making waves...for C-art

where does the time go? sorry I haven't been here much, just had so much to do to get ready for C-art, strange how in a year my studio has filled up with so much stuff! Thank goodness for the beautiful clean new loft space above and a loft ladder...husband of great patience I salute you!It felt like moving house, but now we have room for 3 artists and room for lovely visitors...

The New Bookshop in Cockermouth is kindly hosting a C-artists window display...so thought I'd better rustle up something new...been feeling sea-ish since my return from Mull...

here's a run through of the 'how to create a wave' process...choose delicious fabrics, snip them up and lay them on a backing of old blue blanket, needle felt with my fab machine, then get free machine stitching with more stunning blues...now the tricky bit, turn into a tube, stitch up by hand...luckily it just fits on my machine so I can stitch over the joins to blend them in and afterwards the fun part adding a lacey wavy top using dissolvable fabric...

I do like a technical and artistic challenge...and actually I am pretty chuffed...it worked! 

By the way I am having a few issues leaving comments on your blogs since I changed my blog name, apologies, I do visit and love your blogs, I will try and sort it out..any ideas please let me know!

Havea great week, back with some C-arty pics I hope, have a great week Emmaxx

a week ago...

we were esconced in a hot and sticky (we love summer!) Town Hall in Kendal ...surrounded by all manner of wonderful artwork, and some of our own...do you like my seedhead and brooches? I have really enjoyed creating my new work...and a big thanks to husband of patience for endlessly printing and cutting out my new labels! 

(beautiful landscapes by David Sims in the background)

 

we had journeyed to Kendal driving down through the Lake District past Keswick and Ambleside, Windermere and beyond...we had made our winding way through the crazy one-way system in Kendal(anyone out there familiar with this??) and found ourselves on the first floor of the Town Hall...faced with a big blank white space, displaying only our names...two tired textile artists with boxes of stuff, tables, shelves and more...

so bring on the tech team and...

several hours and much shifting around later...ta da!

 we were very happy as you may imagine so a big thanks to our wonderful families for supporting us...

 

here's a tiny taste of what you could have seen...

Kelly Stewart's amazing prints

and the delightful work of Emma Louise Wilson...who coincidentally I met up with on facebook before we met here, and some of whose work I had already had hanging in my studio...

  

and did I mention the amazing pop up tea shop run by Frumenty and Fluffin...all day cuppa's for hungry artists and visitors...and cakes beyond your wildest dreams!



and yes I did do a little bit of shopping, as well as selling...so much to tempt me amongst all the wonderful artwork...I'll share this little beauty with you, so exquisitely wrapped, a present to me after all my hard work...

and when you open it... a tiny gem of a bowl by the 'other' Emma...you can see more of her work here

I think when you visit a show like this you little realise all the hard graft which goes on behind the scenes...so a BIG thanks goes to Rosie and Tina and all those who made ArtFest happen!
 

and love and hugs to my 'home' team...chief packer, and chief arranger and carer of dotty artist mother...

going home...it will all fit in...somewhere

had a long lie down this week, sorry not been around, normal service slowly being restored...back to reality and the very overdue hoovering!

hope you're enjoying the summer here in the UK...Emmaxx

getting crafty...

oh I do love magazines...they offer such inspiration when you live in a rural place where the only things passing the door are chickens and sheep...I love where I live but it is great to connect with the world out there...

this Prima special really appealed to me on the newstand as I browsed...somehow the colours and the ideas of spring led me astray...but it has some great ideas inside for all sorts of tastes and abilities...

 

mmm... all round yumminess! 

this weekend I had a small local craft fair...and despite the pouring rain we had a lovely day...here's a peek at my new needlecases which I loved making, the upcycled felted blankets were so soft and tactile to work with...and I was pleased with the finished stitchy result...
 

