Textile Tales

Blog Givaway

2012-01-30T16:29:00.008Z

It is six years today since I started my blog and so I thought I would do a little givaway in celebration, writing this blog has changed my life in ways I couldn't have imagined when I started it.

I met Lynda (Purplemissus) through our blogs and even though we live at opposite ends of the country, we went on to write our online courses and the book Stitching The Textured Surface.
I have met many more wonderful people through my blog and have been lucky enough to meet some of them in person.

Talking to various embroiderers and textile artist at my guild a few of them mentioned that they would like to try my classes but they can't cope with using a heat gun either because of health problems or they just don't want to invest in lots of new materials and equipment and so I have put together some packs of materials for them to have a try.

One pack includes one piece each of Pelmet Vilene, Bondaweb, Gold Transfoil and Lutradur already stencilled with Molding Paste and burnt away, ready to be painted with the colour of choice.They are all A4 size, (roughly 8 1/2" x 11 1/2")

Leave a comment on todays post and I will pull one name out of the hat next Monday February 6th and send a sample pack.

You could turn it into something like this 4 1/2" x 6 1/2" book

Looking back

2012-01-28T16:23:00.008Z

I realised this week that I am nearing my 6 year blogiversary, when I went to check what date my first post was I ended up spending a couple of hours reading through old posts, what wonderful memories it brought back, and it also made me sad how my blogging has changed over the years, I no longer visit favourite blogs and comment instead I rush through Google Reader updates trying to catch up with way too many blogs, but as soon as I cull some of the old ones I soon fill up my list again with new interesting blogs that catch my eye.

I have also been very bad at blogging the last year, but it was so wonderful to read through past blogs I want to get back to regular blogging, and hopefully this blog will also shame me into getting through a large pile of fabrics I recently discovered, just as my first blog helped me get back to my textiles after a long period of not doing anything after some health issues.

One of my blogs back in the first year was talking about cutting out a jacket from a Marcy Tilton pattern.

Just before Christmas while looking for my festive table runner in my deep airing cupboard, I pulled out all the usual bedding from the front and found all of these goodies behind.

The above mentioned jacket :(

3 metres of Batik fabric, bought last June, 3 metre lengths of various cottons ready for the dye pot, habotai silk, slub silk and a batch of silk scarves ?

What was a peach silk single bedspread bought many many moons ago from a charity shop for 10p dyed purple suppose to be made into a robe and still waiting, a sari a gift from a friend I was going to make a tunic, a large sarong destined to be a top and a piece of chenille

Next a huge bundle of table linens, both inherited and charity shop finds, I have since found another bundle. Not many of them are in great condition and I wanted to use them to make a long kimono type robe using the best bits of embroidery patched together.

This was started when I was doing my surface design C&G back in 04/05 unfortunately it didn't run after we finished our first year.
I can't remember what I planned for this, I do know it was inspired by a wonderful postcard of contemporary Inuit art. I think I need to hunt for the postcard and see if I get inspired once again.

Lovely day

2012-01-20T19:38:00.007Z

Its good to be back, a fluey type bug that lasted for around 5 weeks before Christmas left me with a bout of Vertigo, so instead of heading for the workroom after the holidays with all the ideas buzzing around in my head I was doing lots of sitting down instead, the tablets have worked and I am back to normal !!!

Thankfully I was well enough to attend the Embroiderers Guild members day yesterday, as well as our monthly evening meeting where we have a speaker we also have a members day one day a month and one member shows a technique that the rest of the group can join in with or you can take your own project and have a lovely natter.

I was the volunteer demonstrator yesterday and I chose to show some simple folding booklets and a gift pouch.To keep the requirements list simple we used 12" x 12" scrapbook papers, but you could go to town with hand painted papers, magazine pages, Tyvek or Lutradur 70 which folds well.
The first booklet was the Tim Holtz style ATC holder, for the little one at the front each page is made from an A4 sheet of paper,perfect size for an ATC,
the two behind show the same pages made up with an A3 paper

The next one is a folding booklet where you can just pop a photograph or small stitched sample into the corners adding as many pages as you want and fold up accordion style.

We also made a small accordion booklet with a pocket and a small gift pouch.
I hope the ladies enjoyed it because I had a great time, lots of laughter and a very productive day.

To make the day even better, when I arrived home my new toy had arrived which was amazing as I had only ordered it the day before at 9am, and due to an error on my part the address was incomplete as I was out I didn't get the message to phone the company until 3pm, and they still managed to get it to me the next day with regular updates letting me know the progress of the order, the tracking number and free P&P, so a huge thank you to CardCraft-UK
I will certainly use this company again

I have lots of ideas for using this machine, I plan on trying out lotsd of different materials, I know it will cut Grungeboard, thick card and thin felt I will keep you up to date on my progress learning to use it :)
With this and my new printer and all the ideas flooding in the last few months I have plenty to keep me busy.

2011-12-15T08:37:00.002Z

Avaiable to purchase now at reduced price. Stitching the Textured Surface £15 that includes postage and packaging.
Fibre In-Form

Oh Dear

2011-11-05T16:31:00.012Z

The North Wales Embroiderer's Guild held their Biennial exhibition on the 28 th and 29 th of October.
I didn't get to take any pictures as I forgot my camera, the exhibition was fabulous and gets better and better, thanks to all the hard work of the exhibition committee.

For lots of pictures and more to follow check out Croesew the official guild blog, Margaret (Digital Gran) writes this blog and took an amazing amount of photographs.
I did a little stewarding over the two days and on the Saturday did a demonstration working on kitchen foil with alcohol inks and organza I also took lots of samples of fabric with kitchen foil and tissue paper coloured with inks, dyes and paint.

I met lots of lovely people and some were asking how these were made, for any one reading this to get an idea check out this FREE chapter on Fibre In-Form's Inspired Surfaces,
'A Fascination With Foil'

The only trouble with demonstrating is the mess I make pulling things out to take with me, always way too much, and an even worse mess when I get back home.

I am hoping by showing the mess it will shame me into clearing up as I have put it off for the last week :)

This is what my sewing table looks like, to the right of the desk is a small cupboard and my computer desk with just as much mess piled up and around them, I had already cleared away the piled up ironing board in front of them.

The messy worktable doesn't look much better

Left

Middle

Right

and the floor in front of it isn't much better.

Right off to tackle the mess, but maybe a little coffee first :)

Helfa Gelf

2011-10-17T15:14:00.008+01:00

A few weeks ago I took part in Helfa Gelf/Art Trail, This event is held every year and artists all over North Wales take part, opening their studios to the public every weekend for the month of September, for those that don't have studios groups get together to exhibit in various venues in the area.

I joined 5 other artists Arial Arts to exhibit in St Johns Methodist Church for one weekend.
We had over three hundred visitors over the 3 days and met some really interesting people.
I really enjoyed the experience exhibiting with other artists.

We had demonstration tables with a good mix of techniques for people to watch

We were so busy talking to people I didn't get many pictures and some didn't come out very well.

We each had a board 6' x 4' , I decided to keep my work to my Lutradur pieces, luckily the colours flowed well with my neighbours.

Miriam Forder Textile and Mixed Media Artist,
I couldn't get a close up of Miriam's beautiful work as the demonstration tables were in the way, Miriam demonstrated the embellishing machine and lots of the visitors were fascinated to see the fabric being created.

Ronnie White, Textile Artist and Painter,
Ronnie demonstrated Nunu Felting and created some lovely scarves.

Jain Koffler Painter,
Jain demonstrated Encaustic Art and held every ones attention with her beautiful landscapes.

Jude Winnal Ceramics,
Jude was demonstrating with paper clay and produced some wonderful pieces, we were all wanting to try each others techniques, but managed to restrain ourselves.

Alana Tyson, Textile Artist Painter,
Alana demonstrated Lino cutting she makes the best lino blocks I have ever seen, very detailed images of people taken from her own photo's.
This picture doesn't do justice to her textile work, you can see more on the Arial Arts page

A couple of pictures of the sales tables, sadly the rest didn't come out

What a Week

2011-10-02T22:01:00.007+01:00

Its been a very interesting week, the weather was glorious and luckily my DH had three days off,we chilled out on the Wednesday then to Ikea on the Thursday, bought lots of goodies, two bedside tables, picture frames, a lamp and a throw, white magazine holders and little boxes that fit perfectly into my new shelf unit, it was too hot to go to any other stores so after a nice lunch we came home and flaked out :)

Friday we decided to play tourist and went to LLandudno, picked up my mum on the way and headed for the pier.

This view is from halfway down the pier towards the Great Orme,I spent many happy hours playing here as a child, we liked this bit of the old beach as there were not as many visitors and lovely big rocks to clamber over.

Looking back from the end of the pier towards LLandudno prom, walking along the pier always brings back happy memories as I used to work in the cafe at the end in the ice cream kiosk during school holidays when I was 12, 13 and 14,and I loved it, everything was 3d or 6d, nice and easy to add up, LOL

I spent Saturday and Sunday pottering around sorting my magazines and shelves so nothing creative this week, time to get back to work.

Last weekend was the Helfa Gelf/Art trail, I will do a separate post on that,once I have sorted my photo's.

Helfa Gelf

2011-09-20T22:05:00.009+01:00

Helfa Gelf / Art Trail | North Wales' biggest Open Studio event

Helfa Gelf Art Trail: the annual North Wales Open Studios event. Visit real artists in their studios, watch them work and stay around for a chat

Helfa Gelf

Its the last weekend of HELFA GELF

I will be exhibiting with the group Arial Arts, check us out HERE

There are six of us all together creating textiles, ceramics, paintings, prints and more.
If you are in the LLandudno area this weekend find us between the two Marks and Spencers stores.

St Johns Methodist Church
53-55 Mostyn Street
Llandudno
Conwy
LL30 2NN

FOQ

2011-08-13T20:17:00.002+01:00

Spent a wonderful day at Festival of Quilts on Thursday, hit the traders stalls first thing, then met up with some blogging pals, meeting several for the first time, then had my lunch with the lovely Sue Magic Armchair Traveller, we have known each other for about 10 years online and have managed to meet up only a few times before,so it was a real treat to spend some time chatting.
I then tried to see all the exhibits and know I missed a lot, definitely need two days at this venue, one day for shopping and catching up with pals and another to take in all the beautiful work on show.

I was very good and stuck mainly to my list with only a few extras finding there way into my basket :) I need to come back to earth and get on with some work now

Hoping for Good Weather

2011-06-03T14:14:00.010+01:00

This Sunday I am taking part in The Race For Life in Rhyl North Wales, keeping my fingers crossed for good weather.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
I am taking part for my mum, my sister and myself all survivors, and my dad who lost his battle.
If you feel you would like to sponsor me, this LINK or the pink box in the side bar takes you to my page.

Other news is I am madly finishing up my fourth module for my Mixed Media City and Guilds, my third module folders are with the tutor for internal verification.

I recently made this little book

using my Tim Holtz tag die cutter,

which means I have lots of the little book plates cut out in Lutradur

If they are of any use to anyone out there, let me know and you can have them.

