My favourite blues

so sorry ... I've been away a while ...

as you can imagine there is much to catch up with and the best way to start again is just to plunge right in with some gorgeous felt pebbles made by my lovely blog friend Chrissie
(of Niminy Fingers and Make Your Presents Felt)
and to thank Chrissie for her thoughtfulness
shown to me during a difficult time

the pebbles are so lovely and soft
so nice to handle and look great arranged in a column

they are just like my favourite pebbles with white veins of quartz
similar the ones to be found on the Cornish beaches

The pebbles came beautifully wrapped
with this gorgeous seaside inspired tag

a beautiful paper heart Chrissie made for me
with some of my favourite words

shells and beads
poppy seeds
moonlight

and this inspiring postcard too
thank you so much Chrissie
I love everything!
♥

In the far south west winter has been lingering
with chilly winds, rain and stormy skies

these photos were taken at Godrevy in February
on a very stormy day with high winds and a high tide

I sat on a rock and watched the waves for hours

I find deserted beaches so peaceful

the foamy surf washing everything clean and new

Godrevy is my peaceful place

This month I was inspired by the knitted textiles of
Hume Sweet Hume on my kitchen calendar

Hume Sweet Hume

I so love the girls' vision and the delicate colours of nature

I was inspired to get some knitting on my needles

for those chilly mornings and late nights
I knitted these fingerless gloves
for my brother who cycles 9 miles each way to work every day


and started a lacey knitted sample to embellish a heart for Chrissie

I used very fine embroidery threads on tiny needles
to achieve the very delicate look I wanted

It has a picot edge

and a lacey row of holes

but I can't show any more until Chrissie has received it
except to say it also features one of these ;o)

these mussel shells were photographed by my sister

Fotos by Flo

her photos are very lovely
and if you are interested in using any of them
they are now available for sale through license with Getty Images
Congratulations Flo!

♥

for Mosaic Monday

I put together some of my favourite blues

1. Mussel shells 2. Connected 3. Beach trio 4. Velella Velella close up
5. . 6. The fog 7. Shell 8. Beach rope and shells 9. Heart stone

I find these blues restful on the eye

♥

since I started writing this post
our weather has been very changeable

with very misty mornings
brightening to warm Spring days

I am hoping the warm spring weather will help me move on
and get back to some kind of blogging routine again

I have many new things in the pipeline
many more goodies to share with you
and some news too ... in the next post

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog
I am so grateful for your patience during the last few weeks

Carolyn
♥

Textiles, rusty boats and peeling paint

Thank you for visiting me and for all comments on recent posts. It's lovely to hear from you and to see new followers

I have a few things to share today ...













Firstly, a couple of pages from my "sketchbook" which isn't really a sketchbook, but more like a sample book! I do draw and sketch a little, mainly still life. When I'm out and about I tend to use my camera for visual recording and a notebook for scribbling thoughts and ideas. Are you the same?

There are so many ways of recording observation, the name "sketchbook" can be daunting. I like to think of mine more as an inspiration book really, just full of my ideas and things I try and recording things I notice with photography, collage, samples, paint and stitch



















On the left I stuck an image in my book that inspired me. I was drawn to the colours and detail in the rocks. Top left I painted a couple of Tyvek tags with acrylics in the same blues as the image, heated them and stitched into them. A few of these Tyvek tags layered on top of each other in my book give a bit of texture and interest

















I made a textile piece using a base layer of dyed cotton, silk, scrim and tissue paper. I was able to stitch into the paper because it had a supporting fabric layer behind

















On top of that I added lots of threads and curly wool tops bonded with bondaweb. Then I embroidered into the surface with hundreds of french knots in a variety of textured yarns of varying thickness, added some lazy daisy stitches and beads


















I love french knots. I find them very therapeutic to stitch. They appear on most things I make. I do like the colours of the sea in this little piece :o)

Another thing I'd love to share is my new favourite thing of layering and adding textures in Photoshop! I've always wanted to know how to do it and it's one of those things that's very easy when you know, so everything is getting the treatment!

St. Ives harbour
















I soon realised that all those texture photos I've taken over the years, all that focusing in on rust and peeling paint etc., would come in handy for adding highlights and interest to otherwise dull photos, of which I have loads!

So ...

This ...






















plus ...

this ...

















can, with a bit of manipulation, become this ...

texture multiplied





















or this ...

texture multiplied with pin light added





















or this painterly look ...

texture overlay plus hard light





















or this more vibrant rusty look ...

texture with vibrant light





















or the same image with the colours reversed and made a little more red (love red)

rust texture vibrant light colours altered





















Using these photos for inspiration I made some samples on my embellisher on a recent Crow Day with my friend Jo. First was a piece of dyed felt which Jo gave me. This gorgeous piece of pre-felt came all the way from Arizona and it's very soft and beautiful






















This is how a small piece of the fabric reacted to being needle punched in the embellisher









The pulled threads look just like little lazy daisy stitches and create great texture and movement. I like it just as it is and the colours remind me so much of rusty boats in St. Ives harbour

















The next few samples were made on the embellisher using felted backgrounds to which I added wool tops, silk tops, snippets of metallic fabrics, chiffons and ladder yarns






















To this one I added some ladder yarns and cellophane sweet wrappers before embellishing. Then I free machine stitched on both samples using a variegated metallic thread






















Below ... you can see I got my inspiration from the colours in my boat photo (the vibrant rust coloured version)






















To take the samples further I cut them up so there were 16 little pieces and re-arranged them. On each little piece I added more snippets of cellophane, fabrics, hand stitching, copper curls, beads and bits of orange netting (like fishing nets)


















I think they look more interesting grouped together like this


















I made them into cards for friends but they would also make interesting little brooches for anyone who liked a St. Ives boat/fishing net sort of thing lol :o)

Another sample where the vertical yarns were embedded in the felt with the embellisher. On top there is machine stitching and lots of "flotsam and jetsam" consisting of copper curls, gem stones, beads and french knots

















The sample below doesn't have a pre-felt backing. I used the embellisher to join wool tops and silk tops together. I enjoyed this one. You could go on forever ... keep adding bits to the side and watching it grow






















I made holes in a piece of blue seawashed plastic I picked up on the harbour beach recently and sewed it to the felt

paint was peeling














Talking of beaches ... I never did show the results of the seaside inchy swap that some of us girls took part in over the summer, so here they are ...

Mine is the top row, second along ... made with a vintage image, text, orange fishing net and a shell

Seaside inchy swap at inchybyinch





















... and finally ... some pebbles ...

















... with free machine stitching into watercolour paper






















I said there would be some blue and orange coming soon didn't I? Well, that's it for now

Hope you are enjoying this beautiful Autumn sunshine we are having or else enjoy being creative and cosy indoors. Happy weekend :o)

Carolyn ♥

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