Mini Quilts

This year I am taking part in the Contemporary Quilters Guild Challenge to make a 10" square Journal Quilt each month.  The first 4 have the theme of Circles.

So here is the first one!

Feb 2011

Based on the poem 

' Spell of Creation' 

By Kathleen Raine

The background is hand dyed then breakdown printed, the image was applied using markel stick and applique along with lots of free machine quilting.

Graduations & Handbags

So our son is about to Graduate 1st Class Hons MPhys this month, much to our delight....I've got my outfit as the dress code is smart, I even managed to find shoes.!!  Try as I might I couldn't find a handbag to go with the outfit, so in desperation at the weekend I headed to my workroom, raided my stash and set to with the sewing machine.  

What do you think.......smart enough???

Detail from the bag front

Flutterby

This little beauty fell at my feet this morning when I opened the shed door.  There she sat, despite me telling her she was going to get run over by the lawn mower if she didn't move!  But she sat, ignoring me.  Maybe she was cold and needed to warm up before she could fly so I gently lifted her and placed her on a leaf in the sun.  Wouldn't you know, 20 minutes later her antennae were up and she was looking perkier and shortly after that she took flight and went on her way.
I am slightly flummoxed by her appearance, we've not seen this butterfly before in the garden!  Any idea of who she is??

Exhibition

For those of you who would have liked to come a quick snapshot of the recent exhibition .........

Am I going to do it all again next year......you bet I am!

Tweet Tweet !

A couple of weeks ago I was very fortunate to catch this beautiful scene.......Mummy bird feeding her chick who was sitting in the Lilac Tree.  Fortunately the camera was near by and I managed to get a few snaps before both birds flew off to hide in the privet hedge.  Not having seen this bird before in our garden I was intrigued to find out what it was and after much debate settled on it being a very rarely seen House Sparrow, a fact that was later confirmed by our twitching friends.

Isn't he/she a cutie!

Finished In Time!

I have been very excited about this piece of work for the upcoming exhibition!

Last year we went to Westonbirt Arboretum for the Festival Of Trees.  Every year, as part of the forest management a number of trees are felled and these are then sliced up and sold on to the public.  I bought 3 beautiful pieces of Yew each one about 5 -6 feet long!   They have been sitting in the shed, allowing them to season naturally and are now ready to be used.  After much sanding and waxing here is the finished piece, which, of course has been used to showcase a piece of textile art!

I love the shape, colour and texture of the Yew and being a Traditional English Longbow Archer this is what our bows would originally have been made of.

  The feet were made by a friend out of wrought iron and the whole thing stands about four and a half feet high.

12 Days and Counting

There are just  12 days to go before Open Studios starts.  Think I am organised but not sure if I'm ready!!!

Just a few little snippets from the cowparsley series below, If you want to see the whole pieces why not come along and say hello!!

 

Will post some more pics when I've sorted them out!!

If you would like an Open Studios Brochure to see all the artists taking part then drop me a line and I'll post one out to you or visit the website.

www.open-studios.org.uk