A Little Bit Of Doodling

Needing a little bit of a kick start to get the old brain cells going

again I decided to take part in a Strathmore Studio workshop

with Tracie Bautista on Doodling.

I figured this would be a good way to get back into my creative zone as there are

no hard and fast rules to abide by and the workshop can be downloaded

so you can dip in and out of it at your leisure.

So, here is the first of my New Year Doodles!!

  Some of the found objects waiting to be used.

Stencils, lace, washers & rubber bands.

 Feathers, sequins, leaves & letters.

 The first stage of painting........

 Adding more colour and texture using Markel sticks, oil pastel and paint.

 The finished piece with Indian ink & more paint added.

Roll on the next part of the workshop!

 Strathmore Workshops can be found here

strathmoreartiststudio

A Glimpse Of Things To Come

Now the festivities are over it's back to work with no excuses. 

My little studio space has been sorely neglected over the last few weeks and it feels good

to be getting back in there and to being creative.

I've been working on a few pieces which are almost complete and thought I'd give you a sneaky peek of things to come!

These should be finished within the next couple of weeks so pop back to see the final results!!!

Happy Christmas

Wishing you all a

Very Merry Christmas

And

A Peaceful New Year

Thank You all for dropping by.  Hope next year brings lots of

creative inspiration and the courage to follow your dreams.

x 

A Little Bit Of Sparkle!!

Saturday saw myself and a group of ladies spending the day creating beautiful

Winter Wonderland mini quilts.

  I had been invited by the Dorset Branch of South West Quilters to teach my Winter Wonderland workshop.

So Sat dawned very foggy down in Weymouth, Dorset, 8am saw me driving through the fog to Portisham Village Hall, just along the coast from Weymouth. An ideal venue to host a workshop.  Lots of space for everyone and very light and airy.

My class consisted of 14 very lovely ladies all of whom set to, and started creating their backgrounds. 

Irene constructing her background.

A couple were horrified that they had to tear their fabric into strips, no rotary cutting on this workshop!  This is a very textural workshop so tearing is necessary.

Rowena adding lots of textures and sparkle!

At one point you could have heard a pin drop, such was the concentration in the room.

 

Desira concentrating !!

Having achieved the first layer of our complex cloth we broke for lunch to stretch the legs and put the world to rights!!

Then it was on to stage two, adding lots of threads, sparkles, snowflakes, a final layer of netting and plenty of quilting to hold all the layers together. 

This part went down well with the ladies being free to add as much or as little sparkle as they liked.  

 

They were definitely a sparkly bunch of ladies and were creating some fantastic backgrounds.

Once all that was done and quilted down it was time to add the trees, words and finishing touches.

 

  Everyone was pleased with their achievements and for some ladies it was a first and took them totally out of their comfort zone, everyone went away with a smile on their face having thoroughly enjoyed the day!

Linda's finished pieced with added trailing holly leaves. 

Pam added deer to hers

The almost finished pieces.


A big Thank You to Maggie & Desira the SWQ Dorset Reps and to
Maggie again for putting me up and putting up with me!!!

Celestial Dancers ......Adding the detail....

Time to start having fun with stitch.

  

The little dancers have been hanging on my design wall for a good wee while now. (Well over a month, more like six weeks!)  Family commitments kept me away from them, and, on losing my beloved father my artistic muse totally deserted me. It has been a struggle to find it but it is slowly returning and today has been the first day I have felt like returning to my little studio. 

In my little haven of peace and solitude, with my favourite radio station on in the background I lost myself in the calm and opened my inner door and let the creativity flow.

 As each dancer is seen in a different constellation of the night sky I have outlined them with a metallic thread, keeping the detail to a minimum. They are meant to be ethereal rather than solid beings.

 In keeping the detail limited the dancers maintain the strong impact that I am looking for.

 This little ballerina is my favourite, I love her poise and grace!

Eventually they will all be named after different constellations, these will be stitched onto the backgrounds with weeny small buttons sewn onto the strategic star points within the constellation.

A little peek

Just a little sneeky peek at my next CQ journal quilts.  There will be 4 altogether with my theme being Celestial Dancers.........

And Finally........

On to the last piece in the Apotecary Garden Series.

Sept 2011 

Honesty

Lunaria Annua

 

 

I just love the papery silver seed heads

on this plant,

Once again, please do your own research

before eating or using any plants yourself!!