogs by clicking on the logo on the right hand side. They are doing amazing things with Sharon's inspiration this month.

Lucky Me!

2009-06-08T07:44:00.000-07:00

I asked my friend Doreen in Australia if she would make me a 5" Quiltie and I would make her a 6" Butterfly page for her Book. She agreed, and the postman delivered this sweet little girl this morning. Isn't she gorgeous?! Doreen tells me most of the laces are antique, and she dyed the soft brown one in the middle herself. The colours melt so well together the whole piece makes my mouth water!

I doodled a bit in my sketchbook on some purple pages while creating a design for Doreen, so a purple hand dyed piece of fabric was an obvious choice when it came to stitching it. Doreen was delighted I am pleased to say, but I know who I reckon got the best deal!

Doreen also sent me a 5" piece of her Killed Catalogue she did with Maggie Grey, and an ATC. It was great to get touchy feely with it, as it is quite textured but also has an overall smooth surface. Amazing..... Gorgeous colours

This little 5" Quiltie was made for me by Chris in New Zealand as the May swap for Unlimited Textiles. Chris says she was inspired by the Elizabethan costumes she sees on TV. She certainly has captured the feeling with the beautiful textures, colours and beading. Thanks again Chris - I love it.

This postcard I made for the May swap on Calendar Girls, using the inspiration of a Monet painting. My interpretation used a hand dyed piece of fabric, free machine stitching and some paint to highlight a few details. It is now with Carol in Wales.

These gorgeous postcards were made by Lynda (Purplemisses) using the same inspiration. Lynda sent me three actually, but I gifted one to Doreen. She says she laser printed lutradur primed with fluid matt medium then thermofax screen printed (the rose) using iridescent bronze fluid acrylic mixed with gold metallic paint! Lucky me!

You can see the other cards the ladies have made using Monet's inspiration is you click on the Calendar Girls Logo on the right hand side of the page. You can then also visit their blogs.

A Birthday Book for my Daughter

2009-05-25T04:55:00.001-07:00

A few weeks ago my friend Janet showed me how to make silk rovings into sheets of silk by layering, soaking with washingup liquid then glueing the silk together using a watered down gel medium. I have made this little book for my Daughter's 50th Birthday, at the end of this month. She loves her garden so I have used a 'wild flower' theme, with the occasional vintage lady. The dried honesty was embedded in the silk when I made it, but the beech leaves have been added since. I started by pressing all the wild flowers I could find, and finished up with a lot more than I had pages for!!

First spread - primrose, inchie and some lace around the lady... (I've just realised, perhaps I should write something on that blank sheet opposite!) I used silk cocoon strippings to adhere the pressed flower, then covered the area with chiffon and stitched around.

Next spread - forget-me-not, dyed old lace and a vintage lady ......

Honesty in flower, another inchie and another lovely lady ....

Pretty lady, feathers and a fuchsia - this one grows wild in Devon .....

Lacey edge, columbine and a piece of fabric paper with painted lace....

Rosebay willow herb with some fabric paper....

and finally some real butterfly wings I found in the garden last year.

I really had fun making this little book, even though it did take me about three weeks - including thinking time of course!

I've been making some fabric paper ....

2009-05-21T08:35:00.001-07:00

I had a go with very open weave muslin, doubled, some pva glue, screwed up tissue paper and bits of newspaper, all brushed into the muslin in bits, then painted with primary colours while still wet. It dried like this. I'm quite pleased. Before ditching the empty pot, I added some dried up gold paint (hate throwing anything away!) to parts of it - it shows more on the blue area. I shall add interference or some other medium at some stage, but till then .........

From sketchbook to fabric ....

2009-05-17T09:36:00.000-07:00

This month's swap on Unlimited Textiles is themed 'Surprise me', and this Quiltie (5" x 5") is what I have stitched for Pat my partner. A couple of weeks back I doodled in my sketchbook on some painted paper with a white gel pen, so thought I would experiment with painted fabric and white cotton thread. This is the result. I'm quite pleased, and may try a bigger one sometime ...........!

I also joined the gift swap this month, also themed 'Surprise me', and as I had been making a wired doll, thought I would have a go at making a really small one. This is the smallest I could manage - she is about 4" or so. I made her for Chris my swap partner in New Zealand, together with

this little book which is ATC size. It has three double water colour paper pages stitched into it, edged with gold leaf. I thought maybe Chris could stick or stitch a few of her treasures in it, or even paint a tiny masterpiece! I hope both my swap partners will be suitably 'surprised'.