More news

2011-05-04T10:34:00.020+01:00

Putting the finishing touches to the new Fibre in-Form workshop has been keeping Lynda (purplemissus) and myself busy the past few weeks, as well as lots of surfaces for you to create to use in your own art, we also show how to use the finished 'fabrics in projects like these.

Lesson 1,
We show how to create a 'fabric' using aluminium foil and PVA glue to make this vessel.

Lesson 2 we look at creating sketchbooks with newspaper, here is one of the books you can make.

And in Lesson 3, which we are really excited about, we show you how to create PVA Skins to add to your own projects or create stand alone pieces of wearable art.

New Online Workshop from Fibre in-Form

2011-05-03T08:32:00.004+01:00

Inspired Surfaces – ‘Out of the Cupboard’
Join us to create surfaces such as these.....

Using everyday materials you are sure to have in your workroom!
3 Lessons each with 3 chapters*
Several bonus sections
and an invitation only Yahoo group for subscribers

Starts Friday May 6th

Follow this link to find out more: Inspired Surfaces

*Please note: Lesson 1 of this workshop includes the free taster ‘A Fascination with Foil’ available on the Fibre in-Form website

2011-04-29T18:10:00.007+01:00

Great wedding, it meant Hubby got an extra day off this weekend and Asda was practically empty this morning, also went to the retail park and could park right at the door of the shop of your choosing :)
seriously I did Sky + some of it, so I could see the dress, she looked very beautiful, and what about all those hats !!!

I have been busy catching up on lots of work this week, but got sidetracked when I found my rusting powder in a drawer, the stuff is very addictive :)

Catching up

2011-02-07T20:10:00.016Z

I haven't blogged too much in the last few months, but I haven't been totally idle, last September I signed up for another City & Guilds at my local college, this time I am doing Mixed Media level 2, I wasn't sure what it would involve when I signed up, and the first week I was a bit worried it wouldn't be the course for me as the it seemed the emphasis is on painting and drawing, but the tutor Susie Williams assured me that I could bring my textiles into my studies, and has encouraged all the students to develop their own style.

I can't show you anything from the first module which covered Line, Form,Shape, Colour and Texture, as we handed our folders in before Christmas.
We started on the second module before the Christmas break up, and made a selection of Collagraph plates then into the print room.
I thought I would show one of the plates here.

We used wood glue to attach Scrim and Skeleton Holly leaves to Daler Mount board and added
4 layers of varnish thinly allowing it to dry completely before using the plate.

My first print on watercolour paper had too much ink and came out very dark, so once it was dry I added some Silver Goldfinger to highlight the raised areas.

The second run through the print was on Khadi paper and I like the result of this one.

As much as I liked the results of the Collagraph prints I struggled with the smell of the printing inks, not sure I would be able to do a lot of this, once home I tried the plate through my Big-Shot machine, luckily the plate was just the right size, I used damp water colour paper and spritzed the paper with Mica sprays before placing the plate face down on the paper, then did the usual embossing procedure for the Big Shot, I really love the way the sprays were soaked up by the paper and give just a gentle hint of colour, the shine is very subtle when it catches the light.

This has That Special Touch of Mica 'Green Pearl' and Moonshadow Mist 'Gossamer Gold'
some residue red paint left on the plate has given the gold area a hint of red.

This one just has Moonshadow Mist Gossamer Gold

I also used the plate to make a rubbing using white oil pastel on tea bag paper and washed over with grey procion cold water dye.
I am pleased that I will be able to use the plates again and have a few more ideas in mind for them.

Sketch Book

2011-01-25T18:35:00.020Z

After signing up for The Art House Sketchbook Project last year, suddenly the deadline was upon me and I hadn't worked on one single page, my husband had sent his book off a couple of days before, and then I heard they had extended the deadline, so on the final day I decided to have a go at doing something with the book.

Originally I had planned on working with molding paste on Lutradur pages, with raised areas and cut away designs, inspired by the history and wonderful carvings in Penrhyn Castle, but with 8 hours to go before the last post I just had to work quickly.

The time restraint meant wet media was out of the question, I coloured the pages with Colour Box 'Chalk' ink pads, the colours don't show up very well in the pictures, these can be used on fabrics and are heat set with an iron.

I used hand made card stencils or metal shapes and a fine nib soldering iron to cut out the shapes.

I added words to some of the pages, it was nearly 6pm when I managed to get a few pictures before packing it up and rushing it down to the post office before the 6-30 pm last post .
phew!

Snow

2010-12-19T20:50:00.010Z

Living by the seaside we don't often get snow that sticks around for very long, we had a flurry of a couple of inches on Friday which looked as if it was going by lunchtime, what was left turned to ice but this is what we woke up to on Saturday morning 6 inch deep,

These pictures are all through the glass it was too cold to open the window :)
this is the view from the back over the allotments, the woods above looked beautiful

Look at that sky brrr

It won't be long before the youngsters are out on the bowling green to make snowmen

Out of the front window, nothing much moving on the hill, we used to live at the top of this hill in the 80's thank goodness we are not there now

So glad we changed the car a few months ago from a little two seater to a four wheel drive as we manged to get out of the drive and down the hill very slowly to stock up on shopping thank goodness we did because by 3 o clock nothing could get up the hill and quite a few cars were stuck for the night.

Looking down the hill you can just see the sea in the distance very cold and grey.
nothing has moved today the road is like a sheet of ice, but the children have had a ball sledging down the hill, with the teenagers coming right from the top, my heart is in my mouth watching them

5 panels

2010-08-24T18:49:00.007+01:00

A couple of weeks ago I decided to finally make a 5 panel painting for my lounge, its something I have wanted to make for a long time, the only thing is this took on a life of its own, I had planned on doing earthy colours, through to burnt orange and deep wine.
I started with a base of red oxide and nickel azo gold, threw a bit of turquoise in the mix, and then I picked up some new sprays I bought recently 'That Special Touch of Mica' rich purple and green pearl, I am in love with these colours,

You can just see the base colour of red oxide in the picture above, and then the other colours just took over

I kept adding more colours and playing with it, until I had to make myself leave it alone, but only after I added a touch of Goldfinger
They are up on the wall but its hard to get a picture of the true colours,I will try again when the sun is shining, its so dark and gloomy today. the top half glows in the light.

The top half glows in the light,
PS, question, if three panels are a triptych what are 5 panels called :)

Playing with the Cinch

2010-07-20T14:59:00.010+01:00

Recently we have been clearing out our attic, so many things up there that haven't been looked at in the nine years we have been here, so lots of stuff for the charity shops resulting in lots of empty cardboard boxes, last week with a new pile of cardboard ready for the dump,it made me think of my son SYSTEM's recent work on packaging and I decided to have a play with my new toy of a few posts back the Cinch, and so a lot of the boxes have been dismantled into usable pieces,

This one was a small box with coated surface, I ripped the surface off the outside which left this lovely distressed effect, it was all painted with white emulsion and allowed to dry.

The front cover is ready to be decorated but I haven't decided on a fastener yet. there is a small flap that comes around from the back.

This page was made up of the side flaps, punched on the Cinch and laced together with black thread.

Tags were also added on a couple of the pages

the back flap was also laced with black thread.

Now to decide what goes inside.

Playing with the Big Shot

2010-07-07T14:39:00.030+01:00

Yesterday while tidying up my desk to do some work I got sidetracked by the Big Shot, I had only had a little play with it since April, and thought it was time to do some more experimenting, especially as I had been talking about it to Sandy of Dangling By A Thread and we decided we would have a virtual play together :)

This set of three below are from left clockwise:
Cut with Tim Holtz 'Baroque' die

Aluminium foil bonded to grunge paper coloured with alcohol ink, organza applied with Fuse FX and embossed with a Paisley embossing folder, this is gorgeous in real life I just can't capture the colours in the photo.

Aluminium foil bonded to grunge paper with double sided adhesive sheet, coloured with alcohol inks

Metal mesh bonded to pearlescent card with double sided adhesive sheet, think I will give this a rub with Staze-On ink pad as it looks a bit insipid.

The next three are a mixture of materials.
Top left: Pelmet Vilene, coloured with Adirondack Colourwash Spray, embossed with script and white acrylic dry brushed over the surface.
Top right:Gold card,embossed, I was going to rub the sandpaper over the surface, but can't get near my cupboard :)

This is the packaging that the Tim Holtz embossing folders come in,
I saw this tip on Tim Holtz video here
once embossed I coloured it with alcohol inks.

Below are the Spellbinders medallion dies, these dies are thin metal and are meant for cards, I found anything fibrous didn't cut very well, it did cut thin metal, pelmet vilene and grunge paper okay, I added extra shims and put it through a few times turning it each time.
I found that the Lutradur, fibrous paper and watercolour paper didn't cut well
To be fair these are quite intricate dies and I think the Nestabilities they make of frame shapes would do better on the more difficult fabrics.
Left shows the thin adhesive pelmet vilene inked and foiled, you will find how to do this on our free tutorial at Fibre In-Form Foil with Fusible Vilene,
the small medallion below on the right is from a coke can. Right is standard pelmet vilene,

For this one I didn't put the centre in and embossed the finished piece.

I thought I would try out some ordinary metal stencils and one of my home made stencils, this is aluminium foil adhered to cotton wadding, I was surprised how well the home made stencil did.
hard to get a picture of these darn metal effect.

Aluminium foil bonded to grunge paper and a mask was embossed, or I should say de-bossed as the mask is thin it won't push the design through the grunge paper, so you place it on the foil side.
The next one is aluminium foil on grunge paper and TH embossing folder,

I like the way the embossed part goes shiny and the surrounding areas are matt

Very subtle with the mask, maybe if this was backed with cotton wadding it would show up more.

Thought I would show this one, when I first tried the machine in April I cut a scroll in a coke can and some Lutradur

and then found this piece of fabric, it is crumpled aluminium foil painted with alcohol inks, glued to scrim, how to create this fabric can also be found here at Fibre In-Form in A Fascination with Foil free tutorial. the Tim Holtz Scroll die cuts through very easily.

This aluminium foil covered in transfer foil, was put over a Ten Second Studio mould, I had to play around with different plates shims and embossing mats to get it through, don't force the handle.
I think the aluminium foil was too thin to get good image but will try some metal shim, these wonderful moulds are from LB Crafts and they have a sale on at the moment on the moulds.
phew I was only going to put a few photo's to show what I have been up to :)

Another new toy

2010-06-28T20:45:00.008+01:00

I recently bought this book binder,made by We R Memory Keepers, nice and easy to operate, push down lever easy on the hands, the little pegs can be pulled out to stop the holes being punched and an extension slides out of the side for punching 12" board,also a flap drops down to go even wider, only had a little play so far but have lots of plans.

Back in April when I got my Big Shot die cutter, my son and his partner bought me some embossing folders and said there were more to come on pre-order, well they have arrived.

