Sketchbook Garden Page

Yesterday, I wasn't able to do 'The Gallery Tuesday', due to a hospital appointment.

Scans and tests later, feel a relief and was looked after really well.

So today I needed to re-group mentally,emotionally.

Stewart treated me to an ipod yesterday and Jenn helped me sort out some music today.

Rang friends and caught up with my sketchbook.

I had piled up alot of goodies to stick in,

so this morning I had fun painting, sticking and glueing,

really fun and releasing!

Feebie, 'The Flower Lady' called this morning too! with her plants in her van.

We live rurally so have many little vans that call with plants,

fish,meat and the fish and chip van beeps!when there here.

Feebie always seems to know when the time is right.

I brought some plants for the flower garden and strawberries for the greenhouse,enjoyed being ouside.

Here is the sketchbook page after my planting.

Feel lucky to be creative and enjoy what ever you are doing because you can!

Kate's Quilt

This is Kate's quilt in the making inspired by Persian Rugs.

The center panel is all Celtic Work with such small stitches.

Beautiful Kate! and to think that was all in bits last month!

We are so lucky to have such a good friends and the laughter could be heard all the way to the allotments!

I got home just before Cinderella again!

Kate Shows Us Her Quilt

Barbara's been making beautiful bags and shows us some more she would like to make on the computer along with penants for London 2012 Olympics.

We are each planning to make one.

This is Kate's quilt she is in the process of making for her son.

Now this is the lady who had only just arrived back in Norfolk after a celebration in a Night Club the previous evening and you can see her pink hat! that she turned up in!!

We Arrived at Coven

Once a month on Monday night it's Coven Quilters.

We met at Barbara's and boxes and bag fulls later we are sorting out Alsorts.

What you can do with this box of fabric?

Part of Joan's stash, she has been sorting out while moving into her new logcabin studio in her garden, oooh!

Joan reckons this is a couple of hours worth of time which she doesn't have,

just another three life times worth to sort!

As you can see the other Barbara is hard at thought,

arms crossed and deep stares.

Croft House Garden Sculpture

Croft House Garden had lots of inspiration and had a wonderful atmosphere.

In different areas around the garden were photographs of it before and after it had been transformed.

There were aso quotes, I liked this one.

" You thank nature for all you have seen,

But I am informed all here is

reformed by Art"

Elizabeth Montagu

1720-1800

Painshill Garden, Surrey.

Croft House Garden

Today Stewart and visited Croft House at Dersingham, just down the road from Sandringham and opposite St Nicholas Church .

The garden is opened in aid of charity as part of The National Garden Scheme.(NGS).

http://www.norfolkgardens.org/

http://www.ngs.org.uk/

It is the wonderful garden of Walter and Jane Blaney.

The woodland area was a real pleasure to walk round and there were some real treasures and inspiration in the form of plants,pond and sculpture.

A mother duck had seven little chicks which she walked around the garden to entertain.

See more gardens, Quilters Cottage Garden in this Blog

and on my website

http://www.art2inspire.co.uk/

Large Flower Border at Quilters Cottage

Today Stewart and I finished the large flower border in the front garden area.

The border on this hedge side is 60 feet long so you can see it has taken some time.

We started refurbishing at the end of last year because it had got full of real persistant weeds.

We took nearly everything out and started again,

other than the large bushes and trees and heavily mulched.

I am now replanting and heavily mulching again to try and save some work!

see more of Quilters Cottage Garden throughout this blog.

Liz's Old Quilt

We have 'Show and Tell at Alveva's every month.

We had lots of lovely quilts in the making,

our workshop tidies and this old quilt brought by Liz, on Ebay.

It is really beautiful and in very good condition.

The pattern is a variation on'Old Maids Puzzle'.

It is all hand quilted.

Well done Liz and well done to all our members for making it such a lovely group.

See some of my quilts on my website

http://www.art2inspire.co.uk/

Jo Rolfe textile Artist

Jo Rolfe Textile Artist, came to share her work with us at Alveva Quilters. She showed us her earliest work as a child and then through her education courses within textiles and right up to date with her PHD, which is based on traditional crafts but all use terms and methods which could be seen to relate to textiles.

Jo's studio is open in the 'Open Studios Norfolk',

www.nnfestival.org.uk/openstudios

Crazywork Square For This Month

As some of you know I am doing a Crazywork Patchwork Round Robin with 8 members of Alveva Quilt Group and this is the square I made for Barbara. Her bag contained all silk fabrics which felt wonderful but did have the fray factor too!

Her inspirational block was very crisp and precise so this was a different one for me to achieve this month again. Only two more swaps before we get our own boxes back.

oOo! how exciting.

See more crazywork on my website

http://www.art2inspire.co.uk/

Lovely Lutradur Book

Marion was back at The Gallery today along with Jill.

They are getting ready for Open Studios and they are using

The Gallery as their exhibiting venue.

I brought Marion's book today and she signed it too!

I will have a good read and tell you all about it.

We are surounded by some really inspirational and clever people at The Gallery.

http://www.thegallerydereham.co.uk/

Carol's Quillo Cushion

This is Carol's cushion front for her Quillo.

She brought the two fabrics and made the panel.

She has machine quilted the straight lines and then she is hand quilting with gold thread the flowers and details.

Well done Carol, from beginner to quilter in such a short time.

See more of my quilts and textiles on my website

http://www.art2inspire.co.uk/

Gallery Day 20th April 2010

Jenn's 19th birthday today but she's at college, ahh!

I'm at The Gallery and her Dads at work so special tea and cake tonight before she goes out and Party's.

Well here's Carol getting on with her first ever machine quilting of Quilt!!

She's doing so well and practising with her new machine.

See more of what happens at The Gallery

http://www.thegallerydereham.co.uk/

Spinney Lodge Garden

Visited Spinney Lodge Garden at Gayton in Norfolk today with Mum and Stewart, after we had had a Carvey lunch at The Crown at Gayton. Very nice too! Spinney Lodge is the home and garden of Mr and Mrs Grant and they opened it to raise money for the National Garden Scheme, (NGS) yellow book, which raises money for charity.
It is a 2 acre garden by the side of a stream and has it's own woodland and trout pond.
This stream was an area off a Japanese style bridge which you walked over from a raised deck.
The garden was extensive and had many key features and plants which we found inspirational.
I brought a blue wood anenome for Mum and myself to remind us of our visit. I'll take a picture tomorrow when I have planted it.
I liked the poems and quotes which were around the garden. We were given a map to show us the key features. I think I would like to make a map of Quilters Cottage so watch this space.
The Grant's garden is featured in the 'Grow It' magazine which was on display.

Thank you to all NGS gardens who open their door to the public.

Japanese Garden and Sculpture

Today Stewart and I were in the garden tidying up, digging,mulching and planting.
This is a Japanese inspired garden designed by myself at the back of my studio. The standing sculpture is based on standing stones important in Japanese Gardens. I designed the ceramic stones. The clay was pushed into boxes which were lined with calico fabric so the clay picked up all the folds and creases. It was finished and fired by an artist called 'Flick' she has her own ceramics buisness now. Pebbles and slate form a dry river bed and pool around a ceramic seat made in the same way.
On the studio wall is a wall hanging made by me in etched and joined metal sections called 'Rabbits Don't Wear Armour', part of 'The Roadkill' Exhibition. On the metal dividing fence is a large climbing jasmine which makes this garden smell heavenly.

See other previous posts of Quilters Cottage Garden

See The Roadkill Exhibition on my website

http://www.art2inspire.co.uk/