Come to the Fair

It was Jim's Mum's birthday today we went out for lunch then walked to the fair on the common.....and when we got back Jocelyn and Ruby planted some flowers we bought yesterday......Great day .....





Press play if you want to go faster ....

Self Portrait mural by Yr 9 Class

These were some of the self portraits done by my Yr 9 class last year for a mural we have hanging at school ..I showed them Susan Sorrell's work as an inspiration for the stitching. We also looked at Picasso portraits and pop art so that I tried to encourage them to use different colours and lots of stitches on their work. Lynn's post on Getting my Feet Wet this morning reminded me about these portraits ....They first drew themselves using mirrors then when they were happy with their portrait we photocopied the drawing and they painted it using heat transfer paint I then printed them onto fabric and away they went with the stitching......I was really pleased with the results as sometimes as you can imagine 14 yr old boys are not always the keenest stitchers !!! although secretly ! know they enjoy it.....x

Easter Binny Pigs

Sandy and Danny sporting the Lindt Bunny bell.........chocolate binny pigs are the way forward !!!........x

Mighty oak

Passed this Oak tree on our walk this morning ...(I took this using panoramic on my phone but I think I've repeated a bit of the tree and it's bigger than it should be ....never mind you get the picture anyhow ).I could get used to this holiday business......Jim took me for breakfast at a new Cafe thats opened in our local shopping precinct. Its called Asante which is Swahili for Thank you. Its run as a charity all proceeds go to building schools and paying for teachers in locations in Kenya.
While we were there the Cake Lady arrived with the day's confections .....Yum Yum .....I di have a piece of the most heavenly carrot cake ..........we walked there and back so it's ok ........x


This last photo was part of an art series which we found in an underpass........interesting collages.......x

Bees Buzzing about their Business

Went for a lovely walk today with the doggies passed a lovely cherry blossom tree ..it was covered in honey bees their legs overloaded with pollen ....on the video I hope you can hear the Buzzing it was amazing...and the smell was heavenly....(in between the cars anyhow) !!.....x

You will need the sound up after the first 6 secs ( cars passing during that time !)

I'm feeling Blue .....Not really !!

Yay my colour palette has changed from reds to blue it must be getting warmer.....perhaps I am the textile equivalent of the little weather houses where the little man or woman comes out depending if it's wet or dry.......x

Manure Farm

Yesterday we visited 'Manure' Farm , actually Manor Farm but Ruby mispronounced it and I think Manure farm is more apt and forever shall it be so....It was a beautiful spring day and I took lots of pics......... I'll share some with you .......Manure Farm is run like an olden day farm ....There is a farm house which is really charming and kitted out with original kitchenalia and baskets . It's set in the Victorian era. Next door is an old schoolroom full of the sorts of desk I had when I was at school( yikes am I an olden day school kid ??!!) blackboard complete with handwriting practice (How times have changed)and nature 'show and tell' table.I love Nature tables did you have one at school???Outside there are old fashioned games, metal hoops and hopscotch and skipping ropes ......... It's the time we are pleased that we are vegetarian especially when we saw the three little piggies.....We walked past the old forge and waggonner's workshop( should that be Cartwrights?) past the duck pond and into the old churchyard. The church is a really calm place to sit awhile. I love old church graveyards with lichen covered gravestones. Maybe there will be some of these colours in my next projects. The primroses were so pretty in the sunshine. All was well with the world.
Scroll right to end of post to play video of Jim skipping and Ruby singing a skipping song.....xx


To see Jim (beardless) skipping then press play...... filming and singing by Ruby.

It's growing on me .

Have been working on Tree of Life I THINK it's improving with the green I've added ...........Made a 'fabric' out of cut bits of wool and covered it in organza then cut out leaf shapes ....went over the writing with a lime green and added tendrils ....still missing something though .....If you have any ideas please feel free to comment .........x

Tree of Life

Think I may revisit this piece over Easter I think the embroidery needs to stand out more I haven't added any hand stitching to it yet either. Looking forward to using my new cleared space .....Ahem!!!.....I think Tree of life is a good symbol for new creative endeavours.
Just had Eureka moment as I uploaded that pic of Tree of Life there are no greens in it maybe thats what's missing ...and the written message isn't clear either It's helpful maybe to look at work in a different place....mmmmm ...back to drawing board...Watch this space..

Before and After...can you tell the difference ....

Just cleared a space in my workroom.....no mean feat I can tell you.... have broken up for the Easter hols ...YAY.....two weeks of serious stitching ....what could be better but I couldn't even see one table top when I have actually four tables in my workroom .....methinks I am at saturation point .......but can't BEAR to throw anything out.......I can't even throw bits off the floor in the bin coz I say ...oooh that could go in a layer......There really isn't any hope for me is there ....Is anyone else out there like me ??? please give me hope ...
Thought I'd include some pics of a piece of crazy patchwork I did a while ago.. (Once I tapped in Crazy patchwork into Google images and a picture of me came up ...don't know how that happened ......how bizarre is that ?) thought I'd include it as it feels spring like somehow.......it's great to hear the birds singing again ......although it's a bit cold at the mo .....Happy Easter....xx

I am so proud of my Yr 8 class.......

Thought I would share some great work that my Yr 8 class did today (12 yr olds boys and girls )I am doing a class ATC swap with an artist who teaches kids in her art studio, she is based in America. I decided to let my Yr 8 class have a go today and boy ! they did me proud. They are a mixed ability class so the whole range of art abilities but I think they did a great job .........What do you think ?
These are a few of my favourites done by 4 boys and 1 girl...........

Que Sera Sera whatever will be ..we're going to Wembley

I know I'm a Rugby girl (being Welsh and all) but when in Rome .....!!!We support Southampton football team The Saints and they have qualified for the final and are off to Wembley tomorrow and Jim and I are going too ...YAY ....we are on coach 65 out of 100 coaches going from the ground at some ungodly hour tomorrow morning........(and the clocks go forward tonight so we will miss an hour's sleep too)........44000 Saints fans making their pilgrimage to Wembley tomorrow......


C...O...Y....R.....(Come On You Reds)

Anyone want to swap ???

I have just made these ATCs just wondered if anyone wants to swap with me. I will be posting them on Flickr later on .......if you want to swap e mail me on artymess@yahoo.com......xx

Mermaids the Sea and more ATC s

We went down to the sea on Sunday to Western Shore on Solent water. i usually manage to collect more 'stuff' off the beach than I did..... but still came back with some interesting bits of wood and a great long piece of braided plastic. The best bit apart from the mobile phone keypad was the rose made out of wood.
The mermaid painted on my wall was done by my daughter Sophie years ago ....I have decorated the rest of the room but could never paint over this it's beautiful.
I started painting on bits of drift wood I did this voluptuous mermaid a while ago but after picking up interesting bits od driftwood on Sunday thought I might do some more .........if I can fit it in around my obsessive stitching !!!

A few more ATCs this time I've tried to stay on the cool side of the colour palette but I couldn't resist a smidgen of pink !!!.........xx