Thank you!

Just a quick note to say thank you for all the lovely comments you have left here.

I usually answer you personally if I can, but I am sending my apologies for not doing so this time.
I have been out of commission but hope to be back creating and blogging very soon.

Once again thank you for visiting me here, whether you leave a comment or not I really appreciate you stopping by.

Hugs, Alis

Two Birds With One Stone!

The 4th lesson on the Personal Symbols class is about carving your own stamp and printing with it.

Coincidentally the challenge on Fibre Art Friends is also on making and using your own stamps.

I have done a little carving using polystyrene pizza trays but never carved a stamp properly.
I had a Speedball block and cutters as I had intended to have a go - sometime - so out they came and off I went.


Oh, if you haven't given this a go you really ought to.


The carving was much easier than I thought - even with my silly hands - and what a thrill to see my own designs on the fabric.


You can see the stamps I made from my doodles at the top. The middle photos are my stamps on the same piece of fabric - long piece hence two photos.


I decided the large leaf was my favourite so stamped alone on the last piece of fabric. This is my favourite.

Flower Girls

My newsletter readers got a sneek preview of my new Flower Girl quilts but I wanted to share them here too.

Each of the little quilts (measuring 5" x 5") feature a little organza flower with a beaded centre.

I have some lovely summery colours that I am working on too.

They are for sale in my Etsy shop.

Fred!

Well it's a funny old month this one.
I just can't seem to get much done. I have enrolled in two great courses but can't get my head down to any work. I have lots of new fabrics to play with but all I do is look at them.
And to cap it off I have so many ideas running around in my head that I just can't get a hold on any one of them to make something.

Most of this unrest comes from (as some of you know) the fact that the Landlord has put our house up for sale and we don't know if we will have to move again - sigh.
Keep your fingers and anything else crossed for me please, so I can stay here ;0)

Now if there is anywhere I can start to unwind and feel good it has to be the beach or the garden.
The beaches are busy now so I spent the weekend in the garden. It was bliss.
I had a new shed delivered so I had to reorganize everything and I got rid of anything that wasn't going to live and made a show of the things that were doing well.
I feel much better now.

Fred kept trying to plant a toy or two in the plant pots and insisting they would grow!
He managed to break two plant pots with his antics - bad dog. Oh well I needed some crocks for the bottoms of pots, just didn't need them to be posh crocks.

My friends daughter Lucy likes to pop into my blog to see if I have any pictures of the animals.
Well Mitzi wouldn't come out as it was much too hot for her but I did manage to get Fred to keep still for a few moments and capture his picture.
Hope you like them Lucy.

Spirito Di ZNE

I am so proud to be the Spirit of Zne

You can see my article here:

Spirito Di ZNE




Thank you to Chel and all at variaZioNE

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Africa 2

This is my second Africa quilt for Unlimited Textiles.

I started with a piece of hand painted fabric and fused the motif to it using Bondaweb.
I covered the piece with two layers of organza and machine stitched over this.
I used a fine soldering iron to burn away the organza over the motif then did a little more machining over the motif.

I'm quite happy with this one. I like the colours and enjoyed playing with my soldering iron ;0)

Great Swap

I have just taken part in the Etsy UK Sellers Secret Swap.

It was organised by Jo at Askey who did a marvelous job of co-ordinating all the players and making sure we didn't know who we were receiving from.

I sent this little quiltie to Tricia of Reform.
She makes fabulous art from reclaimed metal and slate.
I used my rust dyed fabric for the background as it seemed perfect for her.

I received the most gorgeous pair of earrings from Anna at Sakura Fubuki Designs.
Anna makes the most stunning jewellery - very elegant.


My lovely earrings are made from hemonite (hope I got that right) garnet and sterling silver. Anna tells me that these types of orange garnets are associated with helping you dedicate your self to "any endeavor that captures the need for awaited attention". Just perfect for me!
Anna also sent a beautiful print of buds on a willow tree. Love it.

This was a great swap and some fantastic people played. You can see more of the swap here.

Special thanks to Jo, Tricia and Anna for making this a great project.

UPDATE The garnets are Hessonite Garnet. Thank you Anna ;0)

I've got the doodling bug!

I'm doing a course with Susan Sorell at Joggles.
The course is Personal Symbols.

The first lesson is about doodles. This is the way we will find the symbols we want to use.

Oh dear! Had a little panic then got down to work. Very difficult for me at first to draw little sketches on the words Susan gave us.
Then we had to do a page of doodles.
My first was a disaster. OK not quite that bad but it was very disjointed. I drew wavy lines round the doodles to get them to appear together. Made it worse actually so I'm not showing you that!

I started again. Yippee! You can see my page here. I'm thrilled with it.


I was totally absorbed by it and played all day.
I started with symbols from African art and added Mayan symbols. Other shapes are from my first "word" sketches and then I filled in gaps with curvy shapes.
Looking forward to working with areas of my doodle now.

You can see more of my doodles and the backgrounds I am creating on my website Alis Clair.
Click into Gallery and Personal Symbols.

Thank you Susan for starting me on the doodling bug.

Africa

The quiltie theme on Unlimited Textiles this month is Africa.

This is my first quiltie - we have to do two.

The background is layers of organza with painted and burnt nappy liners trapped amongst them. Loads of free machine embroidery and then a motif and threads applied.

The motif is my take on a pattern from an African textile.
I got a bit carried away with this motif - it will be appearing on my next quiltie. I made a stamp of it too and stamped the back of the quiltie.
Now off to find other places to stamp it!!

Garden Update.

Here is an update on my little garden.

Quite a difficult garden actually. This is the first time I have to come to terms with the fact that some things just will NOT grow here.
We were very sheltered in Combe Martin and didn't have the same problems as the rest of the coast.

This garden is south facing so gets the sun all day which would be fine but for the ever constant cold east wind. To cap it all that wind is salty!
Hmmm.
Unfortunately we have lost a few things and look like we will loose the Acers very soon and the hops have dreadful wind burn.


We have got some new plants that seem to be working though. A Cordaline and some ornamental grasses.
The grasses seemed happy enough until the cat and dog thought that they had become grazing animals and proceeded to munch upon the innocent grasses! (told you this is a mad house)

Said grasses are now off the ground and out of harms way. You can see them at the front of the second photo.

The Lavender and the Rosemary are thriving and the rose looks pretty happy too.
All in all I am pleased with the gardens progress and am actually enjoying learning about new plants and finding out what will work.