WHAT ARE THESE?????????

From a germ of an idea, via the USA, what will we use these for?

FOQ JUDGING

Following on from 3rd September post.  Please revisit http://gilliancooper.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/festival-of-quilts-part-ii-competition.html

There are more comments & information

I feel very passionate about all of this

Here are the results of 'scumping' it also included, one pear, one cooking apple and 6 eating apples and a few blackberries that didnt make it home as I just could not resist.  All of these make a lovely pie.
The onion paper is very interesting, along with a fabulous broken branch that really appealed, silly way to lay the conker out it looks like the leaf has eyes.  The feather has beautiful markings
See what you can scrump around your favourite walk, only things that should be taken, nothing endangered

HOW TO GET RID OF THE WOES

Well it certainly works for me!
After the pig week, an afternoon of hugs from my children, cooking lunch & dinner & chatting, I feel light hearted & lifted.   I truly thank God for my family.  Here I am a bendy tree, good and strong, isn't this magnificent.  I hope you are having a good weekend.  I am chortling at Dads Army now whilst my other half watches the Ryders Cup Golf.  I think that I will sleep well tonight x

EXERCISE

'THEY' these infamous people who claim to know what is best for us, proclaim, thee must exercise, thee must wear thyself out both physically & mentally, then thy will be a good human being and live to be 150 & still be skipping when thy is 100.
PHUPT
Or some other expletive deletive
Wonderous walk, horrendous knee ache

But yummy ones of these

Pig of a week, hope the weekend is better, hope yours is great x

WHERE I LIVE

Ive been out and about around where I live taking inspirational photographs.  Even a bog standard man hole cover looks interesting in the beautiful landscape today.  A few days of blustery & hose pipe weather have left everything swept clean & shiny

Not the golden hour but lovely shadows, a good quilting design I think, look at the difference between the shadow close too with its square edges and the one in the centre with a spherical appearance and the farthest one with its lozenge shape

Just holding on the the moisture showing 2 tones of the same green, a closer inspection is needed of this one.  All the photos will enlarge, although not taken on the very best setting, I have upped the resolution to allow closer inspection

I often walk past this lovely creature, she looks like she is dancing just for me, the post is there to give perspective

I love this lane, the twisty road and the bendy trees, I have lost the resolution in the top right hand, which is such a shame.  I dont really like to photoshop, anyway my elements are still a bit of a mystery to me!

At the top of the lane, how lucky am I to view this.  Okay I think I would love it to be St Ives in Cornwall or Lindisfarne but its not back for a few minutes stroll

On the railings by the cemetry the litchen is wonderful, would make such a good background for stitch, I just want to scrunch it all up, would also make a good dyeing scheme, yellow ochre, greeny yellow, intense blue with a smattering of cream, yummy

I encounted two more beautiful horses, they left me these mementos.  I think that I should put a filter on this, maybe embossing and see what happens.  I love the two little marks, a slash and a vee.  A few drawings should solve if it is a viable motif

Just for all of you.  Autumn in England, the hedgerow, completely stunning

One objective was to re-visit the poppy field.  This field glows lime green with what appears to be red stripes from my studio window.  I live the other side of the field.  I was expecting something akin the the poppies (in a previous post) but it was stubble!  I guess that its a trick of the light Mr Trenchcoat!

Finally for today is this little stunner, sometimes photograph DOES capture the wonder of nature & sometimes I actually am proud of my efforts
There should be a new newsletter arriving shortly with some creative ideas within.  But at the moment I need to pack my bag for my Affinity meeting tonight, atho after such a long and wonderous walk I am feeling rather tired out, oh to be 30 again and full of energy, still no moaning today, my church was peaceful & uplifting & has provoked positive endorphines.  See you soon, thanks so much for reading, comments always welcome, its much easier now, and if you wold like a free newsletter that contains exclusive content then please click on the purple bar above x

BLOG HITS

Mysteriously I seem to be getting a wild amount of blog hits & have no idea why or where they are coming from.  Is any else getting this?  Id love to think that hundreds more people are interested in my ramblings or would like to buy my classes, but I guess thats not the truth.

