Hello my friends – another Wednesday – and here in Britain, it’s Day 100 of Lockdown. Certain measures are easing a little – and then some being put back into place as case numbers spike in some areas. However, that’s not what we are here for. We want to nosey around other people’s art spaces – so why not join us at https://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/ and have some fun. We’re a friendly crowd!

As usual, my workspace has moved around the house depending on what I have been up to. So, let’s start here…

… What is this, I hear you ask? An empty embroidery frame? YES! Thanks to our wonderful enabler, Julia, who boldly went where no man has… well, you get the picture. Her local embroidery shop had opened up and she generously offered to go get the skeins I needed to complete the sky and snow. Hence…

…. Yay! Finally finished. The second of the UFOs I set myself for the WOYWW anniversary challenge. It has only taken 25 years to complete!!! I’m thrilled and relieved it is finally done – and convinced I will never even attempt another one – even if I thought I might have another 25 years in which to do it! Now all I have to do is find a frame for it.

So, having finished that… what to do now with Lockdown still firmly in place, and a cupboard (or 2) still having UFOs in situ. I did a bit of digging around then…

…. I moved a few bits to my workspace on the landing and put them into this orange folder/wallet thingy. It now contains a few cross stitch pieces. Started and never finished – some tiny, some… considerably larger. The first one you can peep at the back of the desk – a piece of pale green AIDA, stitched and ready for a card – but it needs me to get the iron out first! What other work spaces are represented in this picture? The bag on the floor contains the very last of my DK yarn, and another blanket on the go – usually done downstairs in the lounge whilst watching TV, but is up here so I can watch a programme on I-player. By the stairs is a pair of trousers – that’s the mending done, also now awaiting the iron! There’s a box of DI there on the floor, not put away after an inky session.And on the desk are a number of boxes I have been playing with tessellating. Triangles and hexagons. I have it in mind to make an unusual advent calendar. 24 boxes needed – but moving them around, it seems 25 are needed to complete some of the shapes – so I am still playing!

So just the one from the C&G course this week. An embroidered sample. The fabric is quite fun – take some stiff card and cut a hole in it. Wind thread first one way then the other. Take a different thread and sort of weave it through and around those initial threads. You now have a canvas upon which to stitch. Just a range of different stitches on here. Couching, french knots, cross stitch, chain stitch…

And finally… For those of you who have never been there…

Part of the view from the top of Snowdon. The blue at the top of the picture is the North Wales coast – or part of it. Because it’s the highest place, of course, there is a 360degree view. Stunning on a day like this one, absolutely impossible on a day when the cloud cover comes in! I have been up there and seen the coast of Ireland, and the next time couldn’t see the hand in front of my face. And it changes incredibly quickly. You can set off from the bottom, walk up in sunshine, get to the top and suddenly the sun disappears, the temperature plummets and you are wondering how on earth you are going to get off the mountain safely. No wonder they train here for the Himalayas!!

So that’s it from the North Wales coast this weeks, folks. Keep counting the days. Keep safe. God bless each one of you

Margaret

Hello my friends. First of all a heartfelt thank you to all who named those plants on my post last week – Erigeron or Sea Daisy, and Jerusalem or Turkish Sage, they are indeed. Thanks too, to our esteemed leader, who, in my comments, succeeded in giving a biology lesson as to the origin of the red poppy!! Brilliant fun! Thanks Julia. What craziness is this, you may ask, if you have happened here by accident – it’s a world wide blog of magnificent proportions, so go find us at https://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/

My desk as is on Tuesday afternoon. Some stamps and dies, card stock and envelopes, inks, duster brushes, acrylic plates, and astonishingly empty cutting mat – just the scrap paper on which I lean when stamping, a couple of Christmas cards made to try out new stamps, DST, glue, hairspray, loo roll, spray bottle of water, family photo, my pudding and a panad ( a Welsh cuppa), and my computer. Hmmm… a messed up carpet from where I keep moving my computer chair back and forth – oops! And finally…

…. YES! a sheet of photographs printed off ready to use. Now this may not seem much to many of you – but for the past three weeks my computer and printer have sulked! They have refused to speak to one another. It’s an elderly computer, and an even more elderly printer – but they ain’t broke, so why fix or change ’em!!! The printer worked perfectly one day, then refused to work ever since. I have turned the modem on and off (It’s a wireless printer); I have turned the printer on and off; I have turned the computer on and off. What I have not tried, until yesterday, was to turn all three off, then turn the modem back on, go have a panad, turn the printer on, go have a panad, THEN turn the computer on. YAY! Success at last. Honestly, it’s worse than having a child who is a fussy eater!

So many of you commented last week about the C&G embroidery – and yes, I will endeavour to get a better picture of the fire screen, because you are right – it didn’t show the layers properly – and many of you asked to see some more of the course work. So, at the risk of boring you senseless (scroll to the bottom of the post if this happens), here is a bit more. One of the themes we had to explore was Folk Culture and religion. I chose Judaism as it is full of symbolism. I picked out the Star of David, the Pomegranate elements in the Temple, and the Embellishments at the top of the Temple pillars.

