Friday 29 September 2017

Venezia

Or Venice as we call it.  I hope you won't mind there's a Venice post today and yet another one to come.

When I was doing my City & Guilds Creative Embroidery I made a wall hanging based on Venetian architecture.

It's been in the cupboard for quite a while and recently I cut it up!

The Traverse ladies got together recently and they helped me put the pieces in order and then I tacked them together to see if they would stand up on their own.   And they did!

So now I just have to take it apart again and machine the cut edges and sew it all back together again.

In a previous post I talked about these squares.

I decided to put each of them on to a square canvas.  I've done 3 of the so far. 

I'm really pleased with them.  Only 6 more to do.

Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice

Monday 25 September 2017

Artists Book

In August I told you about the workshop I went on with Steph Redfern where I started the pages of an Artist's Book.

I have since worked on the pages sticking some more bits on and getting them ready to stitch.

This is a new set of pages since my original post.

These might be put side by side the other way round!


This is the new back page.

And here I have started to stitch and put random beads.

I'm looking forward to finishing this.

Thanks for stopping by
Bernice
 

Monday 18 September 2017

Pathways

When I was at the the NEC in July I bought some rusted fabric from Bex Raven.   I tore some of it up into 7 inch squares.

I also tore up 7 inch calico squares and for the backing some Tim Holtz fabric I had bought in Oregon.  I tore up some six inch squares of calico as well.  I put the rusted fabric onto the 7" calico with the 6" square sandwiched in between.

Here are some of the squares tacked together ready to stitch.



I used back stitch, running stitch, straight stitch and French Knots on the squares.  I used the rusted patterns to direct where the stitching went.  I also wrote a Bible verse on each square that was relevant to the theme of Pathways.  (Sorry it's not a very good photo)

When I had finished all of the squares I folded the calico over and attached the Tim Holtz fabric on the back by using running stitch around the square.

And here are all the squares together waiting to be attached to each other and the pole the hanging will hang from.

Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice


Monday 11 September 2017

National Michaelmas Daisy Collection

Last week we went to Ledbury because I wanted to see a textile exhibition by Textile Alumnae called Paths.  It's part of H.art - Herefordshire Art Week which is on this week.

On our way we visited the National Collection of Michaelmas Daisies at The Picton Garden.  We had visited the collection before but possibly 20 years ago and we don't remember the garden at all.  It was beautiful and we were there at just the right time.  Here are my photos.



















I love Michaelmas Daisies but as you can see those weren't the things that particularly caught my eye.  It was enough to walk amongst the daisies some of which were shoulder high.

Thanks for stopping by,
Bernice






Friday 8 September 2017

Make a Trifold Card

I quite often do photo descriptions on here of how I made something.  But here's a first for my blog - a video tutorial on how to make a tri-fold card.

It was originally made for an online class called God's Aviary for His Kingdom Come - an online Christian Creative community.  The theme of my card is Eagles but you could make one with any theme.

You can download the PDF instuctions here.



If you decide to make a card like this please share a link to it below.

Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice


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Monday 4 September 2017

More on Venice

You may remember that I'm in a textile group called Traverse and we are working towards our first exhibition: Destinations.

I was searching for something (can't remember what now!), when I came across these squares.   And as the inspiration for them is Venice I thought I might be able to use them for our exhibition.

I can't believe it's over 12 months since I posted about this fabric I had printed and was initially going to make into a book.  But by this post it was going to be a hanging.

So now I've started working on the squares again.  I had already added some stitching.  The black bit on the bottom left hand square is rather too heavy and some of the squares still needed some added bits and some more stitching.

With the added extras and stitching

A close-up of some of the stitching

Pinned ready for some machine quilting.

I tried the machining and it looked dreadful so I unpicked it.  I auditioned the squares on several pieces of background fabric and decided on this.

But then what to do?

The possibilities are:
  • Cutting up the background fabric into strips and piecing it to the squares.
  • Sewing the squares to the background fabric either by hand or machine.
  • Sewing the squares to the background fabric with some wadding between the square and the background. either by hand or machine.
  • Adding wadding and a backing fabric and machine quilting based on one of the above.
  • Using deep stretched canvases and putting each square of fabric on as a tile.
Thinking time!

Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice

Friday 1 September 2017

Bucket Listing

I've been watching repeat editions of A Place in the Sun: Home or Away and several have included people who wanted to add more excitement to their lives.  And on an episode of Bargain Hunt there was a woman who had 60 things to do before 60 list - one of which was appearing on telelvision.

Which got me thinking!  Ok I know - I'm always thinking!  How could my life be more fun and exciting?   And I started researching Bucket Lists on Google.   Most lists seem to include a vast amount of money being spent on travel.

And then I remembered this list.

My second blog post ever was a list of 100 things to do in life.  I had done 30 of the things.  Since then I can add:
40. Seen Michelangelo's David
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
57. Started a business
68. Flown in a helicopter
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
73. Stood in Times Square
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House - does standing outside the railings count?
95. Seen the Alamo in person


I discovered this blog post as well which featured lists.  Well, didn't feature lists but the thought of lists.  In fact at my 60th birthday party I gave everyone post it notes and asked them to suggest things I could put on a bucket list.  I seem to remember it wasn't the most successful idea! I seem to remember they didn't take it very seriously and came up with some distinctly daft ideas.  I threw them in the bin!

So I was thinking about making a list of 70 things to do before I'm 70.  Two years to do 70 things.  That should be feasible.  110 weeks.


However making the list is proving really hard.  I don't want to do the bungee jumping, sky diving, zip lining stuff.   And when I looked at all these lists on Google I realised I have had a much more exciting life than I give it credit.  And it's been a really privileged life.

I toyed with the idea of listing here everything that I had done, but felt it was rather boastful.  Suffice to say, I have been to a lot of places and done a lot of things.  What I've realised is that I do the things, place a tick in a virtual box (inside my head) and then move on to planning the next thing.  So I'm going to spend some time writing down the list of amazing and exciting things I've done.

And during all the adventures that come my way in the next 2 years and beyond I am going to spend more time appreciating just how fortunate I am.

Have you got a bucket list?

Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice