Sorry I haven't blogged, life......

I have just got back from a long weekend at my Mothers. :0) I managed to put together a waistcoat I have been knitting in my tea breaks at work since February. Although I had finished knitting it a few weeks ago, I hadn't got round to making it up. I have also been teaching Kezzy how to knit.

Doing a David Bailey again.

Still working on photos for the art course, I only took 40 today and deleted all but these few, thank goodness for digital. Shows how much gardening I haven't done this year, to find this dandelion growing in the flower bed.

This primulas are growing in the bog garden, the red tip is all the buds waiting to come out.We have manged to keep the Kangaroo Paw through the winter, we usually loose them to the frost, and to have it in flower, an added bonus.

Trying for the arty shot of a flower through a glass of very weak shandy.

Runner beans are now planted out, I just hope they are not attacked by the slugs and snails. As the weather has been so good today, we have eaten all our meals al fresco, wonderful!

After the trip to Maldon yesterday, I made a start at long last on my panel. I have been drawing the design onto water soluble, still got some more drawing to do before I start working out where to place the coloured sheers.
I have also finished stitching all the tree trunks on my 'Hundertwasser'.

Snapping away!

It was such a misty morning first thing, I couldn't see to the bottom of the field. But by 10 the sun was out and the roof came down on the car, the first time I have been able to do this since I got it last October. This is where we are having our exhibition in September. The centre is known for its embroidered hanging depicting the history of Maldon.

Before visiting the Centre we had a coffee as some had had quite a long journey. We went to the Kings Head and in the courtyard was ............

This plaque in memory of the gentleman who had lived here and weighed 44 stone! Just look how many people fitted into one of his coats.

I couldn't resist taking this picture of the menu, I thought I might one day, print some of them onto fabric.

After measuring up the centre we took a very slow walk down to the Prom, passing this dear little cottage smothered in Wisteria. Mine is still in tight buds.

As it was low tide the Thames barges were moored up, which gave us plenty of scope to take photos.

This tyre was on the deck of one of the barges, such neat rope work!

A fish and chip lunch, and we took lots more photo's, we spent quite a bit of time trying to catch a seagull in flight on camera, I managed to get lots of blue sky with just a tail feather in it. LOL!

This figure is a tribute to Byrhtnoth who led the battle against the Anglo Saxons, there was not enough path to take a photo without the sun being in the way.

Lots more photo's of the swans and cygnets, but I am only posting 1, so as not to bore anyone.
Love the reflection of the swans in the water.

On the way home I stopped at the Reservoir to take some photos of the trees reflecting in the water and couldn't resist taking one of the cow parsley. I had to lay on the grass verge to take it, I don't know what passing motorists thought!

I took 199 photos today, a lot I deleted but some I have been able to use for my art course.

Tonight I have done some work on my Hudertwasser style quilt. I should be doing my hanging for the exhibition but I need some hand stitching to take to my Mothers next weekend.

Maldon.

I am off to Maldon today( famous for its mud race every New Years Day) to meet some of the girls from F.E.T. They are travelling down from parts of Cambridge and Norfolk so that they can visit the Maldeune Centre where we are holding our next exhibition. Its not that far away now, so need to start doing some stitching!
We are going to be having fish and chips on the Prom ;0)

In the post today.......

I received my prize from Wanda's pass it forward giveaway, isn't it lovely. I shall enjoy wearing it. I now have to make something to give away, the question is, what?

I have done some work on my ALQS4 at last. Stencilled circles with three different colours with Markalls (I love the smell of them, reminds me of the art room at school) They now have to dry for a couple of days and then I will start machine stitching-yippee!!!!
The assignment for the art course this week is photography, thank goodness for digital cameras!

More collages.

This collage was made from leaves and flowers collected on my walk from the classroom to the car. Using a card loom and wool, I wove leaves and grasses to create a base. The remaining flowers and leaves were then added as an embellishment.

A page from an old song book as a base, embellished with various papers, buttons and a photo of my grandmother who was a seamstress, printed onto acetate. Just over a week left of the art course, the time has just flown!

Back to sewing very soon!

