SHELAGH FOLGATE

BRAND NEW ONLINE COURSE

2012-01-28T14:48:00.003Z

WORKSHOPS NOW OPEN FOR ENROLMENTS

- See PAGES above

Direct link to Pay on side Bar
Photos on BLOG LINKS
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STARTING 1ST MARCH 2012 to 1ST JULY 2012
MY ALL NEW COURSE - DESIGN TO STITCH
Please visit the blog: http://designtostitch.blogspot.com for all the details

Special offers for previous students & for early enrolment

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THE SMASHEES - Starts 1st March 2012 to 1st July 2012
The very popular textile ITEM making course - 5 monthly lessons plus ONE completely FREE for early enrolment by 14th February
See PAGE link at top of page or visit http://smashees.blogspot.com

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TANTALISING TECHNIQUES
- Starts 1st March 2012 to 1st July 2012
How to use the following textiles
Exploit the properties of
Lutradur
Evolon
Cotton
Wool
Felt
With SILK as a FREE workshop for enrolment by 14th February 2012
See PAGE link at top of page or visit http://tantalisingtechniques.blogspot.com

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WEEKEND

2012-01-27T15:50:00.000Z

Here at last, a lovely three days without a huge plan of 'things to do' within stitchery. Still trying to get back to somewhere near normal, I am not going to work at weekends. Having done this for what seems like ever, it is so strange to get two days off together each week.
I am ever hopeful this weekend to be well (please)
Its not been a too bad week, with the highlight a visit from both of my children, certainly a big boost for the immune system. Gosh I hate being an 'empty nester'

I found a jelly roll whilst looking for some other pieces of fabric. For those of you not patchwork obsessed a jelly roll is a selection of fabrics from a fabric manufacturer cut to 2 1/2 inches by the full width of the fabric usually around 42 inches. There are usually around 20 strips.
Anyway I found this, the only one that I have ever bought, purchased for one of the fabrics alone (mad and madder I get)
I spend hours faffing with it to make it work into the pattern I devised for a table centre using Ricky Tims Kalediscope method
In the end, I sewed them together and have just finished cutting it out

Three of the colours, they are Fabric Freedom Lily fabrics, all really bright and funky

Ive cut them out now and wow guess I have taken a trip back to the late 1960's

I have misplaced my lead to my camera to take photos at the moment, which is really annoying me

I shall be stitching this piece over the coming weeks, hopefully I can show it, if I find the lead

Had a new class this morning with some new students, all very lovely. The sun was streaming in the window, what a lovely way to spend a morning with happy people quilting. I had a lovely couple, young man and woman who worked together and chose beautiful modern fabric. I was so pleased to see him stitching so well, I love my job

ACCUQUILT GO

2012-01-22T19:28:00.000Z

I have posted my story of the Accuquilt Go on this blog
http://patchesgalore.blogspot.com/
If you get time please read it, a story of a lovely person.

Video

2012-01-22T14:47:00.000Z

Thank you to those who have replied to my questions in the previous post

I am considering doing some videos but am a total prat of a presenter, hilarious, perhaps I should put the one I did up and give the whole world a huge laugh, might make the top ten of the youtube, ha

In the meantime I am going to put a slide of images on here (keep thinking of that silly advert s l i d e r s with the old puppets)

Now just need to work out how to do it

Let me know please if you can see it or not, then I can do other ones

Hi

2012-01-21T14:51:00.000Z

Hi, am totally fed up with feeling below par. Creativity seems to be eluding me, have managed to stitch some traditional pieces of patchwork & done a little machine quilting, but as for developmental stuff ..poof...nought

I stitched this a while ago, it is on hand dyed raw silk & is all made of different colour threads, no painting or colouring

This is me (in my dreams) hohoho

A clever technique to try using a kitchen cloth, follow the grid

Patchwork using folded and manipulated techniques, also using my Clover Yoyo makers, which are easy and satisfying to make little Suffolk puffs, okay you can do it with a circle blah blah but these are so much easier and predictable, a favourite tool. This piece is heavily quilted and the fabrics are commercial bright colours all from the same manufacturer

Lovely Lutradur, fragments of time, resembling the innarts of clocks

Lots of techniques combined for this textural piece. I love doing this type of work along with macro photography, problem is in the area where I live there is no call for either

I am considering offering my previous workshop courses again

Smashees, Tantalising Techniques & Follow My Heart, also the original Yahoo workshops.

If anyone is interested can you email me on shelaghfolgate@aol.com or leave a comment

It is hard to judge pricing structure as the take up rate is unknown when a workshop is advertised

Locally a day workshop 5 to 6 hours cost 20 to 50 English pounds.

Mostly one technique then make samples or a quick fix item

Online workshops usually cover lots of techniques, have the option to download and print off, to remember whats being taught forever.

How do you price that?

I would love to hear your thoughts on this. I would love to supply a product that is eagerly wanted rather than a re-hash of freely available information

It seems that there is a trend towards videos. I think that they have a place in enforcing a visual of a difficult technique but are not a substitute for the written word

I wish I could publish on Kindle - hmmm thats a thought

So please forgive me for my absence, moaning is not the intention of this blog

I suppose a freebie giveaway might get more comments, let me know if that would encourage you to comment

So over to you my creative readers - what would YOU like???

Thanks for reading & waiting x

Getting Better

2012-01-13T23:00:00.000Z

Feeling a bit better today altho not enough energy on a glorious sunny day to go for a walk really dragged me down mentally, still lots of interesting stuff on the TV (groan)
The group that I belong to BOAT had a meeting last night and we are starting new pieces of work to be bound into a book next December
The first month is White, my piece is sitting looking forlorn on my desk waiting for the energy to stitch it, I will try and post pictures of stages here, some of you might like to play along with our theme NATURE
Thanks for reading and baring with me during my absence & the good wishes x

Still ill

2012-01-10T22:23:00.001Z

Sorry folks, still feeling quite ill and not wanting to impart tales of woe, be back soon and thank you for the messages x

OUT & ABOUT

2012-01-04T20:00:00.000Z

Hooray...I have made a discovery.......there is something outside of my house....an outside...whoo hoo, roads....shops...SHOPS....ooh a plastic thingy that zips through a machine and buys things - like a new coat, a lovely new coat, a bright red huge new coat, very happy me, I, have wanted a new coat for ages
Okay its not fabulous and it is much too big but it was a bargain and it is wool and knee length so covers all my loonng cardigans that I am obsessed with and the sleeves fit and its red lol, I do look quite monsterous in it but I dont care, its warm and its red.
Then I have new shoes as well, they are pink, but they are running shows, when you have size 10 feet, getting running shoes that are not very manish is nearly impossible, but today they snuck up on me via my lovely husband and they fit and they are pink, oh bliss. They fit as well (what is happening two things that fit and I LIKE them...nope love them) and finally a new dressing gown to replace the cruddy one that I use to do craft work in (well not really, but I do find that I go into the studio in the morning and evening and seem to do dirty work with the lilac dressing gown on, so its now cruddy around well everywhere) Dave said promise to throw the other one away, silly man after 38 years he does not realise I can promise anything (Is that new...nope had it years...you know how it goes girls)
I have no intention of throwing it away, its great for craft work and can now live in the studio instead of a boring apron
So lunch out, new clothes & a visit to a friend, its Christmas at last. Coughing is subsiding, did have a funny turn but okay now, just tired

ONE DAY IN A LIFE

2012-01-01T19:36:00.000Z

Hi, hope that you had a lovely Christmas time wherever you are or whatever you did or didnt do!
I enjoyed seeing my family, but am only just starting to recover from the dreaded germ that is laying low alot of people here. Two weeks now, driving me potty.
I have today been stitching, at last. I have a new set of classed locally in Patchwork & before the germ designed a quilt to teach. Sometimes it is difficult to teach standalone courses, I much prefer to be able to extend techniques over more than one lesson. However, I am hopeful that the new quilt will be interesting for my students. Have not taken any photos as I have a huge amount on my card to upload from the work of our local Embroiderers Guild. Must get on with that.
I am not making promises to myself or anyone else for the new year, as it really is a bit silly to put myself under a cosh. I am way behind with workshop planning, but it will all get itself sorted out, all I can do is try my best when I feel okay.
Back soon, maybe with normal service lol, thanks for reading x

Wasted week

2011-12-22T21:46:00.000Z

Thank you so much for your good wishes. This picture looks good doesnt it? Well its the flu virus that I have been suffering, how could anything so beautiful cause such misery? Fortunately I had the flu jab or I think it would have been much much worse.
Today I have managed to
1 Get dressed
2 Wrap up a few pressies
3 Eat a small amount of fish and chips (what a treat & a break from soup)
4 Not be sick (yukky Shelagh)
5 Stay awake
Sounding a bit like the 12 days of misery instead of Christmas
My totally fab husband Dave has had to put up with tears, moaning, croaking, dragging me out of a tight spot and doing ALL the Christmas shopping alone. I am just so grateful, the fridge and freezer is full
We have no crackers (have to use the fabric ones with nothing inside, that would be different)
No stuffing (could make my own I suppose)
Lots of Beer (why? we hardly drink)
2 large pieces of beef instead of one, neither of which matches each other (hummm)
Still its done thats it and I am more than grateful for what I have. Thinking of lonely and homeless people sobers the mind and the spirit.
I shall see my children we shall toast those we love who are no longer in our sight but always in our hearts
We shall celebrate the birth of our Lord and be grateful for our lot. We shall TRY not to moan and we shall look forward to next year to our daughters wedding to a lovely man and to the London 2012 Olympics (even though we dont have tickets to anything)
I hope that you too will have something to feel grateful for this Christmas
Lastly I want to thank you for following my ramblings, for joining my courses, for your comments. It is so strange still to sit in my dining room, covered in a quilt & talk to unknown people throughout the world. My goodness it still amazes (in the true sense of the word) me.
I shall not post again before Christmas Day, therefore I wish you health, wealth & happiness. God bless you whatever your faith
Love Shelagh x

bugs

2011-12-20T17:02:00.000Z

Grrrr... its holiday time and I am ill, Hopefully be back soon x

VERY SAD NEWS

2011-12-05T17:42:00.000Z

Dale has just informed me of the very sad news that Sarah Lawrence of Crafty Notions in Newark England, died last Friday. I did not know Sarah very well but I know that she has a husband and children & I send my deep condolences to them.
My friend Carolyn & I had a wonderful day out a few years back at Sarahs open day, spending far too much money on such wonderful items. I still use the knitted bag using the formers found deep in the warehouse. We certainly need to treasure our time as Sarah was not very old. She was extremely talented & appeared on Create & craft on TV, did lots of shows and had numerous articles in many publications. She was the inventor of WILD WOMEN, which she is wearing in the lovely picture below. She will be very missed in our creative world. xx

Flying time

2011-12-04T21:20:00.000Z

Wow, time has just flittered away, I have been trying to sort out my computers as my studio one just expired. Nothing Nada, being a bit of a techie (?) I decided to cannibalise 4 computers. I have had cables, drives, screws etc all over the place. Its been a while since I built a computer and now I am making a monster a hybrid. Jumpers for supper, jumpers for breakfast lol
I now have a new computer that works and zips along quite nicely and then guess what I decided to just use my laptop, so the rest of the time was taken up with shifting the studio around changing sockets etc. I dont know how this is going to work and maybe I will be going back to my usual running two puters at the same time, with 2 printers and using an external hard drive and usb to connect them
In between has been much family time and very enjoyable and some rather odd problems with my toes!!
Sewing has been on the back boiler whilst all this has been happening. I will be back with some sort of stitchery creativity soon, thanks for reading x

FOG AWAY

2011-11-25T16:52:00.002Z

HI, sorry been AfBWOL. Its been very foggy here both outside and in my head. I succumbed to the November chills and not wanting to impart tales of woe is me, skulked away from blogland. But BACK NOW!
I have some fantastic slipper boots - so what you might says but I have ginormous feet and have never been able to find any that fit, these are fabullous and even better they are a pressie from Sally, thank you so much, my feet are so toasty. x

I am busy designing a quilt for my classes after Christmas. Spring Flowers. These are my blocks or a twist on traditional blocks. I know that I dont blog my patchwork much, when the Christmas runner comes back from its temporary home at work then I shall show. I need to finish off the table mats that are in various stages of constructions before the big day.

Those of you who have been Leafing along with me on the newsletter will appreciate this image. It was taken by Ruth (thanks) after a heads up from Carolyn (great observation) This is after the rain on the new stone pavement near where I work. This is not a leaf it is an imprint left on the stone from when the leaf was there

This is the pavement, wow look at the fabulous patterns

Here is another one, I bet the council are a bit peeved at this but they do look so fabulous dont they.
Yesterday was glorious in the morning, so I walked to church. In the distance I could hear the clinking of bottles being smashed in the refuse lorry and drilling and hammering, horses neighing and dogs barking. I closed the church door and silence.
It was completely peaceful and beautiful with the watery November sun shafting through the side stainglass panes. It was quiet, hey it was quiet. I was at the altar and everything was quiet. I am a sufferer of tinnitus, its never quiet in my head, but for a few fleeting moments, I was aware of nothing. The power of the place, co-incidence or a whatever, it was a pure moment to cherish & I wanted to share it with you. Normal droning & swishing has returned,my brain cells like to have a rave-up lol
I shall leaf it a bit (groan) with the newsletters as there have been quite a few in a short space of time, dont want to wear out your inboxes. It is still very suprising that a few are not opened, especially as there has been alot of creative information recently.
I took some fab images yesterday which need to be uploaded, so check back soon for more of my drivel. I am sooooo glad the fog has gone. Thanks for reading x

TODAYS BARGAIN

2011-11-17T17:33:00.000Z

QUICK - for one day (24 hours only) HUBBLE BUBBLE DOLL is HALF PRICE HERE

This is the best bargain as it is a complete workshop,
Fabric dyeing
Surface decoration
Constructing an embellished skirt
Constructing a textured blouse
Constructing a novel jacket
Making unique hair
All techniques included, all patterns included, many full colour step by step photos
Instructions in English
SPECIAL OFFER until 5pm BST 18th November 2011
Christmas offer buy for a friend, select a date to be sent & receive the workshop for yourself as well
Time limit - number of half price workshops limited....quick before its gone.....

(Not feeling very well, guess the dreaded virus has caught up with me now...cough cough...ahhhhh x)

CATCH IT IF YOU CAN!!

