Christmas Stockings

been busy with these Christmas stocking orders

Jessica

 A snow lady with a vintage touch!

 Jack

 a frosty snowman

Olivia

petite pink Christmas Fairy

made to order, each one unique,
 just drop me an email for pricing

Winter Warmer

Keeping Warm

it this weeks Tag Tuesday theme

my tag is a quick one, with so much on the go!

 This was made from a Christmas card from last year,
I cut and rearranged the elements

and just added some snowflake sequins and fluffy snowy yarn.

It's all red

At the monthly Embroiders Guild meeting in Dunfermline there is a colour raffle, everyone brings something in the theme colour, fabric buttons thread beads etc. and raffle tickets are sold to raise funds for the group.

If you win the raffle you get the colour bundle, the catch is you have to make something from the colour bundle for the next months meeting.

 November's colour was 'Red

My sister Theresa and I both bought tickets and agreed to half the bundle should either of us win.

Theresa won and was delighted as she was making items for a Christmas craft fair.

However we both agreed to make something for the December meet.

I had lots of fun with the selection of fabrics, ribbons, thread and other bits and bobs in my half of the bundle.

HEART

Red is not a colour I usually choose to work in 

INCHIES

 it turned out to be an inspiring, productive and fun process.

STARS
these aren't finished yet I will probably stitch them onto some cord to hang together, or perhaps a wreath, not sure, any ideas? 

I could have gone on with the red things....and will probably make more.

It also reminded me of a little story about when I was at high school, and studying for my Higher art. I had been drawing, sketching and painting peppers (capsicums) in shades of green for a few weeks in preparation for the big exam. On the day of the exam I left a little early to drop off at the fruit and veg shop to buy a green pepper for my exam. I would cut it fresh that day for the exam, ready to explore the greens with my watercolours and pens.

 It so happens that they didn't have any green ones, only red, I had no time to shop elsewhere, so I bought a red one. It was the best thing that could have happened, the  fresh new colour & fragrance were so inspiring and took my experimental mojo to new heights :) and thoroughly enjoyed the day !

My teacher was so impressed with my work he requested special permission for me to take 10 mins from the exam room to show it to my other art teacher who was less confident of my abilities to do well in the exam. He too was impressed and had to eat humble pie and apologise to me personally for marking me as a probable fail. (they had obviously disagreed on this) I was not immediately aware of the consequence of this pre-marking system, it meant that no matter how good my submission was on the day of the exam,I could not attain a grade A, hence the apology.  

I learned a lot that day but what I chose to take with me was positive.  

Try a different colour now and again it opens up new dimensions and offers a fresh approach, 

Not everyone will 'get it' but that doesn't mean it wasn't worth it for me :)

Art is a way of life, a therapeutic journey.

Music and stitches

for this weeks Tag Tuesday theme

'Music'

 I have kept it simple

again just using what I have

This week I have been a little busy stitching again, this time on paper and card and recycling last years Christmas cards ...... to late to take pictures tonight ......

Sepia

This weeks Tag Tuesday theme 'Sepia'

says just one thing to me 

old photographs

 This is a fabric transfer image of a digital photograph of an original sepia print

stitched onto a thicker cream fabric background.

Embellished with brown ribbons, rik rak and ivory lace.

The guy at the top right is my uncle John Brady, my fathers brother,

he is about 17yrs old in the picture. He fought in the 2nd world war and was a prisoner of war for 6years, during that time his family were told he was missing presumed dead. He took place on the long march and was very ill and undernourished,  rescued by American soldiers and slowly fed small amounts of food until he was well enough to be shipped back to the UK he was 6 stone when he finally arrived home and his mother got the shock of her life when he walked in the front door. He went on to marry and had 5 children. He died about 30 yrs ago now, but I will never forget his happy cheery smile 

and the fun tricks he played on us when I was young girl.

Here is another picture of him taken by my dad 

happier times, with his family,

 I'm not sure which ones are his and which are other cousins.

My tag is dedicated to my Uncle John.

Stitches and sketches

More purple and orange admiration

sketchbook page

Pitt pen and watercolour

a little stitchery

Prayer Flag swap with Jane

Prayer Flag for Jane over at Marigold Jam

I can show you this now as she has received it.

I used some of the fabric I printed with the Star Anise

and also the little stitched appliqué embroidery

along with some other bits and pieces from my stash.
Yesterday I received Jane's beautiful prayer flag

'Hope'

 I'm so delighted with it, I love all the fabrics, little details, hand embroidery

the beads on the leaf, isn't it beautiful!

I was so delighted with her colour choice
 I'm loving orange and purple at the moment.
 Thank You so much Jane x

Corsage for a wedding & cake

 I made this flower corsage for my coat from the hem of a dress I altered.
I took about 1.5" off the bottom.
The leaves are made of lace trim painted with my watercolour fabric dyes.

 I bought the dress about 4 years ago and

 never worn it because it was too long and needed shortened.

this is the back of the dress its very plain on the front

I even had one flower left over for my little handbag

Perfect for a wedding !

Me with Harry and Charlotte waiting on the happy couple!

I also remade a necklace I put together a  few years ago, it was designed to be a long or short with a toggle fastener but it was a little too short for comfort and the fastener to heavy that it kept making its way to the front. I changed some of the beads, added a few more in including the two large blue crystals,

  to match in with a pair of earrings I already made and
added a magnetic catch now its my favourite new necklace! 

it matched in nicely with my outfit.

 Adele and Mike

cutting the cake I made for their happy day.
The day was a double celebration

both Adele & Mikes boys,
 Dakota and Cody were also Christened.

Celestial

This weeks Tag Tuesday theme is 'Celestial'

Hand embroidered and embellished with sequins.

The tie is a tiny bit of machine wrapped cord I found in my scrap box

I added a little dangle of crystal and glass beads on silver thread.

Little stitcheries & a sketchbook page

Two more little stitched pieces

I'm enjoying colour at the moment

Sketchbook page

 A little exercise in using colours,
colours I'm not usually comfortable with or wouldn't normally place together.
The sketch was started with a pit pen and then when I picked it up to work on it again I used a liquid ink roller, the second one runs when water is applied, hence the dirty look in some parts.
I wasn't aiming to be precious with this page at all but just to let go,
 go with the flow and have fun!

Sunny Day = Workshop Move

This is Kevin's workshop
 where it was on the drive at the side of the house facing into the back garden

 this is it being emptied, for dismantling.

On October 15th work began, it was a lovely sunny day

It's a big workshop 16 foot long and 7 foot wide
and he had started to insulate and line the walls and ceiling

 so off it all had to come, lining, felt and foil from the roof

 
 so it could be removed first

 as you can see there isn't a lot of room to move down the side

 between the workshop and house

next the lining on the walls had to come off

 some of the polystyrene insulation is wedged in tight
so the panels can be moved and rebuilt with that intact

now we have more space on the drive again

The base was laid onto the prepared area at the back of the garden, and covered with plastic sheeting
the sides were stacked in a pile and stored some at the side of the house some on the gravel.
Then we have had 3 weeks of wind and rain.

Until today ! :)
At last another sunny day and the rebuild of the workshop was able to go ahead.

 there was a sheet of ice on the base under the plastic sheeting that had to be removed

 they worked fast to get the sides up

then the roof supports

 and the roof panels

 as the felt had to be cut along the joins to dismantle the roof
a new layer was put on top and sealed.

This is the last picture I was able to take as the light was fading fast.
They finally called it a day around 5.30pm
Both very tired but pleased with their achievement.
There is still a lot to do in terms of doors, decking etc. but getting the workshop back up is a great relief with the winter weather just around the corner.