Barns Borders

2008-11-26T19:25:00.001Z

Yesterday's piece before stitching.

Inspiration among the sunny dunes

2008-11-25T21:12:00.005Z

This is the completed sample from the workshop I did with Jean Draper at the K&S show.

The rather garish colours were the choice of Jean's cleaner who helped her to put the packs together. Not my choice so I have attached the piece to a strip of old pelmet vilene, covered it with expanda print, zapped it with the heat gun, covered it with gesso, ink and spray paint and it is now drying and looking very different. I will post more photos when the sample is completed.

We have had two beautiful days so I have been out and about looking for inspiration for Textile 21's next exhibition entitled 'Recollections'. I was inspired by Jan and Jean's work at the K&S show. Whilst playing golf on Saturday, I saw some good ideas and so I have been back to photograph them.

First the Hawthorn trees, complete with moss.

I loved the red berries against the gold moss and the black branches.

This is some more moss. It is a very delicate green, almost white and full of texture.

Here is Barney getting in the way of a photo of the dunes, at the side of the golf course.

I loved the waves of hills and the large spectrum of greens in this view. Unfortunately, they have not come out quite as true as the real colours.

Another inspiration is the Sea Buckthorn. I love the orange berries against the grey foliage. There is plenty of this plant on this part of the coast. The berries have a very bitter smell, but I have always wanted to do some artwork from this source.

Finally here is a crab apple tree which grows on the dunes. Every year it is full of fruit which stays on the tree into the depths of winter. The apples look like lime-green gems when the sun shines.

Play Days

2008-11-22T21:52:00.004Z

I have had a busy week completing work for the CHET art fair.

Here are two pictures of the felt pictures.'Rosa' and 'Tulips" I am not very happy with the tulips. It lacks life. The other picture needs more work but I hadn't time to finish it. Then I cleaned the kitchen including the oven!
I used some wool to make a brooch to match my 'Rosa' picture.

)n Thursday we went to Keswick to collect the works from The Textile 21 exhibition which has been at the 'Theatre By The Lake Gallery' for the past month. We called in at a great cafe/wine bar in Penrith on the way home. (opposite Norris') and saw some lovely work by Briony Scott which was exhibited there. Here is a photo of one piece. It was mainly fabric collage with hand and machine stitch of subjects such as Scotland and Venice and flowers. Very inspirational.

Friday saw me at the K&S show at Harrogate. Another inspirational Day. There was some excellent exhibits as noted elsewhere on these blogs. I thought the Jan Beaney and Jean Littlejohn work was exceptional as was the work of the Complex Cloth Group.

I did a workshop with Jean Draper and learnt lots of new ideas. She is going to publish a book next year and I will look forward to that. Here is a sample of her work.

Finally, I left a bookmark I made on the barbed wire ball which was at the entrance to the exhibition to commemorate the life of Julia Caprara. Here it is.

Gesso????

2008-11-15T16:58:00.008Z

Those 'Catalogue Killers among you will be wondering if this is one of my experiments with paper, gesso and paint. But this is just the beach at Ainsdale. The next photo shows the beach itself and lovely day we had on Wednesday. The first time we have had a really good sunny day for ages. Barney loves it. Here he is resting from chasing rabbits, his favourite pastime.

I have finished the pieces posted in an earlier blog. The experiments reminded me of rock walls so I add some machine-embroidered flowers to represent a rock garden.

Here are a couple of close ups. I am going to put them into our local Art fair at Crosby Hall.If I sell any the commission helps the CHET charity, which provides holidays for underprivileged children

More Graffitti

2008-10-26T22:18:00.001Z

Here is another example of Lisbon Graffitti

Inspiration from Lisbon

2008-10-26T18:50:00.005Z

I've just been away to Lisbon for a few days. What an inspirational city! Full of views and textures. Lots of decaying paintwork and huggly-piggly architecture.

Is this a decaying catalogue in the centre of Lisbon? No, I am afraid not. This was a piece of corrugated iron covered with old posters, but it did remind me of the catalogue decaying back home.

The city's graffiti artists were quite prolific , and I thought these works were worth taking a photo of. I post more pics later.

