Accidental inspiration

Sometimes  inspiration needs a little nudge.

Two of the felt group members paid a visit to Colinette yarns the other week and brought the spoils of the journey for us all to look at and to share amongst us. 

 Up until that point I'd been wondering what to make on the day but when I saw the yarn I was away incorporating it into some lichen-ish stone-ish felt with thoughts of my day at Newgrange in my head.

 The wool is amazing and made beautiful Celtic spirals which are now just waiting for some stitches.

I do love this olive and grey scheme.

Can you have inspiration in retrospect?

Last week I was driving through Preston and the sky was deep leaden greys in front of me. There was a tree in bud, perhaps a sycamore? The sun was shining on its olive/mustard leaves against the grey sky and the bark was smooth and  silvery. Exactly the same colours as I had enjoyed when putting this brooch together.

Now for some excitement. I had been asked by Dunelm if I would be a product reviewer from time to time. Now, I don't advertise but am always willing to mention places and products I use so I agreed. 

The parcel arrived and I had no idea what was in it so it was quite exciting, and revealed these two books of paper.

As readers know, I am not a paper crafter but I do know a nice bit of card when I see it, so I'll review it as objectively as I can.

There were two books, one 12 inches square, a really great size for measuring and using, although I might have preferred A4 so I could feed it through the printer. 

I suppose if I want to I could cut it down a bit.

The 12 inch square one is called 'New Leaf' and has 48 sheets and 16 designs of acid free heavyweight cardstock. 

Its really sturdy and cuts like a dream. 

There are flat prints like this

 

 and some embossed prints like this. This book of card has a lot of 50s themed colours and designs .

There are some glittery prints.

For someone  not keen on glitter I find  it quite subtle and I can see it has its uses.

 Some of the prints are double sided so thats an extra bonus, I especially like the polka dot ones and shall be using those myself.

There was also a smaller book 8x8, called Sweet Owl, with again 48 sheets half glittered and half double sided. At first I thought they were all owl themed like these two pretty little pages

 but then I discovered some very romantic pinks with great potential for tags and gift cards.

For more details got to the Dunelm Website and see all their paper and other craft materials.

Its May and although the weather isn't great the bluebells have struggled through (although my sweet pea seeds I planted about 6 weeks ago haven't) so I thought I'd add a few pictures of bluebells and Hetty and Spring in general.

 These ducks, about to cross the road had been heading down out path until Hetty spotted them.

 Finally, I found this in what I euphemistically refer to as my alpine bed. Its really an old salt glazed sink which is now a solid matt of roots under some gravel with mainly weeds and a bit of sysirhincum and some gentians in it. 

Look carefully. 

Its a baby Larch tree. 

A gift from its dear mama which we sadly had to cut down in the Autumn. In all the years we had the larch, we never had a seedling grow from it before.

I think I'll plant it so we will have larch again and by the time it gets too big for the garden like its ma did, I'll be long gone!

The Winner

Using the random number generator I duly entered the number of comments (68)  clicked 'generate' and it gave me number 6.
I checked the comments and its Catherine Bainbridge. So Catherine get in touch with me and you can tell me what you fancy in the brooch line.
Congratulations and sorry to those who were unlucky.

Move along..there's nothing to see...

 Just a few more brooch fronts.

 in different shades.

 and different shapes.

 Last saturday was the Embroiderers' Guild Northwest regional day in Preston. It was an enjoyable day. I added my Horrockses dress to the others on display. Here are a few including mine.

 Here are some real Horrockses dresses brought along by Dr Caroline Alexander from the Harris Museum who gave the morning talk. Its was really good despite the fact that her presentation wouldn't work and she had to rely on a few photos. 

She was a good lively speaker though and it didn't matter.

In the afternoon we had a talk from Sue Rangeley whose work is exquisite and neat and insiring. She's worked in fashion for years and it was her little applique purse that drew me into the BBC series about embroidery about 30  years ago, and then onto City and guilds.

I won first prize in an odd sort of competition where there were only 4 entries. It used to be sponsored by Coats Anchor and the pieces had to contain their threads, but they've given up sponsorship so it was a bit of a let down.

 In further news: I found a 17 spot ladybird in the garden.

  Is that unusual?

As always....

 I've been making felt

 of various hues.

 I've added backs to the aforementioned brooch fronts

 and made a few more fronts.

 Its odd when I make felt. Sometimes its speaks to me...this one says  Vanessa Bell/Charleston Farmhouse. Its dark and glowing. But I have a bit of a block because I don't know what to do with it. I'm doing a workshop next week where we are making felt and stitching on it and I don't know quite what to say about stitching on this piece.

 That may be why I dreamt I was teaching French and had to start by admitting that I couldn't speak French.
This one is supposed to 'speaking ' of the Burren.

 Will I make little pieces or stitch on it as a whole? I don't know. I stitched a little piece from some of the felt in the first picture and I was quite pleased with it.

 so I stitched a few more.

