Misty morning

JP, if you read this you can email me at margaret.rbts@virgin.net so I can email you privately. I believe there are one or two places left on my course which is at here Craft Weekend at Plas Tan y Bwlch.

Below are some photos I took of a misty morning on the estuary. They were taken every 5 minutes or so as the sun struggled to come through.





The one above is my favourite because I always love the way the trees come out in layers, fading the further away they are.



At the end of the day the sun is just about to disappear over the mountain, dripping it's gold onto the river.

My Embellisher class

I had a lovely class of ladies yesterday and as you can see from the photos it was a very good venue with plenty of room for us all and lots of windows. There were 18 members there and we had 5 Embellishers, 4 borrowed and my own and we managed quite well taking turns. They all had their sewing machines as well, so when they had used the embellisher some of them added stitch to it while the others used the embellishers.


I'm afraid I forgot to take photos of the final work and I'm very annoyed with myself. But I did take this ATC. It was particularly striking.

I took photos of people while they were working so this will give you a slight idea of the work they created and how much they were enjoying it all.

Short

I was making some ATC's using the Embellisher this afternoon and this one suddenly reminded me of the bushes I posted last night on my blog. Some hand stitching was added to it.



Here is a little close-up of the bushes.


This morning the Rainforest book I'd ordered arrived, I'd already seen a copy and I loved it, so of course really 'needed' it.

Snow

I've been making a few extra samples to take to my Embellisher class, it's just procrastinating actually as I have enough already. I haven't made any thread sketches with the Embellisher for a while so I made this.


Now why am I showing you such a simple ATC? Well, this is made with all the bits left over and the lint from under the machine. Some people use it I know, but I'd never tried it before as I thought of it as just dust, and it worked! I grudge throwing anything away and that is why my room is in such a mess. Maybe one could use it scattered over a sheet of paper or card covered with glue? I haven't tried this yet either.



We had a few signs of Spring and then came a little more snow. I thought you might like these textures above. They are a lovely mix of colours.


Last eveneing's sky.


The snow is coming over from Anglesey.


Here is a very unusual view of the castle.

SerenTex: Serendipity/SerenTex

This post was really meant for SerenTex for someone who asked where we were based, but I posted it on Digital Gran by mistake. I will leave it on now anyway.


SerenTex: Serendipity/SerenTex

I refer Anonymous to this page above which is the first entry to the SerenTex blog.

After reading the first post of our blog I have just realized that the one thing missing is where we are from. How could we have left that out?

We are from a fairly small area of North Wales and our meetings are held in Old colwyn which is near Colwyn Bay. Most of us come from the Conwy area and a few from the nearby Denbighshire Area and we meet twice a month.

We are having our 'Christmas Party' on Tuesday. Yes, Christmas Party! As you can see we are a strange lot, but we decided a few years ago that we had so many other things going around Christmas time we would have ours at the beginning of the year and that is what we have done ever since.

Embellisher work

Creating 3D work always gives me great pleasure. I have just finished the dish shown below.



Here you can see both inside and outside the dish which I made using the Embellisher. I made 2 separate bowls and put one inside the other and joined them together as I didn't like the outside of the dish when I first made it.


This is another dish I made when I was writing an article for the Fibre and Stitch on line magazine. If you subscribed to it you will find the instructions in Issue 3


Here is a photo of the castle in Conwy taken early this morning. You can always tell with my photos of the castle what time of day it is as the sun shines from the left in the morning and from the right in the evening. I always think what a very useful example these photos would make to teach youngsters how to highlight cylindrical shapes.


The towers and the three bridges. The cube shape is part of Stephenson's Wrought Iron Tubular railway bridge. The one you can barely see in the middle is Telford's Suspension Bridge which is not used any more as it was too narrow for today's traffic, so a new bridge was built. But there's also a tunnel that goes under the river for the main A55 traffic. If you would like to read about them more fully have a look here Conwy Suspension Bridge - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


The estuary in the early evening.

Dragonfly

I thought you might to like to see what went into these designs.


This poor dragonfly was trodden underfoot by someone in Tenerife and of course I had to pick it up and put it in my journal. Unfortunately the top side was a bit crumbled...


so I had to use the underside which was really beautiful.


Have you ever looked down into a swimming pool on a hot afternoon? It's just begging to have a photo taken.


I'm still playing, but learning about Photoshop Elements 8 at the same time. It's changed a lot since version 3 and it's a long time since I used that.


But I'm getting the hang of it now and as you can see below enjoying myself too.

Dragonfly

I've just been having a little play tonight and thought I'd just pop in to say hello!

Red and sky blue pink

First another apology. I have not been replying to my comments in the last month or so, neither have I been visiting any blogs. But thank you for all your lovely comments, they are very much appreciated.

