City and Guilds Dilpoma Exhibition

For those of you who know me or have been following my blog for a long time I can now shout that I have "COMPLETED MY CITY AND GUILDS DIPLOMA" It has taken me four and a half years but I now have the certificate. You can view my online exhibition by clicking here

I completed it with Linda Kemshall, DesignMatters and I had such fantastic support from my tutors. There was lots of support and fantastic resources to download. It was a distance learning course so I did have to be very self disciplined but I got there in the end. If you are thinking about doing a City and Guilds qualification I really can recommend them.

Long Time No Blog

Ok, it is official, December has passed me by in a bit of  a blur. It was a month filled with highs and lows but we got through, travelled many miles to visit family and met a new niece who was 10 days old. Through out the madness that became December I managed to keep going with the City and Guilds Diploma final piece and now I am very nearly finished, this is what has been taking up my time -

Cow parsley and sprouts. I also have a panel with rape seed flowers but I seem to have taken about 10 blurred photos!! I have three panels, the first is 10" x 60", the middle 30" x 60" and the final panel (sprouts) 20" x 60".

I also have a little jar of something cooking very gently by my wood burner so more about that in another post.

It has been good to get more followers this last year, thank you for joining me. I hope you all had a peaceful Christmas and have a Happy New Year.

Angela x

35 flowers, parrots and first day nerves

Thirty five flowers? For those of you who know me or have been reading my blog for a long time, you will know that I was completing a City & Guilds diploma in Patchwork and Quilting. Well, I am still completing it but am NEARLY there, yes NEARLY there. Since Festival of Quilts (I did go even though I haven't posted about it) I seem to have got my mojo back and have done alot of stitching in a relatively short time. The next step is to thread sketch 36 rape seed flowers, 8 are large, the rest small. The photo below isn't clear but give you an idea. I am stitching on a medium weight painted lutradur.  

Yesterday DS2 started secondary school for the first time. He was ready to leave the house at 7am, we waiting and waited and waited. A phone call confirmed that the minibus would be with us soon. A further phone call at 9am told us that they had forgotten to collect him and would send someone back asap. We are about an hour from the school so it was 10.20am before he finally set off for school. This would be difficult for anyone but for someone with his emotional needs it was really hard and I can't blame him for not wanting to go to school.

After he had gone DS and I had decided to make the most of our rare time together to visit the local parrot zoo. It was a quick jump in the car and we headed north. We had a great day, lots of things to see. DS's favourite thing was to go into the walk in aviary where the birds fly onto you. I didn't like having my buttons pecked and three birds on your head is quick heavy!! They were all very tame though and beautiful colours. I have enough ideas to fill sketchbooks.............

They also had other animals, I loved the patterning on this giant tortoise shell.

Today is cold, raining and very windy. Off to stitch more flowers and think of Summer....

A quick peek..

At what I have been doing this weekend.

A quick peek at Simba who was enjoying the sunshine today.

Completed Bag

They say pictures speak a thousand words so I'll let mine do the talking. This is the bag I have made for  my 3D assessed item for my City & Guilds Diploma which is finally completed. All fabrics were printed using fabric paint before being pieced and embellished.

Back view

 I love this image with the contrast of the monoprinted, pieced cotton against the trees in the background.

You might have noticed a little update going on with my website and blog, let me know what you think...

Frustrating Friday

Friday was a potential supply teaching day. I'm available and I wait for the call, by 8.30am I am fairly sure that the day is my own and I will not have to go into school. As I have a large "TO DO" list I prioritised and made another list which included -

• Washing some clothes (or throw clothes into the machine and leave)
• Sewing my half square units together into blocks
• Sewing samples into my sketchbook
• Sewing some binding onto class samples
• Continue updating my website
• Replay to about 12 e-mails
• Send out some workshop requirement lists

Think what all these things have in common, have you guessed?? Try electricity and I'm sure you will figure out what happened next. 