2011-11-16T15:30:00.000Z

Todays SPECIAL OFFER: 24 hours to BST 4pm 17 November - Half price SILKEN TALES on HERE
Quick before its gone & watch out for more seasonal offers - If you want it as a pressie then I can send it for you on the date & you get a workshop as well 2 for 1 - bargain

CHANGING TIMES

2011-11-14T17:53:00.000Z

A few posts ago I explained about the proposed changes to my local church. When I was studying for my A level photography I took a series of shots in the graveyard, a beautiful and lovely place
this is a shot of the gate with my favourite shadows

I truely love this picture, shape, texture, line and form with broken colour, repetition, it has it all. But no MORE it has been destroyed, by the so called march of progress. In tis place is a perfect wall and a new wooden gate, very 'nice'

The point of this micro rant - take your camera everywhere, record the present before it is lost forwever, okay you may think so what a rusty old gate, but think of how many people have used this gate? The feelings of the visitors. The church is very old dating from the 12th century, I dont for one minute think that it that old but certainly a century, lost, gone, swept away. Progress, bah humbug, oh dear am getting old. Saying that, repeats what my DH has just said, is Pointless on yet?? Oh dear we are getting old we have a teatime program to watch. It was once Countdown when the children were young, good for their vocab and maths. Then Stargate through teenage years, good for science, & jolly good laugh & fun all together, now the nest is empty and we are on our laptops watching pointless, learning rubbish just for ourselves, Tomorrow take your camera or phone and snap away, we are so lucky to have digital and to be able to record the wonderful world around us. One day I will make a piece of work from this photo.

Thanks for reading - what do you think?

Link

2011-11-13T19:13:00.000Z

Very seldom do I make Two posts on one day but this post from LINNIECAT shows a tribute for today
LINK HERE

HO HO BACK AGAIN

2011-11-13T14:20:00.000Z

Watching F1. I was leaping about when Vettel went off at the second corner, not going to gloat until Lewis wins and Jenson comes second.
Beautiful day here after such a gloomy week.
I have Transfer printed with leaves. Putting together the Page workshop on the blog and the Newsletter workshop.
If you join the newsletter this week then I will send you all the Autumn series which explains the leaf method.
The next one will arrive on Weds to allow you to create your background. I have worked out the very simplest Mailchimp chump newsletter format and will stick to that, at least I can now post as many photos as I want.
Some NEW workshops will be appearing for sale soon and tonight the SPECIAL OFFER on Taking transfer printing further, which includes a complete project that uses leaves as an inspiration, comes to an end, so GET IT whilst its cheap & watch out for another deal. The other workshops for sale are full price, they reflect the amount of work and the huge content that they contain. If you are interested in one (or more) and want to know more about what they contain (I can only post one image in bigcartel) then please email me on
shelaghfolgate@aol.com

I am repeating the offer from last Christmas. In that if you want a workshop as a pressie for someone, I will send it on a pre-arranged date and you will also get the workshop - so thats 2 WORKSHOPS FOR THE PRICE OF ONE
Please remember that a workshop is NOT to be copied PLEASE. You have paid, I spend a long time and money developing these ORIGINAL ideas. Thank you have a lovely Sunday, thanks for reading x

GREY WEEK

2011-11-12T14:17:00.000Z

What a boring grey old week, dull and duller with rain and mist, at the moment there is no wind which is so strange as I live on top of a very windy hill. The trees have dumped their leaves, wallop and our lawn is strewn with the most incredible colours, bright lime green grass so lush and golden yellow and orange leaves needing to be swept up. After a period like this it usually gets really windy and the leaves fly around and hide themselves in the undergrowth, making a wonderful bed for all the little creepy crawlies that live in the garden. Especially the huge big fat slugs that if we are not quick enough to bring Pusseos meat in, gorge themselves on cat food. I have taken to flinging them across the lawn in the hopes that they are so slow it will take a week to get back to the patio. I do wonder what they think as they fly through the air. Does not seem to bother the cat though that they eat her food. Hedgehogs have disappeared now, probably making their beds in the leaves. I am watching F1 qualifying at the moment such a wonderful looking circuit, all that money part of me loves it and part thinks its a terrible waste of resources. I have many arguments with myself.

Yesterday we had the next workshop in the Happy Hornets charity days. We have now wadded and backed the quilts for Help for Heroes, ready for quilting, seemed appropriate to hold the day on Armistice day. Very emotional day & my heart goes out to all the families and friends of our service personnel who are serving, have been injured or have given the ultimate sacrifice, that includes the fire service of which my son is part. God bless them all for making our world a safer place

Transfer Printing - COLOUR ONTO CLOTH

2011-11-08T21:36:00.001Z

In the pages section there is a Free workshop page. At the moment it is about Transfer printing with crayons. Check it out. This image is ALL transfer printed, it is part of a full workshop called Taking it Further - COLOUR ONTO CLOTH Transfer painting, available HERE, for a few days this will be available at a special price

I am working on a theme of LEAVES at the moment, a FREE workshop is available in my Newsletters, this is ongoing and a new newsletter will be arriving shortly

Thanks for reading x

Magical transfer printing - Shelagh style :-)

LEAVES

2011-11-06T11:38:00.000Z

Good morning for a beautiful England, I have just been out to capture these images. Those of you who subscribe to my newsletter will know what to do with the images
This is the view from my patio.

The stickin the centre is in fact a beautiful lime green Acer, whose leaves have long gone

Cropped detail of the colours

Look at the wonderful SHAPES, LINES & COLOUR. Dont just look really study & SEE

If you click on the image it will enlarge. Look at the sturcture of the leaf, the thickness of the line, the marks made around the edges. Look how the colour of the leaf on the right hand side is deeper bringing it forward and the leaves on the lefthand side are brighter and paler and are receeding giving the image FORM. Assess the ACTUAL TEXTURE, the ridges and the mottled VISUAL TEXTURE. This one image encompasses Design elements & principles IF YOU LOOK & SEE HARD ENOUGH

Goodness I sound like a school teacher, hey thats what I am!!!!!

I love shadows, ever since I discovered BRASSAI whilst studying photography.

Tints, tones & shades of one colour

Whereever you are in the world, see if you can find some interesting leaves to study

For those of you following on the NEWSLETTER, here are the reverse of leaves from my garden this morning, note how some are much more interesting than others in detail, also that some have more interesting shapes. On the creativebrainedges blog, Dale has posted an interesting leaf from Australia.
Now I am going to 'be creative' with these leaves - results in the next newsletter (I will beat the chump I will)
Thanks for reading have a lovely day x

NEW TAB - FREE TUTORIAL WORKSHOP

2011-11-05T13:34:00.001Z

Hi, Look UNDER the picture / image at the top of the blog and you will see a COMPLETELY NEW PAGE TAB. As the challenge did not take off I thought that I might add FREE WORKSHOP TUTORIALS to the blog. Check it out, it is the first of many which will change from time to time. Not the same as the excellent TASTER pages that Dale over on http://downunderdale.blogspot.com is doing, but my own version - I must hold my hand up to being inspired by her idea - but they are not tasters & I am not selling anything except my workshops (as usual)
SIGN UP FOR MY NEWSLETTER - Another FREE tutorial is being sent in those. AUTUMN NEWSLETTER 2 is ready to post
We are very happy family here as we have good news, although it was delivered at 1am this morning and we lost 3 hours of sleep we are all so very happy x

AUTUMN NEWSLETTER

2011-11-03T22:51:00.000Z

Hi/ I have just sent the Autumn newsletter, it has some printing information, so if you are interested then please sign up. I can see stats of how many people open the newsletter, it seems that so people dont look at it at all, I would love to know why, please leave a comment. I always try to put come creative info, its not a promotional newsletter for sales even though I have some new workshops for sale on bigcartel and etsy )actually I must be honest I forgot to include them, I do hat Mail chump)

Any guesses what this is??

Enlarge the photo & have a guess

Off to bed as question time is 'a-doing my head in'!!!!!!!!

ITS A SHAME

2011-11-01T17:52:00.000Z

HI. Unfortunately there were not enough takers for the free workshop, so sorry to those who fancied a bit of a challenge. So it has been cancelled :-( I shall have a re-think

THE LAND OF THE NAUGHTY SAMPLE

2011-10-28T15:31:00.001+01:00

At one of my classes this week I decided to work alongside my excellent students & produce a sample 'out of the box' It was awful

Look at this ghastly mess, such a lot of stitching as well hand and machine. I had wanted to use the heat gun on it expecting the black scarf swopped for chiffon (BIG mistake) as the fabrics below were a bit 'in yer face'. Of course I had not tried out the scarf with the heat gun.

This is what it looked like after the horrendous smell (remembered to open the window and wear the mask)

What a mess, charred fragments, the whole thing fell apart, so I cut it up. You might think that I would sling it in the bin, but remember hours of stitching had gone into this.
So mark one nuahty sample:
Layer with pre-felt - bought cheaply at Alexander Palace then add scrim - bought at Festival of quilts. Hand dyed velevet & cover with a chiffon scarf care of the stash.
Spend hours and hours hand stitching, Kantha style using 2 different threads

Pretty boring, heat gun attack

Hmmm looking a tad better - out with the Treasure waxes and the Gleam. Gleam hopeless, I hate the tiny little pots with the lids that are really difficult to open. So I used my normal treasure wax

The reasure wax on the burnt mess looks like little beads.

So endeth sample one

Today I thought I am going to do something with the rest of this huge piece. Fortunately I had not charred the whole A3 sized piece but just a corner

Fingers drumming on desk hhmmmmm, ah ha I will use the soldering iron instead & my hotstamps.

Well I have not even bothered to photograph the horrid mess - I hate this black scarf that is like tar grrrr

RUBBISH

Onto mark three

When I was getting the hotstamps out, I dislogged my Clover Slash cutter - ah ha light bulb moment

Cut off a sliver of the bad boy

Slash

Burn

YEY

So onto the large piece

Look at the difference, it slashed through all my hand stitching, but hey ho, at least it is now behaving

These are my Lana brushes, as I love my Lana threads, they are just like suede brushes, one hard & one soft, so I roughed up the naughty black stuff
Then finally I attacked it with the heat gun from the reverse and voila a good sample.
Gotta go out now, am thinking of layering sample one onto sample 3 and maybe throwing sample two in the bin - what do you think???? Was it worth all that effort??
Back later

STITCHING CHALLENGE

2011-10-24T18:30:00.004+01:00

I was having a think???? Would my bloggerettes like a FREE stitching challenge??

If you would like to join in then please leave an I am in comment & if I get 20 or more takers then I shall run it in my NEWSLETTER
Closing date Halloween 31st October 2011
UPDATE: Not enough interest yet......

SHOP NAME CHANGE & WORKSHOPS

2011-10-22T09:23:00.001+01:00

Etsy have at long last allowed us to change our name. My etsy shop is now
www.shelaghfolgate.etsy.com

I have added 2 of the Tantalising techniques workshops.

Silken Tales

Lingering Lutradur
These workshops are techniques with no finished item

I shall also add these workshops to my bigcartel shop
http://shelaghfolgate.bigcartel.com

I have also added 2 of the SMASHEE workshops

HUBBLE BUBBLE DOLL

THE PHOENIX BOX
These workshops are techniques to complete a finished item

Please visit, they would make a really lovely Christmas gift for a stitchery friend, & as a bonus if you let me know that it is a gift I will send the workshop to them on a date specified by you and you will also receive the workshop FREE
Please email me if you want further details: shelaghfolgate@aol.com with workshops in the Url please

PROGRESS?

2011-10-21T21:20:00.001+01:00

thToday was a typical October day. Sunny, warm (ish), bright & clear. I decided to walk early morning knowing that my village church should be empty except for the new flower arrangements. A brisk walk bought me to the door and the peace & solitude that so eludes us most busy working days. The sun was making window patterns on the walls.

Forgive the images taken with my phone.

These look like little happy people to me.

This is the font where my children were christened, isnt it beautiful

Wonderful detail on the stone work
Part of our church dates from the 12th century

This is the main stained glass window above the high altar. In the afternoon & early evening the sun streams through the window

This is the fabulous organ, the beautiful pipes with the window behind and the carving on the wood

The chunky heating pipes behind the pews. Why am I showing all of this?

Well I got a huge shock on a board in the church are 6 proposals for UPDATING this wonderful piece of English country history. A small congregation of around 50 and someone wants to...wait for it

Put in a new floor....get rid of the pews...update the heating ....GET RID OF THE ORGAN...put in a mezzanine ... no doubt make a shop, an internet cafe and hold raves.

I am completely upset and angry, IDIOTS. Okay life is a progress, that I certainly know but what about heritage for our children etc. I hope it never happens, I pray it never happens
Sorry to sound off but dont you agree how lovely these features are?
I left the sanctury so very sad and trudged around the rest of my route with a heavy heart

By the overgrown pond I had a conversation with a random man & 2 dogs about it, he is still cross about the removal & dumping of the pulpit about 10 years ago & so am I

So cross was I that when I returned home intent on doing some creative sewing, I set to and pulled all the stuff out of my kitchen cupboards & spent the entire day cleaning and re-arranging & muttering. All sorted now with charity piles and dumping piles & its too late to stitch so tomorrow cant come soon enough
I hope that you have a lovely weekend and if a visit to your church is part of it, really savour the building before some local idiot decides to ruin your heritage. Thanks for reading this angry babble x

STUNNING DAY

2011-10-14T17:36:00.000+01:00

Oh so beautiful, the walk to work this morning through the trees, past the church with the birds singing and the beautiful sunrays slanting through the Autumn trees. My heart just sang, so good to be alive. Then a lovely mornings Hand Patchwork with delightful students followed by the English traditional Friday fare of fish & chips.
I have spent a peaceful afternoon stitching. Designing a new patchwork block and turning it into a table mat, now to hand finish it whilst watching the late summer birds flying around the fields nearby with the low sun glinting on their wings. What a glorious bonus day. x

MEETING OF MIND MATES

2011-10-13T10:33:00.000+01:00

Back now from a little blogging break. On saturday a little coach left Kettering for Alexander Palace, Muswell Hill, London. Coach not made for large posteriors as the seat belt connectors ouch!!!!

I was excited and apprehensive as I was meeting Dale in the flesh for the first time. We are internet pen pals who get along really well, but who knows in the cold light of day we might not get along at all!!

Oh silly me....what a fabulous day...what a lovely lady...a bit like seeing myself lol

And here we are, a bit blurry but a lovely photo. I wore my New Zealand necklace especially as Dale is a New Zealander and strangely we both wore green lol

We nattered and nattered, Ian must have thought that I had kidnapped her!!

