Help please

Blogging tonight as tomorrow we have to shift furniture in 3 bedrooms for new carpet and I have a strong suspicion that I will not be able to get into my crafting room.I am doing a series of 4 of these box canvases 2 rust coloured 2 turquoise,with painted ,zapped, and stitched kunin felt Plus ammonites.Well the question is,has the first got enough on it or does the 2nd one look better? any suggestions would be appreciated.Forgot to use the daylight bulb.

Something someone told me once was to take a photo of where you had placed pieces so that you could put them back in the same place,you probably already know this, but if like me the memory is going it is a great reminder.This is a lap quilt I am making for my daughter in Oz, why she wants a lap quilt when it has been 40 degrees in Sydney I have no idea.She wants to try living back in the U.K !

These are 2 of the finished squares,the shoes are because Lisa loves her shoes and the piece by Edward Mon kton is right up her street." When I wear my killer heels men will gasp with passion ,lust and longing & girls will sigh with despair.For I shall be the total queen of hotness & they shall be my faithful humble slaves."Great

postcards and Atcs

Before Christmas I was very honoured to be asked to join Calender girls a group of 13 bloggers who each month make a card from a given picture from a calender and send it on to another member,I of course accepted before they changed their minds.This month the artist was Shane Pickett an aboriginal from Oz it is asuperb pictur and i enjoyed doing it,I painted calico a la Fibre in form and then added french knots,below is the original.

I made this bag for my daughter as she liked the other one,I do like this colour she and my granddaughter are very good at wearing and using the items that I make which is very gratifying

I have also made 35 ATCs for a swap which Kate of quilting fame is organising,I think I prefer making postcards less of a fiddle.

I have been making more cards as I just adore this technique Fibre in form start another texture class very soon so go and book up you won`t be disappointed.

The leaves look so beautiful this time of year with a coating of frost.

Lynda from Purple Missus has been talking on her blog abut light tents,and in a ahha moment I thought well my chiropody light has a large round daylight bulb so lets go try it.The photo below is one taken in a mixture of artificial and daylight but the colour is truer in the one below taken with the daylight bulb.This time of year it is quite a problem taking a decent picture and getting the colours right. It is a piece of kunin felt coloured with transferred dyes and machine sewn with the addition of zapped organza and foils,we did it at Angie Hughes masterclass but it has not inspired me to finish it.

My chiropody light

Testing testing

Sharons blogs please read it here I can do it Yippee and it has only taken 2 hours!!!!!

New Year

A happy healthy and creative New Year to one and all.I spent some time reading other blogs when I should have been getting on with some work,Sharon`s is one that I read regularly and her latest blog is well worth a read she has intertwined her thoughts and photos perfectly,click here,is that doesn't work(I have no faith in my IT skills) it is http://sharonoyoung.blogspot.com/. One of her thoughts is on the loneliness of doing C&G, as a distance learning course I am so glad that I completed mine just as they were finishing around here such a pity.I was not gong to start until I had retired but went to the end of term exhibition and was hooked I went intending to do felting but the embroidery was so inspiring,tutor Frances Pickering, that I signed up for that instead.The 20 or so other students added to the fun and enjoyment of the course and I learnt as much from them as from the tutors, three of us still meet up regularly and exchange ideas and courses we have done, so I do feel for Sharon, but she has created some great pieces for her course. The library has got me "Finding your own visual image" I have only attempted two exercises so far but have read through the book twice,the articles on evaluation I really found useful as was the page on altering a piece but a lot of it is things we all know and do without being conscious of it. So you end up thinking what have I gained? and what does fiddling around with bits of paper and 20 rubber stamps do for you?I am not normally short of ideas and projects, and you just have to read some of the great blogs out there to get inspired and there is never going to be enough time to finish all the things I would like to make and do anyway so why do I spend time reading these books when I should get on and do it,having cut out these bits of paper and done this designing they do not attempt to mention how you transfer it to fabric.If you want a book to spark off new ideas ,yes I can see the point and they are 3 good tutors but what does everyone else think?Well I think my New Years resolution must be to stop procrastinating

A very Merry Christmas to one and all, have a great time and a very healthy New Year,and many thanks to everyone who takes the time to read this blog and comment it is much appreciated

My husband who is in deep trouble moved my bay tree about 9 months ago it was about 12 years old and I had nurtured and pruned it into a lovely round ball on a straight trunk,well in moving it he killed it off.So my lovely daughter from Oz has sent me these two beautiful trees to replace it,I am a lucky lady,and husband will not be allowed to touch them. His worst deed to date concerns my catalogue,I am taking part in Maggie Greys online tutorial and the catalogue has been out in the garden since the summer and he was asked not to move it.Well for a man who never puts anything away or clears up he had a sudden rush of blood to the head and put it in the recycling bin,and it has gone forever,I am contemplating a quick divorce or even murder.

Hard grafting, no crafting

Spent most of my spare time and this W.E decorating our bedroom I think we are getting too old for it groaning up and down ladders and in my case unable to get up after painting skirting boards.I used to do all the decorating and quite enjoyed it but when my husband said "I think I will get another ladder when we next do some decorating" I was thinking "No fear I am going to pay someone". I think it would make more sense for me to treat patients feet and pay someone to do the decorating especially having just noticed how uneven the top of the wallpaper is.Well I suppose we can whack up some coving,we have a Victorian house and they have high ceilings and very uneven walls. Have also made 200 Christmas cards for my patients seemed like a good idea at the time but even using the gocco to make the screen print they took quite a time,I have had the message inside printed so that made life easier

This little fellow has been born at Sydney Zoo he is a Pygmy hippo,and my lovely daughter is going to try and get me one for Christmas a bit of a messy feeder but very cute.

Another masterclass

At the start of Angie`s masterclass we all show and discuss are projects and journals,Cheryl who does some lovely paintings brought in some of her machine stitched pieces,they have a very appealing quality and I could not resist this one, which is titled "Two redheads" I am really pleased I got it.

Three of the sections I cut from my piece on the Sue Dove technique

Angie had us doing the Sue Dove technique of ripping paper and colouring in between it is very effective,we did it on a piece of A4 paper and looking through a view finder we cut them up,below is one of Angies This monstrous cat was made by Annie

Cheryl`s piece you can tell she is an artist

The next two are mine the first one is supposed to be ammonites

And the next 2 are Angie`s which he has cut up

This bird was made from an idea in Tesco`s food magazine,my husband who does the shopping keeps bringing them home in the hope that I might get keen and cook something different,not much hope of that, they showed theirs made in white felt but I decided red would look more cheerful

Well these are some of the screen prints that took me 5 evenings and cost me £120.00,I do have quite a few and I am thinking of papering the downstairs loo with them.The whole course was very rushed and would have been impossible to get the final printing done had not half the class not turned up.It was not what I was after as it was for printing on paper and any questions I asked about blocking a screen for fabric just got dismissed so it was for me a waste of money,but you live and learn.I did ask him at the start of the course what we would be doing but it was a wait and see answer, I did feel I ought to tell him that it was too rushed,but when we talked about it ,it was the first course of that type he had done and I couldn't bring myself to criticise it.I am just a coward.I did smile to myself on the way home he showed us some prints that were going into an exhibition and although I can admire the skill I just do not like them as a piece of art,so what a nutter doing the course.