Look at all those wonderful Tim Holtz textures waiting to be applied :)

ATC's

2010-06-21T11:08:00.006+01:00

Last week on Artymess blog Ruby aged 8 had made some ATC cards to trade, so I put my name down to swap with her, her wonderful card arrived on Saturday, I am very impressed it is so well made,
Thank you Ruby :)

I needed to make some for my June Birthday girls in Kate's ATC Birthday Swap, so I made a few extra, using up some old samples I had found looking for something else.one for Ruby and few can be put aside for the July girls and I will be ahead of myself for a change.

Playing Around

2010-06-17T21:36:00.004+01:00

I have been playing with the new layout gizzmo, got myself in a huge muddle and hadn't a clue what I was doing, so I am leaving it alone for a while until I can have a good look, will have to leave this one here for now :)

For those of you who were interested in the Future Everything Project a few posts ago, HERE is a updated video of the project showing the finished work

2010-06-12T20:41:00.003+01:00

I have signed up for this along with my DH and several of my Friends on The Artful Dodgers yahoo group, looking forward to receiving my sketchbook,
check it out it should be fun

The Sketchbook Project

Art House is based in Brooklyn, NY and builds international art projects tie thousands of artists together –and anyone can participate

Future Everything

2010-05-17T15:48:00.027+01:00

This week Manchester has been hosting an art event, check out the various exhibitions on show here Future Everything

Taking part were 7 artists, each one very talented successful artists in their own right who are part of the collaborative

'Agents of Change'

"Fresh from transforming an abandoned village, the contemporary art collective Agents of Change hit Manchester with spray cans, paint and perception-altering art on their minds...."

As our son is one of the artists we popped over to Manchester on the open day to see him,
The venue was called The Sharp Project just outside the city centre.
Four panels painted in just three days, the huge scale meant I couldn't get all four in one shot, the background is all silver the sun coming through the skylights made the black, white and silver images pop, making them look almost 3D.
My pictures just don't do the work justice, check out the Agents of Change site over the next few days where you can see more of this amazing work, also check out my husbands photo's for more pictures

Below a close up of the hand on the right, hundreds of prints of the artists own hand in black, white and silver.

A close up of the collaged squares, that makes up the hand on the left

Peacock shows off

2010-05-02T12:11:00.012+01:00

This post has been sitting in the draft folder for a couple of weeks,
We had a quick visit to Bodnant Gardens and look who was at the entrance to greet us that day :)

Going along to the gardens every couple of weeks is a great way to catch things opening ready to bloom into their full glory, loved these ferns just uncurling.

and here they are fully opened, there was a whole bunch of these and they looked just like vessels dotted around, gave me a few ideas

I had forgotten my camera so had to use my phone, to get the inside of the ferns I had to stand on tip toe , lean over and hope the phone was pointing in the right direction, so quite pleased with the result.

I have taken lots of pictures of these two statues ( they face each other and have the bodies of what I think are lions with a woman's head) so I didn't get a full picture and now I can't find them anywhere, but I did get a nice close up of the adornment around the necks

the mill area is a favourite spot and the plants are ready to bloom and reveal their giant leaves

But, they have removed them from around the doorway it just doesn't look the same.

Finally the scaffolding has been removed from the Mausoleum below, it has been covered in scaffold and plastic for the last couple of years

Fabulous door with metal grills to peek inside, there is a stained glass window at the back which highlights the patterned floor and the beautiful marble interior, wish I could get some shots.

I couldn't quite capture the lovely colours on the metal.

Its been a great month so far

2010-04-20T09:36:00.020+01:00

April is my birthday month and it started off well with these wonderful ATC's that started arriving at the beginning of the month.I am part of Kate Norths ATC Birthday Swap, there are about 30 of us and we send to whoever has a birthday each month, its great fun especially being on the receiving end.

I have spread them over the hearth along with some of the cards that came with them a wonderful variety.

Thursday my friend Jenny came over with this beautiful scarf that she had made for me, she makes the most beautiful felt, she doesn't blog much these days, hint hint but you can still see lots of her wonderful work on her blog HERE

Below is this wonderful book made by my eldest sons girlfriend, my son made the box to put it in, if you go HERE and scroll down to 'Regency Mini Album' there are pictures and a video of each page.

Friday was the big day, DH brought home this huge cake, it was delicious,I could have eaten the whole thing by myself, luckily the family helped me out.

He also bought me the Sizzix Big Shot, I had my eye on one for a while and I am looking forward to having a good play

I had some Tim Holtz cutting dies and Sizzix embossing folders I haven't had time to have a good play but did try the Lutradur and coke can metal, they worked great

There were lots more goodies my other son and daughter in law bought me Silver/Amber earrings, some wonderful African type beads, a hand made book and my favourite style of purse/wallet, how did DIL know I needed one. I also had a video/slideshow of pictures of my little grandson from birth to now two and a half, and he is singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and at the end says Happy Birthday Nan, aaah brought a tear to my eye :)
Now I have to work out what to spend my birthday money on, don't think I will have too much trouble with that.

I had a laid back day, talked to friends and family far away on the phone, friends visited and a Skype from my little GS, finished off with a take away and a bottle of wine, out for lunch Saturday and a family Christening on the Sunday finished the weekend off perfectly.

Thank goodness

2010-04-17T09:08:00.013+01:00

March is well behind us, I seemed to be ill with one thing and another the whole month, first a flu type virus, then a chest cold finishing the month with a nasty stomach bug,so I was very relieved to welcome April feeling okay. When I finally went back into the workroom the brushes I had left in water and some in the jar of dye I had been painting with had dried out and gone mouldy yuck, never had that happen before.

We made the most of the nice weather over the Easter break and made our first visit of the season to Bodnant Gardens, not much in flower except the Magnolias and Rhododendron, we did get to see the beautiful resident Peacock, which sadly I didn't get a picture of, my husband was filming him sitting on the wall, don't think he was too pleased as it flew at him after ruffling his feathers a bit.

Also had a visit to Ruthin Craft Centre, I went to see the Becky Adams exhibition, no photographs allowed and the website doesn't really show much but there were a couple of other exhibitions going on at the same time so spent a nice hour looking around.

Our next day out was to Penrhyn Castle, I love this place and wish photography was allowed inside, or that the National Trust would get some decent postcards of the wonderful columns in the main rooms (carved wood) and the inner hallway (carved stone). I did do some little quick sketches of the carvings and plan to finally do something based on them after saying this for the last 10 years :)

I took a few shots around the entrance you can see more HERE

It was so windy outside we could barely keep our feet on the ground so gave the gardens a miss this time.

Some goodies and a finished book

2010-03-09T14:47:00.010Z

This picture was loaded on the 9th of March and has sat in the draft folder all this time, I caught a nasty virus that is doing the rounds, and while feeling sorry for myself cuddled up on the sofa it happened to be craft day on QVC, all the Ranger guys were over form the US Tim Holtz, Suze Weinberg and Claudine Hellmuth, so I couldn't resist buying the pick of the day which was Tim's new book, and some essential supplies that came with it, Grunge paper and Claudine's sticky back canvas. I just need the time to do something with them now,

Life took over again for a few weeks, but I did get this book finished, I made the cover and pages last year I think, I kept putting off sewing the pages in all this time, so I took it along to our members day at Guild and got most of them sewn in, I finished the last few yesterday..

I used a heavy weight calico 32" x 8" painted it with watered down Payne's Grey acrylic,then dry brushed with silver acrylic, Pale blue organza was placed on top and stitched all over, then the heat gun was applied to zap away the organza, this turned the organza into a mucky blue so I over painted the whole lot with white emulsion.

The painted surface makes the fabric stiff enough to stand up on its own the front covers are 7" and then the concertina folds are roughly 1 3/4" wide.

The pages are the same fabric painted with the Payne's Grey and Silver acrylic, I decided to sew one to each high and low fold.

While I was sewing the pages in at guild people were asking what it was for, to be honest I hadn't thought that far ahead, but I think little silver and metal samples would look good on the silvery pages.

Freebie

2010-02-16T18:50:00.013Z

We have uploaded ‘Lutradur and Lace’ on the Fibre in-Form website as a freebie workshop. This has been adapted from the article which appeared in the first edition of the online magazine Fibre and Stitch in August 2007 and was a huge success. Take a look HERE.

Last Thursday I went to NW Embroiderers Guild Members day, it was very enjoyable, Sue Gilchrist was showing everyone how to apply metal shim to card and colour with Alcohol Inks, then cutting it into shapes with a Sizzix machine and embossing the finished shapes, these were then made into brooches with the addition of wire and beads, there was some lovely work at the end of the day, as I was late arriving I didn't get to do much, but I have been dithering whether to get a die cutting machine for some time and I think the little play I had convinced me I may need one :)
Above are some of the pieces made on the day, click on the picture for a closer look

I took this fabric along with me, I wanted something I can stitch mindlessly in the evenings or when I go to members day, its going to be stitched all over then textured and painted, Its a good way to use up all those horrible colours of thread I have and never use.

The picture below shows what the finished surface will look like, to see how this was made check out this blog post HERE

I forgot my Blogiversary

2010-02-10T14:59:00.007Z

Two posts in one day, what's going on. I just realised I forgot my 4 year Blogiversary on 31st January, can't believe I have blogged for so long, I first started my blog to try and get myself back into creative mode after having treatment for breast cancer, after my radiotherapy I didn't do anything creative at all for 6 months, I thought by blogging about a project I had started it would make me finish it

It worked and I really got back into being creative, along the way I have made so many friends through the blog, some I have been lucky enough to meet in person, without the blog I would not have met Lynda purplemissus and look where that led :)

My good news is on Monday I got my 5 year clearance from the hospital and don't have to go back again, and I can come off my medication so lots of happy dancing around here. YEAH :)
I think I should do a givaway to celebrate so watch this space.

On a previous hospital visit last week I had a long wait for the bus home so went and had a look on the charity stall and look what I found this box frame for £1-00, I do love a bargain.

Talking of bargains I couldn't resist this kiddies set of body art two rubber stamps, an inkpad, some stencils and loads of stick on tattoos for £1-99, who could resist LOL

Meet the family

2010-02-07T16:46:00.008Z

This little chap came to live with us last September on my husbands birthday, born from my grandsons baby socks, my lovely daughter-in-law Poppy who is married to my youngest son made it for him. I was very jealous especially as she had also made one for my eldest son who was home at the time,visiting on his birthday, so there was I outnumbered by men and sock monkeys.

But look who was in my Christmas stocking, my very own lady sock monkey, with her own dress, handbag and jewellery Yeah, with those lips I couldn't name her anything but Ruby.

You may notice Ruby is carrying a little book, this was made by my eldest sons lovely partner Christine for our Christmas card, below is a glimpse inside, it has little pockets and tags and sliders, its wonderful there was also a lovely pair of earrings that she made me nestling in one of the pockets.

