A long week

Last weekend seems ages ago, and last Monday was beautifully mild. I even saw a Comma butterfly in the garden.  But it is freezing here again. The pond is solid ice and the birds are are squabbling over scraps in the garden. Here are a couple of pictures I took at Stockwood Discovery Centre last Monday.

The hens were in the "Dig for Victory" garden taking the opportunity to sun themselves.

I'm not sure what tree this was, but the buds were certainly striking.

Many hours this week have been taken up filling in my husband's "Limited Capability for Work" questionnaire.  As he has dysphasia as a result of a stroke 15 years ago, he has a very limited ability to read and write so I had to fill the form in for him. I had to explain the questions and phrase the answers for him. Not being able to fill the form in, of course does not mean you are unemployable. The assessment seems to be asking if the person is capable of doing some sort of work, and yes we could say that my husband could work, if there was a job that was specifically tailored to his special needs. He lost his benefit once before, and as a job seeker was seen by many people at the Job Centre. They finally concluded that there was not a job he could do and there was a not a course that suited his needs.  However this does not entitle you to benefit.  We went to appeal that time and won.  I do not think it will be the case now.  We can manage without his benefit until he is old enough for his state pension, so he won't have to go through all the rigmarole of attending the Job Centre and endless, pointless interviews and appointments. But there are many who could be in his situation who could not manage financially. No one wants to pay out to those who are fit for work, but the solution to this seems to be punishing.  He paid his way until his stroke, and we hoped that our National Insurance, was just that, insurance against loss of employment etc.  His case is more complex than I wish to share here, but you get the drift.  Just don't mention 'scroungers' to me, or you are likely to get your head bitten off.

Let's get back to more pleasant topics.  I have fulfilled my requirements for the appliqué Module of my City and Guilds so I will share my samples here.

Above - shadow appliqué 

Above - different top stitches.

Needle turned appliqué 

Different fabrics - the beetle is transfer dyed satin.

Bias strip appliqué  with contour stitching.

I'm not sure what to do with my appliqué samples yet.  Leave them as that, or use them in some way. But no pressure, a nice decision to have to make.

I have one more module to go, but I haven't looked at it yet.  I am taking a break this week as I have a two day workshop with Bobby Britnell at Art Van Go, called Drawing and Designing for Textiles. I am really looking forward to it and hopefully I will have something different to share with you next time.

Hope you have a good week.

Jill 

Still here

It has not been a good couple of weeks, although I'm more or less back to "normal",  Mr T has been stricken with the cough.  It has taken me a monumental heave to get myself out of a 'feeling sorry for myself' rut, but in the end self-pity is boring. Hopefully I shall be posting regularly again, if not frequently.  I'm still working on the appliqué module of my City and Guilds, and although I was looking forward to doing it, I have been totally uninspired, which of course, goes along with feeling unwell. I spent a lovely couple of hours with Maxine on Sunday at her little shop within The Olde Watermill at Barton Le Clay.  It is called the Artful Monkey and the link will take you to her Facebook page.  Maxine's enthusiasm is infectious, so I left her feeling a darn site brighter and ready to do some stitching. 

For my course I had to do a sample using applied bias strips.  I decided to buy some iron-on ready made bias tape.  Not cheap, but easy to use, and decided to have a go at interpreting this Klimt inspired sketch I had drawn on my iPad.  That kept me going when I had no energy for anything else. I posted this picture before.

Here is the ironed-on bias tape...

... and here it is with machine stitched quilting...

I painted on the spirals and hand appliquéd the little squares, not something I was very good at. Something this small, less than in inch, would be better ironed on.

I'm going to doing lots of hand stitched embellishment now.

I'm also determined to revitalize my Etsy shop, Jillymade.  I have added a few items, and hopefully will be adding more soon.  I need a really good photography session first.

A little paper and felt box.

Some needle cases

An organza party purse.

I seem to have gained a couple of extra followers lately, but I should think you'll abandon me if I don't get my act together and post something worth looking at.  Thank you for popping by... I'll be back soon.  Have a good week.

Jill

February

The month has not started well as I have now got the sort of cough that is quiet most of the time, but when it starts, won't stop, and my ribs hurt and I am feeling sorry for myself! Wanted to get stuff done, but have no energy.
I had finished my calendar for January and started Feb's before the lurgy struck.

Last weekend I stitched these little birds onto an old triangular bandage I had from a first aid course. There is another one in the first aid box. I was inspired after counting absent birds for the RSPB's garden bird watch. I have had the thought of turning them into cards, but my will power has run out for now. Marvin has decided to sit on my lap and is telling me enough is enough, so I have snapped him. I am blogging for the first time on my iPad and I don't seem to be able to embed the photos in the text, but I really don't feel like sitting at the computer, but I am sure you will be able to work out which is what.

I do hope you have a good week,
Jill

Works in progress...

This week seems to have lasted a month!  Not only have we had heavy snow which has come and gone,  but other events seem to have strung the week out.  My sister flew to New Zealand on Wednesday for an eight week break!! She and her partner are staying with friends of his in Aukland. Of course the snow situation at the beginning of the week meant a lot of weather web-site watching and  nail biting.  She and Bob are not seasoned travellers, and neither have taken on such an adventure before, so it was with great relief that I followed the flight information to establish all connections had gone smoothly.  Even more thrilling when she rang me yesterday evening.

I have at least four stitching projects on the go at once for my City and Guilds unit on appliqué.  None of them are finished.  However I have sat down and done some machine stitching. Now I need to go back to a needle and thread.

The sunshine shows up the texture of these samples.

These two are exercises in shadow appliqué. A bit of hand stitching should liven the bottles up.

