For sale

Made this bag for someone who didn't pay up, so is up for grabs... £25 has adjustable straps. eave a comment if you want it and I will arrange paypal etc.

I am ok by the way, stil in the depths of the mire

Blogiversary and new thing :)

I totally missed my blogiversary so thanks to those who noticed. Been in the depth of some personal suff and not really out of it completely.

Anyway I been stuck at one weight for ages, thinking I was getting nowhere and then I weighed at the gym and found my scales were broken :) I have lost over a stone. I have been shopping for new clothes today and bought lots of small things :) (very smily about this ). I bought a gorgeous new coat in PINK, not my usual sensible black. and I did this...............

Got a new tattoo. For me tattoo's are all about reclaiming my body, I have 2 both are small. I got the first after I had Ellie ( a E inside a C) and now this one after such a drastic loss of weight. For me this seals that I am not going back to being a big girl.

So I am not competely disappeared but have to take some me time at the moment, some us time really, as most will have guessed it is my marraige that is an issue, however we are getting there, coming out the other side, I hope :). Thanks for being patient with me.

Up for grabs

*****EDIT****** BAG SOLD

It is a lovely faux suede:) Leave a comment or email me on caroltinataylor@yahoo.co.uk with your email for Paypal.

I have doen something creative latey, just the one little zen tile. I remembered how much I ove drawing, and how I need to get down to some work. But functional things have made a tough time a little easier for me.

Tentative and quiet hello

Well I know what your all thinking..... Carol who??? and my first word is to say sorry to al those who I owe swaps to. I have firmly had my head in the shed (good welsh saying) and have no excuses for being totally rubbish of late. I have ahd a few personal things to deal with and there you go. I am still in the midst of it all and not really knowing what the hell I am doing to be honest but I will come out the other side I always do.

What have I been doing.... well I haven't been idle. I taught a workshop for Fibrepaper arts which is our local group who meet in Neath on the 2nd Sat of every month. I did fabric paper and this was my on the day sample.

I went to the ball, in a dress 2 sizes smaller than last year. :) Don't they look stunning.

I have been making these bags and selling them. Facebook seems to be my major selling spot at the moment. You can check my page out here. These are some recent ones. I am charging £20 +postage. If you are interested then leave me a comment as I am making more all the time.

and finally. I made myself a corset. I haven't got a great pic as I was taking them myself and I have my eyes shut (why i don't know?) but here I am newly size 20. Wish you could see how good i felt in it.

Update on bags

A quick update on the bags - The Sassy slouch made it's first sale. If you woud like one here are the fabrics I have at the mo, they will be £20 + postage. I accept paypal.

Couple of things at last

I have finally worked on something, which is a good thing. I have been in a weird place lately and just lots of real world stuff have taken all my energy leaving little room for the brain to work. :)

So I have made a bag for a friend who saw mine and wanted one! I also made a fabric flower to go on it as per her request. I put it on a pin so she can move it around as she likes.

I am calling it the Sassy slouch bag, and am considering selling them??? What do you think?
Here's mine, It has burgundy lining. Both have internal pockets. I used pelmet vilene in the handle and doubed it to make it really rigid and stitcheed it heavily.
I also finished a postcard I owe Mags for our Google Alphabet swap... it will be out tomorrow Mags.
This card is my offering for Calendar girls for June, just slightly late :( It was pre stamped with text and then painted and foil for the trees. I heavily stitched to give it the linear feel of the original.
More to come very soon. Got Lynda and Carol's book today and am devouring it. Has the most wonderful illustrations. I will write more when I have had time to have a proper read.

Corset course

I went on the most amazing course the last 2 days in Cardiff. Not least because it was in Crafts in the bay but was making corsets with Anna Henderson. She was an awesome tutor and showed us amazing fitting techniques that I can use with the kids. I had my frame fitteed :) so next job is one for me. But for the purposes of the course we worked on a standard 10. Using the pattern pieces and cutting them in firm card I made a model when I got home to stretch the corset for display. Worked a treat!

Don't look too close at the stitching, I was on a strange machine and there is an array of thread colour but I learnt masses.
It was a 2 day course and so for my homework I cabled some spirals and added a square sequin and bead to the centre of each.
Can't wait to make one to fit me now, just need to buy al the boning now! Yey

Kim's course

Here's Kim and I today after the course today. Kim, she of Hot textiles fame, was an absolute scream. If you ever get a chance to go on a course with her, grab it with both hands. I had the most fab day, she was just my type of tutor, so fun a real good laugh.

Here is some of her work, including a mega huge vessel. So lush.

Look at the state of the floor in the hall, there was a sea of painted bondaweb, lutrador, tyvek and vilene. It was so funny picking through it all to the back corner where mine were!

from another angle

Here is everyone working away...

I am not going to bore you with a guzzillion tyvek sampes but here is the one I managed to stitch. It has 3 layers of tyvek on the bottom, 2 heavy and one lighter weight. I just stitched with a great big stab stitch and zapped with the iron. The spirals are tyvek with the iron too and some foil to pick up the edges.