Fabulous stall crammed with such yummy colours, beautiful themes, if you have never looked at the thread studio then have a look, there is a lot of information, ideas and tips. The postage is the actual cost and I dont find it expensive at all. I bought a couple of prefelts that had been dyed by Jacinta Fleshman in Melbourne, flown to Perth and dried in Perth and carried to London, one of them was still a little damp, somehow that really pleased me, truly a small world. Lots of Starburst stains were bought, these are fabulous, the colour really does stain, they have mica powder in them. They colour all papers and cloth. The coloour remains even after hand washing altho the mica washes away. I have many other sprays and nothing is as good as these.

I have been at work all week so have had no chance to play with my purchases yet

I had a lovely conversation with Frances Pickering on the Art Van Go stand, whose work really lifts my soul, we discussed colour pencils and she showed me the Derwent Coloursoft pencils, a tin of which are in the waiting to experiment pile for today.

I saw 2 more pages of Stepahnie Redferns Stone Bird, which was behind perspex, so funny as the lady standing next to me bent forward and banged her head on the perspex, shows how facinating Stephs work is, check out her blog, link on my side bar and her new work.

Another highlight for me was the work of Beryl Dean, outstanding retrospective. I had jst been to the graduate showcase where except for one student the work was same old same old, then I went to see the life work of Beryl Dean, so ahead of her time, beautful drawings, designs and textiles. Worth going just for this. Google image her name to see some of the work. I enjoyed seeing a piece of Margaret Charltons work with Dale. I had a workshop with her years ago and have always rated her work.

I hope to go again next year but not on a Saturday it was heaving thousands of people, there were many log jams and I barely went in the second room, spending all my time in the textile room, even then I didnt see the tapestry, say hi to Kathy Sage or Richard Box or spend time in the Silver studio textile design exhibit.

I hope you have enjoyed hearing about my trip, I am busy designing and stitching ideas for this winter, pictures to come soon, meanwhile happy stitching! x

MEETING

2011-10-08T22:35:00.000+01:00

Check back tomorrow for a picture of the first meeting between pen pals DALE & SHELAGH at Alley Palley today. Much too tired to faff about tonight, but I had a wonderful time, thanks Dale x (and Carolyn & Carol)

English Village

2011-09-30T20:25:00.000+01:00

Our English heatwave continues and a visit to Epping Forest has produced these lovely panoramic views

The duck pond with the posh ducks

Then here is my garden in negative

Carrying on the spooky feel & experimenting with my phone again

The other morning I shot this in the town car park, camouflage tree and spiders jewels, wonderfully inspiring image, contrasting textures, velvet and felt with the siron and pearls or maybe swarowski crystals - oh if only there was time and it was 20 degrees not 30 and mad mower morris was not busy with his angle grinder right outside the studio window, neighbours eh

UP THE LANE

2011-09-26T19:15:00.000+01:00

Deserted, peaceful & lovely in the Autumn sunshine

The earth is so dry along the way past the allotments

An opening in the hedge affords this stunning view, taken on the rule of thirds, a good picture for a landscape inspired textile.

In the pocket park they had to remove some of the trees, but they left the wood to rot and provide a good habitat for the wildlife

But what is this???? It is the pond, so very dangerous for anyone that does not know, look how the weeds or whatever they are called have taken over a beauty spot. I have photographed this before in all its glory & posted on my blog. Have a search

Blackberries from the secret lane in my tummy!!

The secret lane starts (or ends) in someones garden with this fabulous brick wall

So to the design part of the blog. These images were taken on my Samsung phone which has many filters
This is the same photo as the one before, but now I have some surrealist texture effects with which to work and some discorded colours

This is the same photo in landscape format, see how changing the layout can alter the image dramatically, this now looks really spooky. If I didnt feel so tired from teaching the first of the Design to Stitch masterclasses today then this would be good to play with. No playing this week for me, working and visiting until the weekend, so I may not be a-blogging until then. No luck with the newsletter either, weekend I PROMISE to sort it out
Try out the filters on your camera and try changing the format, print it out & stitch, let me know with a comment if you do
Thanks for reading X

TODAY

2011-09-24T19:14:00.000+01:00

WOW F1 in HD on uber TV in Singapore at night - totally fabulous. So the sun was out, branches of the trees lay strewn all over the lawn and mad mower morris was at it again with the guitar, normal Saturday in the shires.
Todays walk produced a bag full of blackberries, many of which are in my stomach - yummy. The secret lane that we walk is usually so private that the birds are the only company. Not today, the other side of the lane, (tiny line just wide enough for a fat body like mine) is a field and 2 really loud women were there, I assumed that they were a-picking like us, well yes they were a-picking but picking up POOH. Dont know if it was horse, sheep, cow, random other animal living in a field but it was certainly huge. A trade was not offered!!
Along the way I picked up this beautiful fallen leaf

This shows the colours appearing now in Northamptonshire

I got really told off for picking these up, I hunted around for full ones as I fancied drawing them, 'what do you want them for? NOOOOO put them back - ha - I hid them, arnt they beautiful such a lot of promise, we used to have a Horse Chestnut in our garden - it was called Learning Tree & had a face on it, drawn by nature into the bark, it died a few years back, but it is still there overgrown with ivy & bushes but still part of our lives. In front of it now is a rather grand Acer, that looks like a silly stick for all of the winter and has the most glorious lime green leaves for the summer. I wanted an Oak!

Before the pooh pickers spoilt my bliss, I was marching along singing at the top of my voice
For I am just a country boy (yep girl) http://youtu.be/pveRfb2llv0
This Man has a wonderful voice
It is now early evening & very still outside, I am typing this by the light of my Ottlight only so that I can see the wonderful subtle colours in the sky, pinks, greys, blues and a shaft of pale orange. Its days like these that make me truly grateful
More yummy threads arrived today King Tut & FS20. I have emptyied my box of Lana threads & have placed all the wonderful buttons in the little compartments, they look so lovely, I have finished one of the pieces I am stitching, which has gone quite well and this evening as there is only rubbish on the TV, uber or dinky I am going to start another piece. Sorry not to show. I am just too happy to attempt a newsletter with grrrr mailchimp grrrr - maybe tomorrow

Thanks for reading my waffle, happy weekend to you x especially to the lovely lady who left me a comment on the last post, I am intregued as to where you live, I guess that it is really vibrant & exciting, its sleepy ville here but yes it is beautiful, just wish that the sea was just over the hill - never satisfied humans x

SEPTEMBER BUSY

2011-09-23T22:20:00.000+01:00

The weather here in the Midlands has calmed down and on the Autumn Equinox it has been a beautiful day. So all creative work in the studio stopped for an invigorating walk to the local pocket park. Where to our huge disgust and surprise the pond was completely weeded over. Really dangerous as the green weeds hid all the dangers. Must get in touch with the keepers.
Along the hidden lane where I love to walk in total peace the blackberries were bobbing in the sunshine. They are free from polution and tasted oh so lovely. Think I might have to steal away tomorrow to get some more!
My new series of masterclasses called Design to Stitch starts on Monday & I have been putting some finishing touches to the samples by hand in the sunshine. I just had to buy some new threads from Barnyarns but got a huge shock when I opened the parcel as they are huge cobs. They are all burmilana which is 50% wool & 50% acrylic. I have been using these these threads, usually now called Lana, for many years, actually getting a supply really cheap at a small haberdashery shop who didnt know how fab they are.

Two of 7 - :-)

Drool drool drool, look at these, I love buttons so much. These are secret squirells & I have a big (BIG - HUGE) bag of various ones, these are gold & white mostly all different sizes, they are just beautiful and a big THANK YOU to who gave them to me (and the others)
Such an inspiring picture!

This book is just pure joy to read. It is not a how to book, it is a story, a true one and the pictures are simply stunning

Wonderful, just look at this picture, its all I will show. Would make a fabulous Christmas pressie or even an Autumn pressie. Google Sally Sparks

Here is a sneeky peek of a workshop piece for Dales Holey Moley club on veggies.

NEWSLETTER - I am having problems with Mailchimp, I shall try to do another newsletter this weekend & if I am still getting problems then I shall seek another provider. This has to be the most daft system on the internet, more fool me for picking something that has chimp in it should be chump!!
Thanks for reading - wish I could get off 134 followers been like that for months, I really an considering a giveaway.....

RINGS

2011-09-19T17:06:00.000+01:00

I am amazed at where the days go, not helped now by the arrival of uber TV in HD & 3D, wow or wow, I have resisted but resistance was futile and I am glad that I caved in whilst feeling under the weather. The clarity is astonishing. We did not win any Olympic tickets that I had saved and saved for so we shall watch it all on the TV. I just hope that my eyes dont go square and am concerned that stitching may all have to be done by hand in front of it lol (only kidding stitching is in my soul)
I have been having a computer break & am very behind with my brain edges drawings as well.

I think a while ago I blogged that I thought that I had lost all my work with shape. But whilst tidying up the studio storage room I found it all in a portfolio, all safe. I Had made a book based on circles, a shape that I love, it symbolises life and rebirth to me and this piece is using rings to print with

Here is the use of the soldering iron and the end of a pencil to print with and the lines are coloures staples, another love of mine for making marks as they work on fabric as well as paper.

Irridescent paint and a soldering iron tip to burn marks into watercolour paper withthe addition of burnt points, simple repetition but effective.

Finally using found objects to create circles and transparent paint, making interesting layers with repeat patterning with the little circles, made with a straw.

Recently I have been creating ideas for my series of Masterclasses due to start next week and making patchwork blocks for my patchwork classes. Two very different areas of design and both very satisfying in their own way.
I shall try to blog a bit more regular now:-)
Thanks for reading x

PRESSIES

2011-09-13T22:26:00.000+01:00

Thank you Hillsidethreads for your comment regarding the lost picture, what a great idea, I shall see if I can sort it out. Nearly drove me bonkers and I still cant find it

A very lucky teacher I am, look at these fabulous pressies, along with a personal card. The paper is a scrummy watercolour pad, thick, textured & I am itching to start creating a bird book using these 2 wonderful wooden birds. They were contained in a purple mulberry paper & skeleton leaf bag with fab twisted handles. All to drool over & I fancy making the birds into earrings, watch this space. Thank you Carolyn x

FACES

2011-09-12T22:27:00.000+01:00

I have been trying to find a particular photograph on my computer. It has a face on it. Two hours and over three thousand (yep) pictures later, I still have not found it. I know its there as it popped up on my screensaver. I got hooked into organising faces. I was so facinated with which family members Picasa thinks looks like each other. If you have picasa give it a go. I now have over a thousand images of people I dont know! Random people in the background on holiday! People at weddings & gatherings, really quite funny. Then looking at the nearly one thousand images with my son on pulling his silly faces made me hoot with laughter.
Back to work tomorrow after a really odd summer, I dont really feel like I have been away with the exhibition & the charity days and clearing out Margarets fabrics and stuff - still a huge amount to sort.

I am the guest artist for Dales Holey Moley club on Veggie month. Another reason why I was looking for images, this is what I was looking for

I shall have such fun working from this image of this cabbage on a market stall. I wish I had taken more photos but I was being stared at by holiday makers and our friends were a bit embarassed, not so my long suffering husband who is used to me spending ages photographing some strange & wonderful event or thing. I dont photograph people, good job or there would be thousands more images to plough through!

I have not forgotten about the newsletter, I am thinking about changing the provider as I really find MailChimp a real chump to operate!

Bedtime I think -- thanks for reading x

LA LUNA

2011-09-09T21:23:00.000+01:00

As an artist who loves texture, I am so thrilled to have shot this picture, through the studio window. The same window that captured the poppy field pictures a while back (sorry have not yet worked out how to link to a previous post - you would think that I would know as I have been blogging on this blog for 3 years now!!) Wow 3 years. I had another blog for quite a while before this one, which no longer exists to view, using my business name of Apatchshe. I had to alter it as athough I thought it was a good name a-patch-she, it is so like the tribe and the computer platform, so this blog is just simply my name. Naught flash!!

Back to the image, manipulated in Corel photopaint has produced this stunning image, resembles leaves. Wich is the topic on creativebrainedges at the moment (I am not feeling particulary creative, I have to say, bit more edges at the moment)

Here is the moon as a quilt pattern, wham bullseye centre focus

Guess who has found theWO man in the moon, here she is, my very own moon creature LA LUNA

Here is the final creation, textured patchwork La Luna. If I feel better tomorrow then I will print & stitch her, would make a nice little bag!!! hohoho

(no saucy comments please I can see it just as weell as you can!!)

QUILTS OF VALOUR

2011-09-08T13:12:00.000+01:00

On Tuesday a group of 10 ladies came together again to continue with the making of our 2 quilts for valour UK. All the materials are from Margarets stash the lovely lady who donated the Accuquilt Go to me to share with the quilters in our area.
We raised the cost of the Bamboo wadding from the donated money for the stash of patchwork magazines so loved by Margaret.
Bee Inspired provided the venue free of charge and also provided the wadding, some large pieces of fabric for an additional border & 505 spray at cost price. Thank you David & Jemma x

I want to thank the ladies, Rachel for co-ordinating the hand stitched quilt which I have called Forest & her mum, lovely to see her again.
To our machinists, Sally, who amongst other things created 4 tiny tiny blocks with 1 inch half square triangles for the corner stones of the border. Janis, Sheila, Brenda & Carolyn, for dealing with whatever I threw their way!! To our hand pieces, Katy, Carol, Eileen, Rachel & her mum, wow you are quick & accurate x
I really hope that I have not forgotten anyone?
I forgot to take any pictures of work in progress, being a bit under the weather.

The next installment of THE HAPPY HORNETS - this is what we decided to call ourselves, Ketterings Quilting Bee! will be on
Friday 25th November 2011 from 1pm to 4pm ish
Where the quilts will be sandwiched ready for the quilting.

FOREST will be hand quilted in the ditch & HOPE will be machine stitched with a walking foot

The binding is alreasy made for Forest. I am off to get some more of Margarets stash this afternoon, hopeful of finding some backing, if not then I am sure that my stash from my days as a MakowerUK quilt designer will suffice :-)

If you would like to join in The Happy Hornets, then please either talk to me in a class or email me on shelaghfolgate@aol.com
Thanks everyone x

SEPTEMBER

2011-09-07T15:58:00.001+01:00

For most teachers September looms like a spectre at the end of the summer. Well no summer here in England. It has come in like some whirling dervish (whatever that is?) Yesterday was the first day back locally & my husband & I were bemoaning how awful it must have been for school teachers, with the kids literally high as kites. The image above is by Janet Bolton, whose work I really love. She was at FOQ but always busy. I have had the pleasure of 2 workshops with her many years ago
At the moment I am putting together two new courses Design to Stitch masterclasses. This is an exciting prospect, creative classes without the restrictions of City & Guilds. Something that I have wanted to do for a long time. This will be the first time that I can incorporate hand & machine stitching in the same lesson.
If successful then I would love to do more, including in the evenings.
I have completed some stitched samples, sorry cant show. Maybe I might do an Internet course as well at some time.
I had better return to work, have just posted today's brain edges offering, have a go at it, both Dale & I unbeknown to each other have done similar work, truly edgy. Thanks for reading x

LAST PICTURE

2011-09-03T17:25:00.000+01:00

Probably by now you may be a little jaded at exhibition pictures so here is one final collage of 3 sample pieces chosen at random

The weather here is so changeable, yesterday was beautiful & warm, today its dull and overcast.

