August

what a month!

 

August turned out to be the busiest month of my year so far

 

 

the month started with a family holiday ... my family staying with me for a few days

we had lots of childish fun playing everything from charades to Cluedo

baked cookies, spent time in St. Ives and went beachcombing on the rocks

 

 

I helped my nephew make a crystal snowflake

and together we made a memory jar from the beach finds

which he calls his "summer beach star jar"

 

as usual I took a great many photos of colour on the beach

 

 

 

colours from the beach often inspire my work and hand made beads

 

 

below ... colours in seaweed

(macro photography)

 

 

just a few days later I attended Festival of Quilts 2015 at Birmingham

with my own entry inspired by watching the dark skies over the bay

 

 

"watching the dark sky"

I enjoyed making this abstract piece which is 50 x 134 cm

 

the background is hand painted cotton

and I used a variety of materials including my melted fabrics,

pieces of knitting and felt, silver paper, metallic fabrics and pieces of carpet!

 

pieces of silk were hand dyed or painted and I incorporated a section

at the bottom using the technique of reverse applique with french knots and beads

 

 

I was very pleased with the colours and the choice of materials

and especially like the reverse applique "rocks" which have since inspired some stitched pebbles

small rocks at low tide inspired the colours and shapes



 

however, the quilting needs more attention ... ie. it needs more quilting and stitching

(it was very hard to pull it through my sewing machine when I wasn't well)

but I didn't worry about that when I sent it up to Festival

I have a whole year to play with it before it goes on show again in 2016

 

this is what the whole panel looks like ...

 

"watching the dark sky"

 

I had a wonderful time at Festival of Quilts

my friend Margaret and I stayed at The Hilton for a couple of nights

and we had lots of time to meet up with many other stitching and textile friends

spent a fortune and, as you can imagine, took hundreds of photographs

 

I will share some of the wonderful quilts in a separate post

but here are just a couple of my most favourite art quilts

above - the work of Sandra Meech in response to the flooding of the Somerset Levels

 

 

above and below - the work of Genevieve Attinger - called  "La Rumeur"

 

 

part of the "Through our Hands" exhibition

which was my most favourite part of the show

 

it was while I was at Festival of Quilts I started to feel very unwell

(only in hindsight did I realise that I may have been ill for longer)

and I've since been diagnosed with quite a rare auto immune illness

which I'm having to learn about and come to terms with

 

so ... lots of medication and the need to rest

means I can't put in the long hours I am used to doing

I've had to take a bit of time out from the internet

because it was making me feel very tired and aggravated symptoms

(that's why I haven't been around quite so much recently)

 

but, actually, it was nice to step back and have more time to sew and make beads

 

 

I had my Mum and sister down to stay last weekend

and I managed a short walk out to the post office with them

 

it was nice to spend time down in the harbour

 

 

and just a few days ago ... I had a lovely day in Truro with friend Jo

we went to see "The Mousetrap" at Hall For Cornwall

 

meanwhile ...

I've also been working a bit on my pieces for St. Ives Textiles

we have our show in just under two weeks time

as part of St. Ives September Festival

 

12-19 September 2015

at Porthmeor Studios, Back Road West, St. Ives

 

St. Ives Textiles

 

 

samples and gatherings

 

 

card making

 

 

and sun printing

 

well ... I think that's all as we see August out

except to say I will be updating my etsy shop on Saturday 5 September

I will have some of my newest hearts and beads for sale

so please pop by if you are interested

 

Carolyn Saxby Textiles

 

thank you for reading today ♥

Secret seagulls

thank you so much for your get well wishes left here
and on my other blog, on flickr, twitter and facebook
I'm so grateful for your kind thoughts

it's been a nasty summer flu bug but I am now on the mend

(seagull in disguise)

over the next week I will be adding the finishing touches to
my art quilt entry for Festival of Quilts so I won't get time
to write any more here for the next week or so
but I may update on Love Stitching Red

thank you for visiting me today
back soon!

sunshine and love
Carolyn ♥

a gallery of green

Today I am embracing the colour green with a few pebble/round shaped samples from my sketchbook seaweed elements of my art quilt and remembering a summer day when everything that caught my eye was green

nougat

I love playing and sampling ... such fun!

the first few samples were inspired by sliced nougat

loving all those round pebble shapes
looking at those wonderful lines and textures

noticing the many tones of brown in the walnuts

being seduced by that lovely lime green angelica

yes ... there is inspiration to be found in everything!

playing with my paints
mixing copper, gold and sap green to recreate the tones

and using fabrics from my stash to play with pebble shapes

a simple and fun example of reverse applique

I used a synthetic kunin felt for the background. On top of that I layered an animal print fabric and then a soft lime and green fabric on top. I used my sewing machine to stitch some pebble shapes and then carefully cut through the green fabric to reveal the animal print fabric below

after cutting out the pebble shapes
I top stitched over the edges to secure fraying

and stitched round some of the green shapes too

to complement ... I cut some round shapes from paper
and stitched to the felt through brown sequins