This is how I feel

2010-01-03T18:07:00.004Z

now its all over LOL
Finally cleared away the decorations and finished all the goodies, so hoping to get back to normal tomorrow, no resolutions made, but I do want to continue with a steady weight loss to shift some more pounds, try and get into the workroom every day, and finally get back to regular blogging, it will be 4 years on the 30th of this month, I can't believe the changes it has made to my life and all the wonderful people I have made friends with, some I have even met up with in real life :)

Happy Holiday

2009-12-24T18:19:00.001Z

WISHING YOU ALL A MERRY CHRISTMAS

AND A HAPPY, HEALTHY AND CREATIVE NEW YEAR

News from Fibre in-Form

2009-12-13T10:32:00.004Z

We wanted to tell you about a freebie workshop that we have just added to the website. It’s a taster for a new workshop planned for early next year called

‘Out of the Cupboard'.

This one is called ‘A Fascination with Foil’ and explains the techniques that we have used to create some really great samples using kitchen foil. Follow this link to download the:
Free Taster Workshop

December card for Jenny

2009-12-11T16:51:00.003Z

This is the picture chosen by Neki for the December postcard swap for Calendar Girls

This one had me stumped and so I decided to free machine embroider onto black velvet, This blue was the only one I had, I have every colour of turquoise but not much blue, it looks too pale now I compare it to the original,

The year has flown by and its been great fun, thanks to all the Calendar Girls for your lovely cards.

November card for Neki

2009-12-11T16:50:00.000Z

This is the picture Jenny chose for Calendar Girls postcard swap for November.
I love the way the little girl is looking out into the distance and the little fairies are all going about their business below the tree roots.

My first thoughts didn't work out due to the small scale, but I had this piece of painted Lutradur and the colour reminded me of lichen coloured tree bark, and o I created a door covering the whole postcard the cord is supposed to represent tree roots :)

Once you open the door it reveals the little fairies who have come out to play

This picture was in my stash of copyright free images its Arthur Rackhams from a Midsummer Nights Dream, I printed it out onto acetate and placed it over a peice of transfer foiled kitchen foil. it has a lovely golden glow in real life I can't get a picture as it is so dark, but this scan gives you an idea.

To get a selection of copyright free images sign up for the free samples that are released every week HERE

2009-12-04T07:38:00.004Z

There is a great givaway on The Stamp Man blog, these gorgeous stamps, go and put your name down, you never know you could be lucky.

Arrived home from shopping cold and tired to be greeted by this wonderful Calendar Girls postcard from Carol T to see what everyone has been doing go and check them out HERE

Lovely post

2009-11-27T19:28:00.007Z

I have been very slow in acknowledging the lovely cards I received lately, first is this lovely ATC from Núria Madurell
I haven't forgotten your card Nuria and will send it off soon.

Next was this beautiful hand stitched postcard from Pippa for the October Calendar Girls

Last but not least is this wonderful card from Val I want to go and live in that little house in the tree.
Thanks everyone

Catch up

2009-11-26T08:15:00.001Z

While I was at Ally Pally K&S show Dale of The Thread Studio gave Lynda, Maggie and I some of this exciting new Lutradur type product called Crash to try out, to find out more have a look here
Looking forward to having a play with it, Dale has produced some great samples with it.

This little pile below is a project I want to get started on, using a big fat Sunday paper and a sample I have had for a while.

The sample above was made back in July as part of the free lesson available on D4Daisy with our book Stitching The Textured Surface

After creating the shape the sample was sprayed with Adirondack inks and silk paints and while wet I sprinkled some of the powder on top, not how you are supposed to add it, but thought I would see what happens, I only sprayed it with water and it didn't rust but stayed a gunmetal colour, I over sprayed with Moonglow Moonshadow mists, then painted on some Golden gel matt medium, when applying the medium it was making the underlying colours run.
I sprinkled the rust powder on and spritzed it with white vinegar a few times.
It was interesting to see the rust that was originally applied started to show through on the left hand side and bottom left

As the rust dried I could still see the gel medium creating a shiny streak so over sprayed the lot with Moonshadow Mist Gossamer Gold, this knocked back the shine and still allowed the rust to show through,
I liked how this turned out and decided it was time to use it in something

This is the back, some great colours showing through even a bit of rust

A month late

2009-11-25T10:50:00.007Z

Ooops I just found this post in draft written a whole month ago.

I thought I would show you my new work table, we had a large piece of worktop over from doing up the kitchen so my husband cut two old wardrobe doors in half glued them together and made the legs,
I bought some new drawer units and its great I can reach everything so easily, my last set up was two old shelf units one in front of the other with an old desk top on top, this meant I had to get on my hands and knees to reach the back and lately I couldn't get up again :)

In the kitchen we moved the wall cupboards along into the corner and filled the space left with these two shelves, looking around for something to put on them I remembered this, it will do until I find the right thing

You can read more about it HERE,
it was supposed to hang on the wall, but the bottom wouldn't lay flat.

Exciting New Workshop From Fibre In-Form

2009-10-18T12:53:00.004+01:00

Creative Surfaces

‘Simply Salt’

‘Simply Salt’ is the first in a series of ‘Creative Surfaces’ workshops from Fibre in-Form allowing you to pick and choose which techniques you would like to explore and take further.
We all know how life can sometimes get in the way of our creative endeavours so these workshops have been designed to enable you to start and finish them at your leisure.
‘Simply Salt’ will take you through the process of creating an amazing surface on a background of Lutradur using gesso, ink, silk paints and salt.
This surface can then be embellished further using machine or hand stitch, beading or other embellishments but is equally decorative enough to use on its own to create vessels, book covers, bags etc.
The workshop includes five chapters with 77 colour illustrations.

Please make your way to Fibre In-Form

New Group

2009-10-14T20:42:00.004+01:00

Check out D4Daisy on Friday a new Yahoo group will open for the free online classes that go with the books Stitching the Textured Surface and Stitches Straps and Layers

Check out Maggie's blog for details

New Picture

2009-09-19T19:33:00.003+01:00

I thought it was time I updated my profile picture, since the last one was taken I have lost 2 stone,so a couple less chins, still a long way to go, plodding along at losing around a 1LB a week, also bit the bullet and had my hair lightened yesterday, keep doing a double take when I pass a mirror LOL
still sorting out the kitchen and the upheaval in the rest of the flat,so not much creativity going on, but I do have a very tidy workroom :)

Catching up

2009-09-09T11:08:00.006+01:00

Not much creativity around here at the moment, we are giving our kitchen a face lift so the contents are scattered around every room in our flat, worktops are not getting replaced until tomorrow, and my eldest son and his girlfriend are coming for a visit arriving tea time, that should be fun, lets hope my other half can fit the sink back in pretty quickly.
I have had to tidy away all my stuff (mess) in the workroom, so now because I can't I want to go and play in there :)

Thought I would show you my latest vessel, it makes an appearance in the latest issue of WOW
if you haven't checked out WOW try HERE for a free taster

Other happenings in the McFee household, my husbands 60th birthday, this picture was a present from one of our sons, he asked for some old photographs and made this image up, and had it made into a poster.

This close up shows all the old photo's of him and the boys with our little grandson in there too. I love this and can't stop looking at it.

This week I received my August Calendar Girls card from Doreen this scan doesn't do justice to the colours, very soft pastels, its lovely, thanks Doreen.

Here is my card for August to Sandy
layers of green organza in the background with floating hearts and pale blue organza over the top, its quite shimmery in real life.

I also caught up with my ATC's for Aug and Sep. using Lutradur zapped and painted over a layer of foiled pelmet vilene.

FOQ

2009-08-29T09:07:00.013+01:00

Last Thursday I went to the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham, I went by coach so it was a nice time to catch up with my friend and lots of chattering took place, we arrived just as they opened and headed straight for the traders :)

I was quite restrained this time, I bought some machine threads from Myfanwy, silk and cotton embroidery threads from De Haviland, Jacquard Lumiere paints from Ario, crinkly Lutradur and extra heavy pelmet vilene (not shown as it is being flattened out under a rug) from Nid Noi,a mask/stencil and a little pack of Kadi paper from Crafty Notions

I didn't realise until I emptied my bag but I obviously had a colourway in mind when choosing my goodies,although turquoise always finds its way into my thread purchases.

I always find the FOQ a little overwhelming and one day just isn't enough, reading other peoples blogs makes me realise how much I missed,
The highlight for me was Chunghie Lee Pojagi and Beyond I have followed her work for some time and there is a great U-Tube video here
for more images of what was on show at FOQ take a look on Facebook

I thought I would show you these stamps I bought recently from QVC, each block is 6" square, but seeing them on our large tv screen I thought they were going to be much bigger, forgetting they were demonstrating them on greetings cards LOL
never mind I still like them. but next time I will remember to measure first :)

The Stamp Man Givaway

2009-08-18T09:25:00.003+01:00

Pop over to The Stamp Man Blog to take part in this great giveaway,

also check out the website they do a wonderful range of Moonglow products and the service is great :)
The Stamp Man

Back again

2009-08-09T11:10:00.011+01:00

I am just about lifting my head from the settee after some kind of virus, every time I thought I was better, back it came, so not a lot of creativity around here this last 3 weeks, I did manage to sort out a lot of folders then old magazines ripping out interesting bits and adding more to the folder pile than I threw away :)

We did manage a trip out to Ruthin Craft Centre which is just half an hour away from us to see the exhibitions by

Mary Loyd Jones
I have not come across Mary's work before and found them interesting although they are not as vibrant in real life as they look in the photo's, the work in Ruthin is Gallery 5 on the website, but check out the rest of her website for more recent work, which I prefer.

Kevin Coates A Notebook of Pins was stunning, check out his website and see for yourself.

Ruth Duckworth
This was the main exhibition and the pieces were much larger than I was expecting I would have given a home to some of the wall pieces if I had a wall big enough and a purse to match.

I haven't been totally idle, I did manage to add a few inks and sprays to something I had started a while ago.

Its here :) and what I have been up to.

2009-07-11T14:05:00.018+01:00

After months of excitement and trepidation its finally here, The Book :) its wonderful to finally be able to hold it in my hands, Maggie Grey and Michael Wicks
d4daisy publications
have done a wonderful job, and I can't stop smiling when I look at it

I have been busy doing other things, I made this using Lutradur, molding paste and paints, pelmet vilene and Fibre In-Form foils

here's a close up

I am half way through making this and having a bit of trouble fitting the base so have put it to one side while I think about it, it was inspired by a ceramic ornament on my mantle piece it looks like copper and I have been wanting to make something this shape for ages, not as easy to put together as it was in my head

The close ups are a truer colour than the large picture

I bought these two a couple of weeks ago and haven't had much time to play with them

but I did add some to this piece here, it was sprayed with Adirondack inks and silk paints and while wet I sprinkled some of the powder on top, not how you are supposed to add it, but thought I would see what happens, I only sprayed it with water and it didn't rust but stayed a gunmetal colour, I over sprayed with Moonglow Moonshadow mists, then painted on some Golden gel matt medium, when applying the medium it was making the underlying colours run.
I sprinkled the rust powder on and spritzed it with white vinegar a few times.
It was interesting to see the rust that was originally applied started to show through on the left hand side and bottom left

As the rust dried I could still see the gel medium creating a shiny streak so over sprayed the lot with Moonshadow Mist Gossamer Gold, this knocked back the shine and still allowed the rust to show through, can't wait to play with this some more.

