Busy busy busy

 Hello all.

I hope this post finds you all well and hopefully dry.

I thought I'd start my post by sharing a photo with you that I took last Sunday of our local church, St Peters and the beautiful snowdrops. It really was a lovely day.

I've also had a great time with the Lutterworth Embroiderers Guild at a talk and then a workshop with Nicola Jarvis.  You may recollect I have attended a workshop with her previously.

You can see our group here, all working very diligently.  It was a very quiet class.

The photo below is what my piece should look like - after a lot more work.

I learnt and perfected some great stitches: long and short stitch, stem stitch, split stitch, laid work, trellis stitch, buttonhole, satin and Turkish Rug.  

Nicola was a great teacher - she spent the whole day demonstrating stitches and offering encouragement.

Nicola's talk was really interesting.  I had no idea that May Morris had written a book and it was still in print. 'Decorative Needlework'  was originally published in 1893.  

Nicola selected some great quotes from it.

Anyway I must get back to stitching as I think this one may take some time.

Classes

Hi all,

Hope you're well and enjoying this beautiful dry sunny day.

I've been to a couple a really good classes recently.

First was a class with Hilary Beattie at The Bramble Patch.  It isn't the type of class I would have normally picked, but I've seen her at a few events and knew I'd have a great time.  

So the class was painting stylised flowers.  And here are the results:

As you can see I've painted the flowers on both plain and lightly patterned fabric.  The aim is to combine this panel with other fabrics and painted elements.  I'll let you see how it progresses.

The next day I had a class with Ineke Berlyn with the Leamington Embroiderers Guild.  A great day.

So - in the Black Magic workshop I learnt how to use a discharge paste with Thermofax screens.This is activated by a steam iron.  Once this part is complete I used the same or similarly themed screens with metallic paints.  I think I may have overdone the first piece.

At the same time I tried the technique on calico.

This is half the piece before it has been machine embroidered.

And here is the second half of the piece with some machine embroidery work.  I'm going to add some hand stitching.

I'm pleased with how this is progressing.  It's been a great way to practice machine embroidery and see how using the different threads produce such different results. I think it might end up as a cushion.

I hope you're all well and I promise to show you how it progresses.

Work in progress

Hi all,

I hope you're well and dry.  Yet again it's rained hard for most of the day.

 We had a sewing day with Leamington Embroiderers Guild where the aim was that we all sewed name badges.  And this is my effort. It was interesting to see how we all came up with such different designs. And you can see some of the other designs on their blog.

And here is the current work in progress.  It's taken from the latest Quilting Arts magazine.  Although the magazine provides ideas and a pattern you can really make the houses your own.  This still has some more embellishment to go.  

Promise I'll show them to you when it's finished.

Take care all.

Work in Progress - Walk II

 Hello all.

I have been working on the next piece in my Walk series.

Below are some of the photos that inspired this - harvest time. 

I collected grasses which I took home to study further.  Some of the seeds dropped, I photographed these, traced them, scaled them up and had Thermofax screens made.  I have screens made by Thermofax. They are always very good quality.  If you don't want to use your own designs you could select one of the vast range they have ready made.  Again, great quality and design. Here are the design pages for my screens.

I really enjoy this part of the design process - focussing on one small element.

Before going any further I needed to draft out the background  - colours and ideas about stitching.  These may change as a result of sampling.

And here is the fabric background with some screen printing (bottom and on the right on the yellow fabric).  I used a subtle yellow fabric paint from Colourcraft.  You will see this was just what I wanted.

Before screen printing on my pieced background I sampled to ensure the screens worked as expected on the pieced background. I used the screen printed seed images as a guide for sewing. I noted all my progress in my sketch book as although I often think I can remember how I made a piece, I often can't - so good notes are the best thing for me.

I have another aspect I'm sampling at the moment and promise to share it with you very soon.

And just as a bit of a tease.

Keep watching to find out more.

