And there's more...

This is for the Stitched Textile Design group where this month's challenge was a journal page based on Klimt. I chose his painting Hope II to base this page on loosely. A lot of techniques have gone into making it and I'm reasonably happy with the way it turned out, not knowing what a textile journal page looks like.

Mixed Media Monday challenge

How strange is that, with all the work I have to complete by end of tomorrow I still had time to answer the challenge this week and it has been ages since I was able to do this. I bought the sizzix dye cut for this bird two weeks ago and have been looking for a reason to cut one and there it was! Now I have to get back to work or I'll miss the deadlines for that too.

OOPs! just checked and this should be next week, now I'm ahead of myself...what a wally!

Petals

Inspire Me Thursday's challenge is Petals and I had this little piece in my kitchen waiting for somewhere to go. I had made a background of lengths of wool, sandwiched between two layers of soluble film and a grid stitched over it. Then the petals were FME'd again on soluble film along with some leaves and added to the background. The centres are strips of organza gathered up and snipped to form stamens. I used a delicate background paper so that the clematis would stand out.

Yesterday, at the market, was really busy and I collected 4 orders much to my surprise. I have not seen it so busy for quite a while and one customer said he had come all the way from Crediton to see me, bless him. This means that I'll have no spare time for playing next week so I'm trying to finish my challenges today.

Happy to be back home

Last week I must have driven 700 miles in 3 days, as I agreed to take Bert back to Cheshire and visit my mother. We started out by putting the dogs into a local kennel at 09:00 then headed for the M5, the M6 and points north. The weather was glorious until we reached Stoke and then deteriorated quickly into heavy rain. I dropped Bert off in town and headed for my mother's house, getting there about 14:30 and unloaded all my presents for her, and after an evening meal we watched 'Taken', a DVD my sister had left for us - quite a powerful film. The next day we went shopping and found her a lovely coat for the summer in a curious shade of yellow/green; it fitted her beautifully. We had lunch at the local Beefeater and that night watched a film called Australia which was not really my cup of tea, but quite entertaining.

The next day I headed home at 06:20, getting to Birmingham and the usual stop/start conjestion at about 07:30, but once on the M5 I was away and steaming towards home. I cannot describe the feeling of passing that DEVON boundary sign on the way, it is like everything drops off my shoulders and leaves me feeling happy.

I was unable to concentrate much on the Friday, and although I had many project ideas they would not gel into anything useful, so I gave up and read my book, watched TV and had a good night's sleep. However, Saturday was different, I had some zing in me and managed to get going again. I looked at the IMT challenge which was FAMILY and looked for pictures of everyone, trying to decide whether to use my immediate family or my children and decided to go with mine. I found some plant sticks in the local supermarket and printed and cut pictures of everyone and stuck them to the page using brads. I put red brads for Dad and Vivienne as they were no longer with us, and the forget-me-nots for rememberance. The house that surrounds us was made using gesso, moulding paste and acrylics.

Lastly, I had this idea of making a Hug Angel for my friend who is feeling a bit down at the moment. I find this with people who garden, the winters are long and they cannot get out into their garden and weed etc. There is no planning to be done or plants to nurture, so they spend the time indoors, not good - Mum is like this. I wish she had more contact with people, but she is very hesitant and the initial effort is great, so she doesn't bother. Hopefully this will give Jean a lift when she feels that way again. I also made her a laughter booklet for her birthday.

Well, I have to get back to making waistcoats as I have 3 orders to fill and only 3 days to do them in. The sun beckons but is still cold in the morning so that is a great time to work and to sit in the garden in the afternoon, finishing off.

On the Beach challenge

I know I'm too late to add this to the Mixed Media challenge for last week, which was 'On the Beach' but I remembered this page I had done for my sampler book which seemed to answer the call. I used aquarelle paint sticks for the background and some xpandaprint both at the bottom and top to represent sand. A beach picture was printed onto inkjet acetate and cut into 3 then stitched onto the page; a pocket of fine lutrador and a shell completed the picture. I also made a postcard from vilene, painted and stamped plus a picture of my grandfather on his bike and the words 'wish you were here' added in little baloon alphabet stickies.

This week has been decidedly busy as Bert and I got stuck into the garden, taking rubble to the recycling centre (once I had reccied it) and chopping down dead trees and clipping bushes. We now have a neat and tidy garden to sit in the sun and dream. Bert has also bought me a Big Shot and Xyron for my scrapping so I'll be so busy when he has to return to Macclesfield for more tests. He surprised me this visit as he looks wonderfully well and is acting stronger and more positive. I can't get over the change in him and he is tackling more jobs around the house, bless him.

Tomorrow I head north to see my mother and spend a few days with her, taking Bert back at the same time, and I'll return on Thursday, ready for more challenges.