Monday 24 July 2017

Blooming marvellous...

'accept what is, let go of what was and have faith in what will be...'

Sometimes, life throws you a curved ball when you least expect it, and everything has to take the back burner for a little while. So although I haven't been able to do as much creating as I would have liked, I'm getting back on track.

So, with not many new things to show you I thought I'd share some pictures of the lovely blooms and produce in our garden and allotment.  The veg garden is coming into its own now, and it was lovely to have a roast dinner with everything on the plate (apart from the meat) having been homegrown!  And it all tastes pretty good too...yum!






We have a freezer full of raspberries, gooseberries, redcurrants and rhubarb, so plenty of fruit to see us through the year - and we've got apples to come yet!

We've had a lot of rain and wind lately, which has blasted the flowers somewhat, but they are valiantly blooming away against all odds.  My absolute favourite is the hydrangea, so beautiful...I'm pressing some of the little flowers for future projects.




I did get a chance to ease myself back into some felting over the weekend...but I didn't make things easy for myself!  I ended up making a long scarf...which I nearly gave up on part way through!!  It took a LOT of effort to get it to felt - I must have used some fibres that just did not want to behave!  There lies my downfall - I hardly ever do sampling, which of course would have brought that to light before I attempted something so big!  Never mind, it got there in the end!


Layout of fibres, yarns and silk on top of a cotton scrim base



Once everything was wetted and the gentle rubbing began!


I used a base of hand dyed cotton scrim, in a lovely light purple colour which I bought from Hope Jacare Designs.  I chose moorland colours as my inspiration, and used yarns, silks, scrim and ribbons to build up surface design and texture. 



Once it was FINALLY felted, I hung it outside to dry in the sun (yes we've had some much needed sun...hooray!).

Once dry, the colours and textures really came through...and overall I'm pretty pleased with it.  There are a few naughty fibres which will need a little attention, and I may well wet it down and give it another fulling session just to make sure everything's really well felted and secure which is important as it's going to be a scarf!


Here you can see the lovely lilac cotton scrim which is the back of the scarf, contrasting with the colours and textures layered on top.





It's difficult to capture it well in photos, but I'm quite fancying it for myself!

I think I'll stick to some smaller things over the coming week if I get chance - give my shoulders a rest from all that rolling!

Just as a reminder, the St Ives Textiles Exhibition is coming up in September (eek!) and the website/blog can be found here - it's being updated regularly, and there's a focus this week on the fab work of Carol Tiflin.




I still have a list of things I'd like to achieve in time for the exhibition, so I'd better pull my finger out!  A felted bag is still on the agenda, as well as some handmade cards...best crack on then!

Have an enjoyable week!

xx Tanya xx