Show and Tell.....

After yet another blogging holiday ;-) I thought it was time to show what I've been up to. I'll try not to be too wordy as there are quite a few photos. I've been busy making things to sell in my daughter's salon, plus I spent a few weeks celebrating my recent 60th birthday. Well that's my excuse..... :-)

Anyway, here goes.........
1. A felted piece for a journal cover .....part done on the embellishing machine, part by hand.

 2. Journals for my daughter's salon/shop.

 3. Also crochet/bead bracelets...

 3. ...and organza flower brooches/hair clips. (Love making these :-) )

 4. A felted/collage card for a friend.

 5. A drawing which I'm in the middle of... (she insists on looking sad although I've tried to cheer her up :-/ )

 6. Gorgeous threads which I bought from Maggi's new online shop  www.maggi21handdyes.com
 I've just ordered some beautiful fabric pieces too. I recommend a visit...she's a whizz with those fabric dyes!

7. A recent holiday in Skiathos (a birthday treat). My favourite Greek Island and our 5th visit :-)

 8. The Beach is back in Nottingham city centre! And yes...we have had a couple of sunny days recently to enjoy it!

 9. Enjoying a San Miguel in the Caribbean-style bar next to the beach.

 And finally......
 10. The Boy
He's grown so much he's struggling to fit on my knee. He wriggles and squirms around, trying to get comfy.......a messy tangle of limbs! Reminds me of this photo from a while back.

Click on pics for a closer look....especially the Peachy one ;-)

Ok....I have 2 days for blog-visiting before I go to Knaresborough on Thursday. For those of you who can get there, Feva arts week starts there on Friday :     http://www.feva.info/UserFiles/Image/files/Programme_2012_PDF.pdf

Fingers crossed for sunshine!

Fabric and Paper.....

Just grab a selection of fabric and paper scraps.......

........choose a few and layer them.....

......then add some stitching.

My favourite pastime :-)

Close ups.....

I used my hand-made background papers (some on kitchen towel), gold lace  (thank you Jacky ;-) text (thank you 'All Saints', who wrap purchases in the best tissue ever), dyed mulberry bark, random-dyed silk fabric, silk dupion,  plus one of my favourite Paper Whimsy images which I machine stitched (very slowly ;-)
I then glued the finished collage to a piece of painted ply wood.
I have another sales outlet now...'.The Emporium' in Draycott. My daughter's shop opens in two weeks...more of that to come later.

My journals are all stitched and ready.....

The insides are decorated too....

...and I'm thinking about making paper bands for them with my sticker on the back.

Collaged postcards and tags next!

In my last post I said I'd show you Peachy's next catch.

Well this time it was a vole ...... and it was HUGE!

I came downstairs and found it cowering by the conservatory door surrounded by what I thought was a pile of black rice. Thankfully the poor thing was unharmed........and Peachy was nowhere to be seen. No doubt he was bored by this catch and back in the woods looking for something more exciting.

Of course, he tried to get round me later......

'Love you Mum..........'

Warning - Photo Overload!

I feel a need to apologise for the number of photos I'm going to bombard you with this week :-) Hope you have time to stick with me....
Firstly.....on Monday I decided to take Roben-Marie's journal workshop and so have spent a happy few days doing my favourite thing - splattering ink and stuff around (good job you can't see the carpet in my studio :-/  )
Here are the covers.....today I'm cutting up paper to stitch inside; I'm hoping to sell these in the coming weeks. (my daughter is about to start up a beauty salon with a friend so I might have an outlet for some of my work there).

 Yay..... one without green-overload!!!

Last week Maggi and I took the train to Birmingham to see the lace exhibition at The Museum and Art Gallery.  It also gave me (yet another) chance to see my favourite Pre-Raphaelites :-)

 'Proserpine' by Dante Gabriel Rossetti 

First we visited the real lace exhibition where we saw some truly amazing examples........ (and couldn't stop gasping at the fine detail in some of these)

 ....top left is a pillow from the exhibition....the blue ones are mine. Yes, I briefly dabbled with lace-making about 25 years ago......haven't a clue how to do it now though. Do you know anyone who wants to buy hundreds of beautiful beaded lace bobbins?

The focus of our trip...'Lost in Lace' was a truly amazing exhibition.

"Featuring large-scale, theatrical and visually spectacular work, this exhibition challenges perceptions of what lace can be..... see how the patterns, materials and cultural traditions of lace are represented through radical new approaches by 20 leadingUK and international artists."

