Tuesday 30 August 2011

Prettiness

I made some more flowers this weekend. The first one is for Gill, she wanted a flower for her bag I hope the colours are ok - she asked for turquoise and orange.


These are three that I've made for Pam for her tombola stall.


This one is for Steph she wanted a pink flower with orange leaves.

Saturday 27 August 2011

Busy Busy Busy

It's been another really busy week around here and there hasn't been much time for creativity. Anthony has moved out this week in his usual chaotic style.

Both he and Nicki seem to be happy and are counting down to baby's arrival. They have everything in place - the pram is assembled, the cot is up and the rocking cradle is ready with a lovely little quilt and matching bumper.

They have all the other paraphanalia that goes with babies - nappies, dummies, bottles, babyclothes, blankets, toys, monitors , even toys for the bath but I think that is more to do with Anthony!

The house is very quiet without him he always was the child with the most to say and still is, I shall miss him.

Steph has been very poorly. She is still suffering with the headaches and been sick necessitating several visits to the doctors and an evening in AandE. Because the headaches are stopping her from getting any sleep she was prescribed some sleeping tablets but had an allergic reaction to them which got progressively worse. She should have had some more tests this week but was unable to have them done so this has put her further back. I feel so sorry for her she really is suffering at the moment.

On a much nicer note though when I got home yesterday the postman had left an envelope all the way from Australia with some goodies inside.

There was a little handmade doll, very cute and the fabric is lovely the picture doesn't do it justice.




The doll was accompanied with a needlepoint kit and a very sweet card made by Penny the very kind lady who sent me all this loveliness.
I have managed to make this flower brooch for Pam. A while ago I made a little zip up purse/bag for Barbara and Barbara has been taking great delight in tormenting Pam because she hasn't got one. Well now Pam has got something Barbara hasn't! Honestly and I thought the children had left home.


I'm hoping to have some time over the weekend to be creative. Enjoy your bank holiday weekend.

Tuesday 23 August 2011

A New Skill

 I've always wanted to know how make crochet flowers and now thanks to YouTube I can. The red flower was made following the instructions to the letter, the green one is my adaptation. It's got an extra petal and I think it's much nicer.


I bet if I looked I could find a video for sock making. I tried to make some a while ago and I managed one sock but when it came to the other half of the pair and I got to the bit where you turn the heel I couldn't remember how I'd done it so they went in the bin. So I'm very tempted to look and have a go.

I've done a few more pages in my sketchbook . This one is my favourite at the moment.


I'm not sure that there will be much creativity this week due to a lack of time. We are very busy in the shop this week and Anthony is moving out. Baby is due in 5 weeks or thereabouts so they want to get all comfy and settled before their peace and quiet is shattered. They have got their house looking lovely and Anthony has done a fantstic job of the renovation, he has fitted a lovely kitchen and bathroom. I wish I had their bathroom - it's huge. Anyway I must go and do some work now.

Friday 12 August 2011

Festival Of Quilts

Yesterday Neil and I went to the festival of quilts and we had a lovely day. There was some stunning quilts on display.




The Meerkats quilt was a group effort, such fun.


A lot of you probably recognise the next quilt, it's Pams doesn't it look fabulous hanging there.


A quilt show wouldn't be a show with out some poppies would it?


More poppies because they are my favourite.


This is Julie's quilt.


This astonishing piece won the best amateur quilt prize - some amateur! The quilt is quite exceptional, Neil says it's the best in show, if not ever!


Next is Jenny's quilt. Jenny doesn't have a blog, the photo's on the quilt are of her family and I can truthfully say that blood sweat and tears went into the making of this quilt, sadly Jenny's father passed away before it was finished.


I'm going back to the festival on Sunday with a group of friends and I'm hoping it won't be quite as busy. If your making the trip then enjoy your day you won't be disappointed.

Tuesday 9 August 2011

Something In Blue

I've done some more sketchbook work. I placed one of my stencils in the middle of the page and cut around it and repeated this on  the page underneath. Then came the hard job of eating some Quality Street because I needed the wrappers. I used the wrappers on the back of the cut outs layering them as I went.
I put a piece of plain paper underneath to get a better picture.


This is the other side. I used water soluble crayons to colour this page and I really like it.


Even though it's the summer holidays Gina has given us homework, we have to make a Blue square and a Turquoise one.
This is my blue one. I thought it might be nice to work in just one stitch. Using a blue fabric I covered it with strips of different blues and worked Fly stitch in tapestry wools and a rayon thread in different shades of blue.

Now if you want some really exciting news just hop over to Pam's blog.

Thursday 4 August 2011

A special visitor! (with 6.00pm update)

We were delighted to see our good friend Jennie Rayment this morning! She popped in to see us in-between filming at Ideal World Create and Craft, and did an impromptu book signing while she was here.


Her new book 'Foldy Rolly Patchwork Pzzazz' is literally hot off the press and is fabulous! We have a few signed copies available at the shop (or by post at £14.75 post-free) if you're interested.

We are working with Jennie on a very special event later in the year, and will post more details as soon as we can.

6.00pm Update: Thanks for the name-check on national TV this evening Jennie, we're delighted you enjoy your visits to Art and Stitch so much!

Wednesday 3 August 2011

Sketchbook Work

I've done some more sketchbook work and I've been enjoying it.

Following Gina's example for using a stencil  I combined two and used a metallic oil pastel in purple. It's very difficult to see that it's metallic from the picture but it looks very striking over the white card.


Much more subtle against the red page.


Here I used a white oil pastel and mixed purple and red Kohi-I-Noor colours together to fill in the poppies and then I cut away some of the page to reveal part of the underlying page.


I worked some more on the combined stencils page adding some texture. The top of the seed head is covered in the tiniest dark purple beads and I added a few words using my stamps.

This is the page that lies underneath the cut away page.


I took this picture so that you could see the beads on the surface.


This is my favourite page. I used water soluble crayons in various shades of red, orange, yellow and a dark purple mixing them all together. It made such a nice smooth surface to work on that I was reluctant to use it but I did. I'll show you the results in my next post I'm waiting for it to finish drying.


The tumbling block quilt is finished and has recieved lots of nice comments.


I've made a start on putting the pink and green star blocks together for Anthony and Nicki's quilt. I'm hoping to get the top put together today.

The purple and green log cabin hanging is coming along nicely and I've ordered the perspex rod for displaying it.

I must go and get on with the stars now.