Birthday Weekend

Just had a wonderful birthday weekend......spent Saturday with Maggi at a Living Threads workshop creating pictures on our embellishing machines (see above). They aren't finished yet; I intend doing some hand-stitching and beading.
Then on Sunday I got lots of lovely presents and went to a fab restaurant for Sunday dinner with my husband, son, daughter and mum. Happy days!!

Peachy sent me a card - of course ;-)

Yesterday afternoon whilst playing with my new(ish) Panasonic Lumix camera I discovered a macro setting and had fun playing with that for an hour. Results aren't great yet...but I'll keep practising! (DH keeps saying 'read the instruction manual!' but I'd rather find out by playing and fiddling. Anyone else like me? ( I HATE manuals)

Cone flowers, fuchsia, clematis, cosmos........

Before I forget..... a blogging friend of mine has three wonderful places to visit if you have a spare moment. Lots of interesting stuff and inspiration to be found! I can definitely recommend.......

http://morna.tumblr.com
http://mornacrites-moore.blogspot.com
http://www.mornacrites-moore.com

Sitting Stitching.......

I've been playing with my embellishing machine over the past few days...mainly to provide something for me to stitch onto :-) This started life as a flower corsage which went completely wrong so I chopped it up and felted it onto a (wet felted) background. Now it looks like a cocoon :-(

But this definitely isn't a landscape.......... ;-)

My favourite flower of the moment (now the bluebells have gone) is my Nectaroscordum.
I believe it belongs to the allium family. I love this one's bendy stem.

I'm taking photos of it at various stages of growth and have started doing some sketches and digital art with the intention of creating designs for a new project I have in mind. More later.....

Whilst I was in the garden today I spotted this brown blob on the hydrangea.......

.......got in a little closer......

...and touched it.......eeek!!!!!


Photo isn't brilliant but you can click on it for a better view.

One of the big garden debates this spring has been what to do with the dead cordylines....they are in gardens everywhere! Ours is over 5' tall.
I took off all the dead leaves.......

....and now Peachy uses it as a climbing frame! :-)
Fortunately its not on full view as its at the side of the house.

Apparently they can still sprout......but I'm not convinced.
I took a photo of the bark today; how many faces can you see???

I think I can see an owl too....... :-)


BTW...this is how it looked last summer (if you click on the photo please excuse blue bin and bag of compost) .

Spirit Cloth 3

I'm so grateful for all the lovely comments I've had regarding my latest sewing project. Quite a few people have emailed and asked for details of the class (Jude Hill's 'Cloth to Cloth')....I hope you're now enjoying it as much as I am.
I decided to use ironed sari ribbons for my third Spirit Cloth...these are the colours from a skein I bought from The Threshing Barn in Staffordshire. It's a work in progress; I'm adding some tiny pieces of hand-made felt and there'll be lots more stitching.

The sari ribbon before ironing......

..and after.

I then discovered I could alter the ribbon by putting it through my embellishing machine...it ruches up like seersucker. I used a few of these mixed with the flat ironed ones.

I then tried it on other fabrics.
This is the effect on organza....

...and silk dupion. Saving these for future projects!

And finally....

I made this little landscape on my embellishing machine yesterday...I'm off now to do some hand-stitching on it.
BTW - if you're interested in embellishing machines, here's a link to see the Janome FM 725 in action. I found this on Lynn's excellent Squidoo page which is all about needle felting.
(She has a lovely give-away on her blog as well....definitely worth a visit.)
And absolutely finally....I can't go without a Peachy pic. He's currently kipping on his new mat (and yes...its a bath mat :-)

Autumnal Art...... and A Day With Maggi

In my quest to 'embrace Autumn' I've been taking lots of photos......the digital pieces above are of a leaf from my garden. Textures and mask are from DJ Pettitt.

The photograph below is of a hydrangea growing against our garden wall. I think it's more interesting this time of year than in summer.

For my first digital version I used various textures from Kim Klassen plus a Katie Pertiet mask from Designer Digitals....

...and here's another version; textures this time from Shadowhouse Creations.

Last Friday I had a wonderful day with Maggi (To Dream to Stitch) at her house. She showed me a paper lamination technique using torn papers, matte medium, stencils and organza (which Maggi had beautifully dyed). Here's my piece before I soaked it to remove the papers....

 I cut it into three and kept one section with the papers still attached as I rather liked the effect.  For the other two pieces I did the technique properly and soaked the papers off the back, leaving behind the parts where matte medium had been applied through a stencil.

I've already begun stitching on one of these....more photos another day :-)

After a delicious lunch (eaten whilst whilst watching the amazing collection of wild birds in the garden) I got the chance to use Maggi's embellishing machine. Oooh it's like watching magic happen......I couldn't believe how all the fabrics and fibres bonded together. I used wool fibres, chiffon, scrim, rayon threads and a thin strip of green velvet (dyed by Maggi).
Here's my attempt....unfinished of course. I will continue with my trusty hand felting needle and add some more wool fibres and sari silks. Then possibly some machine and hand stitching.
A work in progress!

I've also been doing a bit of hand-stitching over the past couple of weeks......its not brilliant, but I enjoyed doing it....

And finally, an update on Peachy. He now lives with us!!!! I think he feels at home here.....he loves my art room :-)
We've been to the vets a few times over the past couple of weeks.....ear drops for mites, two sets of vaccinations, a microchip and castration. DH cringed when the vet called out 'Peachy Vincent' when it was our turn to go in. He laughed at our expressions and said don't worry, we've heard worse .........  :-)