NEWSLETTER FREEBIE

Just a quick post, there is SKYFALL a freebie mini technique in my latest newsletter, so its worth opening.  If you would like to subscribe; the link (its free) is on the side bar. 

CHANGES

Okay so its time to change the blog format again, I cant work out how to put the follower tab onto the modern format, so I have reverted back to the before format lol.  Please let me know what you prefer.
Very low day here due to a couple of things.  I did go to the pet shop for grub for cardboard cat and spent ages with the bunny rabbits, finches, budgies, rats, mice and gerbils.  Such fun!!

PATCHWORK

A few weeks ago, I had a compulsion to make a bag out of some fabric given to me.  I found a lovely pattern in a patchwork magazine, that looks nothing at all like this and with much patching and piecing of small amounts of the fabric, I made this Clarice Cliff bag.  I took it to Bee Inspired to help sell the material.  I joked that if anyone wanted it, it was twenty five quid and much to my complete annoyance it was snapped up.  It should have been fifty quid, I didnt really want it sold.  I have since made another one in blue, which is going to be a workshop in the new year (locally) so will NOT be sold lol

In December I shall be teaching making this Santa Sack, free motion quilting for those who want a bash at it

Or straight stitch.  A nice workshop for a day course and the layout of the ACCUQUILT motifs can be changed and re-arranged.  Spaces are available

W I P - using my new Die. The brown fabric in the centre is my most treasured piece of Libertys fabric, at least twenty years old.  Golly Ive actually cut it cripes how did that happen?!

GROT

The very famous photographer BRASSAI shot Paris by night in the fog.

This is just what it looks like here tonight.  Warm muggy, foggy, dull and grotty

These images are fabulous.  When I was studying photography I was very taken with the beauty of his images.  Do a google image search and see the wonderful shots, so evocative, nothing like this outside my window lol

I did manage to shoot one picture in the fog, but it seems to have vanished from Picasa

By the end of the week it will be cold, crisp and blue sky, hooray!

No stitching at the moment, too tired after working but Thursday is my day so fingers crossed for something to show.

 

WALK IN THE AUTUMN

Those of you who subscribe to my FREE newsletter will have seen some of these pictures.

It really has become a spectacular Autumn this year in England, I suppose it will come to an end this week with the impending 'cold snap' but it is such a bonus after a ghastly summer

I have loved Chinese Lantern, sincet hey were the first plant that we planted in our first garden nearly 40 years ago

A beautiful reminder of why Roses are so loved

This was part of a large area outside my church, it was flat but full of different flowers

 

I have just returned from teaching the second STITCHED SCAPES today.  Sorry forgot to take pictures of the lovely work.   We worked with bonding, coloured scrim, mulberry paper, hand & machine stitch & Thermofax screens.  I had intended to  use my new original screen but actually forgot, I have a mound of pieces to use, the main problem with screen printing is that it is so rapid to produce lots of pieces & to get messy.  The state of the class hand towel was awful lol

ALLY PALLY 2012

11am London Skyline, view from Alexander Palace.  WOW, so very lucky with the misty weather in the morning & beautiful golden glow in the afternoon.  Taken with a camera phone

Inside the exhibit in the Palm court, the centre post sprayed gold, look closely and you will see knitting needles & all sorts of trims etc.  There was a seat attached to the pole of the yurt, to sit and absorb the unfinishables.

