Green Man

After much deliberation on the placement of all the leaves 

the Green Man is finally finished and waiting to go 

off to it's new home.

Am a bit miffed that I managed to spell

calendar wrong, but, as this is for my

sister I know she won't mind!!

Green Man Version 2

Having finished painting the first Green Man I decided that

it wasn't quite right, the colours were too insipid and pale

Time to paint Green Man version 2.  Much happier with the

results.  He's been painted onto vilene using silk paints

and has now been attached to his background.  Just got loads 

of leaves to hand stitch on to expand his face and add some depth.

Box of Delights

Very excited to receive these fab

Anchor Pearl cottons.

Now I'll never have to rummage round

to find a thread in the right colour!

What a lucky girl I am!!

Going Retro

Found this fab salt & pepper pot in our 

local antiques arcades.

Very retro circa 1970

Just had to buy them as I absolutely

love the design.

Dressing the King

Stage two for the Holly King

is the leaves to expand his face.

Here are some of the finished holly

and ivy leaves,

some made using fabric and 

some stitched onto 

soluble vilene before it

is dissolved away.

The Green Man

It's been a while since the last post.

I've been enjoying to lovely summer weather we've been

having this year in the UK....

All good things must come to an end and 

so it's time now to get back into the groove again.

I've started working on a Green Man and 

have finally finished painting his face ready to be cut

out and attached.  There are lots of Holly & Ivy leaves

that are already made just waiting to be added.

A Public Spectacle!

Last week was 

WORLD WIDE KNIT IN PUBLIC WEEK!

www.wwkipday.com 

What better way to get involved than hosting

a public knitting event, in true British fashion......

howling wind and lots of rain falling on

our marquee set up in front of 

Newbury Corn Exchange

 who were laying on our knitting day.

By the end of the day we had had

lots of lovely ladies stop by to knit a few 

rows with us.  We even had a lovely

lady from Missouri who was on her

holidays stop by and knit with us!

By the end of the day we had just enough to 

yarn bomb one of the tall bar chairs in the 

Corn exchange.

Not bad for a small market town!!

Some of our ladies made bunting and others

made flowers and tassel's to put on the chair.

A great event and what a lovely way to

meet like minded people and make new friends!

Getting Back To It.............

Well exhibition time is over, the marquee has been 

taken down and packed away for another year and we

have reclaimed our garden.  It's nice to see it again, 

especially as our beautiful poppies are staring to open!

It's time to get back into creative mode again and what 

better way than to get out my printing board

and lose myself in a day of screen printing......bliss!!

So I've been commissioned by a lovely lady to make

a piece of work for her  lounge.  Below are the test pieces 

printed ready to be cut up and pieced for the background.

The design is taken from a Japanese pot.

                                      

I've also been printing fabric ready to be turned into book

covers and bags.  

The pieces below are screen prints onto fabric that

had been printed with disperse dyes during a 

previous dyeing day.  Each of the 3 pieces of fabric is

about eight feet long so plenty of room for multiple

prints!

Hand dyed fabrics with prints of my design....

Can't wait to start turning these into beautiful

book covers.....

Or maybe they will be bag panels.......who knows...

the possibilities are endless...............

Busy Times....

With the exhibition well under way I thought it was time to catch up on my

blog posts and put up some pictures of the main pieces of work.

This year all my pieces are based on Goddesses.

This series all came about with the passing of a truly amazing man,

my Dad.   

This first piece is all about him, his love of sea & river fishing.

All the swirls, dots & bubbles are happy memories of him 

and all the antics he used to get up to!

Sorrow

I have always found the Moon to be mesmerising.

It has a healing power that calms, heals and restores.

Moon Goddess

This  piece is all about renewal.  

As a child I lived in Australia, and no matter how

many bush fires occurred nature could never be halted.

She has an amazing ability to bring new life to the

most barren of places.

Re-Awakening

This last piece is about the cycle of nature.

Each spring nature awakens and makes our

world a place full of beauty and magic.

Tree of Life

It's Oh So Quiet.....

Things have been a little quiet on here lately

for good reason!

Once again it is coming up to exhibition time

and I have been beavering away 

finishing my pieces of work.

Why not check out 

the artists taking part in 

Open Studios

this year and

if you're in the area

I'd love to see you!

Keeping it warm.....

We've now got so many ladies coming to our 

'Stitch & Chat'  group that we

really did need a teapot to make all

those cups of tea in.

If you've got a teapot then it needs a 

'cosy'......

So, here is our 'Stitch & Chat' cosy..

alongside the cosy is one of my

favourite cups from

Ballydougan Pottery

in Northern Ireland

Wrapping It Up....

Just finished making a couple of

sample book wraps for 

a workshop I'm hosting 

in July.....

More loveliness

       There has been much beavering away in this household...

Over the Christmas break more hexies got sewn together 

and the pile is growing nicely.

The quilt is starting to take shape as I've begun

to stitch the flowers together......

Only about another 200 to go!!!

A little while ago I found this fab binding.

It's been sitting in my workroom waiting for the 

right project to come along.

So........

What better way to pretty up a couple of plain

white face cloths

for our guests to use...

And finally.........

It's back to the pool once again after the Christmas break

and to be honest I can't wait.

I've missed my 3k swim every week!

In need of a new swim bag I found some fab vinyl covered

cloth and set to turning it into my new kit bag.

A little pocket on the front holds my membership

card, handy for getting out to gain entry to the pool.

Out of the left over bits emerged a small bag, lined in turquoise dotty

fabric to hold my make up and jewellery.

Honesty

The idea for these little Honesty seed head

decorations came from  Landscape Magazine

                                                                              

                So we scoured the local hedgerows to glean what few seed heads were left

and found just enough to make these little beauties which we then hung

on the Christmas Tree!