OK... so I tell lies! I said I would keep this up to date and I haven't... sorry.

Anyway I have just had an exiting weekend away learning to use my Embellisher at a class with Maggie Grey.

Embellish and Stitch

I tried so many things and had a wonderful time in the process. Great thing was,not a single needle broken.... and only one other person in the room did break one.(this is just as well as I haven't, so far, been able to undo the Allen screw on mine yet!)

1. Marbling.Build up a surface on a piece of felt with fibres of choice silk or wool or both and make sure that there are some accents. I made mine too subtle for the following process so bear this in mind.Lay a piece of chiffon over the top. It needs to be considerably larger all round than the embellished piece. Start embellishing from the centre and bunch the chiffon to make areas of darker colour.It will scruch up deliciouslyInstead of this random way try embellishing chevrons. Embellish in straight line down the centre first. Then turn and embellish another line in the opposite direction about an inch away. The chiffon will naturally make tucks which need to be encouraged. Repeat to cover the piece.

2. Embellish and puff. Make an embellished background. Take another piece of embellished fabric, made form acrylic felt and cut out shapes. heat them with a heat gun from the back to make them curl.Apply these to the background.These cut puts can also be embellished together to make vessels.

3. Use ready made needlefelt for the background and apply monotone natural fibres.

4. Appliqué pieces of FME onto a prepared backgrounds .

5. Make backgrounds with voids on them. Cut out the void and apply either FME patches and blend in the edges with the embellisher. Can also use pieces from other Embellished backgrounds in this way.

6. Try embellishing habotai silk, organza and even the metallic organzas onto a background.try transfoiling velvet and then embellishing on top.

7. All of these techniques look good combined with stitch, either hand or machine.

Here are a couple of collages of some of my samples for you to see.

I have tried several times today (yesterday now!) to show you this pic and I couldn't so let's see what happens this time. I had several stitchy presents from friends this year as well as this book. It contains Haiku verse and is illustrated by Elizabeth Blackadder. The verse needs some thinking about as you need to understand what it all means and it is not always easy. I love it and I am sure there is some inspiration for art work in there too.

I also had a good video by Katherine Harris called Architextural images. She uses Buildings and such as her source and executes them in cloth or handmade paper with machine embroidery.

She demonstrates paper making and also runs a masterclass on the video. My only criticism is that there is little about her and nothing about the masterclass, such as where it was held and who the students are. Whoever they were, they were doing some lovely work.

I thought you might like to see the cushion I made for the Nora Jones Competition at our recent EG Christmas party. I didn't win but it was fun to take part.

There were some excellent entries. I put mine in the less experienced category as it was only the second piece of patchwork that I have done.

I think I did it. Changed to the new version of Blogger I mean. Please could an experienced someone comment and tell me if it looks OK?
It seems to have changed my Loose Ends list as well.... I remember some people saying that it didn't do it for them.
Thanks

Phew! I determined that I would reactivate my Blog today as it is the 1st day of the new year! However, the system defeated me and I see it is now 12.03am on the second day! Oh well, near enough I suppose!
I was trying to change over to the new version of the software and failed miserably, I think because I am tired, so I had better wait until morning now I think. I shall then regail you with all that is new!
Happy New Year everyone!

I have been speaking to various people via Skype today and generally having fun. Great little piece of free software that.
Sara told me off for not changing the dead looking teddy on here ... so tomorrow, I promise to update my pages. Sorry I have been so neglectful of them recently.
I thought I might upload a picture tonight but Blogspot won't let me.. so that's the end of that.

Marysia mentioned Alpaca this morning.

So I thought you would like to see Alpaca Ted playing dead on the scanner!

He's nice isn't he?

Here are not very good pics of my not very good Celtic Fragment!The detail is meant to show the stitching but you have to look hard!The colours are OK though except for that purpley colour on the edges of the canvas... it isn't really there, just an artefact! It's this border that I dislike so much... very ermmmm Brown!This is a mixed media piece of paper, felt, wax crayon, stitching.

I'm back now from my sojourn in Ferndown learning how to make little books. I really enjoyed it... especially after I asked the hotel to change my room as the first night was near a very busy road. I find that they quite often give the least nice of the double rooms to people who book a single!
Here is the view from my window overlooking the River Stour after they moved me... very peaceful. I couldn't get a really good picture as the window didn't open far enough.





I would love to do it all again having learned a little about how some of the effects are done. I made a start on three books.
One is a childs board book. I didn't use an old one but a new blank book. My theme for this one is daisies and I started by cutting a hole in the cover. This was originally intended to have something displayed in it but I might change my mind about that as I like what happened when I forgot to protect the page behind the cover before I painted it!
Here is a pic of it as it is at the minute but it will change. It looks a little darker here and you can't see the interference green overlay. It is going to have the word Daisy in little wooden blocks somewhere on the cover.




The second one is a pamphlet type using painted and stamped papers. This one is called 'Aspects of the Heart' and features some stamped words, a beautiful rubber stamp and some paper castings made from stamps.
The third is more like a folded pamphlet than a book and hasn't got very far yet. This one will display some of my odds and ends of samples. The reason it hasn't got very far yet is that I think I chose the wrong colours for the background and I need to reconsider.... I love the idea though.

