We have had some reasonable weather recently so, as well as doing some fabric dyeing, I've been out painting papers (and the grass!). I've also been doing some gardening and found loads of poppy seed heads which I've cut down and put in a vase.

The shapes fascinate me so I've been filling pages in my sketchbook with poppy heads in all different media. I'm a great fan of Cloth Paper Scissors and, although I find some of the articles, rather 'American' in their sameness I enjoy the different techniques. One of which I used for the double spread - drawing the poppy head outlines then filling some of the areas in with pasted pieces of newspaper before painting over. I'm quite pleased with how it worked out, for a first attempt, although I have to say it looks better in the sketchbook than in the photo! C'est la vie!

I just don't seem to get the time to sew at the moment. 'Real' work is taking over and of course it's the summer holidays although the children are being brilliant with the fact that I have to spend so much time at the computer rather than entertaining them. I think the 15 year old is quite content but my (nearly) 10 year old needs her mum around still.

Anyway, one thing I did with her yesterday was fabric dyeing. I've been meaning to do this for ages after the great weekend I did with Ruth Issett some months ago. It was a reasonable day so we did outside (and dyed some grass in the process). I had completely forgotten how some fabrics take dyes better than others so we had a range of tones of colour, mainly in my favourite reds, pinks, oranges. They looked like flags on the washing line drying later!

I'm also pleased to see that the Embroiderers' Guild Auction is now up on the Twisted Thread website ready for the Knitting and Stitching shows (still saving up!). This is a great opportunity, not just to refill the Guild's coffers, but also to buy some lovely embroidery!

Very very busy at the moment but had another 'high' yesterday. Remember the commission I got as a result of Oxfordshire Art Weeks? I really didn't know what Jane wanted, her tastes, etc, all I had was a colour scheme. So I produced five pieces for her to look at and - guess what - she wanted three of them!!

This was one (sorry about the flash), which I had been quite pleased with. My usual mixture of fabric and paper.

I was using Jane's curtains for the basis of the colour scheme - cream with turquoise, baby pink, orange and red. My tendency was to miss out the cream and go for the other colours but I was aware that perhaps she wanted something more 'airy' to reflect the curtains. However, not at all - she wanted 'wow' factor; something to catch the eye as you walk into the kitchen. This one on the right was the 'airy' one which I was pleased with - it was machine embroidered onto layers of clear plastic, doesn't show too well in the photo unfortunately.

I was also really thrilled to be invited to join a group exhibiting at the West Ox Arts group in spring 2010 (not 2009 as I originally thought). Seems quite a long way away at the moment, but I know it will come along quickly.

What miserable weather! My son announced this morning that 'summer was boring'. I know what he means.

However, at least I don't have feelings of guilt when I'm in my workroom rather than gardening. I watched the Quilting Arts DVD again the other day and had a play at Beryl Taylor's 'fabric paper'. It went well and machines beautifully, so I made a small piece which I'm quite pleased with. Even my sister, who is not a fan of my type of art, thought it was 'quite nice'. That was praise!

I see the Embroiderers' Guild is asking for members to donate pieces of work to display at the Knitting and Stitching shows. These will then be auctioned to go towards filling the coffers after the Manchester debacle. I might put this one in.

Still very behind with Dale's course. Lesson 6 arrived this morning and I still haven't finished Lesson 2. Anyway I've printed it off so I can go back to it at some point.

Wow! Two blogs in two days, almost setting a record here. Actually I'm sitting waiting for a customer to come and view the textile art I've made with a view to filling a hole in her kitchen. However, she doesn't seem to be getting here today so I'm checking everyone's blogs, trying to catch up with what's going on over the past five weeks or so.

Purple Missus is amazing - every one of her blogs is full of information of wonderful things to try. she's made me decide that, weather allowing, I'm going to have a go at dyeing some fabric tomorrow. After doing a weekend with Ruth Issett last autumn I'm hooked on procion dyes for painting papers and now think it's time to move into dyeing fabrics to go with the papers. After all, most of the work I do is layered paper and fabric. So think of me tomorrow, with plastic containers all over the garden and trying to persuade the dog NOT to sniff them all.

Where is the time going? I've been hectic with the 'day job' so haven't had time to blog, or even look to see what everyone else has been doing. I have managed to fit in some stitching though! I signed on some weeks ago to do Dale Rollerson's embellishing course which I'm very behind with but enjoying. Got piles of samples and ideas for things as you can see from the picture! That was only two weeks' lessons. I haven't had a chance to look at the others yet.

I've also been trying to get on with the commission I got at the end of Artweeks. I decided to go ahead and do as many pieces of art as I could in the colour scheme that went with my friend's kitchen curtains (Designer Guild) as hopefully the rest won't be wasted.

Finally, you might be interested to see my workroom mid-project! It's a little bit bigger than it looks in this picture, but everywhere things are piled up. Someone just lent me the Quilting Arts 'Studios' magazine. What I would give for some of those studios! Space, organisation, shelves, eye candy everywhere!! Mustn't complain though - I do have a room to work in and don't have to clear up all the time when I'm in the middle of something and the dinner needs cooking, I just close the door.

Time has flown past and it's a few weeks since I last posted. I've been busy catching up on the swaps that got missed during Artweeks and I'm really pleased that I've only got one more to do and I'm not late with it either. I've had several of the African Arts quilties in from the Embellisher Group. I won't post pictures in until they're all here. I plan to attach them together in some way and hang them from my workroom wall.






Which is just what I've done with the white on white quilties for Lenna Andrews' swap. Unfortunately because they're white they don't photograph too well, but I've done my best to show you the wonderful stitching and textures in them - only two of the four because the photos just don't come out.

As well as the African Arts swaps I've done the complementary colours, cupcakes, recycled fabrics and another I can't remember. I've also received this wonderful tag from Eileen (that's the last thing I've got to do).

I signed up yesterday to do Dale Rollerson's 6 week online embellisher course. I always enjoys Dale's blog and came across this course which starts next week by chance. The exchange rate is still so good that it was great value and I'm looking forward to learning lots. Thank goodness it starts after half term finishes; the weather has been so awful that the children have been tied to the house. We've seen the new Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford just gets hunkier), been ice skating, done mosaics, etc, etc, and we're only half way through.