Who's sitting at my desk?????

On Sunday morning I needed to iron some items of clothing for me and my little man. The ironing board and iron are permenant fixtures in my sewing room. Cole is at that into every cupbaord and draw he can reach phase. Whilst I did the ironing, I sat him in the chair and tucked him under the table. Gave him some paper and pencils and he scribbled away to his hearts content. With our clothes for the day ironed, I went to get him down from the table. Not a good move, he was having a fine old time scribbling away. To stop the flowing tears i had to bring the paper and several pencils with us into the living room, where he then sat on the floor and scribbled whilst I tried to wash and dress him. I think its time I got the little man his own desk, some things just aren't ment for sharing.

Funky Birds:

Oh my I really shouldn't be allowed out! Whilst in Rennes Art shop yesterday, I spotted a little booklet of stickers called "Funky Birds". The booklet is no bigger than my hand and has about four pages covered in these funny little Funky Birds. I picked it up and began to laugh because the one on the front cover is hilarious. She has the most gorgeous funky high heel shoes on. Well you can imagine, I thought, oh my God thats me? Needless to say I bought the little book and on the way home, on the train, the little creative grey cells started working overtime. I could not wait to get in and get a Sketch book out as well as the water colour paints. Who cares if the washing basket is over flowing and there are dishes in the sink this was far more important, I mean it was almost like a life or death situation, I just had to get these ideas out my head onto paper. I am not going to tell you what they are for I am sure you will probably guess by looking at the photo but I assure you more will be revealed at a later date.

Sketching on :

One finished, one half done and one yet to be started, I am talking about the life drawings I am doing for college. This one, I did over the weekend, I felt I needed a break from the shirt and pearls drawing as it is quite intense. I have my last interview on Monday for Pre-foundation course Lcc. I am suppose to take a minimum of 3 drawings. I am going to add the other shoes I did and the sunflower although these are on A3 I don't think it matters. So I am off to Liverpool to but a plastic A2 carrier from Rennes art shop. Its another lovely sunny day and of course the camera will becoming with me, who knows what wonderful things I will see today.

Fabric thats just LUSH:

Just look what I picked up yesterday from Dot. My much awaited for Luna Notte fabric by Moda. Isn't it just pure lush and its only the tip of the iceberg in the range. It all started when my wonderful friend Janet designed yet another of her fabulous quilts, several weeks ago. I rummaged through my stash and came across a piece of fabric as my starting point (feature fabric) but I was not able to match many other pieces of fabric to it, as the colour way was unusual. On the selvage it said, Luna Notte by 3 sisters moda. I had no idea where I purchased the piece of fabric from,so I rang Dot (quilters needs), who is a guru in the world of fabric and quilting. She knew the range but did not have it. However, she to loved it and kindly order both of us some from America. I got an e-mail from her yesterday saying it had arrived and I was on the bus quick as a flash. An added bonus was Dot also had us both a scrap bag of Luna Notte. I spent a delightful couple of hours in the midst of fabric heaven and Dots gorgeous quilts before getting the bus home. In all the excitement I left my little scrap bag on the table, hence no picture, Dot said she will pop that in the post. So until that arrives I will continue to stroke, caress and love my Luna Notte fabric and dream of the quilt I am going to make with them a little while longer.

Sunflowers:

A couple of weeks ago I posted a blog about researching sunflowers? Well, I can reveal why. I was commissioned by my lovely friend Judith to make a journal quilt for her sister. Judith specifically asked for sunflowers and she was delighted at what I came up with. Seen as Jen has received her gift, I thought I'd post a pic. I loved making this journal cover and even went on to make Judith a little card to go with it. Speaking of journal covers, I took time out yesterday and made a few more but these ones are made a different way to the one i made for Judith. My favorite is the bigger of the four.

My, time flys:

My beautiful daughter was 22 yesterday. I could have put one of her fantastic glamorous model shots on but I decided to dig out a pic from when she was a little girl. I'm sure she will thank me for it (not)! In the meantime, time itself might be flying by but the drawing process is going very slow, hence no blog post recently. I am currently drawing a pair of shoes and a handbag. However, I may take a break today and sew a small project????

Sewing, waiting, sewing, waiting and more sewing:

Lately, it has felt like I have been playing a never ending waiting game. I ran out of fabric for the twelve days of Christmas and had to wait for several days, before I could get to Southport and purchase what I needed. So in the meantime make a lap quilt only to discover I had no wadding. Placed an order with the cotton patch and had to wait a couple of days for it to be delivered. I am now in limbo cant finish Twelve days of Christmas, can't finish lap quilt! So I started a simple sample quilt and today I sewed all the blocks together, with corner stones and sashing. Oh no!!!!! I do not have enough of the feature fabric to complete outer boarders. Ahrrrrrrrr!! A quick search of the Internet and I have placed an order but its coming from America. However the much needed wadding arrived on Friday, so I was able to complete one of the two boarders on the twelve days of Christmas. If i have time tomorrow i hope to start the second one, whilst I am waiting for the fabric to be delivered from America??????

