Birthday

Hi Everybody, well I am now a year older, last Friday was my Birthday and Brian, Dessie and I went to see the ocean and walk along the beach on Ille de Re an island off the coast of La Rochelle, it was the most beautiful day and the sea was shimmering with the sunlight, We took our books and sat in the sunshine watching the waves. We drove through several of the villages stopping for coffees in the small bars, finally having supper in the port of St. Martin . A truly wonderful day.

Forgot to add my Bread Basket, many of you will have received one of these last year on my Tour of England, or in France if you have invited me to lunch or dinner. Having made around 35 of these for many different people, I have at last made one for myself. Les Pommiers being the name of the house and July 2002 when we came to live in Benet.

Handbags

I finished the first of a new range of handbags last night, hopefully each one will be a different technique, This one is a lovely velvet tapestry fabric in a very soft mid blue, I embellished it with petal shapes and beads. So enjoy.

Today is a grey day here in Benet so intend to catch up with some more sewing. Yesterday I was on a roll and finished several pieces including my wall hanging. I have enjoyed making the Jeans Bag and have added the photo to show you all, It is really cute, I used age four years old jeans and lined and embellished them with a very pretty red fabric I had in my stash. I am really pleased with the finished project, Hang in Emily the bag might be heading your way!!!!

New York Beauty Quilt

Hi Everybody,
Well at last I have finished my New York Beauty Wall Hanging and here it is to show you all, My friend Linda in Oregon USA. gave me the pattern about three years ago and I started it shortly after, but it is easier to do by hand and that is not my best method, so I only stitched it at my Pathwork Group here in Benet, hence the time taken to finish it. But today is now the beginning of a new piece of patchwork. Very exciting!!!!

Butterflies

Hello, Well I have now learnt how to place my favourite picture on the top of my Blog. It's all such a learning curve, but I get there in the end. This is a butterfly I photographed in Pennslyvania last year and it represents my life as I always flit from one project to another, having many things on the go at once.

This was the third projhect we worked on an embroidered and embellished casket, made using lots of metal, wiremesh and transfoils, I found the metal hard to stitch into and broke many needles, then I found my metal was too thick, but thats the life so now need to source some thinner metal and try again, but it all worked out well in the end and I am very pleased with my work, am definitely improving in my free machining skills thanks to Annique. So next week its back to the Maggie Grey workshops and I need to work on my Altered Book, so more pictures to follow. Bientot

Last week my friend Annique came to stay for five whole days, we stitched and painted and burned fabrics all week, we started the week with some transfoil work and made book covers, so here is my attempt, the next project was to make a shrine, this proved quite difficult but here is my attempt, somehow it has appeared above the book cover, but thats technology for you.

I belong to a group called Saving Graces , there are just four of us and we decided to do the Maggie Grey workshops together sharing our experiences We held a day at Thelma's house and she set us homework for the next meeting, giving us a white artboard to work on. This is my homework piece.

The third workshop was to use the same methods as previously but to construct a 3d piece of work using an old book as a backing and other techniques described in the main book, I really enjoyed constructing this piece and chose colours I would not normally use. Enjoy

The second workshop was to make little books using shrink plastic and then making little boxes to keep the books in, using the same methods as the wigwam books. I really enjoyed this project and made three books to give as gifts but now can not part with them.

I recently bought the new Maggie Grey book and have had immense fun working my way through the Internet workshop that is available through the book. This is the first item that had to be made, it is a wigwam book and the cover has been made using Pellon, Gesso and paper casts, then inked and coloured.

This is the third Bargellos quilt I have made and this time I appliqued blue poppies over the Bargello to give a different effect.

Here is the Noah's Ark Brian made for Emily's Birthday, She adored all the animals.

I made this Angel for Christmas last year, using rainbow colours of cotton fabric. It was quite difficult to do and the black binding was very narrow but I am glad I persevered.

I made and stitched this Easter Angel for Emily instead of giving her a chocolate Easter egg.

I really enjoyed making this art picture, it consisted of laying threads and then using the embellisher and photocopying sea nymphs onto organza, I also added some old earrings from my mother and then stitched out, "keep searching for the treasures in your soul along the bottom, This is one of my favourite pieces.

I made this little dress for my first grandchild Emily, I used white velvet and embroidered butterflies using my Husqvarna Designer One, my first attempt at machine embroidery. I used the Teddy Bear as a model.

This is my first attempt at Batik, using hot oil to draw the outline then infilling with colour. As I cannot draw I just used straight lines and kept adding more to make more houses, Great fun!!

This is the first of my crazy embroidered handbags, the reverse side was golden brown. I really enjoy this technique and hope to make many more.

Here is my second Bargello quilt titled Äutumn", this is a much larger piece but still using quarter of a inch strips and larger. Enjoy

Here is the picture of my dolls

Last summer I bought a Cricut Die cutting machine and have been having fun cutting out shapes espcially using the Paper Doll Cartridge. I made some place setting figures trying to represent my friends. Everybody loved them and most people took them home with them.

I have titled my Bargello Quilt "Rainbows", It cheers me up on a dull day, the strips range from quarter inch to three quarters of an inch and it is the first in a series of three Bargello's I have
made. I hope it cheers you up too.