Another dyeing day in the studio

Had another lovely dyeing class in the studio and here are some of the results of the hard work. Playing around with Shibori and space dyeing is always great fun.

Latest stitching news

The studio has been well used recently, not just by me, but daughter as well. We have been working hard on this Advent Angel. All that is left to do is add some beads and sequins for added glitz.

Oh and of course fill the little pockets with goodies for the days of December.

I have also been working with my African fabrics... they have all been carefully washed and ironed, cut into shapes and some stitched again. I never want to see another triangle.

The stamps on the back of the fabric are fascinating as well... here is one and .......

Here is another.... fascinating.

Of course the work was expertly supervised and approved by Mr Siamese.

Autumn bus journey

On the return bus journey from town after I had viewed the African exhibition, I decided to take a photo of the autumn trees every time the bus stopped for whatever reason. It intrigued some fellow passengers, they probably thought I had lost the plot.

I was quite amazed at how mild the temperatures are for November.... this time last year we had snow.

Most of the deciduous trees near the cemetery are now skeletal.

Whereas many of the bushes and hedges are still in autumn leaf..... amazing. ( click on the photos to enlarge)

Just as promised a quick update.. I have stitched the pieces together... and have taught another dyeing class in my studio.

We are having another class next week... I hope they remember to bring the results back for me to take a photo.. will share with you if they do.

African Exhibition

Went into town yesterday to view this exhibition at the local Artsite Gallery. I do not venture into town very often, as I think parking charges are too expensive. So decided to leave the car at home and go by bus....... more about this journey later! ( tomorrow)

I was not sure what to expect from this exibition, but have to say it was extremely good. The variety of artwork, sculptures and textiles were well displayed and had informative details next to each exhibit, which made the whole experience very informative nad enjoyable.

The modern work by Miro, Picasso and Terry Frost added to the experience. Such a shame the exhibition is only open for a week.... hope we can persuade them to have another soon.

I felt even more fortunate when I was introduced to the collector and have been invited to view more textiles in the collection in 2 weeks time. Such excitement.

Some stitching

You probably recognise this space dyed fabric which I dyed earlier this year
I am playing around with this sample as an experiment for an idea I have for an exhibition piece. It is quite pleasing so far, although I think it needs more work, and I might play with the colour arrangements a little more.

Remember......................

A special time

Art and the Olympic posters

Studio work again today as you can see, for the grandchildren, and all the artistic endeavours were definitely inspired by the Olympic posters revealed at Tate Britain yesterday lunchtime. See here for more details. Painted papers and scissors and paste were the order of the day to get the creative juices flowing.

Another grandchild decided that he would be a little more athletic and cleaned my car.... Much appreciated by me and the car.
Meanwhile in the studio... paints were called for.. and used to create the following masterpieces... here is the 4 year olds poster.. Bridget Riley must be seriously worried by the competition.

Meanwhile 8 year old is in serious competition with Howard Hodgkin

Its a shame that Tate Britain did not invite the young talent in Britain to take part in this creative poster activity, I really think there are many contenders amongst the youth of today. Such a talented bunch.

A new toy

I have been looking at the Big shot for a long time.... but thought it was too expensive mainly because I do not do a lot of paper work.. but had thought it may be useful for fabric. So what changed?

Well yesterday and offer came through the email with a 25% off coupon. So with yet another birthday on the horizon and the C as well. I was persuaded to buy as my presents for this year.

The cut outs on the left are fabric placed on white paper... the ones on the right are white paper placed on coloured fabric.....am I impressed you bet!!!

I have not even started embossing or printing with it yet...... are you impressed?

Then I was tempted even more by ....Gill. What a temptation !!!!!

Only Words

A recent visit to the New Brewery Arts in Cirencester was most enjoyable. The current exhibition -Only words- is well worth a visit... but be quick it finishes soon. Have a look here

for more details.

A variety of artists interpreting their thoughts on the literary festival makes for a thought provoking exhibition.

Tea and cakes in the cafe is also a bonus to the visit.

African fabrics

I purchased these African fabrics about 18 months ago, and really liked them, but had no idea how to use them. In fact I have over that time gathered 14 fat quarters of indigo fabric and 1 red. I bought them from Magie Relph... have a look here.

With an exhibition looming for the new year, and the theme being patriotic colours..... I suddenly had a lightbulb moment and have decided how to use these lovely fabrics. I have a design and idea in mind, and so the first stage was to wash the fabrics to remove the excess indigo dye. I have about a month to complete this.... will I manage to meet the deadline? I'll let you know.

Ice Hockey

I took this photo some 20 years ago. My youngest son played for the Great Britain junior Ice Hockey team at the time.
He has just taken up Ice hockey again with the recreation team and had his first match last night. He is loving it, but I am pleased he is proving he is fit, and has emerged uninjured from the match.
He was chosen by the manager to play on the first line defence, and had plenty of ice time.
He thoroughly enjoyed himself. Well done Peter.

Am I becoming a bag lady??

I had just finished making this lovely bag and had used 3 fat quarters, which I had purchased from Cupcake Cottons a local quilt suppliers based in Burford. I had a look at their blog last week and found they were celebrating their 1st Anniversary of trading with a give a way. I was so proud to have won a prize in their give away and even more pleased when it arrived.

This lovely bag .. do have a look at their shop in Burford if you are in the area... it is really lovely.

Venetian Purse

As a trade in of class skills, Kath came to my studio and gave me a class on making a venetian purse. It is a workshop that Kath gives to Embroiderers groups around the country. I had given a class to Kath all about dyeing with procian dyes. We had great fun on both workshops, working with each other.

