You can guess where I went Friday!

What a lovely way to celebrate a birthday- at the Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexander Palace.  I went with my friend Diane, who kindly drove me in her lovely little sports car, another +!! 

The traffic was kind to us and we got there as the doors opened. The first person we saw was Lynda Monk aka Purple Missus, a  member of the exhibiting textile group we all used to belong to.  It was good to catch up on her news and we had to buy her latest book. 

I had a chat with Jo Beattie, I can't believe it was three years ago, that I first spoke to her and admired her work. Interesting to see how her work has developed since then. 

After looking at her work, it was a quick hello and 'thank you' to Ann Small, as she was very busy talking to interested stitcher's.  The day went far too quickly, lots of lovely exhibitions to admire and stalls to tempt us to part with our money.  I got most things on my list and a few extras that I just couldn't resist! 

My stash, I unpacked it yesterday, as I ran out of time once I got in from Ally Pally.  As I was home alone, I had time to put everything away tidily so I know where to find it when it is needed. 

Home alone meant time to do something creative so, I cut out another felt hare, using wool felt this time, rather than a mixture of wool and rayon/viscose and worked on my man. It always surprises me how much stuffing  dolls take! 

 Today, being so sunny and mild, has been spent in the garden, pottering. It was so warm we were able to eat lunch by the stream and even had a late afternoon cup of tea without needing thick cardigans- bliss!  Feeling nicely relaxed, ready for work tomorrow.
Have a good week!

Finished!

At last!! I have finished embellishing the book I started on the Lynda Monk workshop I went to the other week.  Following the theme of the sewing pattern that was used to make the cover (technique for this, is on this months WOW) I used an old tape measure, coloured with alcohol inks for the tie closures, a Tim Holtz die was used to cut  the mannequin which was covered with an advert from an old Needlewoman & Needlework magazine from 1961, it was then heat embossed to protect it. I coloured the press studs with alcohol inks too, as I didn't have any black ones.  I can't wait to see how everyone else finished their books at our next Embroiderers' Guild meeting

Lynda Monk workshop II

Had a wonderful time yesterday playing with glue, paper and various mediums on an Embroiderers' Guild run workshop with Lynda Monk.  The day flew by all too quickly.  If you ever get a chance to go on one of her workshops, grab it.  She is very generous with sharing her materials and knowledge.

Here Lesley is being guided on how to use a Themofax screen.

Nickie showing the start of her work on a book cover.

 And here are some of our samples above and below.

Lynda bought lots and lots of her own samples for us to look at too.

My samples, above and below and there will be a photo of the book I started yesterday too, but you will have to wait until it is finished

Completed project at last.

Che Guevara just needs a press and he will be off to the framers.    I think Rhodri is happy with it, a man of few words!  A comment on how long I have spent making it though!
Tonight I am out with the girls from work, we are celebrating a 30th birthday.
Tomorrow I am on an Embroiderers' Guild workshop, with Lynda Monks.  This is the second workshop she has done for us and I am really looking forward to it.  It has meant that I cant go to the FET meeting in Cottenham though. 
Need now to start thinking what to stitch next.

In my post today :0)

 I had a wonderful surprise when I got home from work tonight-the postman had bought my ALQS5.  As soon as I unwrapped it I knew who had made my quilt-Lyda Monk :0)  I was so excited that I yahooed and danced around the kitchen.  Kezzy's boyfriend looked quite shocked and said 'I have never seen anyone get THAT excited over a piece of needlework!'  Rhodri,(son) who was upstairs, also came to see what all the fuss was about.

Lynda also very kindly included some of her postcards, using a new technique and she will be teaching it at her next workshop that she is doing for our EG in May.  Guess what???  I booked a place on that course at the last meeting- cant wait!!!

Inspired by Lynda Monk.

Tonight at our Embroiderers' Guild meeting, we had our AGM.  Once all the necessary business was over, one of our members gave a brief talk on her work.  She showed us the most beautiful cobweb felt scarves she had made and I think, no, I know, we will be asking her to do a workshop for us.  It was then 'show 'n' tell'.  We had a member, on her visit back to her home country of Denmark, find some vintage dance costume and  Nickie was  willing to  model the socks!

I won this glass cup for a piece of work inspired by a workshop.
 I expect you can guess that it was the workshop that I did with Lynda Monk.  While surfing the net I came across the artist Benita Murray.  She makes sculptures in different metals.  On finding a piece of her work that looked like a metal collage, I knew just what I wanted to try and make for my entry.

 Still working on my 60's theme as you can see by the Quant flowers.

I used two types of xpandaprint to create the different textures in my piece.  I enjoyed experimenting to create this piece.

A little taster.

A good journey meant that we arrived at Ally Pally with time for a coffee and Danish before the doors opened. It also gave us a chance to go through the catalogue and plan our day.

As soon as we were through the door we bumped into Christina of small Chat, so that is where we started.  I loved Christina's books and we were hoping that she could bring them to our Show ' n' Tell at our next meeting but the exhibition will be onto it's next venue.  So hopefully she will bring them next year, to show our members.  The it was onto Clyde Olliver.  We first saw his work at the NEC a couple of years ago.  I loved these three pieces, and he kindly let us take photo's and posed for us .

Deirdre Hawkins had created some wonderfully calorie free desserts, so many to choose from, it is hard to believe they are not real.

 We bought Maggie's new book and watched her demo Collagraphy.  Lots of wonderful work to look at too!

