Baboushka

 For some time I have had the urge to do some appliqué russian dolls. A way of using brighter fabrics and having fun with the faces and decorative embroidery. As always a bit of interesting quilt in the background. They are taking longer than the birds to make and are on to a more valuable bit of log cabin and  are a bit fiddly so shall I continue? Thinking of running a course on these.... I have put one on Etsy to just test the market for them.

The Year of the Horse

Happy Chinese New Year! It is the turn of the horse and since my studio is in Horsley and is surrounded by fields with horses in I decided today would be the day I would have a go. Here is the finished stitched drawing ( now on Etsy). More to come I think and a way of utilising all the white table cloths I am given. At the base there is the number 16  off a shirt collar but also referring to the height in hands of this thoroughly thoroughbred horse.

Sketchbooks - how to get going!

Several people have contacted me saying they can't really get going with sketchbooks. Sometimes I can't either but I think the secret is to have all the  mark making ingredients out all the time so that you pick them up and start. I got all my painty stuff out at the beginning of January and then just set myself the challenge of doing a double page of sketchbook each time I went to the studio ( about 3 times a week). Soon I will put it away and get the textiles out again but when there are not gardening distractions in the winter and it is not cold outside I think it is ideal time for sketchbook work. Do your sketchbook for yourself - just playing with textures, shapes and colours and marks will feed into other areas of your creative practice.

The main things I use are 

gesso, emulsions, bleach, brusho, stamps, oil pastels, wax crayons, PVA, watercolour crayons, indian and washable inks, acrylic, nib pen, sponges, brushes, rollers, collage materials incl papers already coloured and printed  by myself.

So there you are , nothing expensive there just get going!

More sketchbook pages

USA. I am coming!

I know that loads of people in the United States read my blog so I am very pleased to announce that I will be coming to teach in California in September. I will be teaching a couple of workshops for French General in Los Angeles. Hope to fly in to LA then travel up to Mendocino  and then back  down the coast to fly back from San Francisco. Would love any comments on places, sights not to be missed in the above itinerary particularly museums with folk art and quilts.
Information on my courses is beautifully displayed on the French General web site, hope to meet some of you there!

A bit different

A bit  different.... I have been preparing lino cuts and printing on to fabric recently in preparation for the summer school I always teach with Horsley Printmakers.

A quilt mystery

The nice thing about hand sewing is that you can have your iPad propped up by next to you and watch films and documentaries. Today I have watched a documentary about a diphtheria outbreak in Nome in Alaska in 1925.The only way to get the serum to the town which was cut off for eight months of the year by snow and ice was to send it via convoy of "mushers" and their teams of dogs hundreds of miles across thenAlaskan wilderness. An old fashioned tale of bravery of both men and dogs but what intrigued me was that the serum was not allowed to freeze in the extremely sub zero temperatures so it was wrapped up in a quilt to keep it warm.  Who made the quilt and what happened to it I wonder? Must be one of the best quilt stories ever!