I painted some textured paper with copper and sap green and used the pebble shapes I cut from the green fabric, arranging them into a pebble column which I then stitched to the paper with black thread and free motion stitch

fun little samples looking at shape and tones of colour

These are a few details from the bottom of my St. Ives quilt. The background is silk that I dyed variegated shades of green dark through lime and yellow greens

I had loads of fun embellishing the sea bottom with real shells, beads, textured threads that fanned out like seaweed, melted plastic carrier bags, melted textured chiffon fabrics and tiny hand stitches

the finished edge of my quilt folded over
with seaweed and coral elements

long lengths of frayed silk knotted for texture

and my quilt features pieces of real seaweed
couched to the silk with beads added

real seaweed (lettuce variety) on the left

and then, inevitably, I get the urge to create a mosaic
featuring beautiful photos from my friends on flickr

(hope you like it Jackie)

1. I dream in chordaria 2. Ghost flower
3. Seaweed Tolsta Beach, Isle of Lewis
4. River deep Mixed Media Collage

the rest of these photos are from a summer day
walking on Porthminster beach

green seaweed, barnacles and mossy rocks

a tangle of flotsam and jetsam

green string and weed in a rock pool

green layers of rock decorated with moss

a type of bladderwrack growing on the rocks
beneath Pedn Olva Hotel

seaweed branching

seaweed

a green crab ... still alive

green rocks

more research:
The Natural History Museum:
Identifying British Seaweeds

hope you enjoyed the gallery of green
have a great weekend and week ahead
Carolyn

♥

rainy day ramblings

For the first time in ages I've had time to go through my photos and have a good catch up on both blogs. I'm showing Autumn inspiration on LOVE STITCHING RED and now a good catch up is needed over here too ... I got busy with real life and then lost my momentum ... easily done when your head is full of "fluff and beads"!

A few weeks ago now ... I got along to an exhibition of work by artist Trevor Bell at the Millennium Gallery, St. Ives

TREVOR BELL AT EIGHTY
EARTH AIR FIRE WATER AETHER
















My first impression was one of amazement at the size and scale of his work ... artwork taking up a whole wall ...






















... and then I began to look closely ... and was fascinated with the detail ... and then interested to find that, although my first love is red, I find myself more and more drawn to sea blues and rusty coppery oranges, so expect to see some in my next blog post!

















The blues came out in this heart I made for my friend Cathie recently, inspired by the cottages of St. Ives and the work of Alfred Wallis

Cafes and places to be





















It's a mixed media heart stitched on cotton and silk that I dyed myself in aqua and pale mauve, with an aqua blue satin backing, it incorporates my distressed chiffons, wool tops, melted plastic, scrim, text, beads, tiny hand stitches, french knots and mussel shells

















I do enjoy making these because each one comes out different. This one has text "Cafes and places to be" which I think is lovely. In my mind, it's Bumbles Tea Room on The Digey, St. Ives surrounded by little white washed cottages with lichen covered rooftops and Alfred Wallis's cottage just opposite

Alfred Wallis's cottage





















Alfred Wallis, artist and mariner, lived here

















The work of Alfred Wallis















Bumbles Tea Room is up a little cobbled street in St. Ives and just around the corner from Porthmeor beach and The Tate. It's quaint and cute and has knitted cupcakes on plates in the window and old fashioned cakes. I hope you have tea there one day

Up the steep little street
















My blog friend Julie and I had tea and cakes in there a couple of weeks ago. It was a dark, rainy day so we couldn't think of anywhere nicer and cosier to sit and chat and exchange little gifts

This is the heart I made for Julie ...






















... and Julie made this beautiful book for me ...






















I absolutely love it! The front and back are completely covered in layers of fabric, textured threads and stitch. Julie made a long cord which wraps several times around the book and ties with seahorse and starfish charms


















Inside, I had a "wow" moment because all of the pages are hand painted and different types of paper and look at these ...

















... pages of beautiful water colour pebbles
















My book is gorgeous. Thank you Julie ♥

















Later in the day Julie and I went beachcombing on the lifeboat beach, looking mainly for plastic and knitted materials rather than my usual pebbles and shells

Rainy day
















The next day was rainy and dark
















Rainy and dark
















This is what I did with some of the pieces. Texture by Les Brumes

playing with the pieces





















Well, as you know, it never rains for long in St. Ives, especially if you have a sunny nature! A few days later the weather was back to being gorgeous again. This is me with the quilt I stitched for Festival of Quilts 2010. I am very grateful to Julie's DH for taking the photo. I wanted one of the quilt with St. Ives in the background. It was taken at the Malakoff















This one was taken on Friday 8th October when I walked down to St. Ives to see textile art by Wendy Topsey in St. Ives Arts Club

No matter how many times I see this view I fall in love each time
















Hope you have a great week. I'm already working hard on the next post which is the one I meant to show you before ;o) but before I go I want to share this absolutely gorgeous postcard that my friend Jo sent me recently. Thank you so much Jo ♥ ... I love it!















Carolyn ♥