Steampunk Outfit Pattern

Jenn and I had our 'girlie' day today and went in

dress shops and couldn't really find anything we liked!

We ended up in 'The Fent' shop in Kings Lynn and

looked at the patterns.

With me teaching corsetry starting next week,

we found this one and the Steampunk outfit.

Really Cool!

I had been inspired several months ago by

a video on You Tube on 'Steampunk Couture'.

Really inspirational and atmospheric.

See the video on my tech site

www.art2inspire.blogspot.com

Fabric Journal Pages

I have been putting together some of the pages

in my fabric journal, using a mixture of techniques.

See the start of the journal

HERE

See the video that inspired this fabric journal

on my tech blog

www.art2inspiretech.blogspot.com

Lace Dress form Card

,

Wednesday the 4th was Card Making @The Gallery

with Kim.

We were all feeling a little groggy to get started back

to class but look at what I created!

Kim showed us lots of ways of folding cards,

using different sizes.

Kim also brought in lots of inspirational papers,

I chose the lace ones!

It was good to be card making again,

Thank you Kim!

See more of my cards on my card blog

www.cards2inspire.blogspot.com

and see Kim's card blog

www.kimcrop.blogspot.com

Fabric Journal

At the end of last year I started to collect together all the

things to make a scrap book journal on,

'Dressmaking and Textiles'.

Today, after the Christmas break I went

back into the Studio and collected more of the things I liked.

I had seen a You Tube video a couple of months ago

on 'Fabric Journals' and this is my inspiration.

I start with this video but as you know I like to do

things my way!

See the video on my tech site

www.art2inspiretech.blogspot.com

Happy New Year

Wishing Everyone a Happy and Healthy New Year.

January 2012 is my second year of blogging

and I feel so lucky to be able to share my art work and life

with others.

I had a lovely time over Christmas and have had a complete break.

I didn't sew from the 23rd of December until today!

I did do lots of reading and research and enjoyed

being with family and friends.

Lovely!

I always allow myself a chance for a break in

my creativity and allow myself to recharge,

hence the statement above!

We expect too much of ourselves in this media, technology, rich

society and we always need to take a step back and take stock.

Hope you are able to take a break this year however you can,

whether it be an hour or a couple of days, it's worth the time!

Merry Christmas To All

A very Merry Christmas to everyone!

Best Wishes from here at

Quilters Cottage.

Lace Christmas Cornucopias

Still busy making and finishing gifts for close friends.

Above are some lace Victorian inspired cornucopias.

They each contain little gifts and a Christmas flower arrangement.

Christmas is all about family, friends and an open heart.

I just love the Christmas Season but there is never enough time.

It doesn't matter when you start!

I start in August making Christmas items for classes

so I have inspiration for my students!

Hope everyone has a lovely time!

See more of my Vintage Lace collection on my

portfolio site

www.art2inspire.co.uk

Jeanetta Sculpiturio

On Thursday 22nd Jenn and I went to Dereham as she

wanted to see, 'Jeanetta Sculpiturio' @ The Gallery.

I decided to do some photography in situ of the

different sections which you can see in the photos above.

I just the love the colours and textures now.

Working on with all the different medias this time

was a challenge and I thank Stewart for his wood working

technical skill of putting the picture moulding around

the column.

I will be putting a detailed description and techniques on

my portfolio site

www.art2inspire.co.uk

in the new year and also making a link picture

from Quilters Cottage for you to see the details.

Kims Striped Cushions

On Monday 19th I put the finishing touches to

Kim's cushions. She wanted ones to match her

newly decorated Living Room and using the

off cuts from her cream textured curtains.

I delivered these on the Wednesday when I went to

the last Card Making session of the year

@The Gallery.

Kim was very pleased with them.

New Office

Ohh! some times you get an idea in your head and it

goes too far!

With Jenn moving out we decided as we were both off

work from the 14th until the 18th we would decorate and

re-shelve Jennifer's room and make it into an Office!

