Wednesday 26 May 2010

Art Journal


Well everyone seems to be doing these now don't they? It was not really anything I had spent time thinking about...too personal for me I thought. But then Gilly gave me this amazing book that opens with pages that are double (good pocket potential) and the spine isn't really there so they form a kind of zig zag! Now that has to be the worst description of a book ever but it was from a supplier called Seawhite and has lovely thick art paper pages.
I kept getting it out and smelling the paper (I have a "thing" about the smell of paper! Am I weird?). Then I bought a book called Journal Bliss and I flicked through it.....
The first pages were about giving your inner critic a voice; then you can turn him/her off and move forward. Well believe it or not I have not a lot of self confidence so this was one of the most empowering images I have ever discovered! Finally I could lie to rest all those things that parents/teachers and "friends" say about me and my "creations"! And I could voice my own self doubts. So feeling thoroughly liberated and not bothered about whether I CAN draw I set to.
This is the page that will be my first in a series of artistic musings about my life and thoughts..so expect random stuff! This will be my touchstone when I feel unsure and remind me whyI know I CAN!
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Monday 24 May 2010

The next CJ...already!

Don't faint! This CJ only arrived about 4 days ago and instead of leaving it to the last minute (like I usually do!!) I got down to it straight away. The little bird was the stamp so I went with the well known phrase....I used my brayer for the sky; I haven't used it for ages. The ground is painted and the sun started off black but looked wrong. So then I covered it with gesso...but it still looked wrong so I painted it with silver H2O and then yellow!!! I stamped the grass and the worm is a piece of wool poked through a hole I punched.

I enjoyed this so much that I decorated the sign in bit on the back too! Bit of a rubbish photo tho.....sorry!
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Sunday 23 May 2010

Birdie CJ

At last! I have finally managed to squeeze in some craft. I went to see Gilly last week where a group of us usually scrapbook. However I was only able to stay for a little while and I also was very overdue with this CJ so I decided to take it along to do. This CJ came with a swirly bird stamp and was full of lots of phrases like Bird-Brain, four and twenty blackbirds, bird's eye view etc, so I needed to come up with something different. At the other end of Uckfield there is a road to Framfield that is called Bird-In-Eye Hill and it is also the name of the area where the hospital and a small industrial unit are. I decided to do some research to see what I couold find out about it and why it might have such a funny name!
Well my research came to a big fat nothing, other than in 1841 it appeared in the census as Bird Nye, Burdeneye and Birdentye! Oh well, despite that, it was the inspiration for this LO. I printed the map off the internet and hand drew the eye. I coloured the various parts using watercolour pencils and glimmer mists and once I had retrieved the pieces from Gillys cat, I assembled them on top of the map! Gilly then gave me the little sticker to accentuate the place on the map!
I have now received the next CJ and guess what the stamp is.....yup, ANOTHER bird!!!! Can I do this again I wonder or is that cheating?!
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Saturday 22 May 2010

F Fortnight

Well for once we did tons of stuff beginning with F! We began with a fabric filled day at the patchwork exhibition (that I have already blogged about!)


We ate our lunch in the courtyard of the Vand A where there were these stunning almost black flowers....


...and fountains.



We decided to go to Birling Gap fossil hunting. Here is Ken searching...

...and Eliza, with a rather impressive shot of the cliffs!

Then Eliza found a fossilised sponge.
On the way we went through here and also Friston (but for some reason I can't load that photo)

Posted by PicasaA few weeks ago Jasper went to a friends house and learnt how to tie flies for fishing. Then he went fly-fishing (but not during this fortnight sadly) and caught some trout. One was this Brown Trout and the chap that took Jasper has never, ever managed to catch a Brown trout in that lake! Well now I have set the scene, we ATE the fish this fortnight...



...with almonds and herb butter! Mmmmm!

Sunday 16 May 2010

E fortnight

Hmmm well we struggled with E; both for ideas and time to do them in! Eventually we went to Eastbourne for some exercise on the Esplanade!



Eliza took her scooter and Katy and Jasper roller-bladed.



This is a view of Eastbourne Pier..well the end bit...



...and Ken and I stopped for a coffee at one of the little cafe/bars that have popped up on the beach.


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On the way we passed Eastbourne Bandstand...
then everyone stopped for a rest whilst they decided whether to have chips or ice cream!

Sunday 9 May 2010

A Denim Quilt...

I was very inspired by my day quilting in London and met a lovely lady, Sarah Baulch, and we got chatting about recycling. I have been saving my children's denim skirts, jeans and bits and bobs since they were about 5 so I decided on a whim, to get on and do something with them! A quick hunt on t'internet showed a design for a denim raggy quilt. I rummaged in my loft and found a red fleece throw that I had bought which I decided would make a great backing and away I went....120 squares later....
...I was ready to stitch in strips with the wrong sides together so the seam would be on the surface. Then I ironed the seams flat, trimmed them and stitched the strips together, ironing and trimming as I went. Last job was to attach the fleece and then top-stitch aroung the edge and in a cross shape to hold the back to the front IYSWIM!
And here it is.....My finished quilt on Jess' bed. I have since washed it and the seams are all nice and raggedy. My first ever patchwork and I can thoroughly recommend making one. It took just 3 evenings and has a lovely weight to it as well as the jeans being lovely and soft and worn and full of memories of tiny wearers!
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Saturday 8 May 2010

A Grand Day Out...

Last weekend I was lucky enough to go on an amazing day out. Guides from the LASER Region (London and South East) were invited to take part in a charity "stitchathon" to make quilts for Project Linus. So on Saturday morning 12 of us caught the train to London to the Vand A Museum, where as some of you may know, there is a patchwork exhibition on at the moment. We were given 9 squares to sew into a "block" and then these blocks would be machined into quilts and backed with fleece to go to children in Great Ormond Street Hospital. This is Eliza getting going...
And Ginnie and myself! We were in the most amazing room, full of huge Raphael cartoons and the light was really poor to preserve them, so we spent a lot of time trying to thread needles! After lunch we were lucky enought to have free admission to the exhibition where there were quilts from 1600 to present day. There was one made by Guides in a prison camp in China during the war in secret, from parts snipped from their dresses and one made by prison inmates as therapy and also there was the Tracey Emin confessional Quilt right at the end. Many groups went home after that but we decided to go and try to finish off our blocks.
So here is my little block all ready to be stitched to the others! Between us we finished about 12 squares and had a fantastic day. A real "once in a lifetime" experience and great to remember.
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