I am fortunate that all my Autumn semister classes & courses are running, however that means a heavy workload of planning - not great with the popped bloaty head syndrome that I posses today.

Dale & I are starting a new challenge tomorrow over on the creative brain edges blog. This month it will be leaves. Easy subject to join in with if you fancy. 3 postings a week, weds, friday & sunday with stitching thrown in from time to time. There will be a break for October as Dale will be absent with leave for most of it. We have never met so I am excited for this to be happening in October.

Newsletter is due soon, hopefully tomorrow, thanks for following x

ALL OVER NOW

2011-09-02T17:50:00.000+01:00

End of a fabulous week and the sun has returned. Too tired to post at the moment, maybe later or tomorrow x

ONE MORE DAY!!!

2011-09-01T17:07:00.000+01:00

Our local newspaper, the Evening Telegraph, has managed to get all the details of the exhibition wrong, so we are opening for an extra day tomorrow (Friday) which is no bad thing, as it is still very popular
So if you have not had chance to visit then please do, I shall be there tomorrow most of the day, please say hi!
Didnt get any chance to photograph samples today, due to an enormous all day breakfast with my daughter at The Mews cafe, its half past four now and I am still full from 11.30 scoff in lol
I shall add random images today instead & hopefully samples tomorrow.

This is a resolved image using impasto techniques

Part of a book cover using stitched patterns deconstucted

Further stitched patterns, this time on a very innovatively shaped container

Vibrant resolved design piece

Considered thoughtful manipulation of fabrics

Scrim, paint & wrapped sticks, this is actually a beautifully subtle piece, I will try to take a better image tomorrow

Edge finishes, manipulation & stitch techniques

Hope you are not getting bored...... ???? Here are some more...

Terrific design derived from yellow no parking lines!

More developmental ideas to resolved design piece, Chocolate & pink, a very modern colour scheme

This is a beautiful scarf. stitched on a difficult fabric, the design is from New Zealand, it hangs well & would match one of my outfits to a T

Finally, part of the room display,

The beautiful bay window in the studio, looking out onto the courtyard and the cafe, Dolls House shop, Toy shop & the craft shop. We are very fortunate to sew in such an inspiring place & in the centre of Kettering town too, easy to reach by bus, train or paying car park. Kettering is a lovely market town, not very big, with a beautiful Parish church & old buildings, it is only a few miles from Boughton house which was featured on the TV this week, both are on the A43.

Do visit us if you get a chance, browse around the shops and have a coffee & a small breakfast lol. Phew need a rest now, thanks for looking and reading x

ITS THE SIXTH DAY ALREADY

2011-08-31T19:14:00.000+01:00

The exhibition is still going strong, with lots of visitors, who have provided us with wonderful comments. I am spending a week swanning around with a huge, ginormous head!

Today I am going to show elements of the final wall hangings. We should be holding more exhibitions in future around & about so you maybe will get the chance to view the entire pieces

The remit for these was to use NON-WOVEN fabrics. Hand stitch can also be used with the machine stitch. Sounds easy but think of how many fabrics are actually woven!

Monochromatic piece showing translucent effects, inspired by design work in colour & shape & line. A lovely piece much admired.

This section is part of a family tree, it has the names embroidered of all the members of this students family both alive & deceased. Therefore, I have hidden the surname. The 'trunk' is a beautifully crafted piece using many threads & techniques. Very popular especially when the student is there to tell her story of how it came about.

Part of a duo of pieces on the theme of Urban environment. This piece was inspired by a lesson where the students had a timed group walk & photograph. Three photographs were superimposed to produce stunning pieces of textiles, using paper mostly

This student has a love of flowers & Japan & used the floral theme throughout the course. All of the fabrics in the vibrant intensely stitched hanging are non woven, a very effective use of colour

This is an outstanding piece, all constructed from metal & all machine stitched & riveted together. The metal was treated with many different processes to create such wonderful colours & it was embellished with beads, studs & charms, a triumph of machine embroidery.

Tomorrow is the FINAL day & will produce some sample pieces for you to view, it will be so sad to remove it from the studio, but it will be the start of the new term with the beginning of the MASTER CLASSES - DESIGN TO STITCH.
There are just a few spaces for machine embroidery level 2 (all the pictures shown are level 3) on a Wednesday evening. Email me on shelaghfolgate@aol.com if you are interested.

The exhibition next year will show my Patchwork & Quilting City & Guilds & non-vocational students work. The flip side of me that I dont often show on my blog - note to self to rectify this, this year.
The technical skill that some students possess is mind blowing & I am looking forward to starting new classes which are PROJECT based. Separate classes in Hand patchwork, applique & quilting fortnightly & machine patchwork projects monthly.
All courses are now either full or have limited space available, please contact Bee Inspired for an update (01536 514646)
It will be all systems planning next week, so I had better really enjoy tomorrow before my big head gets well and truely deflated :-)

ON THE FIFTH DAY

2011-08-30T15:15:00.000+01:00

There was lunch with an 'old' friend in the Mews cafe, where steak was the yummy of the day. It is also a fantastic day for my family with the birth of the first Franklin to carry on our branch of the name. So its a huge welcome to Demi, I wish him to be blessed with health, wealth & happiness & congratulations to my nephew & his wife, also my borther & sister-in-law, we are all so very delighted x

I have just returned from the exhibition where I met one of SMASHEE girls - Liz Gordon, who was sporting a fabulous bag she had made with the front pocket being Phoenix from the workshops, lovely to meet you Liz, thank you so much for coming, we all appreciate it greatly, I hope that you got lots & lots of ideas for stitch
Today's eye candy is mixed, starting with this outstanding piece on watersoluble fabric, this student has made a really difficult technique into her own, by completing not one 3D piece but many

How she managed to get such intricate stitching to lay so flat, well it is a complete mastery of this technique, look at the fabulous lace along the edges

If you live near then please come & view this & the other beautiful pieces

A beautiful vibrant box, made with stitched silk, dificult to work with, with so many pieces. This etui has a box underneath, pockets & a lovely heart pin cushion & is for this students grand-daughter. The purple on the open flap is all machining, I would love this in my bedroom for jewellery.

You need a high degree of skill to tackle an item such as making a shoe. Stitching on silk with quite a basic machine, ALL of the item above was constructed by this student, the execution was superb. This is truely an outstanding piece of created stitched textile

This working clock shows skill with the Smashing machine & uses a subject close to my heart of Tintern Abbey, what a clever presentation

This student has considerable dressmaking, tailoring & digitizing skills. This waitcoat was made on faux suede, quite a difficult fabric to hoop for the digitized design which was based on her colour work! The use of a sun style punch to punch out shapes to display colour work was so effectively desplayed that it inspired a waistcoat! That is the value of design based courses, you never know what will 'grab' your imagination

Well I had better do some work now, before all my creative juices are depleated; please return tomorrow for another helping, thanks for looking x

FOURTH DAY

2011-08-29T12:50:00.000+01:00

I am watching Jessica Ennis in the Hepthalon of the World Championships, our only hope for gold now. Gutted for Mo Farrah, screaming at the TV gave me a really sore throat. Then the huge shock of Usain Bolt false starting, what a shock. I am so annoyed at being cheated out of a fabulous final, as no doubt most of the athletic world is.

Todays eye candy of the exhibition is jewellery.

A very innovative way of displaying some of the required passementerie

Lovely colour scheme

This is an innovative method, developed by this student, after trialling out extensively the technique

No work of my own, due to the championships & the English bank holiday break. Having a creative rest for a few days. Have sent my muse away for a holiday, in the hopes of much refreshment when she comes back!!

Back tomorrow with more to see, thanks for reading x

THIRD DAY

2011-08-28T11:25:00.000+01:00

More from the exhibition, even though it is closed today
Super wire photos, promised yesterday

Today I shall show another of the experimental pieces, which are manipulation of fabric

Part of the qualification is concerned with display of textile items. It is very interesting to see how everyone takes this on board

I insist that they consider colour when doing these pieces, or they could end up with a very messy presentation. See how beautiful these pieces are.

This shape has been explored in the Shape design unit, bringing forward & connecting both of the required units.

I seem to have forgotten to take some of them & some of my pictures are not very good, shall do better hopefully when the sun is out!
Back tomorrow with more eye candy!

Oh by the way the final piece for Teapots is displayed on the brain blog

ON THE SECOND DAY...

2011-08-27T16:29:00.000+01:00

There were lots of visitors, with really nice comments

Part of the craft element (Creative Machine Embroidery) requires experimenting with various processes.

This image shows some of the experimental wire & metal pieces. Believe it or not but the colour in these is achieved by thread, all the wire or metal had to be covered with stitch, students were then sent away to construct an inappropriate piece of metal texture.

The results are fascinating & diverse.

EXHIBITION 2011

2011-08-26T19:19:00.000+01:00

The fabulous exhibition is in full swing today, even though it threw it down with the usual coming up to bank holiday rain, actually looked like a hose pipe had been turned on the mews at one stage, we had many people visit & it was lovely to see some old friends & students.
The local paper arrived to photograph some of us & one was pressganged into a solo performance. Musch hilarity was had by all. Cake arrived & was very naughtily (is that actually a word?) scoffed & we explored last nights TV & the fast approaching anniversary of the loss of our beloved Princess Diana

Back again tomorrow for another helping of being surrounded by outstanding pieces of Machine Embroidery, ooh they are talented, this lot, I am so proud of them. x

Here is the beginning of the images

More to follow each day - pardon the quality, hoping for better pictures when its not so dark & dull

A trip to the local art shop was also in order & for those in the know ;-) I think I might have cracked the splashing!!!!!!

ITS FINISHED

2011-08-24T22:53:00.000+01:00

This morning I finished the TINTERN book it has 12 pages double sided & I am quite pleased with it. I could have carried on with it but wanted to move on to other pieces, so I was strict with myself

I bound it with my Zutter & a lovely large black spring. I thought about adding things to the spring, but I don't want it to look tacky.
I need to photograph it in daylight as I forgot today in my haste to start a new piece
Over on the creative brain edges blog I have posted pictures of the start of a collage of teapot images & my trials at finding a suitable format
This is the format before stitch

This is the Japanese teapot, I shall post the details in the next newsletter. Sign up on the blog to receive it, its FREE

Tomorrow is the setting up of the City & Guilds MACHINE EMBROIDERY Level 3 students exhibition - called SATELLITES

It is open 10am to 2pm each day

from Friday 26th, Saturday 27th, Tuesday 30th, Wednesday 31st August & Thursday 1st September

Gosh is it really nearly September!!!

Do pop in if you can

Bee Inspired Studio

Market Street Mews

Kettering

Northamptonshire

I will take some images to show you the fantastic work that they have been creating over the last two years

Off to sleep now, thanks for reading x

MORE TINTERN

2011-08-23T19:17:00.000+01:00

The initial idea to create a book came really fast & I thought that I would 'just' (ha) add all the pages, hmmm I should know me by now you'd think :-)
So much faffing and enjoyment is being had playing with the little pages
Here is the one from the last post, I think this is nearly there now & am debating about beads - what do you think?

Much has been added giving the layered effect, it actually had the word TINTERN across it, which is ghostly in real life, oh the wonders of layers

Other pages are in progress as well

This one is finished & has the start of my prose - it says Wander far away to ancient lands

I have used the door way above and an image of 3 doors with planks of wood & nails mostly & the green is a little fern growing out of the wall all on its own, strangely compelling

This is another double page spread, there are singles & doubles.
This one needs further work to link across the pages, I might add an arch or some planks - this will sit quietly until the idea strikes. The copper does carry across it is hard to see, but there is copper , quite a bit on the black on the right hand side - the walls at night!
Look at the left hand side and you will see the image of the 3 doors, planks & nails

I have created the covers & they are busily drying for me & I am hmmm & ahhh about a shape for the front cover. Really I just want to use texture. I am trying to stay away from negative shapes & cut out lines as that is what Carolyn was playing with, however some lines and mark making will have to appear
If you click on the images, they should enlarge.
Remember this is all inspired by Stephanie Redfern - but is fast becoming mine x

TINTERN BOOK

2011-08-22T15:51:00.000+01:00

It is a beautiful day here and the ice-cream van is playing a jolly tune as I write this. I have a stupid head cold grrrr
I have been busy working in my Tintern book, started in the Steph Redfern workshop last week
This is a double page spread, its not finished yet as I am multi-layering it

Its heavy duty water colour paper

My desk is littered with organza, treasure wax, gleam, mica pigment, inks, stazon, white pen, white and black acrylic, a roller, glue stick, stencil, mask, tooth brush, sponge stamps, stamp chips, all to create the piece above. Certainly is not a cheap 'hobby' oh and walnut ink as well !

Pages are coming along nicely and I will post more when I have cleaned up a bit, I have hidden the other pure white pages as I know how messy I am (even wearing an apron - wow )

Must get the washing in as the sun is fast disappearing behind our house

CREATIVE HOLIDAY

2011-08-19T13:15:00.000+01:00

Hi, I have just returned from....a fabulous workshop...with...an very talented & inspiring tutor...at ... a great venue...along with a really good friend & 6 other lovely people. Brain hurts today!!

Our tutor Steph Redfern http://www.sredtextiles.co.uk/ has just won a first at the festival of quilts in Birmingham with her book - STONE BIRD
Please check out her website & blog for images as I dont feel that I should post her work her on my blog.

I love her work

The venue was the RBSA in Birmingham, a lovely gallery with the most incredible pieces of jewellery & ceramics. It is the Jewellery quarter of Birmingham
There was a huge church & small park nearby

We were fortunate with the weather being just right.

We stayed at the Holiday Inn - wow the most comfortable beds & 6 floors up Birmingham was laid out like a bumpy bedspread for us. The lights at night were fabulous

Our evening meal was by the canal as it was getting dusk, such a beautiful area, vibrant, alive & historical.

Day two saw bleary eyes and 4 hours sleep

I have produced a few pieces of work which are now ready for stitch

The end of the holiday saw the most terrifying white knuckle ride the wrong way through Birmingham, I wonder what the pedestrian on the crossing saw as I hurtled towards him with a gigantic black monster stuck to my bumper, how we all escaped well.....

