My finished eye !

It was a lovely Stitch Club workshop by
Elizabeth Griffiths

Our task was to do the stitches only
in one (vertical) direction !
That wasn't really easy.
On top of that one had to find out what part of the photo
was lighter or darker than the other part
and thus choose a fitting colour

Sticking to "natural" colours wasn't necessary,
but I did.
(which didn't mean that was easier, hahaha !)

In the end, stitching to ONE direction of stitch
proved to give a beautiful result.

freyeday

 

new start

With the help of daughter
I had a lovely market in BAARN :
beautiful weather,
lovely surroundings,
nice chats and lots of compliments
and customers.

I hope everyone enjoys their little artwork
for a loooong time,

THANK  YOU !

*
These last few weeks I skipped a few
of the Stitch Club workshops
because the felting and stitching for the markets
took up all my time.
But now it is time for
a new start

The workshop of  Katherine Diuguid
is the first again for me
(the others that I skipped will probably follow later)
Katherine gave us a kind of "watercolour" mixing design.
Having two different coloured strands of floss in the needle
is something I use often,
but now it is a more structured exercise.

The colour in the center

is mixed with the ones around it
and that gives a wonderful result !

halfway there !

tomorrow . . .

I've surprised myself :
I did it !

I hardly believed it possible, but my little bird piece
that I started earlier this week is finished.
And so : in time to take it with me to BAARN tomorrow !

(detail)
"Puttertje"

(European Goldfinch  -  Distelvink)

So once again :
if you are anywhere near tomorrow,
come and have a wonderful time with music and art !

See you there !

last august day . . .

Oh my,
only so many hours in a day
and so many plans
(that will surely not all fit into the hours !)

The little waist (or shoulder) bag
is finished now.

Stitching the bird is still underway

hmmmmm, will there be enough time ? 
(doubt it)

*

BUT for the August-challenge of Yaroslave Troynich
I made a bit of time free
just to make a little sketch this time !
We had the letter
"R"
and had to make a hybrid this time :
choose not one but two animals
and merge them
into ONE !!!

I used Dutch words this time :
RUPS , RATELSLANG

(caterpillar and rattlesnake)

Meet Richard Ratelrups !

ART market

"Cultureel Festival BAARN"

Sunday  3 September 

(12.00  -  17.00)

Still working on some new items for the market
this Sunday !

A brooch, a felted necklace and a bag.
The band for the little bag
hangs to dry in the sun,
that sometimes shines between the showers,
 so I have to be careful that it isn't wet all over again !

I'm also stitching on a "bird" wall hanging
(because the two bigger ones were sold two weeks ago)

but I don't know for sure if this one will be finished in time

. . . . .

If you live anywhere near
and you want a fun afternoon with art and classical music :

COME TO BAARN
on Sunday !

thank you !

Walk Art Markt in Zeist :

a wonderful market day !
Not the rain that was predicted,
but quite some clouds, a bit of sun
and a bit of wind from time to time.

Ready for the start !

A VERY quiet morning with no sales at all
(and that's not very encouraging I can tell you . . .)
but the afternoon made up for everything !
Ohhhh and so happy our youngest grandson came by
and later his big sister

(who saved me from some bad telephone inconvenience . . .
hmmmm, that's REALLY not my "forte" !!!!!)

Many nice talks and compliments about my work
and a lot of explaining how I do my gouache paintings,
the felting and the little textile pieces.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH
dear customers,
I hope you enjoy the lovely items you bought
for a looooong time !

There were quite a few new things I could take with me today
but they came back home with me  . . .

(including a new fish an a new beetle)

No worry :
in two weeks time on Sunday
there is another Art Market in Baarn !

Hope to see you then !

new bag

In five days time
on Saturday August 19
I will be on the Walk Art Market in Zeist.

My market stall will be in almost the same place as last year :
the path on the left side of the main square
near the entrance.

Because I was "low" on little bags
a new one was made
for which I finished the band yesterday.