Feeling very smug and organised I set to not expecting the electricity to go off at 9.30am (didn't plan for this). By lunchtime still no electricity, by 2pm still no electricity. I can access e-mails via my phone but can't open attachments nor send e-mails with attachments. Feeling very frustrated I dug out the singer hand machine to at least sew the bindings on. The electricity finally came on at 5pm. I was taking DS over to see his cousin so then a mad rush to eat, leaving DH and DS2 at home. This blog post was all planned so I leave you with a collage of my C&G bag.

Show and Tell

Well, despite travelling around the country this Summer I have been able to do some stitchy/crafty things as well as my City and Guilds work and making jams, chutneys from our various garden produce. This post is a bit photo heavy so sit back and enjoy. This little angel was made for a friend who has moved down to North London as she and her husband are Territorial Officers in the Salvation Army.

Way back at the start of the summer holidays Emma over at A little bit of everything was invited people to celebrate her 50th birthday with her, she sent out 50 postcards and you just had to send one in return. I was lucky enough to get place number 50. Above is the postcard Emma sent me and below the postcard made for her (I think you can click to enlarge them).

Below some of the City and Guilds stuff I have been working on over the holidays, pages and samples from my sketchbooks.

This small quilt wasn't anything to do with my City & Guilds. It was called "Daisy Chain" and was initially juried into the Quilters Guild Exhibition at Rufford Country Park. Unfortunately it didn't actually make it to the exhibition as it was felt it was a bit on the small side. It is made of all recycled things, a recycled sheet which was monoprinted and plastic bags were used to make the actual flowers.

Lists............

Why lists? Because I have just looked at my "to do" list and felt that I have achieved nothing today so I thought about what I have actually achieved  and I have -

1. Made 60 Tudor ruffs and attended a Tudor banquet with some Y3/4 children (and taught all day)
2. Written and sent off items for my magazine pages
3. Done some smocking samples for a course I am teaching in September
4. Dyed some pale browns for my City and Guilds quilt
5. Done 100 bounces on my trampoline (in the interest of lowering my BMI)
6. Done lots of "mum" stuff with washing etc as DS had his last day of school today. DS2 doesn't finish until next Wednesday though
7. Fed my children swede lasagna (OK it was actually butternut squash but they didn't know that!)
8. Taken possession of a new (to me) fridge
9. Made two jars of gooseberry jam
10. Managed to have ten minutes with DH

Maybe I have achievd something today after all.

I am really hoping to start making up my final City and Guilds quilt soon as time is ticking away. This is a sample of possible stitches in my sky. The top varigated thread just isn't right for this but it is quite hard to see. This is actually a scanned image but it's still hard to see the layers of sheers.

Lastly a confession. I rushed out to the Post Office yesterday, I got half way down my lane when the people picking cabbages started to shout and wave at me. I slowed down and then stopped only to discover this on the roof of my car.

Simba must have been on the roof as I got in and drove away. He wouldn't come down for me so I turned round and drove home, went inside for the camera and took this photo. It was much harder to get him off the car so that I could actually go and post my parcels. I just have to remember to check my car roof before driving off anywhere now. This is the look he gave me once finally off the car - need I say more?

Sun, sea, sand and quilt patterns

On Saturday evening (yes I'm a bit behind) it was so hot so we made a sudden decision to go to the beach (we only live 20 minute drive away from Skegness) but City and Guilds work had to come too so -

I took my sketchbook and drew whilst DS's built a channel to the sea. The tide was being very obliging and coming in so it did fill with water quite quickly.

When I got bored I made quilt patterns in the sand which allowed me to try out ideas for my quilt. DH said like it looked like I was doing a children's television programme.

  

If you have ever been to Skegness recently you will know that just off the beach are these wind turbines,

You can see just how close they are in this picture of DS's digging.One day (after C&G) I will include them in a quilt as I have been doodling ideas for sometime.

After getting home and showering everyone I managed to get lots of samples completed and worked in my sketchbook but I haven't photographed them yet. I even managed to sew on a hanging sleeve for a small quilt that is going to the Quilters Guild exhibition at Rufford Craft Centre in Nottinghamshire. I am also teaching there in July and August so I need to finish off my workshop packs. Life's always busy but interesting!!

