Dodger Summer school

Some of my work completed yesterday, all experiments and samples.

I am having a wonderful and very creative week with 14 of my Internet chums. We are working together all week, rather like a retreat, good food , good wine, fantastic company and a real creative buzz happening and sharing of so many ideas and techniques.

We have been taking it in turns sharing teaching and we are awash with ideas for dyeing, transfer dying, printing with pasta machines, crochet, tatting, embellishing with the needle felting machines. plastic and metal jewellery. Naturally the presentation is very hi tech and lots of techie gizmos are being used

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This was the wonderful Wiltshire sunset tonight.

Getting ready

Just showing you the way ;0) ....... I have made a start on the "idea".. still not sure about the colour. It is a great yarn to make crochet chains, but I am not using a hook, using my fingers instead.
Will unravel the idea at our Summer School at Urchfont..... I'm getting very excited about it. are you?

Poppies in July

Very aptly for the month of July, I went to a workshop yesterday that the Marlborough Branch of the Embroiderers Guild were running, called Poppies. I have just finished the final bits of machining on the background this morning, so thought I would share it with you.

The tutor was Richard Box and the workshop was great fun.

Richard had kindly bought along a number of his drawings and pictures of Nature along to inspire us.

If you would like to chat to Richard and see what he is doing. He is Artist in Residence at

Nature in Art Twigworth in August... you can check out the details here.

Melting moments.

Its been a bit warm this last week, and I really thought I was going to melt .....but I am really pleased as I have managed to get all the work for the Barnstable Exhibition finished, and ready to go. Quite a feat in this heat.

The duck pond at Urchfont looked very inviting today................... but I had other exciting happenings to occupy me.




I took my finished work along to Urchfont today to hand over to a friend who will kindly be taking them to Barnstable for the hanging. A relief to be able to meet the deadlines, but non-the-less a strange feeling to see them being taken away.

There was another reason, however that a number of us were at Urchfont, it was the textile open day today. Some of the courses finish and it is an opportunity for the students to showcase their work and celebrate passing their courses. We like to go along to support them, and meet up with old friends and of course the home made cakes at Urchfont are to dye for.


Unfortunately , this year most of the students had decided they did not want the work to be photographed, but fortunately for me the group I helped to start way back in 2000 decided we could take photos. They are called Textile 21 and meet over 3 weekends a year at Urchfont. A lovely group of artists, and they showcased some of their work.. Great stuff, Well done Pat, and Jane.




A number of traders were in attendance as well.. and who can resist some molding paste and some wonderful wires and lametta in colours to saviour.


The drive back home through Avebury, showed that as usual it was very busy with visitors and the bikers were just starting to gather at the Red LIon.




This morning travelling through the village, the sheep were all around the stones, but later the visitors had them all to themselves again.





A great Day and good to catch up with friends. Another exciting day tomorrow at the Marlborough Branch of the Embroiderers Guild.
Richard Box is talking to us.

Good times

Have been having a good time recently with stitching and working. One of my main occupations at the moment is getting work prepared to go to Barnstable for September. I belong to a group called Urchfont Embroiderers and we are exhibiting at Barnstable Museum from the 12th September to the 7th November 2009. There are 7 members in the group and so we all need to send along a lot of work, so the final selection for the exhibition will look good. Hope you can go if you are in the neighbourhood. I shall be exhibiting my " faces " series.



Have also been trying to de- stash the loft of all the years of accumulated junk. Not much help from Mr Siamese..he would much rather watch from the bedroom. Such a big job to do, why oh why do we put so much " might come in handy" stuff, up there?



Took some of the grandchildren to Dyrham Park in the half term holiday. We had a wonderful time. The children were entranced by the deer and the 2 year old insisted on walking everywhere. Walking her towards the church in the grounds she went very heavy at the end of my arm, and when I looked down I realised she was asleep whilst walking! I scooped her up and carried her into the church.



My other main occupation in the summer months is involved with the national art exams. I have been travelling all over southern England, something I love to do. An opportunity to see such wonderful work.Mostly I am doing the driving.... but occasionally I am driven and then can take photos such as this one of Stone henge....I recently saw a fascinating programme by the Time team about Stonehenge... have a look here

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I have also been indulging my other passion - the stitching group Great Western Embroiderers. We had a wonderful session last week " getting knotted" We experimented and distorted all sorts of different " knotted stitches" It was lots of fun.
We had a number of new members too, and a gentleman, which is lovely. We are meeting next month at Lydiard House and will be sketching. drawing in the house and gardens as well as the expansive park. I am really looking forward to it. We visited the Church in March and that was very inspirational.
Of course last month saw the Radio 1 Music festival at Lydiard house, it was wonderful and a huge success with Lilly Allen and also a lot of local bands singing and playing. Most enjoyable.

The big tidy up

After a casual stroll around the garden this morning checking the flowering bulbs, then went back to tidying up the workroom / studio.

