flower girl (theme thursday 4x4)

Another little art quilt square I have made..it features a flower stampington stamp and image of a little flower girl. This is going to be part of my ongoing art quilt. I am off camping again this weekend to Shropshire which is a beautiful part of the UK..havent been there before so looking forward to it..anyone else going camping this year?

Indian dreams (created by hand challenge)

Made a quick tag today after coming back from my yoga class. It uses some paper artsy stamps I havent used in ages..that is my latest thing using paper and stamps that I have had just sitting there..I have got too much stash like all crafters!! I thought I would add the orange fabric flower to the back of the tag. In my yoga class part of the relaxation is to imagine warm orange light travelling through your body and radiating warmth to everyone within the class and out into the world as it represents positive energy so namaste to you all!

Queen of fabric (tmtatc challenge)

I have tidied the house from top to bottom, done 2 loads of washing, played with the kids..so decided I needed a little bit of time to create something!! I noticed one of the themes was "kings and queens" so I made this little fabric quilt square....I then realised it was meant to be an ATC..oh well at least I created something today!! The quote reads "well behaved women seldom make history" and I was thinking of the celtic warrior queen Boudica as I think the image is very mediaeval.

C& T June "lutradur" design challenge winner!

I had a great surprise when checking my emails today after returning from my camping trip. I have won the C&T June design challenge. The challenge was to use lutradur. I needlefelted some flowers into painted lutradur then burnt it with my soldering iron to make curved shapes. I also fused lace and various scraps of material to create a very textured piece. I am so pleased as I now have the chance to pick some more arty goodies from the c&t shop..life is looking good. Check out http://www.ctpub.com/ for some great books and arty products.

A wonderful weekend at Conwy, North Wales

I have just come back from spending a great time in Conwy. The weather was marvellous and it only started to rain this morning when we were packing up our tent. Some of our friends came up on Saturday and we had a great time in the play areas and walking across fields looking out for a bull as we had just seen a sign saying "beware of the bull".It was great finding bits of fleece which my 6yr old then washed and combed the bits out..he is eager to make something out of it now. On the way home we had a great sunday roast dinner and are looking forward to our next camping weekend..a great start to the camping season.

faces Theme Thursday ATC

Wanted to combine several stamped faces on this ATC..I have used some 7 gypsies background paper in strips. I am getting ready to go on our first camping trip and the weather is so far lovely so hoping it stays nice..its only for 2 days but it will be a nice break.

Yay..I am now a green belt!

I am really pleased as I have just passed my green belt in kickboxing..it was really tough as I had to remember the moves from the previous 4 belts that I had got..if there is a good class near you why not give it a try..after all I am a 40 something and if I can do it then so can you

thank you cards for the teachers

I only really make cards twice a year to thank all the teachers at my sons school either at Summer or Christmas...here are some of the 10 I made today.

Button queen "crazy amigo" lady challenge

This is a little art quilt square I made today with some fabrics and buttons. The Stampington image is stamped onto some of my handpainted fabric. I discovered a new stitch on my sewing machine today which I quite like as its good for sewing around narrow ribbon..its no 17 if you have a Toyota sewing machine.

I have joined it with some other art quilt squares I have made and this is the first row of the quilt. I am probably going to make 12 squares then put a border around it.

"fly me to the moon" TMTATC

This weeks challenge at Think Monday think ATC is the moon as it is 40 years since the US first landed on the moon. I love looking at the full moon .apparently there is an increase in lunacy when there is a full moon!! I have been trying to use up some of my stamps that I tend to buy and then forget about!! How many of us do that then? This funny little man with the hat on was one stamp I had forgotten about as was the celtic circle one..so its a case of a funny little man with celtic connections wanting to fly to the moon!!!

adventures in felting continued....

so this is the knitted bag before I put it in the washing machine. It took ages to felt as the wool blocked up the washing machine so it didnt rinse properly!

After 2 further attempts at washing it and my husband unblocking the pipe!! I then stuffed it with newspapers and left it to dry. I read in a book that it was best to sew it together to avoid it going out of shape in the washing machine but dont do this as it felts together!! So I had to cut it apart slightly and that left holes which I then had to sew up!! So its not bad for a learning attempt! I might needlefelt some flowers on it as I think the flower on the front needs livening up a bit!! But I am pleased that I had a go as you dont learn anything unless you try. Its a fat little bag so I am keeping my next knitting project in it.. some black wool to felt dont know what yet..probably a bowl???

UKS "v for vintage"

This week's tag challenge over at UK Stampers is V for Vintage. I thought I would combine vintage stamped images with really bright colours for this one. Who says vintage cant be bright?? I like to combine lots of papers and stamped images on my work so there is lots to look at. I have added a v for variety!!

Dreaming of Summer (sunday postcard vintage children)

I have been busy all weekend sorting the camping equipment out as we want to go camping next weekend..hope we have a bit of sun as it has been quite rainy here in the UK lately. So I suppose you could say I am dreaming of summer away from the routine and time to just chill out in the middle of Welsh countryside doing a bit of knitting or sketching. This postcard combines vintage and modern with a lovely vintage Inka photo stamp and some basic grey paper with an orange fabric flower. Are you getting ready to go anywhere for Summer I would love to know...

