Non sewing creativity

Why is it that whilst I am not allowed to eat (I can only have my special liquid diet bottles) I want to cook? OK - so I have been diagnosed with Crohn's Disease - I have an urgent hospital procedure on Tuesday - Yuck!!

Anyway yesterday  I  made Gingerbread Latte Fudge, Black Forest Fudge and then some plain coffee fudge making up my own recipe!!

The first two are from a lovely book, which goes with the recent TV series - Sweets Made Simple (starring Hope and Greenwood).

Today, once I have finished cleaning the house, I hope to get back to my next Zentagle Doors piece.

Tangled Doors

I won't bore you with the diagnosis of my illness - but tell you about my latest piece of work instead! I have spent another lovely weekend with my friends in MEG. I have just finished another Zentangle stitched piece based on my doors project from a few posts ago .....

I just need to mount it now.
I am going to plan the next one as I am really enjoying Zentangling like this.

New Work

Sorry it has been a while since I last wrote but I have a) not been well - still, b) its been too hot and sunny to work and c) I have been busy :-)

I have had two wonderful weekends away with my lovely textile art friends - the first weekend was with the MEG group in Salisbury. The second was a long weekend (Friday to Tuesday) with the group Textile21 where we were in Kingcombe.

So what was I doing? Firstly making more of my Waste Not Want Not products - I now have Mug rugs, brooches and bracelet/cuffs -

 

NEXT - I finished off stitching on the Doors piece I have already shown you - then I started work on a Zentangle version of my Doors piece - its A3 in size and as you can see is still a work in progress.

 FINALLY - I started another piece - it is much bigger and although it has started off in the same method  - as I work on it, it may change.  I can only show you the work in progress at this time as it has a very long way to go.

I chose two of my favourite door photos and cut them in two sizes - arranged them in a pleasing design, then doubled, mirrored and off set it.

The textile background is still in the Wendy Dolan technique of white on white fabric then painted, although I have found online that this technique has been used for many many years by loads of other artists so its not just Wendy's technique. Anyway - white on white then painted in a delicate violet and azure blue.

 Here I have just started the stitching of the design outlines.

A birthday present

I showed my Three Kings - Zentangle piece to some of my work colleagues - those who understand the odd creative textile things I do.  One said I should do other pieces - not seasonal.  She likes Poppies and her birthday is on Tuesday so today I have created this....



It is A5 in size and I a stretching it to a small canvas - hope she likes it.





Oh -  and this is the rainbow over my house on Friday..... sorry its at an odd angle but I was leaning out of the window ad if you look carefully you can see it is actually double - from the bottom right corner of the photo is the second layer

Three Kings 1 - Zentangle - Complete

The first of my Three Kings projects is finished - well up to the point of all the stitching is complete - now  I need to decide if I mount it on a canvas or turn it into a quilt - any suggestions?  The full piece and a couple of close up photos.  By the size - from base of stitching to top of stitching it measures 40 cm (16 inches).

Three Kings Update

So I have made a little progress on the first of my Three Kings Project, but before I show you that - once I mentioned to a friend that I am collecting Three Kings cards she found hers from this Christmas together with a couple of other cards I think I would like to translate......

So the first translation - I have redrawn the card, Zentangled it

 and have started a Free Machine version... not sure how I will add the gold highlights I added to my drawing.

Starting Yet Another Project

Whilst today is a good stomach day (fingers crossed it lasts) I have actually decided on yet another new project!!  This year I received some more rather lovely Christmas cards of The Three Wise Men  - I now have quite a collection - so -  I think they need to be translated - don't you ?!! -

OK so January is a bit of an odd time of year to start work on a Christmas Theme but at least I am 'doing' something!!

2012 - Happy New Year

Happy New Year to all my blogging friends. Hope it's a good one for you. I decided not to make resolutions as I always make the same - to lose weight, exercise more (once the knee op is out of the way) etc. This year my family suggested we all write a list of our top 5 wishes - they could be mundane to the ridiculous. Any thing we really would like if it was at all possible - to have or to achieve. Then we would spend the next year trying to achieve these top 5 desires and to help each other achieve their wishes too. My list is currently 12 items long. I did ask my daughter to help choose the top 5 - she did help but only suggesting the top 4. I will not tell you which ones they are but will try to achieve any of these (written in the order I thought of them not the order to achieve them):

1. Go to New York again
2. Go to Venice for the carnival
3. Visit my dear friend Jan
4. Go Riding
5. Spend a weekend at a health farm
6. Dye my hair purple (have it bleached first to make it vivid)
7. Build a vanity unit and cover the pipes in the downstairs loo
8. Buy a 'good' orthopaedic mattress
9. Buy a dress (not had one for years)
10. Buy some really good quality saucepans
11. Tile the kitchen
12. Get a Kindle when they are in colour.

Then there are the four art related wishes - have these every year :-) :

1. Exhibit my quilts/costumes
2. Make more costumes
3. Make some small art pieces to sell (like the cuffs)
4. Go to the quilt show at the NEC

There I have written them down - now let's see if I achieve any!!