All around the yurt were these incredible textiles, printed onto maybe silk or polyester organza, pictures of unfished work by people whose explanations were around the yurt as well.  Fascinating, some were happy, some sad, the comments were all so true of all of us, who make a piece then fall out of love, time or energy.  I could have spent hours in here reading all the comments, I wonder if there is a web site or blog about this?

www.jameshunting.com
Excellent workshop with James.  Awful squashed in venue.  Noisy people waiting for their next workshop & one woman marched in on our workshop, sid she wanted to sit down & did he mind, well what could he say, I was not at all happy.
Back to the stitching - Below is James sample piece, yummy, okay I know it looks like nothing but it was very very interesting workshop.  I learnt 2 new stitches, I also learnt to impress on myself & my students to CONSIDER THE QUALITY OF THE MARK - think about each stitch, why I am doing it, where I am placing it, does it enhance or detract from the piece.  This advice is priceless and it provoked much conversation on the journey home & at our local Embroiderers Guild meeting on Tuesday.  A highly recommended tutor, very different & very talented

A grey old day today here, not much of anything today, except I managed to get my husband to help with his first piece of applique...lol...well help position pieces any way, no sewing yet but you never know hmmm! thanks for reading, hope your Sunday is good x

THIS WEEK

A lovely picture of Dale & myself at Alexander Palace last sunday.  We had a lovely catch up on a whole years news and put the world to rights!

Knitting & stitching show, I really likes this coat dress, made by a student, lovely colour combination

 
The knitted village, so charming & such fun, loved it

There were lots of exhibitions but due to nattering with someone, buying my machine, see previous post, having the wonderful workshop with James Hunting (more about that in another post) I hardly saw any of the exhibitions.  But this one was most impressive

Okay - the word WHY comes to mind, but it is fun

Beautiful plate, beautiful insertion stitching

I would not want to live with these but at least its pushing the boundaries in a nice way instead of blood & gore (watching War Horse at the moment, I am suprised that anyone survived the first world war)
Beautiful day here, still & calm, with a pale lemon sun & fabulous colours on the leaves
Back soon x

NOW I KNOW WHERE THEY ARE!

The New Forest

PEOPLE......lots of them....if you wish to avoid them then DONT go to Dunelm Mill on opening day and DONT go to a Card Making Fayre (actually do go to the fayre as it was great) but I think it was great because I had huge fun with my friends grand daughter in her buggy, she in the buggy not me ha!  I was restrained as off to Alexander Palace tomorrow to see Dale.  A very enjoyable Saturday after being stabbed with the anti flu virus (I hope) queue this year half an hour and a lovely chat to a really nice lady.  Then I bumped into a previous student of mine from 12 years ago who was ver complimentary and completely made my day
I should be stitching, I should be doing a number of things  but am sitting with the cardboard cat gazing out of the window into the lovely Autumn sunshine & beautiful colours, pondering on all the stencils I have just seen and NOT bought as am picking some up from thethreadstudio.com tomorrow.

This is one that I do already have

This is another favourite of mine, cloth with decolourant & a Thermofax screen.  Hmmm this is a nice piece, I must dig this out as a background.  Got all enthused now so will stop day dreaming and get doing, have a lovely Saturday, I will report on A P tomorrow or Monday depending on how tired I am, oh I am taking a workshop with James Hunting so there should be a little bit of stitch to report and I am looking for this......

Its Rachels fault for lending me hers, what a fabulous little machine, all my 'in progress' projects now have their binding all neatly rolled up ready & I can have one as a Christmas pressie from my DH, good old stick, exciting eh and I also want a new Accuquilt die

This one

or this one

or this one, or maybe none of them if I cant get a good deal, there is another one but I cant remember what its called.  I shall visit lady sew and sew as they did me a deal and also replaced one for me really quickly and without any bother, I was VERY impressed.  I also need to remember (yes Carolyn) to collect my shopping and not leave it there! like at FOQ this year

Right thats enough, off to play, thanks for reading x

 

 

QUILT

Look at this astonishing quilt, by Susan Stewart called Radiance.  It is fabulous.  I am sorry but blogger has turned it sideways, but you can see the amazing work.  Visit the quilt show to get a closer view.  Sometimes quilts as just so beautiful I want to give up!