Recent swaps

2009-05-12T09:21:00.001-07:00

I'v had some fabulous post lately, and this little beauty (5" x 5") was my swap from Alis that she made for me in the Kandinski style, the theme for the April Unlimited Textiles swap. The scan really doesn't do it justice, as it is very tactile. Alis has felted all sorts of shapes and colours, in the Kandinski manner, then cut them up, stitched them back in block fashion and added metallic stitching to finish. Thankyou Alis - I love it.

This Book Cover was made for me by Jan for the May Unlimited Textiles gift swap under the theme 'Surprise Me'. Well, what a surprise this is. It is so pretty, the colours are so mellow, and the hand stitching and embellishments are just perfect. Jan also sent me the sketchbook to fit inside - a really wonderful gift that I will treasure, and only draw my best stuff inside it!! Do visit Jan's Blog - she describes what she did and how, much better than I can.

Jan also sent me this package of goodies hoping I may be able to make use of them! Well, I thought, I don't know, but I'll try ........! Gorgeous yes, silk and organza and co-ordinating beads, and check out that little angel in the top right of the pic.

She also included this lovely Postcard - soft green organzas and metallic free stitching, with hand seeding.

Well, I don't know about 'Surprise Me' Jan - I was blown away - and thankyou again.

Free machine stitching lace

2009-05-04T01:25:00.000-07:00

Last Saturay was South West Quilters AGM and the afternoon Speaker was a delightful lady Claire Muir who, putting it very mildly, makes hats. She had a fantastic collection with her, all made using free machine stitched lace, combining various silks and feathers etc. each one a gem. She also makes Fascinators, and did say she did an article for Stitch Magazine last year sometime, with the complete instructions how to make them. Maybe someone out there has Stitch, and can find the Article. If so - do let me know which Magazine it is in, please?
Anyway, I attended Clair's Workshop the following day to learn the technique.

This is the beginning. Five petals worked free stitching into water soluble film, then wires placed down the middle of each leaf and stitched down, then decoration if required. I did three extra different leaves to use up the space (!) and the 'T' bar is for the construction of the flower.

All the petals are now rinsed out and dried. Clair showed us how to wire and bead the stamens, and make the feathery bits - amazing!

These are the rogue leaves I made - each one different - the middle one has some silk stitched into it.

Voila! All the components put together. You can see the 'T' piece was to cover all the wires, and finish it off nicely.

All I need now is an Alice Band to attach it to and I'm ready for Ascot next year! Seriously though, it would make a lovely brooch, as it is only about 2" or so across.

My first wire doll

2009-04-22T08:08:00.001-07:00

As I mentioned in a previous post, I bought Ray Slater's Book on doll making, and drew up a pattern for a wire doll about 11" tall. The ones in the book appear to be about 23" tall, which were a bit big for me.

Here we have it all wrapped in polyester wadding ready for the next stage...

and this is a scan of it wrapped in strips of silk, strips of netting, and bits of chenille wool.

Now she is beaded on her body, and bits of trims added, and those boots certainly give her attitude!

So much so, I caught her doing a jig this morning! The boots enable her to stand all on her own. They were black, but painted up gold quite well.

I bought another pair of boots this week, longer, with laces up the front ............

April swaps

2009-04-20T02:41:00.000-07:00

Unlimied Textiles theme for this month's 5" quiltie swap was Kandinsky the Artist. I looked him up on the internet and came up with this inspiration... I decided on hand dyed fabrics, little paint and some organza....

This is what I did - no intention of stealing copyright of course - and it is now with Ati in Norway.

Calendar Girls inspiration this month comes from Susan, and funny enough my card is for Susan.

Again I used hand dyed fabric for the background, and attached a small piece of 'bark' I had made, which uses crinkled paper, brown paper, chiffon and rust dyed fabric. I then free stitched, and added some dyed kozo and silk leaves.

Click on the logo at the side of my blog to see the other postcards the Calendar Girls have made so far this month. There are also links there to all their blogs.

Body Art!

