Next Up! Scrapbook Stitchery WORKSHOP!

February Saturday 4th -  10am to 4.pm - Serendipity Patchwork & Quilting, Seale-Hayne, Newton Abbot, DevoN TQ12 6NQ

Scrapbook Stitchery: A personal journey
Make, machine quilt and embroider a fabric scrapbook journal in which to keep a personal record of your creativity in stitch. Use your journal to: house collected textile fragments and ephemera; record fibre experiments; practice embroidery stitches; showcase machined samples, thread sketched patterns and stitched doodling. Add more pages and watch your scrapbook journal grow! more details here

Contemporary Quilt Exhibition

I just want to share with you details about a contemporary quilt exhibition I visited yesterday in Bovey Tracey at The Devon Guild of Craftsmen.  "Voices: Expressive approaches to quilting by the international Quilt Art group" is how it was described. There were some really interesting pieces and some that were not so. I liked Eszter Bornemisza's piece (below) - lots of detail in the design which revealed a super-rich surface texture.  Some artworks were more technique based and, therefore, lacked any real depth and other pieces lacked thoughtful presentation. Obviously, these are just my impressions and views :)  Overall, it was interesting to see and if you get the chance to go, it runs from 13th Jan to 26th Feb. More details can be found on the Guild website http://www.crafts.org.uk/ .

NEW YEAR - NEW WORKSHOPS!

Happy New Year to you all! It has been some time since I have blogged due to the fact that I have had too many things needing my attention, so it's suffered - but with a New Year comes New Resolutions - and mine are all CREATIVE! Forget all that stuff about exercising more, eating and drinking less, and take time to make some CREATIVE resolutions yourself - much more fun, and far less daunting! Join in and have a CREATIVE New Year - all Year!

New also for this year are my 2012 Creative Textile Embroidery Mixed Media Workshops being held in Devon. You can find my programme here. Our first workshop Introduction to Free-machine Embroidery begins on Tuesday 17th Jan at 10.00 - 4.pm at Serendipity Patchwork and Quilting, Seale-Hayne, Newton Abbot, Devon, TQ12 6NQ.
I do hope I get to meet some of you at a workshop soon. Have a good week. Jill

Spring is in the air

Hello All! Hope you are having a good day today?  The sun is shining...hurray!

I somehow got sidetracked from what I thought I should do today and have ended up making my own rubber stamp - letter B- and have 25 left to make! (Alphabet stamps are sooooo expensive to buy so thought I should try and make my own). Also played with photoshop using my own photos of flowers I have collected over the years and made a montage. Hope this inspires you good folk to make something. Had great fun teaching my embroidered mini book workshop last Thursday -some really lovely books were in production by the students - hope to post pics soon.



Dove of Peace & Published in Quilting Arts 10th Anniversary Edition

Hi!...hope your day is good? I have been playing with photoshop today and created a dove of peace and also want to share news that my textile collage book has been featured in Quilting Arts 10th Anniversary magazine.
And Enjoy!

Happy New Year!

Was slow getting going after the Christmas break, but now have some momentum...here are the results - some fabric paper collage. Makes a good background - I need to work on it more.
The piece measures approx 2ft x 3ft and is painted with acrylic inks which are very vibrant and easy to use. Great and quick to use on fabric.
close-ups showing collage content.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS!

H A P P Y... C H R I S T M A S

E V E R Y O N E!

Autumn is here!

Hello! - I'm back with an update, but first some eye candy :) A silk embroidered cuff in rich gold, turquoise and iridescent peacock green, which is for sale by clicking here www.craftsontheweb.co.uk/shop.

Long Time No See!

Hello Folks!
No postings for such a long while. Time to put that to rights!
First...some spring tulips to add colour to a rather wet and grey day here in Devon.

Some things I have been up to during the last year. I had an article published January 2010 in a Danish sewing magazine called "Handarbejdsbladet". Pages 8-11 Embroidered Hearts for Valentine incorporating free machine embroidery. It's all in Danish!










I had tags published in Cloth Paper Scissors in Nov/Dec 2009 which were great fun to make and brooches in the Cloth Paper Scissors Sept/Oct 2009 issue. In Quilting Arts Gifts 2009/2010 holiday issue, I had two articles - Silk Paper Pockets, and Embroidered Bracelets published.



















