More Flowers!!!!

I have always insisted that I am not a gardener and I don't want a garden. However, I LOVE flowers. And, I figured the easiest way to get them was to grow them.

The "garden" started off with a couple of pots.

Then a couple more pots.

Then I insisted that we really need something to cover that horrible fence. I wanted Jasmine and Honeysuckle but we ended up with Clematis. I didn't realise there were so many colours. There is just a little bit of ground down beside the path that is behind the pond. Perfect for planting climbers in. And, covered with weed membrane and slate, provides a perfect environment for Clematis.

I have tried to find ones that have different colours and flower at different times of the year. This lovely purple one is coming up strong and has loads of buds on it already. Unfortunately, the white one isn't so strong and the winds which whistle along the fence continually damage it. I might end up cutting my losses on that one and replacing it. I am sure I can find a new home for it.

But my pride and joy is my trough. It is an old animal trough and is about 30 years old. And it looks it! I really love the natural look to it and have tried to plant it with flowers that will enhance it.

White Violets! I didn't know you could get these until a friend gave me some.

And the traditional Violets. Which are spreading all over the trough. But I don't mind, they are so pretty.

These are Daisy type flowers. I think they are a Chrysanthemum. The first year I had them they flowers for ages then died in January. That was when I found out that they were supposed to! It took me ages to find them again! This year I took cuttings and kept them on the kitchen window sill. I cut it back when it started dying off but now it is sprouting again!

This is Felicia. Also known as Blue Marguerite. It was supposed to have died over winter as well but is flowering again. I also have a load of other little flowers in there, hopefully for colour all through the summer. The pea gravel helps stop the compost drying out and provides a lovely background to the flowers.

I am sure you noticed the big Mushrooms in the first one. These are the small ones. I have lots of little ones in the pots, mostly made from Laburnam. That big one in the earlier picture is 22 inches in diameter and big enough to use as a stool!

Too Early to be thinking about Christmas?

I decided to take the plunge and list a couple more things on Etsy. One of which is Christmas stockings. I wasn't sure if it would be too early but, as the listing is for 4 months, I figured that by the end of it, we would be a whole lot closer.

I dont actually want to sell the listing as I make them personalised to order but I couldn't figure out any other way of showing them. I hope this works out!

While I was there, I decided to have a sort out of what is in the wardrobe and have listed some bridal bits as well! Next, I need to sort through the jewellery!!!! The majority of this stuff is what I have made while designing the actual patterns. If I could sell some there would be room in the wardrobe for more stash!!!!!!

Weekly Challenge

I did the weekly challenge on UKS this week. My Team will be pleased with me!!!! Actually, the theme fitted very well with the next page of my Silk album. I did have to go rushing around to see Lesley to find out how to ink some edges and beg some blue brads - but I did it. Makes a change from digi ones. And, shhhhh - don't tell anybody, but I am quite liking this "real" scrapping!

New Silks

I have been working on some new silks. The first one isn't really new, its a copy of "Winter". A bit boring really, I don't like doing the same thing over.

However, I was daft enough to price the Four Seasons separately and sold just one of them. I have decided to make a new one for the sale and keep the other so that I can (hopefully) sell the full set at a later date.

The other one is "Dragonflies". This one is a surprise for a friend and she doesn't "do" computers, so I know I am safe in posting it on here! I thought I could show you how I do it, just in case you fancied having a go your self. I "drew" the outline using bronze gutta.

Then I painted around them with water. That is why they look a different colour in the photo. Next I painted the colours I wanted around them. The water helps the colours blend together. Unfortunately, I didn't make sure the lines were solid enough around the wings, so some of the colour seeped through.

Adding water after the paints have dried a little has a "bleaching" effect. This was how I did the moon.

I also added some water in the wings to lessen the colour in them.

Finally, I added just some small amounts of brown for the grasses.

When it has all dried, you need to steam iron it to fix the colour. A t-towel on the iron board is advised, otherwise you end up with a multi coloured cover!!!!

The colour you choose for backing makes a big difference to the overall colour of the silk. I chose a cobalt blue. It brought out the purples in the paints without being too dark. I cut a circle of white for the centre of the bleached area for the moon. And I carefully cut white to go behind the wings, which I tacked into place. I didn't want any heavy quilting on this one.

I used I used navy, teal and violet threads for the background with paler versions over the moon. The dragonflies will be done by hand when I bead them. I have some bronze filament stashed away somewhere, which I will combine with (maybe) brown thread for the body. And I will use white with the irridescant seed beads on the wings.

On a completely different subject.......

Last night at Craft and Lace group, we had a talk entitled "My Textile Journey" by Bev Mayo.

She has done some stunning work over the years and I was quite fascinated.

I also learned that I do not need a quilting or walking foot for the machine. The way I use the machine would not work with one.

Sunflowers and Pink!

Thank you for the comments on my snowdrops. Crocheting is more than a hobby for me, its a passion!

And, some day, I hope to be able to earn a reasonable amount of money from it.

