Hello March, bye Feb...

A great start to the month. it is a lovely sunny morning. I'm off to the hairdressers for a long 'do' this morning, and then I have a vey busy week coming up, so I may not manage a post, but I will have time to visit and comment I hope. Lots of people have been posting their calendars on the flickr site it is great to see so many taking part.
My pages have a stitching theme and Jane (Marigold Jam), you may recognise that lovely silk swatch you sent me. I have scanned it for this.  Cannot bear to cut it up! Must go now, have a good week, Jill.

Calendar girls (& boys?)are you ready?

March is nearly here - it has come in such a rush. I have found time between other jobs to prepare my page and cut out my squares, I'll stick it all together tomorrow. I've gone for a spring theme here - I'm ever the optomist!

So if you want to have a go and haven't managed to do January and February, it doesn't matter - start now, make it a spring project. I have a pretty BIG birthday coming up soon, so March is a bit special for me - mad as a hare.

Doodle stitching

Thought I'd share what I have been up to. First this is my piece of doodle stitching, as I call it. It is a lovely piece of real wool felt donated by my sister with a couple of fabric patches machine sewn on and then hand stitched with a bit of needle felt too. This is really just me experimenting and trying to remember stitches until my embroidery stitch book arrives - 1p from Amazon plus p&p. Second-hand, but stitches don't change do they?

This on the other hand is a little more ambitious, only acrylic felt I'm afraid, but you may recognise the shape from my photographs of the fan light in the walled garden. I cut out the black outline with a craft knife through tracing paper. Of course the felt stretched as I cut it as I knew it would, but the basic shape is there and I can pull it back into shape as I stitch on it. Not sure what I am going to do yet, but trolling through my scraps for suitable inserts into the panes - I'm not going to do many.

This is a longer term project, but I'm into stitching at the moment, and it is nice to have something to do on my lap. I'll report my progress, but don't hold your breath! Wishing you all a great weekend.

Inside the Fern House

On my latest visit to the walled garden I got to go inside the Fern House, the large conservatory built in the 1900s by Sir Julius Wernher.

It is a 'hard hat' area.

The inside is propped up and is in a very fragile condition. It is a wooden structure and in its present state would not be able to be re-glazed as the frame could not take the weight of the glass.

What a magnificent sight it must have been, filled with exotic fruits, flowers and ferns  with its central roof tall enough for small trees. From the central atrium lead two long arms each with further glass houses branching off. One of the volunteers told me that when he started clearing this three years ago it was a tunnel of brambles and they had to hack their way into it foot by foot.

At the end of the passage is this glazed alcove which would be enough to grace the back of most peoples' homes on its  own.

The central lantern window in the roof here is mostly intact.

I shall be sharing some more photos soon.

More information:

The Walled Garden Project

How to make felt

Just in case you thought wet felting was hard work ---

Busy Weekend

Hi there, I have just spent a long weekend with my sister playing. I took a car boot full of wool, sketchbooks and journals and my camera. The idea was for me to photograph what we were up to, but in the end we spent most of the time madly talking, I haven't seen her for five months. I did manage to take these shots of her new button collection when I first arrived but the camera got put away and forgotten after that. I am shattered from late nights and more driving than I am used and I am finding writing is taking twice as long as usual so I shall just enjoy catching up on all your news.

Thank you

Thank you so much for your lovely comments on my 'Door' piece. Here is my second page based on the ironwork used in the flooring of the glasshouses at Luton Hoo.

'Layers'

Click on the picture for a real close--up view

This is a many layered montage based on my photographs and a few images downloaded from the internet related to the history of the estate. I started by transferring images of the ironwork from these photographs using the method I describe here. These are the photographs I used, once again just printed onto standard copy paper.

 

When I had finished covering the background I distressed it with acrylic ink and paint. I wanted to convey the idea of layers of history and had lots of images I downloaded from the web, but finally just selected a jewel from the Wernher collection and a portrait of Lady Alice plus some photographs of a racing car, WW1 home guard on parade in the park and some Land Girls. As these images may be copyright I have altered them and hopefully made them 'mine'. I was going to just lay them on top of the grid, but some how it wasn't what I wanted, so printed out a sheet of the lefthand photgraph and cut out all the holes with a craft knife leaving the leaf - I did the same with the circle pattern on the right hand picture and a couple of leaves. Placing the cut out grid on top gave me the look I wanted and I had to stick the 'photos' down carefully so some of the faces peeped through.

I then worked with more paint and ink and bits of cut-out grid to build up the composition. I finally added a border of bramble as it is growing everywhere.

 

I am pleased with this piece as it more of an 'art piece' rather than just an adapted photograph. It also has the 3D layered feel I was aiming for. I feel as if I am really finding my creative voice after many years of searching, and thank you for sharing this journey with me.