The new bag
waiting for a button
(that I will look for tomorrow in the city)

One tiny problem appeared to be there
when I attached the band :
I made it too long for the intended waist length,
so now it will "only" be a shoulder bag . . .

This will be more or less (things sold !)
the way it will look like on Saturday.
(though we hope it will not be as hot as it was last year !)

If you live anywhere near Zeist
please come by to say hello !

There is a wide choice of gorgeous art work
with me
(and others) 

Hope to see you there !

wordless Wednesday

 

August and busy !

The eighth month of the year already
and very busy felting at the moment
because another ART market is coming up soon !

One of my "fishy" creatures is drying on the lamp

(tomorrow time for more !)

the letter "N"

 This letter was the one in July for an animal one had to make for the
#bibabowildmarathon

Again a challenge for Yaroslava Troynich

 I chose the  NUDIBRANCH

Well, let me be completely honest :

I  DON'T  like slugs
in my garden,
but these ones live in the sea !

But when you have to pick one (living) animal 
that starts with a certain letter
then the choice is limited !  (and it must be executable)

Nudibranch means literally "naked gill"

Sea slugs (there are more than three thousand known species !)
don't have gills, like fish, but they breath
through the bulges and tentacles on their back.

They have tiny eyes on their backs too

but they get around mainly by feel and smell.
They pick up chemical clues from the water about
food, other nudibranchs or predators.

Many nudibranchs have the most fantastic shapes and colours,

to warn off that they might not be safe to eaten.
 

I started with a piece of old (failed) bag

that I roughed up with a cat brush,

a thin body and a thin strip and many "tentacles"

Because the blue (old) piece was thick

and already felted it didn't shrink very much.

A fun project !

photo-start

Yes, why not a photo-start
instead of a photo-finish ???
Well, here the photo was the inspiration,
it was the beginning of another wonderful STITCH CLUB workshop by
Sue Stone

I think it was Sue's fourth workshop already,
but she never stops to amaze me
with her thorough way of teaching !
She made three series of little works and added
plenty of ideas and "what-if's" !

Finding a suitable photo was my first step
but when I found one, all else followed suite :
our granddaughter at 4 showing her swimming goggles
(she will be 22 very soon !)

The first work in just stitch

The result after many many stitches

Then came the next piece with a lot of appliqué.

Ohhhhh . . . a puzzle of many different pieces of fabric

All the puzzle pieces in place and ready to stitch

Number two finished

The last one was trial and error :
wrong kind of fabric at first !!!

better choice for after unpicking the first try !

And number three finished

The very last step will be to frame them,
probably separately.
Each on measures about 16 x 17 cm.

wordless Wednesday

solstice and more

 The   l o n g e s t   day already in this year,
where did the first half go ?
At least we had SUMMER for the last two weeks !
Some heavy shower yesterday :
much needed in the garden
(and the rest of nature !!!)
I didn't make any special solstice stitching this time
hmmmm, maybe later ?

Yesterday our youngest grandson
came "around the back" with a friend from school

(just before the big shower came )

The STITCH CLUB "white-work" workshop
wasn't really for me :
because of the colour (or rather lack of it !)
and the straight lines, but I tried in the same curtain fabric
with lots of fun "threads" . . .

I liked making texture with the stuff to wrap presents !

For this month's challenge for the
#bibabowildmarathon 
the letter "O" came out of the raffle !
There were many many animals to choose from :

Otter, Ocelot, Okapi, Octopus, Ostrich, Orangutan,
and also Ooievaar and Olifant (in Dutch !)
But I chose :
ORYX

a beautiful antelope from the dry parts of east Africa.
( endangered . . . like so MANY other animals )

I made a finger puppet so I had to work small.

Making the pattern of the colours wasn't easy !

Meet Oliver the Oryx !

It was all wet felted in one piece,
just the horns, which can be more than a meter in real life,
were separately and attached in the end

Another fun project completed !