Unusual art.

Last weekend our church had it's annual day out and BBQ at Holton Lee, which is an old farm which is now used for retreats and a special place for those with disability's to be creative and chill out a bit.
It's a wonderful place in the peaceful backwaters of Poole Harbour. What caught my eye was this sculpture of the British Isles made out of bits of wheelchairs. It's so good and decorates the wall outside the toilet! I believe there is a lot more art work to be seen but we were only using a small part of the centre.

Highland Pottery puchases

Finally I am getting around to blogging again! These are the two bits that tempted me in the Highland Pottery, it is very expensive so I'm afraid both of these came from the bargain bin! They have a flaw on them but it's not immediately obvious so I'm not bothered!

They are reminiscent of the area we stayed in so have great holiday memories.

I have done no sewing for weeks now, my family have all returned from Uni, Marines, etc..(with a huge amount of STUFF!) and the house has become full of clutter and I just feel snowed under by it all and don't want to cause more mess with my stuff being out too. My machine is still being mended after a wheel/cog broke inside it somewhere but when it comes back I think I will put it away until there is space again! Meanwhile I will enjoy looking at what others are doing.

Highland Stoneware and Kaffe Fassett

When we visited the Highland Stoneware pottery in Lochinver I knew it was going to be good as soon as I saw this wall on the way in! It's all made up of broken bits of pottery that are no use for anything else. I'd love a wall like this round our house, sadly D is not convinced..

There are brilliant mosaics all round the building and already I was thinking it was like a Kaffe Fassett design, when I saw the bit in the picture below with his and Brandon Mably's signatures on it!
They have used all bits of stoneware, even the backs and teapot spouts, handles and lids.

These rocks were covered too, you need to click on the picture to see it in all it's glory!

Even a car in the car park, all done in broken pottery.

This settee was huge and they are making an armchair next to it at the moment. D gamely stood next to it to show how big it is...doesn't look very happy about it does he! He's not very into pottery!

Of course I came out with a couple of bits which I will put here another time and have informed my family that it's OK if they happen to drop any china and break it...just put it in the designated box for my mosaic collection!

Harris Tweed and Hebridean holiday.

I have just returned from 2 weeks holiday, the first of which was on the wonderful Isle of Harris which is part of the Outer Hebrides. (If you are interested click here onto my other blog and you will see how beautiful it is) All these tweeds are made in peoples cottages (or Crofts as they are known there) and by hand on a loom. It's quite expensive to buy but I did buy half a yard and some offcuts too. The sheep that provide the wool are on every hillside, road and any bit of grass, they are very hardy as the life is very tough up there.

Most of the colours are earthy and the fabric is very warm and quite thick. Very expensive jackets are sold in London made from Harris Tweed and they are much sought after.

This wallhanging was in the ferry waiting room and is made from Harris Tweed and is of the landscape. I have other stuff that I took pictures of when I was there which I will put on the blog another time.

Ta Da!

I got up early this morning and finished the binding on this one. I think this is the one I have enjoyed doing the most, I let myself get completely carried away on embellishing the sea using old ribbon, my late Mother-in law's lavender bag, selvage edges of satin fabric, etc...
I have noticed that I only tend to make a card or textile hanging of the season we are in, I have no interest at the moment of doing any snow scenes or autumnal pictures. At the moment my head is full of beaches, beach huts, seaside houses and country meadow views.
I am on holiday before long up to the West coast of Scotland and the Outer Hebrides....plenty of inspiration there I think!

Just a peep!

This is just a peep at what I am working on at the moment, it's very nearly done and is a beach/coast view.
This afternoon I get together with some other creative friends and we spend time sewing, chatting, giving each other ideas, drinking tea and eating home-made cakes or biscuits. Hopefully I will complete this wallhanging this afternoon.

P.S. Update, I didn't finish it, in fact I hardly did any at all, we all chatted, laughed and the afternoon just whizzed by!

Inspiration and buttercup fields

I think this lovely field may be my next inspiration for a landscape fabric picture, the colours are so nice . I think there are more meadows around now than there used to be and they all look beautiful. My Mum made these little mini purses for my daughter and I. They are supposed to be hung in the car to hold change for car parks. They are really nice and made in satin fabric.

This is a quilt for a baby that I made for no particular reason, just fun.

Completed!

If you look at these pictures you can see what has been neglected as I spent time doing these wallhangings instead.....the garden!
I have so enjoyed making these and will start another one today hopefully with some of the fabric given to me for my birthday last week.

I finished sewing the binding on this one during the 10 O'Clock news last night....it was a welcome escape from all the depressing political news at the moment.
Well, off to mow the lawn now!