Stitches use and abuse

One of the tables at a recent workshop, I love to see the creative nests that members like to work in.
This is one of my favourite workshops that I teach. This time I was teaching the Great Western Embroiderers. They were great fun and very hard working.


Just a small selection of the results..... fantastic. Hope to see these pieces of embroidery next month with even more stitching.

Swindon Magnetizer Exhibition

I received an invitation to join a most unusual exhibition. The request was to submit an image that could be used on a fridge magnet. The fridge magnets will form an exhibition around the town and if a member of the public likes it.. they take it with them.

In return for loaning my image I too will get a fridge magnet as a thank you. There is also the opportunity to exhibit the original piece of work in the Wyvern Theatre. More information here...

Knitting and Stitching, Alexandra Palace 2011

This is the famous window at Ally Pally from the outside, I only realised on this visit that there are statues right up on the top of the roof.

It was a wonderful sunny and clear day, and as you can see the view across London was splendid. You can click on any of these pictures to see more detail.

Started from home at 7am and travelled up with the coach, getting to Ally Pally by about 11am.

Inside at the Show, I visited the sellers area first, and helped my daughter to make the purchases on her shopping list. Unfortunately I was taken ill half way round and kept fainting... so were rescued by 2 very kind ambulance men. I really did feel silly not being able to walk myself to the fresh air.... but I am very grateful to them for wheel chairing me. After about an hour, and a cup of tea and a chocolate bar... all recommended by my medical attendants, I felt a lot better.

First stop was to go and see my dodger mate Dale... I only ever manage to see her once a year when she comes to Ally Pally... we managed to get a few minutes to chat, as she is alwys so busy on her well stocked stall- The Thread Studio.

I managed to see many of the exhibitions I had highlighted.. but as you can imagine had to leave a lot out to. Many of the exhibitors would not allow photos... so I shall leave them out.

However the Practical Study Group- now renamed the Textile study group

allowed me to take photos. I really enjoyed the work, especially as I know a few of the artists.

Another Exhibition in which I was able to take photos was the Islamic Exhibition by John Gillow. I did enjoy inspecting them carefully.

Another exhibition which I enjoyed was Beryl Dean, celebrating 100 years since her birth. She was a wonderful and dedicated Church embroiderer. A huge showing of many of her works... no photos allowed alas as they were selling a catalologue for £10.00

Must also give a huge thank you to Kevin of Art Van Go.. when he heard about what happened to me... he gave me a hand fan, and I have to say it was a great help during the afternoon.

A great day, which I thoroughly enjoyed despite the unexplained fainting bouts. As usual spent all my money, but very sensibly on procian dyes and transfer paints. I also bought Jan Beaneys and Jean Littlejohns new book, which I have dipped into and it is very inspirational.... just what I need today as part of my recuperating.

Working in the October heatwave

The granddaughters have been back to the studio, it was very hot, but the studio was pleasantly cool despite the wax pot. The 2nd waxing of the batik work took place today.

The second layers of colour dye were also applied, they were thrilled with the results. A great deal of discussion around the topic of how to use them was developed. I think the decision is for me to bulk buy some small A5 sketchbooks and these will be beautiful covers for them.

So we decided to use up all the left over dye to dye some fabrics in plain/ space dyed colours to complement the batik, so we could make the backing covers for the sketchbooks too. Their respective parents were very surprised to find all these plastic bags of dye and fabric going home
and instructions for the rinsing and washing to be done today.

In the meantime I have not been idle.. I have finished 2 of these using different hand dyed threads for the kantha quilting.

I have also been playing with the lettering capabilities on my embroidery machine and making slips which I have then machined down and quilted by machine. It has been great fun, and I feel sure I have not even touched the surface of the capabilities of my sewing machine for lettering.

Stow on the Wold

Had a lovely day today teaching a workshop to the Embroiderers at Stow on the Wold

They worked really hard and at their own admission outside their comfort zone at times, but that added to the fun.

The group meet in a village Hall, just outside Stow and it is such an idyllic Cotswold setting, a most enjoyable day with hard working enthusiastic stitchers. Weather was warm and sunny for Autumn.... Absolute Bliss!

Artsite Gallery

Although the Open Studios officially finished at the weekend, the Exhibition in support at the Artsite Gallery continues for the next couple of days. As a member of Artsite I have 2 pieces of work there. So I spent a very pleasurable afternoon stewarding yesterday.

The weather was not very pleasant, but we had some lovely visitors.

I am pleased to say this couch had been moved away from under my work during the exhibition . I can understand it may have been needed for the launch evening. The exhibition is closing this weekend.... so get along soon if you want to see it.

End of Open Studios

Here is part of my studio, ready for visitors yesterday... isn't it tidy? It has been a great 2 weekends of Open Studios, I have really enjoyed inviting friends and fellow artists into my studios and talking about the work and the studio itself.

I did manage to get some work done whilst talking and showed visitors how to use the embellisher machine.

I was also thrilled to know that many of my visitors will be back, as they also interested in working with me in my studio to learn how to dye fabric and threads, how to batik, and also free machine embroidery. so have booked classes with me. I can manage 2 people at a time in my studio, so they will get lots of personal help.

I even made use of the sink area to show off a couple of my sketchbooks. Look how clean the sink was too!

Now comes the hard work, carefully putting away the bits of unsold work so I can get back to normal and creating my mess.

Think I would like to do this again next year.. it was great fun.

Jane Greenoff visit to her studio

This is the stitching I did for today. Had a wonderful day stitching with Jane Greenoff at her studio in Fairford, which is just down the road. This is her new Flowery mead band sampler. A variety of stiches and techniques. The lunch was fabulous too. Jane is most generous and if you get a chance to attend a day with her.. do go. Well worth it.