Guess what? It was my fourth bloggiversary last week on Saturday and I didn't blog about it.

Thats odd.

 Its a special day too as its the day we lost Willow a year later.

When I first started blogging I was obsessed with it. I took my camera out with me to take pictures of things to blog about. I really like some of my earlier posts and still enjoy reading them.

I made a group of lovely virtual friends and always read and commented on their blogs via google reader.

Lately I've been lazy and haven't read. Didn't dare go to Google reader for fear of the number of unread posts I had to catch up with, but when I did I found that not many of them had been blogging...just like me. 

I still love all the lovely comments and welcome you all, but at the same time I miss the 'community' I had at the beginning. I can't hope to read and reply to all the comments I get now and for that I am truly sorry .

As its my bloggiversary, I think I should have a giveaway, as a little 'thank you' for lovely comments, but its hard not to appear cynical  as only one person can win and it usually does boost readership and comments. So if you will forgive me, leave a comment here and I will choose a winner on Monday. You can choose a brooch if you win. I don't mind where you live.

Thank you for reading.

GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED.

A load of old Horrocks?

This blog is a bit sparse these days isn't it? Thanks everyone who commented on it last time and every time in fact. 

I haven't much of interest to blog about but here goes.

The trouble with having things in craft shops is that you often forget what you have there. I recently requested the remainder of my items from one such so that I could replace them with some new things.

I'd almost forgotten about this mirror. I really like it when I see it again. In the shop it was in a crumply bit of cellophane and wasn't visible. 

I made it a while ago. Its lovely olive green dupion silk and has some really nice dyed velvet on it. Its very small, about three and a half by for and a half inches. I've listed it on Etsy now.

Then there were these landscape brooches made on silk paper with lots of horizontal stitching.

I made and sold lots at the time .

Also in my etsy shop.

Now, something that isn't in my shop that I've been working on is this.

 Can you tell what it is yet?

 Felt made with prefelts for a very specific purpose.

Added stitching

 1950s style

 This is the inspiration which I must say I love. I wish I could have made it in crisp cotton in the brighter colourway . Its a design by Alastair Morton for Horrockses and I hope its ok to use this picture here.

 This is the reason I made it.

Our branch of the Embroiderers Guild is holding the Northwest regional day jointly with Parbold branch, in Preston towards the end of the month. 

We are having a speaker from the Harris Museum about Horrockses dresses. 

The firm was from Preston so its an appropriate  choice. My Mum always wanted one but she couldn't afford it , but she had one from some Horrockses fabric and I can remember her wearing this style when I was a child and of course the sun was shining!

So we have all made a 'dress'. Not really, just a shape about 18 inches high made to look like a dress. 

Needless to say it should have been done months ago so I hope mine gets in the display!

And of course I've been making brooches.

 Some of these are in my etsy shop and some are in my FOLKSY shop

Well...we've got to eat!

I have no end of trouble differentiating between the photographs so I didn't get as far as I thought I might, listing these,  playing spot the difference, with the memory of a goldfish with a memory problem.

Hetty Here..

 Do you like my new Tweed coat?

 Look, from the back too.

 Its got a flower on it. 

She says she's not quite sure about it and was snipping at it today.

 It doesn't stop me from investigating important stuff.

 Or chewing sticks, and I'm very grateful for it since they took me to that woman with the scissors and shampoo. 

Brrrrrr!

 And best of all....

It matches my tongue.

Pastels

Pastels are the new black.

At least thats what I've heard. 

I don't go in for clothes shopping much..I might chuck a T-shirt in the trolley at the supermarket but usually I have to be dragged out to buy clothes for such things as Birthdays and Christmas. My Mum is an ace shopper and can usually sort me out. (She's 84)

We managed to get me a lovely coat last Christmas from M&S ..very unusual ..and then after Christmas when they were reduced and I hadn't worn it, even managed to take it back and buy another the same for half the price. I've certainly had my money's worth and I love it, even though I have to spend time with a crochet hook every time I wear it to pull in all the plucks. Its a loose tweed in pinks and oranges and black. I love it.

Anyway I digress. I haven't , personally, been near any clothes shops so my information comes from the radio and I hear pastels are in.

So I thought I'd make some brooches..or shapes anyway just to get me back into the swing of things. 

 I made some sugared almonds coloured felt.

 Dyed some pastel velvet..(I hate dying..I've had a few requests for my dyed velvet but I don't think I'll be making enough to sell anytime soon) 

 and then got going with the machine. I'm a bit rusty. A bit uninspired. Can't really be bothered.

 But I quite like these 'parma violets' .

 The round one is rather large.

 I like the yellow ochre with pink..its a bit discordant but it pleases me. 

 Meanwhile in the sewing room Hetty has almost completed her own little project. She's chewed a strip off my big 'rolls' box, attacking it form both sides which have now almost met in the middle.

When they do, and the top of the box drops off it will be a big mess.

She did me a favour though...I heard a loud rustle and discovered she'd found my roll of baking parchment. I'd forgotten I had it.