Vintage and Handmade Fair & landscape pictures

These three are the latest works in progress, I'm trying to get all the machine bits done now so that I can take them on holiday in a few weeks time and do the hand embroidery there.

This one is based on a place I saw when on holiday in Wales last year called Abereron, the houses were all different colours. My family says it looks more like Tobermory on the children's TV programme! I have still to do the borders on this one.
The last one is a bluebell wood, I have used different colour netting and fabrics and wools to make the texture. I will do a tree canopy in wools and chiffon I think.

These are fun to make as no two are ever the same.

Changing the subject I went to the Vintage and handmade Fair in Chipping Sodbury on Saturday, it was lovely although very crowded...but that is good for the stall holders! The teas and cakes served on delicate vintage china looked wonderful but we didn't try any as the queue was long and no seats so we had another look round instead!

I was very restrained and only bought a couple of magazines and some very pretty ribbon. I hope they all did well as they had all put such alot of effort into it.

A quilt for how much...!!!!!!!

I happened to visit a charity shop the other day and picked up this lovely dish for only £2.00, I think it's a very shallow fruit bowl, but I shall use it for fairy cakes.

But....today I found this quilt for only £7.99p, it's hand quilted and very pretty. I know it is one of those quilts sold for a lowish price in the shops, but not that low. I have washed it and it smells and looks wonderful. My Great Uncle who is well in his ninety's sent me £5 for my birthday so with a little added to it I bought this.

I am so pleased, I never usually find bargains but for once I did!

Sheep on a hill teacosy!

I don't know why I made this teacosy, I have plenty but this design just made me do it! A friend at work showed me what to do and off I went home and did it. It's meant to be sheep on a hillside. It's fun anyway.
I have decided to buy the Bernina as it is very good value for the make it is, they are known as the workhorse of the sewing machine world.

Nearly finished but not quite!

This is the picture I put on the blog a week or so ago, and it has changed quite alot. I changed the bottom two fabrics and framed it. Put embroidered flowers in the fiels at the bottom and changed the fields round a bit. I'm quilting it now as you can see from the pins. I can see lots of things I would change and as this is the first time I have done one of these textile pictures I shall use it as a practice piece.

It's still meant to be Kimmeridge in Dorset although next time I shall just do an imaginary place to allow more freedom.

I still think the headland looks like a hedgehog and I think the sea may be going uphill!

Below is the picture as it was before I fiddled with it.

Village quilt

Yesterday we went for tea in Wimborne St Giles village hall (if you want to see more click on my Snowgoosey blog on the sidebar).
This lovely quilt caught my eye. You can see by the size of the people how huge it is but I have got alot of reflection in the picture sadly. However if you click on the picture you can get a better look. It's of the village and appears to be very accurate. I would have loved to have asked someone about it but the ladies were so busy I didn't feel I could bother them...another time maybe!
It has alot of applique and embellishment too, a real work of art.

Inspired by Kimmeridge

I have been working on this wallhanging, it's about A4 size and based on the picture below of a coastal village not to far from where I live. I haven't yet put Clavel Tower on, which is the small building on top of the hill. I started to embellish the sea but am having second thoughts and may change that and embellish the fields in the foreground of the picture instead. I'm slightly worried that the hill jutting out into the sea looks like a hedgehog!....but hopefully I will be able to change that with a bit of nifty sewing! The thin green hedge is made using a bit of an old chiffon scarf and the sea is satin with netting and fancy wools on top. You can see more if you click to enlarge the picture. I will put it n again when I have finished it.

This is the inspiration for the picture, it's a beautiful area which we have walked many times. If you are looking on a map it is on the Purbeck coast in Dorset between Swanage and Weymouth.

A much better cake!

A couple of blog entries ago I put on a cake I had decorated for my son's birthday but I wasn't that pleased with it compared to the picture I had seen originally. Yesterday my daughter made this beautiful cake for her colleague at work, helped by our lovely neighbour over the road who is a bit of an expert cake decorator.

I think A may do a course in cake decorating now, she has so enjoyed creating this work of art. I have tried for years to get A to be creative but she has shown no interest in sewing, art or anything like that but now she may have found her niche!......By the way A, don't forget my birthday is next month!

Smoothie hats!

I know this is very sad / mad / or perhaps both! I was told about this idea by someone and decided to make all the young people in this house a mini hat for Easter! The two fluffy ones are for the girls, my daughter and my son's girlfriend who is staying with us this weekend. The bobble hat is for my middle son and the green one with the badge is meant to be a green beret of the Royal Marine Commandos which my youngest son has been in training with recently. Just a bit of fun!

