Jubilee Stitching

What a busy week, this week I have sooo busy with Jubilee orders some of which have gone off to Japan, Australia and America!

mini buntings

 union jack cushions

 2012 linen cushions

 Jubilee bobbles

 more jubilee bobbles and corsages

 and jubilee headbands!

With all my orders safely delivered and nothing left for me to wear, today I thought I'd stitch my own Jubilee Rosette! 

I hand embroidered the words then satin stitched them to union jack fabric and finished with a dotty frill  and some of my ribbon stash.  

All ready for the Jubilee Party street tomorrow!  

Happy Jubilee Celebrations Everybody xxxx

Collect 2012

Hello! A bit late but I'm posting pictures of my weekend away in London last week. 

Prebooked our train tickets waaaaay in advance, so treated us to first class!

The Saatchi Gallery opened at 11 so we had a quick peek in the shops nearby on the Kings Road.

Couldn't believe quite what happened next, out of the blue an open top bus drove by full of Lifeguards throwing armfuls of knickers!  People rushed out of the shop to collect them up and follow them screaming down the road.  I was in the queue to pay so sent my husband out to fetch me a pair.  He came back with five pairs. Now I just need to find a size zero model to give them too! Found out later it was for Gilly Hicks who were opening a new store in London - so obviously hired a bus of half naked men to throw free knickers at people!

Lots of pants got caught in the trees!

Time for the exhibition! The reason we had gone that weekend was to see the exhibition COLLECT organised by the Crafts Council, at the Saatchi Gallery.  The exhibition brings together the most amazing makers and crafters from all over world, including work in so many mediums including ceramics, textiles, glass, wood & jewellery.

Once in we went in and headed straight to the work I really wanted to see. Louise Gardiner is an amazing textile artist and I love her witty figurative work and the sense of movement she creates in all her work.

I'd followed her making these pieces for the exhibition on her blog and seen the hours and hours of painstaking embroidery and applique detail that had gone into them, I was really looking forward to seeing them close up in real life.

The five canvases are just over a metre square, and the installation is called 'You Blow Me Away' which shows a fictitious tumbleweed, charting its development from a brittle bundle of twigs as it "rolls across the gallery and it picks up energy and colour and by the last one its an all-singing, all dancing, electric and crazy explosion".  Click on the photos below to see them larger.

Wow, they were amazing.

I stood for ages looking at all the tiny details of the embroidery and applique.  I really liked the variety of fabrics, this looked like shiny black pvc, and touches of neon.

And these bundle of threads, that become unfurled as the tumbleweed develops

To the wild threads as it finally explodes.

Louise did exceptionally well and won Gold in the Textiles category and overall Maker of The Year 2012, very well deserved. 

I thought you might like to see just a few of the other pieces also on Display.

 I loved this hiker, you might just be able to see the clothes are a map with lots of little pins.

Look at these necklaces, I think the bonnets are teeny tiny crochet.

I loved the inspiration board of this jewellery designer

Delicate cherries, so beautiful.

Would you believe we also managed to fit in going to the V&A, no pics sorry, the Tate Modern (brilliant Damian Hirst exhibition on at the moment), and afternoon tea at the Waldorf!  We worked out apart from the tea we were walking for nine hours!

Phew! 

I'll just end with mentioning this exhibition which they were in middle of setting up at the V&A which looks amazing. Its called Ballgowns British Glamour since 1950, (and runs from this coming weekend I think until next January), and the dresses are absolutely stunning, we managed to get a quick peek at some of them, and there are 60 ballgowns and evening dresses from the 1950s to present day previously worn by the Queen, Princess Diana, Liz Hurley on display.  If make it back to London again this year, I'll definitely be going for a look.  

If you have time feast your eyes on this video of the display by the V&A.

Ballgowns: British Glamour Since 1950 / Exhibitions & Galleries / Happenings / V&A Channel

TTFN  xox

My House Today ♥♥♥♥

Weeds your days are numbered.  I'm coming at the weekend..

Violas still looking pretty in the porch...

A pretty new dress my mum bought me yesterday

Dahlias and seeds coming to life in the conservatory.

My newly organised craft book shelf.

Some of my threads and buttons (starting to be sorted in colours). Need more jars!

A nice view in the corner of my craft room.

Happy Thursday xx

A Workshop with the Enchanting Julie Arkell!

Yesterday I met up with lovely sewers, crafters & bloggers to attend a workshop with Julie Arkell at Hope & Elvis.  I love workshops like this, its great to meet up with like minded up people, all of us dotty about fabrics, sewing and Julie Arkell!  I have loved Julie's work ever since I first laid eyes on her beautiful papier mache creatures, and was so inspired after her workshop, that I couldn't wait for her to come back to do another one!

Before we start have a little look around the studio..

 As usual Louise had laid out all the lovely fabrics for us to use

 Look at all these precious bits of special fabrics in the cute cot for us to rifle through x

 There's lots to see around the studio.  One of Louise's pieces by Julie Arkell

 The right royal tea area!  There were some delicious chocolate brownies and blondies to have with our tea!

A piece of Louise's hand embroidered art

A cup of coffee later and a quick look around the shop and then Julie arrived! We all waited excitedly to see her creations be unpacked carefully from her bags. One by one she got them out a made a display for us. Would you like to see? (Do click on the photos for a close up of her work).

 Beautiful Ephemera Brooches

 Fabric flower brooches with lovely long stems, (the steams are perfect to twirl around your fingers in a quiet moment Julie says!)

 More gorgeous flower brooches

Flower bouquet brooches, some made of suffolk puffs

 My favourite -Julie's creatures! Can you see Monsieur Lapin and his curly moustache?

 Tic-toc watches

 I love these tic-toc brooches

 More beautifully embroidered brooches

 One of Julie's latest pieces, a daisy chain which could be worn as a necklace or hair accessory like a tiara, soooo beautiful!

Another of my favourites, Julie's What-not bracelets made of precious little things!

 Julie showing us how to make a daisy for a daisy chain.

And finally her new"Make A Scene Brooches"

This was what she suggested we might like to make on the day. The idea is that you make several elements, like a tree, a toadstool, cloud, rabbit house, creature, flower or little lamb, and then choose several elements to make a scene to wear!  We loved this idea, and thinking about what we would wear sparked a debate about numbers and how many pieces should be worn at once, 3, 5 and 7 seemed to be everyone's preference, 2 was a definite no!

I was so engrossed once we started sewing and chatting that I didn't take any pictures until the end. Here are the pieces that I made on the day:

A Rabbit House

Here it is picture of my Rabbit House with my JA creature brooch "kindness" that I bought on the day

and I also made a 1940's inspired wool brooch ( I still need to finish some of the embroidery around the edge).

Here are some of the beautiful pieces made by other people on the day..

I loved this creature and look at her gorgeous purple leather handbag and purple shoes! 

This beautiful scene By Daisy Moon, (with her creature brooch by JA) can you see "Daisy made a tree" and "I am a summer cloud"!

I loved the fabrics that Anne from Angel Eden used for her cute butterfly and little woollen lamb!

Julie was taking a second workshop today and if you hop over to Hope & Elvis Facebook page I think Louise will definitely be posting more pics.

Julie currently has an exhibition at the Bluecoat Display Centre in Liverpool entitled "I've Dusted the Farmyard" and there are some super pictures on their Facebook page. The exhibition runs until 12th May and I would definitely love to go.

Just a little pic to end of my "treasures" that I've been assembling from my craft room, to make my own little what not inspired bracelet!