Oh, Monday Morning already!

Working hard to finish off 3 pieces for Skyeworks gallery Winter Exhibition, I totally forgot we had a neighbors party to go to on Saturday night - we never go to parties! So my post went out the window, as it did last night due to slight fatigue after a good long days work (not in the studio). Hunkered down in front of the fire instead to watch Homeland with the Youngest. We won't have many more nights of these family viewings as in less than 2 weeks he  heads of to Sydney, Australia......for 5 months of working & travelling. 5 months?

Welcome to my new followers, tried to follow one & no links on a couple of others - comment so I can come by, thanks!

Seedhead, based on the fennel in my garden. I had thought a hint of green but blue got in there....

 Landscape. very less is more for me, but the DH thought it was veering too much towards the less! I just laughed ;)

But these 3 variation pics have me stumped. It just seemed to get too busy, even with the added bits below

Better completely cropped? But now it's too small. The others are about 8x8" to be mounted on a canvas of 10x10" & if I crop it as below it's only about 5x5"

 & the Youngest described it as a bit grim - meaning too dark & said it looked like underwear. Wasn't happy when I agreed there was a bit of underwear in there.....but you shouldn't be able to tell should you? Specially when you're only JUST 18 end of October!

Strangely this one had actual real inspiration - I meant to post this pic last week - love this gnarled old Rowan tree outside the one derelict house in the village (I think every village has one) Then the image was reinforced at my Yoga class - during Yoga Nidra, the relaxation bit, we were to bring an image into our mind of the words Meg said & one of them was 'rowan berries against a blue sky' so in my pic I just shoved the berries along a bit. Anyway, would you cut out the business & give it a plain surround? In gold, rust, grey,  blue or white lace? I'd love your opinion.

 I was given a commission by some lovely holiday home neighbors, who've bought from me before......

 A coffee pot warmer. This caused me a lot of anxiety considering I'd never made one before & well...

 It could be something you wear up top, or a notebook cover, or really a great big cuff - that was my approach so I could get round the idea of making it. The DH couldn't believe how neat it was!

& look, I'm practically a quilter! (it has that squishy stuff inside & a top & a lining) They appreciated the Zophany & Sanderson fabrics & loved it...so I'm happy & that's what counts ;)

The made up purses & cuffs from last week, working on the rest!

Lots of bits around so I made a couple of cards.

 & then my first part of my shoe!

I have a confession to make, I have an addiction to chocolate, mainly snickers bars. I love chocolate but I don't want the addiction so I'm trying to make something a little crazy to keep me distracted, like the shoe & this above which will take years to come to fruition as this piece (the shoe piece is a better color representation) is only about 3x3"!

Some PhD's (projects half done ;)

I left production till the last minute this week, well, as usual, really.

I made a piece of fabric using some of the lovely gift from Heloise & got a chance to practice using my new gardening free machine embroidery gloves - fabulous! They're covered in little rubbery dots. It still 'pulls' in my forearms/elbows doing fme but the gloves make it less painful - I got one pair for the garden too ;)

Under my hands is one piece of fabric covered in purply snippets one side with purple organza & the other side pinky, orange & green bits covered with lime green organza - delicious stuff. It's the size of 2 pieces of A4 paper/computer printer paper & I couldn't find my bondaweb or a big enough piece of sticky stabilizer so imagine me grappling with a million tiny snippets under moving organza - lots of pins were used (but not hurt) in this excersize. You can be sure bondaweb & the other are on order!

 So I cut out 2 purses with 'buttons'

2 cuffs & 2 'patches' to decorate book covers

2 heart shapes for decorations

& was left with the above remains - I can see a couple of bookmarks, 2 or 3 brooches, lots of earrings & buttons. Quite pleased with the amount I got out of it. I ended up using small pieces of sticky stabilizer, ironing the pre cut shape onto the back of the fabric (obvs!) Oh, what a dream it is stitching with stabilzser instead of wriggling organza, why don't I learn?


Went off to Portree in the week to the North End of the Island to make 3 deliveries - some work to the Aros Center where the art group I belong to 'Aos' is having a winter exhibition, I hope we have a party! Then on  to Tippecanoe, a lovely little gift shop/gallery with absolutely everything you could want in it, with a small order of cards, then on to Skyeworks Gallery     with a top up of cards & a discussion about dates for giving a workshop, not till next year, now. All finished off with a delicious Latte & baked cheesecake in their bakery cafe, wonderful.

A little work

Finally I've managed to drag a little work out of my poor brain ;) Jane at Inchmore Gallery , near Inverness is having  a second CD case sized exhibition. Today is the day they were meant to be in & she's very kindly saved me a space for 4 CD pieces.

