Bad blogger and halloween fun!

Hia all I thought I would bore you with more proud Mummy pics! Here is my littly ready to go out and scare the neighbourhood!

This is supposed to be a wink!

Here is my spider card for the lottery swap on my group this month, it escapes me who was my partner now!

I have been a bad blogger of late, very behind with a halloween party for the Soul Journal group, so my deepest apologise. the mother in law has really screwed up my usual catch up time in the hols. Here is my attempt to carve a pumpkin!

I have something to announce too, My group Textiles Challenges are just formulating the new challenge/ swap for next year. They is going to be a challenge/swap accross the whole year for house fronts, to take over from the arches we have one this year. If you would be interested in taking part please come over and sign up!!!

Fibre in form and a confession

I have started an online class with Carol and Lynda as I said before. Here is what I have been working on, starting with tyvek samples...

and wovn strips of fabric

Textured paper and and machine couched threads

Lace.

I am really enjoying the class and have done a ton of samples, but I don't want to bore you with doens of sample pics!!!! If you haven't signed up or Carol and Lynda's class - Fibre in form - then here's the link.

Now i found out the other day that i had left a freind down on a swap, over a year ago, maybe more I think I had asked to swap with the wonderful jo Wholohan. She sent me the most delicious card and somehow I didn't send her one in return. How unlike me, must have escaped my list, but guity as charged and so to make amends I made her this, slightly bigger than postcard sixe piece. It is hand dyed cotton, lace, fabric paper bird and copper heart. I am very pleased with it. I hope she likes it and the few other bits i am going to send her to ake up for being such a forgetful cow!

Ellie's famous!!!!

If your out and about in the UK check out a copy of the Garden News today. My Dad writes for them and got a fab picture of Ellie and her new Dahlia! Named for her! Now if you can ignore the man with the weird tash you will be all good! I am soooooo proud!

Cathy's challenge

Cathy Of Winter Wanderings challenged me to get some stuf done this weekend and as I was behind with a few things, which i HATE I made some postcards and ATC's. This one is for Annette and is based on the book the Labarynth. It is hand made felt - my first ever piece!
The next is my embellishment lottery swap for Kate and I literally drew the short straws, and got Straws as my embellishment. I did like using them actually!
The next samples are for Lynda and Carol's Fibre in form workshop, if you haven't signed up, it is worth it's weight in gold and the £30 fee is a snip! Snip get it! I am on fire today, one of my kids asked why she had written down cotton duck on her book, and I said I asked you too, your not Quackers!!!!! Then proceeded to make myself completely uncool by laughing my head off!
I digress I have couched lots of yummy threads and some texture wallpaper to do these samples. I also cut lots of tyvek and did stuff with it, but it is ready to stitch and I haven't had time yet, so boring till I have done that!

I decided I may as well work some motifs from the armour sheet while I was on it and so I am still working on this one. I LOVE how this one has turned out. I can't wait to do more.

If you are thinking wow what's going to happen here then hop over to Fibre in form and sign up or keep it in mind for the next round of classes, it will be the best £30 you will have ever spent, I guarantee it! Carol and Lynda's tutorials make all these awe-inspiring techniques seem easy! I am having fun, at last!

Still stuck!

I wish I could get out of this pit/ mental block/ arggggggg!!!!! I am finding the less I do the less I want to do. I haven't even done any drawing o late - shocking. I wish I knew what was wrong. I have a lot on my mind and a fair bit on my plate too, but usually that is the very time when I get masses done, as I can hide in my art. But not so at the mo. I did this sketch book spread for my new armour project a fortnight ago and have done NOTHING since. What am I to do? My course doesn't have all the funding it needs and we have to raise £2600 this year and next. This is supposedly being done by selling our art work, now I can't see this being achieved, that is contributing to my lack of drive I think, maybe!

I vow to sew tonight, and try to get a grip! Of my commitments if nothing else! Hope everyone else is having a better time of it. Thanks for all your comments, they really lift me. I am ridiculously down, not my usual form at all, hopefully I will sort my head soon, I think Lynda and carol's new course will be a good thing for that.

What a suprise!!!