Here is a piece of sculpture in the botanic gardens. This is a good place to visit if you are ever in Lisbon. The cacti are wonderful, so I got lots of photos and close-ups to inspire me during the winter months. Note the lovely mosaic pavement beneath . This is a real feature of Lisbon, so don't wear high heels if you go there!

This is a view over the Alfama district. I loved the patterns made by the roof-tops.

I was very sad to hear about the death of Julia Caprara whilst I was away. She was a great inspiration to me and it was through reading one of her books that inspired me to take my C&G in embroidery. She will be sadly missed.

update on chapter one

2008-10-17T22:21:00.003+01:00

Here are the samples after they have been painted with acrylic paints.

I added machine embroidery to this before I painted it. No PVA or Golden medium used on this sample.

Textures and cabbages

2008-10-12T17:38:00.023+01:00

A busy day inspired by the new book by Maggie Grey, Textile Translations.

I had tried mixed media in my first pieces for the Norton priory exhibition, but I had trouble stitching the pieces.

I decided to make 5 samples following the instructions in chapter one, using slightly different colours and papers in each. I have a couple of ideas in mind, for a final piece.

Here is three of the samples at the first stage of chapter one in the book.

Whilst I was waiting for the gesso to dry I took Barney for a walk along the sea cop adjacent to the Ribble estuary.

A beautiful day, so warm and sunny but the view of the Pennines and the lake district was obscured by cloud.

I saw these lovely marks in the mud on our way back across the fields.
They had the same textures as the samples I had left drying in the garden.

The cabbages I photographed last week, have changed colour and some of their leaves are showing a lovely lacy texture.

When I got back home the gesso had dried so I sprayed the samples with some Moonshadow Mists I bought at the Fashion, Stitching and Embroidery show at Harrogate last week.

Here is the result.

Finally, whilst I was in the garden I just had a check on my catalogues ( see Maggie Grey's weblog Magstitch). This is the result so far!

Winter's here! back on the blog

2008-10-05T21:20:00.006+01:00

Since GD5 arrived I have had no time to blog. But the days are drawing in and the evenings getting longer so I am spending less time out doors, golfing, gardening and walking the dog!

Here's the youngster. Don't they grow up fast?

I've been busy doing something creative this weekend. Hubby's been to Spain for the weekend so I have had the kitchen to myself to make as much mess as I want without having to clear up to cook. Well done to M&S and their ready meals!

Inspired by a visit to the fashion, stitch and embroidery show at Harrogate. A great venue. Smaller than the Knitting and stiching show but without the 'Tack'

Here are some cabbages in the local fields. I just love the textures.

I've been doing some paper collages to try to reproduce the fields and the textures. I am looking to produce a piece of work based on this using the embellisher.

I also dyed lots of different fabrics, although i may just use white fabrics and paint them after I have pieced them.

GD5 arrives

2008-02-26T20:06:00.004Z

Five days late and Granddaughter Number 5 has arrived at 2.30am this morning. A little Hampshire lass, weighing in at 7lbs 11ozs. She is beautiful, of course and so unlike the other four!(who are also beautiful!)

I have been busy waiting for this new arrival by making marmalade. After complaining, earlier this week, that I never see Seville oranges in the shops any more, there were plenty to be found in my local Supermarket! I combined Delia's recipe with one I found on the Internet and, if I may say so myself,,the first batch looks and tastes excellent. I'll try to make some more tomorrow.

It was wild and windy today, but I needed to get out with the dog, so I followed a walk in a book by Jack Keithley. This was the penultimate walk in his book called 'Walks in the Ribble Country' A lovely, if rather muddy, walk from the start of the Ribble Way and around the Longton Marshes. The book is interesting because it is full of historical facts. Also the route was described accurately and the instructions were easy to follow.

The people I met en route were very friendly and helpful. Which is not usually the case when you are in a strange place with a dog, and following a map. The people I have met in Hampshire are very pompous and unfriendly, when you miss a turning, because the farmer has allowed the right of way to become over grown. Perhaps it the difference between northerners and those folks down south!

My own pile of bricks: Tate Modern Watch out!

2008-02-22T13:24:00.011Z

My own brick pile, growing on the patio. Barny thinks it is a place to put his toys.I am afraid I have not been able to complete the job yet. Too many distractions.