On Saturday afternoon I thought I would sit for an hour with my sketchbook and RSPB sheet for the Big Garden Bird Count.  Marvin joined me at an upstairs windowsill ... and then nothing! All week we have been watching three types of finches, fieldfares, three types of tit, up to 10 blackbirds, as well as the usual sparrows, dunnock, robin and pigeons. Sometimes I have refilled the feeders twice a day. It must have been because the thaw had set in, we hardly saw anything - not even a blue tit!

We both got rather bored, and my sketchbook page mainly empty, except for some rather poor renditions of house sparrows.

This week on my iPad I have been recording Gustav Klimt. We had a Klimt calendar last year, and as Mr T won't let me cut it up. I thought I would try and record some of my favourite patterns on the iPad.  It really does lend itself to this sort of thing as to trying to capture all these colours with paint would be a major undertaking.

"Dreaming of Gustav"

I love the shapes, and so adaptable to a bit of appliqué. 

The other bit of news, forwarded to me by Cathy, was of Gretel Parker's loss of her partner Andy.  If any of you follow her blog Middle of Nowhere you will know about her and Andy's adventure in buying their first home together, which turned out to be rather more of a task than they bargained for.  They christened it Bodge Cottage and Gretel's recent posts have been about how much work they were going to have to do, along with her cheery optimism and delightful needle felt creations.  Andy's sudden death must be devastating, and now she faces the possibility of losing her home. Her friends have set up a relief fund for her - you can read about it here. I'm not campaigning on her behalf, I'm just moved by the generosity of the (relative) strangers who have donated. Such sudden losses touch many of our lives, I know they have mine. In many cases I have felt inadequately helpless, as I have not been needed to do anything practical to support friends, so in memory of those lost I pass on this information.

The snow has gone and the sun has been out today. Who knows what the next week will bring. I do hope yours is a good one.

Jill

A mixed bag

It's been an odd week. Snow doesn't help, we're just not used to it.

I seem to have spend an awful lot of time staring out of the window at the birds.  A flock of Fieldfares has totally stripped the cotoneaster of berries and so our half a dozen or so blackbirds have had to resort to other tactics.  Tried to capture this behaviour with the camera but it is impossible without camping out in a hide!!!

The blackbird is getting better as balancing on the feeder, but it is just too big. I have never seen a blackbird attempting to use a feeder before.

Marvin rarely ventures out beyond the nearest convenient bush. But just before the snow, last weekend I got fed up with him not eating his cat food so put it out for the magpies, all of a sudden he found it tasty. (He is on a strict diet, and eats his 'pellets' reluctantly)

He is still a favourite subject for iPad drawing.

 I spaced dyed some tulle in the microwave using disperse dyes in a jam jar.

 Started a bit of appliqué.

 Started another bit of shadow appliqué.

and then started another piece... all waiting for some hand stitching to fulfil my City and Guilds brief.

I have experimented drawing on the iPad trying to create different styles.

I also spent several hours with Joanne photographing her wonderful textiles for her web site here.

Her Harris tweed bags are a real treat.

But mostly this week I feel as if I have been asleep!

Fingers crossed for next week's weather.  My sister is off to New Zealand on Wednesday for a once in a life time trip. It's a long story, but it is her first holiday for many, many years and she really deserves a good time.  We are just hoping it gets off to a good start with no weather hold ups this end.

I hope you have a good week.

Jill

New for 2013

Paper 53

First of thanks for the get well wishes.  We are both feeling much better, although not 100%. The last week has seemed like a month and I am hoping to get back into full creative mode soon.  I have been starting on some appliqué exercises for my City and Guilds, but my concentration is poor at the moment.  Meanwhile I have been exploring drawing on my iPad.  I have been using two apps; Paper 53, which is free with a mixing palette upgrade for peanuts, and Brushes which is also free but you can buy a layers add-on for £1.99 which I haven't got - yet. I have also got a cheap stylus as I found using using my finger didn't give me the control I wanted. I thought I would share these explorations with you, in case you're interest. You will have to excuse lots of sketches of Marvin as I have mainly done these from my armchair in the evenings and he sits next to me, making my perfect model.  Unfortunately he is nearly always in the same pose - asleep!

Paper 53

Paper 53

I started by using 'Paper' - this has a pencil, pen, felt tip, fibre point and watercolour brush tools. You cannot vary the width or zoom in and out. However it is great for quick sketches.  I like to draw with the pencil tool and then fill in with the watercolour - this gives you depth of colour, but it is a broad line. You can take colour out with an 'eraser' which is broad, or by drawing with white or a paler colours to add texture.

Paper 53

However I got rather frustrated by not being able to work up any detail so decided to download the Brushes app. This is 100% more complex.  It has loads of brushes, each one variable, an infinite mix colour palette and colour sampler so you can match colours and you can import pictures to work on.

Paper 53 plus Brushes

So this one of Marvin was started in Paper and then imported into Brushes - I just couldn't have got the detail on his tongue with Paper.

The drawback with the more sophisticated Brushes is that it loses some of the spontaneity of the simple program. This face was done by starting with a black page and then removing the colour. I like to draw faces when watching the television - they end up being an amalgamation of characters.

Brushes

Brushes

'Marvin Dreaming' is an experiment in mixing, and below an attempt at a landscape copied from one of my photographs.

Brushes

The main purpose of this is to refine my drawing skills, but of course I also have to conquer the electronic sketch. Nothing will replace paper and paint, but it is good at making you look and analyse colour and shape. 

Just to prove something else is going on...

some stitching in progress - more of that later.

The sun is shining here at last, but it is very chilly. 

I do hope you have a good week, 

Jill