Down the garden path : stitched roll finished

2 blog posts in 2 days! I knew that having school holidays would enable me to get some things finished.

I have loved Roxy's Journal of Stitchery Vol 3. It's been a 6-month stitched roll challenge and since it's now finished I thought I'd share all of my photos and a video in one post.

January : the beginning

Wild flowers and Garden gate

February : Vegetable garden and Garden shed 

March : Pots of flowers and Visitors to the garden

There was an extra week in March so time to add one more garden visitor - I finally found the perfect addition for behind my garden gate. I'd been exploring photo alteration in a class with Jane Chipp and decided that my own dear mum would be perfect behind my gate.

Details of the method used here. 

April : Garden Seat or Bench

May : Pond (April prompt but I was late!) and Tree

Favourite flowers - embroidered ribbon gifted by a friend, a piece of my great grandmother's lace, roses and a pohutukawa. 

June : Bird house - with the addition of a cute bird pin gifted for my birthday

Finish as you wish. I wanted to include a few more fun layered flowers, plus the sweet fantail print which is cut from a gifted cotton tea towel!

Finishing with words to remember when I did this and then attached it to the spool

With a tie closure at the front using my beloved sari ribbon (don't think I can do a fibre project without using it ♥) The button was made by me many years ago from polymer clay.

I did not back the roll with fabric, because the stitching on the back is mostly neat enough

And here's a video so you can see how it unwinds

All the prompts and instructional videos from the challenge remain here on YouTube if you want to join in at any time.  

January Review

I looove my long Summer holiday from mid-December to late January : long sunshine hours, swims, lots of social catch-ups and a time of high creative energy for me. So here's what I've been up to creatively this month. Birthday cards for January friends

I do prefer to create in batches - even 2 at a time is fun and you can try different variations. 

Sad to have to create a couple of bereavement cards

My husband asked me to make him a bookmark. I can't decide which side I prefer...

I had lots of fun in Fodder School 2 with Liz Constable - first making fodder

and then using it to create my To Adventure tag book (link includes video flip through)

and then was inspired by more bonus lessons to make some more fodder using different surfaces 

Then made some clusters and strings

I've been so busy making extra fodder I haven't quite got to making my Imperfect Porfolio, but I'm sure I'll be sharing that soon and I know I'll be playing with these techniques long after January is finished. While I am trying to be more sustainable this year and use what I have, I know when I see supplies I need. One of my criteria is to be able to support artists that I love so I have ordered Liz Constable's latest book (available Feb 2023 - currently you can pre-order) - she is a fabulous teacher and I'm sure there'll be more fun in here to support more play from the techniques I learned in Fodder School this month.

I bought Megan Quinlan's class Journal into Your Art in October last year and it re-inspired my monthly journal practice in November and December. I had decided not to continue with a monthly journal practice, but by the middle of January I was missing documenting and writing to support good self-care. This time I've made a proper JIYA journal as per class instructions. You can see more about this journal HERE in my previous post. 

I promised I'd share more progress photos in my monthly review, and I'm excited to say that my stencils by Leaca Young arrived yesterday on 31st January! (I ordered them 11th January so that's not bad from Alaska to New Zealand) 

I thought they would be fabulous in my JIYA journal and I was right! I have only had one little play with them so far using only black paint and a cosmetic sponge. 

These are the large faces straight in my journal

This lovely soft version is cleaning the stencil off into the gaps with a baby wipe

And this is the top stencil done on paper and collaged in

Medium sized face to show difference in size directly in my journal

And then I tried it on paper to make a paper doll. And had to try the small paper dolls with collaged dresses

I can't wait to have more time with these. 

Every year, I think it would be great to have a small stitching project to take to my Monday night quilt group. In my post thinking about my creativity for 2023, I talked about Roxy's Journal of Stitchery for 2023 which is a themed large snippet roll called "Down the garden path". I promised I'd share if it became a project I love and it has 💚 The project began on the first Wednesday (Italian time zone) of January and there will be a new video each Wednesday (Thursday in NZ) from Rachel and Sarah with new prompts being announced every 2 weeks until June. You can still join in. See all videos on YouTube here. I decided to use a gorgeous green leafy batik for my background, and I want to include mixed media elements as well. I am keeping it small so I stand a chance of completing this alongside my other projects. Here's what January looked like. 

That turned out to be a very long post. So great to have so much to share with you. I am back to normal hours at work now but hopefully with the long daylight hours of Summer I'll still have time to be creatively busy. I'll keep sharing my main projects on this blog but please check out my Instagram or FB artist page for more regular updates of my projects in progress.