This is the back, some great colours showing through even a bit of rust

catch up

2009-06-03T11:01:00.002+01:00

Yeah, I am finally able to blog again, after computer problems for a couple of months,which meant I had to do work that needed to be done before the computer crashed yet again, so I haven't been keeping up with much out in blog land.

I wanted to tell you all about the Rozanne Hawksley exhibition I went to see in May at The Ruthin Craft Centre and now I can't find anything about it on the web.

I wanted to show you the Laburnum Arch at Bodnant Gardens in all its glory, but I have lost the picture,

I have taken it from my husbands flickr site, isn't it gorgeous.

May PC for Calendar Girls

2009-05-21T15:58:00.007+01:00

Yesterday I received this wonderful card from Sandy as part of our swap for Calendar Girls, check out every ones great interpretations here

This is the original picture chosen by Doreen,

I decided to home in on part of the image and use that for my inspiration.

My biggest problem with this image is that I don't do yellow and green, so had no fabrics, wool tops or paints in those colours, then I remembered my Brusho powders, I used a piece of interfacing for the base and sprinkled, yellow, green and orange over the fabric and spritzed it with water, this made all the colours blend, it looked great but by the time it dried it went very pale, I had left it on top of a piece of kitchen towel and the colour had bled through, I kept them together as it made the top colour stronger, then started to create my version of the lily pads.
Looking through my threads no green remotely like the picture, just every shade of turquoise, then I found a variegated rayon bought years ago, with yellow green and purple, shame it hadn't had a shot of rust but never mind.
I just checked who I am sending to and its Doreen, I hope she likes this as it is her picture choice :)

News Update

2009-05-18T14:08:00.005+01:00

Just thought I would update you all, the book has been put back slightly until June, and we have a new cover.

I thought it worth a mention the registration open at the moment is for Textured Surfaces, which we ran back in October and January.

Registration for the all new workshop will open 3rd July.

I have been putting off all morning going into the workroom, but I need to tidy my table and desk before I can get anything done. wish me luck I may be some time LOL

News

2009-05-15T12:19:00.010+01:00

**LATEST NEWS FROM FIBRE IN-FORM**
www.fibreinform.com

TEXTURED SURFACES WORKSHOP

We are pleased to announce that registration for the workshop
‘Textured Surfaces ’ will open on Friday May 15th 2009 and will remain
open for 4 weeks from that date.

The workshop begins with the first lesson on Friday June 12th 2009.

To register for the ‘Textured Surfaces’ workshop go to:

http://fibreinform.com/Onlineworkshop.htm

Once registered you will receive a materials and suppliers list.
An invitation to join a Yahoo Group will be issued to registered students and will open on Friday 5th June 2009. You will be able to ask any questions you may have concerning materials etc. and have a chance to introduce yourself to the other students.

Dates to remember:
Registration opens Friday 15th May 2009
Yahoo group opens Friday 15th June 2009
Workshop begins Friday 12th June 2009

For further information please go to:

http://fibreinform.com/texturedsurfaces.htm

-------------------------------------------------------

STITCHING THE TEXTURED SURFACE

Our new book ‘Stitching The Textured Surface’ is still on track for publication at the end of May.
We are very excited as the date draws closer and will keep you informed when we have a firm date.

-------------------------------------------------------

A NEW WORKSHOP

We are currently working on a new workshop which will be a continuation of the original Textured Surface workshop, bringing you many more unique ideas on how to create exciting surfaces ready to incorporate into your own work.
Registration for this new workshop will open on Friday July 3rd 2009 and will begin with the first lesson on Friday 31st July 2009.

We will update you with more information about this exciting new workshop very soon and look forward to meeting students old and new.

April Postcard for Sharon

2009-05-04T09:48:00.004+01:00

This was the picture we had to work from for the April Calendar Girls challenge, and I just couldn't get inspired especially after seeing the wonderful mix of cards from all the other ladies here, and then I totally forgot about it and the month was up,

Yesterday while working on my postcards for Maggie's giveaway, a leftover piece in silver and grey caught my eye and it reminded me of a forest floor, and so a swish of Lumiere olive green metallic paint made it forest colours, apologies to Sharon for being so late, it will be in the post today :)

click on image for a closer look

more atc's and postcards

2009-05-03T18:12:00.006+01:00

I have been making postcards for the giveaway Maggie Grey is having for those who order on the first day our book Stitching the Textured Surface comes out.

This wonderful card of rusted lace is from Jovita Kazakeviciene
www.flikr.com/photos/jovitakaz/

This one a lovely colourful tangle of threads is from Di Thompson

This lovely card with a delicate glass flower is from Shelina Virjee

Catching up

2009-04-28T17:54:00.012+01:00

I have a habit of starting a post and leaving it in draft form, then I forget all about it, I just found this post with all the pictures waiting to be blogged, so a bit later than planned
First news the book Stitching the Textured Surface is nearly ready to find out more, check out D4Daisy.

Second bit of news is the Fibre in-Form website has had a whole new look check it out here Fibre in-Form

I thought I would show you some of my birthday pressies, at least the arty ones, I can't wait to have a play with the melting pot or read my books, there is still another book on its way :)
As my other half was poorly I had to order my own stuff :) while looking for the melting pot on line I found this company "The Altered Element" what a great site, a whole range of goodies and great service, I ordered in the afternoon, by 5pm I had an e-mail to say it had been dispatched, and it arrived next morning so well worth a mention I think.

I thought I would share this little story, just after Easter we went to Bodnant Gardens and I spotted this, from a distance it looked like a shell but on inspection it is a Magnolia petal,with the tread from someones shoe.

I saw two clean petals I couldn't resist standing on them, I had forgotten that on the soles of my shoes were butterflies.
I took this picture and it made me laugh, just as we walked away a family came down the steps, and I heard the little boy saying 'that woman just took a picture and went hahaha' and did a manic laugh impression, then he took a closer look and shouted 'oh its butterflies look she made butterflies :)

Post Card and ATC's

2009-04-24T07:58:00.023+01:00

The postman has been busy this last week
First I received this wonderful postcard from Debbi Baker for the April Calendar Girls swap.

This butterfly beauty is from Wil Opio Oguta www.wilopiooguta.blogspot.com

A lovely cake from Wendy H Robrecht www.wendyhue.spaces.live.com

This pleated silk card is from Sheila Sanderson

This elegant lady is from SharonWalworth

This sparkly butterfly is from Norma Chapman,

A lovely printed heart from Mary Zingstra www.mariax.web-log.nl

This bright handpainted little bird is from Marga Korioth www.margacrafts.blogspot.com

A lovely bright card from Leah Cottam www.colourfulartgirl.blogspot.com

This wonderful card is from Kate North www.katesquilting.blogspot.com
it was Kate who set up this wonderful swap.

This cute little house is from Julie Waldman www.floribunda.blogspot.com

Wonderful sheers and gold fabrics from Joyce Fortune www.open.ac.uk/personalpages/j.fortune/

Lovely textured leaves from Joy Vale www.aroundtheworldin20quilts.blogspot.com

This lovely cards that brings a smile is from Joanie Hoffman http://johofman.blogspot.com

This beautiful hand drawn card is from Morning Dove Shelton
www.morningdew15-morningdove.blogspot.com

This lovely cards is from Cindy Hamlin www.cindyiscrafty.wordpress.com

This little lady is the work of Aine Mahon www.miss-aine.blogspot.com

More ATC's

2009-04-12T22:34:00.005+01:00

Two more ATC's arrived last week This one is from Pippa, The scan doesn't do it justice the texture is amazing.

This next one is from Kathy Haffegee, I don't know if Kathy has a blog, this one again had wonderful colour and texture.

I have had three more arrive on Saturday. The wonderful thing about all these ATC's is they are all so different. I will try and get them posted sometime today,
I keep putting off tidying my workroom, but can't get on with what has to be done until I do,

April ATC's

2009-04-06T18:42:00.003+01:00

I started to post these cards up last week but forgot about them and they have been sitting in the saved box.
I am part of a birthday ATC swap organised by Kate North we send out cards each month to those who's birthday month it is.
This bunch arrived for me on the 1st of April

This first one is from Ann Clare, it has a lovely shimmer.

This next one is from Paulene Brewis, a lovely bright and cheerful card.

Last but not least is this beautifully stitched card from Anna Nowicki
what a lovely start to the month.

Weekend Trip and March PC

2009-03-31T16:48:00.007+01:00

I am just about recovering from my weekend away, spent some time with my sons family and my gorgeous grandson, who has only seen us on Skype every week for the last year, but thankfully seemed to recognize us any way.
Saturday I met up with Lynda and we went to meet with Maggie Grey and Michale Wicks and take our work for Michael to photograph, as you may have read on Lynda and Maggie's blogs we had to have our photo taken for the d4daisy website, despite our protests it had to be done, it didn't help that Maggie made us laugh right in the middle of taking the pictures. I have been watching reruns of Americas Next Top Model, and I have to confess I had an overwhelming urge to start posing LOL

This is my card for Pippa, I meant to load it last night as it went in the post yesterday just in time for the March deadline.
I was trying to think what to do for this interpretation, every time I looked at the picture it reminded me of scraps thrown down on the surface, so that is what I did, cut up some green velvets, taffeta and rust and brown organza, and stitched them together randomly, once the piece was large enough I bonded it to some gold lame the taffeta created creases,it was then bonded to Pelmet Vilene, cut to size and went back to the machine to stitch over the seams.

This and That

2009-03-26T21:26:00.006Z

This beautiful postcard is from my eldest son, its a portion of one of his latest paintings,
If you look carefully at the blossom in her hair you can see its his name SYSTEM

to see more of what he has been up to lately take a look HERE

Below is my March ATC for Sylvia in Italy, due to time restrictions I cut up a sample I had from a few years ago, I think I can get a few more from the same sample.

Lynda and I are off to meet Maggie Grey and Michael Wicks on Saturday for the photo shoot, very exciting.

Little Book

2009-03-13T16:37:00.018Z

A while ago I showed you this, to save going searching for the pictures I thought I would post them again,

Calico stitched to cotton wadding

Covered in Molding Paste

Black ink and too much bleach

more ink but the bleach kept working

Close up

More black ink and walnut ink

A spritz of Moonshadow Mist Tawny Turquoise.

This piece sat around like this for a while and this week I decided to make a little book.
I painted some pelmet vilene and stitched it to the back of the square, I then folded it in half corner to corner.

In my cupboard was a book on Titian, my son had bought it for me from a second hand bookshop while I was doing C&G as inspiration, It had large colour plates on each page and a description on the reverse, I decided it needed a new lease of life. I cut the pages into squares and gave the back of the page a quick paint with acrylic, ready to be decorated at a later date.

