Brightlingsea Open gardens Review

At the weekend Stewart and I took ourselves off to Mum and Dad's

at Brightlingsea in Essex.

It was Brightlingsea Open Gardens.

It was held to support the charity St Helena Hospice .

There were 35 gardens to view and Stewart and I managed

to see them all. Every one different!

We saw Brightlingsea in another way, all the people were so inviting

and the gardens behind or around were so different and personal.

Ann and George opened their Garden as usual for Ploughman's lunches

and snacks. Thank you to all those who played a part in making it a

wonderful weekend.

Look out for an Open Garden or Studio event in your area, they can be

inspirational.

Here is a slideshow of a small selection of the wonderful gardens and day.

Floral Brick Patterned Quilt

I love making floral patterned quilts in the Summer.

This lap quilt is made from cotton fabrics.

Some Sanderson and Liberty including.

(Above is the front and back).

It measures 43" by 55" long.

It is machine washable.

It is available to buy on my website

www.art2inspire.co.uk

Quilt Display Unit

Look at what Stewart finished and gave me today!

It is to hang and display my quilts for sale on

when it's in the Gallery and at Exhibitions.

It is a fantastic unit.

There are quilt hangers on the three sides.

Thank you Stewart!

Weeting Quilt Group

On Thursday I went over to the home of Chris,

the Chairlady of Weeting Quilters where I am a member.

We got together to launch 'Weeting Quilters Blog!

Weeting Quilters are also having an Exhibition on the 16th of July 2011.

Of nearly 100 quilts made and donated by quilters around

Norfolk and Suffolk.

Visiting our new blog to find out more at

www.weetingquilters.blogspot.com

Quilting Classes in Norfolk

NEWS!

My Blue and Green Quillow is in the window of "Knit Wits" in

Dereham advertising the new Quilting Classes in Norfolk.

I will be teaching there from September.

'Knit Wits' is stocking many of our favourite fabrics and

they will be available from the 1st of July to purchase.

It already stocks many sewing supplies and

of course some of the best wools around.

Classes be every Thursday from 10am until 3pm.

Two sessions,

10am until 12.15 and then 12.30 until 2.45.

Each month the week sessions will be,

Week One of the month, 'learn to Quilt'

( learning techniques of Patchwork and Quilting and different

equipment through making projects).

Week Two and Three, 'Project Based.

(Advertising of these projects to be finalised shortly).

Week Four, 'Quilt Making',

( either make the quilt of the month that is on display

and be inspired or make one you have always wanted to).

If you are interested in taking a class and require more

information visit 'Knit Wits' and

they can give you a leaflet for classes.
Classes have moved to 'The Art Room', Aldiss Court.
Dereham. Just down the road from Knit Wits.

Visit The Art Room Studio Shop and be inspired.
See HERE for list of classes and Courses.

Flower Printing

Wednesday is card making with Kim

@The Gallery.

10 am until 12pm.

I love it because I become a student

and use tools and equipment in a totally different way.

Kim is a fantastic tutor and has a wonderful array of

stamps, techniques and card making materials.

Look at the flower stamps above,

they are by Exclusive Design.

Kim has collected an extensive collection

and shares it with us.

She shows us different techniques and then we

get on with our own combinations.

I often make card and paper designs and then

move onto mixed media and textile,

my comfort zone!

We are always wow'd by her combinations

and goodies.

See more of my card making by

clicking on the written labels below.

Pink Crazy Work Cushion

Brenda as you may know, has made a crazy work cushion

before and it has been admired by her family.

This one is for her Grand Daughter.

It's all sugary and 'pink'!

Just the quilting and putting together.

See more crazy patchwork by clicking

on the written labels below.

Egyptian Quillow

Just look at this wonderful quillow.

Carol is making it for her Grand Son.

He loves anything to do with Egypt and

Archaeology

It was admired by all who came into

the Gallery and snuggled by several members

of the group. It is definitely a comfy!!!

See more of my Quillows by clicking on the

blue and green one on the right of this post.

Gallery Day 21st June 2011

Pat is making this mixed media textile wallhanging,

on the right and has been doing other projects in between.

Often new techniques and how to progress takes a little

time and then the next stage evolves and comes to light.

The trees are now applied and the backing and

finishing stitches are nearly there.

It is a beautiful one of a kind and

I haven't seen anything like it before.