The 'sketchbook' layout - I printed a pressed Acer leaf onto plain cloth & have surrounded it with bark, little sumara seeds text & gold paper.  Then there's a quick drawing of my kind of flower on top of a lovely blue shiny fabriccovered with a bit of organza & some ribbon. The paper under it all is the wipe off, stamp off paper I keep to hand when working on bits & pieces. Then there's a copy of a screen print of my twig drawing - i had to make it smaller to fit & I looked at my sample book from last year as it never did make it further than that. Last is a seedhead sketch on purple fabrics various with lace & beads.

The first one is the flower - quite pleased i haven't forgotten how to  free machine. The second one the allium seedhead with just gold beads & a tiny bit of ribbon in the corner with lace from the Oxford market. A bit of wonky hand stitching at the top there, i feel wonky!

The Acer leaf print with 2 tiny cut away holes - I may stitch on the sumara before I get them in the post. & the twig, still a little tight in the 12x12cm size. I feel I'm making a little series here!

Finally, a short post today as I've had 2 very long ones recently! Inspired by Dot & her wonderful shoes - (she seems to have absconded to facebook where I must have seen them)  - I've finally put down a base coat of gesso, getting rid of a nasty brown. Nothing wrong with brown but these are my version of 'crocks' great for nipping in & out of the house to studio & just kicking them off when I feel like it, but looking down, I thought I could see my Grandpa's feet, bless him. So what do I do next, Dot? I'll have to wander over to fb & get sucked in ;)

A little more Knitting & Stitching

Well, quite a few more photos from the show! I won't say much, promise, my eyes are already falling out from sorting out the rest of the holiday pics ;) But first a little about my travels. First stop, the Eldest & my dil to be's new home in Chippenham, near Bath. Well, I've completely fallen in love with Bath!

 While wandering around I came upon a fabulous exhibition in Walcot Street,  held in a tiny chapel, completely empty but for these wonderful mixed media paintings by Jan Jeffcoate, no website. Very tactile pieces, lovely.

 Surrounded by a sea of gravestones, not surpriingly. Did I take a pic? No. Too busy experiencing it. The above 2 are from her card. Had an interesting chat with my brother later- 'did it not happen then, just because you didn't record it?' Well, no, just that it would have been totally appropriate to share here!

 All things lead from the Abbey

 Also in Walcot St where I was hoping to find Walcot Reclamation yard, gone, but there was this amazing shop with a million items of clothing in it.  blurry sorry. There was another vintage type shop, the kind of place I feel a home in.

 Dyeing for a cuppa as there are so many hills here (you'd think I was used to it!)I stopped here, Bea's Cafe I think it was called, just like having tea with my grandmother!

curly railings on the way to Bath's Fashion Museum - thanks to Serendipity for the heads up ;)

Stunning 17th c costumes

wonderful gauntlets - I bought a top once from a charity shop of course, which had lovely bits of added 'lace' on the sleeve ends &  I thought, hmm, good idea to make for the studio (it's still on my list!) & here they were doing it for gloves all those years ago ;)

60's shoes & bags

So glad I made the effort to climb all the way up Bath! Walking back down there are so many fabulous 'indy' shops - you'd need a fortune to live here!

A view from the Eldest's bathroom window, 3 floors up, a beautifully renovated old forge they're renting.

one or 2 things from Bath market - I want to find 'spools' to wrap spare wool onto - this will inspire me, as will the dinky little tags found in a 'new vintage' shop. Then in a the new stuff market those earring findings you can't do without & a bit of paint.

Off to Oxford & in the open Thursday market I found a lovely bit of lace & I doily - my first! that I hope to print with.

I've got to show you what the lovely 'Heloise' generously gave me - bundles of jewel colored snippets along with organza, thread & a bit of painted bondaweb peeping out at the top there. She's being very supportive,  following my efforts with the  purses & brooches I've been making. Good to have a blog buddy near Oxford & it was great to catch up.

So to the second half of my Knitting & Stitching visit! Thanks to Linda I found out who these wonderfully eccentric artists were, above &  below is Sue Walton

& below is Ann Small
good to meet someone else who uses bones! Amazing work.

Above is the delicious Louise Baldwin, part of the 62 group (see Louise link)  50 yrs together.

Elaine Megahey

Jae Maries, both also of the 62 group. Such wonderful work.

Lizzie Houghton above asked could I take a general shot - that coat on the right & the wrap you can just see on the left were stunning!

 Dale's  beautiful buttons above & herself below - I hope she likes the pic, I think it's great!

 Last but not least! The 4 pics below are my new hero, Val Holmes.

Wonderful, what I'd give to go to one of her workshops in France!

The next best thing is her book, along with Frances Pickering's some Lizzie Houghton wool tops & sari ribbon from

Stef Frances  I was very restrained ;)

Well I've given you one or 2 links to be going on with!