Is Spring just round the corner?

On Thursday I popped out to hang some washing out in the back garden and saw these lovely little cyclamen poking out amongst the weeds under some old trees at the back of the garden.  They really cheered me up, particularly as we have actually also had some sunshine this week.

I also discovered some very pale mauve crocus in the front garden amongst the pile of old bricks and bags of sand.  I had given them up as being buried under all the builders stuff.

Talking of builders ... they may be back fairly soon.  Not sure if I mind as my life is pretty useless when they are here.  I never get much done.  Perhaps some of the house might get finished this time?  Roman blinds are all made I am on curtains now.

Yorkshire Travelling Journal

There are now two more people who are going to participate in the Yorkshire version of the Travelling Journal so I have added them to my 'Contributors Page'.  I shall get it posted off tomorrow to one of the people so that they can get an idea of what they are meant to be doing.  Hope my blogging does not spoil the surprise for them.

Newspaper Sample

Patience is a virtue ....  this piece of fabric and newspaper has been hung outside for a week now and has had rain, snow, gales and frost thrown at it.  I have a feeling I am going to have to wait some time for the weather to have any affect on it.  I want the paper to start to disintegrate and leave the machine stitched lettering.

I shall just have to get on with the other samples I am meant to be doing ....

May Hill

Well I had my birthday treat yesterday ... Needless to say this is not what I saw!!

I wanted to go for a pub lunch with perhaps a walk up May Hill.  It was so misty you could not see the hill, even close up, but I did get my pub lunch, although I had to endure DH being The Grumpy One.  May Hill is a manmade landmark.  It was created by planting a clump of pine trees on the summit to celebrate Queen Victoria's jubilee in 1887.

It has been depicted in many paintings and a book by Valerie McLean  http://valeriemclean.com/may-hill-prints-relating-to-the-seasons/

Also bought a new pair of navy blue Hunter wellies on the way back as my original ones, which are eons old, have decided to leak through the welded seams.  They have served me well, suffering lots of abuse over the years, including having a nail through the sole of one of them.  There is now nothing to stop me getting on with clearing up the rubbish in The Dell.

Saw my first new lambs whilst we were out and about.

Tree Seat

This is a rather strange piece now and I am not sure it is what I intended, but it was fun trying things out.  I had to make some more painted cocktail sticks as I managed to snap one when I was stitching them on.

C&G Alumni Class

This mess is something I have been experimenting with this week. The background is a piece of calico that I rust dyed some time ago.  I have stitched to this some strips of newspaper which just happened to have acrylic paint on them (I had previously used the newspaper underneath things I have been painting).  I thought the acrylic might create a resist.

The reverse side shows the words I have free machined which are taken from a poem which may become my inspiration.

I am now going to hang it outside for a while to see what happens to the newspaper and cloth.  Good job we have snow again this morning!!

 

This piece was made from Lutradur which had been coloured using tranfer dyes.  The letters were cut out using a soldering iron and then placed onto some dissolvable fabric in an embroidery hoop.  I stitched across them to join the letters together, thus making a word, before washing away the dissolvable fabric.  I then pinned it onto a piece of polystyrene packing to dry.  Shame I had not noticed that the letter 'a' is back to front (stitch dyslexia perhaps?)

Wrecking

This is just for my favourite C&G tutor!!

She gave me a paperback book called 'Wreck this Journal' some time ago and I have done bits in it, but this morning whilst sitting in the kitchen I filled in two pages.  I used anything I could find in the kitchen for this one.

Then I thought I would have a go at the one below.   You can tell how exciting my life is.

no birthday cake !

hi Hazel
Thank you for lovely card - no birthday cake, but I have baked some blueberry and marzipan cakes for the library first anniversary party tomorrow - help yourself !

Tree Bark

This layered sample was created using my soldering iron and some transfer dyed Lutradur.  I found some tiny bits of Lutradur in my box that had some sheer fabric fused to them so added those too.  It is the background for something I am working on at the moment.

This morning I have been stiffening some hessian with diluted PVA and I am waiting for that to dry before I can carry on with this.  Also been painting cocktail sticks and sanding them down to deaden the colour.