FABRIC DYEING

After a ghastly week, the sun is out & washing drying on the line, atho the temperature says its 45 degrees which is very silly
Sewing this week has been off and on.  A new small top was started and is hanging waiting quilting using my Urbanicity fabric.  I loved this fabric when I bought it a few months ago and now some of it is almost unusable because it makes my eyes go 'funny'  A beautiful stripe that I am having to chop up smaller to avoid the dizzies

Such a shame
I have been messing around with another design for my Scapes classes, using hand dyed fabrics.
I thought I would use up a large amount of my stash, dyed over many years, but only used a pittance. 
So why do I keep buying hand dyed fabric eh? 
After buying Vicki Welsh Warkton Lane, I have now bought some fabric from Maggie Birchenough.  Both dyers are excellent.  I think I shall never bother again with dyeing my own. 
I dont like the safety issues anymore & there are such good dyers out there, whats the point!

Warkton Lane Quilt by Vicki Welsh

 

Warkton gradient

 

The original picture that I took in.....Warkton Lane

Maggie Birchenough fabric, now lives with me!

 

Different piece.  I noticed that Maggie was dyeing again yesterday, so I am awaiting new pieces. 

Both dyers use good cloth.  Vicki's is similar to Makower & Maggie's to Moda & also Laura Kemshalls Fingerprint fabric, some of which I have treated myself to recently, its in the bag with the Spoonflower fabric that I designed. 

Spoonflower is an American site, but Fingerprint is in the UK. 

I am going to get some fabric printed by Fingerprint when I make up my mind which to use of the thousands of images that I want repeated on yardage.(Slight exaggeration Folgate :-)

I have also started another quilt top with commercial fabric. 

I now wish that I had a long arm quilt machine! I have the space, in the garage but it is full up with our crud and the crud from my childrens previous homes. 

One day I will SEIZE THE DAY & chuck it all out!

Sorry about the rambling, not feeling up to snuff at the moment, normal service resumes soon (hopefully) thanks for reading have a lovely Sunday x

THAT'S LIFE

That's life, that's what people say.
You're riding high in April,
Shot down in May.
But I know I'm gonna change their tune,
When I'm right back on top in June.

That's life, funny as it seems.
Some people get their kicks,
Steppin' on dreams
But I just can't let it get me down,
Cause this big old world keeps spinnin' around.

I've been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate,
A poet, a pawn and a king.
I've been up and down and over and out
But I know one thing:
Each time I find myself flat on my face,
I pick myself up and get back in the race.

That's life, I can't deny it,
I thought of quitting,
But my heart just won't buy it.
Cause if I didn't think it was worth a try,
I'd have to roll myself up in a big ball and die.

Words & Music by Dean Kay & Kelly Gordon Recorded by Frank Sinatra, 1966

Photography & grumbles

Ive been organising my photographs and found this, Lindisfarne castle, I love the purity of the single fine grass with the heavy fortified castle seemingly attached to the stem, the permanent and impermanent, heavy - light

This shot was taken at the same time but with different settings on my Nikon DSLR, look at the difference, the grass is totally swamped by the castle, in fact the grass looks transparent and lost

When you take a shot try using different settings and making the focal point  really important

Earlier today I was busy making a new small quilt top using my Urbanicity fabric, circles, squares, black, white and taupe.  I had a quick way of piecing that I had saved for a while from Fabrications magazine.  Chop chop, zoom zoom draw draw, cut, open, duh? errrr?  what!!!The flipping instructions were completely wrong.  Oh I was mad, oh I was very mad.  I had drawn on my fabric and I thought that I had ruined it all.  Actually  I was very fortunate in that I only had to re-cut 4 pieces.

Moral of this story - DONT believe any instructions - make a test sample first.  The pictures in this magazine are completely wrong, but hey presto the finished picture is correct.  I am not a fan of this magazine since they were to publish one of my quilts and the pattern and then it did not appear, they put a daft little thing in instead with someone with 'a name' and my quilt never appeared.

Now Ive got some sort of bug, so stitching has stopped.  Oh Ive finished the bag & forgotten to photograph it!