Sunday, 11 September 2011

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
See the Diary Cover
See the Sketchbook Cover
See the Folded Bag
Visit my website to see more of my work

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

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

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

Sunday, 4 September 2011

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

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.



Saturday, 3 September 2011

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
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

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!


Thursday, 1 September 2011

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

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.

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

Alpaca Farm

After dressing the window at Knit Wits with the
Purple Sampler Quilt I went on to see Nikki
at The Alpaca Barn.
We said 'Hello' to the girls opposite and
then went into the Wet Studio next to the Shop,
to see how to use it for Felt Workshops.
There is so much more space with all the wool
sorted out and boxed.
It will be a great place to work in and
in 'good weather', be able to work outside.
to see more of The Alpaca Farm
visit

Tuesday, 30 August 2011

Sampler Quilt


I have been working on The Sampler Quilt for the last few
weeks. Tuesday I went into Dereham
to change my quilt in the window display.
So, here is the Sampler Quilt in Knit Wits Window
advertising the new Fabric Department
and also classes that start in September.
It will be in the window for a couple of weeks.
Fiona is basing the rest of the window on Purples and Blues.
See my workshop and class details

Coven Quilters

Well, I have got Blog catching up to do!
I have had a week of no teaching but catching up
with friends and doing things at a slower pace.
So, last Monday I tided up the studio because
the Coven Quilting Girls came to me for the Summer meeting.
We were missing Barbara as she was getting
ready for her long haul road trip to her daughters in
Cornwall.
As you can see the girls got comfy and my book library
was well and truely gone through!
Lots of laughter and sharing as usual and I made
a lemon cake for refreshments!
I don't make alot of cakes but for the GIRLS!
See more of our Coven meetings by
clicking on the written labels below this post.