The dustmen are coming to empty the wheelie bins tomorrow, so it seemed like a good time to chuck the junk out of the room. As you can see, I can actually get to the sewing machine to stitch, and I have emptied my display board too. Its all ready for the next lot of work. Looking forward to starting some new themes for my work.



Could not resist starting on the sketchbooks straight away.... it is lovely to have space to move around. Luckily, so far I have managed to find what I need... bet that won't last. That's the trouble with tidying up...... can never find anything.

I have just updated the blog for GWE, if you would liek to see some of the work which was on display at the Steam Museum... pop over an have a look here

Great Western Embroiderers

We have been playing with Lazy daisy stitch at our meeting today. Such fun and so nice and relaxing to play with a simple but versatile stitch. We had a lot to chat about and had the chance to read through the comments in visitors book after the exhibition.

We are concentrating as a group on our next challenge. Our meeting next month is at a local attraction called Lydiard House and Park. A real amenity for all the family. We are not sure yet whether we will have another exhibition as a result, but we have so enjoyed working together on a theme, so we will continue working in this way.

I spent most of the day working chain stitch around the eyelets I showed you yesterday. I bought the thread from Myfanwy at Winifrid cottage, she dyes it herself and it a very pleasant variegated thread. A most pleasant day.

I am seriously thinking of changing the blog to the new layout.. which may mean I lose a lot of my stuff..... I may do it tomorrow if I can find the time. Must finish tidying the workroom /studio that I have started this week.

Seeing pink today

Isn't nature amazing... the colours in this sky are wonderful. Saw it whilst I was cooking dinner the other day, and just had to go and grab the camera.




I treated myself recently to an eyelet attachment for my elderly Bernina , I bought it on e-bay and have to say I am very pleased with it. This is the very first piece of stitching that I did with my new toy. Can see this will be featuring in my future work quite a bit.



Back to pink.......this poor plant is getting very confused. It flowered just before Christmas , in fact in November, and now its is flowering again. It is supposedly a Christmas cactus. Very odd but also beautiful..

Busy Times

What a lot to do and little time to do it....Christmas and New Year have happened since I last posted to the blog.

Happy New Year everyone... .......though a bit late........ is it March already?

The GWE group have just had a very successful exhibition at Steam Museum in Swindon. The Swindon Mayor came to open it and was very complementary about the work. He really enjoyed seeing the representative pieces. The local newspaper gave us a full page spread and an excellent article. Here is the link to the online version if you would like to read it, it does have less photos however..

http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/4128312.Embroidery_exhibition_is_better_than_the_rail_thing/

So, for the first part of this year I have been busy finishing the pieces of work for the Exhibition.

Hubby has also had his knee replaced, so have had a spell as "Nurse in charge" as well. Not something I am particularly good at either. My travels were also curtailed by the weather... all that snow, we were cut off from the world for a few days. It became very boring after the first few moments of excitement.

The beginning of February bought with it lots of family birthdays.. very pleasant and lots of cakes to eat. Then I had a wonderful treat.

Went to the Embroiderers Guild and Royal School of Needlework at Hampton Court Palace in London. It was a wonderful day out.. not very sunny but it did stay dry.

The Palace is quite renowned for its variety of chimneys as well athe knot garden.

This the the ceiling to Anne Boleyns gate and entrance.. amazing.

This weekend I have been away at my masterclass at Urchfont, absolutely wonderful. It has allowed me to reflect on the work I would like to progress for 2 exhibitions I have in September/October. Always a welcome respite to visit Urchfont and reflect on the way my work is developing.

Back to faces

I have been trying to take Goethe's advice, as per the featured phrase in my embroidery. Have been bashing the sewing machine to produce yet another face in stitch..... they have featured a lot over the last five years...... don't worry this is just a short Renaissance, whilst I get my head adjusted. Normal colour and abstracts will be resumed as soon as things get back to normal. Why is it we go back to trusted and safe practices when things get difficult??



I have been reading a thought provoking book called "Masterpiece" by Miranda Glover. Have a look here for more information. Just loved her choice of ladies featured by famous male artists and selling herself as a masterpiece at Sothebys. Hope you get the chance to read it. I borrowed mine from the local library. Has my vote for a good read. It is fiction, but uses " real" paintings. Certainly I suspect many of us can empathise with the notion of "struggle to reconcile the value of her art with the fundamental values of her life".Seems to be a constant struggle.......... to my mind!

I have also been reading " Concerning the spiritual in Art" by Kandinsky. I bought this from Amazon and have made lots of notes in the margins..... I will also have to re-read it I think. I would love to read the original version, mine is translated by M.T.H. Sadler. Not such an easy read as the last volume.
I am finding it quite hard to settle to concentrated art work.... I seem to be skirting around it all, and doing "safe" stuff. Maybe it is a combination of the time of year and dark evenings and .......me!

