Living Thread Group Class with Jo Beattie

Hello all.

I've had a very busy - but really good weekend.

On Sunday I had a class with Jo Beattie from the Living Threads Group.

It was only a small group. So the aim was to select an item and develop it into a design and hopefully end up with a completed textile item at the end.  Sounds like a tall order - but we all managed it.

So here are the photos of my work during the day.

The item I started with was a shell. I looked at from different angles and drew the image on paper and newspaper - drawing on newspaper is a really intertesing process, it feels much less pressured than drawing on white paper, and gives a pleasing result.  I extracted an element from my drawing and then worked it through. 

Next are the different colourways I tried, and I used different watercolour pencils and crayons.

And then I replicated the pattern in tissue paper.

And then I started my piece of textile sample.

And here it is all together.

Here are some pieces from others at the class.

Really interesting work.

And on Saturday I had a great time. I attended a Pride and Prejudice party! I had a great time, lots of tea and cake and of course - Colin Firth.

And we had great pressies too!

So - I hope you all had a nice weekend.

Take care and hope to hear from more of you soon.

What have I been up to...

Lots. I've been rather busy - but it's been great. And I can't believe it's December already.

Here are some photos from the Christmas Fayre in the village Hall. A number of the Bosworth Quilters were involved with this and it's thanks to one in particular that the event has been reinstated. It looked great. It had a good variety of stalls, jewelry, soaps, plants, cakes and of course some very high quality quilted items (very reasonable priced). Unfortunately I was too excited to take a photo when Santa arrived - I was overwhelmed...

And here are my efforts from my drawing and painting class. I think if I post the photos of how I got here you'll see why I'm pleased with it. The journey there was good. And it's not brown.

I'm not going to be attending the class next year - partly because I can';t guarantee getting there every week and partly because my aim was to get over the fear of the blank page and drawing. As I've managed to conquer my demons I don't want to spread myself too thin with already being committed to Brenda's class next year. What I should do is set some time aside to draw. As we all know it's easier said than done.

Part way done...

Finished.

Drawing class

Well I'm being brave (again) and here are my drawings from the last 2 weeks of classes.

The one above was drawn using a stand and grid method. It was really hard work and not as much fun as the five minute sketches by a long way. I do think it's useful to do the exercises posed - just to see how you get on.

This is from this week. The idea was to draw the space around the objects - it's much more difficult that it sounds. I wasn't too pleased with this one so....


... this is the finished one. The space was drawn and then a spotlight was shon on the objects and we had to look for light and shade. Yes - that's a shadow of a tea cup and saucer. The comment I keeping from from the tutor is 'that's bold'. I'm taking that as a compliment. LOL.
Next week is half term so no class - just a bit of home work.

Tomorrow it's off to the Bramble Patch. It's bound to be a great day.

Have a good weekend.

Drawing class

I'm really enjoying the drawing classes. I know I'm not the best but it's very satisfying to see that what you've drawn does resemble the items in front of you.

The first drawing above was one of the 5 minute sketches we had to do. The idea is that you're less frightened of the white paper. We did about 3 of these using different media and the idea with the one above was that you didn't draw a line.
This one is what the majority of the lesson was spent on. Again no lines, concentrating on light and shade and using charcoal. I was really pleased with it.

And here's some quilting (at last).
It's the Buzz Saw I started at our sewing camp (retreat). I'm so pleased with it. DH very kindly helped me put the sandwich together. I've not decided exactly how I'm going to hand quilt it - but I've got a few ideas.

The weather here has been great over the last few days - so sunny.

Hope you all OK and have a great weekend.

Drawing class

I'm quite surprised that the drawing class I signed up for has actually gone ahead. There are only 7 of us in the class and usually they have a minimum number before it can run and that's usually more than 7. But don't think I'm complaining - I'm not. Being a small class means our tutor, Mike, can get around to see us all.
I won't be showing my first attempt - well not yet - I might share it later to show any progress I've made. The first class was drawing a still life of various shaped bottles. The idea was not to draw all of the items perfectly, but to get their arrangement right i.e. the proportions, relationship between items and distance between each item spot on. I did have to make a bit of an adjustment - but I got there in the end. It was very interesting to see how drawing styles are as individual as writing styles. And the best part was we all seemed to be really happy with what we drew in our first class.
I'd love to hear if any of you are attending drawing or art classes.