Looking forward to our Christmas Not Necessarily Sew Party !
Hope everyone is in the festive mood, jingle bells ringing and of course making sure you are on Santa's good list! You never know what crafty things he might bring!


Don't forget our annual Christmas get together on the 11th December. You will need to bring your sewing machine and associated sewing things- scissors, thread, needles etc. Everyone will have a pack and I don't know what we will be making.
I'll also put together (hopefully- I've not tried it out yet) a quick make for your Christmas tree.
Don't forget a little prize for our quizzes and a present to the value of £5.
Also if you have any more A5 hot and cold pieces please bring them on the 11th so we can fit them all together.
See you all there!

Great day Saturday weaving with Laura Thomas!


Well a wonderful time was had by all on Saturday. We were introduced to weaving and using different objects in order to create a weaving loom. The results were amazing. Plus we got to have a go on a wonderful loom that I just want so badly now! Goodness knows how I would get it to work but who cares I loved it!
It was a really inspiring and relaxing day, I loved all the yarns that Laura brought with her, it gave us a different perspective and method for creating new fabrics, backgrounds or centrepieces for our designs.
A huge thank you to Laura for her expert tuition and a fabulous day. We all enjoyed it and are all well inspired to carry on and look for different ways to create looms and weaving patterns and textures. Below are some photos from the day and the designs we made. Mine isn't finished yet but I will work on it and hopefully we will all have something to show at our next meeting in December.
     

Well Autumn definitely going quickly as the leaves are disappearing from the trees around here. Have been on a wonderful trip around the Forest of Dean with my dog and we did have a lovely time rolling about in the leaves and taking lots of pictures! I'll leave you to decide who did what!


But the colours are amazing. So, so bright and inspiring. I do love all the yellows, reds and golds that you see at Autumn. Still quite warm too so lovely for walking and photographs.


Hope everyone has been busy and been crafty. I did manage to make a Halloween ornament which is new for me as I don't  normally do much on Halloween but am well into gilding waxes as they pick up so much of the texture of whatever you put them over. Also been exploring collage stuff which in my case has been stick everything I can get hold of onto a canvas and cover it in gesso! Having some problem with the colouring of it though as the cosmic shimmer mists and liquid dyes don't really take to the gesso well. They all look fab when wet but then it dries so pale. Ended up with chalk paints which I'm also loving at the moment!


Don't forget to think of some ideas for a theme for next year. I think we'll be taking suggestions and either pulling one from a hat or debating on which is the most popular. I think we could end up pulling lots from the hat if only one of us likes what we pick!


Here's to a lovely week and looking forward to seeing everyone on Saturday for our Weaving Workshop with Laura Thomas.  Can't wait to take lots of photos of what everyone does!
Will update the group photos and galleries as soon as I can too!
Take care and see you Saturday!

Greetings everyone!
Hope everyone has managed to get out and about, its been lovely Autumn weather of late. I've spent the afternoon with the dog trying to collect Autumn coloured leaves for work! Have massive bag which we can just throw about if we can't do anything else!


Am working on a little how to booklet for the blog so that we can all post what we are doing and what inspires us. I am very strangely quite addicted to gothic-y Halloween style items and I am enjoying putting lots of gesso on them and adding bits and bobs and painting them. Asda are selling some candlestick MDF plaques which look pretty good to dress up and add to.


Also looking a lot more into dissolvable film. Would like to do more with it plus would like to do more with plastics too! Been looking at Kathleen Laurel Sage's stuff which is fab.


Don't forget Sheila has a workshop

"Embellished Lines" Sat Nov 21st

Embellishing threads, machine stitching threads, and fibres combined with hand stitching -- book cover cushion or panel.

Sounds fabulous and I will be there ! I really don't use my embellishing machine enough. Well at all really! So hoping for some inspiration with it and then some enthusiasm to use it more often. I am so so sure that there is so much that I can do with it that I'm simply not!

Well off for a cuppa and a thriller on the telly!

Hope everyone is well, keep an eye on the blog and the calendar for any requirements for the next workshop which is with Laura Thomas ! whoop whoop, really looking forward to it !

     

It was a milestone birthday for my daughter and she really liked the piece I made for my sister's 30th wedding anniversary, so I thought I would make her a hanging.  She loves fish and the sea, so the idea was for an aquamarine piece.  There are a few fish shapes about it, lots of beading and, I feel, an underwater effect to it.

Back to mushrooms!

Greetings everyone, thought that I would add a post before the new term starts.
Don't forget we have our first meeting of the new sewing year on Saturday 5th September which I believe will be the AGM. I'll check on this but am sure that is right.
But I have been back to looking at mushrooms. I do like the shapes and the patterns and the colours! So decided to do something a little different with them and sort of a brighter picture. I wanted it to be like the end of the day just as the sun goes down.


   





I was quite pleased with the result. I was well pleased with my butterfly too. I used the paper that was made from old denim jeans that I had for basically nothing from a lady at the Cardiff CIA show a few years ago. She was almost giving it away because she said it was so fragile. I had previously used it to add modelling paste to- it's one of the samples on the modelling paste day we did. So thought that I would try and do something with it!


Not sure what to do next as might have exhausted the mushroom theme for a while! I am sure that I will go back to it though.
Hopefully see you all Saturday!
Lesley

Links

Check out the new links opposite. Textile Artist have lots of articles featuring very different artists from different areas of textile art. Mr Finch has a wonderful site full of his natural art- he creates amazing butterflies, bees, mice and of course my favourite the mushrooms. It's fascinating and beautiful work, please check them out!