needle felting

wonderful birthday present from my mum! Thanks mum for a new direction in the felting line! I have not been able to stop using the felting needles on all the wool tops that I have secreted away in most corners of the house...I love the way you can do any 3D form you like....am in the process of making a second momiji doll all in needle felt!

wash day sewing

ash day sewing....
steam has been pouring out of the sewing machine as Fran creates yards of linen squares depicting clothes lines...
thank you to Jessica Hische and the great website "Daily Drop Cap" for the beautiful initial letters!

more machine embroidery

Fran has been on the old Bernina again.... inspired by giacometti and peoples personalities shining through their skin, she has produced this great sewing/sculpture....it would look great as a really long stretch of all the people she knows?

skirts and necklaces

Hooray, have finished my clothkits skirt and a new style necklace....embroidered the felt balls with contrasting silks, which tended to disguise the bad felting!

mum and dad

My wonderful parents have bestowed many a magnificent gift into my grateful arms but I thought I would share these latest ones...Dad has been making me these fabulous thread holders for my new sewing room so that I can at least pretend to be neat and tidy, whilst my amazingly talented and productive mother is sewing, patchworking, knitting, appliqueing to name but a few of her many pasttimes! The photo was taken on mum's birthday day out in London....

momiji doll

At long last after many an attempt to get into my sewing room to make this doll for the momiji competition I have completed one of the designs that I wanted to make!

I have used a really neat technique of coloured organza machine sewn over coloured felt to create this jewel like colour...have made several smaller things such as this heart for valentines day....

I have stuck to the brief rigidly which was to keep the spirit of the momiji dolls while using fabrics...not sure whether I actually like the enlarged head or whether I am even going to send it in for the competition as there is now a postal strike in the UK! Oh well at least I made something!

momiji

here are some drawings for ideas for the momiji couture competition, want to enter but they don't return work and there is no prize!!?? But there again they are tempting anyone with a passion for textiles to try their hand! If any one wants the 3D template which took 2 days to perfect, I can email it to you if you leave email address on comments page,

clothkits

Clothkits is this amazing company that sells beautifully designed and printed fabric ready to sew up. Having had all my clothes made for me by a wonderful mum whose parents were tailors, one would think that this idea was a bit elementary! What really swung it for me was the great designs they have come up with and being a fan of Rob Ryan I just had to purchase a skirt kit at the Knitting and Stitching show!

Th incredible huge scissors belong to my grandparents, and I have many a fond memory of watching my Tito Manolo carefully cutting tiny little snips as he cut out suits from beautiful grey woollens.......

jerry

Francesca found one of the little dollies that I made on the Julie Arkell workshop and has used it as the starring role in her very first animation. It took Francesca just 4 days to make this little movie with Finlay providing the voice and the guitar soundrack!

Why are one's children so much more talented than their parents!

Hannah Lamb

mmmmm have a look a the lovely work by a textile artist that I saw years ago at the Chelsea Crafts fair....amazing handbags made from found textiles, but so cleverly designed around predesigned garments, gloves etc. There is very little on her website, but have collected some images here to show.....

Had a wonderful day out on Saturday with mum and Francesca, we drove round the north circular to Alexandra Palace to the Knitting and Stitching show which was completely inspirational! As we walked into the entrance hall which was flooded with light from the huge glass house ceiling, we were faced with a life size sailing boat that some clever graduate had actually knitted! All the big names and online craft stores were there, Loop, Selvedge, clothkits, workshops, felting, rag rug making, machine embroidery, and experimental knitting...... some very lovely tapestry.......have even itchier fingers now!

necklaces

At last I have managed a necklace and some flowers to make another....Am feling very inspired by the beautiful autumn colours in my garden and on my allotment, especially the blackberries which are all the hues from red through to black...thought about making a necklace with just flowers and maybe the odd black bead.... the grey necklace is one I made earlier this year when some of my reject felt balls looked more like pebbles, so I tried adding wispy bits of white and grey fleece to replicate the stones on the beach!