It is amazing.

Well done Pat!

The piece above is a confetti textile,

stitches and embellishments

underneath a light gauze and then more

mixed media on top.

I love to see these layering textiles.

See more mixed media textiles on my website

www.art2inspire.co.uk

Dyeing Fabric Day

After doing a few jobs in the garden I decided to do

some fabric dyeing. I had been thinking about it for

a few weeks and had got all the things together.

I had use Dylon Dyes, that I had some from previous

dye day along with a couple I had been given.

I fix them with salt and soda, so it is really easy to do.

I used old cotton sheets and some dyed fabrics which

were a little pale from last time, these were

all dyed in plastic bags.

Each bag has some dye put in and the salt and soda

and given a good mix, you can either add the fabric or

mix in some cold water to dilute the colour.

Leave to cure!

I love rinsing the fabrics out and hanging on the line to see

the colour range.

I dyed blues, reds, yellows, green and purple

with a few mixed shades in between.

On the line above you can see the yellows going into

orange and red.

See some of my quilts that use my fabrics

on my website

www.art2inspire.co.uk

Cover Finished

Yesterday evening I finished the cover and added a few pages

to the mixed media 'Thou Art' Book.

One of the pages is made up of Italian Lace

that was in a bag of trimmings someone gave me

when they were having a sort out.

See work that I have created with vintage lace

by clicking HERE

I will keep making pages and then arrange and

secure them in.

See more of my mixed media work on my

website

www.art2inspire.co.uk

Thou Art Mixed Media Book

This is the start of the Mixed Media Book I have called

"Thou Art".

Base on a Scottish Proverb I found,

"What ev'r thou art,

act well thy part".

I began the piece of work by collecting the materials together

from around my studio and then began by

layering items onto an antique lace tray cloth.

You could use a lace handkerchief etc.

This I backed with Hobbs wadding (batting) and

then began sewing and sticking the layers of items on to

the tray cloth.

this is going to be the cover.

I managed to make a few pages and will continue to add.

I will take photos and post as I go.

See more of my mixed work on my website

www.art2inspire.co.uk

Collecting Together

On Thursday was my day in the studio, lovely.

I love being out and about sharing

and enjoying all the wonderful meetings and workshops

but I also like the time in my studio on my own,

playing and experimenting with 'stuff'.

I wanted to make a mixed media lace inspired book.

Something frilly, containing memories and keepsakes.

So my usual practice is to collect all the things

I can find in an short time. Often colour related too!

It keeps it project and idea based but I allow

for red herrings, lots will be rejected or

it will spark off where other items are while I am

making the item.

(I normally allow 15mins for this collecting otherwise you get lost

with all the lovely things and you don't get anything done).

So above are textiles, paper, trinkets, canvas and water colour paper.

The the process begins either with an inspiration via a picture, idea or

by the items I have collected together.

So many ideas then start rushing through my head

and I group items together.

in this case for the cover and the pages.

In the afternoon I had a visit from Chris who runs

Weeting Quilt Group. She brought her husband to see what a

studio in the garden looks like!

See more of my mixed media work on my website

www.art2inspire.co.uk

Alveva Workshop

Alveva Quilters takes up the challenge each year of learning

new patchwork and quilting skills and techniques.

This year it has been folded patchwork.

We started this year with origami and then transferred that from

paper and napkin folding to fabric.

On Wednesday evening,

I showed them how to make the Japanese Folded Bags.

You can see by some of the

ones nearly finished on the table, they are really fun

and so individual.

If you would like to come to one of my workshops,

studio or I am available for talks and demonstrations,

please feel free to contact me.

Alveva Quilt Group

Wednesday night was Alveva Quilter's once a month meeting.

I had been away on holiday for the last few meetings

so it was nice to catch up with everyone.

At Show and Tell Liz showed us her latest

acquisition from ebay.

A wholecloth quilt probably originally from Wales,

from the 19th Century.

It was beautiful, yellow on one side and a slate blue on the other.

Liz has a good selection of old British Quilts and is

available for talks.

See more wholecloth and Alveva by clicking

the written labels below this post.

Machine Embroidered Leaves

Jeanette is machine stitching the mixed media background

for the leaves to be attached to and making lots more leaves and

cords to embellish with.

There are so many techniques that Jeanette has used

on this mixed media wallhanging so far.

