Unfinished work

This is one of my many UFO's. It was started at Plas Tan y Bwlch on a course taken with Jill Nicholls. It was inspired by a wall made from blue slate with moss in between each one with these little plants growing here and there. This is a section of a three paneled folder.
The intention was to line the folder with this quilted lining. It was not very successful as the whole folder became too thick and heavy, so I will now make two folders out of the work. I was going to make small samples of various things that interest me at The Plas, using walks in the woods and gardens for inspiration and the folder was to be a container to hold the sketches and stitched samples.

This is dyed calico with screen printing and the motif is one that is often seen carved into the woodwork and stone of the building. I'm not sure if this can be salvaged and used in some way. I have many such pieces unfinished, but don't hold your breath.

Here is another using the same motif.

Sculpture at Beaulie

It was my birthday today and I have had a brand new computer which I set up this evening, so this is just a very short posting tonight.
I took these photos a while back whilst on holiday in Devon in the South of England. The two top ones were taken at Beaulie, a stately home and the other at a little village with a very interesting art gallery. I will try to find the details, I know I have them somewhere. I thought someone might find them interesting.

Red Challenge

For the photo challenge I chose to photograph my poinsettia and I have now used PSP9 to change the image. When I play with my images it is always with textiles and stitching in mind.



I used kaleidoscope and then cropped a part of it I thought I could use.




It was then Distorted using Wave.
Then it was finally enameled. All these can be found in the Effects menu.

I accepted this challenge mid February, but unfortunately I have lost the details of the challenge. If anyone else happens to visit and is taking part in the same challenge can you please contact me about it?

I am slowly sorting myself out at the moment. I have so many wonderful blogs to read and so many things I want to do, my computer has become very untidy. I am now in the process of tidying up my Bloglines into groups using the new Folder facility in Edit. That should help a bit. The images are also being sorted out and saved in my new hard drive. Eventually, I hope this is going to save loads of time and give me more time to create.

Spiral Embroidered Panel

Here are some closeups of my Spiral Embroidered Panel as promised Mamarox. I took it out of the frame as there were too many reflections, but it was no problem and can be returned to it's frame quite easily.Again this was inspired by the Cannes wrought iron gate and designed using Corel Photopaint this time. There is no print transfer involved in this one. I used two stretchy velvet pieces of fabric, one in black, the other off-white. I used transfer paints to colour the white piece in peach and pale blue colours. I digitized the spirals in the Artista Software individually and as the finished piece is about 14"x21" they had to be stitched in sections and then joined together. They were then overstitched with free machining to bring it all together, there is quite a lot of free stitching in it and the off white velvet blended in well with the black eventually.

Skeleton leaves and rust

I found one skeletonised holly leaf and used it to create a design by changing the size of the leaf and rotating and reversing it a few times. I used it for my Christmas card a couple of years ago.



This photo was taken years ago, but I know a few of my friends enjoy a bit of rust as much as I do, so I thought they would appreciate this anchor.

Did I mention I bought a new 80 GB External Hard Drive yesterday? I can't believe how useful it is and what a time saver it is going to be. I have over 15 GB of images saved on it already and I have loads more CD's to copy. They are so easy to access and can even be seen as a slideshow because I downloaded My Pictures Windows XP so it works exactly the same as my laptop Hard Drive.

Spirals again

I stitched this panel a few years ago, again using the Wrought Iron spirals I photographed on holiday in Cannes as the inspiration.














I remembered this photo I had taken of the Conwy estuary late one evening that had similar colours.

Pink Sanstone

As I was sorting out my photos today I came across some photos I took in Chester a few years ago. The sandstone used in some of the old buildings there is a beautiful colour.


I think it had been raining before I took these photos.

Skeleton leaves

Like Liz of Dreaming spirals I also love skeleton leaves and find them so beautiful. When I'm walking along footpaths I'm always on the lookout for them. The best way to preserve them has to be by scanning or taking a photo. One year I made all my Christmas card using the one skeleton holly leaf I found.

My photo cataloging is almost nonexistent and I can't find anything when I want it. I have thousands of images on discs and in my computers and I can remember things I could use but can never find them without wasting hours. So yesterday I decided enough was enough and I have started on this major job which is going to take me a long time I'm afraid. Just now I can't find my old Christmas card image!


Here are some skeleton leaves I found last year. I have played with them this evening in PSP9. I used them as a displacement map.

Spiral Page

I promised that I would try to describe how I made my Spiral Page.
It was inspired by Wrought Iron that I photographed while on holiday in Cannes.
I started by creating a background of black polycotton with a sheet of Nappy Liner (diaper) painted with thick acrylic paints in pink, blue and white, to emulate the peeling paint on some of the doors. This was covered with a sheet of greaseproof paper and ironed on with a very, very hot iron. It was an experiment which worked very well.

I digitized the spirals very roughly, I don't like them to be perfect and I stitched them onto the background with my Artista 180e. I then used another digitized spiral, this time using satin stitch on black net so they looked like cords. I cut the net close to the edges and used a soldering iron to neaten the edges. This was very fragile and tended to break into bits.

I cut slits in the stitched background and wove the satin stitched spiral in and out through them. I finished by stitching here and there to secure.

This wrought iron gate with the letter M inspired the notebook cover. This was dyed and screenprinted with gold fabric medium. It also has some hand stitiching which does not show up.

The cycle path

This is a special post for my friend Pearl who used to be a neighbour. She moved back to Canada recently and she probably misses the view that she loved so much. She is still very interested in what is going on here. I know your brother sends you lots of emails and photos, but this is a special one of the new cycle path.




