Resting!

As you may have gathered I have been "resting" lately. Unfortunately the "rest" is not over yet.

However I have been reading and doing a little playing. I have also been doing a doll making class at Joggles. I have enjoyed all this and have gathered lots of inspiration for when the body is finished "resting" ;0)

Hope to see you all again soon xx

Kandinsky and a Bracelet

Well I have been feeling very under the weather and very unsociable but, I have been working quietly away in the background.
I am now looking forward to catching up with reading the blogs I love and posting a little of my work.

This little 5ins quiltie was made for the April swap on Unlimited Textiles. The theme was the artist Kandinsky.
I love the freedom o his work and the colour combinations he uses.
Composition VIII is one of my favourites and this is my version of it.

In true abstract style I put it together from various experiments in needle felting.
Each section has machine stitching to blend it together and represent Kandinsky's lines.
I used hand made cord couched down between the sections.

This quiltie went to Val and I am very happy that she liked it.

The other swap on Unlimited Textiles in April was to make a piece of jewellery.
I had been playing around making fabric beads and had grabbed a handful of Roger's pipe cleaners wrapping them in Sari Ribbon.
This is how this little bracelet was made.
The centre is where I wrapped layers and layers of the ribbon on the pipe cleaner. Extra seed beads were sewn on afterwards.
The same seed beads were stitched to the ends of the ribbon and a catch added.

This went to my good friend Jan.
She liked it and it was the right size ;0)

Wings!

June Cross (who doesn't have a blog - yet!) and I decided to do a little trade.
We chose a 5 ins square mini quilt with the theme "Wings"

Well it turned out to be dragonflies at dawn!
Independently and without the other knowing we both created dragonfly quilties.

I used a hand painted cotton for the background and did a flowing kind of quilting going with the painted shapes.
The dragonfly body is painted cotton with beading for embellishment. The wings are made from Fantasy Film, they were attached to the background and the body appliquéd over them.

This is the beautiful quiltie June made.
The main body is felt and the centre panel is knitting I think - maybe June will let us know.
I wish you could feel it as it is so soft and very, very touchable.

Thank you June for a great trade ;0)

New bag - Unfinished

This bag is unfinished as yet as I am waiting for pay day for the fabric I want and is for the Textiles for Two project with Jan.


It represents the Incan Empire.
You can read more about it over at Textiles for Two.

Sanctuary

Well what with Easter, recovering from Easter and outside tensions the time has just flown this month.
I do have a little to show though and will start by showing off the wonderful work my friends ~ with some help from me of course ~ did in my garden.


Sitting here you really feel you are protected with all the plants around.

You can hear the buzzing of the bees and the hoverflies.

I'm really looking forward to seeing it all start to grow and flower.

Did you spot Mitzi Cat? She really loves it here.

Thank you Cath and Chrissy. Come back soon so you can enjoy it too.

Lazy Sunday

Roger's leave is coming to an end and I have to wave him off to work tomorrow.
Well, I won't as he goes out too early but you know what I mean.
So back to work for both of us as I start to catch up in the studio and get back on track with my projects.

The weather has been kind to us and, with the help of friends, we have rearranged the garden, seen family and generally had a relaxing time.

Today we decided to end the holiday well with a visit to Woolacombe.
I didn't go down to the beach as I didn't think I would get back up the hill, but sat on the bench(at the top of the post) looked out over the Atlantic and thought of friends and family across the pond.

The boys had a tootle around on the rocks.

I sat and watched the surfers enjoying the water, although I suspect it was a little cold despite the glorious sunshine.


The day was rounded off with a lazy couple of hours in the garden.

Cheeky Fred!

A little bit of progress.

Roger retires at the end of July.
He is using up accumulated leave and as much as I love having him home my routine has gone to pot!
I have done very little work with him home, but in his favour is the fact that we have been getting things together to do the garden this weekend. Could not have done that with out him home.
But today he is in work and out came the sewing machine ;0)


This is the continuing story of my quilted butterfly.
It now measures 1 metre square and I wonder how I let it get like that! But I think the hardest part is now over as regards it's size.

This part of it is now ready to be backed and finished and then I will work on two smaller flower quilts to hang from the bottom.
See my scribble below.


This is by far the largest piece I have done and it will practically cover the wall at the top of the stairs but I am enjoying it and have plans for a couple more large pieces.
Well as soon as I can get used to a man in my studio and a new routine.