Fishy February

Where have I been since the last post? I don't really know. The time was once when I would photograph everything I did and blog about it but I suppose after 4 years the novelty has worn off.

 Its not that I haven't been doing anything . I've been busy-ish.

After the last post I made a brooch I absolutely love.

Its in my etsy shop but I don't know how I'll cope when it goes!

I've had my hair cut. Hetty's had her hair cut.

ermm..

I've read some books.

ermm...

I've been playing internet scrabble and winning some, but losing to a lovely lady called Patricia. I keep trying.

I have also been rather shocked by a 'scrabbler' who hoped I wanted to 'chat.' 

A young woman. 

I clicked ono her fb page where it says she is training in massage, and there were lots of photos of her wearing black, and some comments saying she was looking for middle aged ladies. 

Well I'm no longer middle aged and judging by the photos, she wasn't looking to sort out my sciatica or realign my chakras!

 I'd forfeit but I'm winning.

I've run out of all my making 'ingredients' at once so have had to buy new threads from Silken strands:

and new velvet which I have to dye.(urgh! Hate dyeing)  This time I bought it from 

Beckfords mill...cheaper carriage than Whaleys so for just one metre it was a better value.

New card for my labels from The paper mill shop

(Its white card..no pic needed)

And new brooch backs from Angela at The Bobbin Patch.

I recommend all these places for quick delivery and excellent service.

So for the moment I've had a lot going out and only a little coming in. Oh dear.

I've had a little play with some ideas for work for an exhibition in Summer.

I wanted to do 'collective nouns' so I started with ideas about a shoal of fish. Years ago I was a good drawer..but now I freeze up when I want something to be right.

I started some sketches in a little 'best sketchbook' but they weren't right. Then I went up to my sewing room and did some doodles on the back of a letter and they were more like it. This is all I've come up with for now. Just to see how it worked.

  From those I did some samples .

When I went to the felt group I made a piece with vaguely fishy shapes which I intend to stitch but I'm not liking the way its going. I think all will disappear into the background once stitched but I must give it a go.

I've also at last finished the final two pieces of the six I cut from a large piece of felt ages ago.

Here are the first four I made which I've already shown.

And these are the other two with details. I made the large motif separately ages ago.

And I've done a bit of gardening  weeding.

However, judging by the look of my front flowerbed which has sunk lower every year after substantial neglect and sporadic grass removal,  and is now a low lying clay sump full of water, I think the only way to go, as with my sewing, might be fish!

Textiles at Last.

Too many posts about housework and no sewing will get me drummed out of the big list of sewing blogs so I hope this one will make up for the lack.
We have had an awful lot of this

but now we are having a bit of this.

If you look to the right you will see that the giant guinea pigs have been playing in the fields, so it must be summer.
Time for our (almost) local Summer Open Exhibition.
This year, in reckless mood, I am submitting a piece of felt.

I have been making felt for years, but mostly to illustrate techniques for workshops.
Here are two samples showing the resist technique made with a piece of plastic between layers to create a bowl which I now use each year to work stitch samples into,

and a seamless purse with some spiral 'beads'
and of course there's always the need for a bit of nuno.

This very small sample was worked onto black silk chiffon with brightly coloured wools layed in a grid pattern.

Nothing very exciting.

In the past I have made felt mainly to use as a background for embroidery such as in these 'Boots for a Sea Nymph'
I layed it onto sheer metallic organza and stitched it, then burnt slots and holes with a soldering iron to make fishy looking elements.
I added coiled enamelled wire for more undersea effects
and sewed on some beads.
These boots appeared in The World of Embroidery aeons ago. A major City and Guilds project of mine was a 5-panel screen with faces from Greek Vases in 3 windows on each panel. The felt was laid down onto waxed and inked brown paper as a base for machine embroidery around the outside of the face. The machining lifted the face into relief.
Features were embroidered by hand, (I enjoyed the hair especially)
and the background was stitched with Stef Francis threads using Cretan Stitch.
At the beginning of this year I was invited to be a part of a new group meeting monthly to share ideas and work together on felt. We have a monthly theme or technique and its good to focus on felt for the time we are there. Its a lovely group, there's always cake, but we still haven't got a name.

There are some extremely talented members, and I am just the 'Milk Monitor'. (I don't know what that means in the rest of the world but UK readers of a certain age will understand)

However I have done some experimenting.

This one with a resist of glass pebbles and large buttons

and my exhibition submission is a long wallhanging made using prefelts and the embellisher.

I am reluctant to show too much because I have never entered a piece of felt for its own sake before and I have no confidence in its chances.
Its called 'Tales from the Riverbank'
There is a tiny bit of stitching on it.

I am so glad I joined the felt group, not least because in March, in the interests of research and inspiration, four of us are going to Marrakesh. (Woolly wooo!)

Now I hope thats enough 'Textiles' for this post . Perhaps it makes up for the lack in the previous few.

And now may I introduce our guests for this weekend?
Porky and Blodwyn.
They are no trouble.

They brought their own breakfast,
and they don't care about dust.