sewing, sewing gone

Is this a bag?  or what?
I thought I would have a go at Ineke Berlins famous denim jeans bag, doesn't look very big in the book,
in real life- its enormous, I once made a loose cover for a large sofa, and this felt like a similar project, but its a wonderful, gigantic, mahoosive [yeah- new hip word- means quite large], the pattern comes from the book- The Quilted Object, excellent book.

Yes, the children are missing one or two pairs of jeans.

really enjoyed making this monster- just got the binding to finish, oh and its got secret pockets inside too.

Remember my silly book? some of my good friends have completed a page for me. this is Julies- tiny little hand dyed pieces of velvet, lovingly stitched over- it really  is exquisite.

And this is Wendy's-absolutely lovely, those little blue stars are tiny and have teeny tiny glass beads in them.



And look at this tiny pocket of stardust- guess what the song is....



what a beauty this is -thank you Jane

the detail in this is amazing.

I am very lucky to have such talented friends, thank you all.

and finally- this is the beginning of the cover of the silly book, hopefully it will improve.....
 

Il be off now, need to finish the bag ,must blog more often...

SNOWFLAKES

 



 
Hello again ,back from the  interesting intermission known as the school holidays. aaaaggghhhhhhhh.......sob...
Anyway,I read an article the other day in my  i newspaper by Ellen Jones, it was about being the person you cant help being, and it struck a chord in me, made me think about all the amazingly weird, wonderful, inspiring, crazy, thought full, muse driven bloggers that I feel like I know. We are all loosely in the same tribe, but all  individual,
I am always telling my kids that we are all snowflakes, all different, they are always telling me that I am a flaky hippy, same thing really.
Ellen Jones said ;I assert my right to wave my freak flag to the beat of my own drum, like the special snowflake I am.
A special snowflake---I like that.....
 anyway on to the important stuff, 



Remember the pillow case, that was painted?
the one that wanted to be a collaborative book?
well its coming along, it was going to have poems about the sun, moon and stars, on the pages, but I couldn't find much that I liked ....
and on its first night this song haunted me all night-
 Good morning star shine, the Earth says hello....
aaaahhh-- all night,
 and its been like this for the past two weeks



I'm being followed by a moon shadow.........

I m wishing on a star......

when the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie.......

don't blame it on the sunshine, don't blame it on the moonlight........

You are the sunshine of my life....

Ziggy played guitar, with screwed up eyes and screwed down hairdo, like some cat from japan.........

Theres a star man waiting in the sky, he'd like to come and meet us, but he thinks he'd blow our minds,,,,,

you see, now you are haunted too,
 I actually need 16 songs, so any suggestions are welcome




And finally, look at this thread, absolutely beautiful,well done, Laura Wasilowski for making lovely hand dyed thread, and Frankie, for getting it for me...night night,,,,






 

doesnt time fly...



Doesn't time fly when you have a stinkerooney of a cold.
 phew, glad that's finally left me and I can get back to the serious business of stitching
- HURRAH!! 
remember the porridge bag pages ? I v made the first signature. the marigolds are traced onto abaca paper and coloured with ink tense pencils





Finally started the pages for my beach life book, I need 17 pages , 6 ins square, I'm fairly slow at these things, it will grow at its own pace.



Its a slow stitchy, painty sort of book........

apropos of nothing---
came across this nice pillowcase in a charity shop, for only 45p !!!!
 anyway, it looks like a book to me, in fact it looks like a collaborative book to me,
collaborative is when someone[ me] starts a book, and then makes all their friends add a bit[ a big bit hopefully]

this results in an interesting cloth book- with not too much work, an
interesting theory.. keep watching.......





sloshed a bit of acrylic over it, see how it dries tomorrow.
 takes my mind of the mountain of ironing lurking in the cupboard, and the dogs toenails need cutting, that or they've taken up tap dancing
,haircuts and baths also required, oh I'm going to smell lovely...... 

 Oh joy--- there goes the captions and the photos again, isnt blogger fun.......

feeling a bit stupid

yes, I am definitely feeling a little daft, These are the blueberry muffins my kids rustled up for themselves- as mentioned on last post, but the photo mysteriously disappeared from it......

And this is Julies hat- also disappeared from last post

.
And this is Yvonne brown a very kind textile artist who just spent two whole days teaching some fen ladies to create texture and surfaces,
We had a brilliant time and I couldn't wait to nip home and steal Mr shed mans soldering iron  and some emulsion paint.



