Spring Greens

Last week's little project was a felted bangle devised by my friend Jan.  It's made on a framework of knitted wire tube and then needle felted to secure the fibres.

I was beguiled by the vibrant colour of green silk noil which gave an interesting texture but was a bit of devil to work with and turned out to be a tough match for the normally barbarous felting needles.  The other members of our crafting group had more sensibly chosen merino wool tops which gave a much smoother and altogether more polished appearance.  I finished it with some antique coloured beads stitched on in small clusters.

I'm pretty pleased with myself this week as my contemporary quilt/wall hanging Two Views of Withens was selected for the Yorkshire and Lancashire Craft Open and is currently on display at the Platform Gallery in Clitheroe.  I'm also running another knitting workshop for Gawthorpe Hall on Sunday 19th May.  Booking is via the Eventbrite website if you want to check it out.

This Time Last Week

This time last week (well Sunday to be precise but I'm a bit late with my blog post) I was basking in the Spring sunshine in Paris with my friends.  We sat close to this brasserie eating a late lunch and were serenaded by a busker playing a piano on the street.  I had eaten much better food during our weekend jaunt but the setting was perfect.

Here is my pen and ink sketch of the block that resembled the "Flat Iron" building in New York. The clear blue April skies are reflected in the windows and the plane trees have not yet sprouted leaves to cast shadows over the stonework.  I wonder what the views are like from the top most floors?

Favourite things

I've been working on a collage.  A mixture of fabrics, found objects, items that I have made and loved and not quite known what to do with them.  I've worked them up into a collage on the theme of favourite things.
Here's a little bit: hand dyed cotton organdie and silk, cotton lace bought from a French man at the Knit and Stitch show, a paper tree cut from a damaged book.  Every piece with a memory or a story to tell.

Gorgeous gifts

My creativity has been channeled into producing birthday gifts so I'm afraid not much time for art and blogging.  

Here are a couple of cushions that I've made for my friend's daughters who are 18 on Wednesday.  They have been reverse machine embroidered onto linen fabric using patchwork cottons and viscose threads for a bit of shine! They are finished with mismatched buttons on the reverse.

Goldcrest in my garden

Although there is still a lot of snow on the ground but the birds in the garden know that spring is on its way.  Last week a goldcrest was spotted in amongst the shrubs.  This tiny bird is smaller than a wren and has a distinctive gold flash on the top of its head.

I did a few studies in my sketch book using ink pen and water colours.  Then I started to think about how I might translate the picture into stitch and I remembered that in a workshop taught by Naseem Darbey, we had used wire as a drawing tool.  Its a clever device because it focuses the mind on capturing the essential features and creating a continuous line drawing with a length of wire requires a forethought and ingenuity. I used 0.3mm coloured copper wire in sage green bought as part of a sample pack from The Crazy Wire Company.