In the picture:

During my little photography mission in town, I met up with my daughter and grandson. I just couldn't resist takening several snap shots of Cole whilst, we were sitting outside the hairdresses wholesalers waiting for his Mum. Doesn't he look so cute in his flat cap.

Inspired by Sheena Norquay:

On Saturday, I attended the regional day, the guest speaker was Seena Norquay. Sheena's work certainly has the WOW! factor. Her talk was all about Grids, Lines and Curves and was really interesting. Sheena, showed us how and where she got her inspiration from. So today, with my digital camera in my pocket, I jumped on the bus and headed into Liverpool City centre. I took lots and lots of pictures, mainly concentrating on patterns on buildiings, railings and grids, here are just a few. I was certainly spoilt for choice, as Liverpool has the most amazing ornate buildings. I really enjoyed this little exercise and I can see lots of potential with the images I took today. Unfortunately, before I can release the Sheena Norquay quilt inside me, I have to finish the twelve days of christmas and the simple sample quilt I have just started.

From this to this to that....

I am so frustrated at the moment, I love to draw but I also love to make quilts! I have been advised to practise, practise, practise, my life drawing in preparation for September. It is true, the more you practise, at a particular subject, the better you will get. After my second, informal interview this week, at Hughbaird college, I was given some A2 paper to practise life drawing. A much bigger scale than my little A5 sketch books and the few pieces I have recently done on A3. The area I need to concentrate on is surface texture. So I started this shirt and after several hours, with breaks for essential life things like, eating and washing and cleaning, I was itching to do some sewing. I love to draw but this type of drawing is very intense and to say I am rusty at it is an understatement. I took a break and rumaged through my fabric stash and made four blocks from the Simple Sample Quilt my amazing friend Janet designed in 2006.

Poppys:

How cool is this picture? I found it on the Internet, when I googled poppies. Of course I just had to have a go at drawing it, I thought it would be a good addition to the never ending portfolio. As you can see I have not quite finished my version I just needed a little tea break and decided to pop it on the blog fore you all to see. Oh well break-time over back to the drawing board! lol x

All that glitters:

At last the top of my black and gold quilt is finally completed. I finished the last boarder today. It was on my to do list and has been for quite sometime. It needed to be finished because it is beening shown, on Saturday, as part of show and tell at the regional day, along with the other people who have made a strippy log cabin quilt.

Sunflowers:

A couple of days ago I was researching sunflowers. I fell in love with one particular image and decided to draw it and add it to the ongoing portfolio. I thought i'd share it with you all.

Goodies on the post:

several days ago I bid on some fabric on EBay. My friend Jan from Northampton was selling it and I just couldn't resist it. I was delighted when I found out I had won. Yesterday I received two parcels in the post. One was a book of lettering I had bought from Amazon and the other was from Jan. My lovely fabric wrapped in tissue, inside a gorgeous clutch bag, a lovely card thanking me for the purchase and two beautiful pearly shell beads. How spoilt am I and isn't the bag fabulous. Thank you so much Jan.xx

Here is the lovely little lap quilt, I made using that delightful fabric I won. My lovely friend Judith said that sometimes a title for a quilt will just happen during the making and that is exactly what happened whilst I was burning the midnight oil making this quilt. It reminded me off slings and arrows. This then made me think of Hamlets Soliloquy. To be, or not to be: that is the question: "Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing end them?" This is the first few lines. This Quilt is called Slings and Arrows and it was very quick to make. I am looking forward to layering it and I am thinking feather quilting all over, in keeping with the arrows theme.

I won it, so I will have to make a????

Several weeks ago, at Liverbirds, there was a very big raffle. My friend Janet, who is extremely generous, brought lots of bundles of fabric to raffle off. The proceeds of which would go into our Liverbird funds. I was really lucky and one of my raffle tickets was pulled out relatively early. Whilst all the fabric was gorgeous we all have individual taste. We had all been allowed to oggle the fabric pre-raffle draw and I had picked out my first choice and second then third and so on(you get the idea). This system was based on if I'd win, exactly when I'd win and the possibility that other members winning before me. I was right and my first choice was taken by my friend Gwen. She has great taste like me, so I could understand her choosing that particular bundle. Then I won HURRAY! I got my second choice and here it is. Due to running out of the twelve days of Christmas fabric, the other day, I needed a quick fix. This fabric was just begging me to cut into it. After loving stroking the fabric and admiring it since I'd won it, I felt it would be ideal to turn it into a jelly roll. Also, I really should make a jelly roll quilt, from one of the three books I purchased quite sometime ago. And that my friends is exactly what I did but you will have to wait a little longer to see the finished top, I want to add another boarder. I promise it is worth the wait.

Hat box:

Quite some time ago, Colin and I watched a programme on TV. It was presented by the photographer Rankin. In the programme he looked at seven other famous photographers work. He then chose a particular piece of each photographers work and did his own take on each of the images he had chosen. Colin fell in love with the image, girl in the hat box. The original was photographed by Cecil Beaton (1934) and was on the cover of Vogue magazine. Rankin used a Sophie Elis baxter as his model and as you can see, Colin has used my beautiful daughter Michaela, for his take on the famous picture.