In the meantime I have been following the Sketchbook Challenge with great interest throughout 2011 and have decided to try my hand this year. Click here to get more information. I may not do every months theme but I have decided to try mostly because the January theme is 'doodling' and it means I can zentangle. So what I have done is used my New York skyline picture (see previous posts) and filled it in.... this is it up the right way...

but it also looks good upside down.....

and on its side!!

All look OK but a bit busy - don't think I will use the filled in for anything else.

Muse 1 Nearly complete

Never having made a quilted hanging before - Muse 1 has been a lovely learning experience - I have not used any books etc to learn how to put it together. There is a bit more to go but today I quilted the edge (I was told this was what it needed by Jane Lemon) and now I am about to stitch some bias binding to finish the actual edge. The only bit I am unsure of is whether to have some of the binding showing on the right side or not. I personally like it without but don't know.

Teaser

For those of you who were worried that once I had finished the Fairies I would not have anything to do.... all is well - here is a little teaser of my latest project.... The tension is a little rough for the first pass but it will be OK once it is finished. You will have to wait and see !

Oh no still no machine

The Bad news is my old Bernina - which I am using for Oberon is still not repaired - its been at the repairer since before Christmas - now he has discovered the gears need replacing so it's going to be mega expensive to fix but I need it. I will not use my Pfaff on Rusted fabrics. In the meantime I am back to working on Mustardseed and First Fairy.
The Good news is that my zentangle commission (click here for the blog reference) are now up in their owners home!! The pics are a bit dark but I am so proud!!

Commission Complete - big GRIN !!

Whilst my car was being fixed I had time to get on with my commission - in fact I finished what I had to do and sent it off to the 'customer'- as she is very happy with the result I will explain more here. I can't show you the final result as someone else has a bit to do yet!!

The commission was to embroider borders on a truly beautiful (expensive) silk to be made into a pair of curtains and a false blind in my zentangle style. Here is part of the blind once I had finished stitching. As you can see I was working directly onto the fabric and not creating bands to be stitched on later. Now the three pieces are with another lady for making up into the curtains and blind. Once this has been done I hope to have photos.
OK so who was my commission for well this lady......... Jane Lemon no less!!!! They are to go in her dining room, a room that is regularly seen by her guests and it is such an honour for me to have my work in her home. - so now you can understand my nervousness before starting and my joy that Jane loves what I have done. For those of you who don't know Jane here is a brief biography I found on the web:

Jane Lemon is one of Britain's most celebrated embroiderers, who for many years has commanded the respect of all those who have been fortunate enough to hear her speak, been her student, read her books or who have been able to see her work.
After years of experience as a costume designer for BBC Television and in the theatre, Jane co-founded, in 1978, the Sarum Group at Salisbury, particularly noted for the design and working of ecclesiastical embroidery; she is its Chairman. After spending several years developing and teaching the art of embroidered box making, she has achieved her ambition of working entirely in ecclesiastical embroidery. Her designs may be seen in the Cathedrals of St Albans, Exeter, Salisbury and Wells, Bath and Sherborne Abbeys, and many churches around the country including two venues in the USA.
Jane is an honorary member of the Embroiderers' Guild of Great Britain, having previously served on the Executive Committee for a number of years. The Royal School of Needlework has made up a number of Jane's designs at Hampton Court Palace. In 2004 Her Majesty the Queen accorded Jane the accolade of being appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire for her services to needlework.

THANK YOU JANE!!

Update on the commission sample

I think I have done enough on the sample piece for my commission - I will post it off on Tuesday and wait for comments. My thoughts - the one on the right is too small and the gap between the 'flowers' is too big. The one on the left is just right. I will keep you informed :-). Now my head, eyes and shoulders hurt so I am taking a break!!

Sorry it's been a while (and 1 textile pic!)

Sorry I have not posted but I have been busy! Last weekend I attended the second part of the three weekend course at Urchfont with Janet Crowther - no pics (sorry). Then I helped my daughter move home on Monday - I love my daughter but she sure has a lot of stuff - we filled the garage, my kitchen, her room, her brother's room, the hall and a landing! I usually do 1 load of laundry a week - we have done 12 loads so far!! I have taken a car full (very full) of her stuff to the charity shop and there have been 5 bags for the bin men to take away so far!!!! Oh and there are now three boxes of stuff for me - 'it may be useful' stuff!! So my workroom is also filling up!! Hopefully it will all be organised soon!! To give you an idea of what it looks like - this is my kitchen at the moment..

She has gone back to London for this weekend so I hope to a) tidy the kitchen a bit and then b) get on with my textile commission.

So I have had no time for art work :-) So a quick update on the garden instead.... the beans - Norma to answer your question they are yellow french beans! - all 25 germinated so we should have loads later in the summer. I have lots of 'forget me nots' in my garden - all the normal blue - but why is this clump coming out pink?? I thought I would lose this clematis in the frost but NO - it is better than ever... My grandmother's garden had been full of Lilly of the Valley and I love it so I have a pot and more in the border - it is gradually taking over (Yippee!!) (you can just make it out here amongst my herbs)... The Iris in the front garden looked like this last weekend and now it looks like this... Finally a bit of textile work - I have mentioned my commission - well I have the fabric now - it is a beautiful woven silk - this is the start of my practice piece... Norma to answer your question here - I am free machining using my standard Pfaff sewing machine.