Happy New Year!

Wishing all of you a really Happy New Year! Had a lovely time last night, nipped down to some neighbours in their holiday cottage about 11pm after enjoying Grumpy New Year on tv. Great mix of fireworks around the village & one on the shore & we could see them from 2 nearby hotels.

Yesterdays news - December squares!

I missed one & admit to 'batching' one or 6 at the end there, a la  Wen Redmond via a Quilting Arts Daily newsletter on using up scraps. What are my squares but scraps!

 The next row up are flowers made out of loose bible pages found when tidying the charity bookcase at work. The next 2 & the middle 2 above were made when collaging into The Sketchbook - will I be finished by 2 weeks time? (that's why i didn't tell anybody I

 was doing it!) The rest is the usual clearing up my desk & sticking it all down, Christmas cards  & practicing some embroidery.

So my sad attempt at a mosaic of the 12 months, too tired to get it better - I will work on it!

July is lacking a bit, it kind of got missed in the fallout from actually becoming 50 & going away. Not an excuse, just fact. I'll photograph the books they're kept in soon, I can't believe I have a record of nearly 360 little tiny collages. What a great year. And I've loved all this world wide surfing this last year, too. Plan to do a lot more! I love blogs that share bits of the persons life, the inspirations, a little bit of sharing of the process of creating , walking thru their gardens & where they live. Some of the many 'challenges' would drive me nuts but some look great, I'll be browsing the sketchbook challenge, certainly.

This year's personal challenge? Simple; a collage a week, if not 2. One for the studio wall in the hope that we have a successful season come the Spring, & one to put aside for a solo exhibition I'll be having in September.  That's enough to be going on with don't you think?

Thanks everybody, for being here in my little world.

A brand new year

Well, how wonderful is that, a brand new year? We had our first new year's eve without our Youngest at home - first time he's looked old enough to go out on the razz (shhh! he's legal next year - will I get arrested now? I didn't say he could...) Anyway a sign of time passing, so, so quickly.

We watched the local hotel's fireworks thru the open French windows, a foul night but the dog wanted to smell the wet air & didn't mind the noise a mile away. We decided the world was our oyster, & thought it terrifying, but exciting at the same time.

 cards from last weeks background

I've enjoyed reading  some resolutions, plans, promises here in blogworld. It was making my own committment 2 yrs ago that took me to making over 360 daily squares & then to a saleable piece of work each week last year, which was the only way I got a body of work ready for my first show in September.

My first promise to myself this year is to find more balance  - I still have a small body of work & plan to add to one or 2 of the different series, so I can afford the time to recreate my neglected garden, take more walks, not just because it's healthy but to explore this wonderful place we live in. I need more yoga time to unwind from the hunching over stitches or leaning over the painting table (not to mention the stiffness & tiredness caused by the day jobs!) If you take care of yourself first, you are more able to do all those things that you want, that's my excuse, anyway ;)

heart background

So each week I will be working towards our show in June, but not just a saleable collage a week, I may take 2 weeks ( or longer) to work on a large wall hanging. It might be a selection of textile jewellery or notebook covers. I may try some sketchbooks or accordian books - my friend's been telling me they're just up my street. I would love to learn to draw/paintsea birds like Claire Harkess look at the bird 4th pic along. I first saw her seagulls a few years ago at an exhibition in Plockton & I never thought I could be so moved by a simple seagull.

 heart cards

of course I need to keep the studio full, too. I want to make more scarves so the place feels warm. I used to decorate lampshades to go with the driftwood lamp bases we made. I've sold all the ones we had, why not make more just because the driftwood's run out?

squares background

Photographing these backgrounds & cards without getting them wet in the rain or muddy dropping them on the way is a nightmare - I use the greenhouse where there's some light & to get out of the wind but it in itself is full of mud! So, I plan to make a permanent space in the studio, up against the sunny back window where I just store stuff, with my trusty college tripod for the days there isn't any light - I mean, hardly a week went by in the last 2 years when I didn't take a photo. I could at least keep the things flat! I might also install a white roller blind in the greenhouse for bigger things but it would probably go green or be eaten by mice within 5 minutes!

