Merry Christmas

Merry Xmas

Xmas postcards sent for swap this week.  The bauble detaches to be hung from the tree.

 

Baubling along

Plum posted a really good tutorial about using decorative stitches on the sewing machine to make quick felt Christmas baubles.  As I had some red felt circles n my stash of stuff, I adapted that tutorial to go into production.

 White stitching on red

Red wool thread on top of foiled circles, and also used on the back, in the bobbin.  Sewed beautifully, but there was surprisingly little length of thread on the bobbin, requiring lots of bobbin rewinding.

Back of baubles, with design developing across 4 different batches.

Front of baubles.

 

London art day

No Morley today, so a chance to catch up on a few exhibitions that have been on the "must see" list for a while.  First up, "Threaded Stories" at the Stephen Friedman Gallery.

Painstakingly overpainted woven cloth - the camera focussed on the paint and not the cloth, hence the blurring.  Each of those dots is an individual dot of paint and the piece is about 100cm x 130cm.

This exhibition did nothing for me I'm afraid and having listened to Grayson Perry's lectures about not having to like it all, I'm happy to declare that here.

Next a swing in to the galleries on Cork Street.  Lovely paving outside Browse and Darby

and a wonderful mixed display inside of 19th and 20th century art.  If money was no object, I could have spent a lot in there, particularly on the painting of Euphemia Lamb by Augustus John

.

Then on to The Redfern Gallery to see the superb series " The Thames Revisited" by Kurt Jackson.  I love the fact that his work done in the open air can includes bits of dust and feather that happen to land while he is painting.  Several of his paintings are like musings from his sketchbook, with descriptions of the sounds and smells added as annotations on the work.  He also doesn't ignore the more gritty, urbanised bits of the Thames, and there is a striking study of the M25 crossing the river.  Really worth seeing and on until 23rd January.  (There is a very good write-up about his published sketchbooks here.)

Next, to the Bernard Jacobson Gallery to see an exhibition by William Tillyer, " The Watering Place"  that seems to have been extended.  These are really fascinating pieces of art, but I'm not sure whether they  are paintings or mixed media pieces, as the paint is applied to a mesh  in various layers, the mesh is then mounted to the canvas, and on occasions, more paint is applied from the front.  Very interesting textures that cannot be conveyed in a photo, although there are some good images here that can be zoomed into.  The colours were wonderful on a grey day.

From colour to a lot of monotone, at the Herbert Zangs exhibition at the Mayor Gallery.  The cloth works here were a lot more interesting to me than those at the Friedman Gallery.

Up to the Royal Academy and some thought provoking bronze and marble sculpture by Kevin Francis Gray.  I loved these sculptures, and enjoyed seeing  that he works in bronze and in marble.  The heads are on an enormous scale, while the figures are life-sized.

Natural sculpture on the tables of the Royal Academy cafe.

Lots of amazing decorations around in London, with snow globes a bit of a theme.  The amount of snow in the ones at the bottom depends on the power being expended on the bicycles around them.

Three more squeezed in, Andrew Stock at the Mall Galleries and then at Somerset House, Stanley Spencer and Julian Stair, but they are for another post.  Whew!

Christmas is coming...

…..so of course it is time to add a project to the already long list of things to do.
Seriously, my Christmas preparations are much simplified this year, due to several positive changes in family commitments.  I have long admired the work and teaching of Gina Ferrari, but live too far away to take advantage of her classes.  So, in an attempt to make a "non-taught version" of her Xmas wreaths, shown on her great blog,  I splashed out on some 100% wool felt from Creative Quilting, found a bit of yellow silk, got stitching furiously ( a full 200m reel of thread), found a suitable ring ( about 25cm in diameter) and this is the result.

Thank you Gina from a distance.

Merry Christmas to all our readers

Oh Tannenbaum……………

When you don't have room for a real tree, a fabric panel from Ikea can do a sterling job.  Decorated with Procion P dyed fabric baubles, foiled and then mounted on to red felt, all it needs is the pine scent.  Also, there is no risk of our dog mistaking it for a real tree, as has happened in the past.

 

 

Paper trees

The simplicity of the designs from " A Little Hut' are perfect for a bit of non-sewing making. I bought the files for the Christmas paper cut quilt, and used them to make some outdoor lanterns with old jam jars - feeling very thrifty.

It's beginning to look a lot like Xmas

Although we have too many Xmas ornaments for our very small tree, I like to make a few each year and retire those that are looking tired and that have no particular emotional link to our family. No sewn items this year, but some fabric content.

Air dry clay, rolled out, crocheted lace doily rolled over the top, then removed, and shapes cut out with biscuit cutters. I did have to warn hungry people as they returned home that they were not edible, even although they were on the pastry stone.

Dashing through the snow…….

4cm of snow and elder son’s school is closed. 

Pond looks lovely though

At least it is an excuse to get out the Christmas cushions and start loud renditions of the song title thereon, much to children’s embarrassment.

Another tree

One flight back from Edinburgh and one episode of Spooks. Threads again from The Handweaver's Studio, although I was tempted by the range at The Grassmarket Embroidery Shop.


Fireworks at the top in this photo are one of my favourite ever fabrics, in our 10yr anniversary quilt.

Christmas is coming…. the needles are getting busy

This month’s edition of Stitch ( not be be confused with Stitch, or Stitch which I have not read) has some simple hand embroideries of trees, easily adaptable to your own stitch designs. One episode of Spooks produced, sewn with lovely thread from Lunatic Fringe Yarns, bought at the Handweaver’s Studio. This is about 12cm long.

Gingerbread maaarrrggghhh

Easy Christmas sewing needed as life is a bit hectic. Sewed these up with this pattern, caramel felt from CalicoLaine ( beautiful quality and really soft) and ribbon from East of India.

Two are stuffed with polyster filling and the middle one with quilt wadding. I think that one is more biscuit like, so it is probably the prototype for the production line about to start.