So it was to KFC we went with shaky legs - the only blot on a terrific couple of days

Teaser time! Arctextural Elements

FESTIVAL OF QUILTS 2011

2011-08-12T15:23:00.004+01:00

Still tired from yesterday and all the efforts with tidying the studio and store room, still a bit more to do but am fed up with it at the moment so the last few boxes will have to remain unsorted!
Lovely trip to Birmingham yesterday, so funny riding alongside the coach of people that we know and Carolyn waving , I was driving so didint see anyone as you would expect at 70 mph in the central lane of the M6. Whizzed there with no hold ups.

I never know if to go see the quilts or shops first. Ended up going to see Stephanie Redfern who we found out had won one of the categories with Stone Bird. We are booked into a workshop with her next week and had a fabulous chat. On the way to view Stone Bird we got side tracked by 20th Century yarns. Oooh we were so lucky to get there really early as they had a few bargain bags of scrims, velvet & wool felt, most of which went home with one of us, so much for not buying anything. The book was outstanding

We looked for a quilt angel to turn the pages and a tall gruff bloke let us see about 4 of about 20 pages, he was not your usual happy angel, everything that I returned there was a huge crowd so not many pictures but you can buy her book, which we both did. Its not a how to do but an eye candy book which is high quality printing, visit her site HERE

Lucky me to do a 2 day workshop, I feel really fired up as I have admired her work for 2 years

Also in the same area were the art clothes and 3D items and this:

Astonishing

Left hand side

By KATE CROSSLEY of Oxford

Called A BOX OF DELIGHTS

(thank you Julie)

Part of the right hand side

I am so sorry but I dont know the name of the maker. The labels dont put the names WHY? If they print a number they must be able to print the name as well, it is so very annoying to have to buy the brochure and look up the names, its archaic in this computer age. If anyone knows then please would they leave a comment or email me

Whilst we are on comments - is it easy or hard to leave comments on my blog? Does anyone know how to improve it? I do so love to see you comments

Back to FOQ

From this area I wandered around, along the demonstrators which I found quite disappointing as most of them were demo -ing the same stuff as last year. Some had books out showing the stuff they demoed last year, some had the exact same stuff as for many years. I didnt think it was as busy as last year

There were many more seats, nice seats and table and a really strange bright pink carpet, only slightly better than the awful orange carpet, that of migraines

Walking around I spied Sandra Meech & one of the groups she is part of Studio21

Wonderful group of ladies.

Their exhibition was all connected textiles. All with a tiny red bird and in a little area they had made metres of cloth with printing on, on tables they had laid out bits of fabrics and fibres left from their exhibits and asked if anyone wanted to stitch on the cloth which they are going to display on a blank wall opposite their booth.

I jumped at the chance

This is what I stitched, the theme was to do with CONTINUUM - a sense of place - and as I have been working with Dale on the brain edges blog on teapots & my teapots are actually houses I chose that theme. I must have been there half an hour, then Carolyn walked by and joined in and did X marks the spot

We were asked to sign it also

I suggested that they displayed each days efforts on the wall and we were thrilled to see at the end of the show that they did this

Sandra Meech & Jill Flower

The white area is where my stitching is, so I am being exhibited at FOQ lol

Here is a tired Jill Flower writing on the wall & here is her outstanding piece

Home Sweet Home

Papers & stitch

It was terrific, magazine papers, scrim, machine made lace and stitch and this along with Stone Bird was the show highlight - oh and a quilt from the American Museum at Bath, which I was not allowed to photograph.

Thank you ladies of studio 21 for such a fabulous time, if you are going over the weekend please call in & stitch & say Shelagh says hi

I think that it miht be exhibited in full at Alexander Palace in October. I hope so & I hope that it is huge, it was nearly all used up, here is another section

If you did a bit or do a bit will you leave a comment or email me please

shelaghfolgate@aol.com

After this it was lunch time and then another wander around the quilts

PAM HOLLAND from Australia

The winning miniature by the artist who won the Championship quilt last year. The quilting, by machine was so small vermechelli it was mind blowing, my only critism is that the binding was much to thick & large, it was machine stitched with little motifs so looked like a border and it was the most outstanding craftsmanship
Just a few pictures, sorry no names for the reasons stated, but they are taken with my phone and details cant be clearly seen, I am never too sure if to post them or not without names, the miniature was Kumiku ? I loved the Rhino and also a fab quilt which was huge of a Bedhouin Guide in the desert it was uplifting & the very best of Patchwork & Quilting to me

I hope you have enjoyed sharing in my day out, it was met by the usual getting lost when leaving the FOQ, which happens nearly every year due to the really stupid signposts that send you to the north & south M42 & M6, we dashed to the chippie, dashed home, stuffed our faces and went to our BOAT meeting. More about that in another post x

QUILTERS PEACEFUL RIOT

2011-08-11T23:00:00.000+01:00

Wonderful day out at Festival of Quilts - legs feel like they belong to someone else, ouch
2 highlights Sandra Meech group & Steph Redfern Stone Bird
Shall post more tomorrow as need to go to bed x
Oh and the Meercats were hysterically funny

LONDON

2011-08-09T08:05:00.000+01:00

My London is on fire. I am so sad that a few complete brainless idiots have caused such pain to so many people, homes, livihoods, property.
I was in hospital 30 years ago watching riots like these and thought that I would never see this again in my life time. Please spare a thought for the emergency services, the police, fire & ambulance, in some cases the fire fighters could not be guaranteed safety. As the mother of a fire fighter this fills my heart and soul with complete dread.
I have just seen that the rioting is spreading throughout the country.

This is totally shocking & upsetting

FOUND IT...FOUND IT

2011-08-06T21:14:00.000+01:00

HOORAY....Happy me...Ive found it...what?.. all my SHAPE folders & design work - I thought I had left them at the college but they were in a portfolio. My husband said he would help me move all my books and the shelves and the portfolio was hidden up the side. Why? I don't know

It has been quite a nuisance not having them to teach from this last term, so I am really happy now

More moving around today & new shelves, I have collated all my inks, sprays, acrylic mediums into a new set of drawers. Now need a system to store all my resource books of design work - any ideas? I am certainly not throwing them away!!

MORE EDGING MY BRAIN

2011-08-06T10:28:00.000+01:00

Need to kill a little bit of time, so have slipped a Saturday posting on brain edges

Charcoal

2011-08-05T10:54:00.000+01:00

If you have a look over on my other joint blog: http://creativebrainedges.blogspot.com I have been drawing with Derwent Tinted Charcoal pencils, there is an explanation of how I got to this

From this:

My studio |& storeroom make over is slowly taking shape. I have far too much stuff. Daft stuff like a huge box of bits of paper, admittedly the papers are mostly painted or have stuff on them but will I ever use them again

I have made 3 journals out of the papers & still they seem to multiply. I have found a large box of empty white envelopes!! an old squashy linen bin full of rolls of various stuff & so much wool & I don't do any knitting nowadays - I guess its all for the Smashing machine

On top of all of this odd stuff is a pile of fabrics that are eclectic to say the least - curtain - dress - towels (why?) - velvet thick - oh it goes on and on, part of me wants to take it all to the recycling bins, I actually sat in the middle of it all & felt quite sick yesterday. I guess its become a worry as I am clearing out Margaret's stash which is neatly folded into bins & organised - I suddenly had a age 58 wake up call

So what do you think? Should I dump it? or hoard it? I would really welcome some comments please

I am much too ashamed to post any photos

I am not dumping my patchwork stash or my embroidery stuff....oh yeah there is heaps more & the loft............ ahhhhhhhhhhhh anyone fancy a house guest for a week or two maybe the life laundry will come in and sort it all for me.....:-)

QUILTS OF VALOUR

2011-08-03T12:19:00.000+01:00

Yesterday a group of fabulous people came together on one of the hottest days of this year to sew 2 QUILTS FOR VALOUR. These quilts will be given to 2 injured service personnel with out gratitude.
The fabrics were part of Margarets stash, the very kind lady who bought the ACCUQUILT GO, GO BABY & 25 DIES for the use of all quilters from this area, these were gifted to me before she very sadly passed away a few weeks ago. Her husband has asked me to re-cycle her stash & this is what we started yesterday.
The pieces for both quilts were cut mostly with the GO. On Saturday at the Bee Inspired thank you day we raised nearly £25 from the sales of her magazines towards to cost of the wadding for the quilts

I want to publicly thank everyone who helped yesterday & David & Jemma from Bee Inspired for donating the use of the studio, the electricity with the fans going all day, the tea & cakes & for being such fabulous employers.
I also want to thank all the people who turned out on a beautiful day to hand or machine sew 2 wonderful quilt tops.
All the pieces are either sewn or cut & we are having another day TUESDAY 6TH SEPTEMBER 2011, where the sashings will be attached & the quilts wadded & backed for my Quilt of you go method of joining. IF ANYONE CAN HELP on this day 10 to 4 please contact me.
Here are some images of some of the people helping including a secondary school lad who was wonderful with cutting pieces & hand sewing, such an inspiration

Cutting pieces on the GO needed a fan to keep us cool

Hand stitching & machine stitching, why do people run away when the camera appears?

Terrific group of hand stitchers, 9 rows of 15 tumbler pieces were sewn together, they worked so very hard, fortified by home made biscuits & cake & myself with strawberries & nectarines (thanks Carolyn for being so thoughtful)

Cut & sew & iron & stitch - I am a hard task master!! (not really) everyone was really dedicated

Here is the HAND SEWN QUILT, all the rows are complete - when the others return & when the sashing (brown) is joined then the top will be finished. It is various green fabrics with tone on tone & is a tumbler glass pattern. It is good to put sashing strips in between as every stitcher has a different quarter inch seam allowance. The sashings will allow for any deviations to not show. There are rules with regard to sizes, min & max. I am glad that there are rules. You can see some patches ready to make the PRESENTATION CASE for the quilt

This is the machine sewn quilt. I produced the pattern using Electric Quilt company software. My favourite block is CHURN DASH. We used Red, Blue & tone on tone cream / white fabrics. All have to be good quality fabrics, with no cheap or scratchy fabrics & rightly so.

All the blocks are made and the corner stones & sashings cut. The spare pieces have been sewn into blocks for the presentation case.

I do hope that you have enjoyed seeing the first stages of our quilts. We have lots of fabric left & I do hope that some of us will continue to make quilts for some extremely deserving people.

BLOG BREAK

2011-07-31T22:19:00.000+01:00

HI - I have been having a little break from blogging whilst trying to sort out my studio, have not got very far, due to F1 - fabo Jensen, the swimming - wonderful Rebecca & Sun Yi; I was screaming at the TV fantastic, then the athletics, which were a bit lack lustre, but Michael Johnson was on & I love listening to him - huge respect!!
The image is the final piece from the July Chair Challenge between Dale & myself HERE
Stitched admist boxes, bags etc, I should have been a hurdler!!
Normal blogging will resume soon, along with the Newsletter, which I have not forgotten!!
Tuesday is my day for stitching quilts for Quilts for Valour & Help for Heros using Margarets stash & the Accuquilt Go machine at Bee Inspired studio. On Saturday Bee Inspired held a thank you tea & the lovely people there raised 25 quid for wadding by donating for old British patchwork magazines
I wonder how many people will be able to come to help?

disappeared & Important news

2011-07-27T21:07:00.000+01:00

Hi, sorry I seem to have disappeared for a while. I am having a huge sort out of my studio & storage room, everything is upside down! literally!
I have posted a doddle to the brain edges blog, done hastily this evening. Had a trip out today to an exhibition which was a huge disappointment in that the work looked mostly like samples mounted in some odd colours. One set of pieces was very poorly mounted for an exhibition and all the textile prices were really quite astonishing. I guess that they didnt really want to sell the pieces so put inflated prices on them. It is always hard to judge what price our textile work is worth. Too cheap & no sell; too expensive and still no sell. Very difficult to get it just right, there really is not an exact formula. Lovely day with great company

Back soon with some pictures, the newsletter will appear as soon as I can get to the relevent pieces

My important news is for anyone in distance of Kettering, Northamptonshire.

The very kind lady who bought the Accuquilt Go for all the quilters in the area sadly passed away a few weeks ago. In her honour & to honour our very brave troops, I am organising the construction of a QUILT OF VALOUR on TUESDAY 2nd AUGUST 2011 at the Bee Inpired studio, Market St mews, Kettering from 10am to 4pm
I just need people for as short or as long as you can spare.
There are strict rules for making this quilt. I shall use as much of Margarets stash as is appropriate as I can, including cutting the patches with the GO machine & sewing with her machines, all donated by ther husband. In this way I feel there will be a lastly patchwork legacy
If you can spare the time to hand or machine sew or iron or cut pieces or make tea please just turn up
If this is successful then I may hold another day later in the summer to help those who are on holiday
Thanks go to David & Jemma at the studio for donating the day free of charge. There is no cost
If anyone wants further details then please contact me via email: shelaghfolgate@aol.com

GIFTS

2011-07-20T09:46:00.000+01:00

Over the past couple of weeks I have been so very fortunate to receive fabulous gifts from my students. Thank you all for the cards & gifts, it has been a real pleasure teaching & cajoling (!?) you this past year. I am indeed a very fortunate teacher to have such wonderful students, the work produced has been 'amazing' in the true sense of this overworked word. I teach such a wide variety of classes from hand embroidery & patchwork through machine piecing & quilting to creative embroidery & needle felting, along the way comes art & design with the elements & principles, sometimes appearing so difficult but so rewarding to see the exiting portfolios produced. Some of my students are completing a two year course, some a one year & some a term. To all of you a huge THANK YOU for making my 'job' seem so worthwhile & exciting (and tiring lol)
Here are a few images of some of the lovely gifts
Flowers:

ORCHID

I was waffling on one day about never having received an Orchid & how wonderful they are & Fran remembered & bought me this beautiful two stemmed wonder flower with purple spots (the purple zoom car) It is so beautiful & has a really good spot right in the sitting room window out of the direct sun. Every day I look at it when I open & close the curtains & I can see it where I sit in the evenings to watch TV or to sew. Simply beautiful. x

BOUQUET

A delightful bouquet of roses, carnations, iris & lots of other flowers, beautiful colours & these are in my Mums cut glass vase, kept for special flowers as its 65 years old. These are from my Wednesday teachers group, who take on board everything that I throw at them with such good heart & excellent results. They have all become Grandmothers for the first time this term, all with Grandsons - I am very envious. We decided that it was OK as I am a little bit younger so have to wait longer. Thank you ladies for such lovely Wednesday mornings full of laughter x

POT PLANT

Ohhhh look at this, look at the colour combinations of violet blue & lime green. This is a fabulous exuberant plant full of flowers. I have never had one this colour before. I have a pinky - orange one that was a gift last year & we are going to buy 2 matching pots to put them alongside the steps leading from the patio to the lawn. This is a gift from my Floribundi group. We have had such a lovely year. Wow the quilts produced from my original blocks are just simply stunning. All the blocks have centres - hence Floribundi & all have flower names. This group is now at an end & will become a projects class. A truly lovely group who all get on so well together. The plant is in a purple & cream hessian pot & when I do put it outside I shall use the pot for the Orchid to stand in. It is atop my wooden sewing basket made by my husbands Grandfather for our wedding present, so it is a very special box, it is placed on top of this:

TABLE RUNNER

Hand stitched from Uzbekistan & a gift from Ruth, who has recently visited there. She says that they use a special tool to stitch it & watched them doing the work. Fabulous, gobsmacking gift, the colours match my sitting room, look at the pommegrante and the fish. There will be designs from this arriving this summer, it is stitched on a base of heavy cream cotton with a lovely border & looks fabulous on top of the sewing box, out of direct sunlight, the colours work so well together, they are balanced & totally in proportion x

Not finished yet!