As usual, clicking on all the images in my posts will bring up a larger one.


This is not an evening sky, but a morning sky. I was up early sometime during the last week and took a few photos and I'd forgotten I had them in the camera. I like this one above, but the one below....


is the one I like best. Is this what is meant by 'sky blue pink' I wonder? i love these colours and I've never thought of myself as a person who loves pastels.


Last night I finished the heart I made using the Embellisher. Have you noticed how popular hearts are these days. It is a very pleasing shape to use.
I don't know how many of you know that Wales has it's very own lover's day? It's tomorrow January 25th and it's called Dydd y Santes Dwynwen (St Dwynwen's Day). If you Google it you will find there are quite a few versions of the story.


Maybe some will be broken hearted when they don't get a card tomorrow. This is what I
made when playing with Photoshop Elements 8 for my on line course. I know I'm not doing the exercises I should be doing, but I'm having lots of fun getting to know the programme. I still think Paint Shop Pro X2 is good if not better than this one. That was the way I felt about Corel Draw at one time and I suppose what it boils down to is the one you understand best. that only comes with having fun and trying things out, then I think the exercises and instructions will make more sense.


Some of you might know that this is one of my favourite boats on the estuary and I call it the Trots Boat, this is really the mooring boat that sets and checks the boat moorings. Why the moorings in this area are called Trots I have no idea. I Googled it and could find nothing to explain it. As I was searching I came across this website and thought some of you might find it interesting Wee Birdy: Top Bird’s Conwy Top 10

Horses

I went to Australia in the year 2000 and took this photo of horses in Bahrain Airport where we stopped for a short time to refuel on the way there. It was such poor quality but I knew I was saving it for some reason and when I was looking for a photo to play with in the PSE8 Workshop I found it ideal and below you can see what I managed to do with it.

A busy year ahead

It seems I'm to have a busy year starting with 2 workshops in February and I am busy preparing work for these classes. I have another couple of courses and some talks booked during the year. One is through the medium of Welsh showing how much fun using the Embellisher machine can be and the other is at Plas Tan y Bwlch
Snowdonia National Park Authority where we will be making bags using the Embellisher.


Below is another bag made using the Embellisher.


It was made for a recent article in Design It the Computer Textile Design Group magazine. It was developed from a design created in Paint Shop Pro. Many people find it difficult to know what to make using their designs and I enjoy using a variety of techniques and methods to create various textiles. This one was made using the Embellisher with added hand stitching. It's very colourful and it's been lined with yellow fabric to finish it off.

Aussi Jo asked recently what make Camera I used and here is a review of the camera Jo. Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ18

Enjoyment

My word for the year is 'enjoyment'. There are so many things I want to do and feel I need to do this year and I expect even the nitty-gritty to give me a great deal of pleasure and 'enjoyment'. I am in the lucky position of being retired and do not need to make a living out of my creativity. This does not mean to say that I do not take my creativity seriously, it's a very important part of my life and I intend to carry on creating as long as possible.


Taking photos is one thing that will give me 'enjoyment'. This photo was taken yesterday afternoon. The foreground was quite dark with the sun just managing to break through the clouds over the mountains.


In complete contrast is tonight's sunset.


It was a great pity I was not able to get this new moon in the previous photo. I remember my father saying in Welsh that we would have a dry spell because the moon would hold water. This one will not hold a lot of water before dripping over the edge and the weatherman is just promising some more snow for some of us on Wednesday and wet and windy for the rest of us.


I've just joined some friends in exploring the Bernina sewing machine feet and we've started with Foot number 7. Here is one of the many samples I've made, this has also given me a great deal of 'enjoyment'.


This is what my finished Egyptian piece for SerenTex looks like. We have all created our own versions using scraps of the same fabrics. I expect Mary who had the idea for this project and supplied the fabric bits will be cutting them all up before joining them together again in her own artful way.
I am pleased to say that she sold 16 works of art at her recent exhibition. Congratulations Mary!

My Purple Book

I'm doing a Photoshop Elements Workshop with DJ Pettitt called Memories and Manipulations and as I was looking for some quotes to use I found this one -
"All the other colours are just colours, but purple seems to have a soul. Purple is not just a noun and an adjective but also a verb - when you look at it, its looking back at you" Uniek Swain.

This reminded me of the design I once created with the intention of making a book cover in fabric and stitch. I can see it finished, but will it materialize one day? Who knows?

I also found this one which was especially written with me in mind.
"I do my work at the same time each day - the last minute." and this one "If it weren't for the last minute I would never get anything done."