Sorry – the photo is refusing to load the right way up. It should be landscape not portrait! However… The design board for the finished item – which was to be a large cushion. You can see the thoughts on why these elements were chosen, the fabrics and their colours, the threads, a range of glitzy fabrics and a string of beads, a large tassel, and the drawing for the cushion.

When God gave the instructions for the making of the Temple He spoke very clearly about the materials to be used, and they were all opulent and rich. Gold, silver, red, blue, fine embroidered work, the best artisans were to make everything… So, I used silk for the cushion, dyed it with Markel pens, then machine stitched in red over it.

So, a close up of the embroidered pieces. The gold cord was couched down in the shape of half the Star of David. It went all round the cushion at both ends. The Pomegranate seeds were made by placing fabulous, shiny fabric pieces randomly between two sheets of dissolvable fabric, and then free machine embroidered. One piece was made using white thread, and one using gold metallic thread. It was washed gently, which dissolved the extraneous fabric, and then all were cut out. The gold stitched pieces were left unadorned, but the white ones were encrusted with beads at the end. Everything was made using rich, royal colours, to echo the colours in the original Temple. The scroll shaped piece was made with un-dyed silk, then simply machine stitched with a close zigzag stitch. The leaves in the centre of the cushion were made with white silk, and coloured with fabric paint, using a handmade stamp of the star shape. Dorset buttons were made for the centre of the end of the cushion, and decorated with a handmade tassel using the same reds, blues and gold threads as used in the main part of the piece. This was the first of the four finished pieces I made.

So that’s me this week here on the North Wales coast, folks. Still limited to 5 miles for a trip to a friend’s garden, still staying very local. I ventured forth into the big wide world this morning to go do my food shopping – eek!! – the town was heaving. Cars everywhere, people everywhere! It hasn’t looked so busy since March – but our non-essential shops have been allowed to open this week – so they have – and folks have flocked to them. So, for everyone still missing the beauty around us on this set of islands we call Great Britain…

… the river at Beddgelert – probably around 35 miles from me here – taken on a glorious sunny day when I was allowed to go further than those prescribed 5 miles.

Take care, my friends. I’ll be around to visit during the day – although I have to finish the tasks I needed to do in Llandudno on Tuesday, which I didn’t do because I bolted for home!!

God bless you.

Margaret

Well, hello my friends. It’s been a weird ol’ week! Couldn’t settle properly to anything at all… so, consequently, I have moved around the house doing a bit here, a bit there. So, rather than a photo of my desk on the landing, my picyures this week are from all over the place! Why not join us around the world, peeping t people’s art spaces. https://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/ ill get you there – and you will be made most welcome.

I did manage, between I-player episodes to finish the multi coloured blanket from last week. This meant I now had 5 blankets finished… until I visited a friend who wanted to see what I had been doing with my time during lockdown. So I took that lovely peachy coloured one, my robin, and the scrapbook … and sold the blanket! Oh well – another visit to Aldi coming up?? So here’s the first centre of activity, and the multi coloured one I finished this week.

My second area of activity was to sit on the bed and continue with that tapestry. I now have very little to do… I’ll show you a photo when it is completely finished. So, I thought, what now? Julia has sparked something… her suggestion of finishing UFOs… well, over 20 years ago I did a City and Guilds course in Design with Embroidery. I always wanted to document why and what! So, I hauled all the work, design boards, completed commissions, books and samples out of the wardrobe and the cupboards, and photographed the lot! Maybe I’ll show you a few bits over the coming weeks – I’m certainly hoping to put together a website page on here with it all. No idea how long it will take… but it was such a HUGE amount of work – even for just Part 1 (the only part I managed as John was becomming less able to pick up the slack) – that I didn’t want it to just get stuffed in cupboards and forgotten. So, a couple of pictures…

One small piece we had to make – a needle sampler book. Pages, each describing a different sort of needle, used for a different style of work. I embroidered the book front, and marbled all the enclosed pages. (Told you it was a lot of work!)

One of around 50-60 sewn samples. This one demonstrating free machine embroidered leaves. The background is just one of the card backgrounds created to display all the samples.

My final, finished, piece. (One of four large pieces) The brief was – a metre, based on Sea and Sky. The embroidery and its mount had to be a metre in length or depth. I chose a photograph of an early morning mist on Ullswater (not my own image, but with permission from the photographer), and based a 3-d firescreen on it. There are at least 5 layers of voile, all slightly different colours, all demonstrating different techniques, all separately mounted and held nearly an inch apart to add depth, with a light behind, and standing on 10inch legs. Yes, it was quite a project! It shows free machine embroidery, distressed fabric, hand made cording, applique, dissolvable fabric work…. you name it, it went in to this piece!

When I got the syllabus for the course, and realized quite how much work was involved, I was determined that whatever I made as my finished pieces – they would be of use. I wasn’t going to spend all that time and then throw the things away. So, the firescreen sits in my lounge even all these years later. The other items are around, too!! But I’ll show you those another time.