To finish off the pages I carefully burnt the edges with a small T-Light, making sure I had a wet cloth to stop the smouldering pages from burning too much.

I attached the pages with a simple stab stitch trapping a black bead on the outside.

February Calendar Girls Postcard

2009-03-12T17:41:00.015Z

Yes, I know its March but I have been hopelessly behind with all my swaps in February.
Sandy chose this months card and I have to admit I couldn't get inspired at all. I decided I would make a transfer onto Lutradur,

I placed the original picture postcard size into Photoshop, equalised the colour and it made it a lot brighter, I made a copy and played around in pattern maker and tiled the design.
I printed it out onto acetate, but the lighter colour didn't look so good and when I tried to transfer it onto the Lutradur, it looked very wishy washy.
In desperation I decided to revert to printing it onto acetate, and as the colours were so pale the yellow hardly showed up, I dabbed the back with some gold powder and then painted the whole surface with turquoise metallic paint,
I used both designs and made two postcards then stitched them together leaving one end open,

I was going to put a small card inside the pocket, but made a tag instead painted with a watered down acrylic covered in cling film to create the pattern. I then added a tassel

If I had thought about making the tag earlier I could have left the opening the other end and the Unicorn would have had a tail :)

Top Cat or should that be TinCat.

2009-03-10T20:17:00.005Z

Once again the time has flown and its ages since my last blog, I thought I would show you this little fella.
My sister knows I have a weakness for odd cat ornaments and bought this wine bottle holder for me, and look what my husband found, the perfect bottle for his tum.
so there he sits with his tongue lolling out, making me smile every time I go in the kitchen, minus wine of course :)

Lynda ( purplemissus ) and I have been really busy finishing off the work for our book, it was sent off to Maggie last week and is still on track for April, It is getting very exciting now and I can't wait to see it.

I have been behind in my swaps and eventually made and posted the February ATC's for the group that Kate organised

I am also behind in my Calendar Girls Postcard swap, and have three failed attempts to prove it :(. I hope to finish it tomorrow.

Starburst Stains

2009-02-03T15:32:00.006Z

No work to show at the moment, so I thought I would show you my new goodies instead.
Once again Gill at The Stamp Man has been so helpful.
I love the Starburst Stain Inks, and read somewhere that they were going to be available in spray bottles, so I wrote to The Stamp Man and asked if they would be carrying them, Gill got back to me to say they would possibly carry them but in the meantime the Starburst Dauber sets were half price and that they had spray caps available, doh, now why didn't I think of that, she very kindly put the spray caps on one side until I placed my order, I ordered them Monday and they arrived Tuesday how is that for service. I thought I may as well have some more Moonglow Sprays while I was at it, especially as they were half price as well.
No affiliation just a happy shopper

January card for Pat

2009-01-15T10:35:00.004Z

Here is my January card for Pat, I wasn't sure what fabrics I wanted to use for this card, but while looking for something else I came across some organza in black and rust colours,
I had already decided to mirror image the design as shown here.

I placed a layer of dark grey, then black organza securing them with a little fusible webbing, I felt the black still looked flat so placed some bronze net over the surface,

I put a strip of fusible web down the centre and started cutting small snippets of orange and bronze organza , then pressed them into place
I added copper foil to the surface there was enough of the fusible showing to catch the foil, once more I cut small snippets of the rust organza and pressed again, for the white lines I used a soft silver thread as my whites were to bright.
I finished off by zig-zagging the edges. and adding a hint of Goldfinger to the outer edge.

Displacement Activity

2009-01-12T14:31:00.006Z

This is the photograph we are working on for Calendar Girls, January was chosen by Debbi from a Shane Pickett calender.
You can find more of Shane Pickett's work here.

The ladies have already started producing some wonderful interpretations have a look here I had thought of making one on the Embellisher but Jenny and Doreen beat me to it.

I decided to crop it slightly and create a mirror image, and that is as far as I have got, I just have to decide what medium to make it in now.

I liked this inverted image as well, but will stick to the original colours as they are so rich, and gorgeous.
I think that is enough displacement activity for now, it's back to work for me.

Didn't we have a lovely time, the day we went to Bangor

2009-01-06T19:48:00.010Z

As the song says.
I had a wonderful day yesterday I met up with Sara Lechner of The Fabric of Meditation, Sara is visiting her daughter who is studying in Bangor, North Wales.
I first met Sara about 9 years ago through a Yahoo group we both belonged to so it was lovely to have the chance to meet up in real life.
We didn't stop talking for hours, it was wonderful and I am so pleased I had the chance to meet up with Sara, and hope to get the chance to do so again.

Happy Holiday

2008-12-24T11:36:00.032Z

First I would like to wish every one in blogland

A Very Happy Holiday and a Very Creative New Year

It is nearly 3 years since I started my blog and it has to be one of the best things I ever did, it helped me get back to my textiles after 6 months of not being able to do anything creative.

I have also made so many wonderful friends all over the world, for which I am very grateful.

It was through the blog I met Lynda Purplemissus which in turn led us to starting Fibre in-Form and then the online workshop, but the most exciting thing of all this year is being asked by Maggie Grey to write a book for dfordaisy .

So all in all it was a very good move.

The time has gone by so quickly since my last post, but I have finally done all those jobs that need doing at this time of year.

I though I would show a few things I have hanging around the workroom, or the kitchen for this first picture.

I am working on the free online classes linked to Maggies latest book Textile Tranlations, The first thing we had to do was put a catalogue outside so all the elements could attack it.

I finally brought mine indoors, living in a top floor flat means there is nowhere to wash it out side, so it was dunked into the sink with disinfectant 4 times and placed on plastic under the radiator in the kitchen, its a good job my family are into what I do, or I don't know what they would think when they arrive tomorrow.

This started out as my triangle book, no I don't know what happened to the
triangle LOL, again for Maggies class, I am a bit behind but I just have to think of something to use for my pages now. Then begin on my altered books for the next lesson.

This is also in the workroom waiting for the fabric pages to be stitched in, I have stitched two but its very hard on the hands, so its slow going.

I am having trouble with my camera at the moment, and also the dark days make it difficult to get a good shot, the picture doesn't show the lovely crusty ice effect of the surface

This little piece below was one of those mindless stitching projects for in front of the TV.I placed cotton wadding into an embroidery frame, I had some white emulsion painted calico, I tore this into strips and attached the strips with large random seed and cross stitches.

Once finished I didn't want to stitch the edges of the strips down so covered the whole surface with molding paste,

Next I covered it with black Quink ink and flicked bleach all over, I think I was a little enthusiastic with the bleach and it took most of the ink out.

even adding more ink it kept bleaching out.

Once dry I sprayed it with Walnut ink.

Finally a spray of Moonglow ink which adds a lovely green tone. and then I thought it was time to leave it alone

2008-12-08T20:56:00.009Z

Regular readers of Maggie Greys blog will see that Lynda and I had a secret assignation with Maggie a week ago – in a Service Station on the M4 motorway at Reading. And the result of that meeting is a book to be published by d4Daisy early in the Spring.
To say that I am excited and terrified all at the same time is an understatement.

You may have seen this sentence on Lynda's blog
(The Eastbound services wasn’t it Carol? Or was it Westbound? *LOL*)

My husband dove me down to the Reading service station we were really pleased we had made good time considering the thick fog we had to drive through all the way there, there was no sign of Lynda or Maggie then I had a phone call from Lynda asking where I was?, we were on the wrong side oops,I am never going to live that one down :)

below is a picture taken through the windscreen it has thickened the fog slightly but not much we could just about see the tail lights of the car in front. scary

The Textured Surfaces workshop has now finished. The students were all a really wonderful bunch, very friendly and eager to both learn and share. Lynda and I were blown away with the samples that were produced. I’m sure that everyone reading this has come across a blog with some of these samples on. Lynda is in the middle of putting at least one photo of each persons samples up on the Fibre in-Form website – a massive task as everyone did so many really good ones its hard to choose just one.

We were going to repeat this workshop some time in ’09 but have had so many requests to do it again soon that the first lesson will start again on January 9th. Take a look here if you are interested.

We are also working on another workshop planned for early next year, more details on that soon plus a couple of other exciting developments, still in the early stages.

December Card for Carol T

2008-12-08T16:46:00.002Z

I decided to do a christmas theme for the December card, it helped that I found the red velvet with the gold foil already on it, a stencil of a Poinsettia was placed on top and molding paste put on the surface, then coloured with silver once dry.

I hope to get this in the post tomorrow Carol

November Card for Debbi

2008-12-08T15:35:00.006Z

After catching up with my October card I came down with the bug that seems to be getting everyone at the moment but I needed to make Debbi's card for November, I wanted to use a background fabric I had made a while ago but then I was stumped what to do next as the picture wasn't giving me much inspiration , but then I found a little tulip stencil and decided to apply molding paste through the stencil, once dry I stitched into it with metallic thread but wasn't very happy with it, so I added gilding cream over the stitching.

While I was working on something else I had some paint and polyfilla mix spare so painted a piece of pelmet vilene and started to splatter inks, moonglow spray, and powders over the surface I really liked what was happening and thought it may make a nice postcard.
I pulled out some double sided metal letters I have had tucked away for ages and started pushing them into the wet paint being careful to make sure I had the upper and lower case the right way up.
I really loved the finished effect and then today I scanned it, and the first thing that jumped out at me was the i and the e are the wrong way round aaaghh
Why do I never spot these things while the paint is still wet and I could do something about it.
I just shouldn't try and be creative when I have the lurgy, I thought I would show it you anyway as I love the background.

For Debbi

2008-11-28T12:53:00.010Z

When I put my postcard on Calendar Girls
Debbi commented that it would be good if I made another postcard and zapped it to see what it would look like, I thought I would try it out, Its not a postcard but a piece of the same base fabric and foiled organza, I did a quick scribble on the machine and then got the heat gun out.
The organza was lighter grey than the first piece, but as it was ready to go I used it.

After the heat gun, the foiled area creates more of a resist to the heat

Close up on narrow grid side

Close up on random circle side

Late postcard

2008-11-27T10:12:00.001Z

I finally made Joannes card for October, very very late, apologies to everyone.

This is the base fabric, calico, tissue paper and paint.with a hint of gold

Over the top I place a piece of dark grey organza that had been foiled with silver foil. so the silver and gold are covered in the October wording :) then free machined flowers, I was going to zap with the heat gun, but just haven't got the time to do another one if it went wrong so I chickened out.

Joanne feel free to have a play and zap it if you want to LOL
As always trying to get a photograph of anything metallic was a nightmare, it is a lot darker with hints of the foil and the background showing through.

Lovely new goodies

2008-11-25T12:18:00.016Z

I have had a strange few weeks,with very mixed emotions, involving hospital tests, a family funeral, a visit to the Knitting and Stitching show and celebrating our 40th anniversary and in between all this doing lots of sleeping, I think I was a Bear in another life as I am in hibernation mode :)

I decided to stock up on the essentials before I went to Harrogate K&S as
The Stamp Man had 20% off and free postage over ten pounds,and they are always prompt in getting their orders out, no affiliation just a happy shopper, lovely Moonglow, glitz spritz and Starburst Stains. and a few other goodies.