Although I don't think it will ever earn me a living and certainly not the Aston Martin DB9 I have promised Mark when I become rich and famous!

Here are some more pages from my Silk Album. This is the Sunflowers. I used pieces of the backing and framing fabric on it.

I added the crocheted sun in the corner and Lesley said it needed a stem. So it got turned into a sunflower with a button centre, a wooden stem and some crocheted leaves. The beaded flower was made from beads used on the actual wall hanging and the ladybirds added a bit of colour.

Pink was a bit more difficult to scrap as I really don't like the colour. It seems strange that this one should have turned out to be my signature piece for the exhibition. It doesn't have a whole load of my own handmade embellishments on it. Just the butterfly and flower made from the beads.

But those stitched handmade papers where so pretty that I just had to use them! And I bought those quilted flowers months ago!!!!

Back to Hooking!

In the nicest way possible of course!

The problem with not crocheting for a while is that all the ideas start piling up so that when you do start crocheting again they all want to come out at once.

This means you start at least 5 things in one go and don't get any of them finished.

And, as you start something new, something else springs to mind that you really NEED to do!

I started working on the pattern for the t-shirt. But, as it is black, I need some light relief for the evenings.

So, I made these!

They are inspired by Bee who is about 7 months at the moment. They are only 2½ cm from toe to heel and will make a great "New Baby" card!

I also made a frame for them which you can thread blue or pink ribbon through.

Then I started working on the patterns for the crocheted punctuation I used in some of my Silk Album.

However, I remembered that I had promised to make something for somebody else and, while finding the pattern I needed to adapt to make it, I saw the Snowdrop earrings pattern.

Which reminded me............

Some time ago, Mark made me this vase from a Banskia Nut.

Mam tatted the Sunflower and the leaf which is in it.

I put it on top of the TV.

But it looked lonely so I told Mark it really needed another little vase to keep it company.

He made me this one from a very pretty piece of elm.

This picture makes it look huge but it is only 10.5 cm tall.

This picture really doesn't do the colours and grain justice.

I was going to make Snowdrops to go in it.

That was about 2 years ago!!!!

However, last night, I did!

I had to finish them off this morning but I am really pleased with them.

They are a bit bigger than real snowdrops but I didn't have finer thread in green to make them smaller.

The whole of the head, including the green bit, is about 4cm.

I may redo them in thinner thread at some point.

And sell these on Etsy! LOL

I Love Bargains!

While this beading frenzie has been on, I bought more beads than I used!!!! Ooops!!!! So this meant they didn't all fit in the little plastic case. Then I saw this lovely vanity case in the local charity shop for only £3.

A bit smelly and dirty but some Flash and Fabreeze later and it has come up lovely There is room for all my beads, findings, wire, bead tray and the tools I "borrowed" from Mark - well he has loads!!!!! What's more, there is even room for more beads!!!!!

More Scrapping

Here are the next two layouts for my Silk Album.

The first one is a double layout about painting the silks.

I have used bits of actual silk in it to explain some of the techniques.

And this is a close up of the embellishments.

The second one shows the framing process. Its pretty much the same as a previous post "Its Not All Beading"

And here are the close ups.

They are all crocheted on these pages. The "", {}, and ? are a set of new designs I am working on.

If you want to see more pictures, they are in my Rainbow Valley Photobucket Album.

And finally......

I started putting some stuff in my Etsy shop. Just some puppets for now. I can't add the silks until after the Exhibition has finished and I know what has been sold!

Do you Etsy?

As you may have noticed from my previous post, I joined Etsy.

And, because of the UKS rules, I can not link to my shop from here. However, there are no prizes for guessing my user name!

This afternoon I have finally got around to looking at it a bit more and making the banner for my shop.

So, do you Etsy? If so, I would love to hear fom you with some tips because I am very new to this.

After the hectic pace of the last few weeks, I have taken things a bit easier this week. I have been working on my Silk Album which I didn't get finished in time for the exhibition. Most of the important stuff was done but I wanted to add some more embellishments, particularly ones made from the beads used in the silks.

This is the front page.

I wanted the album to reflect the handmade aspect of the silks, so the album itself is handmade paper and throughout I have used mostly handmade papers and embellishments. I tore them rather than cut them for the "rustic" effect.

This is a digi collage of the embellishments.

Most of the crocheted embellishments used in the album are my own designs, apart from a few flowers on "Winter" which came from a crocheted flower exchange. The beaded embellishments are made from the beads which were used on the actual silks.

And, of course, I have been crocheting. I have been working on the pattern for the vest I wore in this post. I am making another one in black then I have to find some testers for the size above mine and the one below.

Also, I have been working on something inspired by Bee. You can see that very soon!

Announcement!

Stop Nagging!!!!

I signed up for Etsy!!!!!

The Morning After.

It sort of went ok.

I managed to get tea sorted and the family sorted and get there on time. Although the Tesco van we got stuck behind on the way did have me worried for a bit.

However, hardly any people came. Only two I invited came. I must have invited about 50,000 people.

