My new collection Art on a Scarf nearly ready to roll

Over the last couple of months I've had more of my scarf designs back from the printers and whenever I've had a spare moment and the the light has been good I've been trying to finish them off.

The crepe de chine they are printed on presented me with the problem do I simply roll the edges of the scarves or do I line them. Rolling the edge was one issue, I tried one by hand and it took ages so I began researching a rolled hem presser foot for my sewing machine which was a whole other issue. 

I decided to line them because crepe de chine isn't quite as nice as silk would have been if left unlined, because the crepe was a vivid colour on one side and pale on the other it made them look unfinished.
Because of my vivid colours I wanted equally interesting colours for the backs so every time I was near a fabric shop I was on the look out for contrasting or similar colours and began collecting 'linings'.

 I think I became overwhelmed with all the colours and patterns so it's taken me ages and the last few weekends to sit down and choose colours and stitch them up. I can happily say they are almost done and will be ready for me to put in my shop soon, as Art on A Scarf.

Be warned, I've attached lots of pictures to this one!

First up, vintage caravans

Flower Girls

Vintage memories

My Woolworths artwork

Various assorted

Meeting a fabric designer at work

I was delighted to find out the other day that a fabric designer whose floral work I admire was doing an artist in residency just up the road from me.

Once again the destination was Burton Agnes Hall to seek out Nel Whatmore.

Nel is in the middle of a fortnight stint and I think she is there until the end of Sept. The weather has been mostly grey and misty the past week so waiting for a lovely sunny day to visit Nel was not going to happen so I just went for it last Sunday.

I found Nel in the little artists conservatory working on a fabulously colourful picture.

Ok the top picture is one of those 'auto awesomed' things but I thought it looked like a painting in it's own right.

Nel works mainly in pastel, it has real depth the way she builds it up, and you can see her tray of pastels below.

It was great having the chance to talk to a 'proper' artist / fabric designer and pick her brains about pattern repeats, creating collections etc, she was absolutely lovely and I can't wait to see what fabric designs emerge from her latest artwork.

Nel creates fabric for Westminster fabrics and here are some of her other pictures on display. You can find her on Facebook and follow a diary of what she is doing whilst at Burton Agnes.

http://www.nelwhatmore.com/
http://www.nelpatterns.com/

Textile work for Le Tour Yorkshire

What an odd week, started off with 3 days of downpours and you should see the mud and puddles it brought down here. By Wednesday thankfully better weather as I had a day at the seaside with my sister and nephew over from Belgium. Then today a heat wave and a plague of ants on the patio.

I've been very busy with projects the last couple of weeks, some fairly secret and some just coming out into the open like these.

In just 49 days the Grand Depart for the Tour de France will start in Yorkshire and I imagine it will be a crazy few days. The nearest it comes to me is a brief flirt with York but I'm already thinking it will be too busy and too hot to attempt to go and see it.

Instead I have opted to get involved in a more calm and creative way. My 'souvenirs' for this event are some tiny little textile artworks which have evolved into brooches.

They are made from Harris Tweed with some needle felting, stitching and embellishing.

I have made little linen machine embroidered bags to go with them.

Once I had found some tiny buttons for the wheels they started to take shape.

Adding the riders was the tricky bit.

Only made the very small amount shown here and a couple will go to Gallery 49 and the other few are going to The Attic in York.

Enjoy the sunny weekend everyone, could be as good as it gets for a while :)

The Garden Room opens at RHS Harlow Carr Harrogate this weekend

Firstly I must apologise for the amount of photos I plan to attach but it is really to document my recent jewellery creations.

The weekend has finally arrived when a new exhibition blasts off featuring lots of new work from local artists and makers.

My friend, the uber talented textile artist Corinne Young, has devised and is curating this fabulous garden inspired exhibition which runs until the end of March. All the details about the exhibition and artists involved are featured on Corinne's blog.

http://stitchedgarden.wordpress.com/2014/03/11/the-garden-room-opens-this-weekend/

I've been busying myself making things in the windows of opportunity between a busy schedule of graphic design work and as well as the embroidered gloves and birds you may have seen on here recently I have a new range of tweed & felted Old Masters brooches.

Some of the jewellery has turned into necklaces and here they are packaged and ready to go.

Next we have the Old Masters range of flower vases and these are needle felted designs onto Harris Tweed.

The layers are built up and I only had one finger pricking incident!

I enjoyed slapping lots of different colours into these and here they are almost finished before turning into brooches or pendants.

I want to wish Corinne all the best as she's in for a busy and exciting fortnight. Hope the weather is kind too.

Thanks for sticking it out to the end if you made it and have a good weekend.