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!!

Sirena Queen of the Mer-People

Meet Sirena.
She is my first fabric Art Doll.
She was made for a swap on AlterNative UK

I used to make rag dolls that children could play with and I have made paper art dolls, but this was so different to do.

I knew I wanted to do a mermaid as I am certain I will see one on the beach one day but how to go about it?

I had a couple of drawings of mermaids that I have been working on for a while - I'm not fast with a pencil ;0) - and wanted to use those ideas.
I didn't want her tail to point straight down I wanted her to look like she could swim off at any moment.

Well now I know why most mermaid doll's tails point down!
Roger is usually the best champion of my work but every day he would whisper very quietly "sorry love but this bit isn't right" and another draft pattern would hit the bin.
Then one evening in he came ready to whisper his fateful words and...... complete silence.
"You've done it!" he said giving me a big hug - yippee!

I played with the idea of making a "proper" doll and sewing right sides together and turning her but told myself she is an art doll and decided to sew round the edge on the right side - phew, no resizing of the draft pattern!
Next I drew the outline onto heavy cotton and painted her.
I used some felt behind the tail pieces and quilted the tail, I put the two sides together and stitched round the edge. I made a little cut in her belt and stuffed her.

This is where I think I made a mistake as I lost definition of course.
Her face and neck run into one another and she has a flat chest! Next time I would use layers of felt and quilting to get the look I want and probably not stuff the doll.

I enjoyed beading her and adding her wild hair.
It was quite hard to leave the raw edge and not do the finishing I have done in the past but I am really pleased with her and I am happy to report so was Jo my partner.

Mettallica

These are my pages for the September Chunky Book swap on AlterNative UK.

The theme was metal.
The backgrounds are book pages on watercolour paper. They are ripped and distressed and then I used ink and embossing powders to create colour and texture.

The silver paper is scrapbook paper.
The gorgeous shiny coppery paper with purple and pink wax was obtained in a background swap on ANUK sometime ago.

I can't remember who I got it from but I wish I could as I love it and really enjoyed putting it on these pages.

We are back.

Well, we are home from our holiday.

Am I glad to be back?
Well there is nothing quite like your own bed is there? And I did miss my sewing machine, desk and paints.
But, we had the most wonderful time and yes, I am glad to be home.
Not happy that The Man is off to work again but, hey you can't have everything.



This was where we stayed. It was idyllic.
Massive inglenook fireplace in the lounge, antiques everywhere you looked and apart from buying food and your own clothes there was nothing else you needed. Luxury everywhere.

The garden was so very beautiful, enclosed by a fabulous stone wall and safe for the babies.

Through the gate was path that lead to the other cottages in the row (3 including the owners), croquet lawn, country walks and the most gorgeous rose garden.

We visited lots of wonderful places and just chilled out in the garden.


Our batteries are recharged and I am looking forward to playing with my toys in the studio.

Off to get the sewing machine out of bed now ;0)

Circus

I have joined the Vintage Circus Quilt Swap on Art-e-Zine Cafe.


Here is my quilt. It measures 5" x 7"

I used some of my crazy piece from the Artists Muse Challenge as the background.
The image and letters are printed on cotton and attached with beading.
I'm not sure now where I got the buttons but they seemed just the right colour for this piece.

I will be sending it to the hostess tomorrow and hope when my partner gets it she will like it.

The Cool Cats are Here!

It's official, we are the new kids on the Etsy block.


The Boomers and Beyond Etsy Street Team is born today.
We have been working really hard to get this team going and are very proud of our baby boomer.



We are a vibrant group of Etsians over 40 years of age who are dedicated to Etsy. Our team provides a place converse, create, assist and support other Etsians. We promote our shops; assist each other with business and marketing solutions; collaborate; support Etsy and make friends along the way. We are from all walks of life and all parts of the globe.
BBEST has a blog, website and message board providing avenues of contact.

Requirements for membership: If you are at least 40 years old, have a great personality and are willing to support others, come join our team! You must either sell or buy on etsy. The first step for membership is to join our message board here. Please provide your etsy username and an email address. Then activate your message board account (an email will be sent to you to activate the membership). You will be then be added to our web and blog.

We also have a great new Google page gallery.

So many places to check us out so what is stopping you? Come and meet us.

Challenged? You Bet!

On my to do list were Challenges 4 and 5 for the Artist Muse group.
I didn't think I had been putting these off, I had just had so much else to do.
Now I realise I had. Sorry Sue.