See more of the leaves and machine embroidery

by clicking on the written labels below.

Brenda Hand Sewing

As you may know if you follow my blog,

Brenda made a brown crazy work patchwork cushion before.

Her Daughter and Grand Daughter visited her at

the weekend and both saw her amazing cushion, on

the living room chair and both declared,

they wanted one! Could Brenda make them!

Brenda is making them both one and you can see

she has started with her Grand Daughter's first.

All shades of pink and glitz.

The machine embroidery stitches done,

the hand embellishing begins, with

sequins, french knots and sisha mirrors.

See Brenda's patchwork by clicking on

the crazywork patchwork cushion label below.

Gallery day 14th June 2011

Gallery Day was a bit quiet this week as some of the group

were on holiday.

Pat and Sylvia took the opportunity to work on the machines and

get to grips with new techniques.

The patchwork square above is 19" by 19" and

was made out of the scraps from one of my 50p bags.

It took Sylvia an hour to choose where to put the pieces

and sew it together which seemed like magic to the others!

Sylvia loves patchwork and is now enjoying real

high colour in her work.

I wonder where that comes from?

See more of the Gallery at

www.thegalleryderenam.co.uk

Above Joan the quilt maker!

Joan brought her quilt that she had been making her

daughter and son in law, from all the signed patches and

some of the wedding photographs. Can't believe it's been a year!

It filled Jane's conservatory with us all holding an edge.

It brought back lots of memories and we all found our

patches.

The evening followed with tea and cake!

and a long chat putting the world to rights.

As usual I just got in before Cinderella!

Coven Quilters

I was at Weeting Quilt Group for most of the day,

machine quilting as quick as I could so I could take

my lap quilt to Coven Quilters in the evening and

hand sew the bias binding on!

I feel so lucky with what I am able to do at the moment.

Mixing work with friendship and pleasure.

We met at Jane's and were automatically

drawn to sitting in the conservatory overlooking

her wonderful garden.

Catching up and show and tell.

Above are Baby and Cot Quilts ready for the new

arrivals made by Jane.

See more of our gatherings by clicking the labels below.

Quilts for Chernobyl

Quilts for Chernobyl are still coming in and here

Joan has made two more in a month.

A Red and White and Jelly Roll.

Well done Joan!

See more about our local Chernobyl Charity

by clicking on the label below.

Weeting Quilt Group

Monday was Weeting Quilt Group at the Village Hall,

11.30 until 3pm.

There was lots going on as usual and Sue was teaching

those who wanted, The Sampler Quilt Block,

starting with English piecing, the hexagons and diamonds.

The pile of blocks were made by Ida, a new member

who just wants to learn more and more about quilting and

you can see what see has made in a month!

Ella made her Sampler Quilt several years ago.

It is beautiful and hand quilted.

I remember making my first Sampler Quilt

24 years ago in The Shetland Islands.

See more of my quilts on my

pages at

www.art2inspire.co.uk

Japanese Folded Bag

On a previous Sunday afternoon, I made

these Folded Bags.

It is my version of a bag pattern that was in

magazine, designed by Alison Harris.

I will make some more of these for gifts and workshops

as they are so 'natty'!

See more of my bags on my website

www,art2inspire.co.uk

Surreal Art in the Garden

Before the rain started, Stewart and I put up this metal

hanging so the kiwi plant has something to grow up.

The kiwi fruit seeds were started off by my father in law

and now with all the lovely weather it has started to grow

quite quick.

This corner is outside Stewart's studio and divides

that garden to the Japanese area.

We had burnt an old single mattress a couple of

weeks ago in our burning area and when the fire

was finished it left behind the springs.

Interesting! I thought, I can use those.

What for, I didn't know at the time

but this morning walking past the empty screen divider,

thinking that the kiwi would soon need a trellis

to grow up, it came to me.

Springs!

This corner has always displayed Surreal Art

of mine, originally a 1.5 m 'peep box',

called 'Have You Ever',

click this link HERE to view

which over the years disintergrated slowly

so was replaced by a screen and sculpture arrangement.

The lady came from inside that box.

I love sculpture gardens and put unusual areas

around my garden.

The white board is not usually behind it,

I put this up so the area would photograph.

You look right through at the moment until the

kiwi grows up the screen.

See more of our garden

HERE.