Here is part of Into the Garden Sweepings part two.  AKA clock of my heart!
This piece is now complete as a triptytch & hanging on the wall.  Great to use up my Sweepings.  Now I need to print them out and use as creative papers.  Off to bed now, all is not well here, thanks for reading, goodnight x

FELT

I promised to show what we made on Thursday night at our Embroiderers Guild meeting

This was one piece but I didnt like the centre, so when I got home I cut it up and as it was still wet, I manipulated it, pulling and pushing until I got 3 pieces that I like

I have stitched the 'tree' piece, but not taken photographs.  I think we all did so well making a piece in a couple of hours, very good tutor Heidi Street-Ward.

CARRIE AKROYD & CAROL CLIFT

I have spent a lovely afternoon, driving with my friend through the beautiful Northamptonshire countryside with blue sky and bubbling clouds , the rood of her convertible, chatting away
We went to Barnwell to the studio of Carrie Akroyd, a print & Lithograph maker.  The image above is a birch wood lithograph.  Carrie explained the process, fascinating.  The lithographs are limited editions of 50 prints.

This lovely image is a lino cut

Look at this wonderful image.  Her studio was full of interesting images, one of which I really would have loved to own, but somehow knowing that there are 50 of them sort of took the edge off a bit.  The Seriographs are all slightly different, but the lithographs are all exactly the same, it felt a bit like taking a photocopy to me.  Her sketchbooks were also very interesting, being concerned with getting the subject matter down quickly working in the field, literally.

A very interesting artist

Another studio was Jewellery designer & maker Carol Clift.  www.carolcliftdesign.com

We actually spent much longer in this studio.  A delightful young woman with a beautifully laid out display area containing superb jewellery.  I have not worn my wedding or engagments rings for years and get asked if I am married.  I have become alergic to the gold causing my fingers to swell up. Sooo I bought a new ring, it is beautiful, it has circles on it!!!  Oh and some other bits as well, gulp

I will photograph it to show, it is beautiful

 

 

FINISHED

Remember this?

Started in Steph Redferns Into the Garden workshop, see previous blog posts/
It is now finished
Here is a detail

This is called STRAWBERRY THIEF.

It is constructed from felt, calico - painted / printed / splashed - paper, textured Indian paper, dyed wool blanket, machine & hand stitched, with one little bead - oh and an organza bird hiding behind the strawberry leaf pecking at the strawberry.  A contemporary modern view of the Wulliam Morris fabric Strawberry Thief.  It is approx 14 inches square & has two sleeves for hanging

The paper has been printed with my own original design

Dont faint with astonishment but it is FOR SALE £70 including postage & packaging.

Please email me shelaghfolgate@aol.com if you would like further images or would like to secure it.

 

I am off to view Carrie Ackroyds studio today, I am looking forward to seeing her fabulous work

See you later x

WEATHER

Yuk its cold, heating has had to be turned on, but then it would not work.  I felt so cold that I had to eat an Eccles cake, a Morrisons one which was not as nice as these usual ones

These ones are yummy, wonder if they have made them yet on the great British bake off or whatever its called

Stitchery has been at a standstill, due to the day and night job, but last night was Embroiderers Guild with Heidi Street-Ward and it was excellent, what a lovely lady, so enthusastic and very well prepared highly recommended.  I will post what we did tomorrow.

It is Open studios in Northamptonshire so my friend and I are off to view a studio, more on that tomorrow as well!!

Yep a hopeless post, so off to snooze land, hopefully, oh and the heating was fixed by Mr fixit who is still quite astonishing after 40 years, he also bought the Eccles cake! Night all, thanks for reading x

SWEEPINGS

At the end of the workshop, I had a desk of what I call sweepings.
Pieces of yummy design papers and fabrics. I have done this many times.  I attach the pieces to a background in a very random but considered way, this is how the piece arrived home

A manic stitching took place using my freeform Bernina foot

Hoho a rotary cutter sprang into my hand and chop chop chop, I now have 3 pieces to work on.  I then remembered that I have 3 square canvas's (odd spelling) that are joined together, so this is the presentation

