Textile Art

It will soon be 2006 and I have been thinking about my achievements during the year. For the first 9 or 10 months I was very unproductive, but the last 2 months have been better. I have articles that I promised more than 18 months ago still not written, two unfinished projects for my textile group and many other UFO's.

One achievement I am particularly proud of is being brave enough to start this blog which I intend to write in as often as possible during 2006. Sharing my successes and failures.

I belong to an Australian List called Designbytes, the owner of this list is a friend of mine called Toni Valentine and if it had not been for a Round Robin I have been involved in with this group I would have nothing worth showing textile wise this year. We design and stitch a page in each other's textile book once a month and the topic I chose for mine was Fragile Fragments. When the book comes back home it will have 16 wonderful pages by Australian Textile Artists and it is very exciting to receive a book of textiles to look at once a month.

The Embroiderer's Guild exhibition was an incentive to finish some projects and I will put some photos up during the next few days.

Here are 2 textile vessels that I designed on the computer and stitched with Free Machine Embroidery.

The snow seems to have passed us by and I am disappointed. As a child I was always made to feel guilty for enjoying the snow as it meant that the quarrymen would be unable to work for weeks, which meant no money coming in.

I was going to be creative today but as it was rather cold in my workroom I decided to be creative with the computer instead.

Having so many interests, I would like to be able to have different categories in my blog to put them in. I have no idea how to go about this, so I will have to spend time on The Internet trying to find out how to go about it.



The Three Graces

I count my blessings every day as I look at the view from our lounge window. It's a wonderful panorama that stretches from the Conwy Valley and the river above and below Conwy bridge, past Conwy Castle and the little walled town of Conwy. The tide in the estuary ebbs and flows encouraging flocks of birds to visit regularly.

We see Anglsey and a glimpse of Puffin island.

A short time ago we also had an uninterupted view of the sea and the horizon with the most fantastic sunsets during the Summer. Now they have built a second marina with a massive hotel which hides most of the horizon. Luckily we still have a wondeful panorama in spite of the two marinas.

Many houses that used to have almost the same view have lost it all. The local council ignored all pleas not to build and we all thought they were not allowed to build any higher than two stories, but most of the buildings are at least three storeys high.




Morning sun.



Some call the hill that slopes towards the sea 'The Sleeping Lady'. If you study the photo, her feet are towards the sea and her bust can be seen clearly! Others think it's a likeness of Lloyd George the Welshman who became Prime Minister. It took me a while to find these likenesses, but now I can see them clearly.

Today we took my sister-in-law shopping to Chester and with hindsite it would have been better to stay home as she uses a walking frame with wheels. Not the most sensible way of doing a round of the sales!

I had no time to take photos so looked up some I took during the year. i hope you will like them.



Sunset



Rays



Red sky in the morning sailor's warning



A misty evening in Conwy, North Wales.

I had a wonderful day yesterday visiting my two sons and their families. Today it's back to reality when I had to cook my own turkey and prepare the Boxing Day meal.
It has been a long time since I cooked Christmas lunch for the family as we have been invited to spend the day with one or other son for the last ten years. Living in a flat(appartment)does not make it easy to have all the family around for a meal unfortunately and it's unfair to have to keep the children quiet so as not to disturb the neighbours. Anyway children like to be at home with their new toys on Christmas day.





Where is our Christmas lunch?

A cold misty christmas morning and I'm keeping my promise to myself by putting up a photo I took from my lounge window this morning.

It's Christmas Eve and there should have been some snow.
I remembered the photos I took in Tenerife in February this year when we went up mount Teidi. The ice on the bushes were like beautiful diamonds and so unexpected as it was very hot down in the little resort of Los Gigantes.
I nearly suffered from frostbite after taking these photos.



Diamonds





Even the spiders webs looked magical and I wish the photo did them justice.

Christmas Cards

I like these better than the first two
The candle and the holly were designed using The Scribbler and developed in PSP9.


Corel Draw is another favourite program of mine, I have Corel 10 but would love to upgrade to 12. I also use Photoshop Elements 3.

This is fun.
I think I've understood how to post my images now. The multiple images I find rather difficult.

I will have another go.

Here is a Christmas card that I designed in PSP9.
May I wish anyone who happens to visit my blog a very happy Christmas and a creative new year.

My first few words in my new Blog.
I promise myself that I will have something to post in it nearly every day.
I have many photos and images that I can use, plus the work that is in progress.

This is my first entry in my blog and I hope to use this space to stop myself from procrastinating. One of my hobbies is digital photography and I hope to post a lot of images.