Square cards

I've really enjoyed the freedom in these cards & collage backgrounds. This week seems to have been a card week but I found time to make a couple more samples from that wonderful book Stitches Straps & Layers by Maggie Grey.

This a sample using silk carrier rods split into a few layers, no mean feet with my broken nails! I chose to use  them flat (instead of wrapping them round the side/bottom of a piece) My sample is based on a pic in the book of a beautiful bag made by Anna Nowicki using 'flat knitting tapes' My interpretation of that is to use ribbon... maybe that's what it means ;) Have a look at her blog thru the link - she's doing amazing things with bits of thread...!

The next sample, above, was to use foiled grounds with needle felted things on top. The sample in the book had me & my arty buddies drooling so I've tried my best with my sample. The first 2 strips are machine & hand stitching & using the embellisher machine over the silk & the stitches. Then Maggie used sumptuous silk velvet ribbon & lightly felted it down. I've had a meter of this purple velvet ribbon for ages & finally I've used it! The next strip is a skeletized leaf under black organza - you needle felt all round the leaf then on the leaf for a bit distressing it as much or as little as you want. I don't think my fabric was sheer enough, but that's the whole point of having a sample book, of course. I missed out the lutrador bit & tried the puffed & purple painted scrim with an added bit of fabric (Maggies was purple) I had hard scrim to hand & just stitched it. The last strip is painted tissue paper & painted with acrylic wax AFTER embellishing to stregnthen. Well, I didn't read the instructions & used wax before felting - lovely holes in stiff paper! I love this learning lark, what would I have achieved I wonder if i'd loved learning at school? These little samples will look so lovely in my samples book; wish I could show my teachers.....

I'm sure I could go on about all I plan or want to do. Despite my schooling ( the best was done for me at the time!) or maybe because of my schooling (!) I find myself doing something I absolutely love, even tho I haven't managed earning a full time living yet, but I know I will never be bored in my life, there's always something exciting I can be doing (hence the yoga/balance thing!) I took time to join the Middlest & Youngest watching 'Coach Carter'  before the M went back to college & even tho I'd watched it before I hadn't remembered  the lovely quote from it - got to say I'm delighted that my teenagers so enjoy the uplifting family film - the basketball that they both play might have something to do with it. Anyway, here's the quote!

edit - this is the version by Marrianne Williamson from her book 'A Return to Love'. Coach Carter left out a few lines, I think.

Our Deepest Fear

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant,
gorgeous, handsome, talented and fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.

Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking
so that other people won't feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine, as children do.

We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us.
It is not just in some; it is in everyone.

And, as we let our own light shine, we consciously give
other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our fear,
our presence automatically liberates others.

A Little Bit of Everything

September has gone by so a strip & a month of squares.

A twiddly bit I found on my desk; the way I feel sometimes!; from a B&B breakfast tea box; making some cards using starfish 'beads' so I drew one; a nugget of rust on some umbrella fabric; a blade box, I think, mounted on bits & pieces from my box.

September all together.

Remember that fashion show i was making my bodice for? Well, I also made an 'accessory'...a parasol inspired by one of the Chelsea floweshow programs, beautiful floral parasols & when I saw them i thought "stitch that!" When the idea of a fashion show came up at Rag Tag I thought that's what I'll make. I knew it would take a while, away from my work in the studio, but I did it anyway!

I stripped a brolly. (Well, I wasn't going to attempt to make one from scratch!)

Then I wrapped it (yes, I know) with lots of different colored strips of fabric, including strips of the rainproof stuff. I strung wire a little between the spokes.

Then I added some netting, stitching it to the spokes & wire.

Over time, while watching tv or chatting to visiting family, or just fiddling about in the studio when I should have been doing something else, I made some flowers out of lots of bits & pieces of fabric & stitched them onto 'panels' I'd thrown over the netting, stitching here & there. I sewed some hearts on the machine as a nod to the Alice in wonderland theme. I was thinking fantasy, as was the brief. The inner spokes needed covering but I ran out of time (?) so I ruffled some netting up & into the spokes with the odd stitch to keep it in place. I made a 'glove' out of a bit of netting & added 3 leftover flowers to a cuff to wear over the 'glove. I didn't get round to a facinator & I borrowed a friend at RT's neclace.