Busy, busy, busy

So much has happened around here in the past few weeks that I don't really know where to start. I think I do need to say thank you to all my new followers and promise my sporadic blogging is just a temporary blip due to my City and Guilds diploma. Anyway to news, my LQG had a fantastic show a few weeks ago, there was so much beautiful work on display. Living in such a big county such as Lincolnshire it was also a chance to meet up with friends not seen for several months.

This was a favourite made by Frances (our chairlady).

My zebra quilt also had an outing. The week after the quilt show I was at The Deep, the sub aquarium in Hull

It was a fantastic place with the most amazing Rays and Sharks. I loved the building which it is housed in which was designed by Sir Terry Farrell. According to the brochure it had over 3,500 fish and and both DS had a fantastic time. I have lots of photos for future inspiration. A quiz, do you know what these are called, they were such amazing, delicate creatures?

Last night I went with Sweetiepie and others from my LQG to hear Kaffe Fassett talk in Spalding.

He was talking about how he got started and also his books. I had a quick peek at his latest book, Simple Shapes, Spectacular Quilts.It is basically about how simple geometric shapes have influenced his quilt making. He encourages us to use those big, beautiful bold patterns with simple shapes for stunning quilts. I was very tempted to buy it but was very disciplined but I just loved the images inside it. It might well find it's way into my bag at FoQ. He brought swatches of fabrics from his latest collections, as we drooled over them we made a mental note to go and look at Cotton Patch during Festival of Quilts as they will have all his range of fabrics.  He brought both quilts and knitting for us to look at. Despite it being so hot it was a really good evening and I came away feeling inspired which cxan only be good for my City and Guilds Diploma.

Just to prove I am still busy I have been working on samples for my sketchbook which will form the basis for my main quilt. This has a minimum size of 60" square, did I say it was to be completed by September 6th?? My DH is being fantastically supportive though and trying to give me as much time as possible.

My inspiration is the fens around my house and the crops that grow. We have just had the fields at the top of the lane which had peas in them cut by the huge machines. When the crop is cut the air smells like peas for several days. If you have washing hanging outside, that also smells of peas. The above was a sample experimenting with perspective and different materials. Below a page from my sketchbook showing work from rapeseed and cow parsley.

Work and Play

On Saturday I met up with the Expedition Quilt Art girls, Trudi and I are both racing to finish City and Guild courses, Tina (who has done it and got the t-shirt) offered support and encouragement. The carrot on our stick was to have tea at a local cafe attached to Doddington Hall. I worked hard on my sketchbook for my 3D assessed work and Trudi was working on some crazy patchwork. So after lots of work and no play



We went out to have cake, we only stopped at 4.15pm as the cafe closed at 5pm! Despite living In Lincolnshire for many years I have never been there before but look what we got, home made carrot cake and they could offer me a skinny, decaffeinated latte.

The cafe is in a converted barn next to the main Hall and Trudi said the gardens are fantastic. Unfortunately by the time we had eaten our cake it was raining quite hard but we did manage a quick peek out into the courtyard. My favourite colours at the moment are purple and lime green, just look what Mother Nature has done with these colours. It is not a close up as I was safely under the covered area when I took this.
This was the only photo I got of the main Hall. Doddington Hall is a very fine late Elizabethan Mansion, completed in 1600, it was built by Robert Smythson. I was so impressed that I am going to try and go back over the Summer.
If you know Lincolnshire you will probably realise it is very flat but we do have The Wolds and an occasional hill. One of these I drive up and down whenever I go over to Lincoln to teach or see friends. At the top is a small layby which has a great view of the open countryside. In five or so years I have never stopped so as the sun was finally coming out when Tina and I left Trudi we decided to head over there. It was still misty but we got a great view.



These images are going straight into my sketchbook. I love all the cow parsley growing everywhere at the moment. It is such a delicate flower but makes me think of the fens. I even have some in my garden which must have seeded after help from the birds.
After getting home and once I had played Wii fit with DS2 I managed to get back to my sketchbooks so with fingers crossed I might be able to start making up my bag by this weekend.