Theme Thursday Stripes

Continuing with my experiments with image transfer here is a transfer of the rabbit from Alice in Wonderland. Ihave used some fabric strips for the background. The stamped words read "always make time for yourself" which is why I make time for doing something arty most days as it is time just for me.

UKS "F" for face tag

had a change from fabric today and got all my bits of paper and stamps out to create this tag. The challenge was to use F for face and incorporate the letter F on the tag. I think the face in the image has forgotten something so I have added the small word "forgotten" by the F.

Inspiration from sun dresses

I managed to buy some lovely sun dresses today. I just love the patterns on them and have ideas to incorporate them somehow into a fabric piece using matte medium and altered photos. So did I buy the dress for the pattern for art or for the fit..well a bit of both really. I dont really like shopping for clothes but am pleased when something fits and has a nice arty pattern.

Adventures in knitting & felting

I have nearly finished knitting a bag. The pure wool is in gorgeous shades of blue and purple and I am going to knit a flower to go on the front after I have finished the strap. This bag is quite large and I am going to put it in the washing machine to felt it. I havent done this before and am a bit apprehensive but it should shrink to two thirds the size if all goes to plan!! I hope it works and doesnt end up a mushy mess.....to be contd!

"dreams" Wed Stamper

 
A mixture of painted fabrics, Alice image transfer and black stamped swirls. Have been doing some more matte medium transfers today..the secret is to apply it thinly with your finger and rub the transparency down well. The stamped words read "she always dreamed of being thin".

mixed media monday "play"

 
I really liked the theme this week..it was to play with materials rather than focussing on an end result. I just started to play with couching embroidery thread, then I had a go at tranferring images to fabric using matte medium. I have always wanted to do this and used the Claudine Helmuths matte medium with a transparency image and to my surprise it worked really well!! I have read so many people having problems with this technique but I now love it..I think the secret is to burnish the image really well. I also had a go at just writing on the background with quotes from "A thousand paths to enlightenment" by David Baird. My fav quote written on it is "An enlightened mind is always open". What new technique or product have you played with recently?

Sunday postcard "fabric"

A mixture of painted fabric, transparency, paper and lace. It is quite difficult to photograph with the light shining off the transparency but the words read "let your life lightly dance on the edges of time like dew on the tip of a leaf

TGIF "red flowers"

Used some of the painted fabric that I did the other day to make a background. I added some lace and a transparency with the stamped word dream. I also sewed on some little paper. red flowers. I think she is dreaming about having some peace. I just did this quickly today as have spent the day cleaning the house..only for my 3 sons to wreck it again!! Oh well at least its sort of clean and ant free now as we had ants coming in through the conservatory (summer room) and I dont want them eating all my wool or fabric!!!

Painting the blues away

I seem to be getting the blues a lot more these days..think it must be my hormones playing up again..the things us women have to put up with. Anyhow I decided to do a lot of mad painting today on fabric. One of my favourite books is Collage Unleashed by Traci Bautista and I always go to this book when I am stuck as it encourages you to just be mad and paint. So if you are 40 something and are feeling low just go and splash some paint!!

Wed Stamper "colourful"

Decided to use my painted material for this little collaged piece. I have stamped over the painted material for the background and added a Frida transparency. Sewed over the lot for added texture.

Sunset Dream quilt (crazy amigo "sun, sea, beach")

I have found a great web site called the quilt show (www.thequiltshow.com) where you can watch a free quilt show. The one I watched was demonstrating convergence quilts by Ricky Tims which involved cutting curves in material, piecing it back together then sewing it. I thought this was such a clever idea that I had a go. I have used contrasting colours in this quilt using some fabric I spray dyed in shades of orange and green.

TMTATC "in the garden"

 
made a quick ATC with the sraps left over from the quilt I have been making then altered it digitally.

"Dreaming of Wales" circular weaving

 
At the Woolfest I went to last Saturday I bought this circular weaving kit from the Threshing Barn stall (www.threshingbarn.com). I have really enjoyed making this as it is something completely different. I really liked this kit as it just provided basic instructions, a photo and some wool so I had the chance to put my own twist on it by adding some more of my own wool. It reminds me of Wales hence my title where we are going camping this year in a few weeks. I have put it on my kitchen wall and my sons love it as they cant wait to go and see some Welsh sheep in real life. We are lucky in that Wales is only an hour and half drive away from where we live..lets hope the weather stays nice.

Wed Stamper "colours of your countrys flag"

This was an unusual challenge..I kept on thinking of the Noel Coward song for some reason which goes something like.."mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun.." as we have been having a heatwave this week in the UK...hooray. Anwyay the background is red, white and blue inks from our union jack flag with a paper artsy image stamped with staz-on on glossy card. I quite like using staz-on at the moment as it gives a really good clear image when stamped on glossy card. I have added a butterfly and the word eccentric.

Created by Hand "Summer"

 
Another little fabric piece with stamped Inka photo image with various fabric and fibres...this is going to be part of a large quilt I am making