Another month completed!!!!

 One advantage of starting work at Midday, is that I had a good light for auditioning threads ready for  working on the sky.

February has flown by, and I have managed to keep my journal up to date.

Lots of hearts as it is the month for romance.

I have also enrolled on Louise's on line Altered Jewellery Course.  She does some great work and I have a fancy to try out Steampunk- I kept hearing that word and not really known what it was about until tonight.

Flown by.

 We were invited to lunch at Chris's house, lunch ended up being quite late, and as I was sitting eating, I watched the sun setting behind the trees.  Just had to dash out with my camera, to capture it. I love bare trees against a winters sky.

I have worked on my Che panel again, I have been itching to get on with him.  Tomorrow I will be starting to stitch the sky, not quite sure how I am going to do this, I need to sleep on it!
I can't believe how quickly the half term has flown by, I am back to work tomorrow, but Kezzy has another Baker Day

Textiles in Focus

Nickie and I had a lovely day at Textiles in Focus, there is such a lovely atmosphere at this event. First stop was to re-visit the O2 exhibition (  saw it twice last year when it was at Hyde Hall)..
On Marion's workshop we made a little stand up figure using Jet FX and using the Ballet Russes exhibition that has been at the V&A.  I have some more work to do on it, but it might be something that Kezzy can adapt and use in her art work.  Lunch and then time for demonstrating.  Although the Dawn Thorne lecture was going on we still had a steady flow of people showing interest in our work.
Time for shopping, a look at the  Fibrefusion exhibition and then home-exhausted from all that talking!!.

I was very restrained with my spending  as there was nothing I needed, but I couldn't resist these strips of fabric from the African Shop.

Tomorrow.

Nickie and I are out early tomorrow, as we are of to Textiles in Focus at Cottenham.  We are doing a workshop in the morning and demonstrating in the afternoon.  I shall be showing how I construct my vessels, the ones inspired by Carn pottery.  I have my bags packed ready (including the silly hat) just hope that I have got everything.

Yet more art homework.

 Kezzy  has now. finished scratching away at her sraffitti panel.  I suggested that she try and draw some of her pattens on Press o Print.  She did!!!

Printed onto paper coloured with Brusho.  Her art teacher is going to be shocked!!

My very lucky day!

I was lucky enough to win two prizes in the OWOH event and they both arrived today;0). The first one I opened  was from Nicky.  A wonderful American style post box.

Inside the postbox, was a goody bag it was packed with delicious goodies as you can see in the photo.

 The lace I shall be using in one of the journals I am planning on making in the near future as well as the doilies.  I have wanted to make altered dominoes as a jewellery item, so now is my chance.

And last but not least a heart pendent!  Thank you so much Nicky.

 This parcel arrived from Palma in Italy.  Such a generous door prize.  There was a handmade card,

 and a beautiful handmade book.

A paper angel,

earrings and pendent

An owl and  some scrap booking bits.  I felt like it was my birthday.  Thank you Palma.

Shopping

In July Kezzy has her school prom. My three other children didn't have proms when they were at this school, it is a fairly new thing.  So today, it was dress shopping, a lovely girly time, myself and two daughters.We have found and ordered the dress,  I had not realised that you have to do this so far in advance, the dress will be ready for collection in 16 weeks time! 

As you can see from the picture above, I have now finished machine stitching Che's face and applied his face and hat/hair to the background. I will now continue with working on the background.
 BUT, tomorrow I have to start getting ready for Textiles in Focus.  I am going on Saturday with Nickie.  In the morning I am doing a workshop with Marion Murphy and then demonstrating in the afternoon.

Che continued.

I was not happy with Che's face after washing out the water soluble film, even though I had stitched it in a frame, the Egyptian cotton had wrinkled and he was going to need Botox.  So now I am trying Evolon.  I have traced straight onto the fabric and so far the stitching is not puckering. (fingers and everything else crossed!)

Kezzy in the meantime has been dong yet MORE art homework.  After making a sample page yesterday in her sketchbook, she is now transferring the patterns that she likes onto her scraffitti.

She is still working on it as I type at nearly Midnight!

ALQS5

I posted off my small quilt for the ALQS5 on Thursday, it had a long way to go, all the way to New Zealand.  Imagine my surprise to have an email today to say that it has got there safely.

My daughter finds knuckling down to do any schoolwork really hard.  So I could not believe how long she has  spent doing her art homework today.  Seeing  her drawing the Zentangles (this is her first attempt) made my fingers itch to get my pens out, instead I did some reverse stitching on Che.  The quilted background when  flipped  over, showed that the tension was incorrect.:0( I have also gave her boyfriend a cookery lesson, as he wanted to learn how to make Teabag Stew(Beef Carbonade)
Alistair Macleod gave a very interesting and amusing talk to our EG meeting tonight.  I must go and visit the Hand and Lock premises when I am next in London.

Back to Che.

In the kitchen to day, I cooked up a batch of my favourite pickle- lemon and mustard seed, great with cheese.  My grandsons came round this afternoon, we have so been busy the last couple of weekends that I hadn't manged to see them.  This evening, I manged to finish stitching Che's face and now it is soaking to get rid of the water soluble film.

That gave me a chance to start machine stitching the foreground and cutting out the hat and hair.

Rhodri has been in to see how it is progressing and is happy with it so far:0)
Tomorrow night it is our EG meeting, we have Alistair Macleod from the Hand  and Lock company as our speaker.