We had a lot of fun playing with xpandaprint and some screens, and we made lots of textile papers too, all very painty and sticky and huge fun!We enjoyed ourselves hugely and learned a lot,  thank you Yvonne... 





texture- waiting to be painted and stitched.



scrim paper 
xpandaprint lace

wall texture, gagging to be painted and STITCHED A LOT!!!!!

Remember the porridge bag?
now the paints dry, so Iv ironed the wrinkles out and the pages feel a bit soft and fragile.
so I have  painted all pages on one side with a half and half pva solution and laid each page on a waxedd cereal packet, completely non stick and quite firm, I stack them up and put a weight on top, don't know if I'm doing this right, playing it by ear, maybe I should have painted and pvad before I cut the pages upkeep watching and we will see how it goes, now I must go and stitch something as I am getting withdrawal symptoms...

 short prayer- please blogger- behave yourself.......

feeling very stitchy.

Been feeling incredibly stitchy this week, don't know why, maybe theres a full moon coming, but anyway
I needed a cover for my tea book, so, I popped a piece of old sheet into a jug of tea, added some bits of lace and stuff and after drying, began to stitch.




 

Its starting to get quite textured, trouble is I never know when to stop, probably when I get bored, who said less is more?, rubbish, only more is more..



Other sewing, oh yes. let the smallest of the tall people read my zakka book and she set to work and made the bookmark, turning the trunk through was a bit fiddly, but isn't it nice.



On Saturday we had a really lovely time at cottenham at the textiles thingy,we saw many friends, drank a lot of tea with friends, met some bloggie friends, [hiya Pam,] and spent all morning with Lynda monk in a workshop where we foiled, painted, and burned. It was brilliant and Lynda is a very generous person, we left with a selection of samples to make book covers, a free CD and a thermofax screen, Lynda is truly a very talented woman, on top of this the fen edge exhibition was amazing, best thing I think Iv ever seen, these artists must have worked really hard to produce work of that standard -wonderful.
After this and more tea we spent some time with Sharon Osborne who very kindly explained
 how to make altered books.
just when things couldn't get any better I found both of Francis Pickerings books on art van go.    on---------yes
bookmaking,!
 Thank you to all my friends for a  
 really enjoyable day,,



this morning I opened a new bag of porridge oats- what a lovely bag,
thick nice heavy paper. nice printing - I felt a book coming on, Wendy says if you find something that gives you an idea do it quick, don't store it away, so



tore it into page sized bits



started painting.....



Iv added some calico and scrim pages, more paint and off to the airing cupboard for a short end of winter nap....
AND FINALLY. the  kids, realising they may starve to death before mum puts the paintbrush down, set to and made themselves a plate of blueberry muffins,
at last! I may have cracked it.......


nice hat jules.....






 

HELLOHS AND GOODBYES.



Hello 
 for the last time this year.
  A  year full of hellos and goodbyes.
take a look at this quilt, its a special quilt, it was pieced by a lovely bubbly lady called Jill.
she died earlier this year, and her very best friend Frankie finished the top and gave it to me for my family,I passed it to Trudi- who did a really beautiful job of the quilting on it.







And now its come back, to grace my children's Christmas table.

this quilt has 4 quilting ladies stitched into it- a special happy quilt.
Thankyou to you all.


So, new years almost here, and its time for new resolutions, I notice the older I get, the sillier I get

- good I like silly,

so more silliness

less ironing- definitely less ironing

more sewing with friends,

keep learning more stitch's and stitching

and keep passing on what I learn

,one more

this year- remember to post the Christmas cards.






you may have noticed I am fond of shopping,
 just before crimbo I went to shopping heaven-- that's Morocco to ordinary people and I intend to bore everyone with images of this marvellous place for months and months

            AAAHHHH----SHOES.....




the first thing you notice about Morocco is its pinkness
, the entire city is the most beautiful pink colour, like a giant rose- lovely



And lastly, look at this angel, isn't she beautiful, I am so proud of this, I didn't make it, one of my daughters did,she couldn't fight it any longer and the stitching that I infested her with when she was very small festered under her skin and in her heart and eventually it has burst out of her in a fountain of gorgeousness,
over the year she has acquired from me, threads scissors, calico and now she has BORROWED  my singer featherlight, oh I am so proud....
so a happy and productive new year to you all, prepare to be bored with lots of silliness and shopping, bit of stitching too probably....