One Pheasant and Two 'turtles'

Hi everyone,

Funny title you may think, but I've been asked if the no. 2 man in my life is still visiting, so here is a recent photo to show you he's still looking splendid.

Mr.  Pheasant Jan 2013

As for the next part of the title, we have had 2 'turtle' days this week. Tuesday was all about admin, up-dating paper work, deciding on new pieces for workshops and working on ideas to take Beyond Patchwork forward.
To that end, we have set up The 'Shopping Shed', you'll find it up and running on our web site, thanks to Carolyn's daughter Rebecca. At the moment we have our Sail Boat and Tug Boat 'Recipes', a selection of our printed cards depicting our own work and gift vouchers, which always make good presents. We will continue adding an assortment of items, so pop back often to see what's new.

You'll also find our newsletter on the web site, but if you would like us to send you a copy each month, just drop us your email address, so you'll always be kept up-to-date.

Our second 'turtle' day was Thursday, having got the mundane stuff out of the way it was time to get things rolling. In an earlier post we showed you some background fabric, this has now been used to make a project for our Easter Retreat Weekend at Degembris Manor Farm on the 22nd-24th February.

Tulip Bowl

View of lacy lining

It's based on our ever popular Fuchsia Box, we've made changes, shape, construction and the addition of a pretty lacy lining made from dis-solvable fabric.
This would be the perfect addition to an Easter table filled with Easter Eggs or Easter Biscuits or as a gift for someone special.

Now, to leave you with another little teaser, a few photos of work in progress for a Transfer Dye workshop.............

Longer than normal post today, but hope you enjoyed seeing what we get up too.
Thanks for reading
Sue

Inspired in Germany

Konstanz

We have just come back from a wonderful weekend break in the South of Germany.  Although it was only for a such a short time we saw some lovely sights and I have come home inspired!

Konstanz

The town of Konstanz is on the boarder with Switzerland and was all that you would expect from a Germany town built circ 1400.  These are just two of the photos that we took.  The building were painted to emphasise the square blocks.

This old door was typical of the heavy doors that we saw, with beautiful iron work.




We also took the train to the Rhein Falls.  This photo does not do it justice, but hopefully you will get an idea of the volumn of water and the noise!!  It was incredible.  We did managed to get quite close to the water,, but because of the snow we were unable to get to the lowest level, maybe next time!

Rhien Falls

Now to get my ideas out of my head and into fabric (via a sketchbook Sue!!) I will keep you up-dated of my progress.


Carolyn

Shades of BLUE - eventually!

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Well.......eventually I have finished the challenge Sue & I started last January.

I have kept the same thought process for all of the pieces in this challenge, that was to experiment with various media; for the four Blue months I have used ‘weave’ as my background.  I have always liked to weave with fibres and fabric, but this time I wanted to try different styles too, although looking at all 12 together they do seem to hava a similarity running through them.  

I thought that ‘Blue was going to be an easy choice, but again I have favourites and some that I would not do again.  I chose the ‘sky’ as the theme for these pieces which has predictably developed into the weather too.

September - Storm Clouds

September - Storm Clouds

For this piece I used threads for my warps and a variety of weights fabrics for the weft.  The fabric (Weft) is a selection of free cut, hand-dyed cotton and satin; and purchased felt, wool and the warp is a variety of wool and embroidery threads, both of which were bonded to a background fabric.  I love the juxtaposition of the thin and thick, rough and smooth.  I decided to keep the quilting to a minimum so just used large seed stitches to depict the rain drops.

October - Iso-Blue

October - Iso-Blue

The background for this piece is just 3 fabrics, again bonded to a background fabric.  In this case the weft is hand-dyed felt and the warp is purchased cotton and satin.  I covered the piece with blue organza which I burnt away in a few places to reveal the weave below.  The echo quilting was done on the machine and represents the ‘Isobars’ on the weather charts.  I have furrowed the organza and added silk tops for areas of ‘depression’.  Large seed beads and hand quilting have been added also.

November - Rainy Days

November - Rainy Days

I used a piece of calico covered with Gesso and scrim which was then painted with Inktense and spray painted, this became the free cut warp.  The weft is a piece of purchase satin that was also free cut.

The quilting mirrors the pattern of the weave with the addition of smaller felt, fabric paper and thread weaves.  I called it ‘Rainy Days’ because it reminds me of looking out through a window at the rain pouring down. 

December - Torquay Skies

December - Torquay Skies

My final piece is possibly my favourite piece, possibly because of the colour.  I was going to call it ‘Turquoise Skies’, but changed that to ‘Torquay Skies’ because as a child I spent every summer in Torquay at my Granddad’s and as we all know it was always perfect sunshine when we were children!  

I used a technique that I found in Gwen Hedley’s ‘Drawn to Stitch’ book, which is a variation on weave.   

Again all the pieces where bonded to a background fabric, and I used paper, cotton and satin.  All the pieces were torn and the rough edges left.  The machine quilting is simple lines and couched threads.

Now I can get busy with all the new things that are buzzing around my head.

Carolyn 

First 'turtle' day of 2013......................

Its been ages since Carolyn and I have got together for a 'turtle' day. After a catch up, coffee and of course biscuits, we started work making patterns and templates for our new Easter project.

Not much to see at present, but below is a little taster of background fabric to get us started.  

We'll reveal more as we go along.

If you haven't had a chance to look at our new Diary Dates, then pop over to our web site and see our wide selection of workshops on offer. Our next one, Free Machine Quilting and Painting on 7th Feb at Fraddon Village Hall is one of my favourites. If Free Machining sends you into a panic, let us coax you through the stages with a variety of patterns on a small manageable piece.

If you're already a whiz, then we'll show you a painting technique that will enhance your quilting. It's a fabulous day to learn a new skill.

Here in Cornwall we have escaped the snow so far, but if it's keeping you indoors I hope you're keeping busy and warm being creative.

Bye for now
Sue

New Year.......... 'Itchy Fingers'

Hope you've had a wonderful Christmas and enjoyed the celebrations.

It's time to get back into creative mode for me, after a very long time away from anything to do with needle and thread.
Before Christmas I started to move sewing rooms, which was then put on hold while we visited family over the festive period. I'm just about moved and organized now and hopefully I'll remember where I've put everything!

We briefly visit our daughters in London and on a walk at the Southbank Centre we came across this amazing sculpture.......... 

Under The Baobab

I've googled it since coming home, it's part of the Festival of the World and it's a stack of fabric rings standing 15 metres tall, using material from around the globe, I think it's wonderful, wish I'd taken a close up.
Here are a couple of other things I thought were interesting.........

Painted Patchwork 1

Painted Patchwork 2

Some graffiti art in a skate park.................


If like me you're desperate to get creative, we have a variety of workshops at Fraddon Village Hall and also at Coast and Country Crafts and Quilts, Perranarworthal, starting with our popular Fuchsia Box on January 17th at Fraddon. We've also been invited to take an Easter Retreat at Degembris Manor Farm on February 22nd - 24th, more details of that to follow. As always the details of all our workshops can be found on our web site.

Tomorrow I hope to spend a few hours settling into my re-located sewing room and relieve my 'itchy fingers'.

And finally, on behalf of Carolyn and myself, I'd like to take this opportunity to wish you a very happy and creative 2013, thanks for reading.

Sue