Second piece for the Exhibition ....

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

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

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

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

is PINK!

Before .....

and after.
Bye for now .....

The magic of white acrylic ink ....

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 ..

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 .....