Carole Waddle

Embroiderers' Guild tonight, where has the last month got too? Our speaker was Carole Waddle, and 'Art on the Rocks' was the talk.
Carole gave us a 'guided tour' of the Grand Canyon with a slide show and we were able to see for ourselves from where she was inspired to create her work.

Carole (in black, below) was very generous with her information on how she created her work.

A piece of her work in in this exhibition at East Grinstead, not sure that I will be able to get there though, another busy weekend ahead.

Lorna from FET, bought her 'shop' to the Guild and I was able to get some King Tut threads for my ALQS4 piece, not that it's ready for stitching yet!

Collages.

I planted up my hanging basket and wall pots with trailing petunias before it started raining. This meant I could come indoors and do some more work for the online art course without thinking about what I need to do in the garden.
I am really enjoying the course, and only two weeks left.

I have quite a few assignments to catch up with and tomorrow it is the start of photography week.

Kantha purses

This wonderful array of Kantha items all made by Libby, was set out ready to show the girls what they were going to learn today.

Libby and I had prepared the 8" squares for the girls so all they had to do was start stitching the motif, a Chakra. They then embellished them with shisha mirrors, more stitching and shiny bits. Nearly all the girls went home with their purse finished.

As well as making their purse, three girls bought back their chicken stitching from the last meeting and turned it into a cushion.

When I left home this morning this Tree Peony flower was a tight bud, when it is fully open it is the size of a dinner plate!

T.G.I.F!

Tomorrow I am at Y.E, they are going to be learning Kantha with Libby. As we have a large group, I have spent this evening cutting squares and drawing on the pattern for half the girls, Libby will do the other half. The squares, once they are Kantha'd, are going to be turned into purses. I hope to have photo's of their work to show tomorrow night.
One of the teachers at work liked my sunset painting and has asked me to do one for her, so I hope to do that on Sunday. Another busy weekend! :0)

Tonight's exercises.

I had to create a scene from a magazine or postcard without a paintbrush. I used natural sponge, cotton reel, an old dry baby wipe, lolly stick, coffee stirrer, cotton bud, pipe cleaner and credit card. Below is the image I tried to re-create from the magazine Lonely Planet. Loved every moment!

Also did a drawing exercise, and used the same vase as before, it's hard I find, getting the sides even.

Also did a bit more painting on this piece of fabric for the ALQS4, using Hundertwasser again for my inspiration.

And some more.

I have managed another couple of art exercises this evening. For this one in the photo I had to paint an object without using a brush - finger painting again! I found it really hard to get a crisp outline especially as I don't have long nails.

The piece of fabric that I started to paint the other day for ALQS4, was not the right shade of green, so, its now waiting to be recycled into another project and I have started again.

A bit of luck!

I have just found out that I have won a prize on the blog A Frayed of Fibres. It is a pay-it-forward give-away, so I now have to find something to offer on my blog. Watch this space!

Hubby is going to be home late from work, so an early evening meal so that I can do some more finger painting;0)

Permission to play.

I have missed out the drawing assignment for he moment so that I could get my paints back out. We have got to finger paint and though I work with 3-4 year olds, I never get the chance to just go for it. No brushes or implements allowed.Having done an imaginary scene, I used up all the spare paint to do the one below in gay abandon! Lots of mucky fingers but great fun!!

Exercises, but not the keeping fit sort

Today I have been trying to do 'catch up' with some of the exercises for the art course. I have managed to do six , but still loads more assignments to do (6) and another one will be posted tomorrow. I have still been playing with paper, tomorrow I start more drawing:0)
I have also started work on my piece for the ALQS4, just painted some fabric so far- nothing to show just yet.

FET

Had a great time playing on the embellisher today. We wound sheering elastic under tension onto a metal frame, wrapped fabrics on top and then embellished. My shirring elastic broke half way through, so didn't get the result I was supposed too, so I started to make a fabric cuff for someone at work.

The beads I bought yesterday were not really the right colours in daylight. Bonnie who is a member of FET has taken my samples away with her to get the right ones from me as she has a good bead supplier close to where she lives. As I couldn't do the beading on my flowers, I have done another exercise for the on-line art course. I had to cut out images from a book, which I find very hard, luckily there was a 2nd hand book stall at Cottenham, so I was able to but a distressed child's book to use.

