One Day Sale and a Prize

My new year has got off to a good start.  First of all an unexpected trip down to Peterborough yesterday with my blogging friend Wendy Snape to visit our friends at Art and Stitch for their winter sale day.

We couldn't believe the queue when we walked through the door but everyone was having a lovely time choosing their fabrics and catching up with friends not seen for a few weeks.

Somehow these lovelies came home with me.  The snowflakey fabric at the top was only £2.50 a metre so I bought it for backing and the batiks were all 40% off.   I'm sure I'll find a use for them but please, somone remind me, I'm supposed to be using up my stash this year.

Before Christmas I entered a prize draw on the blog of a local painter and was delighted when my name was chosen to receive one of her paintings.   The painter in question is Haidee-Jo Summers and she has a wonderful lively way of painting.  She had a particularly successful year last year when she was selected by the BBC to paint a view of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee River Pageant from the Millenium Bridge in London.  As you may remember Pageant Day was a torrential day and Haidee did well to continue with her task while other artist's were beaten by the wet conditions. I've included a video of Haidee painting the previous weekend in kinder conditions.

In addition Haidee was selected as the Artist of the Year for 2012 by the Society For All Artists.  Then, in December, Haidee-Jo attended the Art Event evening of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters and her portrait painted there was selected by the members as the best painting of the evening painted by a non-member.  You can view the painting  and read about the evening here.  I think Haidee's painting is beautiful and full of the warmth and character of the sitter.

Well, I did say that I won a prize from Haidee so I should get on and show you what arrived today.

You can see I won the star prize!  The painting was very well wrapped against the ravages of Royal Mail.

Inside was this pretty parcel.

 

This is the lovely little painting I've won and I love it!  I know the exact place where this was painted as it is quite close to where I live and I know that it was painted en-plein air which makes it all the more special as I appreciate that Haidee braved the elements to achieve it and that has added to the quality of the atmosphere she describes.  Haidee's blog about the painting experience is here.  I can feel the lumps and bumps in the ground and the greying atmosphere as the fog descended.

You can probably tell that I very much like Haidee-Jo's work.  I have met her just once many years ago when I was still painting but had lost track of her until recently.  Her blog is well worth browsing if you like her style of painting and her subjects are very varied.  Thank you Haidee very much for my lovely painting.  It is tempting me to get my own pochade box out and brush off the cobwebs!

Lucky Me

We've had a lovely family day today with my Mum in good form and my brother and his wife calling in to see her, bringing film of her new great grandchild and his older brother, so there has been lots of oohing and aaahing and lots of laughter. 

As a footnote to yesterday I should have shown you these beautiful fabrics I won in a giveaway recently.  The giveaway was hosted by Alex who blogs as Under A Topaz Sky. I have been following Alex's blog for a few months and she does some beautiful embroidered work. She is interested in natural dyeing, rusting fabrics, felting and generally playing and with her love of beachcombing we are kindred spirits.  You can read more about some of the fabric I received here.   

Thank you Alex, I shall enjoy using these fabrics and making the most of their beautiful marks.

Windows, Chilford and Gorgeousness!

I have been having a further play with the reverse applique pieces I am working on for the International Quilt Challenge and made the small piece above on a sheer base fabric and it turned out much less bulky than the first piece I made.  I decided to bind the edge and used a black fabric to represent the lead in stained glass but I feel it is a bit heavy.

When it came to binding the 10"x10" square I decided on a grey binding and I prefer that to the heavier black.  I've put together two more A3 sized 'windows' and am going to continue working with them as I am enjoying this process.  One of them will become a Pennant for the Olympics.

I haven't started working with the sheer version yet, I had the idea of printing onto the fabrics and then painting with silk paints so hopefully I will find some time for that tomorrow in between the dusting and hoovering!