 
Sunday was a BIG day out with a friend and fellow artist travelling to Yorkshire and back, leaving home at a very uncivilised hour...to go on an inspiring course where I learnt about how to present your work at a show, and how to define and refine what you do...I met some other wonderful artists and it was led by Victoria and Emily from The Art Market... fantastic art and craft shows in Holmfirth, Yorkshire...do take a look here... and go if you can! 

and isn't life amazing...I sat next to a lady and we chatted and it turned out she writes Hippystitch...a lovely crafty blog you can take a peek at here...the latset post is some fantastic community yarnbombing!

so back at home now with a poorly daughter exhausted after walking in pouring rain with a heavy rucksack for hours on her weekend DofE expedition practice...

it's pottering for me too after a mega busy week...perhaps a little house loving wouldn't come amiss after several weeks,ahem, months of neglect...

wishing you a lovely week...hope it's really crafty!Emmaxx

New Year's Eve...

already Mother Nature is moving into spring mode...

and I am looking forward to a fresh start too...a spring clean of my head and my thinking...even if spring is a way off...

I've had a little freshening up here to start me off...hope you like the new look!

I don't make resolutions these days...just make wishes and have thoughts...grand designs and dreams...I do believe we are what we think and in the law of attraction...

So I think I'd like to enjoy more sewing and making...to run lots more workshops...to get back into some proper artwork...to spend time drawing and working in a sketchbook...more playing which will feed my creativity...


I'd like to...
to learn to cook more interesting meals
to have a slightly tidier cleaner house (?!)
to have lots more fun times with my family and friends...

and I'd like to see...peace around the world and greater fairness and opportunity...openness and understanding and sharing...so let's start here...my wish is for all...a new and better way of being and living in 2013...xx

September sunshine...

I love September...after everyone's frenzied desire for summer...to relax into the start of autumnal hints is rather blissful...maybe too, it's something to do with schools going back and the return of a semblance of routine, however painful to teenage anti-earlyrisingness...

I do like a sense of order and at least the house stays the same all day now which gives me a small chance of restoring some sort of order after months of neglect...but I am heart gladdened when husband and daughter return home in the evening...and we can share our different days...but only after a whole day BY MYSELF with only my own thoughts for company...these days more and more I seem to need some solitude...tho' around here with chickens, ducks, donkeys, cats, geese and currently next door's dog staying I am never lonely!

It's been a blissful week of C-art Open Studios...we are open officially at the weekends with lots of delightful visitors calling in...some strays appear from time to time during the week and I rather like coming up from the veggie patch in the sunshine with grubby hands from digging up the garlic to greet strangers and welcome them to my life...to my studio...to our work...

I like to think people take away a sense of calm and tranquility from here, a sense of doing life a slightly different way maybe a more harmonious way (mind you I don't show them the house which currently is...well...in a BIT OF A STATE!!)

So lets take a little walk down the garden...it's such a gorgeous sunny day...quite hot in the sun...I haven't got a cardi, fleece or socks on!

Signage necessary to direct people to the studio and to give a subtle warning...

Gwendoline showing no interest at all in eating people's fingers...she's far too sensible!

ah...Neddy snoozling in the warm sunshine...cheek tickling = happy donkey and hasn't he got a beautiful soft nose and fabulous eyelashes!

and magnificent ears which swivel this way and that as he listens sometimes to you and sometimes to things behind him...carefully rotating one ear forward and one ear back...

Join me in sitting outside the studio for a moment to take in the view...and straightaway Basil take the chance to sit on your knee...

and Emilia hen comes to check out if you are by any chance  eating something...she nabbed a whole rice cake off my plate at the weekend!

and behind you can see the beautiful and rather sculptural seats which husband of patience has created...very patient!

down past the apple tree...apples ripening in the warm sun...and the chickens and ducklings...still together with their Mummy hen..and Basil like a sphinx in the grass...and a duckling apple bobbing...

and down the new path to the veg patch... where despite the somewhat rainy year we have some harvest...the pumpkins and squashes are magnificent...spreading like triffids...a forest of leaves and secret surprises...we love to wander round spotting hidden fruit and shouting 'here's another...and another!'

and here's the garlic I've been digging up...such a nice earthy job in the hot sunshine...it brings a great feeling of contentment...extra special this year as it shows how strong and improved my wrist is, I planted it when my hand was pretty weak in cold wintry weather and now here we have a harvest in the sun...

and help from our chickens...happy hens!
tho' I did have to keep hiding the worms from them as I dug...

and Nellie nextdoor's dog..best girl!

so here's to another weekend of lovely visitors to see all our beautiful artwork...and sunshine...hope you have a great one too...don't forget to love what you do!xx