Still here

I've been really busy over the last few days but wanted to drop in as I have been trying  to keep up on everyone's  posts. I have been working on setting up my etsy shop. I have registered a name and set up a paypal account, and now I am working on my 'blurb'. Then I have to take photographs Those of you who already sell on line have probably have got all of this down to a fine art, but I am great procrastinator and sometimes need to have  a bit of a boot to get me to make decisions. However today I thought I would go to the craft fair at Wrest Park for a bit of research and inspiration.

Wrest Park is one of my favourite local  venues. We used to visit years ago when it was owned by Silsoe College and paid 50p for a magical day in the rather run-down grounds. However it has now been taken over by English Heritage and although the grounds are now better kept, but it costs rather more to get in!

Queueing at the garden gate.

The house is still in use by the college.

The pavilion at the end of the lake, viewed across the croquet lawns.

Entertainment from a string quartet.

The orangery glimpsed through some of the magnificent trees in the park. 

I have lots more photographs of the park here on my flickr site. If you like lovely gardens - Capability Brown designed these - do take a look.

I had a wonderful chat to one lady in particular - Maxine Owen who is a textile designer whose work really inspired me. You can see her work here. I felt very reassured by her style with lots of wild stitching and wonderful fabrics I wanted to rush home and start stitching. She also had some incredible journals and altered books, I could have spent ages there. I did buy a couple of her pieces - I will have to photograph them another time.

I have been doing some myself stitching - I have been working on a couple of zipped purses and a paperback-book cover in patchwork, and I have decided to start stitching on the leaf book cover I started way back.

I am hoping to get the shop going in the next couple of weeks and hopefully some of these will be there.

 I also want to get my September calendar page made - quite honestly I am not sorry to see the end of August - what a washout! 

What do you think?

Last Saturday I posted this picture which was a manipulated picture I took of the sea.  I felt it would be a good stimulous for a piece of embroidery, so I had a go and came up with this.

It is worked on a piece of A5 sized pelmet vilene which I coloured first with some transfer dye. I then loosely appliqued on some fabric and yarns and then went mad with the free  sewing-machine embroidery which was great fun. I then added some hand stitching with metalic thread and beads to add some sparkle. I was pretty pleased with the effect.

click image for a close-up

What next?

Despite having some success recently I am feeling in a strange mood.  I feel I am not quite enjoying my creativity at the moment. I have quite a few projects on the go and I am managing to do something most days, but I feel like a headless chicken. I have lost my sense of humour and have been very grumpy with Mr T. He is due in hospital next month for surgery. Nothing very serious, but we are both feeling a bit anxious as he has a very fat file at the hospital!   Perhaps I should allow myself a few days of not doing any arty stuff.

I know you lovely people will say 'there, Jill it is all right' and that is what I need right now. I value my 'bloggy' friends highly, so bear with me through the grumps,

Jill

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.