Aged Textile Cards (For Aged Textile Friends)

Yesterday I went to a talk at our local Embroiderers' Guild by Annette Emms who is a textile artist. She makes beautiful books which tell stories. Usually these are fairy stories or legends from the places she visits in the British Isles. She also makes exquisite tiny fairy shoes and book wraps which are very naturalistic in their appearance.

She told us about various methods of transferring image to fabric and techniques for aging fabric. One quick dying method which caught my imagination was using coffee on calico. I had to immediately go home and do that of course! I dipped the calico in coffee solution and then scrunched it up and placed it on a hot baking tray at Gas 4 in the oven for 20 minutes. It looks like the paper of those old treasure maps we used to make at primary school! Lovely.

Then today I thought well, my Dad is aged like this fabric - 81 this week in fact - I'll make him a fabric birthday card based on yesterday's talk. I hope he likes it. Here he is on the front with my Mum (married to her now for 56 years!). I used some hand made banana paper in the middle and stitched into it all. What fun. I might do some more for all my aged friends (ha ha sorry guys).

Autumn days

It's a fabulous Autumn day and I have just enjoyed trimming a long lavender hedge in the garden - the smell was wonderful. All the clippings have gone in the compost so even that is fragrant!

Am a bit depressed though because my sewing machine has gone on strike as far as free machining goes so have just done the smoke on these trees by hand and they turned out quite nice really! It'll make a ditsy cushion.
Yesterday at Westhope I started this felt background for stitching at a later date and I've finished it for now. I NEED my machine to work. How frustrating. Well perhaps it will make me do a bit more gardening!






At Westhope a fellow student has been Kelly who makes fabulous roving and synthetic dreads and sells them online all over the world. Here she is and here's a link to her website http://www.thecutealternative.co.uk/










All of us have had fun felting over the 4 week course and here are some examples of what we have been taught by Stevie Walker the tutor.





The gardens are lovely there too and are a joy at lunchtime.

How I Felt

I felt potty and made my first 3D felt vessel. I am so pleased with it. The unpredictability of felt making is fun but using these autumnul colours in merino fleece created a lovely pomegranite like object - or is it a seed head? Well it doesn't matter but my furry pot is very tactile, smells nicely of Body Shop Olive Oil soap, which the wool was rubbed with, and is awaiting stitching I think...but then again it's nice as it is. Decisions, decisions.

I just find it amazing that seemless pots like this, bags, purses, animals etc can be made entirely by hand-rubbing sheeps fleece. I'm ready for more!

Here are some images at Westhope yesterday. It's an inspirational place for taking the felt-making course with tutor Stevie Walker. There's a fabulous walled kitchen garden hidden away in the grounds which is perfect for a peaceful lunch break and to rest those weary felt-making arms!

On the way home I drove along Wenlock Edge in the golden sunshine of a late Autumn afternoon and then had some butternut squash, onions, garlic, beetroot and tomatoes from the allotment roasted with lamb and rosemary. How much more seasonal can I get! Can you tell it's my favourite time of year?

Welsh Inspiration

It has poured down here all day again. I may build an ark and gently sail away stitching as I go to a land of loveliness.

In fact I have finished this Welsh inspired piece which has been made from hand-dyed Colinette Yarns, felted to a piece of flannel using my embellisher and some left over bits of thread which I dyed in August.

It really is like painting in textiles. I added some sequins as a focal point representing the silvery glinting water of the estuary.

It reminds me of the road where we had to stop while I shooed a sheep back into a field from which he'd made an unintentional gettaway!

Memories of Summer

The weather is even cooler and the trees are just beginning to tinge. The children are now both back at school and small snatches of summer weather are a distant memory it seems.
The holly hock piece is finished now and serves as a reminder of a holiday spent in the warmer climes of the Charante Maritime area of France where this particular flower is abundant.

Where it all begins

Today is the beginning of the rest of my life...well, OK, isn't it always? This blog is really a personal diary of discoveries, ideas and general loveliness.

You could say I am mercurial, chameleon like or just a damn slippery fish, but I like to keep evolving. I have moved from musician and teacher, to homeopath and am now on a new journey into art, textiles, sewing and quilting.

This will be the story. I don't know yet where it will take me...