Piece number 1 (well actually 2, but this one got photographed first).
Steph Redfern requirements list said found objects.  I hunted around the huge storage depot in our house masquerading as the garage and found a little bowl with a little chip in the corner. The theme of the workshop was Into the Garden.  This bowl had trailing leaves on it & the colours reminiscent of the Strawberry Thief.
Into a bag and smash with a hammer.  So I really wanted to use it, so I did with my fabulous little pieces of 21st Century Yarns space dyed felt trimmings
This piece is machine stitched with whip stitch
 

Oh and a few beads

I know some of you might be saying, where is the bird and the strawberry & what happened to shape.  Its HARD, I love texture and there is a bird - well a bit of a bird - feather, and there are birds on the sweepings & also strawberry thief on the sweepings so heehee, managed to create without having a bird plonked on

Thanks for reading x

 

CARREFOUR DU PATCHWORK

Congratulations to Linda Kemshall, winner of this years Carrefour du Patchwork with this very evocative quilt.
A few years ago I visited this wonderful patchwork show it was wonderful
Here are a few more images from the show

Mami Noda

Libby Lehman

Hye Sook Kim

Cosabeth Parriaud

There is a NEW PAGE on the PURPLE BAR
3 Patchwork & Quilting workshops for sale

BIT OF DESIGN

Well this is a bit twee for me, but it produced 3 pieces of design so must have jogged my mind.  What I liked was taking the elements down to the very basics

Aka the strawberry & the thief, the colour from the picture & the shape of the reeds.  I guess that this would work as an applique, now what am I supposed to be doing today????

 

HI HO HI HO

 I have had such a problem getting onto my blog.  The access seems to have disappeared, then I remembered I could send from Picasa so horray.  This is for Dale.  See I really do have a wishing well.  When I was a child my beloved Daddy built us one which was surrounded by wild bluebells, I lived between my junior school and my senior school and lots of children passed by each day and the wishing well was a real talking point.  I was telling my children this one day after the passing of both of my parents and for mothers day a wishing well appeared, many tears have been shed

Then one day THEY arrived, one by one they marched into my life.  They moved about, stood on their heads, did very naughty things and basically drove me bonkers until I said NO MORE.  Now I wish I had never said anything, because the Gnomes just live in the well, they never move or indeed look at all happy.  My wishing well lives in my front garden under my weeping willow tree, surrounded by a lovely hidden path.  Do you have a wishing well too?

Here is the start of my second piece from Steph Redfern workshop, remember its based on Strawberry Thief, you can just see the bird, it is on fabric, the bird is on Evolon, brightly coloured because I treated the Evolon before I printed it. There is no stitching ..yet

I must get some sleep tonight, have been plagued by cramp for 3 nights and last night was awful, Ive been up since 5am, do you know the feeling when your eyes feel like they have been pushed into your head? Yep? shake hands. x See you tomorrow, hopefully without Panda eyes

I have more pieces

 

STEPHANIE REDFERN WORKSHOP

Once a year, I treat myself to a workshop.  I am very very fussy!
There are a few artists whom I admire; Jo Budd, Cas Holmes & Stephanie Redfern
Last September I was fortunate enought to attend a workshop in Birmingham with Steph.  At the Festival of Quilts, I learnt of spare places on a course called Into the Garden, with Steph, at Bramble Patch, so this was to be this years course.
A two day course in the studio at Bramble Patch, an excellent venue, huge room, very pleasant.
I am embarking on a new series of work.  My textile group AFFINITY have been set a list of 'rules' to create pieces of work for an exhibition.
For my first piece I have chosen the work of the great man William Morris and the Strawberry Thief.

The bird motif or shape - I challenged myself to work with

Colour theme:

The work is to be called

THE WOOD BEYOND THE WORLD

This is the title of one of Willam Morris's books

My pieces have nothing to do with woods or worlds lol

This is what was born yesterday

Sorry about the really dark image, this is the design

First steps, a bird has appeared, this has been very roughly stitched, I am not at all happy with it, so I went to bed & let sleep do its best

5.30am

Spot the difference lol

This is not at all finished, but it is a start to be worked upon

Tomorrow Ill post about my other pieces

A big thank you to Steph, a true artist, wonderful spacial awareness, balance, proportion & a Je ne sais pas.  I would so love to own a piece of her work, one day hopefully.

Shattered now after a trip to Hobby Craft - very restrained, a piece of felt and some chocolate - remember Ive been two days in a fabric shop!

