New Fabric & Other Things

I went shopping the other day and as well as coming home with two new plants – a cactus and a succulent - (I’m dangerous when I go shopping; you never know what I’ll come back with!), I bought some lovely new fabric.

Here are the plants, if you’d like to see them:

(I re-potted them in some bigger pots.)

These are the fabrics I’m planning to use in a few new project ideas I have whirling around my head. (I’ve also written them down so I don’t forget!)

I hadn’t planned to buy so many, but when in a fabric shop, I can’t help myself; they’re all so gorgeous and spark beautiful new ideas. It’s the same in a book shop – I have a stack of books waiting to be read – and in art shops and I also have a bit of a weakness for shiny things like beads and jewellery findings. This is why I shouldn’t go to animal shelters: I’d end up bringing the whole lot home. I wouldn’t be able to move for little furry creatures. There’s enough to do looking after one.

I’ve got some feathery creatures in the garden though. A couple of weeks ago, my mother noticed a wren flying back and fore to the ivy around the cherry tree and when I listened a few days later, I heard a riot of tweeting coming from there, like there were chicks competing for food when the adult came back with a beak full. I didn’t want to disturb them at the time, but this week I had a look and found the nest.

It was empty, so the chicks have fledged and I’ve seen three flitting around. They’re tiny! I tried to take a photo of the mother as she left the nest, but ended up with a photo fail, getting just her leg and tail because she hopped off the branch as my finger pressed the button.

 I did manage to get this one though:

 A female chaffinch on the bowl of water I put out for them. She almost looks like she’s smiling to me. Then there was another one perching on a branch:

 And a woodpigeon on a tree:

 It wouldn’t be my usual blog post without some flowers, so, if you haven’t had enough, I’ll leave you with some poppies, an aquilegia and droplets on grass and an aquilegia leaf:

The Best Easter Egg

I haven’t posted in a while because I’ve been feeling ill; tired and fuzzy headed and I still feel a bit like that now, but this has cheered me up:

I’ll explain in a moment.

Over the last few weeks I feel like I’ve lost my artistic mojo a bit. Because I’ve been feeling ill I haven’t achieved as much as I’d hoped to in the art side of things and there’s also the fact that it’s been freezing cold, the days have been gloomy and things keep going wrong. Have you ever had a run of things going wrong? Things not working, breaking or situations you hadn’t expected? You know what I mean.

It means that my ideas have been set back, but they’ve been started, so that’s a positive!

As you may know by now, I love snow: it brightens up the grey winter days, but at the moment, I’m ready for spring to come bursting into life. Winter is, for me, like being wrapped up in a cosy cocoon; the warmth inside and wearing layers of clothes. Then when spring arrives it’s like cracking open the cocoon and stepping out to new life.

I love opening the windows for the first time of the year and letting the air flow through, like the spring breezes are blowing away the stuffiness and lethargy of the winter months.

Have you heard the song Rabbit Heart (Raise it Up) by Florence & the Machine? In it is the line:

“And in the spring, I shed my skin

And it blows away with the changing wind”

That’s how I think of spring and how I hope to feel in the coming month or so. I’ve actually, for once, had enough of winter and I’m hoping the spring will blow away the fuzziness in my head, because although I’ve been set back in my textile art, I have made progress with research on something I want to do, a goal of mine for this year. I hope my head will be clear enough to see it through. I’m not going to tell you about it yet, but you may find out in a while.

The signs of spring are already around as you can see in my photos. Primroses are flowering, deciduous trees are starting to come into leaf and I found something wonderful the other day:

I found it under a tree at the bottom of the garden; a tree which I know woodpigeons nest in because I see them flying in and out of it all the time, so it’s a woodpigeon eggshell. I also know because I found the top a shell of the same type and size a year or two ago and tweeted a photo of it to Chris Packham asking what it was. He actually replied (I nearly fainted) saying it was a woodpigeon shell. This time it’s the whole shell so it’s like finding a little treasure and is the best kind of Easter egg to have.

I hope this means there’s a new little life up there in the nest and the little chick survived the recent cold weather tucked up under his/her mother’s feathers. As I write I can hear a woodpigeon cooing outside. He and his partner and all the little birds – robin, blackbird, sparrows, etc. – are being very vocal now.

I haven’t been completely out of my creative mojo the last couple of weeks. I’ve done a few things for Easter; some decorations to brighten things up. Here are my Easter eggs filled with fluffy chicks.

I painted the eggs, then stuck on the flowers and the shiny bunny.

I’ve also made pom-pom bunnies.

There may be more before the weekend is over…

So, with the hope that I’ll be back next week with more to show you, have a Happy Easter, don’t eat too much chocolate (I may ignore my own advice there) and enjoy the holiday.

Barn Owl Embroidery

I've finished my barn owl wall hanging so here are the pictures of it. First of all, to remind you, this is the original painting I did:

Here's the painting printed onto fabric and the tea-dyed fabric I used for the background:

This was the work in progress when I was sewing the wheat on the bottom:

This was the finished wheat:

And here's the finished thing all together:

As you can see, I added a hedgerow in the background and did some machine embroidery in the sky with blue and lilac thread to try to convey a look of cloud and dusk as that's when barn owls become active. I've also hand sewn the pattern on the owl's back, around his head and machine stitched along the wings, which you can see better in this close up:

This was intended to be an experiment to see how my idea might work out and I'm quite happy with it. There are a few little things that can be improved, though that might be me being hard on myself!