If you follow my blog you will know that Dale has just been to Broome in Western Australia & we have been talking about the Frangipani flowers. I guess that I shall never smell them. well I did but shall not tell you how & was telling my Monday group about this longing to go to Broome - mad isnt it why some names & places hit the soul - Eileen remembered this & bought me this

Frangrant Oil

In a beautifully shaped bottle & stopper. It says Frangipani Orchid! I didnt know that they were Orchids, seems a full circle.

There are reeds to put in the oil & the frangrance is purely lovely. In my hall it wafts through the house & I dream of the tropics

I must confess that I keep spying the reeds to stitch over but am resisting at the moment but I cant promise not to nick a couple as they bend beautifully x

Finally a totally unique present

Ornament

Milton Keynes concrete cow - look at his saddle!

Katy's son owns MK COWS.com

Milton Keynes is famous for its life sized croncrete cows, put in a field near the M1 many years ago. Not by Kays son!

He runs the company making lots of things but especially these cows, in different sizes, they make wonderful gifts. There are baby ones & THE QUEEN has one - though not with City & Guild on the side - this is a one off especially for me. Each cow has a certificate - like a birth certificate & comes in a lovely box which is extremely well padded so would be fantastic for a gift anywhere in the world. Please do look at his site. I have wanted one of these for two years

Katy this is why!!

His new friends! These were a gift from my daughter many years ago. I love them & now this fantastic MK cow has joined them & the other funky animal ornaments that I have

In addition to these presents I have received a lovely card & postcard from Pat a previous student who has been to the Joan Miro exhibition in the Tate Modern in London & whilst walking around remembered me and the Mark making classes & has sent me one of his postcards & an article from the Observer newspaper which was facinating to read. I cant wait to go now & when I do I will report back. I have wanted to see a body of his painting since going to Barcelona & arriving too late to view the incredible exhibitio that they have there

I hope you have enjoyed seeing a part of my life, these thank yous make all the hard work seem to drift away

To all of you XX thanks

PATCHWORK BLOCKS

2011-07-19T23:24:00.000+01:00

I have been asked about the patchwork side of me, a while ago I made a slide of blocks which did not seem to work for many people so here are the pictures again

Just a few blocks, which have now been quilted & are part of a 30 blocks sampler type quilt, all using the colour palette of red, green & cream, The backgrounds are varied. There are 3 different frames & 2 sets of sashing, the same fabric in the same colour but one is darker than the other.

They will be assembled using my Quilt as you go method, which is very popular and allows for each block or series of blocks to be quilted by hand or machine before being joined together.

I shall try to gather together some of my other patchwork, both traditional & innovative

I have not forgotten about the newsletter. I shall stitch the brain edges post from last Sunday & send the FREE instructions in the next newsletter, make sure that you sign up to receive it.

Back on Brain edges tomorrow with another offering

Hope you enjoyed seeing the quilt blocks.

I have some lovely photos to show tomorrow, pictures need the daylight, maybe sun?????

Where?

2011-07-19T20:21:00.000+01:00

Have I gone? Back tomorrow

Summer time & the living is easy

2011-07-15T18:43:00.000+01:00

I so love this song. Today is a beautiful day, warm, breezy & I am getting demob happy with only a week of work to go!!

We had a BOAT meeting last night where I created this

After faffing with it today it now looks like this

Amazing what a few hours can do, interupted by having to go & do a rubbing - why? 'cause Dale said so!!! Then didnt do one herself at all!

Results on HERE

At the meeting Carolyn gave me my birthday pressie or rather pressies. A lovely stencil that I had wanted for quite a while & the most fabulous BIRD BRADS, dont know where she got them as it was a secret but they are ACE & I am sure will fly to the piece of work above when it is totally finished.

Maybe it might end up the big box of scrummy bits!

Saturday course tomorrow teaching using the smashing machine, should be huge fun

Have a good weekend wherever you are X

FREE TUTORIAL

2011-07-10T22:03:00.000+01:00

I have posted a FREE tutorial over on http://creativebrainedges.blogspot.com

This was our Sunday challenge. Have a look & happy stitching

Where has the summer gone?

2011-07-09T19:07:00.001+01:00

Chilly wind, dull & overcast, strange July weather. So studio time is called for.
Tidying up, I found a box of 'bits' actually a huge box of bits, that I had totally forgotten about. Something to do with a wasted life keeps popping into my head!!
Only problem that I have today is my brain disappeared last night in a nightmare. Really shook me up, I guess it was based on a discussion at work yesterday, no wont tell don't want it to happen to you.

So some pictures of bits on a turquoise theme

Well this is not a bit, I had totally forgotten about this. A workshop with Janet Bolton many years ago. I am happy to find it as I no longer have my little birds
Remember the dog Carolyn!!!!!! & the I don't do pink!!!

Janet is an excellent tutor & at the forefront of the minimalist movement.

Using a brass stencil, puff paint & a myriad of other techniques, very effective

I am pleased to find this one as well, rusting powder & stitch, why do these pieces never get finished ?!

I must fall out of love with them pretty quick & where has this box been hiding? Actually I thought it was a spare box of felt! So didn't bother looking in it

Now the studio is awash with 'bits' Looks like I have had a really productive day & no you cant see it!! I dont know if I could be creative in a sterile studio. Whenever I have a really good tidy up, I really dont want to mess it up again. As long as I can get my chair, have a 2 foot square on the desk & use my machines, I dont really care about being surrounded by hundreds of paintbrushes, old and new, sprays galore. Textile hangings, pencils, paint, scissors (I think that they breed overnight, I am sure that I didnt leave 8 pairs of scissors on the desk yesterday & there are some large & some small ones, & the small ones vanish, yes I am breeding scissors, they tumble out of everywhere! Oh dear I feel another nightmare coming on)

Lastly for now as there must be over 100 pieces in the box - yipeee

This piece is lovely very shabby chic or very The Hamptons

I shall have fun with these this summer, but for now the Bolton Birdies is going on the wall

Don't forget to check out http://creativebrainedges.blogspot.com/ blog tomorrow as Dale & I are stitching. We have a stitching time limit to be reveled

Well would you believe it the sun has popped its head out

Off to catch a few rays, hopefully get some proper sleep to do all the prep & stitch tomorrow x

MOVERS & SHAKERS

2011-07-07T09:36:00.000+01:00

How exciting, it seems that DALE & I have started a new Internet revolution.

All over the net on lots of blogs DRAWING challenges are popping up

So nice to be at the START of a new sensation - MOVERS & SHAKERS - Dales wonderful term

Head over to http://creativebrainedges.blogspot.com and join in the FREE fun

AT IT AGAIN!

2011-07-05T19:13:00.000+01:00

Hoggie baby is at it again, just turn our backs and whoosh it was there, in the bowl, poor Pusseo returned from ablutions to be greeted by this sight, the noise of the camera caused this

and its off!! What a laugh!!

Hmmm nice bit of texture in this photo lol

STUDIO TALES

2011-07-04T20:21:00.000+01:00

Very humid here today, waiting for the thunder!
I am very happy with my little self as I have cleared outstanding work & can have a days play with 'stuff' bought a while ago

I had a dig about in my bags & came up with this lot on a gold theme

This on a blue theme & a few others but it will get boring!

I possess quite a few soldering irons. I have been playing with them since 1998, when I was so fortunate to book in a workshop with the late Daphne Glick. I am sure that it is her to which we owe the soldering iron obsession, followed by Margaret Beales article in Embroidery magazine (then the world of embroidery) in the summer of 2000.

I have just bought a soldering alphabet & letters & this was todays agenda, to actually work with them

In a local sale a few weeks ago I bought a wooden set of dominoes in a wooden box & I also possess cardboard inchies. These are what I practised with.

Then onto the fabrics after donning my huge face mask. You know this is not something to do on a really hot day like today, silly me.

I used all the fabrics above.

The letters are fab, I used 2 soldering irons that have screws on the side, one is much hotter than the other, giving darker letters - fab eh. Dont too much trouble to change the tips along with my ceramic daisy paint tray, long nosed tweezers & a screwdriver

Was a bit of fun to keep swapping the leads around

So what did I do? Well if you are following the fun in the creative brain edges HERE you will know that Dale & I are drawing chairs - both choosing widely different chairs, totally at random & not at all planned. Chair in French is Chaise - I really lovely name I thought, so this piece of work is called CHAISE

This is the beginning, you can see the letters laid out on the middle and end sections, the first 2 are on the irons!

This is the part way result before a rumbling stomach dragged me away

There are a huge amount of processes to get to this

Needs a lot more work but is coming along nicely

I tried out other things, but no photos - forgot!

I am not so chipper about the words, they are ok on wood etc but too small for most fabrics. The little flower is in one of the sets which has a pumpkin ! I know they are American, called a holiday set, with a tree, a star, a heart, the USA flag & a basket. Wish there was a European set, maybe with the Eurostar, the Union flag, Morris dancers, a cup of tea & a weather forecast!! Only kidding. They work well.

I dug out the original wood burning nibs from way back, circles and triangles etc. I know that I have more somewhere, but oh where???

So love the letters, ok with the novelties, disappointed with the words. Wonder if there are any more out there?

The sun came out fleetingly whilst we were drinking tea in the garden

Just catching the edge of the Acer, thought it looked Ace!!

Pusseo has now discarded a big handful of fur via the brush, she is rolling around on the bench on her towel (spoilt) letting us groom her. I am spying the fur wondering if to embellish it? Hmm its a lovely shade of grey (hoover dust grey quote Richard Box), but it might have grimbles in it so am resisting

Back to work tomorrow, see you soon x

Don't forget the new workshop & more will be arriving & maybe I will take a leaf out of a certain persons book and actually get some stuff to sell in my Etsy shop eh? eh? eh?

COMPLETELY NEW pdf WORKSHOP FOR SALE

2011-07-02T21:49:00.002+01:00

***NEW MACHINE NEEDLE FELTING WORKSHOP

http://shelaghfolgate.bigcartel.com/

PUSSEO & THE HOGGIES

2011-07-02T09:30:00.000+01:00

Good morning from a bright & warm England
Last night Pusseo (aka cardboard box cat) was peering in the french windows, running away and running back and peering again, we thought this was very funny & unusual for her. Eventually I went to see if she was still hungry, opened the back door & looked into her bowl & got a shock, tipped up in her bowl, completely in it was a baby Hedgehog. I thought that it was dead, its was not moving and was wedged in the bowl. My brave (hoho) husband carried it to the lawn, only to find another baby hedgehog!. He tipped bowl hog out along with Pusseos food & the hog was OK. They both continued to eat Pusseos food whilst she looked on disgusted!
So it was wash the bowl & provide her with more food, which she actually eat in the kitchen.

We bought a cat brush yesterday (remember this is not our cat) & ohhhh she loves it, her fur is so different now, she even lets me do it

Clean fur, I just love the way her tail curls over her feet

Here is one of the tiny hoggies

Always with an eye for texture, just look at these fabulous spines

When the hoggies had finished eating we watched them scampering around the edges of the garden, easily climbing up the logs that surround our lawn. We have quite a few trees that my husband cuts down each year and he uses some of the branches to provide a wild habitat, the others go to a man up the street for his wood burner & the small ones get chipped and added to the soil below the trees. - re-cycling - talking of which - we are now on a water meter. Well how to change life time habits.

PUT THE PLUG IN YOUR SHOWER, well if its over the bath that is, you will be amazed at how much water is used in a shower. We are totally gobsmacked - nay astounded at what we have been wasting.

As its 'summer' here & there is a hosepipe ban, we are using any spare water, hohoho - no worries, buckets a plenty up and down the stairs. One shower worth does a whole days watering for our baskets. Ok I know it has soap in it but we don't use chemicals on our bodies & the flowers are glorious, lots of admiring remarks from visitors. I feel quite ashamed to think of all the water that I have used straight into the drains in my life. I guess we wont 'buckets aplenty' in the winter!! It remains to be seen if it is actually cheaper but we are enjoying a bit shinier halo at the moment.

Don't forget to follow what Dale & I are up to on the brain edges blog HERE

2011-06-30T21:37:00.000+01:00

Over on the creativebrainedges blog, I have posted an image

I am continuing my ramblings about it here

One of my diploma City & Guilds design portfolios was based on the Hammersmith weavings of the master Morris. I just fell in love with his mastery of design. In my work I am most interested in texture & line, but this body of work is concerned with shapes and pattern, How time changes influences and decisions

This is the piece that influenced my design work for over a year. When I originally saw the image in a book I thought that the lily flower shape was a leaf and based the work on this shape.

I was very fortunate to visit the V & A & see this piece. I stood in front of it and cried. It is so beautiful, the colours, shapes and balance of design is just outstanding. I was so absorbed by it & astonished to see the piece full size and realise it was a flower not a leaf.

The visit caused me to change direction with my design work. I no longer design from designs, if you know what I mean? How can you better a master? His choice of colours?

I chose to take a really radical view, change the colours into modern almost pop art colours, bright greens and oranges, silk paper, the very early days of using a soldering iron. So passe now but so exciting from the late Daphne Glicks influence.

Perhaps I should re-visit my theme? Perhaps I should almalgamate my current texture work with the shapes and patterns from the original design work, maybe the new challenge of the BRAIN EDGES will help unlock & marry up the two very distinct designers within me? Hmmmmm

Back to Morris....