Challenge continued.

 I am really enjoying the Calendar Challenge, so much so, that I just had to finish making my pages for March.
Hubby has been keeping himself busy- painting all these little lead figures for his model layout.

I have put a penny coin there, for you to see how tiny the figures are.  This cat is painted to look like our cat Jack. 

As it has been such a wet day, I have been busy cooking- bread pudding, fruit Charlotte, and Shepherds Pie, (A rare offering in my house!  Hubby usually only gets Shepherds Pie when we go to my Mothers as I hate making it!)

After going to the Post Office this morning to get Dales OWOH door prize posted, I did a slight detour home via Barleylands and Craft Arena, to get the latest issue of QA.  I also bought CPS as it had some interesting looking articles and Somerset Studio.  Lots of reading  to keep me quiet.

Not much to show tonight.  I decided to colour some pages in readiness for making into journal sqaures for March.  The problem began trying to find a big enough space to lay out the paper.  In the end, I ended up colouring it on the floor.  Time for a tidy up I thought.  I now have my desk surface back, though for how long remains to be seen.

I have also done a bit more to Che's face, but not enough to be worthwhile posting.

2011 OWOH Winner.

Using the random number generator, the winner is 124-Downunderdale.  Thank you to everyone who has visited my blog and left such lovely comments.  I am sorry that there is only one door prize.  I have enjoyed this event again, shame it is the last one. I have found some great blogs that I will continue to read.

Just found out......

That my QAYG blocks have arrived in Australia.  Jan is so busy turning all the donated blocks from around the world, into quilts for the flood victims.  For more info click on the Oz comfort quilts button in my sidebar.

Just to let you know.......

That my OWOH finishs at 11.59 tonight, and I will then be drawing the winner of my door prize.

I didn't get much done creatively last night, as Kezzy needed help with her anthology homework. Luckily no homework  tonight has meant that I could 'play'.
The first thing I did was to get my Calendar journal up to date.  I have even started to colour the pages ready for next month, rather that leaving it to the first day of the month.
Then it was onto  Che.  I have drawn his face onto water soluble and then started to machine stitch. Lots more machine stitching tomorrow night.

2 days left.

The final One World One Heart event finishes in 2 days time.  If you would like to try and win my mixed- medi panel inspired by Hundertwasser click here.   You do not need to be taking part in this event to enter, all you have to do is leave a comment on that blog posting and be a blogger.  If you want to visit other bloggers taking part in this event, click on the badge in my side bar. Good luck!

Che Guevara 2

This is how far I have got with Che  mark 2.  It is double A3 in size.  I have applied the different colour paint in layers, allowing each coat to dry in between.  I shall remove the freezer paper mask tomorrow, when  the final layer I have just applied has dried.

Love is in the air.

My daughter got this helium balloon from her boyfriend.  When you tap it, it sings the song 'You're the One!'  Ahhhhh, young Love!!

Art Van Go

 Today was an early start to get to Art Van Go for the Open Day, as it was the first Saturday since our exhibition opened.  My sheer flower panels were hung against black glass, and this really made the colours zing.

 Some more of my work on display.  Below is just a taster of what else you can see is you can get to Knebworth.

 This was Margaret's work, inspired by Brighton Pavilion.

Chris loves St Ives and spends her holidays there beach combing.  She used all the bits she has collected over the years to make her fish on a background of handmade felt.

 Sheila was inspired by a visit to London.

Just a small picture of Nickie's hanging, it is so long that I could not get a full length picture of it.  Her piece is inspired by the poem 'Jonathan Seagull'.  There is more to see but Blogger wouldn't let me upload any more for some reason.
After I got home, I started painting a bit more of my foreground for Che.  It has now been decided by Rhodri, that he would like it bigger.  Back to square 1.

Here is a photo of my painted background.  I need to apply some more black to the foreground before I can do anything else.  That will hopefully be this evening, today it is off to Art Van Go for our Open Day :0)

And now for something completely different.

 As it was time to take the bull by the horns and get started on my next project, out came the Dye-na-Flow paints.  My son Rhodri, has asked me to make this poster he has into a textile wall hanging. AGGGHHHHH!!!!!

So I have sloshed some paint onto some fabric and now waiting to see how it dries.

I have now finished the boat for Josh my oldest Grandson, just needs a name on the hull (he hasn't made his mind up yet as to what he wants it to be).
I have been busy visiting lots of blogs on the OWOH, such a good chance to meet other bloggers.
Tomorrow night I have got to go to Kezzy's school for parents evening, so I wont have time to do much creating :0(

Taking Liberties.

I heard from Pauline our Mentor for FET, that the hanging of our exhibition at Art Van Go went well yesterday.  Today it was open to the public.  I wont be able to show you any photo's  until Saturday, when we have our Open Day. If you are in or near  Knebworth, I would love to see you.
I have nearly finished stitching the little boat for Josh, my other Grandson.  My next project will be a wall hanging for my son, Rhodri. 

 Now that my thumb is as last better, I have manged to finish making the little boat for my youngest Grandson, Zach.  I posted a photo of the hull last weekend, just after I had painted it.  In the cold light of day, I decided it looked to pristine and bright, so applied another coat of gesso to it.  I shall start working on the boat  for Josh next week.

I also got out my paints and pencils to do the first few day of February in my journal.