Still keeping a bed in there as an option but making

it into sofa one for comfort.

Great!

After removing all the things Jennifer didn't take with her

which seemed an awful lot, we painted it 'WHITE'!

The room has never been all white before and it's

very bright so I hope over the holidays with all the

office type stuff that gets moved in there it will

gather some colour.

Stewart made the wonderful shelves!

I am so lucky!

I hope now I can get even more organised!

The thing is we didn't just stop here,

when you decorate one room the others shout,

so we ended up painting the office, hall way, bathroom and

living room all in the 5 days.

So so tired now!

but they all look good for Christmas!

Jeanetta Sculpiturio

I put on exhibit @The Gallery my new mixed media sculpture,

'Jeanetta Sculpiturio'.

It is a column 6ft tall and 16' wide.

Inspired by architecture, Venice,

intricate surfaces, jewellery and

Jeanette, one of my students!

Jeanette makes wonderful mixed media textile pieces

such as 'Bolliwood' and 'Leaves'.

See HERE

She also makes

intricate textile boxes.

HERE

Jeanette starts in a similar way to I do, with the inspiration.

Then collects lots of medias together and then compiles

ideas and sections together.

Where we differ and what makes me chuckle is,

Jeanette hates painting and getting messy!

I love paint,inks and getting stuck in with gooeyness!

I will work on this with her as she has expressed

that she wants to make a section of the sculpture

which has painted lace arches on, so we shall see!

See more of her work by clicking on the written label below.

New Gallery Work Space

On Tuesday the 13th it was an Open Day

for my 'Textile Tuesday', sessions @The Gallery,

in it's new workshop area.

It's a lovely bright modern and inspirational space.

I welcomed everyone and showed them round

and then they could make one of the origami stars

if they could stay or I gave them a star as a Christmas gift.

As you can see by the picture above everyone was happy.

My new Sculpture 'Jeanetta Sculpitori' went on exhibit.

See the origami stars

HERE

To see how to make the Christmas Origami Stars

visit my tech site

www.art2inspiretech.blogspot.com

New Gallery Open

On Friday the 9th of December the new Gallery

opened to the public in The War Memorial Hall in Dereham.

I was very excited to see where I would be working.

WOW! is all I can say.

What an amazing transformation of the hall!

As soon as you walk through the door you

are met by a light airy contemporary and friendly space.

The Celebration Quilt made by members and

groups within Dereham and which I assembled

looks fantastic in it's alcove.

I was especially interested in going through the archway

at the end of the main Gallery space as this is the

workshop area.

Judy and Hadyn are running The Gallery, Workshops

and are also going to be great custodians of

The War Memorial Hall,

keeping it open to the public.

Thank you, to all who have made this transformation

possible.

Visit the Gallery

www.thegallerydereham.com

and

www.derehammemorialhall.org

Norfolk Open Studios

The deadline for applications for Norfolk Open Studios

was looming and I had collected all my information together ready.

I now had to fill in the online application!

I have participated in Open Studios several times before and

really enjoyed the experience.

Application, now done and sent the two images above

went with my it along with a short paragraph about my studio space.

One of these images will be chosen for the brochure.

I have chosen images that people recognise as my profile

picture or my business cards so there is some

recognition to the studio.

The Open Studios are from the 26th May through to the

10th June 2012.

I will be working the full two weeks in my studio

through out the event.

To see more visit

Norfolk Open Studios

or to see more about the images click on the

written labels below.

Origami Paper Stars

As some of you know I love Origami and I couldn't resist

making these stars out of Christmas Wrapping Paper.

Stewart was a s patient as ever and helped me fold,

point after point and I put them together.

At Knit Wits I sold them for Charity.

I was also introducing the to see the response!

They were well received and I showed several

visitors how to make them.

I explain the measurements and

if you want to make them, visit the

You Tube video on my tech site

www.art2inspiretech.blogspot.com