Carrie, in answer to your question about the the coloured shibori in the last post. I used transfer crayons and paper, then wrapped the paper, fabric around a tube and so when it was heated, the string made the impressions on the fabric. I just loved the effect. Have not got a clue how I will use it at the moment... no doubt something will occur to me soon.

Thanks for all the lovely comments about my return after a break. Spent some time yesterday digging around in my room and found the coloured Shibori I did at the beginning of the month, it was still wrapped around the pole and all stringed up ( is that a word?). So I untied it and am really pleased with it. Can you guess how I did it?

Ventured out into the garden today, lovely sunshine but bitterly cold. A hedgehog has been driving Herr schnauzer to distraction every evening with his presence in the garden. I really thoought they were supposed to hibernate this time of year. So I went to have a look in daylight.. No sign of the hedgehog, so maybe he only visits late evening when it is dark. Had a peek at the gardening catalogue that is in the garden being distressed. ( blame Maggie Grey for all these mad women collecting catalogues to put in the garden... quite ritualistic!).

Have also been playing with Gesso and making books.. just have some hand stitching to do and then put some pages inside..... was going to play this afternoon, but am now thinking after the groceries have been delivered, I may go for a walk, as its a lovely day. Weather men are promising us some rotten weather again tomorrow. But first will watch the Aussie soaps on the TV whilst I eat lunch.

Sabbatical

I made the heady decision that I would take a sabbatical for a month from blogging... and so here I am exactly a month later and back again. I have missed you all very much......





Its has been an exciting and enjoyable month of activities with lots of stitching and artwork. My original thinking for the sabbatical was not to mention what I had been doing over the last month on the blog, but I have found that difficult as I treat this blog like a diary for my own information. So I am just creating an update of the past month. A couple of birthdays needed to be celebrated, the first one was a five year olds and the other was a celebration of four cousins all born in the same year. We were last photographed together in our mothers arms as babies... I will look for that photo and try and add it in to the blog.... but here is the up to date photo.






We met over a weekend here in Swindon, and had a great time and lots of reminiscences.... we visited Steam for the BBC's Remembrance event and also went for a visit to Faringdon where our shared Grandmothers parents' lived for a while. Now to get back to stitching done this month.. and quite a lot of playing has gone on too.



The meeting of the GWE this month was really good fun and we stitched all day and we intend to do the same next month. We had the opportunity to report back about the West Country Embroiderers AGM in Exeter that took place just before. A lovely day and we were so impressed by the friendly and welcoming atmosphere. We treated ourselves to travelling by train... .. so relaxing.



Back in Swindon the week later I had a most enjoyable talk about peg looming at the AGM of the Swindon Branch of the EG



and at Marlborough Sian Martin gave a talk and workshop with Shibori.



It is ages since I worked with Sian and also ages since I played with Shibori. Needless to say I had a really good time and enjoyed myself immensely as you can see by my samples.



The masterclass weekend at Urchfont was tinged with sadness, as Julia Capara our mentor had died on the 24th October, we all missed her enthusiastic support for our work and her inspirational advice. The view from my room over the parklands of Urchfont Manor seem an appropriate image, however I suspect it is not colourful enough for Julia.



I was pleasantly surprised to see that my "Art in the Garden" contribution is featured in the new prospectus.. ... gave me that lovely warm fuzzy feeling. Julia was so supportive about us taking part in this outside exhibition. She had hoped to exhibit with us and you may recall the private view was in May 08, unfortunately she was too ill to finish her piece of work. So it was with some sadness we took our work down and away on this weekend at the end of October. I have to say considering my work had been outside on a sunny wall for one of the worst summers for years... the work looks the same as the day I hung it for the exhibtion. Amazing.



We focused on Drapery over the Urchfont weekend, artfully draping some white silk in preparation for some observation drawing. I decided to create a homage to Julia and recorded my drapery in a spectrum of colour rather than white..



Now this would not be a proper UK blog without mentioning the weather would it??
We have had some wonderful sunsets and some quite warm spells... but generally a very mixed bag of tricks. Today it has been sunshine and hail and a very cold and biting wind, not a day to venture out.




Back to the stitching. More recently, I had a last minute call from Gill....... could I please give a talk to her WI group for her , as she had forgotten she had to go to Paris? What a wonderful group of ladies they turned out to be at Avening WI. I had a wonderful time... we stitched by hand with lots of attitude!!! What fun, and very much a hands on practical type talk. I understand I am visiting them again next May and we are going to do some crochet. Really looking forward to it.



Last Sunday I visited Lydiard House which is only a few miles away, they had a small exhibition of the clothes from the family who owned the house. Most interesting, but could not resist taking some photos of the grounds. Here is the view over Swindon, I had not seen Swindon from this angle before.



However some of the trees in the parkland were beautiful.



So in true Disney fashion
That's all folks!!
Well for today anyway.