Scumbling

On the few rare occasions that I succumb to watch television (Midsomer Murder's, Silent Witness and Grand Designs), when they're on, I hate sitting hand's free. So now all three shows are on at the moment I've been getting back to my scumbling, a combination of knitting and crotchet and I've taken mine a step further by now adding needle felting to some of the pieces. I'm not sure what it will be but I'm enjoying the process.

As some of you have joined me in Emma's birthday postcard swap, I thought I'd show you Emma's gorgeous collage card that arrived during the week. Emma's opening one a day on her blog so it's well worth a visit to see all the wonderful array of cards she's receiving.

This is the one I received from Emma.

This is the one I stitched for Emma. It's OK to show it now as she opened mine on Saturday.

Once again I'd like to thank everyone for visiting my blog and for those who leave lovely comments. I do try to get back to as many as possible but I seem to be stretching time to the limit at present. I do appreciate the time you all take to drop by and if I haven't caught up with you, here's a big hug and a thank you.

Vintage canvas and plastic palettes

I'm holding another workshop at home on Saturday June 26th. This one is making a vintage canvas, which uses the back of a standard wooden framed canvas with a small flat canvas, decorated then wired into the centre space. If you're interested in attending send me an email and I'll give you the details. Here's a few images and details of the finished canvas.

I've also found a use for disused paint palettes. When I hold a workshop that requires the students to use paint, I give them a white, soft plastic disposable plate. When I was cleaning up after one of my workshops I was amazed at some of the colour combinations on the plates. I decided to cut out some shapes, flowers, hearts, circles etc then stitched them onto one of my fabric journal pages. I've been using them ever since. They make great tabs for the sides of the pages too.

Here's an example.

The disused palettes.

The cut out flower.

The flower stitched onto a journal page.

I rather like the look of the next palette showing through the cut out. 

I will probably stitch these two together for another effect.

Very long post

I've just finished my latest journal and have added it to my etsy store, these are just some of the pages. There are one hundred in total, consisting of fabric, some hand dyed, my decorated papers and some blank watercolour paper, well as blank as I can get, I hate seeing plain white paper so they all have a little decoration, but still have room to work on. I've done lots of stitching in this journal and have added prints and original pieces of my art.

SOLD

I purchased a beautiful painting from Magaly Ohika's etsy store after reading her article in Cloth Paper Scissors. It arrived today and it's even more beautiful in reality. I love Magaly's style, her work is so unique. You can see her work on her blog The Itsy, Bitsy Spill.

Finally I'm busy working on a postcard size piece of art for Emma. It's her birthday soon and she hopes to get fifty people to swap a postcard size piece of art with her to celebrate a major birthday. If you want to join in visit her blog here, it's a great idea. I can't show the piece yet but will once she's received it.

Journal and workshop

I've now completed another large fabric, decorated paper journal which I will be adding to my Etsy store this week. I've used my latest stitched piece for the cover and added buttons down the spine. The cover is edged with sari silk ribbon. This is another large journal with 100 pages made from my decorated papers, fabric and watercolour papers.

The cover and spine

Stitched flower with hand painted leaves and stem

Fabric houses on my hand dyed and painted fabric background.

A small print of one of my original pieces of art.

Hand painted and dyed fabric background with a painted lace doily. Print of a section of one of my canvases and a cut out painted heart.

I love using clothing labels as in 'Peace Angel' above. The photo is of freesias taken on one of my walks down the beach. 

I'll add more photos this week of the rest of the journal.

Saturday I had a lovely group of students attend my hand carved stamp and stencil workshop. They made some fabulous stamps including the two elephants, Nicky and Sue are holding.

Busy carving, this was a small group which gave everyone plenty of room to spread out.

Finally I received this beautiful piece of stitched art from Dot a couple of weeks ago for my birthday. I admired this piece when Dot brought it for show and tell at one of our get togethers earlier this year. The colours are wonderful, my photo doesn't do the piece justice, there is so much work in it with tiny stitching and miniature buttons and beads.

The Winner is?

Thank you everyone for all of your comments and concerns re my father. He's still in hospital, but has made very good progress. We and the doctors are trying to sort out what's best for him when he's released from hospital, what he wants is very different from what he needs.

My dear husband had the task of drawing out the name for my give away last week and the winner is

SUE MAHER

The package will be on it's way to you shortly Sue.

I've been playing around with my new sewing machine and have just finished this piece which will be the cover of another large journal that I hope to have finished by the end of the week. I'm working on a small journal at present which I hope to have on my Etsy in a few days. I'll show photos here when it's finished.