 This is just part of a paper cut installation.  I reckon it must have been 12' tall and there were separate hanging layers of beautifully cut foliage. 

 Checked out the Embroiderers' Guild stand, such a pity they don't let anyone take photo's.
 I am sure bloggers will recognise the lovely brooches above, that were on the 'Stitch' stand.

 There was an exhibition of Julia Caprara's work, such an amazing use of colour!. Lots of students in here drawing and taking pictures.

 We have been on  two courses at Missendon with Sheelagh Stevens, and she omitted to mention that she would be exhibiting at AP as a member of Bolt.  It was lovely to see her and catch up on all her news.  Nickie and I are hoping to meet up with her when she is back in London.  
There was lots more to see but as there were exhibitions stands that didn't allow photo's, I cant show you any of their work.

 No visit to AP would be the same without an ice cream before the journey home.

Here is Nickie staggering back to the car with all her buys.  We were lucky to be given some tubes, so now we can create more vessels ala Lynda Monk.  Awful journey home, the roads around AP were like a car park!
A great day, it is lovely to have this exhibition quite close to hand, as we get to meet and talk to so many people that we know, otherwise we might have ended up spending more money.  LOL

I have come home and not spent over my budget.  My best buys of the day was at Empress Mills.  4 bundles of Egyptian cotton for £5, they weigh half a kilo each. The other was, Maderia Rayon 40 threads, £1 reel.

Butterflies and Beatles

I have finished my vessel completely now.  I painted the' fabric' to match the vessel.  When I was 10, I had a Beatles brooch in the shape of a guitar with the faces of the Beatles under a plastic cover.  I decided to make my flower centres in a similar manner.  I had photocopied and reduced the images that I needed, Tim Holtz Distress inks was used to age the pictures and then coated with Glossy Accents to seal it. 

Tonight is my first evening at home since Saturday and an added bonus was the fact that I had it to myself :0)  .  My butterfly for the Houston Museum is finished but I have started another one, this time with a lot of yellow so it will be like the one in the poem.  I shall take it to Maldon with me on Saturday so that I can cut back the layers while I am stewarding at our FET exhibition.

Vessel ala Lynda Monk cont.

Continuing work on the vessel, a coat of emulsion was painted over the gesso. I then glued the first line of words and bars of music from 'Yesterday' by the Beatles where the vessel is divided.

It was then time to start adding colour, I have used Golden paints. The base coat and then dried.

Then a second colour was dabbed on and left to dry.

Dabs of grey applied. Then a final wash of colour.

A close up so that you can see the colour. Looking at this picture, you wouldn't know it was made from felt.
I now need to ponder/ work on the embellishment to go in the 'Quant' shape voids at the top.

Vessel ala Lynda Monk.

Hubby and I both have a job to part with anything that might just come in useful ONE day. As I couldn't wait to go to the shops to buy a tube, I scoured the house, and found this whiskey tube to use as the former for my vessel. (we must have had this tube at least 12 years)So after cutting voids, I stitched it around the vessel. Xpandaprint was then applied and heated to create texture.

I then painted it with gesso and wont be doing anything else to it tonight.

Tomorrow night it is E.G. with Anne Sillifant. Unfortunately I can't go to the meeting. Instead Hubby and I are going to see Chris again as it would have been her husband's birthday. It will be a difficult day for her.

Samples made with Lynda.

The samples above are eight different mediums onto felt, including garnet gel medium(top right) which I liked best. The rust coloured ones are molding paste and gesso on Lutrador.
Distressed Tyvek onto vilene with gesso and the one on the right has ink and salt on top.

Xpandaprint, one onto Lutrador and the other scrim which was then gessoed to vilene.

The start of my vessel, I hope to do finish stitching this tonight but wont start cutting it up until I find my former.

Lynda made some stitched samples for all of us, so that we could experiment with the Golden paints. It must have taken her a long time to prepare all our kits.

An absolute brill day :0) with Lynda Monk.

If your EG is looking for a workshop to do for your Branch, I can highly recommend Lynda. Sitting on our chair was a bag of goodies, everything we would need for the workshop and extra to play with at home. It contained Tyvek, plain and coloured as well as distressed, lots of felt, pieces of Lutrador, scrim and materials for making a vessel. Just in case we forgot any instructions there was a ................. DVD, and we all got to keep our Thermofax screen as well!!!

It was a very busy day, which is just how I like it, I hate having to stop for lunch when all I want to do is play and learn. This was the start of the morning, Lynda showing us her samples of which she has many, and demonstrating what our first task was. There were eight different mediums for us to stencil onto fabric to see how they looked and which effect we liked best

Here are just some of the samples drying on the table (we had labels in our goody bag, so that we could write which medium we had used in each sample).

After lunch, it was time to play with the Golden paints, another demo.

We also made samples with Xpandaprint. Nickie and I used different makes, and my one from AVG gave the best results.

We had some visitors pop in to see us during the afternoon, Santa and his little helper!
Another demo, this time showing us how to make a vessel

Then it was heads down and start machine stitching.

Although we didn't get to finish the vessel, they are well on the way and hopefully there will be some completed ones at our meeting on Monday night. Mine wont be one, as someone took my former home by mistake, so unless I can find another tube with a similar dimension, I am stuck for the moment.

So if your Branch has get up and go and likes to try new ideas, you know who to contact.

Thank you Lynda for such a great day.