Well, it's fantasy all right!

I'll have to post the show pics tomorrow as it's taken hours to load these! I've had a bath, supper with my family, watched x factor with the boys & done a bit of washing up while waiting, hey ho!

Collage week 5

Got some lovely fabrics from last weeks Rag Tag jumble sale. That's what I love about helping out at these things, we get one or two new items for our wardrobes at very affordable prices & help in looking for silky shiny bits & pieces for your work. The trick is to get them washed ironed & cut up so you can see what you have - if I see it as a piece of clothing I get distracted.

This week I am inspired by Ruth Rae who makes little piles of fabric, paper & treasure & stitches them all together making beautifully messy soft lacey gorgeous collages. I'm working from her article in Cloth Paper Scissors Sept/Oct '07 called "whispered words, ethereal fragment squares" Each part of that title appeals! My challenge is to work in pale creamy fabric - Ruth has used lime green lace & scrim but I thought I'd stick to pale.

Feel free to skim or just look at the pictures! I'm put off by great blocks of words, too & I can see a couple here!

First I gathered together my fabrics, I never realised I had so much pale stuff!

cotton, calico, builders scrim silky & lacey bits

And my papers (lots of those!) - sheets of music, book pages & I added a rusted piece & a tea bag (sans tea).

then the treasures

These are what I could lay my hands on quickly, Ruth had twigs & broken bits of jewellery, too. She'd added words to dominos & had starfish, rusty keys in the mix. She gets her words from her vintage books so you can cut out from books or magazines 'meaningful' words or stamp them yourself & add those to the pile.

A few stamps; I used a butterfly &  a celtic heart & would have used my own carved spiral but I couldn't find it , drew it instead. I stamped them on watercolor paper & tore interesting edges. I tinted these with terracotta stamp pads, gold on top. Gold edged some of the book papers too. Note to fingers - use thinner paper to stamp on if you're hand stitching later! Ruth suggested stamping organza but I forgot that & did the paper instead!

I made this one above first, as a sample & my DH, bless him said it was great, mount it & frame it! Oh! So I added the lace at the bottom & the linen backing to make it more substantial.

Ruth advises 2 ways of coloring your fabric & paper. coffee stain - 1/4 cup of instant coffee (not sure how many teaspoons in there) to 5 cups of very hot water. Wet fabric first then steep in mix for 30 mins. Blot papers & for added effect, sprinkle both with a few coffee granules for a 'spekled' effect, add some coffee water to deepen stain. Dry.

The other way is with acrylic paint - wet fabrics, one part paint  to 5 parts water, mix & dip, blotting the papers. Keep going till you like what you see.

This is the sample - I can add bits or stitches from time to time. There's my trusty washer & the spiral hidden behind the gauzy fabric

Well, my coffee didn't work, not enough coffee, I'd drunk it all! So I tried tea, instead, just dunking & blotting as above. It affects each fabric in different ways - this is where I need a dyeing sample book! I actually also need a fabric sample book, I could put both kinds of samples in one book of course. I know what some sik is, might spot a Habotai but there must be hundreds of silks! then there's scrim, muslin, tulle, cotton this, cotton that, fake, real! it goes on & on, as you know. That's one problem with recycling, you see what you like & it's either smooth, rough, seethru or just silky. Some of the fabrics used here are recycled but I can never resisit those sample packs of a mix of fabrics at shows, so some of this is new!

Well I had to use a key, didn't I! Shame I didn't straighten it but I do love that these things are loose inside.

Ruth says to cut/tear some fabric 7x7. place on top of felt or batting. Add book text, then lay out 'elements' you want to trap under fabrics, add layer of cheesecloth or organza, add layer of 'altered' & stamped paper or fabric or lace. Pin if you need to & sew a running stitch along edges & around the treasures to keep them in place, adding 'hidden' elements & snippets as you go, making little pockets. You can machine quilt a little design here & there.

