Sunday 2 November 2008

Unexpected award



I got this award from Robin. I was thrilled as blogging is a fairly new experience for me. I have linked it back to her so do check out her site as she does some beautiful work. I now I have to link it to four followers of my blog and one from overseas. Hope I can manage to do that without too many headaches.







I find the work done on all these blogs so interesting and varied. It is great to be able to share our passion with people from all over the world, one really positive aspect of the internet I guess.

Having been given the award by Robin it has made me realise that it is a while since I put pen to paper so to speak. I have been so busy doing the things that I enjoy that I don't seem to have spent too much time at the computer. I'm still 'running in' the new machine so decided to make a quick quilted wall hanging inspired by a project from Kathleen Guerrier in Quilt WOW which is the sister online magazine to WOW, both excellent value for money online magazine. I had several pieces of Japanese fabric that I wanted to do something with, other than stroke, and also some Laurel Burch cat fabric so I thought 'what if ...?' - as we do. This is not really my sort of thing but it was fun and enabled me to get to grips with the machine. I find it quite cheerful so am now looking for somewhere to hang it.





The group who were doing Dales embellishing class have been doing an ATC exchange since the class finished. I have received some beautiful cards so far and what continues to amaze me is how a group of people who are taking the same class can come up with ideas that are so different. I am old enough to remember the days when a class was supposed to replicate what the teacher had prepared - how things have moved on and for the better. Couldn't resist putting them all together just to give you a taste of the variety.



Working small seems to have been the order of the day for me lately. I have also become involved in ATC trades in a group called Fabric ATCs One to One. I turned some old C & G samples into ATCs for the Recycle challenge, the images have not turned out well as they were a bit too fat to scan well and also the camera did not seem to do them justice.




The next one trade is for something felted so I decided to revisit a lesson from the embellisher course. It involved embellishing paper napkins onto foiled felt and I wasn't happy with it at the time but I then found some gorgeous napkins - how gorgeous are these!


They worked really well when embellished and the colours have turned out to be nicely muted, with a bit of embellishment, acrylic wax, to stop them from falling apart and a touch of Treasure Gold, I am really pleased with them.



I am really trying to make the most of my time off now that I am doing a job share so I have also enrolled in two online classes at Joggles with Sharon Boggon both are design based which is something I feel that I need more guidance with. I have also enrolled in the FREE online lessons with Maggie Grey which are directly linked to her new book Textile Translations: mixed media. The book is awesome, and having printed off the first lesson, I can't wait to get started.

Finally, before finishing today's ramblings I have eventually got my copy of Photoshop CS3 installed - yes I decided to splash out get the full version. I had been struggling with 'layers' on my copy of Photoshop Elements but the other day finally got to grips with it. Just in time to do something for a postcard swap with the theme of Antarctica. I have real concerns about the effect that climate change is having in this region and I just love Emperor penguins so I was delighted with the way the fading images of the penguin worked.



So much for blogging for today, I now have to go and get myself and the cat settled for what is the final Grand Prix of the season. Today's will decide the championship and if I say that I am (and always have been) 'tifosi' then you will know that I am not rooting for Lewis.

Go the Prancing Horse!

10 comments:

  1. Hi Maggie. What a busy lady you have been. I too have given you an award on a previous posting with a little comment as to why! Thats two you have! Well done, very much deserved! Your quilting is lovely and what a great idea to embellish onto a napkin. And once again your ATC's are beautiful. xx

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  2. Maggie, I'm sorry that you must have had a disappointing day. I couldn't believe that the result of a whole season of F1 races in the end depended on luck, rather than driver's skill.

    Lorchen (TQS)

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  3. Maggi - I would be horrified if I thought people would just replicate what I do - I love all the individuality.
    Dale

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  4. Nice quilt. The exchanges look like they were fun. The class from Fibreinform is worth it-lots of experimenting. Thanks for visiting my blog.

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  5. Maggi,

    Thank you SO MUCH for the award - I'm really honored!!

    I enjoyed this post too - the atcs you did for your one to one group are lovely - I'd love to see them IRL! And the ones where you used the napkins - wow! I didn't manage to do that lesson - I see I need to go back to it.

    I'd love to know how you like Sharon Boggon's classes - I've looked at them myself. I'm going to check out the free class you mentioned too.

    Finally - your Antarctic postcard is wonderful! I have Photoshop CS2, and haven't used it much lately - I used to do a lot of digital scrapbooking, but that's kind of on the back burner these days. Your penguins turned out great.

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  6. Hi Maggie,
    the penguin waddled to it's new home in Istanbul on a rather unseasonally warm day - lovely!

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  7. Hello Maggi, thankyou so much for my award and for your very kind comment. Your quilt is delightful -like looking through a window onto a magical scene. The ATC's and the 'recycled' ones are lovely. I love the ones on your earlier posts and your cousin's card and gift box - lucky cousin. I have often been tempted to try ATC's but just never got round to it. Those embellished napkin samples are absolutely gorgeous - I've not tried that either. So much to do!!!

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  8. Hi Maggie thanks for visiting I shall look forward to seeing your ideas

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  9. Thankyou again and yes I am having a digital camera for Christmas. I only hope I shall be more adept with it than I have been on occasions with the laptop!! It will be nice not to have to keep asking my daughter to take photos for me, but for a while I think she will be in demand as a tutor. Good job she is so patient!

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  10. lol good to see there's another of us "ladies who stitch" who's into the F1! I was so surprised at the emotional intensity and that I could be so involved in that race as a spectator. A fantastic finale to the season who ever you were rooting for (personally jumping for joy on that last corner of that last lap ;))

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