Fun at the West of England Quilt and Textiles Show 2017!

I just had the most brilliant three days at the  West of England Quilt and Textiles Show sharing a stand with my dear friend, the talented quilter, Sallieann Harrison of Christmas Goose Stitches.

Sallie was on the walls, and I was on the table  :) with my embroidered and mixed media books!

We both had a fantastic time, and for me it was sheer joy to able to talk about books and nature and stitching and mixed media to lovely, like minded people!  These are some of the books I took along:

The cover of  'Briarside Lane' a current WIP which is based around The Raspberry Rabbits project of the same name....

  'A  Little Book of Stamps'  

The pages are simply painted, and enhanced with a variety of handmade stamps and simple stitch.

'Tiny Garden'  - meander book, came about from a sample class I created, making simple garden flowers from only three stitches. |A little book seemed the perfect format to  keep them in!

'

Whatever the size, or the mediums used, the one thing my books  have in common is hand stitch, and my favourite threads from Valdani  of course!

I'm very excited to be offering Saturday workshops this autumn, sharing some of the techniques I have developed! Details of these are on the Classes and Workshops tab, and I'll be talking about them more here soon.

So finally here we are setting up on Day 1, with a backdrop of Sallie's amazing Tumbler Quilt, which attracted a lot of attention! You can see more of Sallie's lovely work and find out about classes she offers on her website.

We were also proud to be representing The Raspberry Rabbits in the UK, with Michelle's original stunning quilt The Adventures of Harrington and Hannah, all the way from North Carolina, on display!  

Brown Paper and Stitch Book

Another  experiment - working with recycled material. Inspired by my workshop at the end of last summer with  Frances Pickering  I wanted to make a simple book using paint and stitch. This little prototype is made entirely from the brown paper packing material used by a well known on-line company (other brown papers are available!) :)

 I've been  playing about with the momigami, (paper kneading) technique, I found in Cas Holmes
 ' The Found Object in Textile Art'. I'd love to know if anyone else has used it?  The cover was molded and bonded  to stiffen it - and hopefully make it durable! It gave a nice, leathery effect.

Inside colour pencil worked  quite effectively  on the dyed paper. 

On the right are a couple of blank notebooks I put together with momigami covers.

 This is my favourite page. I have a thing about the arum family!

 I'm happy with this and learnt a lot of useful things making it!

One of the good things about being a curious bumblebee is that  you can buzz back to the same flower. Over the last few weeks, I find myself being drawn back more strongly to embroidery.

Isn't it odd though, that when you feel the need for a change,  the past rears its head?
Last week I had three separate enquirers asking me if they could see my dolls - and would I run a doll class again?  It was  lovely to be asked - then I realised I hadn't actually got one single place with my photos  - so I decided to add some new pages here. It did seem strange to put them back on my blog, after all!

31 Sketches in January Day 2

Today's challenge  from Palma's list  is 'draw your favourite book,  including the title'.  No way I can pick a favourite - I have at least a top 5 -10 and love so many more besides.

 I chose this paperback because I love Hardy,  this is my favourite story of his, and  I  loved the cover which is a painting by the English artist Gordon Benningfield. Also  I  do not paint landscapes - so it was an ideal challenge! The book cost me the princely sum of  £1.25 in the early 1970's! It's been read many times.

Check out the original 1976 film with Julie Christie,  Peter Finch and Terrance Stamp,  which is one of my favourites, and was filmed in our beautiful English West country, especially around Devizes in Wiltshire. A new version is on the way this May, which I will give a try.

Sorry about the wonkiness. I'm finishing up a cheaper sketchbook and the page  buckled a bit!