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Wednesday, 30 April 2014

Needle Felting on Wool Fabric

30th April 2014

Had a busy morning gardening in the park,  a 2 mile walk along the promenade with Jack then decided to make a couple of cushion covers with a needle felted design.....


...hand made felted merino fleece placed on wool fabric....


.....needle felted in place...


....free machined in variegated thread....


...needle felted...



....stitched...( the colour is actually deeper than the photo!)


...hope to make up the cushions tomorrow.

I love the feel and texture of needle felted designs.





Tuesday, 29 April 2014

A Lovely Trip To Garstang

29th April 2014

A beautiful morning so we decided on a trip to Garstang, a market town, about 16 miles from us....

...this was the car park entrance.....


...so beautiful and well cared for....


....a walk along the river.....



...wild garlic, such a beautiful flower....


...I do love trees!


More wild flowers...


...bluebells and the river...


....hills in the distance....


....I loved this idea, a memorial branch around the tree.....


....loved the marking on the bark....


...these dogs were gorgeous, the one on the right is a puppy of 9 months!!!


It was the first time in the river for the puppy and he loved it!!!


The whole area, including the town, is so well cared for ...


.....the residents obviously take great pride in their town.


                                     


This sculpture was to commemorate the private land being given to the people of Garstang
to make the Millennium Park which is mainly a natural area.


Saw three ducklings as we walked back....


.....so great to see buds bursting, all the shades of green in the plants and trees and hear the birds singing!

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Called in at a couple of charity shops on the main street and bought yarn for my pompoms and a couple of paper backs for 98p!

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Also visited the Artroom Gallery where beautiful craft/art work is for sale.

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A visit to Barton Grange for a snack on the way home....


....this is an award winning garden centre, the food is locally sourced and is delicious....

...bought some herbs, tomato and pepper plants.

A new sculpture in metal and glass at the exit....


......the metal 'flowers' are a water feature, wish I had a huge garden!!









Sunday, 27 April 2014

A Relaxing Day

27th April 2014

I have had a lovely relaxing day and my son is cooking!

Finished my book, made a cake-it won't win any prizes but won't last long....


....stitched my bark onto a painted canvas frame....


.....and printed with a cork on another piece of bark.....


....not sure how I am going to stitch yet, watch this space.....

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Have quite a few courses to look forward to....

Marbling on 10th May

Sketch book course with Anne Brooke on 18th May

Week course with Anne Griffiths in July

Festival of Quilts at NEC 

Stitched collage with Anne Brooke in October





Saturday, 26 April 2014

Printing and Hand Stitching on Tree Bark

26th April 2014

Had a great day, went for a long walk .......




...wonderful clouds!

Next printed on my tree bark....


....then stitched....


...using chain, stem, blanket stitch and tiny black beads!

Ideas for stitches came from these two books..



..both are very good with excellent illustrations.






Friday, 25 April 2014

Stitched and Quilted Leaf Print

25th April 2014


Had my daily stitching fix!

I backed the leaf printed fabric with fine wadding and medium vilene. Using variegated thread I free machined around the leaf parts and zigzagged the centre vein.....




..then using my quilting foot stitched around the leaf in a paler variegated thread.

This idea might be used to make placemats.

I used my tree block to print on thick white paper then mounted this on black card to make a card.....


....quite like it. 

Might make some more in different colours to raise funds for the park.




Thursday, 24 April 2014

Printing and Stitching

24th April 2014

Pilates this morning, think I will be feeling my muscles tomorrow!!

Yesterday afternoon I used my new blocks to do some printing, just experimenting....


....really love the tree and decided to print on some coarse linen-natural and black-.....

...forgot to take a photo before I stitched in satin stitch around the edge using variegated thread....



....white fabric paint on black linen....


                                        

...decided to free machine in silver thread....


...like it but don't know what I am going to do with it!!!!


Hand stitched in blanket, chain and stem stitch....


...really enjoyed stitching this listening to Radio 4!

The linen is backed with felt.

Ready for stitching...


.....printed on some of my dyed linen/viscose. I printed two so that I could both hand stitch and free machine to see the different effect.

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Started the next blanket in Debbie Bliss organic 100% cotton in natural shade....


...made up this pattern using basket stitch which looks the same on both sides, ideal for a baby blanket. Lovely soft yarn......





Wednesday, 23 April 2014

Continuing the Journey ......

23rd April 2014

 I posted my final course work off yesterday and then spent a couple of hours looking through all my lovely textile books to see what took my fancy!! I also made a list of jobs to be completed.

 Finished the bunting for my stall on our Fundraising day in the park.....


.....not sure about the pom-pom idea, will ask 'the committee' at our meeting tomorrow.

Pom-poms are so easy to make with my Clover Pom-pom maker, I now have 4 sizes!!

Next I decided on this book for ideas.....


...so many great ideas....



......found these samples to hand stitch....


.....some paper I made with silk tops...



.....and this piece of woven hand dyed fabric which has couched threads and some machine embroidery....


.....going to experiment with hand stitching and maybe even some beads. 

Lastly I used the Sizoflor I bought at the Excel to make covers for small handmade books.

This product was really easy to iron on brown/silk paper and I will decorate with stitch, papers, lace buttons etc....


...the top piece is the Sizoflor and I also used some of my jute and dandelion hand made paper.

I really must sort out all my stash, maybe in colours, wish I had a studio!!

Think I might try out my new wooden printing blocks on a variety of materials this afternoon........