Made With Love

   

Look at what stitching friends have made me, its glorious and in my favourite colours. It covers me for my daytime naps. I have a new favourite square every time I look at it. Extra thanks to Bev for pulling it all together, and a big thanks to Fran for thinking of the idea. Finally thanks to all who stitched a square, you know who you are, it's made me very happy.

A Blast From My Past

A couple of weeks ago I got a phone call from my art tutor from ten years ago. This is Peterborough Regional College where I did myA level Textiles and my Foundation Art and Design, this is way back when I didn't really understand what Textile Art  was.  The message said would I like to be reunited with some A level work. I was intrigued, I could remember this piece because it was framed and put up on the corridor wall, the tutors always found it amusing.

I couldn't remember doing  this piece although I was going through a phase of setting things ablaze at that time. I can still see my colour palette that I use to this day.

This was obviously some neutral studies that I could have done so much better now but we all have a starting point and I have enjoyed the journey so much.

On the gardening front it has been wonderful year  for flowering plants. I've never had Nicotiana Sylvestris grow this big in the thirty odd years I've been growing it. I persuaded John to stand in the background to give it a bit of scale.

My teasels in the wild meadow area topped fifteen foot.

What an extraordinary year. I have been picking the hugest blackberries I've ever seen, but look at what's growing at the base of the plant and flowering.

Would you believe a primrose in full flower.  In Autumn!

A Little Bit of Stitch

                

I'm still getting to grips with posting on my iPad it just doesn't look right but here goes anyway. I'm not going to say how long these beads took me to sew, its irrelevant. The pleasure of stitching is still there.

I use the iPad to speak now, I type what I want to say and press speak and a voice says my words. The grandsons soon learnt to exploit this programme. They found a really posh voice and made it say 

'Naughty' words. The first time I heard it I nearly lost my breath with laughter.

That's John trying to look serious. 

Still Crafting

It has to be admitted my creative drive has left me, however Father's Day was spent with the grandsons supervising them with the Cricut dye cutting machine. They made some beautiful collages and the younger one drew all over the top.Very Dionne Swift ha ha. I soon ran out of painted papers and this is what has bought me back to crafting. With the help of very patient husband/carer I  enjoyed a morning painting, printing and stamping.It felt good to have paint all over my hands again.

I have tried to use colours that will appeal to my grandsons, lots of red (Arsenal) lots of blue and  patterns like tyre prints and lots of zigzag designs.

Tomorrow, energy allowing, I will cut as many shapes using the Cricut as I can for them to use in future craft sessions.

It's difficult using a camera through a glass window, the difficulty being that you are shooting into daylight from a dark backdrop but with a little careful cropping this little fledgling posed for me.

We have a gang of goldfinches and their brood visit us most days they are so beautiful but very nervous about any movement . This is the only one that stayed still long enough for me to photo.

Sketchbooks are still being worked on all be it very slowly I made these squares last year with a view to producing a large piece of pixelated work. When I'm really tired its easy to glue these shapes down and then draw over them.

Birds seem to be creeping into my design repertoire.

Garden Time

This is the bed I removed the alliums from last year, I'm kind of glad that these survived my scorched earth policy, but they have taken over again. 

This is definitely the year for aquilegeas they have been quietly hybridising over the years and there are at least a dozen different ones now.

I love the pin points of orange from the Welsh poppies in this border.

Early morning sun as the poppies burst from the calyx.

I'm very fond of poppies.

It's just as well for there are hundreds of them this year.

What a wonderful spring we have had!

Better Late Than Never

I have finally got round to deciding which bits of stitch will make good post cards to send to blogging buddies and friends. Its going to be a long process as I can only work 10 minutes at a time, the next part of the process will be to bondaweb these to pelmet vylene. Then I can raid my stash of hand made beads, crocheted flowers, paper embellishments and general trimmings to finish them off.

I have been busy with domestic sewing - five Roman blinds for our daughter who has moved back to the 'boro' from London. We have up cycled a massive pair of curtains and I say we because the truth is my husband did all the hard work on them but an achievement none the less.

This is my grand daughter who visited me at the weekend after running two marathons and raising nearly three thousand pounds for MND and MS research. I'm very proud of her.

I also met a great nephew over the Easter week for the first time. What a dear little boy.

And finally my son who never minds a silly photo.

 

So a big Easter egg hunt for the Grandsons A huge roast cooked by their parents (I have finally had to give up cooking for guests) surrounded by family and friends. The perfect Easter!

When The Boat Comes In

I'm at the' looking at' stage with this piece, I'm glad I cut it to insert  the boat, it looked too weighty stuck on the bottom of the piece. It may need a bit more stitching but I am almost there with this piece.