Well, what a day I had yesterday, I woke up feeling very ill, full of flu and very sorry for myself an almost 5 minutes after coming downstairs there was a knock at the door, and with my usual breed of pesimism, I uttered "What's this now?" Well what it was was a huge parcel from Lynda Monk (Purple missus). Now we have got to be firm friends through bogging, I realy found a kindred spirit in Lynda, and hope she feels the same. Well I knew she was sening me some bits, but when I opened the parcel and realised that I found a splash of colour, now this is when I turn into the kid on christmas morning. I was expecting raw fabric so now I am ripping the paper off like a nutter, it even caused Craig to stop to see what was going on - and that's rare as his normal utterance is more textile crap! Well even he was impressed. This is what I found.......



and here's he back

Well you could have knocked me over. Lynda has been working on this for a while with little tasters, saying it wasn't going well, saying she didn't like it and there's me, oh it'll be fine, it'll turn out great... and she stil says it isn't good enough. Well I Couldn't be more bowled over, more grateful, more in awe of her work. I have got to tell you at CRAIG's URGING... and that never happens!.... It is on the wall already, in the dining room no less!!!!! This is uncharters waters for Craig to ask for a piece of work to be hung, never mind on the dining room wall.

So publically I want to say THANK YOU LYNDA, I LOVE IT AND YOU ARE SUCH A GOOD FRIEND.

September arch

My Mojo is slowly coming back! yey! I did some sewing for the first time in a while last night. i made and arch for Judy and she wanted a tree and leaf theme. I used Grace's idea, she is a friend from my C+G class. I layered up little offcuts of organza on to a stretchy velvet and stitched sort of squiggly tree markings, then I used the soldering iron to burn through the layers, and make it look like knots in the tree. then i used tiny snippets of organza between 2 layers of dissolvable and FME'd over them in a leaf pattern. I disolved the fabric and then stotched them to hang from the top of the arch. The leaves have curled - on purpose - to make them look really autumnal! not bad for my first bits back.

Something special

I have something really special to share with you al today. I am so chuffed with this I can't tell you! Some of you may know that my Dad is semi famous in Wales, he was a Gardening programme presenter in Wales, on BBC2 a programme called Gardening together, Ivor Mace. Now how he got this job was that he once grew the heaviest onion in the world...... Now before i go any further I know your giggling, I can hear it from here, everyone I tell laughs! and here's why!!!!!!
Now he also grew the biggest leek in the world too, but that's an aside just to explain How my Dad know's a Dahlia grower called Roy Tudor. Now Roy creates his own varieties of Dahlia's and he came up with 2 new ones. One was named after a fabulous lady called Dilys Ailen, she is an amazing flower arranger and did the flowers for my wedding, her's is deep red. The ohter was a light pink, with a tinge of lilac, as my Dad says. Well Roy not having anyone to name it after asked my Dad if he could name it after my Ellie, so here she is .....

Dahlia Ellie Taylor

HOW COOL IS THAT!!!!!

Swansea Museum exhibition and new work..... at last!

Our evening class for C+G had it's first exhibiton of work outside of the college this week, and Marg who set it up, did the most fab job. Also the person at the museum did a great job of hanging it. Here is the poster, how lush is it!!!!This was one of my favourite pieces, it is by Sandra Stacey, and is felt and stitch. Don't you love the colouring of it.






This piece is also felt and is by Marg, now I am sure she won't ind me telling you she is a significant age, but she is the sharpest, most creative lady I know! Her piece is based on cave painting.

Here is a view of the main corridor.
and here is my monster of a piece. It is based on Water on the sand. I am so pleased with it - seeing it properly hung.


Here's a close up!

My little bracelets are in the big display case too.

This is also Sandra's and I had to show you the amazing detail that this piece includes,

It is a background of printed fabric, and then the letters are on organza, each letter is stitched out onto disolvable and then attatched to the organza, how fab! It is the lord's prayer in welsh and english.It is an amazing piece of work.

and finally I started to work in my new sketchbook. It is based on a battle axe, and is the start of my work on armour. I did the squares with molding paste and the curve is painted foil. Funny I didn't really realise I used brown until after, Arlee, I am getting the brown bug again!!!!

Healing love

I thought I would go close to home in this sul journal piece. I don't want to talk too much about who and why, but I will tell you about some of the elements. The shape for the border was from a tomato passata logo, I did have to trace it onto my cereal packet to make the stencil as I haven't used the passata yet! and if I cut it it would make a frightful mess!!!!!! We had to, Cut ou working from left top round:

1. Colour with a gel pen.

2. Make a dotted border.

3. Make 2 lines o crosses.

4. Colour with a variety of pens.

5. Paint in a diffeent shade ( I added gel pen too)

6. Draw a spiral.

7. Cut out random or meaningful words or numbers.

8. Scribble.

9. Draw and colour a heart.

10. Stamp the person's name.

11 - I added this as I felt it looked odd with 10, marker and gel pen spiral.

If you want to check out more about this, have a look at Kathryn Artyr's blog Collage diva.