Yesterday's photos

Thank you for all the lovely comments which I still have not replied to. I hope to get round to it soon.
I think I must have had a very steady hand when taking my photos yesterday and I'm very pleased with them, especially the boats which I took early yesterday morning.

Early Evening

Just a quick post this morning as I have so much to do whilst I'm in the mood.
The computers are all talking to each other and all working faster.

I've bought Photoshop Elements 8 and have joined a course given by JD Pettitt to encourage and help me to use it. It arrived yesterday and I'm just setting it up. In the meantime here are some photos I took of Conwy Castle around 5 o'clock last evening.

Today I'm hoping to tidy up some more in my workroom so I can work some more on the preparation of some courses I'm giving in February.


A closeup of the castle.

A happy and Creative New Year to you All

I think my enforced rest has done a lot of good as I'm full of energy if not yet ready run and climb. Like most people at this time of the year my thoughts turn to all I want to do during this year, I don't believe in making New Year Resolutions as I never keep them longer than a week. This year is the year for organizing myself and I have already started, quite accidentally.

My laptop crashed and I lost everything, but luckily I do save most things along the way and I now have a 1TB external drive! So I decided to reformat the laptop. Then came the second laptop that I take on holiday and lastly my PC in the workroom which had become too slow to bother with recently. This has taken me about 4 days, but it is worth the effort. I still need to sort out and tag 1000's of photos, getting rid of some I don't need. This can be done now and then when I have a few minutes.

In between I have been sorting out the kitchen finding the most convenient place for things. Never mind the kitchen has been like this for the last 20 years. I am going to have a new kitchen soon and I just wanted to try a few things out.

At the same time I've been in the workroom reorganizing up there, well this was started during last year, but left in a worse mess than when I started, but I'm really making progress there this time round.
So you can see what I mean when I say the rest was good for me?


This photo was taken around 5 o'clock this evening and doesn't it look cold?


The Conwy bridge with it's background of snow was taken this morning.


You just have to admire this gentleman who was out in the snow taking his 3 dogs for a walk. I only managed to take a photo of two dogs, the third was lagging behind.

I'd like to thank you all here and on Facebook for all your good wishes and let you all know that I'm on the mend, I'm not completely mobile yet, but it won't be long now hopefully.



This is the digital Christmas card I made this year to wish you all a very happy holiday wherever you are.

As usual my wish is for peace in this huge Global Village of ours. I have friends that I have never met all over the world and I have no idea what their religious beliefs are and I don't really care. People are People wherever they are and amongst us are a small number who upset and spoil things for everyone else. I wish these people would see the folly of their ways so that there will less suffering and unhappiness all around us.

View

I'm very sorry I couldn't let you know that I've had to stop blogging for a very short time, but I hope to add a few posts when I'm up to it.

This is not a moan. You can see what a lovely view I have from my bed to cheer me up. I just have a recurring back problem after an accident 40 years ago which surfaces now and then and unfortunately it's happened now. Not very good timing perhaps, but I'm going to catch up on some reading and knitting which I can still do lying on my back here. Sitting is rather painful for me just now.

I do hope to be able to drop in for a short time here and there.

Thank you all for being such faithful and kind followers all this time. I have just noticed that I have nearly reached my 200,000th pageloads and I nearly missed it. As soon as I able to go up my loft ladder and into my workroom I will be making a load of postcard to send to some of you.

Books

Tonight I have been surrounded by books as I start on the major job on indexing all my library books. I have only done one small shelf and find I have 61 books done. I think the results will be surprising.

I'm using LibraryThing which was recommended by Gill Thomas of An Elegant Sufficiency

I have also sent away to NEHOC Direct in Australia for extra lamps and screens for my Gocco Printer which I bought some time ago from Liz Plummer of Dreaming Spirals and still have not used. Now I'm looking forward to trying it out. My designs have been ready to use for a long time.

Christmas Lunch

The postman brought me a lovely surprise first thing in the morning. A postcard from Carol T. I had completely forgotten she owed me one from a swap on Alphabet postcards and this arrives. The letter O. It's just beautiful and a lot of time has been spent hand stitching this card, so it feels very personal. Diolch Carol (thanks) We both have Welsh as our first language!


This is me on the left with my friend Carol. Can you tell I am very satisfied after a meal of Melon with Strawberry Sorbet, Nut Roast and finished off with Sticky Toffee Pudding.
To read more about the Christmas lunch and the Speaker Norma Walmsley, who was a Governess to Royalty, visit Croesew.


I thought you would be interested in seeing who won the Wild and Wacky competition. This is Anita on the left above with her friend Emma. As you see, we have many young participating members at the North Wales Embroiderers' Guild, which augurs well for the future.


This of course is the winning bag made from bread tags and can pullers.