Next I bought some Perfect Pearls on E-Bay from here great price and fast service, again no affiliation.

All that shopping before I went meant I only bought a few things from Harrogate
K&S
Jan Beaney and Jean Littlejohn's new books which I must admit I didn't even look inside I just know I have to have them.
Paper and Metal Leaf Lamination by Claire Benn, Leslie Morgan and Jane Dunnewold
and Get Plastered by Maggie Smith
a few more books that were on my list were not quite what I expected so they got crossed off , but several more have been added to the Wish list to replace them :)

The day before I went to K&S I ran out of my Walnut Crystals and Golden Interference, so stopped by Art Van Go to buy some and added a metre of prefelt along with several postcards that was my lot.

I find myself quite overwhelmed at these shows lately, is it my age :)
I wander around like someone from the home for the bewildered

Loved the work of Jackie Langfield in the Graduate Showcase, she hasn't got a website yet but look out for her work in the future.
loved the Art Cloth exhibition and always love Jan and Jeans work, Ruth Issetts colourful work just makes you smile walking among the banners, and I really liked Jean Drapers new work in collaboration with her partner.
so all in all a good day.

Back to normal

2008-11-03T13:45:00.011Z

I have been very slow catching up this last few weeks, so I thought I would show some canvas I made a few months ago, now that lesson two has gone out I can show a little of what I was up to.
I made this

and this

and this became

This :)

I really will try and post more often, because I do enjoy blogging, but the days seem to fly by lately

Absent without leave

2008-10-19T07:29:00.013+01:00

Well its been a while since I posted, but I do have a good excuse, I was sunning myself in Turkey for two weeks and have been running around like a headless chicken in the week I have been back.
I finished off my article for Fibre & Stitch Issue 6.

Best of all Lynda and I launched our first online class 'Textured Surfaces' we have such a great bunch of students, who are willing to try all the techniques with such enthusiasm its a real pleasure to have them on board.

While I was on holiday as well as buying a couple of embroidered bags and some great tops for next summer I bought these bits and pieces, I can't wait to take them apart, I love the imagery on the little bookmarks.and the metal edges on the hangings are just asking to be made into something.

I haven't had chance to look through my photo's properly yet but here are a couple of the places we visited

Ephesus

A snippet from The Temple of Apollo

2008-09-26T20:42:00.004+01:00

Textured Surfaces

Registration is now open for this online workshop

Follow this link

In the nick of time

2008-09-26T14:22:00.004+01:00

I signed up for a 5" quiltie swap on Unlimited Textiles as there was no theme I thought it would be easy, wrong.. I changed my mind so often I almost ran out of month, so in the end I decided to go with what I am comfortable doing, calico and lots of paint, not a soft little quilt, but something reflecting my style, I hope Sandy likes it

I was also making a card for Doreen from Calendar Girls I made one early on in the month with an acetate design and the verse printed over the top, a foiled background and I was very happy with it, I put it on the side ready to pack, but something wasn't right, then realised the word surely was spelt surley, :)
This card is painted calico with gilded acetate stitched on top and molding paste applied around the edge and on top of the lace flower, I used my favourite colour of the moment, olive green Lumiere and interference violet

2008-09-19T16:50:00.009+01:00

Fibre in-Form

Online Workshop - Textured Surfaces

After a long wait and many e-mails asking Lynda and I to come up with an online class on how to achieve some of the wonderful textured surfaces that we create - it’s finally here!

This is the first in a series of sample based workshops which will help you create a library of techniques, that can be referred to over time allowing you to add your own creativity to the surfaces you have created.

These techniques are for your experimentation derived from our own experiences. Our intention is for them to be a starting point for you to produce unique work of your own.

For further information follow the link here

Fibre In-Form

Old products

2008-09-15T14:20:00.013+01:00

While looking through my supplies I came across an old bottle of Plaids
'Picture This' as I had tried it out on a small sample around 10 years ago
and wasn't happy with the result, I stuck it in the cupboard, on rediscovering
it I decided to have another go, I wasn't even sure if it would work after all this time,there was a couple of photocopies with it so I tried them out on a scrap of calico and another on a piece of heavily painted canvas.

This piece above is the calico, once I had removed the backing paper and it was dry it still had a cloudy film on top, so thinking I had nothing to lose I ran it under the tap and rubbed the area at the same time, success it felt soft and no cloudiness left.
Now if I had known it was going to work I would have torn around the edge of the image a bit more carefully, so I decided to rip the edge of the calico and add some copper foil (Fibre In-Form) of course,
Now I have to think of something to do with it :) it has ended up at 6" x 6"

This one above was a heavily painted piece of canvas fabric that had been sat on the desk, receiving all the excess paint on the brushes while I was working on other things, I was really pleased with the result of the image transfer on this painted surface and it has given me a few ideas for the future, this time I added silver leaf around the edge of the image. I want to do more to this.

I have been given ths award by Jackie go and check out her great blog,
I have to tell you I thought I was going mad, as she sent me a mail telling me about this, and then I saw the post in my Google Reader, yesterday when I went to thank her, I couldn't find the post and wondered if I had been dreaming but no. there it is again, with an explanation on Jackies blog.
Here is my choice to recieve the award, as they say on tv, in no particular order
I chose this group as they are always so enthusiastic in everything they do and share their beautiful work on their blogs

Doreen G
Sharon
Val
Pat

I just realised these are all Calendar Girls so my fifth nomination is all the rest of the gang :)

Thank You

2008-09-12T15:39:00.007+01:00

I am involved in a swap on Unlimited textiles group to make a 5" Quiltie
This lovely little quiltie is the one I received from Jan
along with these wonderful goodies including some great tissue paper
Thank you so much Jan

Also a big thank you to Evie who sent me this award. I shall get my thinking cap on

I am still trying to chose from my list of favourites for the blog award from Margaret Maggik Moments

Its raining

2008-09-09T13:29:00.006+01:00

As it just started raining again I thought I would get the old Argos catalogue as per Maggie Grey's instructions slashed and out in the elements, decided to put my La Redoute one out as well, as I am now too old and fat to be able to wear anything in the thing any more.
I decided I would give them a head start and stood them up in the sink and let water run over them, the pages started to swell immediately and this is the result, couldn't resist a picture.

Canvas

2008-09-05T15:58:00.007+01:00

This little horror has driven me mad, I painted it weeks ago and tried stitching into it on the machine and it kept shredding my Madeira FS thread, that usually goes through everything, and what a nightmare to try and unpick, now I have photographed it I can see some more, where is that pin.

In the end I gave up the idea of stitch and just mounted them, (I made two) on to a 6" x 6" canvas, difficult to photograph with the miserable light today the flash keeps coming on..

Birthday card

2008-09-05T09:50:00.009+01:00

One of the advantages of having sons who are artists is the wonderful array of interesting cards and presents we have received over the years.
This one is the latest card from our eldest son to my other half for his birthday yesterday.

and here it is opened out, its 13 W x 15 L, this card reflects his latest work, you can see more here on the exhibits link, 'Prologue' Nancy Victor Gallery
We will have to go and find just the right frame for it.
( Oh, and I did ask his permission before showing it on my blog :)

insult and award

2008-09-03T06:39:00.008+01:00

Last night two e-mails popped into my folder both with no-reply return address, the first was this one, LOL, I have been blogging for two and a half years and this is my first negative comment, is this a new trend ?

Anonymous said...
YOU WORK IS NOT BEAUTIFUL-SORRY,
Emmy 20:15

shame its anonymous you would think if someone is going to insult you they would give you the right to reply. My stat counter does actually show who it was looking at my blog at that time
Simple solution Emmy, if you don't like my work, don't read the blog

As a complete contrast my next e-mail was from Margaret Maggik Moments giving me an award
how lovely is that :)

now I have to choose some of my favourite blogs to pass this on, hmm, think this needs some time, with around a 100 in my Google reader list, I look forward to reading so many blogs for many different reasons.

FOQ and Card from Pat

2008-08-21T07:48:00.006+01:00

Well I have just about recovered from Festival of Quilts, I really think this show needs a few days to take it all in, going by coach allows about five hours galloping around, no pictures I am afraid as its not my work. but go and look HERE for the competition winners, I always come away totally overwhelmed,
A few things that caught my eye were Margaret West's, Indigo coat, I think it was Nunu felted and shibori dyed, just stunning, also a hanging by Jackie Smith, lots of little rectangles individually finished and stitched together, they are both in the list of winners in the link above.
Ferrets work was stunning as always, and so many more, I should have got the show guide as the names are not on the quilts.
My favourite exhibitors were Els Van Baarle and Dorothy Caldwell and Bente Vold Klausen
It was great to see the Kemshalls and Maggie Grey, I was very restrained in my purchases and only stocked up on diferent weights of Lutradur, Evelon and also bought some heavy weight pelmet vilene and cello foil

roll on September for Knitting and Stitching :)

This lovely card from Pat arrived in the post to cheer up a grey day, the lace trim is so delicate and the friend image is padded like a little pillow. It shall go n the mantelpiece for a while before it goes in my Calendar Girls album

sketchbook

2008-08-12T13:30:00.005+01:00

I am off to Festival of Quilts in Birmingham on Thursday so thought it was time to replace the inside of my sketchbook again, this will be its fourth refill and goes everywhere with me,
I have made a lot of books since, but this is the one that gets thrown in my bag as its lightweight and takes all the rough and tumble it gets along side the rest of the paraphernalia I carry with me.

It started life when I was doing Maggie Greys machine embroidery online course, unfortunately life got in the way and I couldn't continue.
It was one of those surfaces that keeps going wrong and just gets more thrown at it.

The silk below was the base fabric, yuck, so it was covered with painted bondaweb and chiffon, stamped with gold paint, heavily stitched with metallic thread, yuck again, so lots of Markal rubbed over the surface, more chiffon, more stitch and zapped with the heat gun, then around the stitched design with a soldering iron.
the inner is just pelmet vilene which keeps it lightweight and durable.
the ties are just torn chiffon over stitched and tomato puree tube cut to make the wraps at the end. I stitched them on near the top at the back and they slide on easily to keep the book closed.
It is in a pretty sorry state and must be filthy, do I need to make a new one ?

new blog

2008-08-11T10:56:00.008+01:00

A couple of weeks ago, my blog along with many others was locked and I couldn't get in for a couple of days, I hadn't realised it wasn't only me and so I opened another blog straight away just in case I couldn't get back into mine.
I didn't want to waste the new blog and so I started putting a picture up each day, sometimes two from my albums of anything with a textured surface, a mix of nature and my textures,
A Textile Tale

It has been interesting going through my old albums looking at some things that were made recently and some quite old, but I did notice I have lots of

This

Painted pelmet vilene and scrim, building up the layers with acrylic paint.