On Saturday I had a lovely day out at the Grosvenor Autumn Quilt Show at Chilford Hall.  I hadn't been to one of these Grosvenor shows before and I was pleasantly surprised, not least by the venue.  Chilford Hall is in a pretty rural location and its grounds are lovely too.  Saturday was  a foggy day so it was a bit chilly for wandering around and the light was poor for photos but we were very impressed by the sculptures and statues dotted about.  Hopefully if I come back for the Spring Show the light will be better and I can get some photos of the grounds.

The show was staged in two large halls with timbered rooves and painted ceilings and in another large room that was strung with tiny 'christmassy' lights.  There were some wonderful exhibits and just enough traders to keep us interested.

Just part of the beautiful exhibition space.

Susan Briscoe, South West Quilters, Stitch Witches, Frieda Oxenham and The Blue Tulips Textile Art Group were just a few of the exhibitors whose work I admired.

This beautiful piece caught my eye with its wonderful use of silks and bead embellishments.  It is part of Frieda Oxenham's Colour-Quilt-Collage exhibition and is called Foxfires, a name used to describe the Aurora Borealis.

A detail from another of Frieda's pieces (I apologise for the poor quality of the images, the light was terrible!)

Isn't this fabulous?  So much colour and energy!

Earthly Pleasures inspired by collage.

Marie Studholme Journal Quilts from 2009 inspired by Frieda's collection of postcards about Marie Studholme (1872-1930) who was an English actress and singer.  I particularly liked this piece for the way Frieda had mounted it onto tweed and used vintage fabrics, clothing and buttons. 

This piece above is La Rue du Soleil by Maryel Cowell who is a member of Stitch Witches.  This group had many beautiful imaginative pieces on show.

Adjacent to the previous piece was this piece above entitled Mont St Michel by Terry Donaldson. 

This stunning quilt is by Pam Bono who lives in Athens Georgia in the USA.  There were many more of her impressive quilts on display and you can find out more about them at pamsclub.com.

This piece fascinated me.  It is titled 'Beyond The Naked Eye' and is by Eva Thomas a member of Blue Tulips Textile Art Group.

No visit to a quilt show would be complete without a bit of shopping and I was fairly good stitcking reasonably close to my shopping list.

I couldn't resist the book by Bethan Ash which hadn't been on my list but it's images were so inspiring and I'm really pleased that I bought it.  The fabrics are destined for some more stained glass window play.

When I got home my lovely DH had been to the post office for me to collect a special parcel that had winged its way all the way from downunder: Downunderdale, to be precise who trades as The Thread Studio in Australia.

Above is part of the hoard, gorgeous mixed embroidery threads, dyed emu feathers, tangle tuff for texture and the most beautiful turquoise stone ready drilled for a necklace or to use as an embellishment.

Look at these wonderful embroidery threads for machine and hand embroidery and some very unusual silk fibres that will be fun to play with.  Why did I receive this wonderful parcel?  I was the lucky winner of a giveaway on the Thread Studio Facebook page when Dale reached 900 'likes'.  If you would like the chance to win a similar parcel pop onto Facebook and 'like' The Thread Studio but be quick the next giveaway is at 100 likes.  Not long to go!

Life

I have been a bit conspicuous by my absence over the last couple of weeks for which I apologise.  It's partly lethargy and not having a lot to show and partly being busy with a sick friend in hospital again.  Our very dear friend G had a fall at home 2 and a half weeks ago and was taken to hospital and has been there ever since.  At first she was making progress and we expected her home this week but over the last few days she has deteriorated and after a further x-ray today they now tell us her leg is broken at the top.  Not good when you are 99 years old.  We don't know what will come next but she is in desperate pain today.  She is strong and will fight but her age and health are against her.

In between hospital visits, washing and rearranging G's home to suit her declining mobility I have done bits and pieces.  I have managed to work on my Journal for Carole Brungar's class a bit more and the photo above is of the inside front cover.  

I am basing the journal on memories, mostly of family and this page above is made on a card that I received from a blogging friend onto which I have stitched a digital image of my grandmother and her family that I had previously put into a small art quilt but which I have now cut up to use in the journal.  The edge on the next page is an offcut from a journal quilt I made last year for Little Gems.