I found that things fell out all over the place but with this way of working you can start from the bottom & lay everything out or stitch down bit by bit, or you can start from the top & make a few 'pockets' & then lay those out on top of a half made piece. Practice, play! I decided to do more than one as I might as well while I had the spare double bed covered in everything (or is this what sensible people usully do?) I do enjoy just making little squares, I mean thumbnail size or inchy size without really knowing where they will end up. That way you make your own 'treasures' or embellishments or medallions, whatever you want to call them - my favorite word for them is jewels, lovely, fires my imagination.  This is where Ruth stopped but did suggest you/we could add further beads & embellishments. I did on some of them untill my eyes started to fall out!

The above collage was inspired when I went to Ruth's blog - she's doing a heart swap so I couldn't resist. I wrote the word with the darning foot - it is so much slower than fme! Glad to have got a little more delicate & 'girly' with all this lace & 'ethereal' inspiration, thaks to Ruth.

 My next problem is framing. I've said before that my DH thinks my creative mess needs to be contained neatly in a 'propper' frame. He's right, they do look good if I say so myself. I'm having an exhibition in September, have I already said that? So I applied to Hi-Arts for a grant towards framing but as I am 'self promoting' ie not under the wing of a reputable Gallery & not having it in a 'real' gallery - it's in a lovely L shape of a room which leads into the village hall of Plockton 6 miles into the mainland, where many artists have shows - I didn't get the grant. I'll try other places - I was a 'visual artist' for this grant but I can turn myself into a Maker for say, Craft Scotland. Any ideas? Or more importantly, any ideas for innovative framing?! I can think of rods - bamboo, chopsticks, driftwood 'twigs' or lengths of driftwood, wrapped wood, brass or wood stair rods (both of which we found in Granny's attic!) using hooks or machine cords to hang............

I made 2 cuffs - I need to keep the numbers of those up, so while the mess is out....!

edit - when I went to Ruths blog it was at the sun Jan 30th post, honest - just checked now for the link & she's talking about cuffs! Is that a case of "great minds" ...?

Not the 'squarest' creations in the world - they do look better rolled up. Even better on a wrist ;)

Now I need to clear that 'spare bed' it's in the eldests old room where my sewing is taking over more & more ( why waste it) but where we need to move into as we've got a few nights B& B next week, wonderful!

Time Passing

Sometimes it seems like a long time has passed in seconds, at other times a short time takes an age.  It depends how full to the brim that time is or how pleasant.

I seem to have started this year with a Monoprinting class at the local college &  delighted at being asked back, I have ended with a class at the same college. I sense a sort of concertina effect but in remembering details I can elongate the feeling.

Lovely work from all of my willing students -

I booked our local hall for a month of Wednesdays in September - I wanted to offer relaxing taster classes of Monoprinting

weaving on a frame

making background papers

and last but not least, some reconstructed fabric making

We got a lot done in each 2 hour session with potential to carry on at home as all these methods are very low tech.

I went to a couple of classes myself in the summer, one on indigo dyeing with shibori (I've mislaid those pics) & another on Botanical printing - so good to see it in action from an excellent teacher North Child in Plockton with my own eyes - now I might understand better (the scientific bits in) the books by India Flint!

the pic above is a 5x5 square out of some of the pieces - I've yet to put the little squares of paper into a sketchbook, I'm sure I will if only to stop them catching the breeze in the studio whe I open the door!

So now I'm working on some memory hangings. Its not an origional idea but the thought came to me as I was sorting out my parents house ready to sell in the Spring. There was 30 years of stuff to go thru which I managed in 3 stages before the house sold in the summer. I decided to hang on to some of it in a creative way.

My mother was ill so it was good to be able to be with her & my Dad, of course at these times & I did ask myself would I still be able to make a hanging if the worst happened? I spent the last 4 days with her before she died, 3 weeks ago. I did manage to stich a little with her, for her & I shall continue.

She loved herons so today I decided to see what would happen if I took a photo with my phone simply perched on the eyepiece of my DH's scope - intriguing I thought. So in her memeory, I say Merry Chritstmas & a happy new year that brings you alll you wish for.