a colourful day

Yesterday I went to the "Patchwork & Quilt Days"
in Rijswijk near The Hague.
Though I can't say I'm a quilter anymore,
(I quit the Dutch Quilters Guild years ago)
I booked a workshop "gelli plate printing on textile" there !
(and . . . I urged myself nót to buy any more fabric :
my own little "shop" at home is filled to the brim !!!)

I didn't like the very thin layers, I more like stronger colours
but I surely need to do a LOT more playing with this :
I love the possibilities !

It was a good day to show off 
my new earrings
specially made to match the green brooch I showed earlier

It is so much fun to use wire inside the felt to shape it !

I also had a nice talk to a blogging friend, Els Mommers,
that lives half a world away at Saba !
She had her own art and many of the gorgeous Mola's she sells.
(I bought two from her a few tears ago)

It was a really FUN day !!!

*

The garden right now is
exploding

Too warm, but also lots of rain makes
that you see the change every single day.

This was a few days ago, before some heavy rain washed
most away of the flowers !

The ground is covered in green "grass" :
the leaves of all the allium and bluebells that are

mostly still in bud.
But soon the garden will be BLUE !!!
Though some white ones were early instead
and the Ginkgo leaves are bigger each day.

The early clematis is hiding part of the fence.

And because there are soooo many solomon's seal
I cut some of for indoors

I DO love spring !!!!!

 

new fun

Last Saturday we had a fun workshop
by Saar Snoek
(a young Dutch felting artist)
with members of the Dutch felting society
(Viltkontaktgroep)

We made leaves or flowers with thin stems
and she had a fun headdress to show off the technique.
I made two simple leaves then.
I always need some time to let things stew
. . . . .
but today I came up with a brooch using
that same technique in it.

Making the thin flower stems into some decorative swirls !

Of course I could have stitched them on
but for felters the fun is always to make it in one go :
no needle and thread needed !

Nearly there . . .

These were some of the results of the members on Saturday,
a lot of colourful leaves and flowers

Happy Easter

 

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend

raffle . . . and parties !

Oh my, it took a while
for my leap day raffle to be completed
but now I have a winner !

ANNELIESE

*
Preparations for a big surprise party,
making a textile (3D) robin for another surprise and
putting together a mobile with lots of fun items
especially made by family and friends
for a 50 - birthday "girl"
our dear daughter !
(that's what robs you of a lot of time and energy
but it was totally worth it !!!)

Not really going back to "normal" yet :
last weekend another party
the coming weekend Easter at granddaughter's
and in a fortnight my own birthday party !!!

Hmmm, enough partying for some time after thát
and back to stitching and felting !!!

leap day giveaway

Not just another extra day
. . . . .
Congratulations to all those people
that have this special day for a birthday,
not growing older as fast as all the others do !

Is that sad or not ?
Well, I think all of them celebrate their day :
either on the 28th of February or the fist of March . . .

Special days appeal to me
so like other times, I thought I should celebrate it
with a GIVEAWAY
(not only for those people that are born on the 29th
but for all of you who likes to visit my blog !!!)

I drew a mandala on 300 grams water colour paper
24 x 18 cm, the mandala itself 12 cm diameter

You can tell here (or oo Insta) that you would like to have it
and in about two weeks time
a raffle will decide who wins it.

spring design

I think the second workshop in early STITCH CLUB days was that by
Merill Comeau
and I did love that one very much !
No wonder I was quite HAPPY to "see" her again
three weeks ago !!!
She introduced a fun way to start a(ny) project
but I was very sure I knew already what my design would be :

SPRING !

In our garden there were lots of aconites
showing their yellow heads
and the snowdrops were not far behind either.

Apart from using the "normal" fabrics, Merill urged us to paint our own
and also use homemade stamps on them.
However, the downside of that is that you have to stitch
through quite hardened fabric.
(and arthritis hands don't like that very much!)

Hmmmm . . . and working on a big scale doesn't help either,
but now I'm very happy with the finished piece !

the start with some stamps

the first lay out

and choosing more colours

Taking TARLATAN as backing  (because my all time favorite
Dutch textile artist Leslie Gabriëlse does that too !)

Slowly going, first with lots and lots of pins !!!

And after many hours of stitching
(and breaks in between !)
I finished it !

(hmmmm . . . the video doesn't want to load)

wire and fabric (and stitch)

"Make a structure out of wire
and cover it with fabric pieces using batik wax"
that was the Stitch Club workshop that just ended,
by Priscilla Edwards 

Any thin wire could be used
but the special paper covered kind came with the mail a bit later.
I chose to make a critter in stead of a teacup
Though because I couldn't find the wax
(that I must have somewhere . . .)
I used some special textile hardener.
But first a flower to try out if this could be done !

Hmmm . . . very sticky fingers
but, it worked in the end !

Then on to the little beast : a ladybug !
Many parts to construct and fiddly to put together
but in the end it could fly !!!

(the wings were made on the machine)

BUT

I totally forgot to show the
Stitch Club embroidery workshop by Cassandra Dias
that came before the one by Priscilla !

Stitching a landscape brought me to the colourful scene
so many tourists that visit The Netherlands in spring yearn for.
Though the downside of these lush coloured fields is :
the pollution with MANY pesticides !

Only 10 x 10 cm
but so densely stitched that it took a long time."

Then came number two : a lone tulip

(there might even be a number three,
but that will take some time again !)