Hope your al well!!!

More instant gratification

Kathryn's opener to our new soul journal was an instant gratification piece, no gesso, no priming just a magazine cut out heading, lines and words! I was bored last night after doing a ton of admin for the new job and so I remebered I had snagged a nice pic in school when my kids were doing a collage inspration/mood board thing. I thought the guy ooked so free, so away I went. The nice thing abut this is it's quick, no fuss, doodle away. I realy enjoyed it.
I wanted to point the non embroiderers that read this blog in the direction of Maggie Grey's blog. She is the lady who is causing the mystery of the soggy catalogue! I don't think this one is for the journallers amongst you, believe it or not I am an embroiderer first, but you would never know it as I haven't done any thing for a bit and am so enjoying journalling. For those who come here looking for stitch I am back to it soon, I promise!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Bye for now!

Permission slip page added to....

I have added to my permission page, I couldn't read the words well enough so i have added a darker outline. I have also added my affirmations from my blog comments, thank you all for the lovely things you have said about my work. I have to believe them now!!!!!

I wanted to mention about the catalogue too, some of my blogging friends have thought I have lost my marbles! Maggie Grey is offering some free online casses if you buy her new book that is due out soon. One of the prep things is to let the elements errode an old catalogue, so I am not some bag lady with piles of rubbish in her garden, it is there for a purpose!!!!!
Now I ask myself, when am I going to get hold of some fabric again..... I am behind with trades, and have NO motivation to pick up any fabric..... whatam I going to do??? I think i will bite the bullet and do SOMETHING this weekend. But I must clean first! Craig is chewing my ear about my stash taking over the world again!!!!! Have a great weekend everybody!!!!

Permission to be free

I have really enjoyed playing with this. Kathryn's prompts have taken over the mantle of Sarah's Soul Journal really well.First we used the photocopier to "Press glass". I used paper clips and my ovely purple tape measure as I have said before. Then we did a permission slip. It is hidding in the envelope at the bottom of the page. I will show you the permission sip in a bit, It was funny doing it since I right them for a billion reasons in school, but tis was something I had to realy think over! The next part was to collect things from life, and just when I thought that I had nothing but my stash, I recieved my bookmark from Sarah, and she had stamped the envelope with really nice tickety stamps. I also found a ticket in my stash, and some diamonds that were embossed. I glued these on and softened with an ink pad and a make up sponge. We then had to draw dots and arrows ready to Journal. The next part involves the comments made to my blog and I want to say a BIG BIG thank you to all those who have given me such wonderful comments. I am so thankful, Iam very tired, the new job is hitting hard and starting C+G level 4 is scarry, so some positive affermations are just what the doctor ordered. Talking of C+G, my first project is a research project on a historical aspect and then a comptemporary use. I have chosen armour and I am now researching contemporary fashion based on armour so anyone with any good links I would love to be pointed in the right direction. Thanks in advance!!!
Here it is!

Here is my Permission statements. Lots of mine are about anxiety, I am a worrier and a panicker, and I seem to sometimes live my life in a knot deep in the it of my stomach.

Closing shot - here is my progres on my catalogues - the look a bit scuffed up and weather beaten. I did water it today however as we have had unseasonably good sunshine here in Wales today. Hope you are all getting that too!

Start of a new journal

Well I started my new journal, I debated and finally thought that continuing can only help me to develop so on I go! I worked a prompt from Art techniques yahoo group for "My Eyes", I started this while on holiday but now have added to it with gel pens, and i am very pleased with the result.
Next was Kathryn's Instant gratification prompt for the new Soul journal yahoo group. All you had to do was find a pic from a magazine that spoke to you, and then make a heading relating, draw contour lines and fill in with writting on the topic. This was really fun! The mask was a mega find!

I chose to write about how we all hide behind a mask, a facade.

Parting shot here is my catalogue in the garden. I chose 2 IKEA catalogues as they have such lovely colours and patterns! Can't wait to see what goes on with this next. See Maggie's blog for details.

Soul prompts

I have started working on my next soul journal using the prompts set by Kathryn. The first was an instant gratification, and we had to look through a magazine and find a pic that grabbed us. i chose this mask. I have much more to do on this page, but the glue was wet.
The next thing was to "Press glass" as kathryn puts it, to photocopy, in this instance office stuff. I chose my office paper clips and my ovely purple measuring tape.
Cool ha! I enlarged and played with scal. This is some of them torn and glued in my book.
They were then gesso'd and painted with pink and turquoise, a warm and a cool colour.
I have masses to catch up on, but I made a start!