Still working with the genealogy pics.

Now then, Who do you all think these are?

Bet Margaret can guess!

This is what I have been playing with this morning. The first scanned, hand coloured picture has a shrapnel hole in it from the Nov 1940 raid on Coventry. I have had a go at repairing it in Photoshop Elements. Thought some of you might like to see it.

I think if I am going to use it though I will have to re-photograph it as it doesn't all fit on the scanner.

I have also been having a look at how Paul Klee might have used the computer to produce his picture of the Golden Fish. Here is my version. I had to make the background of several layers in order to somewhat reproduce the effect. I then overlaid it with his images of the fish but these could also have been made .

I think he would have enjoyed having the use of a computer.

Hi Folks, it is high time I updated this.... been a bit busy getting things ready for my upcoming book classes. One of them is going to be about daisies I think. Here are a couple of background papers I made using a scanned image of a pressed flower.

I made another using a dropped shadow ... not sure which, if any I will use.

If I have time I will also print some onto shrink plastic and see what that looks like.

Excitements!
I went to a good exhibition yesterday at Letchworth Museum.

On the way back I called in at Art van Go! and discovered that they have their new brochure out now. So, on the spot I booked a two day course with Frances Pickering, called Textured Treasures. Little antique looking books. (she has a website)

Then this morning I booked a four day Summer School with Ruth Issett... I tried to resist but I just couldn't honest! I think I shall be exhausted at the end of all this. (I am already going to one with Maggie Grey in June!)

However... this is my Summer Holiday... I don't go on conventional ones any more!

The exhibition at Letchworth Museum was really good.

(When I finally found it that is! I rang in advance and was told to go into the multi-storey car park behind the Town Hall where there are disabled spaces. Guess what? No multi-story. It was an ordinary street level one. So I thought I was in the wrong place and went to another multi storey nearby. Duh! This didn't look right as they had said I could see the Museum from it. I asked a couple of folks who said there were two museums... which did I want? In the end a nice lady suggested that I tried the other car park again and she turned out to be right. Grrr! None of this would have been an issue if I could walk better.)

It was the work of the Images in Stitch Group, many of whom are members of our branch of the Guild but some from further afield as well.

Not everything was to my taste of course but I think the ones I particularly liked were those of Lynne Abbott whose stumpwork figures always make me laugh out loud when I see them. One called "The prayer of the 21st century Gran - Please, oh please bring back the pram". This is an image of a Grandma with shopping and a baby in her arms struggling to open a modern pushchair.The second one is called "Forty years on, the children are gone, peace and quiet, **** the diet". This is of a couple sitting relaxed in the garden with a glass of wine.Very comical.
Claire Wood's work a series of life poses was good too.
Sue Blake's work, who I don't think I have come across before was really delightful and different.
I always like Annwyn Dean's things which involve paper and stitch. (she lives partly near here and partly in the frozen north.. I think in Anne Honeyman's neck of the woods?).
Jill Izzard has done some really nice stuff based on messages I think in connection with a trip she made to India.
Liz Holliday has done a lot of work based on rock pools and fossils. She has previously done a lot of Mola work and I thought these showed the influence of that but she has moved it on a lot.
Liz McIntyre - Brown had some nice pieces there... although I have met her several times now, I hadn't seen any of her work and I liked it.
Rosemary Graver's Flower Studies were super.... very unusual.

Where is everyone today... all having a lazy day?
As promised, here is a pic of the THING being worn. The model was shy and didn't want her face shown, hence the awkward stance!
I think you will agree it looks better being worn.
I think it might look good if it had ties on it here and there .... what do you think?

I made a 'THING' today!
I have no idea what it's real name is but it doesn't know whether to be a necklace or a scarf I think.
I am not a knitter but a friend showed me one of these and when I next went to quilting class at the shop, they were selling the yarn and a free pattern for it and two others.
It is made in Sirdar Firefly yarn and I quite like it.
The pattern said to cast on 33 stitches, using the thumb method) onto 10mm needles. I did this and I thought it was far too wide and then ended up too short for me. It would be OK for someone skinny at that size though. I undid it (had to anyway as I dropped some stitches when casting off and couldn't pick them up again!) and restarted on 9mm needles tried 28 stitches... still too wide I thought... so I ended up doing 24.
You knit the whole ball of yarn in stocking stitch, then cast off loosely. You have a rectangle. Put one twist into the rectangle and then sew the ends up.
Voila! A THING!

I couldn't take a picture of it being worn, but I'll try to get Ann to wear it tomorrow and take one of her. It looks nicer on than off.

I know you are all waiting to hear about my grand Day Out with Jan Beaney and Jean Littlejohn .... so here goes.

It was an absolutely super-wonderful day.

I had been a little bit worried about what they would be like but they were so nice. Good tutors and very giving. I was concerned when I arrived that that there were so many students .. about 30 in all .. and we were split in two rooms but Jan and Jean circulated among the two rooms independently and all went well. I happened to have settled myself in the room that they set their wares out in and when they wanted to talk to everyone the others came into our room to listen. It worked very well.
They had lots of samples to show and they let me take pics but I can't post them I'm afraid.