Don't forget our exhibition at the Voirrey Embroidery Centre until January 8th 2010.

Exbibition at The Voirrey

The North Wales Embroiderers' Guild are exhibiting at The Voirrey Embroidery Centre until January 8th 2010. To see some of the work on display please visit C.



Here is a little taster. A beautiful work of art by Christine Jones.

Wild and Wacky

The North Wales Embroiderers' Guild's exhibition at The Voirrey opened yesterday and I had my first opportunity to see the work that had been entered for the Wild and Wacky competition. It was so difficult to get good photos with all the guests present and meeting friends and talking too much. Forgive me for the poor quality of some of these.


This is the article that won first prize and I think it's absolutely wonderful. It uses recycled bread tags and ring pulls. Congratulations Anita (Kumar). A well deserved win.


Here are most of the entries all together above and it really shows the high quality of the work.





These are some of the best photos I managed to take. But I particularly liked this one above myself.


And here is one last glance at my friend. She's enjoying her visit to The Voirrey very much, but I do hope she won't buy too much stuff otherwise she'll have to hire a Taxi to come home.

I will be putting more photos on the Croesew blog in the next few days I hope.

Mary Spence

This is the invitation to my friend Mary's solo exhibition 'Travel 'n' Bags' at Denbigh Library in North Wales. I was unable to go to the opening, but yesterday I made up for it by visiting the exhibition with plenty of time to enjoy browsing. I knew before-hand that it was going to be good as I have seen a lot of the work in progress and even own one of them! But I must tell you that I was not prepared for what I saw and it really took my breath away and brought tears to my eyes with it's beauty. Congratulations Mary! The work will be up until January 9th 2010 and I would highly recommend a visit if you can manage it.


The theme of the exhibition is based on the travelling Mary loves, particularly India and Asia and is the culmination of a whole year's work. She has used a lot of fabrics she’s collected in these places, plus her own dyed fabrics. The inspiration and starting point is the small collection of bags she bought as keepsakes from these countries and you will see them hanging to the left of this image.
The 4 pieces grouped together are a development of my own piece by Mary, a bag from Amsterdam and one of these is already sold. I was truly tempted to buy the other 3 to group with my own. By the way, there are already 11 pieces of work sold and another has a reserve sticker on it.


I love the way Mary works by creating detailed sketches of her subject, which she then simplifies by various means such as watercolours, collages or mono printing which she then converts to textile letting them develop without any preconceived idea of what the finished work will be like.

Mary is a member of SerenTex, the textile group I belong to and if you visit SerenTex (which I have neglected recently as I have missed 3 meetings) you will see more of her work here and there.

You will also find more of her work on each one of these below.
Textile Art
SerenTex AGM
Mary's Art
Lucky me!
Plas Tan y Bwlch 2

Hallo

It's taken me a little while to recover from my holiday flu and I haven't been in the mood to post anything on my blog. But suddenly today I have felt like posting some of my holiday photos.


These circles were on top of a hotel and I could not resist taking a photo.


This is a picture hanging in our hotel room and I only just noticed the circles!



The images above show circles on the promenade where once a tree stood.

I'm back!

I have just returned from a short holiday in Tenerife.

This was not the best of holidays for me and we faced problems from the beginning. It had to be cancelled and the alternative we were given meant I was missing the Embroiderers' Guild Biennial Exhibition of all things. This did not put me in the best of moods as you can imagine.

The flight was very disappointing, the seats uncomfortable with no leg room. My tray sloped and I spilt my orange juice into my food and my roll popped out of the bag and disappeared under someone's seat. I'm sure you are beginning to get the picture?

We duly arrived safely and the weather was perfect for the whole 2 weeks if a little too hot. The hotel was perfect and the food wonderful, but... I had picked up a heavy cold on the way over, it was so bad it could even have been the flu and lasted a week. Then, in the meantime I was eaten alive by mosquitoes which doesn't usually happen to me in Tenerife.

After that little moan there were parts of the holiday I thoroughly enjoyed and I still took loads of photos and read quite a few books and relaxed. The flight home was much better, but this holiday ended as it began by having a frightening landing. We were almost touching the ground when the engines revved up and up we climbed back into the clouds. I understand this was another plane that was too close for comfort.


After all this I have been suffering from post-holiday blues and was even sorry I had booked an Embroiderers' Guild course making book covers with Miriam Forder and almost cancelled it. I warned my husband that I might be home after lunch. But it would have been a mistake to cancel and after half an hour, the 'blues' had gone and I am now back to my usual cheery self you will be pleased to hear and shall moan no more.

Please visit Croesew for details and photos of the course which was wonderful as we have come to expect from Miriam.