So you can see, I have been rather busy! I enjoy making things which I hope other people will enjoy making too.
More postings and eye candy to come later! Have a great day :)

See my latest embroidery article for Quilting Arts magazine in the August/September issue.

'Ethically Ethnic Cuffs'

I've made a quilt!

Hello All

I promised to make something (originally a leaving card!) for my boss who is retiring soon and it has turned into this quilt!

I am so pleased with this mini quilt as it is only my 3rd ever!...I am an embroiderer - not a quiltmaker, but I just love art quilts and have been dying to try it for myself.

This is not an art quilt, just a quilt that has embroidered images of the things my boss enjoys doing...but it has given me so many ideas for my next one! It measures 12inches x 12inches (30cm x 30cm).

There is something I really like about the texture of fabric when it is closely stitched and quilted.

I will hang it from either Japanese chop sticks - if I can locate some, or an old violin bow, failing that, I shall roll up some sheet music into a tight cigarette cylindrical shape and use that.

Anyway, hope you enjoy looking at it. :)...enjoy your week.

An Embellished and embroidered patchwork paper collage

Hello!

Well, it's now May 2009 and I thought I ought to update you all, so...

why not take a look at my latest article as featured in the June/July issue of Quilting Arts Magazine. A patchwork paper collage using many techniques as featured on Quilting Arts online extra.

Where did the summer go?

Well, it's been rather too long since I posted as lots have been going on this summer. Demonstrating at the NEC and Exeter, running a week-long textile summer school, and writing articles for magazines!...so without further adoo, here are the results...enjoy!

Here is a pink cuff that I designed and made for an article appearing in 'Sewing World'. Free machine embroidery was used together with hand stitch and beading.

A great time was had by the students from the textile summer school held this summer. What great work they all produced - well done!

Embroidery and Collage

pouch made from bonded cling film and machine embroidery using vanishing muslin for the edge.

Enjoy!

pouches made at my stitched stationery workshop on Saturday. They all finished too! - I really like them!

collaged background paper and playing with photoshop

part of my collaged paper

some of my students collaged papers completed at an altered art workshop

collaged papers and sketch

spent 2 days at Karen Howse's workshop monoprinting and stitch. Created work very different from my own which was great fun. Who knows where it may lead?

Hello Again!

free-machine embroidered pouch with stitched lacy edging

Tags, My very first! I love them! - want to do thousands more!

Altered Art - books with drawers, tags, collage and more! - I'm taking a workshop this Saturday - can't wait!

Hi

Sorry, have been extremely busy these past weeks with lots of workshop preparation, making stuff and planning this year's events. So, straight to it-here are some photos of what I have been up to recently. Hope you like them!

A short break in Cornwall

Mullion Cove, Cornwall

Coverack Harbour, Cornwall

Well, having spent four days last week at a beautiful fishing cove in Coverack, Cornwall, staying in a wonderful Youth Hostel, I am now back in full swing again with ideas for more making. I have spent the last 2 days dyeing bits of fabric and embellishing a bowl from scrap upholstery fabric. I am trying out new ideas that constantly buzz around inside my head!

Also I have made my first art quilt!...if you can call it that?....do let me know? I am rather pleased with it as i am not a quilter but have always wanted to do one. This measures 8inches square approximately, so it is only a little one! The image is the one of my earlier photos (shown on my blog pages) of my poppy head which i played around with on the computer and turned it into a psycadelic poppy!

Painting Play Day

inks, gold paint, glitterati flakes, stamping, glitter, acrylic blob, homemade angelina, and rhinestone

Another Indian printing block after use!

Have spent the last 2 days playing with paints, paper and yummy stuff! Trying to fill a new sketchbook which i bought at Totnes in Devon on Saturday. Also bought a long narrow pad of watercolour paper so hope to use this too. I used a heavy texture gel paste and spread it onto a pre painted/inked background. Then used my indian printing block to impress into the paste. When dry, I painted over it with more inks, paints, oil bars, and finally applied gold foil using a guilding liquid.
I like to take close ups after I've made the art work, and if any good, print them out as photos.
We had a glorious day here today, but as i was playing, I didn't get much opportunity to go outside. Hope you like them-enjoy!

I love handbags!

Here is my finished pink cotton velvet tote bag which I began awhile back but today managed to put the lining in. The embroidered panel is made by bonding angelina fibres to a dyed silk background, with added free-machining, then glass painted metal leaves were cut out, embossed and free-machine stitched. I can't wait to use it! On with the other UFO's.