I had a ball. I am working on samples for next months workshop as I am leading it.

Another gift for a special birthday

Our textiles group meets tomorrow for a workshop with Kim Thittichai, something i am very much looking forward to. One of the adies has celebrated a big birthday and I was in charge of houseing the ATC's we a made for her. This is what I did......

and Just a quick pic to show you how much I have lost. These fit last summer!

Look who I found

The Embroider's guild in Wales had a meeting today in Kilay in Swansea not 2 minutes from my house, and look who I found!

Mags, Digital Gran ! We had a lovely lunch and a chat and I stayed for the talk by Jae Maries. Her work was interesting and she has a book coming out with Maggie Grey's pubisig house d4daisy. Considering Mags and I have never met we were chatting like the old friends we are. Was so lovley.

Holiday

In the holiday I did this.....

A birthday gift for a friend. The papers are the pages holding ATC's

Hey all

Hia all I am so sorry to have been so illusive of late. I have been working my butt off. Literally. I have managed to drop a whole dress size and have neary got rid of 2! I have started excercising again and am feeling wonderful. Thank you to those who are giving me the motivation to kick myself into doing it. I am managing to do 22K on the bike everyday so I am feeling fab.

In addition to this I am working really hard on my journal / thematic sketchbook for textile inspiration course that Lynda and Carol's Fibre in form are going to be selling starting sometime in June. I am so excited about this but can't show too much. Here is something I have been working on for it as a sneak peek. I hope it will be a success and people will want to have a go, it is going to be reasonably priced so hopefully those who have difficulty with the design side of things will want to come and check it out. More information will follow. 

So if I am quiet this is where Iam!

Where my mind's eye is at

Was reading Sharon's blog this morning and she asked what your mind's eye was seeing. I couldn't control my pencil. Someone painted me a picture in words recently and here it is, hope it measures up. Where my mind's eye wants to be.

Thermofax

Hia all remember the fabrics i dyed last month? Well in today's workshop we used thermofax screens to decorate them further. We tried feathers... Circles, this one is a bit of a compex cloth, I dyed, screened and then rollered and stamped with home made stamps.

Another complex cloth I am thinking about making into a bag, it is rollered, thermofaxed circles and then over stamped with a bock made from tile spacers.

Here are all my days work. I was competely shattered after todays course, I think the stress of all the uncertainty at school has had me so on edge that when I went to the course and relaxed as I worked I really felt the pressure of the last week. So far I am ok but you never know what they are going to do.

My lovely year 11's left this week and I made then the now traditional leaving gift. I made corsages in a lovely purpe shot silk and turquoise taffeta, and after making them all remembered I had a boy this year and so made him a quick denim cuff, which I forgot to photograph!

I hope that things start perking up soon, I don't know about the rest of you but I am so down lately, there seems to be nothing to be cheerful about, the world seems to have gone to hell in a hand cart!

New ATC's

Hia all, hope everyone is enjoying the bank holiday. I have had a horriby long and tedious week. People are being layed off in work, and although I am safe (so far) it is just a horrible place to be at the mo. Year 11 have just left and there is nothing much to smie about. Moan over!

That aside I got 5 minutes to sew a little today I am behind in a few things and so made a mark on a couple of things. The first is an ATC for a friends birthday, she loves colour so I used a gorgeous shot silk and did some FME on a acryic fet backing, then shrunk the backing.
This one is for a swap on my group Textile challenges, this was for a mono printing challenge issued by Cathy. I used the pastic that I used to monoprint from and stitched through it, it has a lovely quality and is much nicer in real life!

Have a great bank holiday everyone in Britain. Let's hope it is sunny.

New Journal for textile artists course

Hia all,
Well I have finally bitten the bullet and am going to be teaching an online journalling class. It is going to be a thematic journal to inspire textile artists. I am about 1/2 way through the preparation now. It is going to be through Lynda and Carol's FIBRE IN FORM web site. I am pretty excited about it all, I think I have lots of new things to show you. We wil be opening a yahoo group or ning group for the class so peope can discuss with others and me! Here is a snippet from and early lesson. Hope you want to come and play!

Colourful day!

I went to my monthy group Fiber paper arts yesterday and we had a really colourful day. Sandra did dyeing with us and Chris block printing ready for next months use of thermofax screens. I am now a part of the admin for this group which is great as I now get to teach more of the workshops! We did some piecing a la Ruth Isset and here are mine.

Love this one, plan to work into it way more. My usual rusty colouring!

These pieces were natural and stitched before dyeing. This piece of the right of the picture was underneath the one above , how lush is it!

Did lots of sorta tie dyeish effects.

Other things done this holiday were a zentangle rock to show one of my pupils.

As part of a school fundraising idea Ellie had to fill this milk bottle with pennies and decorate it in someway. She decided as they had been learning about puppets this term to make a bottle cosy/puppet.This is what she made, she did all the hand stitching herself including the buttons and the nose. She then attatched all the ribbons and stitched it up on the machine - herself! I won't say mum's hands weren't near by but she was in charge! She is 6 in May!!! Cool ha!