Here is a view of the remainder of the wall which fell down in the middle of the night.

This has been one of the distractions. The weather has been great for fell-walking last week, so we took ourselves of to the lakes for a few days. Climbed Loughrigg and Lingmoor in tee-shirts. This photo was taken from the memorial at the top of Great Carrs, looking over towards Scafell, Great Gable and Bow Fell. We did the round of Wetside Edge, Swirl How and Wetherlam from the start of the Wrynose pass that day.

I have finished one of my embroideries for the Summer exhibition at Norton Priory. This has been in between entertaining the Grandchildren, up from Oxfordshire, for the half-term.These are three of the batik pieces which we started at the last meeting of Textile 21. They will be joined together at the next meeting to form an installation outside at Norton Priory... Some embellishment is needed on them before then.
I must start on these this week

Ramblings

2008-02-05T15:56:00.000Z

I knew once the rain had stopped it would be difficult to keep this blog going. However, as it really is my own place to record my life it doesn't really matter how much or how little I make a post.

Last week we had a great day in the Lakes. We went up the old 'Blue Flash' route near to Raw Head cottage in Great Langdale. This is really the old way over to Grasmere. The blue flashes which originally marked the path have been replaced by yellow arrows. This is a steep ascent but gets you to the top of Blea Rigg very quickly, and away from the crowds. (No crowds last week, which makes a change) From Blea Rigg we walked towards the head of Langdale. The sky was spectacular as the sun shone out of the heavy wintery clouds. With a strong wind in our faces we climbed Sergeant Man. (Met a miserable couple who were on the way down, who found it difficult to say 'Hello'. They must have been upset because we were sharing 'their' mountain.)From here we walked over Pavey Ark and Harrison Stickle and then decided we had time to bag Pike of Stickle before we desended via Dungeon Ghyll back into Langdale. The dog was tired for once . We only met 10 people on the hill all day. It is a long time since this happened!

This week I have managed to play some golf. My first 18 holes since October and I recorded a net 73 and that included a 10 at the second! I hope my driver keeps on working like this, this summer.

I have finshed the jacket I have been knitting with the bargain wool I bought on E Bay. I am very pleased with it and will post a picture as soon as someone takes my photo whilst I am wearing it.

The garden wall which collapsed is gradually becoming a new Tate sculpture on my patio. I am quite proud of it. In fact I think it is better than the original pile of bricks as the mortar gives it an interesting texture.

On Sunday I made a great chicken stew from Nigel Slater's Diaries, followed by a Lemon Merange pie, nearly as good as my mother used to make. Oh what comfort food.

Things that go bump in the night

2008-01-27T21:20:00.000Z

My man is away for the weekend,so it is Saturday night, glass of wine and settling in font of the TV when Barnes starts barking like mad in front of the patio windows. I go to investigate, thinking there might be an intruder in the back garden, who has come from the lane, which runs parallel to the house. Off we go to investigate ( the dog cowering behind me) and all we find is an empty can of cider. Well done Barnes. At least he heard something and gave me a good warning.
This morning I discovered what he had really heard. The garden wall had collapsed. It had been leaning for a while and I had been concerned that it wold fall on the Grandchildren. Grandad constantly reassured me that it would not fall! The wind must have pushed next door's tree against it, and caused it to collapse. Thank goodness it went when it did, when no-one was around to get hurt. I can now design my garden around the ruin that is left. This is a great project for the spring. The garden bed in front of the wall was in need of redesigning as nothing will grow beneath the tree which over-hangs from next door. So no plants were lost. This patch of land should get full sun but the tree prevents this. It is a dreaded Leylandii!
Need I say more. Although the bed is south facing nothing will grow beneath these poisonous leaves so I now must come to terms with what I am going to do with this plot of land. Has anyone any ideas? It is approx. 12 foot long and 5 foot wide buried beneath bricks and rubble.

Windy golf and wet under foot.

2008-01-26T16:38:00.000Z

The rain has let up at last.

I've managed to get out and play some golf on a wet, and windy course.

At Ainsdale the kiter's were out today. Barney is hiding in the middle of the picture. He has been busy giving the rabbits a bad time this week, although they are always more canny than he is.