Thanks for reading x

Oh thank you to all the new newsletter readers, lovely.

 

 

 

 

FREE DESIGN TUTORIAL OSEBERG

I heard yesterday that the Collins online dictionary has included chillaxing as a word along with some other equally dodgy words, most of which I had never heard, even from the daft 'amazing' 'journey' 'on my page' '24/7' people
I know that language evolves.  I remember only too well 'swinging' & 'dodgy' not with the same meanings of today's people
English is such a complicated language.  A mix of old English, German, Latin , French, probably Norse, Gallic & who knows what else.  Fascinating program on the Box (that's not a box any more, its a slim black slit) with Neil Oliver the archaeologist

A story of the Vikings.  Now I have a Viking in my family, so I am very interested in his history
20 of so years ago I was studying for my City & Guilds Part one, one of my design 'boards' or sheets was the Oseberg ship

Imagine my delight when a nice large chunk of the program was on this fabulous ship, with its cargo of 2 bodies, both women.  One nearly 80 and another younger woman, who was of mixed race.  So very exciting to hear for me.  As I welcome all of my Viking son in laws family into my family.

I then got very carried away with the patterns on this replica

SO HOW DID I DO THIS?

 

PROGRAMS:  Microsoft WORD 10 & Corel Photopaint 9

Other programs will work too

I have Photoshop Elements but am being a bit tardy at learning how to use it!

I am busy discovering all the Word has to offer

 

Save your picture in your photo software.  I use Picasa 3, which is a free program from Google.  Okay its a bit annoying sometimes, but it is free and so easy to use

COPY your picture to the CLIPBOARD

The wonderful clipboard that holds images or text or both for you in temporary waiting for wahtever you want to do

Open up Word

Open a blank file, name it what ever you want, mine is Oseberg!

Save it

PASTE your image in the page (Edit paste or control V)

Save the page call it Oseberg1 or whatever

Click on the image to bring up the HANDLES

Drag a corner handle to make the image larger or smaller

SAVE as Oseberg2

SAVE each stage as a new file, then it is so easy to undo or not lose your work if you have a power failure, like we had TWICE yesterday..why? have no idea, save you work at each stage, you can always delete the files later

There is a really nifty tool in WORD.  You can eliminate the background!

This is what I have done here.  Ive only just discovered this, very exciting

CLICK  on the picture

Look at the bar at the top of the program andyou will see a tab PICTURE TOOLS

CLICK on this

A flyout will give you options, the first being

MARK AREAs TO KEEP

click on this & handles will appear on your image, the greyed out (purple in my case) area is the area that will be CUT AWAY

drag the handles until what you want to keep is in focus

then click on

KEEP CHANGES

DONE

Background has vanished

SAVE

I then copied the image to the clipboard (edit copy or shortcut control+C)

and pasted it back (edit paste or shortcut control+V)

Then I went to play

Under PICTURE TOOLS

you have PICTURE EFFECTS

Click on those and play around, I used the Reflection option

Remember to SAVE

When you have finished playing around.  SAVE & then COPY to clipboard

OPEN UP COREL photopaint or some other software

OPEN FROM CLIPBOARD

OR

Paste

Your image will appear

Then it can be played around with in software that you can save it as a Jpeg.  Which will appear in Picasa to play with their Free edits.

Word does not save it as a picture file, so to upload to you on the Blog, I had to copy it to Corel

Finally for this tutorial

EFFECTS - COLOUR TRANSFORM

PSYCHEDLIC 176

How about that!

Its so strange where inspiration can come from, and what it can lead too - I could play and play with this.  But I think printing it out onto cloth is the way to go and using it as an applique, they all face the same way, but if I do reverse or mirror on my printer then I could get a reverse

Or re-copy back into work and flip it

Oh the joys of our computer age.  Back to the dark ages when I originally worked with this image, it was all done by hand and a black and white photocopier, no not the good old days, give me now and the very strange language

Do let me know if you have a go, also if you know other yummy simple things to do with basic software

Thanks for reading

I am off on a 2 day course - images will appear, maybe not tomorrow as its BOAT group in the evening but on Friday and over the weekend.  Im not saying who with - wait and see x