Take care all and try to keep dry.  If you live the UK you'll know exactly what I mean.

Happy New Year

Hello all.

Just a very short blog to wish you all a

happy and healthy 2014

Here's to lots of creativity...

I'm rubbish

Hello all.

Aplogies.  I'm rubbish at posting at the moment.

Anyway, I had a very nice day out recently at Chatsworth House.  It was a beautiful sunny bright Autumn day.

Here are a few photos of the interior and interior.

I have been sewing - but can't share the results as the majority of it is for Christmas presents...

Take care

Hello again

Hello all.

Apologies again for the lapse in posting.  Work really does get in the way.

But, don't think I've been sitting around not doing anything.

I had a lovely day yesterday meeting up with 3 other like minded ladies (yes ladies) who I find inspiring.  I'm sure that by meeting them on a regular basis I will be inspired to be more creative.  

We had a very nice time, talking, drinking great coffee, eating biscuits and cake and showing each other our latest work.  One of the most interesting things to come out of our meeting was that each of us has a distinct style that the others easily recognised, but the individual did not.  So now at least I think we all know our style.

No photos this time - but I promise I'll have some for next time.

Autumn...

Well - autumn has finally arrived.

That means I need to make a quilt so I can snuggle under it in the evenings ,hand quilting it to keep me warm.

My Walk series has hit a creativity block, well I think most of my creativity has.  

Work really does get in the way. But I do have something new coming up that I'm sure will help to re-spark my creativity. 

I'll be sure to share this you all.

I did attend a really interesting talk at the Lutterworth Embroiderers Guild by 

Karen Parry from John James.  

One of the most interesting parts of her talk was explaining the different needles and their uses.

 We also had the opportunity to buy some of the needles she'd explained to us - remembering that we all need to change them more often.

It was very interesting and useful talk - so if you have the chance do attend.

Hope you've managed to attend a fireworks display. I went to the LOROS event at Mallory Park.  I must say it was one of the next displays I've seen in some time.

Take care and hope to see you soon.

Sample and new magazine

Hello all.  Hope you're keeping nice and warm in this drab damp weather.

Well.  As you know I'm a fan of sampling before I make a piece. 

So here is the starting point for a sample - its very yellow.  

I promise to show it you when I've made some progress. 

Whilst at the Festival of Quilts I subscribed to a new magazine called Love Patchwork and Quilting and issue one has now landed.  It's great to see more contemporary fabrics being used.  If you get the chance do have a look - here's a little preview.

Promise to post again soon.

Holiday

Hello all.

Apologies for the lack of recent posts, but we've been on holiday.  So, I thought you might like to see some photos of my holiday.

The beaches in Tenby were amazing.

  

So it was great for a paddle.

We had a really lovely meal at the Ocean Restaurant.

On our way back we stopped in Hereford at a really great b&b called No 21. It was relatively close to the centre of Hereford so when we'd parked up we walked into Hereford to look at the cathedral.  I knew it would be interesting to look around, but it was even better than I expected.  If you ever get the chance, do go.

As there was an ordination service taking place we started with a cuppa and a sit down in the cloister garden.

We then went to the museum where the Mappa Mundi is on display.  Obviously I couldn't take any photos there.

After the service we did look around the cathedral - here are some photos.  If you do go, have a look at the textiles, there are lots scattered around the place.

So, now I'm back at home and hope to get back to being creative again very soon.

Take care all and promise to post again soon.

Walk I

Well - here is my piece of work - Walk I.

I'm really pleased with how it's turned out.

It's just over a meter long and is about 30 cms wide.

The majority of the fabrics I've used are ones I've dyed myself.

I've also used stencils made from freezer paper with markel sticks.  

Foiled with bondaweb and painted with metallic paints.  

I've used both machine and hand stitching.

I did lots of sampling - which I really enjoyed.

I've taken more photos and and am starting to design the next one.