woensdag 27 mei 2020

a container

A new workshop
by textile artist Debbie Lyddon
She makes amazing work
mostly inspired by the coastal area
where she lives in the UK

She demonstrated how to make a container (vessel, pouch)
for some treasure
(to find for yourself outside
or in the house)

In my search for something special
I landed with a box with a collection
of ladybugs
(the ladybugs used to be in the downstairs toilet,
but when that got renovated
the ladybugs went into a box
and never came out of there again)


I painted the fabric, made a template and started sewing.

The fun thing is the peep hole in it
where you can see a tiny bit of what's inside



I like it
(and am thinking about some other treasure
to give a special hiding place !)


donderdag 21 mei 2020

stitches by machine and hand

This sunny week started
with a "bunting-day"
because our youngest grandson
came to us from school on his birthday !
(special vegan brownies by granddad)

The new backpack as a present needed
a bit of a personal touch !

A bit of sketching,
a trick to transfer it to the felt
and then I took my machine out to stitch.

Here the result ready to insert into the plastic sleeve
in the flap of the bag !
AFBLIJVEN
(Hands off)
One happy boy
*

Because the free challenges of TextileArtist.org are now finished
(and it goes on as a subscription per month)
it doesn't mean that there is no more stitching !

There was one piece in the challenges I liked very much :
blue, and there were lots of leaves in it
and a lot of stitching!
I asked the South-African lady if it was okay
if I used the leaves too.

So on my normal glue-stitched background
I added some leaves
and started stitching as usual.

Done !
(I like the result, though it's not totally mine)
*


The challenge of Christine Chester
was sent to a dear hard working health-care friend,
with 5 older stitched pieces to thank more people.
*

Sunny days
so the garden needs water !
But then
you get something !



Iris germanica

I heard once that you don't have to be too nice to those bearded irises :
we weren't very nice with all the digging for the new fence,
was surprised they even survived ...
BUT
love the result !


zondag 10 mei 2020

garden problem solved

We had a bit of a problem in the garden :
when the terrace was raised
it appeared that the drain of the downspout
didn't work properly.
(and we couldn't find where it went :
under our house or the neighbour's ...)
But that wasn't a big problem since it was dry for weeks on end.

BUT
it finally started to rain
Hmmmm the galvanized basin would surely be enough ...

 NOT !!!
After one heavy shower
it filled up very quickly and overflowed !
(we had to carry buckets to the water next to our garden, and it filled up again !)
We could hardly imagine
that  MUCH  WATER coming from the roof !!!

Between showers we "fixed" it
with some makeshift solution we managed to bring the water
to the stairs
pffffffffffft !


(but that rain was great for the garden :
everything lush and green !)

But finally yesterday
(in the bright sunshine again)
things were really solved !

First a mess,
and after some time the terrace was whole again !

So I used my mother's day to clean up and rearrange some things.
(see : our christmas tree waiting to "serve" another year)


I also replanted a rosemary bush
in front of the fence.
It will take some years before we have a nicer and greener fence
but I'm working on it !

My pride tall Alliums

(I'm waiting for the lower and darker "Purple Sensation")

The bluebells are gone (only seed heads remain)

and are being replaced by Ajuga reptans

Just beginning :

Sambucus nigra
(a variety with dark leaves and pink flowers)
*


P.S.
finally had time during the rainy days to make
my birthday-puzzle

(shopping in the garden center)

vrijdag 8 mei 2020

straight lines

The Textile Artist.Org stitching challenge
continued for another week
(yeaaaah)

who works mixed media, not only textiles,
had a very "strict" exercise :
repeating a "round" shape in a square (5x5cm)
defining the shape and the negative "rest-space"
in stitched straight lines
(first on paper, later in stitch)


Christine started with a wavy shape and I did that first,
but soon had other shapes too
like a full circle and a heart.

I decided to take some quiet gray as background
and why not bright yellows to go with it ?

my first "sunny" attempt

I noticed on the FB page that many stitchers
couldn't stop at four little shapes.
When you start thinking and drawing
there are so many possibilities ...
so I decided right away to make another one !


nearly there ...
still to do the outside.


YES
a fun exercise.
(especially thinking about "rest-space" !)