I have been fiddling with this one card for about a week now trying to get it right. I haven't stuck it down yet as I'm still not sure! It was an experiment using netting to denote reflection in the water. I got 7 different coloured nettings to use on the cards to make a misty feel, blues and lilacs for bluebell woods, greens for trees, and I just need to experiment now to see what can be done. Netting is really cheap too and I got half a metre of each so it will last years I think!

Birthday tea

Today is my youngest son's 17th birthday but we had the tea yesterday with Grandparents etc.. I saw this idea for a cake and decided to try it. It's not as good as I had hoped it would be but it tasted OK!

The lady at the cake shop said I had to put the wires in a little plastic container which you push into the cake or I would probably poison my family! So I did, but I think it wouldn't have hurt to push them straight into the cake!...and would have looked better. It's meant to look like an explosion of fireworks...if you look back on my snowgoosey blog ( or use the link to the right of this) you will see that my boys are quite fond of explosions! They blew up a model house in the garden just after Christmas.

Crafty day

I spent this afternoon demonstrating how to make a patchwork Easter cards to some ladies and children at our Church. I had made some kits up and thankfully it seemed to go alright,.

These little hands belong to a 7 year old who came and had a go and she did really well. She was very creative and made a lovely little card as seen in the next picture.

There were other crafts to try, ceramic painting, Hollie Hobbie bags, and two other types of cards.

It's nice to be able to try other crafts that you don't usually do.

UFO...Unfinished Object....

I am sorry to say that I started this about 7 years ago I think. I went to the National Patchwork Championships in London and saw Dilys Fronks making a quilt/wallhanging like this. I bought her book and started to create my own version.

It is supposed to be a garden looking through a wrought iron gate, I thought if I put it on here it might shame me into finishing it! The patchwork behind the black is done in a watercolour way as a suggestion of the garden, sky and trees and a path in the middle.

If you are interested the book is called "Enchanted Views" by Dilys A. Fronks. and the quilts are

inspired by wrought-iron designs. This picture is her interpretation of the wallhanging.

Fabric landscape cards

I've been enjoying making these little cards lately but if anyone knows of any good online sources about fabric landscapes I'd be pleased to know about it. I'm getting carried away with them and have about 20 done now, I've done them by hand because it means I can be with the family and sew or sit out in this lovely spring sunshine.

The Menopausal, Empty Nest Dish Cloth!

It has been noticed by various members of my family that when one of my children leaves home I enter a flurry of making things, so when my youngest son aged 16 joined the Royal Marines out came the knitting needles! Now I am not really a knitter so the dish cloth was a pretty easy thing for even a beginner like me to make and believe me dish cloths have been made thick and fast since he left. I gave them away to friends...did they want/need one?...I don't know but they were kind about it and just shook their heads gently!
They have become known as the menopausal, empty nest dish cloth, problem is I've now started on tea cosies, sort of funky ones that are shaped like pineapples and fields of sheep...but that's another story!

Mair's quilts.

These are quilts that I have made in the past, I just piled them up to take the photo and am shocked at how old and shabby some of them are looking now, the oldest one I made 28 years ago! Several more quilts have been given away to friends and family, the furthest away is in New Zealand!

Over time I will take a picture of each one and put it on the blog along with currant works in progress.

This is my favourite. While clearing out my Mother-in-Laws home after she had moved to a rest home I found lots of old embroidered tray cloth's, napkins, tablecloths, etc and as some were a little threadbare I decided to use what I could to make this quilt for her to use on her bed. By the time I had finished it she was in hospital and was not allowed to use it, and sadly she died last Easter Monday never having used it. She had however seen it and loved it.

This was also my M-i-L's. I made this for Mair one Christmas and she did have this with her in the rest home. It's a real scrappy quilt, just made out of leftovers.

Dividing the Blog

I have decided that it makes sense to have a separate blog for crafty stuff so as not to bore the folk who look at my usual one for Dorset, Bird stuff and walking. I have been so inspired by other peoples craft blogs and just thought it would be fun to record my shaky progress.
The quilt above has been completed since I took this picture and soon I will put a finished picture of it on the blog.

My aim is to;
-raise £250 (more if I can do it) by Dec 31st 2009 for my favourite two charities, Tear Fund and Compassion UK. Bearing in mind that I have a job as well so will give as much time as I can.
-I aim to have a sale of work in November so will be creating stuff up till then. I make quilts, cards (watercolour and fabric landscape) and odd bits as above with this tea cosy.
- I will be giving the profits to these 2 causes but will keep about 10% to replenish supplies!
- I will endeavour to use recycled stuff wherever I can.

So...wish me luck and here I go!