Purple Sketchbook Cover

This sketchbook cover started as a piece of

strip patchwork which I had quilted all over with stitches.

I then stamped leaves on the green contrasting squares

with 'Staz On' Ink and ironed to fix the ink.

These were then over sewed these to the front and back.

I added a lot more darker purple stitches to add more detail

and definition.

Follow the 'How to Cover a Sketchbook', video if

you want to know how to out the project together

by visiting my tech site

HERE

See more of the purple items I have made by clicking

HERE

Striped Needlecase Sample

(Click on the picture to see the detail)

This needlecase base is made out of tiny strips of

fabrics which were left over from the 'Purple Items'.

Visit the HERE

See more of my work on my website

www.art2inspire.co.uk

Purple Striped Needlecase

I am teaching Patchwork and Quilting Class

at Knit Wits in Dereham,

starting on the 8th of September with

a beginners class.

I will be running through the basics of P and Q

each week and this week we started with "Strips".

This case is one of the starter projects so students

will have something to put their needles, pins and

small scissors in it.

It is now in the window advertising the classes.

See more of the purple striped items

HERE

See more of Knit Wits at

www.knitwitsdereham.co.uk

Purple Textile Items

On Wednesday 7th of September I had a

studio day and made several pieces to add to

the items I needed to show at the new classes.

I made a needlecase, sketchbook cover, folded bag

and a sample of striped textile for another case.

I have really enjoyed having a 'Makey Day', with

these colour combination.

See the purple striped needlecase

HERE

See the Diary Cover

HERE

See the Sketchbook Cover

HERE

See the Folded Bag

HERE

Visit my website to see more of my work

www.art2inspire.co.uk

Textile Tuesday

It was so busy @The Gallery I only managed to

take a couple of photos of the work done.

Pat has finished the mixed media textile at

the top. It really is a stunning piece.

Barbara has made a charity quilt in the

last couple of weeks, for

LIfeline 4 Chernobyl.

It is lovely and contains lots of hidden treasures

such as a square which has a pocket and

another with embroidery.

See more of the Charity at

www.lifeline4chernobyl.org.uk

Busy Gallery Tuesday

On the 6th of September it was the first day back

for the Autumn Season @The Gallery.

It was a very busy day and lots of the students

wanted to start new projects and had lots of ideas.

Sara who you can just see above is going to study

textiles so is learning all the different types of

techniques and how to develop an art

sketchbook.

She likes purple too!

See more of what goes on @The Gallery by

visiting

www.thegallerydereham.co.uk

Car Tagged

On Monday 5th of September I took the

car into Downham Market to

'HE Signs Ltd', to have my website put on the

back tyre cover.

The cover has had a car sales logo on it for years

and I thought,

it was about time I advertised my work.

Ollie, did a great job and it looks cool!

A bit of free advertising as I travel around.

The amount of time you are stuck behind traffic

and start reading whats on the van in front.

So I thought it was about time I did the same.

Subtle though, just the wording,

Visit www.art2inspire.co.uk

A tip: I haven't put my name or

telephone number on it as it is the family car!!!!

The website is enough!

To visit my website go to

www.art2inspire.co.uk

Diary Cover Finished

I finished putting the diary cover together today.

It looks really good and will be great to put all

my teaching dates in.

As Judy commented before,

"A cover makes them more personal".

See the blog post of how it started

by clicking HERE

and the video of how to make a fabric journal cover

www.art2inspiretech.blogspot.com

Purple Journal Pages

This weekend i made another journal page for my large

sketchbook. I will be teaching 'Sketchbook Inspiration',

techniques and types in the New Year.

I have a collection of different types, so I am

always working in one or another.

Here is a short video of my pages and how they start.

Diary Cover

This week classes start again and they begin with,

'All Things Stripped'.

I needed a new academic calendar and of course it needed a better cover!

Keeping to theme the 'Purple' and the 'Strips'.

See more of my purple items made by clicking

HERE

The cover is ready to be fitted to the diary.

See a video on how to cover a diary with your own textile slip cover

by visiting my video tech site

www.art2inspiretech.blogspot.com

Tree Pruning

This week, Stewart and I have put in over 5-6 hours of gardening

everyday to prepare the garden for the Winter!

There's been some nice harvesting, making wine and bottling

but most of it has been hard landscaping!

The picture above, shows only some of the Pom Pom Buddleia

tree we pruned. As you can see it covers the side lawn!

Some of the branches had grown over 8 feet tall this year!

All the garden waste has to be taken the 150m to the bottom

of the garden where we have a burning and compost area.

All the garden waste gets composted and the put back on the garden.

Even the ash from the fire goes on the empty beds, we have just

harvested from along with compost bins, covered with

black recycled plastic and left for the worms to enjoy and

no weeds when we come to plant next Spring.

Gardens are lovely but boy! do they take work!

Purple Textile

Monday after some gardening with Stewart,

I got into the Studio for some creativity.

I used some tyvek fabric, added stitching

and lace.

This I painted and allowed to semi dry and

then with the studio door open, melted it with

an hot air gun! I added embossing powders and more paint and

melted some more.

I made several layers using the same technique.

I then machine stitched and I am now hand stitching more

details and beads.

Above are areas of the piece of work before I added

more stitching to it.

I will show you the finished piece shortly.

I must be working in a colour theme, Purple!

LIfeline for Chernobyl

After a quiet family holiday weekend Stewart and I

went over to the Lifeline 4 Chernobyl charity

on Sunday. We were on the refreshment team for

The Charity Auction.

The lorry arrived to pick up the trailer

and soon it was on it's way with it's new driver, Ann.

Ann has just past her test to drive artics for the charity!

and she' s driving to Russia! in a convoy.

Well done Ann.

The trailers leave from Hull this week.

They will be going out again in January 2012

so fund raising starts today all over again.

John was up and around a little after his op to see the lorry

go and keep and eye on things. Paulene was in charge of

the Auction.

It was a good 4 hours of bidding and refreshments

and when the Auction had finished

it had been a good one.

See the charity's work on

www.lifeline4chernobyl.org.uk

Paper Strips

Thursday I continued paper sorting and playing.

I love making background papers for mixed media

pieces and I have some new students who want to

start with papers and how to turn it into

works of art.

Here, I cut the newspaper into strips and then wove

them together to form a background.

This was then put onto to vilene and

I have stitched all over in straight stitch

and some patterned stitches to add interest.

This will be painted and then appliqued and

stitched.

See more of my medias on my website.

www.art2inspire.co.uk

Paper Sorting

With no classes this week I thought I would spend my

Wednesday morning sorting out my papers

for card making and projects.

I saw this tip in Kim's studio when I was helping

her set up her new blog.

It works fantastic.

Just an expandable file that sits on a work surface,

colours in each section and it's so easy to use.

Visit Kim's card blog at

www.kimcrop.blogspot.com