Digital Art

As I have been so busy stitching, knitting and playing with my embellisher i haven't been doing much Digital Art recently, so I have been having fun tonight and here is the result. I wonder what I could use it for?

Exciting post delivery

This is the cover I made for my book page swap for my Fiberart Friends group. We have a new partner once a month and swap a page. By the end we should have a book full of textile art.


Here is the page I received this morning from Carol of Textile Tales for my book, my specification was anything curvy(as in Wrought Iron perhaps)with a black backround and using the colour range of red, orange, yellows. I love this one, my first page.
Carol also sent me a Charm and the group who are swapping these is the Surface Design group and not Fiberart Friends as I said yesterday. I am on so many swaps I have confused myself.


The postman brought me another surprise, a Birthday postcard from Anna Nowicki of SERENDIPITY. My birthday is in February, but Anna made sure it arrived on time. It is not a very good image as it is a little shiny and the flash affected it. I will take another to replace it during the day.

When I saw Beverley's teddies on Scraps of Bev.... I thought maybe someone would like to see my little family of teddies. The little one in the front is called Will, short for Willpower and another is called Percy short for Perseverance. Both these were supposed to help me to lose weight and I once took them on holiday so I would not be tempted to eat too much and gain weight.

I feel very virtuous as I have tidied up the mess I seem to collect around myself in the lounge. I had a pile of 'You' magazines that give me a great deal of pleasure every Sunday. They come with the Mail on Sunday and instead of throwing them out, I have them in a pile because there is an interesting article, a recipe or a design idea that I want. The intention is to cut these out and save them. Today, it only took an hour to sort them out and they are now ready to take to the recycling centre. The house is clean and tidy and the ironing finished and I can carry on with my hobbies without guilt.


this afternoon I finished 8 Postcards, 5 will be sent to the people who commented on my blog recently as promised.


These are Charms I'm making for my Fiber Art Friends group, I need 25 to swap, but I think I shall probably be making far more than that, these little pieces are addictive.

Embellisher, play and challenge

There are two challenges in this post, but they have both been fun to make.
Take a Stitch Tuesday is a challenge set by Sharon B of In a Minute Ago. The challenge stitch was Cretan stitch and I have used a piece of fabric created with the embellisher. I have used the stitch very freely. The colours are also something that I would never normally use, so that added to the challenge. It's just a doodle, but I wish I didn't see these faces everywhere, because this one is definitely a clown sticking out his tongue!



The second challenge is for the Yahoo group Needlefelt Challenge, which is run by Myfanwy Hart of Nuvo Felt. The challenge was 'Emerald', I'm afraid I'm a little behind wih the challenges as the next one is already set for this week - Spice.

Red

This week's challenge for Illustration Friday is 'Red'. so I went to have a look in my folders to see if I could find something suitable and was surprised to find how fond I am of red. There are more red images on DG's Photos and Digital Art

A good day - Part 2

(click for a larger image)
I decided to trawl the charity shops this morning and here are the things I bought. A lovely skirt in silky material in the most fantasic bright colours and ideal to play with using my new embellisher. Two frames, a lovely little box with drawers, that will be re-covered and best of all, a book published in 1986 by Jean Littlejohn which is a treasure and only cost me £1.45.
I bought 2 magazines at my favourite newsagents, this month's Stitch and Workshop, both have plenty of interesting articles in them too. Then I bought a 'slash cutter' which I have fancied for a long time.





To crown it all a beautiful sunset and a silhouette of my favourite bird, the heron on the beach.

A good day-Part1

I'd like to share my pleasant day with you. Early this morning I opened the window and took a few photos because it was such a calm and beautiful day.


The morning sun was pink on the snowy mountains.


The journey to Chester was pleasant and the traffic was light. I noticed as we got nearer to the city that there were birds flying in lines like paths across the sky and I wondered what they were. we parked the car on the top of the high rise car park and I heard strange honking sounds and when I looked up there were dozens of wild geese flying above us in V formations. I grabbed for my bag and the camera, but by the time I had it ready, they had already passed overhead and it was such a missed photo opportunity. The above photo is all I managed to get.

