The rooks were inspired by photographs in this quarter's BTO magazine "Bird Table" which is a great source of pictures. There is definitely a touch of Linda Kemshall there too. The background is a collage of printed papers from my stash.
Next I gathered a few samples from the garden. I am interested in moving from an accurate drawing to a more graphic representation. Above are aquilegia seed heads.
These Iris foetidissima berries were crying out for the paintbrush. I used Golden Acrylics to paint the left hand page.
This is a branch of Japanese honeysuckle which is rampant in my garden. I drew a simplified representation on the left and used printed papers for the collage.
On Saturday I went to my Embroiders' Guild workshop run by Gina on making books.
Here's a montage of the groups results.
This is my one
The paper I chose was very thick.
On Sunday I thought I'd have a go at making another one, so that hopefully the method would stick.
This time I used some of those printed papers again mixed in with plain papers.
The binding is a little loose, but generally pretty successful.
Today I thought I would commit myself to starting to quilt the poppy print fabric I had made of my paintings. I selected suitable threads from my stash but realised that there are a few gaps in the paler range and the blue/greens.
I had the enough suitable threads to make a start. So far so good, the quilting is adding a luxurious 3D effect.
Thank you to all of you who wished Marvin well. A visit to the vet yesterday for his flu jab confirmed he is fine, even if he is on borrowed time. We concluded that the arrival of extra cats in the neighbourhood would account for him converting to being an indoor cat, although he does still like a brief walk round the 'estate', especially if Mr T or I are out there with him ... aaah!
Another exciting bit of news is that I have been asked to take part in a pop-up shop in Dunstable in November. More news about that later. I must say it is all happening at the moment.
Hope things are going well your way too.
Jill