 My friend Jean brought back some goodies from her stay in the Lake District, this is an amazing idea soluble graphite stick.

It makes a lovely wash effect and very quickly covers the page. It has a protective holder that you can remove to use it on its side for big swirly or geometric shapes.

Each of these sketchbook pages took less than five minutes to produce - result!

Last week I was having some very low energy days in bed, when my husband brought the post up to me. I didn't get too excited, it's all hospital appointments these days. I then spotted a small parcel which turned out to be some lovely pieces of stitch from some blogging buddies. I was overwhelmed and so happy my mood changed instantly. I love looking at these pieces and the sentiment behind them makes me quite emotional.

Thanks Tina, this is a very happy piece of work and makes me smile whenever I look at it.

And this meticulous rainbow piece from Frankie. Thank you.

And this fabulous piece from Julie which takes me straight to Melon Udrigle beach in The Highlands.

It's gorgeous Julie and so much work has gone into it. I'm so lucky to have stitching friends, I think they are the kindest people in the world. You will have to turn your laptops round for this piece I've just realised it's upside down, also I can't  remove the blue highlighted words (where did they come from).

Still Crafting

I'm still stitching this little piece inspired by a photo I took a couple of years ago in Ullapool, this is my favourite colour palette ( you may have noticed). my stitching speed is almost snail pace but it is such a comfort to have a piece of work on the go.

With the help of my friend Paula this piece was finished off last week. A different colour palette for me but still that orange hit, that always thrills me.

This and That

First of all I want to thank everyone for their lovely comments on my last post and to explain why I have not replied individually as I normally do. Typing is getting a more and more lengthy task as my fingers are losing  feeling, so I thought I would use my time to craft rather than type. Please keep the comments coming, they mean a lot to me.

I have done another screen from the Gocco machine,  another Iris and been playing in my sketchbook with stencils. I'm looking at those iris on the screen and thinking how they would make a circular design, oh well that's something to try when Paula comes tomorrow.

I've been using my inktense blocks to draw imaginary still lifes, I'd like to add some stitch to this if I can.

More pages in my sketchbook using gelato and art stick pens and finally something finished!

My good friend Bev (who teaches C &G) at Beecrafty amongst other places said two or three weeks ago that she would finish this piece off for me by backing it. The amazing thing was in the fortnight or so she had it I'd forgotten all about it, so it was a lovely surprise when she brought it round with a very professional looking binding. Thanks Bev.

More Adapting

I think this may be my last piece of embroidery, hand dyed, hand printed cotton and silk organza. It's  slow process but I hope to get it finished. This is not the end of crafting for me, there are so many other things I want to try it's just a matter of managing my energy levels and thinking small ( very difficult) for me.

I have so many crafting friends that are coming up with ideas for me to get inspired by. For instance my friend Paula brought along a gelli plate for me to play with.

Many pages later I have another sketch book filled with lovely imagery. This is such a pleasing thing to do and takes little energy and it fulfils that need for colour on a grey day

 Jean my friend from the Trident group I belong to also brought me round a heap of goodies last week. Gelato pens from Faber Castell ( kind of akin to lipstick) and some new art sticks from Derwent. Both ideal for filling up sketchbooks when I'm confined to my bed.

Jean also brought round something called a Gocco machine, I love it, I can only describe it as a craft level thermofax  machine. Alas it is no longer made in this country but can be found occasionally on Ebay or from abroad. I started off by drawing some iris heads. I am surrounded by flowers at the moment (birthday last Monday)

An image is drawn and then by some magic and the flashing of bulbs an little screen is produced.

And then on Tuesday I received a postcard from Tina (Aka Sweetypie) with the most restrained piece of work she has ever produced, I love it!  I will post more often now I have my PC set up so I can work from my bed ( my new centre of operations!). 

Adapting

I can no longer pretend that motor neuron disease is not having an effect on my crafting, this week I have had a serious falling out with my sewing machine. Paper seems the way to go, it has more rigidity than fabric for free motion work.

These fabulous Kimono silks were a pressie from my good friend Jean, I wanted to do something that reflected the Japanese style of mixing pattern. Not all of this piece will be used, I will select areas to put in a frame that has three apertures.

I treated myself to some Inktense blocks on my last visit to Artvango, finally got round to playing with them.

They are as vibrant as the pencils and are good for sketching as they cover the paper quickly.

I'm using cotton rag paper which is easy to machine on. Didn't have the energy to set up a still life so I used the plastic bottles on my work table as a subject.

I also have a 'raggy' on the go, lovely and soft to stitch into for those moments when only stitch will comfort me.