My friend has been clearing an industrial unit after a tenant 'did a bunk' and left her with a large number of unmade cushions. The inners are made from good quality white cotton which will dye beautifully.

Textile 21 are thinking of making an outdoors textile installation for their next exhibition at Norton Priory, Cheshire in May. Our initial ideas are to use squares of fabric, which we will dye after applying a design using wax as a resist. I think these cushion inners will be ideal to use for this. Here they are drying in the sunshine after washing to remove the factory dressing.

I have been busy designing two pieces for the exhibition, using the painted fabric I posted last week. I'm not too excited about this. Hopefully it will come to life with the stitching.

Rain and more Rain

2008-01-18T21:28:00.000Z

Sorry to sound more gloomy but that is the warm ,wet, winter weather for you. Will it ever get light again? Thank you all for the welcoming comments. I wonder if I will be able to keep this up when the sun starts to shine!

Thanks to Maggie for the instuctions on the bond-a-web prints. I'll give it a try with my roses pics tomorrow and post the results, if they turn out ok.

The wall-hanging is made from painted fabrics applied by free-machine stitch, with some tiny beads, used as the centre for one flower. You can see other examples of my work on the 'Textile 21' site, www.textile21.co.uk. Maria (Maria's Muse Blogsite) has also set up a Textile 21 blogsite, where examples of my work and the work of others in the group can be seen.

Today was my man's birthday. I was going to take him for a round of Golf on my course, Formby Ladies Golf Club, but it was far too wet, so I baked him a nice cake instead.

Too wet to take Barnes on the beach today, so here is another picture to remind us of the sunny days.

Longing to get out in the garden or on the golf course or the fells. Let up rain please!

Gloomy Days

2008-01-17T10:58:00.000Z

After a busy day yesterday, off we went to enjoy some fresh air and the last of the sun (in fact the only sight of the sun for many days)

I took this photo off Formby Point looking towards Liverpool, at 3.30pm. You can just see a large ship entering thhe Mersey and the Merseybay wind farm.

Today is too gloomy to inspire me to do anything. Off to the doctor's at 3pm, so just filling in time before then.

Bring on some bright, sunny days.

Busy, busy, busy.

2008-01-16T20:42:00.000Z

This is the wall hanging I started at Prisicilla Jones' workshop in December. Today I finally finished it. I could not fit it into one picture, so here is the top, middle and bottom.

This workshop was such an inspiration that I decided to use a similar technique for some of my pieces which will be included in the Textile 21 'Outside In' exhibition. Here is a page from my sketch book with my initial ideas.

I decided to use the faded roses I had in a vase left after the christmas celebrations, (far too nice to throw away) I also wanted to use a window view ('Outside In' through the window) so I decided to divide my canvas into 9 squares. I also found some great canvases at Au Natural 30x30cm squares at four for 4pounds, a great bargain, at a pound each!

I have an embelisher and this was a previous piece of some echinaechers.(sic)

This was the result of a 'Workshop on the Web' article. See Mag Stitch., a great inspirational blogsite

I decided to try a piece using the same design idea but using a different technique. So I spent this morning making prefelt, embellishing and felting the piece.

Consequently, there is a lot of drying going on in my kitchen at the moment as I dry the fabrics I painted for the applique/fabric collage piece plus the felted piece is very wet.

Here are the results of my hard work today.

Fabrics drying after being painted with white emulsion and orange and green acrylic paint.

This is the background for my felt piece. Neutral merino tops pre-felted, embelished with dyed silk tops from Oliver Twists and then felted until the fabric had shrunk to fit the canvases I have bought.

2008-01-10T18:14:00.001Z

I should have played golf this morning but it was so wet and windy that we decided to give it a miss. Instead I worked on the wall- hanging I started at a Priscilla Jones Workshop I went to, in December, at The Platform Gallery in Clitheroe. I attached the flowers and did most of the stitching. I still have a few areas to finish but it is almost done. I'll show the pictures on my next post. I'll take it to the meeting of Textile 21 on Saturday and see if the rest of the girls feel it is good enough to enter into our next exhibition at Norton Proiry, in May.
I had a break to take the dog a walk inbetween showers. The lighting on the beach was exciting so took a few snaps. Barney is in the background chasing the seagulls.