Sue Bleiweiss sets the challenges based on the book The Artists Muse.
She does a great job.
These chapters were basically about being free with your work and doodling and splashing paint around.

Now you would think for someone who always tells people she comes from the "old slappers

school of art" that it should be an easy project.
Huh, read on!

The first challenge was to gather 12 different fabrics.
OK the first problem came right here.
12?
Good grief I think I am being brave using 4 or 5 colours in my art work!
In retrospect I should have picked different fabrics in similar colours but by now my brain was already in overload so I grabbed anything - this is me trying to be free!

Next we had to cut the fabrics into pieces and apply them to a background. Easy.
Well the pieces had to be in a bag so you couldn't see what you were picking then once you had
placed them on your background you couldn't
move them again.
What?!

Oh good grief, I spend days moving stuff around on my collages.
This was so hard for me.

The result was utter chaos. I put a piece of sparkley tulle on the top and thought, what the heck chaos it will be, and did some mad free machine embroidery over the top of that.
I put this to one side and started the next challenge.

We were given 3 choices and I chose the fabric weaving challenge - that should be OK, yes - no!
This time we could use 6 to 12 fabrics. I chose to use 8 and had learned from the last exercise to pick them more wisely.

Now to make the strips. We had to rip the strips not cut them. OMG! It had taken me 5 (yes 5) years to get to grips with ripping paper for collage!
We weren't even allowed to get rid of offending, dangling pieces of thread. (whimper)
I did as suggested however and carried on.
Once the weaving was done I covered the piece with a chiffon scarf and stitched a grid. I couldn't help myself, it just had to be a zig zag over those offending raw edges - sorry Sue.


Another piece thrown to one side.
I went to bed.

Yesterday I decided I would see how I could
make the pieces more to my liking - I know that wasn't the idea.
I decided the first piece was just too dizzy and stitched a grid pattern in silver. I think it has made it more unified. I am doing a circus quilt and I think it will be a great background for this.

In the Artists Muse book the 5th chapter is about splashing paint around.
My first idea was to couch some threads to the piece but instead I decided to play with my machine.
I do not have a good grasp of free style embroidery with the machine other than doing random spirals and vermicelli so I thought I would work in the squares and make patterns.
I had great fun and managed a few little flowers and am happy with this piece. I will make it into a cushion I think.

I know that if Sue, Jan or Laura had been here they would have said leave the pieces alone and learn the lesson that you can make something good from chaos and being free but, I think I actually learned a very important lesson for me.

I'm not such an old slapper after all!

Proud!

I know this is late but there is going to be more!!
What?

Well, if you are in the UK the chances are you will have heard and maybe watch the One Show at 7pm weekday evenings.

If you do watch and saw on Monday - why on earth did they change the time that day? - you will have seen a new feature called the Complaints Choir.
This choir sings peoples complaints to get the complaint noticed.
It is funny, beautifully sung and works.
It was very popular and they will be back on a regular basis.

Why am I telling you this?
Well for one thing this choir is Chantage. They are the BBC Choir of the Year and were crowned last November.
But more than that Toby, my future Son in Law, sings with them.

Yes I am proud and yes I am showing off - wouldn't you?

Toby is in the picture on the back row, first on the left hand side.

Flower Power

We have been away for the Bank Holiday weekend. We went to see Laura and Toby in Southampton. It was lovely to see them they are so happy together.
I have photos and will share later.


I wanted to show you my latest organza flowers.

I just love to make these flowers and I love to wear brooches so I decided to combine the two.
Here are the results.
These are big showy brooches, almost 4 inches across.

They have the same heavily beaded centres as the flowers on my quilts and of course the little dragonfly but, now I can wear my art!

I'm really thrilled with them. I wore one on our little walk around Ilfracombe yesterday and had some lovely comments about it.
Big head now ;0)


You can see other pics of them on Flickr and my Etsy Shop.

Second Quiltie for Unlimited Textiles

There was a little mux up with the partner list on Unlimited Textiles.
Yes, I know I did the partner lists so it is all my fault.
Maybe I should be sacked!

But it did give me an excuse - as if I really needed one - to make another quiltie.

This is the result.
The background is hand painted fabric and the motif is a little needle felted leaf.
Not that you can tell it is a leaf as I have a lot of practicing to do with the needle felting. I still think it is great fun though.

