Embellisher

Playing with my embellisher over the past few weeks has been great fun and I have to say easy, thanks to Myfanwy Hart. Chelmsford's Embroiderers' Guild have been extending their library over the past two years and have started a collection of Colouricious DVD's. Last year we were lucky enough to have Myfanwy as a guest speaker and bought both of her DVD's Inspired Embellishing Levels 1 & 2. As a complete novice I learnt alot from them, but I do wish that Colouricious would change the format and let the teacher teach, instead of the students constantly butting in and trying to take over. I have also watched Angie Hughes and Gilda Baron's workshops in this format and I can recommend them both too. We have also purchased the new DVD's by Gina Ferrari and Kim Thittichai, but I haven't had time to watch them yet. Just a warning if you order them from Amazon, check that you have been sent the correct one before opening it. A friend of mine was sent the wrong disc and didn't realise until too late. The senders response was "tough", not even an apology and and offer of free postage for the corrct one!

January's UFO: Ploughed Fields

This small wall hanging was started at a workshop with the Ladybugs patchwork group. The workshop was run by Nickie and I'm sure is was about four years ago. I loved the techniques used and came home and carried on working on my piece. I even dyed some fabric for the binding and had a go at stitching on a continuous binding for the first time. It has then stayed at this stage for years, but I can now say that I have finished it. Sorry about the quality of the picture.

Calendar Challenge Jan/Feb

First page completed on my calendar journal. Making the page is fun, the challenge is to focus on just one thing to write about. Almost 125 people joined this challenge in January, and I managed to visit about 90% of them and leave a comment. I know that I will not be able to do this each month.

February's page is made and ready to start journalling in, I have added a few notes already. The idea for this page came from a link on a blog I read by The Magic Bean. The article was about valentines Day and the template for the tree from Disneyfamily.com. I want to add some heart doodles to the page during the month, but need to buy some pens. Luckily a new craft show is on this weekend at Bluewater, Kent. It is two shows in one, covering creative stitches and hobbycrafts. Have a look at the link to see all the exhibitors, it looks like a great show.

At the beginning of the month I drew up a chart for the year to help me focus on my textile projects and hopefully hit deadlines. So far I am on track 100%. The past couple of years at work have not been very pleasant and I hadn't realised how the negative attitude there at spilled over into my private life. I always used to be an achiever, but of late I had become a thinker and talker, and not a putting those ideas into practise. I am positive that all of this will change this year.

Today, I also start a three month programme with a personal trainer at Virgin Active. I have already had a taster class, so I know what I am letting myself in for, but I am not looking forward to this afternoon or tomorrow when I will ache all over.

Chelmsford Embroiderers' Guild

We have some interesting speakers over the next few months. Please feel free to attend as a visitor, £4 includes tea and biscuits.

Tag Tuesday "Lace"

My last tag for January. We have been given the titles for February and I have to say I am really excited about one of them, lots of ideas going around in my head. Initially, I had thought that I would use the tags on special presents. But, after speaking to Sharne, I might make a collection of them, especially as I want to use this challenge to explore new techniques and media. I love Beryl Taylor's work and so I might use her inspiration to display them.

Glove Dogs

Another successful meeting with Chelmsford's Young Embroiderers', with another new member coming along. The idea for this meeting was to make a dog from a pair of gloves (50p a pair from Primark). Some of the girls loved the different ideas in the books I had taken as inspiration, so we also ended up with a couple of pigs, and elephant and a reindeer. The samples above were made by our youngest members in Year 5 & 6. The majority of them were finished during the meeting, a few others just had a tail or a limb to attach. 

Tag Tuesday 'Vintage'

This week I started my tag on Sunday, but I felt it fitted in more with next weeks title. So here is version two of the theme 'vintage'. I used some lace printed paper, lace and a key from a purchased necklace from Primark. In the sale the necklace was only £1and included over ten different keys.