Old News and a Birthday.

Well, I am quite glad that October is over. I seem to have been ill for the most part of it.
I know I've been busy too but, boy standing outside that Cathedral was soooo cold I caught a chill.
Feeling better now though, thank goodness.

I did however, manage this little knitted and felted bag.
Old news because if you visit my Flickr album you will have seen it before.
I am just so thrilled with it that I just had to show it off again.
Jan said I just had to have a go and she was right. I am hooked. I am felting my second bag as we speak and I have wool for a couple more and felted jester boots for my great nephew.
I love to knit and especially in winter as it keeps you warm at the same time ;0)

Birthday? Yes mine!
Tomorrow, the first of November I will be *1 (guess. No don't look at my profile first!)
So in fine blogger tradition I will give gifts to the first 6 to comment here.
(waiting fearfully in case no one comments and I find out they don't want my stuff)
Won't be a large gifty but hopefully you will like it.

Oh by the way 1st of November is All Saints Day O;0)

Commission

I don't do a lot of commissions. I have trouble with them.

You should know that the first thing I am is a scientist - Medical Physics Technician to be precise. Second I am an Administrator and third I am trained in Customer Relations.
So all my working life I was bound to accuracy and other people.

That is why in my fourth life as an Artist I love to go my own way and do my own thing.
This makes it hard to do commissions.
The customer knows what they want. It's like that thing you did last month with a bit of the thing you did last week with a bit of this one!!
Very difficult for someone who doesn't really like to do the same thing twice and the way she works couldn't do it again if she tried. I find that commissions take over my life.

But every now and then I come across a customer that makes me feel humble. This customer had some work from me earlier this year and asked me to do some invitations to a very special birthday and retirement party.
She loves what I do and thinks I'm clever!!?? Don't put her right please.
I asked what she wanted and she said anything you do would be great! Of course she did have some ideas about colour and the size of cards but that was it.
How could I turn that down??
I didn't.

I created a piece of textile art for her approval. She was very happy ;0)
There are 150 invitations so I scanned the piece and printed it for the cards.
I printed the insides too and all was put together by hand. I am actually pleased that she didn't want mass produced cards and chose me to make them for her.
She is a special lady and I'm sure she will have a great party.
Thank you Barbara.

The Graduate

Laura Natalie Parkinson now has letters after her name.
She graduated yesterday and she is now:

Laura Natalie Parkinson B.A. Hons. (Ed)
Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Education.

And we are just so proud of her.

The blue hood on her gown here says that the awarding body is Southampton University and the pink stripe donates the honours.

The ceremony was in Winchester Cathedral and was lovely.
Everyone was so excited and happy to be awarded for their 4 years hard work. The cathedral was full, there were televisions positioned along the aisles so all could see the proceedings.

All the officials came in in their regalia and processed down the central aisle. We were unable to take photographs in the cathedral so I can't show you that but the procession was beautiful and sombre.
After opening prayers and speeches the awards were given with the graduands being called in groups of 3 or 4. Much clapping and sometimes cheering accompanied them up to the Chancellor to receive their certificates.
After the awards the choir sang a beautiful hymn and then the officials processed out of the cathedral accompanied by the now graduates and lots of smiles and waves.

It was wonderful to meet the girls Laura had gone through the 4 years with and to chat with other people that have touched Laura's life.

Of course, not only are we proud of Laura, we are so proud and grateful to Toby.
He is such a lovely man and has supported her through all this - not an easy task. Laura is her mothers daughter and as such is demanding and opinionated. Toby has had a lot of hard work!!!
He definitely deserves honours too.
It can't have been so bad though as they will be getting married next year so our baby must be doing something right.

Well done to you both and to all the graduates and friends we met and applauded yesterday.

The Flower

The main inspiration for this piece was the gorgeous clematis in my garden.
Its lush purple flowers are fading now and are paper thin. It is not hard to imagine that you can see my lovely Cob wall showing through the petals.

The fabrics are all painted, dyed and stamped by me - such fun ;0) - and pieced together in a crazy manner on batting, with the flower machined over it all.
Little buttons symbolize the falling blossoms.
I mounted the crazy quilt to some gorgeous navy velvet and made a machine wrapped cord from sari silk to hang it by.
The crazy quilt measures 7.5ins x 9ins the whole quilt measures 10.5ins x 11.5ins and its hanging length is
22.5ins

Do you remember the exercise Sue Bleiweiss set and I created the crazy backgrounds?
Well I tried to do a similar thing here. Not quite the same I know, I gathered the right colours together this time but I did just put the pieces on to let them have a life of their own and I left the edges raw with no or very little tidying.

I think the quilt does have a life and the edges seen to echo the feel of Autumn in its "aged" look.
Roger thought it had a Cubist look to it hence it became the "Picasso Garden"








You can find this piece for sale at my Etsy shop.

Feeling Blue

Feeling Blue is the theme for our swap on Unlimited Textiles this month.
I had in my mind some lovely clouds that I saw earlier this year and was eager to use them as my inspiration for this swap.

How to create the look and "feel" of clouds?
I have a Clover needle felting kit and thought I might be able to get the look I was after using it.

For the quiltie I started by needle felting wool tops and scrim to Lutradur. I had already painted the scrim and Lutradur.

I loved the movement created using this tool. Next I used some blue velvet as the background and machined some lines and added strips of Lutradur to the piece.
I then used my soldering
iron to cut pieces away to show the velvet. I also added some little beads - I think they look like rain drops.

This bookmark was done the same way but I used painted Pelmet Vilene as the base. It has made a lovely sturdy bookmark.

The second bookmark was needle felted to blue felt I also added a piece of painted lace. This is cotton lace and is quite heavy. I couldn't felt it to the background so I covered it with a piece of chiffon and felted round it.

I backed the bookmark with another piece of felt with some Pelmet Vilene sandwiched between them. I stitched thorough all the layers and it turned out with a lovely texture.
I did some running stitches, in the same thread as the tassel, instead of beads. It doesn't show up in the photo very well but does look good on the bookmark.

Oh by the way you can see the clouds here http://alis-clair.blogspot.com/2007/05/gorgeous-sky.html

Oh Boy!!!

The craft group met at my house last weekend.

There are 3 young people who come along. They are growing into lovely young ladies very quickly.
But put young people and dogs together and you have a whole lot of fun and mayhem.

Fred has always loved them coming to play.
Up to now he has had boundless energy and they have kept him busy.


But Fred, like the girls, is growing up and none of
them play as mad as they used to.

Of course there is only one Fred to the 3 girls.
They have learned to take it in turns playing with the dog. He, however, has not learned to stop. Well that's not true actually. He did hide under the desks for a while until he was spotted and off he went to keep someone else happy.

The results are clear to see. After saying goodbye at the door Fred flung himself down with a big sigh. He looked more disheveled than usual - and that's saying something - and hid his head in his paws. A definite "leave me alone, I have a headache" look.

Fred will be "pleased" to know that the girls are coming to play again this weekend!!