This one ended up like

This

It is my favourite technique and it seems to be the one I keep going back to since C&G days. It is also surprising how much the pelmet vilene has changed, the one I first used back in 1995 was a lovely thick textured fabric, when painted a rusty colour or Verdi-Gris it looked like corroded metal, over the years it seems to have become thinner and smoother, which has its own advantages but I wish I could find some of the old type again. I doubt if I would get it at 50p for a huge roll like the first lot :)

For Val

2008-08-06T16:28:00.012+01:00

After a comment I made recently, Val asked me how I had used instant mash potato as a resist after giving her a brief run down, in an e-mail I finally found my pictures and decided to share them here as well.
I only had one picture of the original fabric, and it has now been made up into a bag, so the smaller pictures are scans of portions of the bag.

I dyed an old cotton sheet orange in the washing machine with Dylon Machine dye,then over dyed it with Maroon Dylon Machine dye, this resulted in a warm brown shade.

I then laid out half a metre of the fabric on my work table,
I mixed up the instant mash potato, sorry don't remember what brand, to a smooth paste thick enough to hold itself when spread, but not too thick to spread easily.

Starting at the top, I lay stencils and smoothed the paste over the stencil, then carefully peeled it away.
I also spread the paste over the cloth and pressed stamps into the surface to reveal the fabric
The picture below shows
An Indian wooden block stamp
A commercial stencil
A cork pressed into the fabric

The next picture shows
a hand made polystyrene spiral stamp,
a hand made stencil

Another hand made stamp

For this section below I used torn newspaper strips to create a wavy edge, and in the area next to it, I used sequin waste and smoothed the paste through, I then peeled the sequin waste away and also the newspaper strips to reveal the fabric underneath.

once I had covered the length of the fabric, I let it set for a while, and then using a cheap thin bleach, I sprayed it over the whole piece,
I let this dry thouroughly and then washed out the whole thing.

I added a touch of turquoise acrylic paint and made a huge bag for carrying all my supplies to workshops. my friend Jenny said I looked like a paper boy, cheeky madam
as I don't go to many workshops these days, a few weeks ago I decided to revamp the bag into a smaller tote bag, great for days out.

Card from Lynda

2008-08-06T16:23:00.002+01:00

here is my gorgeous card from Lynda for the Calendar Girls postcard swap, I can't seem to capture the lovely subtle colours here.

July Card Calendar girls.

2008-07-31T11:39:00.004+01:00

As usual I am last minute with my card for July which is off to Joanna today.
I layered a shocking pink taffeta and shot blue organza, I then cut lots of flowers from two shades of pink organza with the soldering iron, and bonded these with fusible webbing to the background. the blue wasn't showing up very well and so I used Fibre In-Form turquoise foil over the surface, as I knew it would only pick up on the fusible webbing not covered by the flowers. I then used gold thread to machine around the edges and flowers, and highlighted with pink thread.

Surfaces

2008-07-21T16:25:00.014+01:00

Recently I was having a play around creating surfaces and I added some kitchen tin foil to the surface of the calico, but it wouldn't play nicely so I covered it with tissue paper and carried on painting, once dry I liked the subtle effect where the foil showed through the tissue even with the colour on top it left a glow.
I tried out some larger pieces, using a base of calico I covered it with pva glue and then tin foil, you can push little creases in if you wish at this stage, I didn't want too many, I then covered the tin foil in pva glue and scrunched up my tissue paper and laid it on the top and allowed to dry. It takes a day or so.
I then just built up washes of colour with Goldens fluid acrylic (magenta) and interference oxide violet and green.

The one below I scrunched the foil up a bit more then added the paint while everything was still wet, and it came out the same as the first sample. Although you can't see the foil there is a lovely sheen to the base colour

To compare the end results this third one is just the standard tissue and calico, painted the same way as the two above, and although it has turned out well, the fabric and tissue crinkled a lot more and it doesn't have the same shimmer in the background.

Walnut Ink

2008-07-21T10:42:00.008+01:00

The Walnut ink fabric finally dried, and turned into this, a few things I have been making for my article in issue 5 of Fibre and Stitch.

I enjoyed making the fabric and decided to make a bag,

and added some colour wash to make another.

samples

2008-07-07T13:30:00.006+01:00

I have had a strange week, and couldn't seem to catch up with myself, in the end I just deleted a whole host of e-mails and my backlog on Google reader, as much as I love the Internet it gets a bit overwhelming sometimes.

I loaded these samples a week ago and forgot to post, and to end the week with a bang I slipped on a wet floor and fell full force onto my knees, not funny at my weight. Ouch.
I kept an ice pack on the painful bits all day yesterday so I am not too bad today.

I am very behind in my lessons on Dales Embellisher course, but I have printed them all off and bound them together for future reference. I will work through them all at a later date, below is a sample on bronze taffeta with voile and silks all the same tone,

Silk strips for this one, but I think my strips were too wide and it ended up like a Ra Ra skirt ( remember them, not that I was young enough to wear them at the time ) so I embellished across the rows and it calmed it down a bit

I also spent a long time waiting for Walnut ink to dry :)

I got mail

2008-07-02T14:46:00.003+01:00

I had a surprise in the post last week, all these colourful goodies, they were from my eldest son, when I phoned him to ask about them he said he was up in London and on his way to a gallery when he spotted these outside a fabric shop ready for the binmen, and thought of me, LOL
he knows me so well :)

This first picture are samples of jersey, very shiny funky coloured pvc, net and nylon,

This lot below are corduroy in many thicknesses and leather, suede and leatherette
I had a job fitting them in to the picture and some just got buried, hmm, now what can I make with them ?
The jersey will go well under the embellisher for a start.

June Postcard

2008-06-29T23:47:00.017+01:00

This months picture was difficult for a few of the Calendar Girls, I wasn't feeling very inspired but as I was sorting through my stencils for another project, I found a simple flower shape, I think it came free with a magazine. I decided I would try it out on a small canvas and then use the canvas as inspiration for a postcard.
I did originally use a purple and gold for my colours to link it in with the original picture. that didn't last long and I started layering different colours onto the canvas.

Below is a close up scan of the canvas, the colours are a bit more turquoise than shown.

For my first attempt at creating the postcard I printed the image onto a sheet of T-shirt transfer paper and ironed one onto silk, the other onto muslin,

This is the one on silk, and it has white patches on it, the one on muslin was even worse it was more white than colour, I haven't had this happen before and have no idea why it happened. it was my last sheet of transfer paper, so I couldn't try again.

My next attempt was to iron some silk organza onto freezer paper to print on. I have done this
many times with other printers, but my Epson DX400 made some very strange noises and the paper disappeared completely, I looked in the feed and where it should have come out, nothing ?
waited until DH came home and he took the top off the machine still nothing, where the heck was it, DH got the torch out and looked down the side and there it was in a crumpled ball stuffed down the edge of the printer:(

Decided to buy Extravorganza, it printed out beautifully, but once removed from the backing paper it was too pale to show up on any coloured backing.

Final try was to use Lazertran's metal for ink jet printers, looks good so far, I was going to stitch into the final surface, but at this late stage, with everything that has gone wrong I think I will leave well alone.

I stuck the metallic paper to pelmet vilene and backed one postcard with watercolour paper, not nice to stitch into, it was sticking and wouldn't move making the zigzag thicker in places, and I noticed the foot had scraped the surface of the design in places. tried another one with two layers of pelmet vilene, a little easier to stitch into but still sticking in places.

Embellisher

2008-06-22T19:32:00.004+01:00

I am way behind on my lessons for Dales embellishing class, I was determined to go and do some more samples last night and got sidetracked by a bag of stitched silk samples that started life being sewn onto a very large canvas, but my hands couldn't cope, so they got thrown in my silk bit box

I used a piece that had a padded heart in the centre, and started embellishing it to some wool/viscose felt, I just kept grabbing small scraps and tearing them to fit. I cut another stitched piece and that was embellished into the surface, I really like this effect, and plan on using the rest of the samples, in some smaller pieces, the one below is 16" x 12"
I have to say I so enjoyed making this, no planning, no thought just total play.

Making a start on my postcard for June

2008-06-15T07:17:00.005+01:00

Thinking about the challenge for this months Calendar Girls postcard I decided to put my idea onto a 6" X 4" box canvas, it did start out with the colours of the sunflower and purple background, but as usual the colours changed and ended up with many layers.

The next stage will be to print the design onto some fabric as I think Lynda would have a little trouble getting the canvas into her Calendar Girls album :)

How lucky am I :)

2008-06-06T13:20:00.005+01:00

A week or so ago I had just arrived home from a few days away and wanted to catch up with Deryn's blog Something Sublime
and I noticed she was giving a gift for people who left a comment, the earrings were so stunning I just had to have a go even though I thought I was too late, and I won, yeah... I couldn't believe my luck,
and today they have arrived and they are so beautiful, even the way they are presented, I want to keep them on the little card, but I think I shall be wearing them every minute of the day.
Make yourself a cuppa and take a wander through Deryn's blog at all the wonderful work she does
Thank you Deryn

Remember This

2008-06-04T10:07:00.006+01:00

A while ago I started this canvas, and it had many colour changes as it sat on my work table, back in January, I showed pictures here of the strange reaction the colourwash spray had on the wet acrylic. it only lasted minutes, but was the colours were amazing

I finally decided enough was enough and have moved it of the table, as if it gets any more layers I won't be able to pick it up :)

Textile Tales

Blog Givaway

Looking back

Lovely day

Oh Dear

Helfa Gelf

What a Week

Helfa Gelf

FOQ

Hoping for Good Weather

More news

**New Online Workshop from Fibre in-Form**

Catching up

Sketch Book

Snow

5 panels

Playing with the Cinch

Playing with the Big Shot

Another new toy

ATC's

Playing Around

Future Everything

Peacock shows off

Its been a great month so far

Thank goodness

Some goodies and a finished book

Freebie

I forgot my Blogiversary

Meet the family

This is how I feel

Happy Holiday

News from Fibre in-Form

December card for Jenny

November card for Neki

Lovely post

Catch up

A month late

Exciting New Workshop From Fibre In-Form

New Group

New Picture

Catching up

FOQ

The Stamp Man Givaway

Back again

Its here :) and what I have been up to.

catch up

May PC for Calendar Girls

News Update

News

April Postcard for Sharon

more atc's and postcards

Catching up

Post Card and ATC's

More ATC's

April ATC's

Weekend Trip and March PC

This and That

Little Book

February Calendar Girls Postcard

Top Cat or should that be TinCat.

Starburst Stains

January card for Pat

Displacement Activity

Didn't we have a lovely time, the day we went to Bangor

Happy Holiday

December Card for Carol T

November Card for Debbi

For Debbi

Late postcard

Lovely new goodies

Back to normal

Absent without leave

In the nick of time

Old products

Thank You

Its raining

Canvas

Birthday card

insult and award

FOQ and Card from Pat

New Online Workshop from Fibre in-Form