Santes Dwynwen

Today is an important day here in Wales as it is the equivelent of Saint Valentines Day fo us. On January 25th we celebrate Saint Dwynwen's Day
Dwynwen is the Welsh Patron Saint of Lovers.

This was part of the work I did when designing a page for a book swap and is a photo of my grandmother with a double spooned love spoon. This love spoon was kept in a drawer at my Nain's and I loved it, but my mother threw it out not realising it's worth. Now it is only a fragment of my memory.

SerenTex

Here is a taster of what you will find on the SerenTex blog. There are 3 new posts for you tonight.

Needlefelt Challenge - Blue

I have just joined the Yahoo group Needlefelt Challenge, which is run by Myfanwy Hart of Nuvo Felt, who has just written a book on the embellisher. Myfanwy will set us all a weekly challenge, so encouraging us to try new things that we would not otherwise have experimented with.
The challenge this week is a 'Blue' sample. Now, I am not a blue person. My grand daughter who loves blue remarked on my choice of threads and fabric, asking me why I had no blues. Strange, I hadn't realised it until then.
Below is my work using blues. I had to buy a cheap ball of variegated blue tufted yarn for this experiment. I had to cut up an old pair of jeans as a base. I rolled about 8 strands of the yarn together and felted this by running it backwards and forwards under the needles. I curved the felted strip into a spiral on white felt and re-felted it all. I then used turquoise thread to stitch a wide satin automatic stitch along the blue spiral. Took it back to the embellisher and felted again. It gave me quite an interesting result.

My little embellisher dancer

I'm disappointed in this little dancer. I could see her, but she didn't turn out quite as I saw her. Better luck next time perhaps.

Mary Spence textile artist

We all spent the most wonderful evening at the Embroiderers Guild this evening.
Mary gave us a talk about her work and her visits to India and China and the textiles she studied there. She is a very talented artist working in textiles. I know Mary well by now, but had never realised until tonight what a wonderful artist she is. Seeing so many examples of her work together was a pleasure and her talk was humorous and very interesting. If anyone is looking for a speaker at their meetings, then I would recommend Mary.

TAST detached chain stitch

Here is my sample for the Take a Stitch Tuesday challenge this week.
This time I have used a satin transfer painted fabric, which is very difficult to photograph. I haven't quite finished it, but I would like to finish so I can eventually make a book with all the samples.

Ms T

When I arrived home today from my visit to town I had a lovely surprise because the postman had left me a packet from Sweden. My friend Sara had sent me a Postcard of her lovely Ms T on a trapeze and a wonderful ATC with a musical Ms T on it. Thank you Sara


If you would like to see more of these wonderful dolls go and see them here at MsT another of Sara's blogs. You will find even more here on Sara's website Sara Hansson - Textile Artist, Art Dolls



Sara Hansson - Textile Artist, Art Dolls

Textures

Interesting textures found in Betws y Coed, a local beauty spot on Sunday afternoon.


This was how the river looked after the storms.


This is a typical design found on some of the buildings here. It is a design chipped into the slate slabs used to build.


A tangle of branches.


The bark of a tree.

A cream page

This is the page I have just finished for a swap with the FAF group. Carol has chosen Just Creamy as her book subject. It was very difficult to photograph. I have never before designed anything just using cream, but I enjoyed the challenge. We are also experimenting with paper and fabric combined and I decided to use the combination when making this page.
The base is cream felt which was originally white. I did an online course with Maggie Grey and in one of the modules, Maggie suggested we could put white felt in the oven until it turned a lovely creamy colour. You have to watch it very carefully.
This felt turned a beautiful caramel colour.
The inspiration for the piece is Victorian. I stitched into scrunched up computer paper dyed with teabags. I blended this onto the felt using strips of cream organza and various strips of fabrics with the embellisher. I used two types of cream lace and embellished one edge only. I also used the embellisher fairly lightly along the centre of the strips of organza to make it more textured.
I stitched buttonlike beads in a row reminiscent of the Victorian love of tiny buttons on dresses and boots. Then I stitched a row of herringbone imitating the lacing of the corsts.