Enormous 'lace' panels to walk through....

 clever interpretations.....

 weird ideas (this billowed slowly in different sequences - quite spooky!)....

 different materials and ways of seeing things......

.... this gorgeous black hanging looked like lace but was made of a material that I've forgotten the name of....Maggi, can you remember?

 A crystal 'chandelier' made from half a ton of Swaroski crystals!!!

 And finally, my favourite room......five dresses which seem to be floating in the midst of a network of fine black threads. Its mind-boggling to think how this was done.....

Well that's all folks.
Apart from a Peachy update.
Like him, I am also becoming an expert mouse catcher ....he has brought four live ones home this week :-( ....  and I have had to devise a method of rescue. Plastic box on top...slide card underneath....take to the wood at the bottom of our cul-de-sac.
Must remember to take a photo of the next one....... :-)

Who....me??????

Making Resolutions.....

Happy New Year everyone!   I hope 2012 is a wonderful year for you all.
Well, you might be able to guess what one of my resolutions is, now lets see if I can keep to it ;-)
Here goes.....

Maggi sent me a link for the new Strathmore Online workshop with Traci Bautista (its free!) so I decided to take part. Its all about painting, collaging and doodling. Above are some close-ups of my efforts and below you can see the 'before doodling' and 'after doodling' stages.

Great fun to do!
I've ordered some Uni Posca poster paint markers (can't seem to find the Sharpie ones over here) to help with the doodling. I've also ordered some Adirondack Color Washes in bright colours so I can copy Maggi's idea and do some of these on fabric - great for adding stitching and beads later.
Of course I could stitch on these paper ones I suppose.......maybe I'll try that too.

Maggi also told me about TAST (Take A Stitch Tuesday) on Sharon B's blog Pintangle. Each week there's a challenge to perfect and use a different embroidery stitch.The first week was fly stitch - which is one of my favourites. I made a piece of felt and just enjoyed stitching onto it for the past couple of evenings...... I can recommend it!

Just one more mention for Maggi ;-)......I wanted to show you the fantastic box she made me for Christmas. Its so beautiful and neat - I am in awe! Sorry the photo doesn't fully show how the threads shimmer.
(There was a beautiful set of hand-made glass coasters I'd admired at The Beetroot Tree inside....so very thoughtful :-)

Can't go without showing you the progress Peachy is making in yoga. Following his amazing spinal twist in my last post, I can now show you his versions of......

....extended Child's Pose

.......and Savasana (Corpse Pose). Bless him.......

Now lets see how that resolution goes.......

Quitting the Quilting.....

In my last blog post I said I'd show you how I was getting on with my little strip quilt....well it has transformed into a fabric weaving! :-) I think I'll leave the quilting to Maggi and all you other brilliant people out there and admit defeat. 

I am not a quilter.                                              

On the other hand I do love tearing strips of fabric and stitching onto them. The one below is a work in progress....I was intrigued to find the colours perfectly matched the dried honesty that Maggi gave to me. 

(Not Photoshopped...honesty!)

Most of those lovely fabrics were sent to me as second prize in a give-away from Plum Quilts. You can see the gorgeous piece she made with them here.

I've got lots left and have started another weaving (with the strips unpicked from my failed quilting attempt ;-)

That's 4 I have on the go now.......

Just over a week ago Maggi and I visited Staunton Harold Craft Centre in Leicestershire. We wanted to see the work of Michelle Homes (who had her work displayed in a recent exhibition at The Beetroot Tree). She shares a workshop and gallery with another artist, Carol Saunderson...its called the Archangel Studio. Michelle's work was on the front cover of Embroidery Magazine last month - you can see it here.

We spent a lovely half hour in the gallery chatting to the talented ladies and I bought one of Michelle's little machine-stitched ladies. As you can see, Carol's whippet likes to keep warm in the workshop!
After that it was lunch in the craft centre.......

....everywhere looked so beautiful it was hard to believe it was the last week of October!

I spent most of yesterday crocheting....I want to make a blanket but first I thought I'd experiment with different yarns and patterns....

...some are wool, some are cotton but still haven't quite decided yet. I'm going to Yarn in Beeston tomorrow with Mum, to get some advice and buy more supplies! I really like the African flower hexagons (pattern here ) but I think I'll probably go to go for the square top right (pattern here ).

And finally..... a Peachy pic (of course).
 I do yoga most days and I think the Boy has been watching. His spinal twist is amazing!!

(This is his favourite hiding spot on the landing)

And definitely finally..... have you discovered Pinterest yet? Sharon and I have - its amazing!!!!!
http://pinterest.com/     (My boards are here)
 I can lose whole days there!!!