I still have lots more to include in the journal and I don't want to stitch the signatures (groups of pages) in until I have finished machine stitching things in.

This beautiful pin cushion was my prize in a giveaway from Pam who blogs as Calamity Jane.  As you can see it is considerably bigger than the bottle top pincushion I carry around with me.  It will be a lovely and useful addition to my sewing room.  Thank you Pam :)

I'm jumping about a bit here but my brain's a bit like that at the moment so I apologise if you're having trouble following me.  This photo above was taken in Liverpool a few weeks ago on a day out that I didn't get round to blogging about.  I would have loved to have asked the girl about her gorgeous scrappy bag but she was deep in conversation and I was legging it to the coach that was waiting to take us home after a trip on the Manchester Ship Canal so I had to content myself with a quick snap.  (Annabel, I have a photo of the couple if you wanted to see it for your portrait series). 

I had sort of decided to have a bit of a blogging break this month as I have to get 2 journal quilts made by the end of the month and I am spending way too long on the computer so I may be missing again, especially with the uncertainty over our friend.  I have everything crossed that I will get to the Festival of Quilts next week as I really want to see my quilt on the wall and I have classes booked.  Enjoy the Festival if you are going and enjoy the rest of the summer iit's out there somewhere!) if you're not.  See you soon!

The winners! and Felt

Thank you everyone for joining in with my blogversary draw and for all your lovely comments over the last week. Like everyone, I do like to get comments and feedback on my posts and you are all very generous and supportive. What else should we expect from such creative people? :o) Thank you!

Right, onto the draw! I have used this Random Number Generator to pick the numbers but, unfortunately I don’t know how to capture the screen so I hope you will trust me with the result. The winners are: (drumroll please!) :

1 Elizabeth

2 Kayla Coo

3 Linda

Elizabeth will receive the Journal Quilt, Kayla Coo will receive the cards and Linda will receive the heart so ladies, please email me with your snail mail addresses and I will get the giveaways in the post after the weekend. I’m just sorry that everyone couldn’t have won. Thank you all for taking the time to leave a comment and join in.

Yesterday I did manage to go to the felt workshop and had a really lovely day, although it was very hard work. The workshop was led by Alison Taylor who was a most generous teacher both with her knowledge and the materials she supplied us with. Unfortunately Alison doesn’t have a website yet although I believe she is thinking about starting one. There were 9 ladies taking part altogether and I have to thank them all for being such a welcoming group as I had not met any of them previously.

We were so busy that I didn’t have time for any photographs while we worked. The felt-making was energetic and at one point several of us lost the will to live (!) but eventually with some help from Alison we were all delighted with our results.

First of all we made a piece of flat felt. I know, I know! I’ve gone for my traditional favourite colours! Alison said we could make these pieces into an evening purse so I chose colours that I hoped would match a dress I have. I didn’t really intend it to be quite as solid in terms of colour but when you are working quickly some thoughts are not easy to hold onto and the design changes.

This green side will be the inside of the purse and, once it’s dry I will square up the sides and make a 3-fold and stitch it together. I’m thinking of using any wavy edges I cut from the sides to decorate the flap closure and then I’ll add some stitch and beads in a similar way to the bag Alison showed us. It doesn’t show too well in the photo but I am pleased that some of the green has migrated through in glimpses to what will be the outside of the bag.

After a lovely lunch supplied by the ladies who organised the day (weren’t we spoilt?), Alison showed us how to make a bag,

The bag was made over/around a plastic template and involved more elbow grease but it did seem to felt quicker than the flat felt in the morning. Of course, the thicker the wool layers to start with, the longer it takes to felt. The bag is still drying and needs a handle but it may yet end up as a decorative pot, I can’t decide. The bag is about 10” x 9” and the flat felt is 15” x 10”.