More embellisher fun

I don't know where this poor waif came from, she just landed on my table and I thought you'd like to see her.


This one is straight from a novel. She is walking over the moor well wrapped against the cold wind with all her belongings wrapped in a cloth over her shoulder.

Strange Weather

It was a beautiful day on Sunday. These photos were taken at Rhos on Sea. We walked along from Rhos on Sea to the pier in Colwyn Bay and we counted up to a hundred Mini cars passing one after the other. We found them very interesting as we both had Minis at one time. They all stopped to have coffee from their flasks on Rhos promenade and we chatted with some of them. They told us this was an annual one day rally and there were some enthusiasts from as far as the South of England. We were told that there were up to 300 cars there. They were so lucky to have such wonderful weather for it.






Shadows on the beach. There will be more photos on DG's Photos and Digital Art soon.

Embellisher fun

When I bought my Xpression Janome embellisher this is the last thing I thought I would be using it for, stitch drawings. I had been saving the bits of machine thread for ever and I had never used them. I was going to sandwich them between water soluble film and stitch into them one day. I scattered a few of these on a piece of white felt and embellished them. I could see the head, face and shoulders of a woman wearing a knitted hat, so I added a few more bits to make her cape. I hand stitched here and there for emphasis.


Below is the original.



Here is the Birthday card I made for Francois in Belgium. FAF members are all sending each other hand made cards on their birthdays. I used my embellisher to make this one. It's done on a white piece of felt and creamy strips of various fabrics, including lace. I like the look of the frilly ragged edges to give the piece a lot of texture. I made a little secret pocket in it and hid some charms inside. I was going to have 3, but they were too bulky, so now I have 2.
The card is on it's way to Belgium and I have warned Francoise not to look at Digital Gran until it arrives.

Memory Monday

Some of us on Fiber Art Friends are posting some old photos that we have on a Monday. I don't have all that many, but I found this one among my mother's possesions and have always believed it is a photo of my Nain(grandmother) and her sister. Nain is the one sitting down. She was a very tiny lady with coal black eyes. I love this photo and often use it for inspiration in my art.

Baby clothes

Here are the first size baby clothes I have just completed for the new baby expected during the next month or so. I have loads more wool waiting to be knitted every spare minute I can find.

A test for the imagination

Here is my first embellisher cartoon. I have just added a few straight stitching to accentuate what I thought I saw. The one in the mini skirt has a cigarette in a holder in her hand and the other one is probably her mother or her aunt. She might even be one of these 25 year olds I read about in my 'You' magazine on Sunday. The latest look for these young ones is 'Middle Aged Chic' or Mac as they call it! Lamb dressed as mutton. But no way can middle aged ladies go for this look of tweeds, twinset and pearls as it makes them look frumpish.

Holding hands

This is another one for Sara
One day we were talking about simplifying images, something I find rather difficult. When I draw someone, from habit I draw as closely as possible to what I see in front of me, including all the details I can. I would like to get out of this habit and Sara suggested I could get my grandchildren to draw for me.


Here is a photo my grandson Huw drew for me. It's Nain and Taid getting married and I just love it. Don't you?


I was playing with my Embellisher tonight using the ends of embroidery threads I had left over from my Blanket Stitch sample onto a white piece of felt I had used previously to practice some machine embroidered words. I placed the threads in between the words and this is the result. Now I'm sure most of you will not be able to see what I did. I can see two women chatting here in just the style Huw would have used. Can you see them? I am going to try and stitch a little here and there to accentuate the chatters, so watch this space.


Here is my finished Blanket Stitch sample for Take a stitch Tuesday Challenge. .