This is now on its way to Patsy or Sandy or somebody ;0?

ATC's

These are my ATC's for the Getting to Know You swap at Unlimited Textiles.

Turquoise is one of my favourite colours at the moment, but as you see I couldn't resist putting in a bit of the the all time favourite purple.

I'm also having fun exploring this method of layering and piecing.
The rocks along the coast here have such wonderful strata. Add that to the beautiful grasses on the hills and fields, the colours and tides in the sea and I think you will see where I am going with this technique.
Lots more to do with it yet.

Getting to Know You Quiltie

This is my quiltie for the Getting to Know You Swap on Unlimited Textiles.

The background fabric is hand painted cotton with layers of sari fabrics and glittery braid. The image is printed on to cotton.

The cotton I use is ready to print on. I cut the photos to size, peel off the backing and iron in place.
I don't usually stitch round the image unless it is left as a photograph and then just for decoration.
I do think however, that if the article was to be worn you would have to stitch the edge.
I get it from Crafty Computer Paper

This quiltie is going to Sandy. I hope she likes it.

Look what I got!

I recently did two great trades but I keep forgetting to tell you about them.
Shame on me ;0(

The first was a postcard trade with Anna.
I've only just started making postcards as you know and was thrilled to be able to trade with Anna. I love the work she does (and she is so hard on herself).
This is the postcard I received.
I love the colours and textures and it even has some of her famous washers attached.
Thanks Anna.


The second trade was with Sue Bleiweiss.
I received this great Wrapfolio with notebook inside and several of her great patterns - including the fab teapot ;0)
The Wrapfolio is lovely and is made in my colours.
The notebook inside has lined paper so is just fantastic for making notes to tell me what I should be doing.
I sent my Pink Flower in a Grass Garden.
I was really pleased with that piece but despite what Sue said I know I got the better end of the deal.
Thanks Sue.

Autumn Daydream

Autumn Daydream is the latest addition to my Etsy Shop.

She is a lovely daydreamer in autumn colours.
Created on 8" x 8" canvas board with acrylic paints, collaged papers and skeleton leaves.



The leaves stamped in the background are the stamps I made when I did Susan Sorrells class.

August Chunky Pages

These are my Chunky Book Pages for August via AlterNative UK

The images are stamped and I received them and a few more in a stamped image swap some time ago.
I really like them but I can't remember who sent them or where they got the stamps.
If anyone recognizes them I would love to know where they are from.

The men in my life.

These are the men in my life.


Roger and mop.
Yes he was cleaning the shed!
To be fair it was because the seagulls had left calling cards.

And of course Fred!
What can you say about such a cute and scruffy dog other than he is adorable ;0)

Hive of Activity!

The room I call my studio has been a hive of activity.
I know that by the way that Roger huffs and puffs when he is playing with his hoover.
I may have mentioned it before but yes, I have a man that likes housework ;0)

It took him an hour this morning to hoover up.
We get thrown out!
Yes honestly. Me the cat and dog get shooed out into the garden.
It's a jolly good job the rain has stopped.
But we are back in now to a clean and tidy studio.
Not sure it will stay that way for long!

Anyway, as I said the studio has been busy and at
last I am excited to say that I have been able to
put some things in my Etsy shop.

As you can see there is a new Grass Garden with a Sunflower and a couple of new canvases.
I have more things to list and I am still working on ideas.

It feels great to be back on a roll and I'm sure Roger will be huffing and puffing for a while yet ;0)

Chunky Book Pages

These are my Chunky Book Pages (4" square) for July via AlterNative UK.
The theme this month was flowers.


The backgrounds are cut from a watercolour painting I did of a vase of flowers. It did not work out very well but did work for these pages.

The images, from Lunagirl are printed on to cotton and ironed to the background.
Hard to see but there is some silk fusion and organza flowers on there too.

Paper Towels???!!!

So far this is as far as I have got with Sue B's Mixed Media class.

There is so much more in this class and I know I will be going back over it time and time again to get all the information.

This vessel is made from paper towels!
Yes I know. I couldn't believe it when I read that was what we were to do.
I've only used paper towels to mop up before - what a waste! Never again will paint spills end up in the bin. They will end up in a project.


Another fun project with lots of uses.
This vessel is about 13" high. I think it would make a fantastic way to present a posh bottle of wine.

Anyone fancy a tipple? ;0)