I went for a walk on Sunday to the Marina to see what the path is like, so here is a photo. We have had four JCB's working in the front here all day and they have carried tons of rock and slate waste which is now gradually being used. But still the lorries come with more.

I hope you will be able to see this soon Pearl. Love, Margaret.

Wrought Iron spirals

It seems my friend Liz of Dreaming Spirals and I like the same things. We both love Wrought Iron and Spirals to start with.



Here is the Wrought Iron that was the inspiration for the page I stitched for my friend Toni Valentine of Toni Valentine of Artista digital embroidery designs for her RR book called Interplay.

The same one was the inspiration for my Vessels for the Embroiderer's Guild exhibition. It's a photo I took in Cannes in France a few years ago. Wherever I go I take photos of Wrought Iron.

Flower play

I mentioned last night that my friends all seemed to be using flowers on their blogs.
Sara in Sweden and Nadine in Canada will have to wait for the snow to clear before they have flowers, so here are some cyclamens I have been playing with in Corel Photopaint and PSP9 to cheer them up.

A lighted castle and a red sky at night

This is what Conwy Castle looks like at night. I have taken so many photos of it at night over the years and they are never worth showing, this one is not perfect, but is the best I have ever managed to take and it still does not do justice to it.



Here is a photo of tonight's sunset. We have had many spectacular sunsets recently and this is the best yet. I hope you enjoy it.

HMS Pickle going out to sea

As I posted here HMS Pickle is now based in Conwy, North Wales and I am fortunate enough to see her leaving port each time she goes out. This gives me quite a thrill. We have had quite a few tall ships here over the years and it takes one back to a time when all these old ships sailed up the estuary regularly. It must have been quite a memorable sight.

This is a photo I took this morning.

Flowers

A group of friends have joined together to form Loose Ends and this week maybe because we long for the Spring we seem to be very flowery.
I was given this dainty little cyclamen by a friend last week, but I haven't yet had time to play with the image as the others have done. Have a look at some of the lovely images on their blogs.

A purple page in the making

(Click on these images as usual to see the larger image)





Here are some images I played with when trying to design a purple page. I used Scribbler for some of them.
I went to Chester today with my sister-in-law and I'm rather tired, so I will just post these images for you.




This evening's sunset. The texture on the mudbank was worth seeing.

Printing on fabric

Here is some wrought iron I found yesterday. I think it's very unusual. I don't know how old it is, but it is quite rusty. There are many opporunities to photograph WI in the Victorian town of Llandudno just a few miles away. I love wrought iron and have used it a lot in my work.

It's been a strange sort of day for me. Early this morning I did some shopping. Then I had another go at printing on fabric. I have been advised that even though I have Durabright inks in my Epson D88 it's still a good idea to use Bubble Jet for the last rinse as it will give brighter images. I have also used Comfort, a fabric softener on some fabric as this is also supposed to help get brighter images.

They both worked well and I'm very pleased with the results. My last attempts with the new printer were so disappointing and drab and the inks finished so quickly. This could have been because the printer itself needed a lot of ink to set itself up. I have replaced one cartridge and I have not noticed it going down at all. Good news for me. The inks are expensive. There again I was very lucky and was able to buy two lots of cartridges in Staples for the price of one.

Lucky find

I love going to Chester. I go round the bookshops, charity shops, craft shops and my sewing machine dealer. When it's warmer I take photos, the sandstone used in the old buildings is a lovely pink and I took my camera as usual but it was far too cold today. I do have a lot of photos already, but I will post them some other time.

Now on to my lucky find. I always call at Oxfam and have a look at the scarves and books. Today I found a beautiful pure silk scarf in perfect colours to start a project using the image on the right here blue-green image








On the way home we stopped at the house of my husband's nephew where I noticed this door latch. My sister-in-law had saved it from the family home when they had a new door put in. My husband says he remembers being able to reach it to open the door himself for the first time and I thought I definitely wanted a photo of it. It's not very good and hopefully I can take a better one on my next visit.






I was checking my Bloglines this morning and Amy Cullings of Cachibachis had a link to this lovely Sketchbook. Ruth McNally Barshaw :: ruthexpress.com/sketchbook.html

Textile group meeting

I took this photo on Saturday morning as I waited for my car to be serviced. It looks rather like a negative image, but the edges of the leaves looked as if they had been dipped in caster sugar. They were really beautiful.

I had a very enjoyable afternoon in the company of like minded people.

My friends were not sure what I was talking about when I asked them if they would be interested in having a group blog for our Serendipity Textile Group and I'm afraid most of them had never heard the word blog. But we have decide to start a blog and I offered to take charge of it. We are also going to change the name of the group, we will now be called SerenTex. As it happens, 'seren' is the Welsh word for star, so we are hoping to be Textile Stars!

Crazy quilt progress

This is how far I have got with my first crazy quilt block. I'm enjoying it as a very useful pick up and put down project. I don't have to stitch like mad, just do a little when I fancy.



I mentioned before that I have many houseplants. These two are old friends, but I'm ashamed to say I don't know their names. The one on the right was given to me by a friend of my mother's on my 13th birthday and that is a very long time ago. It has gone everywhere with me, these plants of course are the babies of the original. The parent plants got too big and heavy and had to be thrown away over the years and it really hurts to do that as I can't bear to throw out the cuttings when I'm tidying them up. I re-pot them and pass on to friends.

The plant on the left was given to me a week after my marriage by the lady who lived next door to my new home.



I have used these plants to create these two. I used PSP9 again this time.