My mother loves owls, especially barn owls, so she's claimed this for herself to put on the wall! I'll be making another one soon, so you'll see the process here when it comes.

Have a lovely day. 😊

Autumn leaves & Silver Linings

I'd hoped to have finished my barn owl wall hanging by now, but as I mentioned in earlier posts, things have been a bit busy recently. I have made some progress though, with machine embroidery.

The stitches represent the wheat in the field around the owl. There's still a lot more to do, much more machine embroidery and some hand stitching as well.

I found this leaf this week and I couldn't resist picking it up. The colours on it are so lovely, starting to turn from green to autumnal yellow and red.

We've had some sunny weather this week which produced beautiful sky scenes that I managed to capture in photos. A lovely blue sky with white fluffy clouds and the sun shining off them like silver lining.

This photo would be better if the telephone line wasn't right in the middle of it but I had to take it anyway! 😁 I thought the clouds looked like fluffy white hills.

I received a delivery of some gorgeous yarn this week which I'd ordered to try out as the colours are so beautiful. When I opened the package, I was surprised at how soft it is.

I can't wait to crochet with it in my spare time to see what it's like to handle. It's dyed different colours along the length of yarn, so the shade will change as I work and should produce a great effect. I'll show you the results when I've finished.

Have a great weekend. 😊

New Ideas, New Work

Hello! I'm back. Did you miss me? 😉 After the busyness of 30 Days Wild I only intended to take a break of a week or two from blogging, but it became an extended break due to various things that happened. 😑 I return, though, with new ideas and new works in progress to show you.

Here's the first one, my barn owl painting. If you've seen my last post for 30 Days Wild, you'll have seen this painting already, but now I've developed it further. This is the original:

I've dyed some cotton and muslin with tea. It turned out quite well I think and it matches the colour I painted in the background. Tea gives a lovely muted, natural colour and it's also eco-friendly, something I'm very conscious of. I don't want to harm the environment with chemicals just to produce my work.

I've printed my painting onto fabric and next I'm going to layer it on the tea-dyed cotton, then sew on it with a combination of hand and machine embroidery.

That's my work in progress so far, it's been a bit slow the last month or so! 😊 I hope to get this done though, so I can show you the finished thing. I haven't really planned this one, I'm letting it unfold in it's own way, so I don't really know what will happen with it. I hope it works. 😉

30 Days Wild Days 17, 18 & 19

Day 17

I was looking at one of my pressed sycamore leaves and thought it could look like a peacock's tail if it were blue, so what did I do? I painted it blue. 😊 Then I drew a peacock, created a background and put it all together. This is the result, my second wild work of art!

Day 18

While in the garden yesterday, I found a fly on it's back nearly drowning in my cat's outside water bowl, so I saved it. I couldn't just leave it. Here it is on the ground.

I was worried it might get stepped on as it was so wet it couldn't fly properly, so I put it on a leaf to dry out. It used its legs to wipe its wings and then walked about for a bit until it was dry enough. Here it is on the leaf.

Some people may say it's only a fly, but it's a little life that's just as wonderful as anything else.

While I was watching this fly, another came along and landed on a nearby blade of grass. It's a different type of fly as it has different markings and colours - white around the head - but I haven't yet worked out what type of flies they are. This is the second one.

Here's a slightly better photo of the second fly on a leaf. You can see the sun reflecting in its eyes. 😁

Day 19

I woke up really early this morning and realised that the dawn had just arrived, so I got my camera and took this photo.

There's a rosy hue to the sky at the bottom left corner and the last quarter crescent moon is still there. I hope you can just about see it!

As I watched, I heard the robin singing, then the blackbird, sparrows chirping and a collared dove cooing. The male and female blackbirds were flitting about and it all felt quite peaceful and serene. Then the traffic began, but I could still hear the birds. They make the other everyday human-made sounds a bit more bearable and listening to them makes you feel better about whatever's happening. I think, if I could, I'd just lie in a field all day listening to the birds doing their thing.

30 Days Wild Days 15 & 16

Day 15

For my Random Act of Wildness yesterday, I spent some time in the garden and watched the birds flying around. I managed to get some photos of them. 

Here's the male blackbird who I see quite regularly and who sings his beautiful song from the trees.

I've also seen a female blackbird, so I assume that these two are a pair and I've seen a young blackbird: brown with a brownish beak. It's lovely to know that birds are bringing up their chicks here.

This is one of the female chaffinches I've seen. I know the photo is a bit blurry, but it's the best I could do in the time she stayed at the feeder. 😊

Here's one of the collard doves who visit every day, peeking through the trees at me. She knew I was there.

Here's another on a branch in silhouette.

And here they are both together.

Finally, here's one of the woodpigeons that I see every day.

Day 16

I actually did two Random Acts of Wildness yesterday as last night I wondered how quickly the sky changes. So I decided to take photos of the same patch over about an hour and a half. I wanted to see the differences in the sky, the clouds and the light and colour.

Here you can still see blue sky between the grey and white clouds.

This is about fifteen minutes later and the deep grey/blue clouds have rolled over.

Here the clouds seem to have a purple tinge with gaps showing the still blue sky.

The clouds had covered the sky by fifteen minutes later.

Then the greyness of twilight had set in.