Notty Hornblower

Hi All,

Well, I had a really nice afternoon yesterday at a Lutterworth Embroiderers Guild Event - a costume show by Notty Hornblower.

The costumes were great and the models were very good and walked past very slowly so we could have a good look and take photos. 

So here are lots of photos.

Hello all

Hello all.

Apologies for yet another large gap between posts.  We had a few urgent things that needed to be resolved and then we went on holiday. YIPEE.

I would say we went to sunny St Ives - but it wasn't awfully sunny. But it was still great to have a break.  So here are a few photos from our break:

 View from the beach in St Ives

 Porthgwidden Beach

 View from Tintagel Castle

And below are 3 photos taken of the Lynton and Lynmouth Cliff Railway

Busy busy

Front view

 Hello all,

I hope you're making the most of the sunshine.  I'm off out for a walk after this post.

I've really been enjoying my sewing recently and thought you might like to see a few things I've been up to.

So here are the 4 sides of a house I've made inspired by an article in Quilting Arts December 2013 and January 2014 edition.

I'm really pleased with the results.

Side View

Side view

Side view

 I'm really pleased with this piece.  It's combined a number of techniques: screen printing, machine and hand embroidery using sheers.  I had great fun with this and am very pleased I have a couple of other pieces to use.  

 I'm making reasonable progress with my crewel embroidery and have really surprised myself with my ability.

And finally here are a couple of examples from Angie Hughes talk at the Leamington Embroiderers Guild talk.  Unfortunately I could make the class, but I'm sure those who did had a great time.  The talk was very inspiring and I came home with my head buzzing with ideas.

Talk care all and make the most of the sunshine!

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.