This is Edward Burne-Jones drawing of Morris reading - what a hoot, wish my sketching was a 10th of this

Jane Burden by Rosetti

His outstanding contribution to design, printing, embroidery, tapestry, weaving, fables & father of May Morris embroiderer.

The influence of her father is apparent here. I think that this is beautiful

William was the husband of Jane Burden, who was in love with Dante Rosetti, in fact they all lived together for some time - fascinating man to settle for a love triangle. She was a muse of Rosetti & Morris - she must have been some woman to influence these two men!

This is the pretty boy Rosetti, you can see why Jane was so taken with him! I think he resembles

Leonardo Dicaprio in Romeo & Juliette, what do you think?

If you don't know anything about Morris, please look up info.

There is a room which is now a tea room designed by him in the V & A. I have eaten there many times, it is wonderful

The wonderful panels

The ceiling & windows

The V & A is worth a visit just for this room

I hope you have enjoyed my ramble through the influences of William Morris in my life. My sitting room curtains are designed by him. I see influences everywhere in modern & vintage designs

Check back to here and the BRAIN BLOG to see what transpires!!!

Barmy weather

2011-06-28T18:23:00.000+01:00

England has gone bonkers - yesterday the temperature was nearly 90 degrees F & this afternoon it is nearly 50 degrees F (OK maybe more but feels like that temperature) Its dull, overcast & rainy & very cold
Last night all the windows were open and just a sheet on the bed, here I am sitting with a thick woolly on & a quilt over me, this afternoon at work we had the fire on!!

I am posting pictures of chairs by various artists over on the new challenge blog:
http://creativebrainedges.blogspot.com
This is a joint venture between Dale Rollerson from www.thethreadstudio.com in Australia & yours truly

We are challenging each other 3 times a week to sketch etc & post what we are up to on the blog. Join in and FOLLOW us, even join the challenge, no costs, no advice, comments would be great
See where our inspirations come from and take us - no doubt at some time into our first love of stitch
Newsletter TEN has been sent - please check your spam boxes just in case it has been sent there, some of you are not opening the newsletters which is a shame as I do try to add some free creative inspiration to each one.
Here is one of the images the newsletter contains

To find out what it is and how to do it, please join the newsletter or open it!

The Poppy field is fast disappearing, I do hope that I get the privilege of viewing it again next year

Part three of six of FOLLOW MY HEART is due tomorrow, half way through already and the last SMASHEE is due on Friday, I shall miss my fabulous Smashee group - 8 months is a long time & some of the members have been with me for years from the creativechallengers days

I am yet to decide what I am offering next or when I shall repeat the workshop series, summer is a time for me to re-charge my creative batteries, oh how grand that sounds, last year was the start of the horrendous mouth problems & the summer before I had teeth problems, so wish me a good health summer this year, I hope it wont be too hot or humid, at the moment I just feel like veging out doing naught!! I am sure that that will change

Back to being a sloth on the settee watching England cricket wrapped in my quilt - Is it really nearly July???? x

CREATIVE BRAIN EDGES

2011-06-26T17:55:00.000+01:00

Shelagh and Dale have joined forces to push our creative brains a little further each week - textiles / art / design / sketch / draw / paint - who knows?

We are starting on 1st July with a CHAIR
- bookmark us and visit to see what we are up to HERE

2011-06-23T23:52:00.000+01:00

ahhhhhh - I was asked to join by a person that I trust, I checked the box for no emails & it has invited all my address book. If this has offended you, please accept my sincere apologies. I have no idea how to get out of this.

A BIT OF THIS & A BIT OF THAT

2011-06-21T22:30:00.001+01:00

Hi, June in England is still staggering along a bit like April.

Had a lovely lunch yesterday with a friend & again today with two friends, I feel very fortunate to have such good friends. I received some beautiful orange roses which if the sun appears tomorrow I will photograph. I also gleefully got a stack of embroidery transfers which contained one of 2 beautiful budgies. We are still missing our budgie, its so very quiet here & although there is a wall hanging with birds on in place of the cage I still find myself looking and about to whistle. I have never had a dog or a cat so I cant imagine how awful it must be to lose them. Cardboard cat is keeping us on our toes. Give her the food, eat a bit, sniff and walk away a bit. Out I go with the fork and mash it around, stick it under her nose and she eats a bit more, its a funny game round and round the patio with the fork and a following and chasing cat, heehee. She is hilarious.

The image above shows how dynamic cut work can be allowing texture to be built up into low relief (3D)

Many different processes were used to complete this piece. Certainly alot of creative work is stopped just short of resolved. My advice, cut off a bit, work into the rest more then you have 2 pieces of work, if all fails then cover it in white acrylic or Gesso, even black gesso, wait a few minutes, then take a baby wipe and scrub it off

SYNOPSIS = isnt this a fabulous word, a pattern in itself

Happy stitching x

TRIAL OUTS

2011-06-19T20:03:00.001+01:00

I am having a bit of a do with my right eye!!! A really silly excuse for not posting, but true, I thought that you might like to see some of the textile 'stuff' that I have been creating, along with the books for Follow My Heart, which are for members eyes only! lol

Along with Dale I have been experimenting. Nope not telling what it is or how its made
but here is another one

A lot of work & time went into this, which I love, sometime soon we will let the secrets out, meanwhile here is another image

The backgound is the wonderful INKTENSE BLOCKS - fabulous blocks of watercolour, with the fantastic property of when they are dry they are permanent. No other watercolour media has this magic. (as far as I know)
The pencils have been around for a while, but the blocks are something else. I am having fun experimenting with them
Here is another image

This is based on Broome, Western Australia, remember all the goodies that I received from www.thethreadstudio.com there was a photograph also and this is my take on that
This is multi layered
Here is my process, be warned takes a good few hours to complete

1. Woven SARI SILK strips - purple, gold, green & fuchsia.
2. Smashed into Turquoise felt
3. Distressed with heat tool
4. Stitched with Rayon variegated thread & disconstructed stitched patterns, densly all over
5. Sprayed with white Gesso
6. INKTENSE BLOCKS - again

Still more work to do, but has been shelved in favour of some hand stitching - but cant do it because of the silly eye!!!

Happy Fathers Day to all of you so fortunate to still have your wonderful Dads here so you can cuddle them & give them a kiss. Love for a parent never fades & is especially strong on special days x to my dad x

SAD NEWS

2011-06-15T15:16:00.000+01:00

Hi. I received a phone call this morning telling me that the very kind and lovely lady who gifted the ACCUQUILT GO & GO BABY to the quilters of this area & myself, has passed away suddenly.
She was in her beloved garden, it was a really beautiful day so I thank God for that mercy for her.

As we stagger through our lives we rarely are touched by genuine kindness & thoughtfulness. She was one of a rare breed & I shall remember her happy face when I lugged all the wonderous gifts up to her door. Her excitement was infectous

PUSSEO & POPPIES

2011-06-11T11:22:00.002+01:00

Good morning from a very sunny England. The field is now a complete carpet of red, it is astonishing.
The colours in this picture would make a wonderful weaving for stitch, as the proportions are balanced & the colours are unusual
I shall paint a page & post it later!
And here it is!
I walked to the field, hoping to get there whilst the sun was shining, to no avail, it was windy, cloudy & felt really chill. I climbed over a 5 bar gate & crawled around in the dense undergrowth to take these pictures

The field did not look so stunning close up as the poppies were quite scattered, they must have some sense to not grow too near to each other. The heads were huge for field poppies & there were some variations in the colours, so I guess in the species.

This is part of the lane where I walk, I love the intregue of rounding the corner to see part of this

The village I live in has a church dating back to the 10th Century

Arriving at the poppy field, I love the hard austere form of the bars with the soft colourful fields beyond

Hiding in the undergrowth

This is all the corn that is left - this field is usually all oil seed rape, so it had a really strange mixture of plants

Just quite simply WOW, I am just so pleased with this shot especially as it was so overcast. I left going until the golden hour, only to be thwarted by the clouds

Here is the painted book page with a real poppy picked from the field, the poppy is now safely under acrylic medium in my book

I decided that I could not be bothered / didnt have time to do anything radical with the colours except to band them into proportions, seemed like fun to put the green that started it all in the sky

So Here is the end of the Poppy field tale - perhaps taking a picture out of your window might inspire you to a small body of work? I know that I shall cherish my images, especially when the field is full of frost & snow!

On to Pusseo now

Here is PUSSEO (aka Charlotte, lottie, cardboardcat, Smellycat, stinkypuss, fish?!, Oi - could a cat have more names lol)

sunning herself on the patio this morning. She is so very odd, from here she went to sit on the wet lawn in the shade just plonk, she does make me laugh, sometimes she sits in a flower pot, I am sure that she is a bit mad, so suits us fine!

As it now evening, I had better go and feed her

Have a lovely weekend. x

ODD WEEK

2011-06-10T18:14:00.001+01:00

This has been a bit of an odd week. I am still feeling 'under the weather' so to speak, so very tired all the time. Had a blood test this morning so maybe that will throw a light on what is up. You know I could just eat an enormous cream cake filled with sugar sugar sugar - wow that would help the diabetes wouldnt it! Maybe it might wake me up for a moment.

I am surrounded by altered books in various stages of dressing & have 'aquired' a few more bits & pieces including a couple of books & some more Sari ribbon from Dale including her new book on Sari ribbon which is just scrumptious, oh and more sprays..... Elsewhere some stamps have arrived which were very good value, a little small but quite good detail - I expect they will make an appearance in Follow My Heart!! My daughter bought me another Paperchase book & some more stickers, rubbing alcolhol (hmmm nice smell lol) some differnet gel mediums & a whole fistful of punches have also been squirreled into the studio. Its so good that I have expanding walls. I have re-written the laws of physics...!!!!
Taking of that did you see the information on the Voyager spacecrafts yesterday? Its 33 years since they were launched - THIRTY THREE YEARS - I am still reeling at where did my life go. I vividly remember watching the launch & being really interested in them. Wow.
Yuk its started raining on is very dark & gloomy but we desparately need the rain as here in Northamptonshire we have been declared a drought region from today. I suppose now it will rain for months as I have been to Tesco & bought lots of thin little tops as there was a half price offer. Okay they will probably go all baggy on first wash, but it did cheer me up a bit. I must confess to wandering around M & S as well with something that looked like coat hangers on my arm.
Its tea time now & I want to get a NEWSLETTER out this evening, so please check you spam boxes if it does not arrive.
- happy stitching x

EYES

2011-06-07T19:49:00.000+01:00

One of the problems with being diabetic is what happens to your eyes. Mine have been very naughty since I have been ill & are causing me problems, quite worrying. Today I had to have my annual retinal screening where drops are put inyour eyes to make the pupils go huge, very attractive like a huge puppy eyes, especially as mine are brown, but initially painful & lasting bluriness (is that a word?) Feel quite silly sittting here with sunglasses on, not easy to type either lol
So today absolutely no creatively, except for the two classes that I taught, fabulous work, I was going to photograph and then promptly forgot, so sorry ladies, so sorry bloggers
Program on at the moment about Roy Lichtenstein

Very appropriate image this!!!!

Back tomorrow hopefully

LIVID

2011-06-04T17:29:00.000+01:00

Ok time to let off steam

On monday went online to see if I had 'won' any olympic tickets (I hadnt) then I noticed a withdrawal out of my account the dame time as my DH had put a cheque in. I immediately phoned the bank, who put a stop on my account & told me to check again the next day (odd I thought) the next day I received a scruffy letter saying they had put a cheque wrongly into my account & then decided to just remove the money (this I have been told is illegal without informing me first)
All this week I have had bouncing emails from Amazon who wont pay for my goods, very odd I thought as I had another letter saying my account was now ok
Then today at work my card was declined. So b...... embarrassing, I was livid
SO I have just sent a really snotty email to the bank, lets see what they do about it

On another moan tack remember the mad train ride when we could not get off, have had a really lovely letter from network rail asking us to send the tickets off to them for a 'goodwill gesture'

Actually had a lovely day with 4 really nice people finishing off the SNOWY LINEN LAND quilt at Poppy Patch & getting my new ACCUQUILT GO die - Ricky Tims applique die, ohhh its fab, so I should be using it, instead of whinging on to you on here!!!!
Jesters - I am no artist - my daughter is - I am just a designer

Oh for goodness sake now I cant post pictures or even make the text larger - blogger breakdown.......Shelagh scream ahhhhhhhhh

POPPY FIELD

2011-06-03T10:53:00.001+01:00

As promised the bright lime green field two days ago has now turned into a sea of red

I have not photographed the altered page now it has the poppies on yet - as the book is drying another page of experimentation. Back later
Here it is

I added small red dots the day I noticed the poppies, they needed a while to dry as the picture was covered with acrylic medium & varnish making it shiny. I used Pitt pens for the dots.
I drew the Poppy with An Indian ink black pitt pen & whilst hunting for my Inktense pencils - to no avail, found my Sakura pens & one Inktense pencil, guess what colour Poppy Red - now thats amazing....and we won the lottery this week ten whole pounds, pays for next month only way!
I coloured the Poppy with 2 colours of Sakura & the Inktense wet.
On the right hand side from my window are bushes.
I drew the main stems on with the black indian ink, then grabbed a christmas tree stamp & stazon, green & black & stamped the foiliage on
I think this is finished now, not at all like the original plan of the lime green field in the late evening sun. If I had not observed & recorded it, this piece would never have been made - true serendipity
Hope you enjoyed seeing the process.
In my workshop Follow my Heart this is one of the kind of processes we will use, then translate the design into stitch. If I do this one then I will show it.
Time to eat & sit in the sun

REGISTRATIONS CLOSED

2011-06-02T21:51:00.000+01:00

Hi from a hot & humid England - this resembles my brain today struggling to get a resonable thought - fish & chips helped though!

Registrations for FOLLOW MY HEART have now closed

Each student will be working on their own theme or following my heart into an English Country Garden.

