Sketch indulgence...

I have noticed that my Fridays now consist of, the morning running myself ragged catching up on housework so the afternoon can be free to tackle the endless amounts of homework for Uni. This afternoon started of great I organised my drawings for textiles in date order and choose several pieces to be mounted ready for assessment in January.  Next on the homework to do list, crack on with Haptic poetry brief but nothing ever goes to plan and whilst tidying my desk I found a tiny image of a face. I suddenly felt the urge to abandon the to do list, grab the sketchbook and 3 hours later this is what I achieved. I say achieved because for me it is an achievement as I am not at all good at drawing people.  Also I have noticed recently that my shading techniques have become very heavy handed no matter what grade pencil I use so it was a good excuse to practise. I really enjoyed drawing this beautiful lady but I better get back to the to do list.

Inspiration.

Butterflies.

Kingfisher

Short toed tree creeper.

On a Wednesday I have Drawing for textiles and as part of this module we are meant to keep an A3 sketch book.  We can draw, collect images of other artist work, sketch, paint, collage, basically anything goes with this sketch book. I have to say I am not a big fan of large sketch books, I seem to have a fear of drawing big. I like to draw small then get the image enlarged via a scanner of photo copier. I have had the A3 sketch book for a couple of weeks and I have just looked at it with dread. However, time is ticking on and I thought I better get a move on. My first scribbles are the butterflies using different types of mediums, pencil, paint and graphite pencils.  The images I have drawn are the the ones on the right but I bet you already guessed that.  Today I was stuck for inspiration until I read Linda Kemshall blog and was inspired by the series of birds she is painting on small wooden panels. I have a lovely bird book and decided to have a go myself. For the Kingfisher I have used a very special gift from my lovely friends Janet and Emma. A big set of Derwent water colour pencils and for the Short Toed Tree Creeper I have used two graphite pencils and topped him up with my Derwent ink intense sticks. I am pleased with the end result because I felt I'd been a bit ambititous with the tree creeper, he was not easy to draw.

Palm House pop up quilt exhibition.

Sefton Park Palm House

Jeans Sampler Quilt

Sue's Sampler Quilt

Liverbird group quilt for Button up challenge organised and put together by Judith and to the right Junes Simply sampler quit.

My Summer Harmony Quilt

Sue's Harvest Festival quilt

John doing a great job of putting the exhibition up. To the left Judith's friendship quilt to the right Jeans Strawberry Fields gate quilt and Gwen's Summer Harmony quilt.

My Twelve days of Christmas quilt.

Some of the members of the Liverbirds.

Left to right. Kathy's You shall have a fishy quilt, Sue W's Summer Harmony,Hillary's Summer Harmony and Janet's Hexagon flowers.

Jenny's Medallion Quilt

Shirley's Holly Quilt.

Some hand sewing going on by a few of the Liverbird ladies.

Beautiful spiral stair case entwined with plants.

Marble statue of a young girl.

What an amazing Sunday. The Liverbirds where invited to exhibit some quilts in Sefton Park Palm House. The doors opened at 12 and closed at 4pm. Several of us arrived at 9.30 and work began assembling all the quilt stands and hanging the quilts. As well as quilts from the Liverbird group there where several quilts exhibited from another quilting group called Bridge quilters. All the quilts looked stunning set in such beautiful surroundings.  I think it was a huge success and there was over 800 visitors through the door, some had come to see the Palm House and had the added bonus of the Exhibition and others who specifically came to see the exhibition.  I have to say well done to Sue and Janet who organised a very successful day.

Self indulgence....

A few years ago I made name badges for our area day based on a little sticker book I found called Funky birds. I went on to design my own Funky birds and I made a quilt and a bag. A few people have often asked if I have a pattern for the bag to which I always reply," no sorry I haven't". However with the success of "The Balloon" pattern I thought I'd pull my finger out and make a Funky bird bag and pattern. However, as the book was titled Funky Birds and is probably copyrighted, I have decided to name mine "Classy Birds". I've been itching to stitch for weeks so today I simply indulged myself and made a Classy Bird bag, the first of three. Once I'd completed my new bag (which I now need to write the pattern up) I made this little postcard for Bridgitte in the FMQ fabric postcard challenge group on face book. It is Novembers swap and I am quite late in making it and sending it. I decided to make a nice bright sunny summer card on this rather cold winters day and it really cheered me up. I hope it will do the same to Brigitte when it arrives in Switzerland.

A funny sort of day

Rabbit meets Alice

The day began with a text message from my friend Judith asking if I had sent her an email at 4.30 am? I knew that something was wrong and after checking my email I discovered I had been hacked. It has taken the best part of the day to sort it all out. I now have a new email and have changed the the log in password for my original email account and hopefully stop whoever has hacked it sending anymore bogus emails posing as me. My homework today was to learn how to make a brush stamp on photo shop, a motif and curves in Illustrator but after being on the lap top sorting out the hacked email I decided I'd had enough technology for one day. Out came the coloured pencils and the Red Book,which is another Uni project and the drawing comenced. I am still trying to teach myself how to draw girls and this is what I came up with today. She reminded me of Alice from Alice in wonderland so I had to introduce my little rabbit.

WARNING

If anyone has received an email from me this morning around 4am it is not from me. I think my email account has been hacked and I would advise you not to open it but delete it immediately.

All work and no play...

Christmas fabric postcard I made and sent to Pauline.

Christmas fabric postcard I received from Pauline.

makes Susan sad. My days at the moment are filled with endless homework for uni projects as well as trying to fit in a bit of house work and family.  I feel like I am drowning in the paper making brief it is exhausting and not very rewarding I have to say. Still I am crawling to the finish line as I have almost completed 36 different homemade papers. With all that said I have managed to cram in a one to one fabric postcard swap which I thought I'd share with you. It brightens up the day receiving these lovely works of art in the post. 

Paper dress.

Paper dress completed.

 Phew I have finished my paper dress, it even has a label on it. I am really pleased with it and I hope it will receive good marks in the end of year assessment. I am looking forward to seeing what everyone else came up with next week when we present our dresses to Fiona and the rest of the class.

Fab and forty.

Natalie at her surprise party.

 

 

Fingers crossed so far so good.

And so it begins, making the actual paper dress. This morning I have painted the back but I now have to wait for it to dry as colours can often dry lighter than when they are wet.  As my colour palette is quite bright and vibrant I may have to be a bit more generous with the paint and a little less so with the water for the front, This is the main part of the dress that will be seen when it is hung on the wall when exhibited. I have also experimented with 3d flowers, which again are going well.  I cant afford the luxury of sitting and watching paint dry so I'm off to tackle the ironing.