Yes, I know that most of them lived a bit far away. Although I didn't think it was that much hassle to hop on a plane and come over from the US for a couple of hours!!!!!

The good news is, I sold Winter!!!!!

There is also somebody interested in the full set. If they do want them, I will have to make another Winter. I didn't really want to but a sale is a sale.

Tonights the night!

Loads of butterflies!!!!!

I have to be there at 5.50pm tonight, which means organising tea and the family extra early. Fun!!!

The scrapbook is coming along nicely but the journalling is taking ages. There will be a load more journalling tags when I have finished. I decided I didn't like the others, couldn't get the text to line up with the lins so am making more as I go along!

I would love to see anybody who is able to come along and support me. Just click on the pink invite on the left for details.

Back to the scrapbook!

Summer is here!

Although you wouldn't believe it from the weather!

Anyway, it wasn't that Summer I was on about!
As with the others it is 23 cm square and the quilting as much the same as possible.
I used a bright yellow backing fabric to get the vibrance of summer.

I covered the twigs with green beads, apart from the very end which I put shades of peach beads for flowers.
Then I put multi coloured flowers around the tree and cottages.

There are nearly 1000 beads on this one!
Hope you like it!
I went to the Angles Theatre in Wisbech this morning to hang the silks. I took a few pics of them in situ.
I will post lots of pics for you next week - but first I have a scrapbook to finish..........

I have an award!

Thank you Cass! I haven't had one before!

Now I have to nominate 3 people for one. As Cass said, this isn't easy so I have just picked 3 that I like to visit.

First of all, Debby. She makes loves cards!

Secondly, Lesley. Not at all craft related but she has a way with words!

And last, but not least, my Mam. You should see her tatting!

Thats it for today folks, I have lots to do!

Free Digi Journalling Templates

I have been busy this morning and it wasn't beading!

I want to make a scrapbook, by Sunday, of my silks. Yes, a tall order.

However, this is where friends - especially friends that scrap - come in useful!

I went around to see Lesley with some ½ formed ideas of what I want and now have some 3/4 formed ideas!!!!!

And have arranged a scrapping session for Friday.

Anybody else want to come and help?

As part of this, I have been playing in PSE. I want a lot of journaling in it to explain how things are done, similar to some of the posts on here. So I made some journaling templates.

I want to include scraps of silk and fabrics. Also the beads I have used.

The pictures shown here are of the templates after I filled them with paper. The two Rainbow papers are from Tracy Dean, Vibrant swirl and Wishywashy Bright.

I am not sure where the others came from but they are called CFR LPO Paper SpringColor and MST CollegeDays LeatherGold. They are most probably from Scrapgirls.

You can download the templates from here.

Enjoy!

Atelier East presents

This is my press release from Atlier East about my exhibiton. Only a few days left now. I am not including the pics, they are all on here already!

Helen Free – Silk

An Exhibition at the Angles Theatre, Wisbech, Cambs.

Bright, bold and colourful- the best words to describe the work of textile artist Helen Free who’s exhibition entitled Silk opens on April 6th at the Angles Theatre, Wisbech.

Silk is a collection of beautifully sumptuous floral motifs- all hand painted onto silk, lightly quilted and embellished with beadwork and stitching.

Helen was brought up to appreciate crafts; she loves working with textiles- sewing, quilting, silk painting, knitting, tatting, crocheting and much more. Helen was taught to crochet by her father when she was very young and now she is a successful crochet pattern designer and writer, selling her patterns worldwide through her website.

“This is the first time that we have shown textile work at the Angles Theatre and I am sure people will really like it. Helen’s work is really fresh and vibrant- perfect for cheering us up after the winter months!” said Karen Harvey who has curated the exhibition for Atelier East.

Silk by Helen Free will be showing from 6 April – 2 May at the Angles Theatre.

On Sunday 6 April from 6-8pm there will be a free opening reception and, as always, everyone is welcome to come along.

The theatre is also open Monday to Friday all day and Saturday mornings, plus it is open for shows. Best the check with the theatre if you are going out of normal hours.

For more information on exhibitions at the Angles Theatre contact info@atelier-east.co.uk

The current exhibition by Jennie Claire runs until Friday 4th April.

Autumn

As promised yesterday, here are the pics of the third silk in the set, Autumn. As with the others it is 23 cm square.

And as you can probably see by now, I have tried to keep the quilting as much the same as possible on them all. I used a rust coloured backing fabric to get the warm glow of autumn. I used a variety of gold, brown, root beer and irridescant amber for the leaves. I left quite a lot of the twigs bare to try to get the effect of the leaves falling off.

Then I put some dotted about as if falling off the tree. And loads on the grass. There are about 300 beads on this one.

April Calendar

Between the frenzied activity in getting ready for the exhibition and the dreadful weather, I haven't had much chance to go out and take something new for Aprils Calendar.

So, as so many of you like this one, I decided to use it!

I finished Autumn this morning. Pics tomorrow.