2009-04-14T10:55:00.001-07:00

Ever since I watched in awe as Carol gave her 'body' a makeover about 18 months ago, I have been hankering after one of my own.
My friend Pat found one for me a couple of months ago, and recently I decided I would add some colour to it. As ever, I forgot to take 'before' pictures, and even once I had started, but this is my body with the first coat of paint and ink. Lovely lumpy bits and texture .....

This is the back view, even more texture ........

Now we have more colour added and there I decided to stop (colouring it that is).

Here she is all dolled up with added gold paint to highlight some of the bumpy bits. Have you guessed yet - she is only 5" from top to bottom of the stand, and the 'body' is all of 3" - dollhouse size in fact. She is completely made of wood, and originally was all the same colour as the knob on top and the foot stand. I covered the body part in crinkled tissue paper using pva glue, and added a tiny piece of 'sun' shaped lace on her chest, then when dry painted her with gesso. The rest you see. The skirt is made from various ribbons and knotted hand dyed threads. As well as inspiration from Carol, she is also inspired, of course, by Beryl Taylor.

Paint, paper and net curtaining ...

2009-04-08T02:51:00.001-07:00

A couple of months back, my friend Vinnie showed me some experiments she was doing with painted paper and lace net curtaining. Vinnie very generously gave me some of her paper and curtaining, and I went home to have a play. The paper has been scrunched up, smoothed out and then painted with various transfer paints.
The first one is using some 'smooth' painted paper cut into flower shapes, which I then transferred onto cream satin fabric. I layered up some irridescent organza and dyed scrim over the satin, backed it with wadding, and free stitched around the flower shapes. I even added some hand stitching for contrast!

The second one is a rectangle piece of crinkled paper transferred onto a piece of lacy net curtain (the frame is the net curtain without any paint, just overlaid with scrim) I then laid the scrim over and free zigzagged it down all over the surface, trapping bits of organza along the bottom. I added some torn strips each side of the paper I had used to suggest a frame.

The last one is torn strips of paper transferred onto a piece of polyester cream fabric with a wonky circular pattern printed on it. I added the darker colour at the bottom on top of the yellow I had done, first cutting snippets to keep little bits of the yellow. I free machined stitched, then added torn painted paper to create a frame. All the pieces are A5 size (approx. 6" x 8")

Recent Swaps

2009-03-28T13:27:00.000-07:00

The Calendar Girls 2009 swap for this month. The inspiration was provided by Carol Taylor for this month (see below)

This is my interpretation of Carol's picture, that I made for Doreen in Australia. The background is green velvet, and there are various pieces of net, chiffon, cotton and slivers of velvet, which I manipulated with difficulty into various shapes, using free stitching. Doreen was delighted.

This is Jenny's interpretation of the same picture, using her embellisher. She has felted chiffon, silk and wool into felt to create a beautiful postcard for me. Thanks again Jenny - I love it.

You can see all the other cards the ladies have made and swapped this month, using the same inspiration, by clicking on the Calendar Girls 2009 Logo on the right of my Blog. There are also links there to all their Blogs.

More Recent Swaps

2009-03-28T12:54:00.000-07:00

I received these fabulous beads from Pam Jones in Port Talbot this month as part of the swap in Unlimited Textiles, the group I belong to. (Pam doesn't blog - we will have to work on her!!) She tells me she made them by wrapping silk around a knitting needle, followed by kunin felt and beaded wire, then blasted with a heat gun. Pam then threaded them with silk ribbon tassells and attached them to a ring. Thanks again Pam - I think they are gorgeous. I sent some tyvek and felt beads as my part of the swap to Chris Mathieson in New Zealand, but didn't take a picture, and again Chris doesn't blog, but she did like the beads!

The other part of the swap was the Quiltie (5" x 5") with the theme 'Gothic'. This is the one I made for Jan Holehouse in Cheshire. I stamped the background with a stamp in the shape of a church window that I made from a polystyrene meat dish, and added painted tyvek to depict stained glass. Free machine stitching and applied 'melted' netting finishes it off.

This Quiltie was made by Meg Lamey in Albaquerque, New Mexico for me, and depicts a rose window - only 5" square - isn't it gorgeous. I don't have Meg's blog address either - wish I did!

Sketchbook stuff .....

2009-03-21T10:19:00.000-07:00

I recently purchased Maggie Grey's Book Textile Translations, in which she suggests trying some doodles in your sketchbook, so .......... I must admit I was pleasantly surprised how they turned out, due mainly I am sure to having painted all the pages in my sketchbook with brusho paint, and on this spread I used a white gel pen. I thought the doodles looked a bit like lace.