December Art Journals 2021 : Free classes

I have 3 weeks left of work for this year and they are crazy busy in a school where I have a leading role in organising prize giving, editing our school magazine, stock taking the library books and creating a Summer Reading programme. So I may be a late starter when the prompts come out, but I do love a December Daily project. The following offerings are all FREE 💜

Tamara at Mara Kreativ Studio and Michelle from Raspberry Blue Sky are having another #ArtJournalAdvent project for 2021. Read all about it HERE - they have already posted links for how to make an art journal in preparation for this project focusing on mindfulness in December. December 1 - 24 : daily prompts in your inbox or follow their new insta account.

Kasia’s had an Advent Calendar project for the last three years. I participated in 2019 and last year I created an Autumn Journal using her 2018 prompts. She's doing it again this year but has changed the focus and name to explore a more holistic approach to self-care through mindful art journaling and celebrate the changing season. She wants you to focus on the process rather than making a pretty finished page. Sign up HERE. 20 days starting 4th December. 

If you are more inclined to stitch, Anne Brooke did a #12pagesofchristmas project last year that is still on YouTube and may appeal. This link will take you to the playlist of the 6 videos. Note you need to make sure the tin is big enough for the roll once all the prompts have been added. Anne's tin doesn't close now 💜

I adore Victoria Erickson's poetry, and these words have been in my mind since she posted them this week 

It feels like a push for me to do a mindful December Daily....Keeping Kasia's inspiration in mind, I went in search of a small hard cover book to insert some papers and secure them with pretty ribbon. What I discovered was an almost blank accordian book form which I had made in January and only done a little bit of work in. I'll start from the other end and just alter any spreads as needed.

It has 28 pages and some tag inserts - I can easily add some extra pages if I need them. 

I then hunted through my Christmas stash and found lots of scrapbook papers and embellishments that I had been gifted last year. They form the base for my colour scheme but it will be interesting to see how much of this I use and how they are incorporated. 

A few additions of recycled kraft and red themed cards and paper, appropriate words, some Christmas postage stamps and a few extra embellishments and I'm ready with my kit and my small journal. 

I will obviously be using paints and a few stencils and themed stamps which I haven't shared yet. So far I've only wrapped some lovely sari ribbon around and rested the words on the front cover. I've not committed to anything yet. Can't wait to see what's going to happen with this little book. I will respond to the prompts from both challenges as I feel like it until the end of the year and I'll share my progress as I'm able. 

Wishing you a happy December. I hope you are able to take some time for self-care and joy this coming month. 

52 Tags : Week 44

Time for my take on Anne Brooke's weekly Tag challenge. Week 44 : Cross Stitch. Immediately thought of this piece from 2015 which has been waiting in my cupboard for a transformation

Stitched on linen, I loved the colours but wasn't really happy with it as project mounted on the wall at the time...seeing the photo now I like it much more than my memory of it. I think sometimes we get too close to projects and need to put them away for a bit and look at them with fresh eyes. Maybe 6 years is a bit long to wait though! 
I layered the linen on a piece of hand-dyed felt and added textures with sari ribbon and scrim. The linen frayed nicely too. This is my finished tag for the week

This link will take you to all of my posts about this challenge. You can view Anne's weekly demo on Youtube #52tagshannemade.

52 Tags : Week 4

I'm participating in Anne Brooke's weekly challenge on Youtube #52tagshannemade. Week 4 : using and playing with Fly stitch. I  knew straight away I wanted a button sun, and then played with different weights of thread.

Scroll through all of my 52 tags HERE.

Creating a book a month : May stitching roll

Creating a book in April has been quite time intensive and June's will be somewhat similar, so I thought I'd try something completely different for May. I'm returning to my snippet hand roll stitching project which I introduced in March. I have made almost no progress but adore the idea. Follow this link to find out more about Anne Brooke's stitch project with tutorials on YouTube.

I'm going to follow the monthly prompts for ideas and if I need further inspiration I could try incorporating these stitched meditations from my blogging friend Nancy and Quilting Arts Magazine October/November 2019

Here's the gatherings of this project from March : 

And what I'm starting with today : 

When I have so many ideas of things to do it's useful for me to have a monthly focus for this project. Be fun to share where this takes me AND I am hoping that this means more time for play in May and sharing some different discoveries with you.
Anne has also just launched a couple of new online workshops available at reduced prices. I adore her work. 
Collage Box HERE

Stitched Collage Home HERE

Wishing you creative joy in May