Spring is here- trying to make a fresh start at blogging again.....

Hello the few folks who still get notice of my postings. I really don't know where the time goes to, it flies. My intentions are always good but life gets in the way. I have had a few health issues and have been told not to push myself for a while so I decided to do a little re-organisation of my work room and thought I would try and take a few photos some of which are distinctly blurry but they may just give you a wee idea of what 'my place' looks like. I was watching a video by Jennifer McGuire yesterday and sadly my room is not in any way like her custom made workroom. Mine is made up of this that and the other but it works for me. Have just finished a phase of re-boxing stamps into old DVD type cases, I've had two big boxes of them and still not enough.... You will see that I still have some in DVD cases but hey, they'll do for now as the holders are fine and I don't want to throw them out. I usually get photos all over the place - it may take two posts to get them in but here goes. I have been know to make a real mess of this so bear with me.

Christmas Trees from Catalogues

Hello everyone - here I am again to show you how I have been wasting (?) my time making this tree out of a catalogue. If you need instructions just go to Pinterest and search for the title of this post and many will come up for you. I am making trees as part of a demo I am doing at our church ladies meeting in December and thought I would let you see how busy I've been LOL !!!! I took off the front and back cover of the catalogue and laboriously folded well over a hundred pages - stuck the first and last page together and a few others as well which were showing a bit wide....sprayed with gold and sprinkled with glitter.....added a few stars here and there and one for the top. I then stuck the base unto an empty ribbon spool to make it easier lifted. I don't think anyone who will be at the meeting will be aware of my blog so probably ok to show.

A Card for a 'Centurion' !!

Again it is quite a while since I posted....here is the latest offering which I've made today. Base is pearlescent, layer of mountboard covered with peachskin fabric in pink....an Anna Griffin gold frame (brought in from the U.S.) surrounded by handmade ribbon flowers...leaves cut from a Cheer Lynn border die and the gold 'frond' which I think is Memory Box. The handwritten greeting in pink gouache....majenta paled down with Permanent White gouache....it has a matching box with 100 on it cut from Papertrey number dies. Hope you like it....will apologise for the quality of the photo....my skills are zilch, as you know.

And finally.....

This was a gift to a neighbour - this and the last card (the alium one) were embroidered on heavy (140gsm) watercolour paper....just beginning to get into this and love it....first of all I 'spattered' goache artist paint to represent some of the background blossom....it is not as simple as it looks. I had to practice this many times to get it sort of right. Then I went in and embroidered even more knots and beads to represent clusters of blossoms.....it was all about cherry trees you see, although the poem is about any tree.....our avenue is lined with them and they are about to burst forth....it was framed in a gold frame with a little gold slip to raise the glass above the beading etc....I was pleased with it. Didn't photograph it framed as glass is a pain (or pane?) to get right.

A couple of cards....

Here are two cards - one very elaborate one...fabric from Naturaleigh - you can see I am very fond of french knots...even the lady's posy is not forgotten. This card was A4 size....with a box decorated with more fabric and a shabby chic rose....money was no object I was told! The other card was first stamped with a stamp from Papertrey (U.S. stamps to die for mostly) and even more french knots with a pearl for the centre.

A little machine embroidery

This is a woodland scene with bluebells....worked on painted calico...zig zag and straight stitches. Took forever to do given all the thread changes on the machine (just an ordinary machine). It also hangs unglazed and gets the hoover pointed at it too....the mount is fine hessian which just looks as good as the day it was hung. It hangs on a wall which gets no sun whatsoever and the colours have remained true because of that.

Specifically for Embroiderers....

Hello everyone, here I am again coming with apologies for not being regular in blogging. I do have to confess that the reason I am here is mainly to show some interested embroiderers some of my work..and being fairly computer illiterate I have no idea how to do links and photos and all of that except for here (and maybe not if it doesn't go well). Should say embroidery really started for me when Jan Beany was on tv many years ago - it was a programme called 'Embroidery' (what else) and there was an accompanying book to go with it....this is my interpretation of one of the 'pictures' in it. It is meant to be a cross section of a border in a garden. Worked on calico... Green velvet hosta leaves were attached with long stitches to represent veins. They were edged with chenille yarn. Then there are Michaelmas daisies...straight stitches in a circle and a french knot for a centre...then more grasses, including heavier ones, more french knots and there you have it.....It is very old, it is not glazed and I like people to touch and feel it....yes, the calico needs a bit of a clean....it gets the hoover pointed at it to remove the dust!