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.

Through The Eye Textile Exhibition

On Saturday, Stewart and I went off to the North Norfolk Coast,

to a Textile Exhibition

called "Through The Eye"

at Brancaster Staithe Village Hall.

It was put on by The Hindolveston Textile Group.

Wow! when you walked in the door you were met by friendly

faces and the array of different mixed media textile work.

The work was breath taking and much to admire.

Even through some you were able to identify techniques

or stitches, the combination and thought of each piece was

wonderful. There was something there for everyone

to admire. Stewart especially like the two 'mask'

pieces on the stage.

Well done, to all who exhibited and helped to

put on such an inspiring Exhibition

and we look forward to more of the

groups Exhibitions.

Three Gilded Mixed Media Cards

Here are all three of the mixed media cards with gilding,

finished.

I really love the vivid pink with the various shades of Gold.

They are very India inspired.

See my website for more

Mixed Media work.

www.art2inspire.co.uk

Gilded Flowers

Here is the first of the Gilded Flower Cards put together.

I love looking around my studio for that treasure,

the little bit of something that is just right to add to a piece of work.

The treasure that makes you go, "yes, that fits".

See more of my mixed media work on my website.

www.art2inspire.co.uk

Gilded Flowers

On Friday it was chores morning and catching up

on paperwork. When these were finished

I went in the studio and carried on

with the gilding I had started on Wednesday.

Time flies when you are learning something new!

Here is how far I got. Now I just need to

stick and continue with the backgrounds for them.

There is two different ways of gilding here.

Stamp and emboss a piece of card with your pattern,

then using 'size',

paint the areas you want to gild. Allow to almost dry,

it should look tacky. Then put on the flakes all over the area,

brush off any excess with a soft brush.

Do this on to a separate piece of card to save the flakes.

Then continue to brush off the smaller excess pieces,

the pattern is then buffed with a soft tissue.

The other way is to use the double sided sticky

transparent sheets.

(It has the square grids on for card making).

Cut a square out slightly bigger than your flower.

Peel off one side and sick on a peel -off, of your

choice, here I chose flowers.

Place the gilding flakes in the sticky areas and finish

as above. You can then either stick the the square

straight on to a card or cut the shape out.

happy gilding.

See more paper techniques on my website

www.art2inspire.co.uk

Little Abbey Farm

In my roll as a Norfolk Community Artist I was

called by Ben to come and visit

Little Abbey Farm at Pentney.

Ben and Dianne run a small mixed farm with

Bed and Breakfast.

Like a lot of different businesses they are looking to

extol their assets and best features.

Little Abbey Farm is a working Farm with a great

extended garden room, the light is wonderful.

I had a visit around the farm and it's inspiration.

The farm has great animals who are used to human contact.

Spike above was so lovely he let me stroke and rub his head,

and take his picture. He is an artist dream as he wasn't bothered at

all. I could have set up my easel and he wouldn't have

batted an eye!

The pigs were adorable with a little piglet squeaking around,

not bothered by us at all.

There was so much to inspire an artist with old milk churns

and farm machinery, horse drawn ploughs to an old

but huge combine harvester.

I would recommend it definitely for

Bed and Breakfasts, they have the Breakfast Award

and a Silver Award too!

Also a venue for future events like

Retreats for small groups to enjoy the

rural location and the first rate food.

I am looking into helping run a Quilting Retreat and

an Arts Weekend.

Visit their website

www.littleabbeyfarm.co.uk

Heart Felt Crafts and Gifts

I next went on to Heart Felt Craft and Gifts in

Bennet House Dereham.

This is a wonderful shop and has a wonderful

website too!

I needed a gift that I hadn't made! and a funny card!

The shop is inspirational and always looks so beautiful.

Found the perfect card and had a chat with Heather,

to catch up on Norfolk craft events and news.

Visit her site

www.heartfeltcraft.com

Bead This Craft That

After being inspired I went to

Bead This Craft that in Dereham and had a good

look round for and brought a flower punch,

some cosmic shimmer paints, (these are just beautiful and also

work on fabric!) and some trinkets for projects that I am working on

for future workshops in the Autumn.

It is always a shop to be inspired by and in

and if they haven't got it, they will try and order it in

for you!

Visit Bead This and Craft That at

www.beadthiscraftthat.co.uk

Gilding

On Wednesday Kim showed carol and myself how to gild

cards with Gilding Flakes.

I watched and was thinking, well! embossing and

stamping bling normally works why spend the extra

on size and flakes.

How wrong I was,

When you follow the technique through and buff

the gilded area up, ooo, what a shine.

I can see me using this on many different medias.

Above is my practice piece ready to make cards later.

To see more of my card making click on the labels below

or visit the paper techniques on my website

www.art2inspire.co.uk

Mixed Media Autumn bark

This is my Mixed media Autumn Bark piece

which jeanette was following as inspiration.

It is made with a muslin base and the same method

I showed Jeanette.

Jeanette's pice will get more soft and 'Bark' like,

as she works on it. You will be able to see it as it progresses.

Thats if Jeanette lets me after me stretching her comfort zone!!!

See more of my mixed media work

on my website pages.

www.art2inspire.co.uk