The pages themselves are rather thin paper (should have bought one with watercolour pages!) so I am trying to use 'dry' medium instead of more paint. Here I spread some gesso with a palette knife (still a bit wet though) then embedded some painted tyvek pieces into it. I then added 'dry' paint to the gesso when it was dry, and on the red side some oil pastels. On the gold side I added some markal.

I also had a go with the oil pastels to draw from a photo I took in Dubrovnik last year. The painted background seems a lot more 'user friendly' than a blank white space!

Even more re-cycling ....

2009-03-13T12:23:00.000-07:00

Each year I organise a five day Retreat for the South West Quilters, and this year I invited Jennifer Trollope to show us her technique 'Revelation Burning'. She was using this technique to make a Tiffany Style Lampshade and the requirements included a candlestick style base and a four sided or coolie type shade. I didn't really want a Tiffany style lamp (nowhere to put it!) but I wanted to do the technique, so I raided my loft and found this solid teak base, and I purchased a white coolie type shade from the charity shop. I needed to cover the base before the Retreat, so..............

the first thing I did was rub it down with sandpaper and stick crumpled strips of butchers paper, cut out lace motifs and string over it (in a delicate pattern of course!)

I then painted it with white emulsion, and when it was dry ...

I painted it with copper and brown acrylic paint.

I was now ready to make the lampshade.

This is a pic. of the fabric I used, draped over the shade I bought, and before I 'altered' the base. The 'revelation burning' technique is achieved by layering fabrics, stitching and using a soldering iron to reveal the motifs - in my case the leaves on my fabric. I made lots of seperate leaves to stitch around the bottom of the shade, instead of the beaded fringe the other ladies put on their Tiffany style shades.

It isn't quite finished (it takes me ages .....) I just have to sew the leaves around the bottom of the shade, where you can see the pins. I also touched up the laces on the base with bronze paint

I have to finish it by the end of April to take it to the AGM along with all the others ......

They really did look gorgeous at the end of the Retreat, and every one was very different.

Three of the ladies made me postcards from the fabric they used for their lampshade, by way of a thankyou for organising it ........ aren't they just lovely?

The postcards - and the ladies!

I shall have to show you the postcards in the next posting, I can't get to add more pix. in this post!

PS. I've managed to get them in under ...........

2009-03-13T03:22:00.000-07:00

These postcards really do show off the technique of 'revelation burning' a treat.
Desira made this one for me from the fabrics she used on her lampshade ... Lynda made this one, using some of her Japanese fabric from her lampshade ....

and Maggie made this one from her Paisley fabric - all those beads as well! Gorgeous or what?

Swaps - recycling sort of?

2009-03-07T01:51:00.000-08:00

I belong to a group called Unlimited Textiles, and last month I participated in an Unfinished Symphony swap. We have two partners - one we receive from and one we send to, and the idea was to send a piece of anything, and your partner would finish it for you. I sent this piece of felt I had made to Claire and look what came back!

I was absolutely amazed - all that stitching, and she had made it into a Purse, and she had included a bundle of Oliver Twist Threads. Claire tells me she cut a postcard sized section out of the front of the felt, turned the rest over and using merino tops and wool threads, she integrated the two pieces using a Clover needle felting tool. She then added more stitch, mostly in wool and some stranded cotton before using the felted lines to cut the shape of the flap.

This is the back of the purse - it measures 5" x 7"

I have subsequently made a cord for the purse from some of the Oliver Twist Threads. I am delighted with my Finished Symphony - thanks again Claire

Now I must apologise to Ati for this miserable picture of the beautiful piece of felt she sent to me. I can't find the original pic I made anywhere, so have taken this back off the web page but I can't produce it any bigger here! It was about A4 size.....

I completely altered the look of Ati's piece by painting it first with Gesso and then various other fabric paints. The felt was quite thick, so I chopped it up to displace the embroidery on it, turned it all around the zigzagged it back together. butting up the pieces. I then cut out a Postcard, and ATC and some inchies and finished them off. I am pleased to say Ati was delighted, but again my apologies for the miserable pic.!