Amelia is running this course again in June if you are interested in having an excuse to play with paints, papers and glue etc.

http://www.ameliacritchlow.co.uk/section354449.html

Packing up.

Tomorrow Nickie and I are off to Cottenham for our Fen Edge Textiles meeting, so I have been getting my requirements together. We are going to be using the embellisher and sewing machine which meant I had to also sort out various threads and fabrics for our experiments.
I managed to get to Hobbycraft after work tonight and got a few packs of beads, but there wasn't much choice in the colour and size that I need. I will have to do some surfing over the weekend.
It's a pity it's not another three day weekend!

Hundertwasser

One of my favourite artists is Hundertwasser. For my latest piece of work I had to do for my Art Course was to use the work of a famous artist and recreate it so I chose 'Hide Under The Meadow- It Begins To Rain'. This is my version, the picture I worked from is below. To recreate it, I used soft pastels, Brusho with rock salt, Indian ink, drawing inks, card making ink pads, felt tips, sketching pens, acrylic and water colour paints, Smooch, wax medium, nail varnish and Inktense pencils. I have painted, sponged, speckled, stamped, stencilled and coloured. Really enjoyed experimenting!

When I got home from work, my book by Sue Rangeley had arrived, lots of OOOHHHHHSSSSS!!! between the covers. Nickie popped round for coffee and some Rocky Road and had look at it too, it wont be long before one is on its way to her.

Maggie very kindly included a gift with the book of some sheers and sequins-thank you Maggie!

Having fun

I have done a bit of playing with my paints and inks tying to get another piece finished for the On Line Art Course that I m doing, I am really enjoying all the tasks, just wish I had more time, the lament of many of us I know.
I have started to stitch beads on my flower panel, but some just didn't look right so-reverse stitching. I now need to go shopping for the right colour;0)

RRC swap night.

I just had to show you all this picture taken from my back garden, I just love all those shades of green with that bright zingy yellow! Tonight as it was a get-together at my house, I made Rocky Road and Flapjacks as soon as I got in from work. The reason for our get-together was to swap our quilted pieces we have been working on for the RRC and of course to have a good old natter.

I now have the blue piece that was created by Nickie and quilted by Diane. I now have to chop it up into at least six pieces and then join it back up.

I love three day weekends!

After doing all my usual chores around the house, and a spot of gardening, it was time to do some work for my Experimental Art E Course that I am trying to do. It is a very good course but I am well and truly behind because of getting my KISS project finished by the deadline!
Anyway, today I managed to complete 4 of the exercises, 3 drawing and one playing with paper. I cut a Wall Street Journal newspaper into strips (stocks and shares pages) and wove them together and then backed it with tissue paper. Painted with Brusho and cut out words about the economy from he newspaper and painted them red to represent the terrible financial mess our world is in. Stitched in a random zig-zag to represent the ups and downs of the stock market. Enjoyed this exercise. Then some more work with my sheers, this started off as a sample, but as it fits around this candle holder, it might have a new lease of life!

This is the inside looking down, the air as been a bit blue here as I am hand stitching with invisible thread. I am now about to start looking for beads in the right colours to embellish the centres.

KISS project completed

I have been up very late all this week so that I could finish my piece for the KISS project by the end of April. A photo of the completed piece as promised. I have really enjoyed stitching it, I have stitched it at my mothers, on the train, at the counsellors, at school, at the hospital, at Barleylands where I bumped into Nickie and persuaded her to part with more money than she had intended!) and of course at home. I am not sure what happens next-still waiting to hear.

This is the box of threads I have used on the project, I used two different coloured threads in the needle for stitching the sky.

Today, I have sorted out my play room looking for a pattern for Nickie, I couldn't find it, but at least I now have a few feet of clear space for an hour or so. My Grandsons called in just as I was straight, and played with a fishing game I bought them yesterday-£2 well spent and lots of fun(and it didn't break!). As it was pouring with rain, we put a bowl on the kitchen floor, the weather wasn't going to put a dampener on our Bank holiday!

Then Nickie popped in to show me her wonderful piece of work that she has just finished and framed-looks fab!

It was then time to visit my friend as it is her birthday today and I had to take her pressies down to her, lovely to see her and have a natter.

I need to sort out some hand stitching for tonight as Lewis is on again, one of the very few programs I watch!