Just for fun

As a change from running stitch on the kantha work I got my felt out for a play. These new wee flower badges are going on the Border Tart in the next few days. Each flower has a butterfly or a rabbit or even a hen and chicks in the middle. Badge fastenings on the backs.

As it is a rainy day here so no garden work, I have been dyeing some cottons ready for more kantha work (definitely hooked now). Also decided to add prints of Hugh's work to the Tart's Titchy Etsy shop so that needs attention too now. Probably need a lie down to think about all this.....

All creative types - please check out Urban Cowboy which Arty Farty has just posted about

Just a bit of nonsense

You know how it is, you look at someone's blog and they have downloaded one of these blogthings and you try it and then another one and before you know it, you are falling off your seat with laughter at the description of yourself that appears before you.... so go on, who should paint you?

***Who Should Paint You: Gustav Klimt***
Sensual and gorgeous, you would inspire an enchanting portrait..With just enough classic appeal to be hung in any museum!

What Artist Should Paint Your Portrait?http://www.blogthings.com/whatartistshouldpaintyourportraitquiz/

Stitchery

When the self doubt about my acrylics and mixed media creations gets out of hand, I have been retreating to an armchair with my stitchery. The pics here are of cotton fabric dyed and then stencilled with a lemon juice and flour paste which bleaches the colour from it. There are a couple of layers of muslin behind the cotton so that when I do the kantha work - basically masses and masses of parallel(ish) running stitch - the fabric pulls into ripples.

Ultimately I will embroider the shapes too, and maybe add mirrors, but it is very pleasing in its simple form here. The stencil shapes are ones that the embroidery tutor had made up based on stylised tree of life and elephant shapes seen in Indian textiles. Once I have finished these samples I have lots of ideas of my own to try out.

Next on the agenda, though, is to organise a small dyeing workshop using natural dyes from Pure Tinctoria. The colours are deliciously soft and they should result in some lovely yarns for us all to experiment with.

Too much stuff...

Too much stuff to do - need to paint, need to sew, need to market self better, need to keep on top of the garden, need to find space to store work, need to stop gathering 'junk' of one sort or another to restore/remake/renovate/re-invent, need to stop baking as a way of avoiding addressing any or all of the above....

Uncovered photograph albums in the attic last week - could not resist this lovely pic of my Dad and my big brother taken nearly half a century ago - how handsome my pa looked! (and how mortified my brother will be when I run this off for a card for his forthcoming major birthday...)

Spent two days on a great course at the end of April, learning Indian embroidery techniques. Theoretically I now know how to sew on shisha mirrors and I have definitely mastered my version of kantha work - I'll photograph the WIP to post here soon.