Catching up

 First of all a reminder that the powers that be are removing the follow by email feature so if that is how you follow my posts then you will need to find another way. Hopefully this post will sneak in under the line!

After a brief hot spell we are back to cooler weather and showers here. One bonus of this is that I have been able to crack on with quilting my tablecloth. The quilting lines are all marked and fortunately I got back to the beginning without being way out! I'll save pictures until it's complete.

I have also worked on four more Field Journal embroideries - and here they are.

I am going to try and do one of these a week although the next one on my pile has got a lot of work in it! Maybe its something for FNWF which should be coming up next week.

Also for Ausust there is a new RSC colour to work on - aqua. Mmm lovely, I'm sure I have some of those to work with.

A few weeks back I saw a lovely post by Freezeframe Annie here where she recycled some junk mail return envelopes into lovely tag pockets. I thought this was a great idea and decided to have a go by adding some into my sketchbooks. First up though was a lovely envelope and stationery which arrived in the post from Australia. It was far too nice to throw away so I thought I would try out the pocket technique on it. I used the back of the letter paper to line the envelope which I glued into one of my sketchbooks and also used some of the paper to cover a tag that I had been saving.

I then enlarged some of the beautiful flower and leaf shapes from the paper, using them to fill the rest of the double page spread. I spent a couple of happy afternoons drawing and then paiting these.

I am sure I will be using some of those flower shapes to make print blocks from at some point.

I then turned to something completely different!

This return envelope was cut in half and glued onto a page in my sketchbook challenge sketchbook. I then covered the envelope and page with a layer of gesso.

You cant see it here but the laft hand page is mostly covered with a piece of green/black splodgy paper which I had added when I started the sketchbook. So I next rubbed a black oil pastel over parts of the spread before splashing on some greeny blue paints.

Rummaging through my tag basket for something to put in the pocket I found a couple of pieces of experimental newspaper/painted bondaweb/printing/sheerfabric/machine stitching in colours that go perfectly with my page.

The print on it is a Hundertwasser spiral from when I had a Hunderwasser phase a few years back. So I pulled out the print blocks that I had made then and used one of them to print onto my page and the pocket.

I stabilised the tag and added some gold around it's edges.

And that is as far as I have got. I can see some gold script on the page somewhere - maybe a Hundertwasser quote about spirals. We shall see.

Well if you have made it to the end of this post - thank you! and well done.

Have a good week and I shall see you at Cheryll's place next week.

FNSI and RSC!

First of all Friday Night Sew In and many thanks to Wendy for getting us together again, good to sew along with friends. You can see what everyone was working on here.

I felt it time to get my RSC dark blues finished up and made six crumb blocks to add to my collection along with my little dresdens and a couple of scraptherapy blocks. So this month this

turned into this.

I am linking up with Angela here for Scrap Happy Saturday.

The rest of my Friday was spent quilting my tablecloth - the cooler weather has been a bonus as far as quilting is concerned but now that the weather is warming up again I suspect that I shall be working on my Field Journal hexagons.

In other news, this week I finished my watercolour still life.

I really am not happy with the background but it is my second attempt and the paper will not take any more fidling I am sure, so it it is as it is. Very happy with everything else though.

Many thanks to Wendy and Angela.

Have a good week.

It might be July....

 but it is certainly not summer as we know it! The weather continues on its wierd and wonderful way with a mixture of sunny days and showery days and cooler temperatures. I even dug out my jeans this week.

On the sewing front I have made a start on my RSC blues - my little Dresdens are made and scraptherapy blocks made. The crumb blocks will have to wait until I clear my desk.

My desk is currently home to my watercolours and I have started on a still life using what I have learnt over the last couple of months. Here is my piece so far.

Still a few more days work to do on it especially the background which I am really nervous about!

In the evenings I have finished a couple more Field Journal hexies

and I have been continuing with the quilting on my tablecloth.

So that is me all caught up - hope to see you next week at FNSI - have a good week.

Friday Night with Friends

 The beginning of another month! And I have to say that here in the Dordogne the weather is not at all July like - its been cool and wet and last weekend I had to resort to warm trousers and a fleecy top. It's humid at the moment after yet more rain although not enough to soak my pots. But I digress.

Many thanks to Cheryll for organsing our cyber get together for July - you can seewhat everyone got up to here.

I am afraid I dont have very much to show. I spent an hour in the afternoon playing with my watercolours - practising for a still life which is the culmination of the course I have been following. Nothing to share at the moment though. In the evening I picked up my next Field Journal stitchery and this is as far as I got.

There is more football tonight so I shall easily get it finished - need to sort out some backing fabric for it.

Happy mail this morning in the shape of some stabiliser which means I can get a lot more of these designs traced up and ready to work on in odd moments.

Since my last post I have completed the lavender hexie and also this thistle

and am very happy with how they are looking together.

This months RSC colour is dark blue so I must soon get out my box of scraps and see what I have - I am sure there plenty there that I spotted when working on the light and bright blues.

Hope evryone had a good Friday night and I shall soon be round to see what you worked on.

Blogger has been playing up - thankfully I have been relatively free from the problems that most people seem to have had so now it is catching up with me. My apologies if I didnt reply to your comment on my last post - they stopped coming to me by email which is annoying. I hope I picked up everyones comment but if I missed yours then sorry.

Also you will notice the tiny damsel fly picture at the top of my blog. A recent update changed the gadget for adding the picture and it wont make it any bigger! If anyone has suggestions I will be pleased to hear them! Thank you.

See you soon.