I Never Promised You A Rose Garden

This is the title I have given to my latest piece of work which began at a West Country Embroiderers workshop with the very talented Stef Francis; I have done many workshops with this tutor, she is very informative about the techniques she employs and is a great character - we always have a laugh.

Having some idea of what the workshop entitled 'Fun with Fibres' would include, I painted some white silk carrier rods and mulberry bark with very watered down silk paints.  These silk rods were then 'stripped' and separated and the resulting effects are visible in the completed work.

To construct this piece, I laid down on a piece of toning colour felt a number of layers of throwsters waste (fine silk fibres - and you really need soft hands to use these because they stick to every piece of rough skin - so not after a day of gardening). On top of this went the mulberry bark but it was pulled around in all directions first to distress it and make 'holes'. I then arranged the flattened silk rods, pinned and stitched by hand and machine. I used perle cotton threads - most from Tiggi Rawlings and then gathered some tubular knitting ribbon and added that in random places to form 'my roses' in the garden. 

 

 





I started this piece with an idea of it being mounted for a book cover but have decided I will now frame it as a panel.

For the dog followers, my puppy Indie, is now 20 weeks old and growing fast!

No longer forward nor behind
I look in hope and fear;
But grateful take the good I find,
The best of now and here.
John G. Whittier

A New Selling Opportunity

Are you a handmade artisan living in Somerset/Dorset UK? Are you free on Sundays and looking for a place to sell you works of art? I am setting up a Handmade Market in South Somerset as of July, if you are interested, please message me.

First Completed Project of 2016

This is the first piece of work I have completed this year; it was started before Christmas with a tutor and group I do workshops with in Weymouth, Dorset. It is called a study of lichen. 

This little piece was created by making silk paper and 'scrunching' it into waves and folds whilst it was still wet to form the peaks and troughs often found in lichen and moss.  I added pieces of painted tyvek and dyed muslin for a more textural, distressed effect and then mounted it on top of three pieces of organza.  Then the fun part, hand stitching into it.

Once the stitching was finished, I cut and frayed the organza edges but I felt it looked incomplete, so I made a background.  The background was made using my embellishing machine and wool tops; I formed a piece of 'pre-felt' and using the embellishing machine again, I 'felted' it into folds to give it depth and movement. Finally, I stitched the piece on top, manipulating it as I felt it was needed.

The whole thing is then stitched to an artist canvas!

At Christmas I gave myself a present!! A puppy ... she is called Indie, a blue merle border collie. We are having lots of fun together and she loves her big brother, Moosh.

seven weeks old

nine weeks old

eleven weeks old

When one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened for us.
Helen Keller

A Long Overdue Post

When looking at my blog recently, I was horrified to see that I've not posted anything since June. What have I been doing? Well, I have been stitching and very active with textiles, but I just haven't recorded any details here.

I joined a group of stitchers at a workshop group which runs monthly at Weymouth, Dorset which is on the south coast of England. I've enjoyed this very much but have loads of unfinished projects now - photos to follow soon.

My friend, Maria, and I visited a number of open studios in the Upwey Art Festival and participated in the competition to get out visitor leaflet signed by six venues - we won and the prize was a £100 to spend with any artist. We shared the prize and have just claimed it - we spent a day with the very talented Di Pattinson at Upwey making felt.

I have been on holiday to France with my two sons and new daughter in law - I also celebrated my birthday there - it was such a lovely holiday.

I have also been busy with renovating the whole house ...... still so much to do ...... sigh!
And finally, lots of making for all the Christmas Craft Markets!!!!

Thanks to Moose B Stitch

The Story of my First Crazy Patchwork Block

Back at the end of March, I started an online course with Kathy Shaw http://www.shawkl.com/  to learn how to work a crazy patchwork block. The story unfolds with the photos below:

 Gathering supplies!

Piecing the block fabric together.

 Embroidering the seams!

 Ribbon embroidery.

 Adding charms and lace!

The finished masterpiece!

A New Mrs Salmons!

My eldest son, Richard, got married on 15 May 2015 - it was 'Yellow Heaven' and I'm sharing some photographs here today!

 A Perfect Day!

Yesterday, my other son and I traveled back from Surrey and collected Moosh, the dog from his minder. When he got into the car, he caught one of his back claws in the metal runner for the front car seat. To cut a long story short, we spent an hour trying to release him, unbolt the metal runner and everything else we could think of and the happy ending was ..... we had to call the fire brigade and the vet and these heroes between them released our boy without any injury and harm!!

 And just to end a weekend of highs and lows - I've got a water leak through the ceiling and no answer from the plumber!!