Another workspace this week has been the garden – Yes, I know that a weed is only a flower in the wrong place… but actually, there were quite a lot of them in the wrong places – so it was time to begin the sort! Here’s what’s on show out there this week…

So, top left to bottom right… The day lily – is in full flow at the moment. It would be good to have a different colour as well, as the two large banks of these are all the one orange. No idea what the second flower is – about 3 feet tall, near the pond… The teasel is already over 6 feet tall, and will, I’m sure, grow taller before it becomes a seed head. The mimulus in the pond looks great this year, and there are now orange poppies as well as the yellow Welsh variety. No idea what the purple flower is – none of my neighbours has either. We only know it grows and spreads well here by the sea! The geraniums are glorious this summer – and, as you can see – so is the grass in the midst of it! And as for this red poppy… growing up right between the slats of my garden chair – who knows where it has come from. I have NO other red plants in the garden! Obviously making a bid for freedom from some other garden…

So, that’s me… working in different places, but not achieving a great deal this week (there’s still plenty of grass in the garden, for instance!) I leave you with a touch of Wales…

… taken four years ago this coming August, on a day trip to Angelsey. One of the country parks up near Holyhead. No mountains this week, no sea, just a gorgeous pond and vertical cliff face in beautiful sunshine.

Take care dear friends. Stay safe. God bless you all.

Margaret

Hello again, my friends. I think the past 7 days qualifies as TW3 – That Was The Week That Was. A week ago we couldn’t get cool enough, and the temperature inside my home never dropped below 25 degrees. Then it was all change! Suddenly the heating was automatically cutting in as the temperature plummeted, the winds blew, the rain squalled. And now? Warm again! Oh well – good thing we can’t go far! So, to show you my desk…

Hmmm… a distinct lack of artistic endeavour going on here! But a little peak at the right hand end of the desk…

The next stash busting blanket – half crocheted together so far. Keep doing a bit every time I sit to watch catch up! So has the left hand end of the desk seen ANY action this week? Not a lot!

You see, it took me three days to do this – and it’s only A6 size! You get your template, find a dice and 12 coloured pens, inks, felt tips, paints.. Assign two colours to each number on the dice then keep throwing and colouring appropriately! The latest project for the guy at church to email out to his care contacts. He is thrilled!

I did actually make an anniversary card for our Camilla

I had a bit of fun playing with those new dies I showed you the other week. And I have continued to plod on with that HUGE tapestry. I will get it finished… So, that is about it! Not a lot else going on here on the North Wales coast. But I did go hunting specially for you to find a photo of the local area at this time of year. Not taken this year, obviously!

The laburnam arch in Bodnant Gardens – about 7 miles from my home. A National Trust garden, normally open to the public to see this glorious show. With last week’s heat and then the wind and the rain, I expect it is now over, but this is it in all its glory.

So, from North Wales. Take care my friends. Stay safe. God bless you.

Margaret

Greetings my friends from a very warm Wales! I do trust this finds you well and staying healthy. To those who have been poorly, I hope you are beginning to really feel better, able to do more, and generally able to cope. I have spent the week essentially playing… Playing with new things, trying out some new techniques, binge watching tv, and generally being very relaxed. Apart from when I was up a set of steps painting the shower room ceiling, that is! So, this has been my desk this week…

Never played with these dies before – given to me by Mrs D, I thought it was about time…

A different day and my desk looked like this. I have done needle felting before – but never 3D – so this little fellow was something completely new. He’s rather cute and is now sitting a-top a pencil pot on the shelf on my landing workspace. I haven’t dared to take him outside into the garden yet, in case he is mobbed by the bluetit, goldfinch, sparrow and blackbird families out there!!

Yet another day to try something else… I had a play with some box dies, making and attempting to decorate these two. They currently only stand 1/2 inch high, but that could be remedied by making sides for them. I do wish I was as good as so many of you with the 3D art stuff – I keep trying to be more adventurous, but they always end up rather flat…

So, apart from making some more Christmas cards, completing the two orders for cards I had started last week, continuing with the next stash busting blanket – 20 squares done now – finishing decorating the upstairs shower room, and doing a little more to that large tapestry…. I seriously reckon housework is over-rated!!! Hardly done any. Not been shopping – didn’t need any. …. you see, I told you I had spent the week playing!

Thought you might like a little view of some flowers now open in my garden. It’s looking lovely and bright. The iris in the top picture is not at all spectacular – pale beige coloured, insignificant flowers – but oh my word! The seed heads give the most amazing bright red colour right through the dark days of winter. I have lived here in this bungalow now for 8 1/2 years – and there has not been a single day in all that time when there was no colour in the garden. Whoever planted it up did a great job!

So, to quote Shazsilverwolf… “And finally…” a view of Snowdon, taken on a day trip (not this year!) on the Welsh Highland Railway. I arrived in Porthmadog and went for a walk out along the Cob – a long sea wall – and there was this glorious view in front of me. God promises in the Bible He goes to prepare a place for me… I reckon this view would do me for eternity.

So that’s me this week, folks, here on the North Wales coast. Not had to fill up with diesel yet – still can’t go far, but can now meet outdoors with friends up to about 5 miles away from me…. might just do that

Take care. Stay safe. God bless you.

Margaret