Pusseo the cardboard box cat left some of her dinner, we usually bring it in, because of ants & other wee beasties, my DH has just shouted up the stairs look out the window & there as bold as brass was a hedgehog eating her food, dont know where she was, but it is very funny. Noe should we perhaps put a little cardboard box out for the hedgehog eh?
A nice box arrived yesterday from Greatart maybe that will do :-)

Forgot to take a picture, this evening, of the field which is now full of bright red poppies - will try to do better tomorrow

POPPIES

2011-06-01T00:04:00.000+01:00

Today the sun has shone most of the day, sitting at my desk a couple of hours ago, the sun was shining again on the scene from last night, but this time the sky was washed with a brighter blue, then I spied the lime green field, overnight it has sprouted bright red poppies, swathes of them
So the first thing I shall do with my design from last post is to add some red highlights

I worked some more this morning on the book page before going to work. Rotten coughing night, got so fed up with it & the cramp from being inactive that I got up early
I dont know, sometimes I just despair of computers.
I wrote this 3 hours ago, then Picasa where I store my photos decided that it would re-install all the photos. So I watched the Secret Millionaire - you know as you do - when the silly puter is enjoying itself being naughty
Hey ho
Back to the puter to post the new FOLLOW MY HEART WORKSHOP - you still have a day to enrol quick.... http://shelaghfolgate.bigcartel.com
I digress, must get the promo in eh!! drives you mad I bet?
Well it had gobbled up all the photos from 25th May onwards, all of last nights. I am going mad and madder & then really annoyed then upset.
Turn it off, turn it on, turn it off oh you know on and on, then I thought hum do a search well I found them....(oh joy!!) where 2011:05:30 - yep of course we all look for things under THAT don't we??????

So I am posting this picture, the one with the tiny poppies is drying, I cant face any more photo histrionics, I am off to bed - mumble mumble - hope I get some sleep tonight I am beginning to feel a bit like I am drunk huh that would be a treat no booze for me for 2 years now cause of the diabetes, I guess a sniff would keel me over - oh blow I am going to bed x Cardboard cat (pusseo) has a bottomless stomach tonight, meat and meat and more meat miaow, perhaps she has a midnight tryst with Ginger cool or big puss & needs all her strength hoho she is not worried about a distended stomach & a girdle......mad woman...sleep zzzzzzzzz

PHOTOS & NEWSLETTER

2011-05-30T19:50:00.002+01:00

Ah ha have at last found out why my photos dont appear - seems blogger does not like aol.
I must remember to use Internet Explorer in future.
NEWSLETTER EIGHT has just been sent, please check your spam boxes - just in case it has gone there
Two days to go before FOLLOW MY HEART starts - dont miss out - lots & lots of techniques, new & old with my slant on them, design & stitch.
You can work at your own pace, save up the workshops to do when you can as they are downloadable & printable for your use only
Sign up to my FREE newsletter for Creative ideas, pictures & information
http://shelaghfolgate.bigcartel.com/

Miserable old day here today, it has drizzled down all day, typical English Bank Holiday - I have been busy writing the last Tantalising Techniques workshop & the last but one of the Smashee workshops & one of my altered books is drying in front of me. (picture above)
I Shall now go to Internet Explorer to post some pictures...... Well that was eventful, computer crashed twice & in the meantime the sun has come out at 8.15pm, the fields opposite me have turned lime green & the sky is moody bluey grey, the sun is glinting on the foliage showing a myriad of greens, beautiful

This picture was taken through a double glazed (grubby) window & does not reflect the stunning colours, which have now gone. I am so glad that I live in the Digital camera age. I can now take this fabulous photo & print it out onto cloth or use it as a design.
Which is what I will do now & it can appear in FOLLOW MY HEART. Back later to show you the background results

Here is the first draft, it needs to dry & is the underpainting using lots of tricks In reality it has a lot of texture, the first thing I shall do when it dries is add a sepia tint across it to knock back the green
If you areinterested in turning inspirations into design & stitch, with my help, then join FOLLOW MY HEART at http://shelaghfolgate.bigcartel.com
I have done a quick manipulation in my software & produced this

Ethereal landscape - wow, the first photo was unexpected after such a dismal day & now I have this wonderful image as a background for stitch

PATCHWORK

MACHINE EMBROIDERY

this texture can be achieved with layers & stitch

Off to have a rest now before a Decolorant day tomorrow, hopefully some things to post tomorrow x

COUPLE OF WEEKS

2011-05-29T13:38:00.001+01:00

Hi, at last I feel a bit better & can post about our trip to London last weekend. I coughed so much that the crowds nearly jumped out of the way. Not a clever thing to do in the mist of Flu, but it was my husbands 60th birthday pressie & I was not dying, so I went. cough cough

We travelled first class with British Rail - that was an experience to have a whole carriage almost to ourselves & free drinks, only 3 seats across the carriage instead of 4 & the seats also adjust (does this sound boring?)

Here I am with the huge bunnies in Bishopsgate, they are heavy but can be moved about & the kids just love them

Even the lights in Bishopsgate are fabulous,

But the reason for being in this area......

Yes our very own street. My Grandad was a Peeler, a copper, a Policeman in this area (his surname was Franklin) This is Jack the Ripper area & he was involved in the hunt. Now I am married to a man who has a London street with his name. The reason is that this is very near to Spitalfields Hospital. Hospitals used to use Lavender, there is a Lavender grown in Norfolk called Folgate Blue.....we even have a colour. Exciting isn't it, I should do a piece of work based on the colour, but of course its my married name.... My children were with us & I refused to have my photo taken by the sign, they were cross when I said but I am not a Folgate, that had not occurred to them. I guess if these days were the days when I got married I would have retained my maiden name. I said this in class last week & some of the lovely ladies were really surprised, one said she had not ever thought about it, I said we didn't really have an option in the 1960's & 1970's did we ladies, in the UK it was the 'done' thing to take your husbands name. How times change

Here is a map of London, lovely patterns, I found this very inspiring, everyone wondered off tutting that I cant stop thinking about design & stitch even on a day out (well why should I change!)

I was being dragged around here as I felt terrible, I shall have to revisit with my DSLR camera to get some better photos as these are from my phone.

Here is the Gherkin, I sat on a cafe seat to watch the world go by, oh I love London, I had forgotten just how exciting the buzzing atmosphere is

We then went via the tube to The Tower of London, look at the incredible weather, the fabulous colour of the sky & the clouds. Lots of the tube lines were closed because of work for the Olympics, so the tube was crammed.
We were first got off the train at St Pancreas International station we went shopping, I went to Paperchase, which is my number one shop to buy yet more design books, I have a few A5 with magnetic clips that I use for inspiration & Paperchase do such fabulous patterned good quality tissue paper. Which will probably make an appearance in FOLLOW MY HEART as it is covered with flowers.

We decided to go on a river trip as I could walk no more & here is a Red London bus going over Tower bridge

THEN....

The bridge opened & a Schooner came through, What a privilege, I tried to take a video but forgot which buttons to press, what a view

We sailed up the river to the Houses of Parliament

Passing the London Eye on the way, my son has been on this twice, but I don't fancy it at all but it makes a wonderful design for my new NOUGHTS & CROSSES series of workshops to come soon

Then onto Big Ben, whose dial is bright gold, the sun shine right on it & it chimed for us right on cue!!
I felt much better after the river trip & we turned into Whitehall & went into a London Pub for Sunday lunch right by the Cenotaph. We needed to explain to my daughters boyfriend who is Swedish just what the Cenotaph is!!!!
Then it was the main reason of the day, as we all said our farewells, DH & I went to the Royal Albert Hall for the first public performance of DIRE STRAITS who are now called THE STRAITS as Mark Knoffler is no longer with them
It was truly fantastic - a charity concert in aid of the Lords Taveners,

This is the ceiling, NOUGHTS & CROSSES again - hee hee cant stop, love this picture

Here is the crowd, we are all SULTANS OF SWING lol

If you go to Youtube there are lots of videos of THE STRAITS, my video (yep had worked it out by now) is all shaky & the lad (yep there were some youngsters there) next to me was dancing & shouting, very funny he was, he was there with his 2 sisters in honour of his Dad who had died in January.

We had to leave before the encore to make it back to the station to get the last train

Another adventure that was

1. South Kensington station exits closed at 10pm

2. We arrived at 10.02pm

3. Accosted a really cool dude sauntering along

4. Followed dude to station

5. Cough

6. Crammed like a sardine into the tube, remember the lines are closed, worse than rush hour, great for me as I am a tad claustrophobic.

7. Got a seat as was guess what - coughing - lol

8. Made the train

WHOO HOO

No-one on the train in first class so uneventful ride to our station

THEN

We could not get off the train- the doors would not open

My husband ran off down the carriage to the guard whilst I was shouting into the intercom & pushing buttons like mad

I thought that he had got off the train & he though the same

It was like a slow motion trashy movie when we spied each other across the carriage

If we had been 30 years younger we would have done a '10' moment running into each others arms.

What happened was that the guard was really rude to my husband and I could not stop laughing (& coughing) I was nearly hysterical as I thought we would end up in Derby!! about 60 miles away & it was gone midnight

As it was we ended up at the next station, with no return trains

We managed to get the only taxi at the station (very rude barging people we were)

Cost us 25 quid to get to our station, only to find it locked & we had our car in the barrier car park

I refused to get out of the Taxi, we eventually found an outside payment point, I watched my husband banging & swearing at the machine from the comfort of the taxi, screaming with laughter, bet the taxi driver thought I was a mad woman

The whole adventure was summed up by my daughter in a text message

YOU TWO ARE MAD!!!

Think we should stay at home forever now - last night we went to a good friends birthday party & managed to get lost on the way there & home!!! what a pair of wallies

This weekend I am supposed to be making BROOME-IN-DALE, in honour of Dales trip to Broome in Australia. She has sent me such lovely lovely stuff & I am sitting looking at it & the muse has stowed away in Dales luggage....oh rats!!!

Don't forget to join FOLLOW MY HEART - starts 1st June 2011

YUM!!

and YUMMIER

HTTP://SHELAGHFOLGATE.BIGCARTEL.COM

Please note thta FOLLOW MY HEART will CLOSE at midnight BST on 1st June 2011, no more registrations will be taken after this time, so please dont miss out go HERE to register

BIT BETTER

2011-05-27T23:46:00.000+01:00

Hi
Hoping to post tomorrow, lots of pictures to show, off to bed now, night x

Still poorly

2011-05-26T22:14:00.000+01:00

Will be back soon, still feeling rough & not at all inspired or inspiring - thanks for the get well messages x Off to bed in the hopes of not coughing all night

ELASTIC BAND

2011-05-21T11:37:00.002+01:00

Ok so who snuck into the bedroom last night and tied an elastic band around my chest - cough x

COUGH

2011-05-19T12:03:00.002+01:00

ILL = COUGH = WOOSEY ,,,,,,,,,,,,

Photo fest if it works

2011-05-17T19:25:00.001+01:00

Whoo hoo got it to work, stupid blogger, been driving me mad, along with my 6 month old lap top packing up, seems the hard drive broke!! what a complete nightmare putting everything back on again. I go to click on something & its not there GRRRRRRR

Posted a random selection of stitch & design all around FOLLOW MY HEART - starting 1st June.

All sorts of techniques & ideas for paper & stitch

Colours, textures, 'yummy stuff'

This is the fabulous gift from Dale in Australia & www.thethreadstudio.com

Kimberley Dreaming - grab yourself one of these, look at all the wondrous stuff

Threads, fabrics, embellishments

Oh I am truly lucky

I also have some turquoise felt

I only need the head space to be creative with it all

I shall FOLLOW MY HEART & try & create something lovely with such wonderful colours

How about joining me?

http://shelaghfolgate.bigcartel.com

6 fortnightly lessons - work at your own pace - no hassles or deadlines

Download & print the instructions which include colour pictures & a step by step method

For your own personal use only - cannot be used for teaching without my permission (Please)

Join the voluntary yahoo group to post pictures - chat with fellow members & contact with me

I will try to answer any queries within one day because of time zones

Dates of workshops are under the tab at the top of the blog

FOLLOW MY HEART

You can use my theme of ENGLISH COUNTRY GARDEN

or use a theme of your own choice

My aim to for you to use the stuff that you may already have or an alternative.

Will be fun trying substitutes

GIFT

2011-05-15T09:44:00.001+01:00

Yesterday a wonderful parcel arrived from Dale at thethreadstudio.com - this is Kimberley Dreaming, isnt it wonderful. Fabulous colour pallette of Broome in Western Austrialia, whilst see is on holiday I am going to try & create something with all these yummy things
Thanks Dale - visit her blog http://downunderdale.blogspot.com/lots & lots of information.
We are discovering DECOLORANT together. She will be at the Brisbane show, if any of you can be there, please say hi for me.

I do hope that blogger has posted it, as I am having huge problems getting photos to load, if it does not then click on the blank space above this & the picture will appear.

In the same bag were 3 pieces of felt. Kunin Rainbow classic felt made in USA & ECOSPUN polyester made from recycled post consumer plastic bottles. This is the felt to seek out to use with heat tools

I am off to play........

A TALE OF THREE KITTIES - whoosh four...

2011-05-11T15:40:00.001+01:00

The cardboard cat (pusseo), bigpuss & ginger cool. If you are out at night beware of the neighbourhood strays (sang Cliff Richard) seen twice & never forgotten BIGPUSS, nearly three times the size of pusseo but totally scared of her. Creepy creepy in a wide arc away from her, what a hoot, never seen a cat especially a HUGE moggy creep so slowly to avoid a little tiddler. (no pun intended lol) Then along comes ginger cool. Oh my he is a cool cat, sprawled out on the neighbours drive half under a car & observing all the comings & goings of the cat clan - quick there goes jasper the night streak, heavens someone might see him whosh he has gone. So pusseo climbs onto her bench turns her back on them all & snoozes away. This all reminds me of being a dinner lady in an alternative life that seems eons away now. The posturing of some of the toms & the scaredly sues, the cool clives & the dashing daves (I have one of those) seems we all derive from the neighbourhood strays........ I feel a song coming on.... or maybe a quilt - what do you think?
Normal service resumes when my beloved laptop appears from the techguys - tom & clive - heehee

PUSSEO

FOLLOW MY HEART WORKSHOP

2011-05-08T22:14:00.003+01:00

FOLLOW MY HEART

Create altered book pages & use as the inspiration to create hand & / or machine stitched pages. Innovative techniques, use of colour, texture & patterning. Pages can be made into a book or used as a wallhanging, bag or cushion.
Follow my inspiration or chose one of your own. Fun & innovation
Starts 1st June 2011 - optional yahoo forum to join. Workshops arrive fortnightly via PDF file

http://shelaghfolgate.bigcartel.com

HIPPY HIPPY OUCH

2011-05-05T21:05:00.000+01:00

Hi - Well I know what is wrong now. The fabulous Physio diagnosed that I have put my hips out of alignment. She has realigned them & given me exercises, it is such a relief to know what is wrong & its not a slipped disc, so I am very grateful. Seems it is the most common thing to do & happens most stepping down off a step, which is what I think I did. Thank you so much for your caring thoughts.
Nothing much arriving out of the studio, except experiments with Decolorant, some good, some awful, still needs lots of work. Election & referendum day here in England for the AV voting system - seems the young are for & the 'old' against - strange world.

SHELAGH FOLGATE

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