This is a gorgeous Quiltie (5" x 5") I have recently received from Alis. I asked Alis if she would swap 'vintage ladies' with me, and she made this beautiful Quiltie she calls Daydream Blues. The background is of felt, organza and painted nappy liners all free machine stitched, then zapped with a heat gun. Then a chiffon scarf laid over, more machine stitching in flower shapes, and multiple beads added for centres. Thankyou again Alis, she really is lovely.

This is the Quiltie I made for Alis, which I called Vintage Blossoms. The background and the 'blossoms' are coloured with transfer dyes. The blossoms are actually cut out from flock curtaining. The lady is a photocopy of a pic. using the laminated technique - pva-ing the pic to a sheer, letting it dry, and wetting then rubbing it off from the back (hopefully leaving the image behind!) I then added a slight pink wash. I am happy to report that Alis was delighted.

More recycling ......

2009-03-05T02:27:00.000-08:00

WOW! What a surprise that was, waking up to this snow today! Look what's happened to the birdbath the doll was sitting on last weekend .....

I shan't be going anywhere today - not in the car anyway!

When showing you the doll in my last post, I suddenly remembered a little bit of rubbish that was also in that 10p box the lady popped in my bag when I bought the Pierrette Doll. Poor little thing had a hole in her head and no legs....!

Thanks to a couple of pipe cleaners, some wadding and some goat wool, she now has some legs and some hair!

Tut Tut Tut ... the things I waste my time on! The buckle at the front is l" wide, so you can see the doll isn't very big. What do you think of her?

I'm into RECYCLING!

2009-02-28T13:08:00.000-08:00

Towards the end of last year, well around the Autumn time,I was mooching at an end of season Boot Sale and saw this little doll dressed as a clown in black and white silky stuff- she was in a box of 10p things at the front of a table, among a load of rubbish, very dirty, unloved and sitting/glued to a grotty cushion, all very small of course, she is only about 9" tall. I love making cloth dolls, and have been having a go at small ones, so thought I'd try my hand at this recyling lark!

Once home, I stripped the doll of everything, and discovered she was made from pipe cleaner type stuff. I washed all the china bits and took this pic .............

Well, she sat around like this, looking nice and clean but still very sad, until I saw this book advertised. I have the Patti Medaris Culea Cloth Doll Making Books, but Ray Slater is an English lady with a different slant of things, mainly making dolls by wrapping wire....... bingo!

I wrapped my little doll in a strip of polyester wadding, about an inch wide, all over the fabric covered wire, to make a body arms and legs, then using an old silk multi coloured scarf (from a previous Boot Sale of course) I wrapped her again, until she was covered - following very loosely the instructions in Ray's book. I then added stitches with silver thread, and wound some more with thicker thread etc. until I liked what I had done, and finished off with a piece of the silk machine stitched on the bias, and wound it around her head.

You can see she is not very big - she is sitting on the side of the bird bath.

I have made a small wire frame and wrapped it in wadding, following Ray's book. This one is only about 11" tall. I'll show you when I have finished it. In the meantime, I am hunting for more of the little dolls to recycle. I recently bought a soft mermaid doll ...........! (watch this space)

HOME AGAIN......

2008-11-17T02:43:00.000-08:00

Arrived home last Tuesday, having had a brilliant time cruising the Mediterrean and being thoroughly spoilt. Spent an awful lot of time here....... having found a 'good read' in the Library. The sun was really warm (in the eighties), fabulous food non stop, and young waiters popping up everywhere! You may be wondering where all the people are - I took this pic. on a day when most of them were off on excursions!!........
I did some watercolour painting during a couple of the days we were 'at sea'. There were Watercolouring Art Classes available (free - first come first seated so to speak) and this is what I managed ......

A sunrise (from a postcard) A sunset - also from a postcard

A 'storm at sea' from the same postcard - different colourway....

and a make believe scene, following the tutor's instructions, but doing your own colours. There was no 'pencil drawing first' on any of these, just straight in with the watercolours, which I found very similar to painting on fabric really, although of course the medium is very different. I am now ready to have a go in my sketchbooks, and have some great pictures to inspire me.

Here are just a few ..........

I shan't be blogging for a while, as I want to 'practice' a lot, and see if I can produce a Journal of my trip, as a memento. If I manage to create anything worth sharing I'll be back.

In the meantime, have a great Chrstimas, and thanks for dropping by - it is very much appreciated.