Joyeux Noel .....

Little glimpses of Christmas in my home .......

The presents are gathering under the tree.

 Some of my favourite ornaments on the Christmas tree.

Some of my collection of Santa's

My sweet little dog Oakey looking festive on the quilt.... he's 16 now....such a beautiful old boy.

Thank you all for popping by my blog this past this year. 

I wish you all  PEACE, HAPPINESS, LOVE, GOOD HEALTH, JOY, PROSPERITY & ALL THAT IS GOOD IN THIS WORLD.

EXPECT

WONDERFUL THINGS

TO HAPPEN.

Have a most wonderful Christmas!

Jacky xox

Quietly stitching....

I have enjoyed a peaceful, quiet weekend.  Lots of stitching,  just simple, methodical stitching but I love the effect.  The two pieces I have been working on were both inspired by Judy Martin.  I love how Judy  'makes marks' with stitch...so I have been mark making on this little cloth I started for Norma.
The background fabric is indigo dyed (on a recent trip to my friend Nat's) and some of the threads were dyed by her friend Lynda...the lighter coloured thread she eco dyed.  I love stitching with it, such a beautiful neutral colour.  You will also see a few thread beads in there,  Jude Hills influence. Over the past few years Judy and Jude have inspired many cloths.
Another inspiration for this piece was Australian Aboriginal art. I love aboriginal mark making and I'm always drawn to the repetitive style of some of their work...be it dots or lines, it tells a story.  This  really appeals to me and I am going to make a series of these cloths.

When visiting  Judy Martins  blog this weekend she had posted a wonderful tutorial on making reverse applique dots.  This little nine patch uses the method in her tutorial, but I think I used a bigger spool than Judy.  The first few were quite untidy (stitches showing),  but I refined them as I went along.  I am very happy with this little nine patch with dots...thank you Judy.  Again I used some of the fabric from my indigo dyeing with Nat,  the colour is quite washed out in the photo though.

Have a wonderful week and enjoy the festive season.

GO TO WHERE YOU WANT TO BE,

AND THE RESOURCES WILL FOLLOW.

-SARK -

Jacky  xox

fabric and linocut ......

No post for November!!!.... I've had a very busy time of it lately. As you may know from previous posts my MIL has been very ill these past two years.  Sadly she passed away last week .....she will be missed in many ways, one of them being that she has been a large part of my creative life.  Always encouraging me to paint and sew.   She was never scared to try something new, she encouraged me to try lots of things I would never have been brave enough to do without her nudging me along (ever the procrastinator).  I have begun a cloth, marking it with stitches, in memory of Norma.  No pictures today,  but I will share it with you soon. 

 Even though I have been busy I have still been doing a bit of art.  I recently got together with my art friends Ro, Dot and Patsy at Ro's home and we did some fabric printing...lots of fun and  Ro shared her fabric printing technique with us all, showing  how to make our own prints from bits and pieces we all have around our home.  I was very happy with the fabric printing I did on the day and will make sure it goes into a special cloth.  Some of these pieces were using a stamp I had myself on the day and others with stamps that Ro had made earlier. Isnt the effect wonderful!!!

I have also been doing a bit of printmaking lately.  I took part in an exhibition with a couple of my art friends,  Meg Abrecht (painter and printmaker),  Regina Dudek (jewellery and sculpture) and Nic Perrin (oil painter).   Will share some photos once I upload them.  I carved and printed quite a few whimsical birds for this exhibition with my "Sunshine Owl"  being my inspiration.  Below is a little owl  linocut print, approx. 3 inches x 4... I have named him "Whoot".  He was the simplest and smallest of my pieces,  but I loved his simplicity and he came up well framed.

I hope you are all enjoying your preparations for the festive season.  I love the Christmas season,  everyone is in such a happy and generous frame of mind ... the world is a nicer place. I intend to get all of my Christmas decorations up this weekend (normally I have them out by the 1st December...bit slow this year).  I love decorating the house for Christmas.

I will be back soon with a photo of my new cloth.

ENJOY A TINY

ADVENTUROUS MOMENT,

CLOSE TO HOME.

IT CHANGES YOUR PERSPECTIVE,

REMINDING YOU THAT THE WORLD

IS DEEP AND RICH AND FULL OF

COLOR AND MIRACLES.

-SARK-

have a wonderful week.

Jacky xox