An added bonus yesterday was discovering some toys to play with! Alison had 2 pieces of equipment that I could see a use for in other areas of textile work. One was a feltmakers bulb spray which gives a wonderful spray of liquid and I could see this giving some interesting effects with dye and the other is a knobbly/slatted rolling pin which I think would produce interesting marks in printing. Very naughtily I have ordered these 2 toys from Wingham Wools and I can’t wait to play some more! If the Spray Bulb works with dye I shall order more and keep one for each colour or group of colours. I don’t know whether the bulb can be taken apart to clean thoroughly. Watch this space! Again! Lol.

I was surprised and pleased at how I coped yesterday, partially due to stubbornness I think, but today I am feeling the strain. Don’t feel sorry for me though, all self inflicted and I thoroughly enjoyed the day!

Fame and 601!

Woo hoo! Wah hay! Happy dancing in the extreme here!!! I’m so excited I can hardly speak!!! Phew! Calm down! Calm down!

Let me explain. I had an email today from Angela down at Art and Stitch in Peterborough to say that she had seen a quilt of mine on some advertising literature! What? Who? Where? I hadn’t a clue. Anyway, Angela’s given me the link and it’s true! There is my Journal Quilt advertising the Northern Needlecraft Show later in the year. Click here and scroll down and you can see a fuzzy view of it. The actual quilt is this one (good job you can’t see the back, it was not tidy!)

I know it’s only a teensy bit of fame but I am overcome! Fancy choosing my quilt and it’s not even a traditional quilt. I’ve rung Grosvenor Exhibitions and they’re going to send me the leaflet. Yeah! I may never come down off the ceiling :-D

Right, now then, calm down. The next bit of celebration is that yesterday was my 600th post! I’ve also been blogging for 2 and a half years and missed my 2nd blogversary so I think it’s time I had one of those giveaway thingies. I have had a great time blogging and meeting so many wonderful people and this experience has taught me so much and taken me along a path I never really expected. It is lovely to get your comments and know that I am not just burbling away to myself (which is what I do all the time at home, in the garden, out shopping, in the street…..) and I appreciate the fact that people are adding themselves to my followers. Thank you all for your lovely support and messages and even if you don’t leave comments thank you for bothering to look in here and suffer my inane ramblings. I have learnt so much from all the blogs I look at and I hope in some small way I have inspired some of you to try new things too.

Right, I need to set a time limit. If you leave a comment here or any future posts between today and next Thursday 21 January your name will be entered in a draw and the first name drawn will receive this Journal Quilt which measures 12” x 6”

or these photo cards of my artwork that my DH has made

If I can manage it there might be a small third gift. (I don’t have a supply of ready made pieces so would have to make something). So leave me your name in a comment and make sure I can contact you if you are normally a no-reply blogger (email me separately if you prefer) and good luck! I will endeavour to post the result at the end of next week.

PS Talking of giveaways Kleinzonnetje is having a knitting and fabric giveaway on her blog. Pop across and have a look before 19 January.

Scrappy Crow Giveaway!

I'm embarrassed to admit that I've let my first blog anniversary and a significant number of posts slip by without acknowledging either of them and without a giveaway! Well, that is about to be rectified!

This cheeky little fellow (there's only one of him, these shots are of both sides) is up for grabs if anyone would like him. Just leave a comment before Sunday with a way of contacting you (email address preferably) and I'll send him winging on his way - well, not literally, I think an envelope and the Post Office may have to help out. If you follow this link to Kelli Perkins' colourful blog you will see where I got the idea (from Quilting Arts Cloth Paper Scissors magazine Issue 15, November/December 2007 - Thank you Gina for pointing out my mistake).

~

If you've been lurking for ages now's your chance to say hi, even if Mr Scrappy Crow doesn't appeal to you :) I don't bite, honest! I must say thank you to everyone who looks in here and has given me so much support since I started blogging last June (30th). I've been having a great time and not only have I learned loads I've made some lovely friends! Thanks everyone! :o))