Monday 27 June 2011

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.






Friday 24 June 2011

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

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

Thursday 23 June 2011

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.

Wednesday 22 June 2011

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

Monday 20 June 2011

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


Friday 17 June 2011

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

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

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

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

Thursday 16 June 2011




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

Sunday 12 June 2011

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

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