Tagged

I've just discovered that I've been tagged by Debbi , which could be a little difficult as I don't know that many bloggers, but I will do my best to think of seven others, according to the rules:
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself: some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post and list their names (linking to them).
4. Let them know they've been tagged by leaving a comment at their blogs.

So here goes, seven facts about me:

I was born in Chichester, Southern England four years after the end of the Second World War

I have always had a love of textiles, but until recently this was always fashion orientated, now I prefer mixed media work

I have four grown up children, 3 girls and 1 boy, and a growing band of grandchildren, 11 in all and another due in February

My proudest personal achievement to date was to have my fashion range of Snowboard wear chosen to be shown on the 'Clothes Show Live' main catwalk in '97 & '98

As I get older I tend to frequently forget the word for the thing I am thinking of and resort to a series of signs much to the hilarity of all my family

I would really like to become expert at one thing, but I think I’m way too much of a butterfly mind to ever achieve this.

Lastly there's my significant other half, who is exactly that, and after 36 years of marriage I would never want to be parted from him.

So according to the rules I am tagging the following bloggers, and hoping they won't mind:


Linda

Ro Bruhn

Karen

Helen

Sally

Arlee

Marion

If anyone has any difficulties with links please let me know and I'll send you Debbi's instructions

Apples for breakfast

Today we made our yearly visit to al local apple growers Apple Day. We had a 'second breakfast", in true Hobbit style of sliced apples from varieties as varied as Coxes Orange Pippin to Pinova, a lovely sweet apple with a hint of sharpness! All this was then washed down with samples of mulled wine, Christmas Mead, and cheese. It doesn't get any better than that, or does it?


They also have a craft exhibition on the site, where I met a lovely lady, Jenny Stacy, who was selling the most delightful buttons I've seen in a long time. She had a great piece of collaged luggage label on the table, and I asked her if it was an ATC, to which she looked blank and asked me what on earth was that. I elaborated and we had a super chat. I asked Jenny if I could photograph her lovely buttons to show on my blog and she kindly agreed.

Jenny has a web site www.jennystacy.co.uk where you can buy these gorgeous buttons, which I think would be super for decorating ATC's as the small 25p ones are about 1cm in diameter.

It was so nice to meet someone like minded and so enthusiastic about their craft.

I love Hobbycraft

At the beginning of this week I had planned to go to the K&S show in Ally Pally, but by yesterday my desire to spend £22 on the train and £10 to get in was definitely waning. So, not to be outdone I went to Hobbycraft in Southampton instead. What a treat! loads of people free aisles with lots of wonderful scrummy stuff to choose from and I hadn’t had to pay an entrance fee.

I took the photos of my work on the rusty gun doors (on my post ‘a grand day out’) and had a great time cruising up and down the aisles picking out the threads and paint etc. without getting sidetracked and seduced by things I didn’t need. I also bought the 3 canvases for my planned triptych for £19 in a set of 3, which I thought wasn’t bad for 16”x16”, deep sided.

I finished off my purchases with 2 delightful little 3D frames for £5.99 each, which will be used for our Christmas exhibition:info @ www.sharonoyoung.co.uk

I don’t think the prices were exceptionally cheap, this little bundle cost me £60, but it was lovely to have everything under one roof and not have to pay an admission fee.

Busy day

I finally found time to put the embroidered leaves on the printed silk paper sample. I just laied down a few silk tops to keep everything in place and left it at that, I think it's worked quite well. I bought some Perspex to make a sandwiched frame to display it, so I hope that goes well, with a little DIY help from 'him indoors'!


Having finished off that project I decided to take the plunge and make my first post card. It was actually the product of a rather unsuccessful attempt at using Transfoil. I had some knocking about from a show, as you do, and had lost the instructions. I tried sticking it to Bondaweb, shiny side up, and found I couldn't remove the film, so most of it had to stay put. I seem to remember similar problems when I tried to use it once before. I'll have to investigate further and maybe take some advise from PurpleMissus.


Anyway, it was a fairly succesful day and I was pleased to have made a post card at last especially when I found that my little quilting square was the perfect size, and I could see through it, hopefully many more on the way.

A grand day out

We had a lovely day at the seaside yesterday, taking full advantage of the late arrival of the sun. We went to Hurst Casle, which is on the South coast. It would be more aptly named a fortification, as that’s how it appears today, although the Keep, that was built by Henry V111 is still in evidence. It is situated at the end of a causeway and was garrisoned in both world wars and formed part of the Coastal Artillery defenses until 1956.
This was my second visit recenly as the first time I'd become enthralled with the amazing colours of the rust that has formed on the enormous metal gun doors.
I wanted to get more accurate colour pictures than I had on the first visit, as the cloud cover was heavy and I'd had to use flash.
I also wanted to ty out my new little Canon Powershot A570, which I bought for occasions where my Nikon D50 is too bulky and heavy.
I have to say I was pretty impressed with the close-up shots, but not that pleased with the distance shots. I have alot to learn about it yet. I still love the colours in the original Nikon shot and hope that I can find a way to translate the paperwork I've don so far.

Shedhead

It was such a relief to see the sun this afternoon after a dismal morning that I decided it was time for some shed time. I have my wet area in a large shed at the end of the garden, reluctantly loaned to me by my husband, when he gave up wet film processing after the invention of the digital camera! So it has no natural light as it was a 'dark room', but it's a great haven to disappear into when I want to do something messy.

I wanted to take the silk paper idea a bit further so today I printed a lino cut onto the Mawata Hankie. I didn't know if it would work as the silk is so fluffy, but with a little care when removing the print it worked a treat. When it's dry I'll try incorporating some more embroidered leaves, only this time I'll stick to the deep burgundy colour that the leaves turn later this month.

Rather than waste the ink I printed some leaves onto mulberry paper, which took the print really well.

Finally I laid some tissue paper on the printing glass and took off the final layer of ink, which will be useful as a background for something else. So at the end of a morning at work I had a great afternoon 'sheheading', just to prove it's not only a man thing!

Silk Paper

I decided to have a bit of 'me time' the other day and got out my silk paper kit, bought at the Knitting and Stitch show last year. I had breifly had a go once before so had a rough idea how to do it.

I thought I would try trapping some of the beautiful Autumn leaves that are falling near my home. I collected a large pile and then painted the ones I really liked with diluted PVA and hung them up to dry.

I used a Mawata Hankie as my base, about 4 layers, then placed the dried leaves and seed heads on the top. I covered this with silk waste and tussa silk noils, and then glued the whole thing together with Jo Sonja's textile Medium.

I was quite pleased with the result, so I went on to do a few more using machine embroidery patches and pressed flower petals.

This was a very satisfying and peaceful morning's work and has given me some useful starting points.