They handed out little bags of materials they wanted us to use.

We were shown three techniques, all for making textures pieces.
1. Iron some Bondaweb onto background fabric. Iron gold film on top of that... try to make it a broken image... not too solid. At this stage it looks really garish and horrible. Next stage was to do some lacy knitting on big needles (15mm) spread that out onto the Bondaweb and iron it on. Then on top of that build up layers of texture with curonnes, threads etc. Makes a lovely textured piece in the end with that awful gold only glinting through.

2. Another textured piece, this time with irregular knotted buttonhole stitch worked in layer upon layer. Finally do some whipping stitch into this.

3. We used Aquabond which is a water soluble sticky backed fabric. (Barnyarns have it and call it Bond) We taped that down to the table carefully and laid out fancy threads in a grid pattern. The grid doesn't have to be regular. Then fill in the spaces in the grid with something like squares of fabric. Place a sheet of Romeo water soluble on top and press it down to make a sandwich and hold everything in place. At this stage choose whether to machine embroider over it, or hand stitch. We did hand stitching as we didn't take machines. I started with a grid of knotted buttonhole and will work another over that probably. Make sure all the threads in the grid are caught in the top stitching so that they will not fall apart when the sandwich is dissolved.
This will make a lovely lacy piece to add to other work.

This Aquabond was new to me and I think it will be very useful.

We had a super lunch provided by the Regional Chairman and her helpers and it was generally a really nice day. I think Jan and Jean were surprised to find it was a special day for us being the Regional Centenary workshop, so they donated the bags of materials as their contribution, saying that the Guild had been very good to them over the years. We had expected to pay for those so we were all chuffed.
Thoroughly recommend Regional days... at least in our region I have been to three now and they have all been good.

I did take pictures of their samples but didn't ask permission to post them so I can't. Mine are not far enough advanced, but I will show you when they are.

Jean has been doing some wonderful work on her embellisher and I was most impressed with what it can do in the right hands. The samples the company shows in their promotional literature would really put people off buying it I think! I think I might need one. I did ask her what she thought about the cheaper one that is on the market but she didn't recommend it.

I am off on another day class tomorrow (today). It is an E.G. Regioanl Centenary workshop with Jan Beaney and Jean Littlejohn at the Settlement in Letchworth. I'm looking forward to it but don't quite know what to expect. All I know is that it is hand stitching and will almost certainly be on a larger scale than I am used to.
Bags are packed and ready... that's got to be a first for me! grin
I should be doing all sorts of other things rather than this but I guess they will get done as well in the fullness of time.
I'll give you an update afterwards.... might even show you what I did.... if it is fit that is!

Hi There,
Today, I had adventures. I had to drive into London for a hospital appointment. It was a lovely day and for once the traffic wasn't too bad. Three interesting things happened on the journey.

1. Seed Dispersal.

Great demonstration of dispersal seed dispersal by wind power. I was driving along Du Cane Road past Wormwood Scrubs and also the A40 and the air was white with seed heads. I don't really know what they were but assume it was from the plane trees that line many of London's streets. They were looking particularly good today in their new green dresses.



2. The Future and the Present.

As I was driving, I was reminded of a picture of the future I saw as a child.... probably in a comic or something. Driving in along the A40 there was every sort of weird venicle imaginable on the road. Overhead there were several airoplanes... one huge one which was obviously going to land at Heathrow... it was very low in the sky, and several more distant ones glinting in the sun. There was also a big helicopter I think it was watching the traffic.
It struck me that this was just like the picture I remembered, except that one was predicting the future and here I was, in it!

3. Tulips Dancing

On a traffic Island in Wembley there was a lovely little vignette of the most beautiful tulips. They were the sort with really pointy petals and in gorgeous bright colours against a dark background. Lovely shapes. They had their little faces pointing to the sun and were wide open. The wind took them and they looked for all the world like they were dancing.

I wished I could have taken a photo but I was in traffic and there was no way that I could.
I looked for them again on the way back... but the sun was different and they looked much more ordinary.

Amazing the things you see on such a journey sometimes isn't it?

Hi There,
I seem to have been completely overwhelmed with 'busyness' this week! Too many things happening all at once.
There has been a disaster with my OCA coursework. I sent some off to the tutor five or so weeks ago, knowing that he is very slow I was not too concerned at first. I emailed him last Thursday and got a very late phone call that night.. the work didn't arrive. So... it's back to the drawing board. I have all the pictures but some of the PCT has gone AWOL and will have to be re-written. What a pain and what a right royal waste of money and ink and paper.
At least he has now agreed to have it on CD which should be a bit easier and cheaper to assemble.
I have to go and sit in the local garden centre this afternoon as part of the EG's 'making Visible' week. Not sure why I agreed, but there you go. grin

Tomorrow Hospital appointment and Guild in the evening (we are due to hear about the new centre shenanikins!).

Saturday should be good... class with Jennie Rayment I'm looking forward to that.

In the meantime more orbs for you... I learnt to use Picassa this week as you can see. There are three images using tulips as the starting point and one using honesty.