Enough of the flowers . . .

. . . let's have some stitching. The next two 12" x12" journal quilts.
My work done at Lyn Prosser's workshop day with West Country Embroiderers . . .wet felting
and 'faux felting' , which is not felting at all really.
... and some stuff done with my embellisher/needlefelting machine. This one is done with wool tops, slivers of fabric and bits of knitting yarn.
This and the next pic are all one piece. I'm planning to make a bookcover out of it, with . . .

. . . a pocket on the back. The pocket was made just with wool tops and was punched into place. I've more stuff to put round it, then I shall stitch some felt pieces to the ends inside to make sleeves into whch the cover of a note/sketchbook can be inserted.Let's finish off with a needlefelted postcard.(You see, I don't spend all my time swanning round gardens.)

A great place for a picnic . . .

. . . and a soothing stroll. Stapehill Abbey, an ex-Cistercian convent, between Wimborne and Ferndown, a few miles from where we live. One of the local P&Q groups held an exhibition here a week ago. The quilts etc looked really nice hung around in various spaces in the buildings. Today Derek and I took a picnic lunch there by the lake, and wandered round the gardens soaking up the variety of colour, shape and texture in the trees, shrubs and flowers.


It's a bit warm today and we need some rain. Best we can do is a water feature or two.

. . . and a bit of Zen?

White silver birch peeling to cream . . .. . .black bamboo, and yellow, and green.And this plant has fantastic colouring.Can't finish without some flowers . . .

Celtic twists and turns

These patterns have fascinated me for a long time now. Typically, I find the accurate repetitive knots and braids hard but I do like scribbling, outlining and colouring in. And why not a bit of illuminated lettering, my style?

Time for a bit of gardening . . .

. . . and a bit of colour appreciation. Orange to . . .
. . . red to . . .
. . . yellow. OK a bit of blue, musn't leave it out.
Then on to purply shades . .

. . and for those of us who don't do pink . . .
. . . how can we resist these?

Not our garden, but one in our locality that we visited as part of the National Garden Scheme, where interesting gardens of private houses are open to the public for an afternoon in aid of charitable causes.

No UFO's here

Three bags produced by WCE members, finishing off after Eileen Pugh's workshop in June. Hazel's black and red one is striking, and unusual among the more conservative fabric and colour choices of the rest of us. Mine's the pink one!!! I don't do pink!! But I did!

WCE felt and faux felt

July meeting, we made felt with Lyn Prosser, a local Dorset textile artist. We did wet felt using the normal method with hot water, olive soap and lots of rubbing and rolling with the help of a rolling pin and bubblewrap. Faux felt is interesting, as no wetting and actual felting is involved. You build up layers of wool tops etc just as you would for wet felting, but on a piece of firm fabric. You can add bits of fabric on top, like sheers, offcuts, ribbons, yarns. Then you lay a piece of that water-soluble stuff you embroider on and wash away - can't think of the name- pin it, tack it. (See pic left centre) Then stitch all over it. Then wash it off under the tap. And, see pic left bottom, you have an interesting, quite solid, piece which can be further stitched into, beads etc added. People used some really nice colour combinations and bits, with good results, yes?

Long lost blogger . . .

. . . . returns with a collection of pics from last month's West Country Embroiderers' meeting. There are 2 pincushions featured, in silk, from the previous month's workshop. My effort is going to be a book cover, eventually, as I wouldn't be able to stick pins in such a special object! And the small blue bag is what we were working to in June. We were creating raised features using felt padding and embroidery stitches and beads, then working a kantha-style running stitch all over the background to give further relief effect.

I've had a break from blogging, but am back now. I was getting peculiar comment messages which were really links to some dubious places, not genuine commenters at all. They seemed to come in response to a new post, so I thought Iwouldn't post for a bit and see what happened when I came back. Any solutions, anyone please? I could disable comments altogether, but that seems a shame.