Puppies!!

I AM SO EXCITED!!!! Having wanted a dog for over 10 years we are finally in a position to get a puppy!! We met Carol and Simon (http://www.casiat.co.uk/) back in March when we attended a malamute/husky rally in Thetford. Our aim was to research Alaskan malamutes with a view to owning one in a few years. Then we found out that Carol and Simon also own collies and were expecting a litter at the end of April! Having seen the mum, Lucca and fallen in love we decided that we would have a collie now and get some experience with training and owning a colliebefore moving onto the more demanding malamute!! We are off tomorrow to see the pups who are now 4 weeks old and make our choice!!!!! Then we have another 4 weeks to go until we can pick our little bundle up! The waiting is awful, especially as I've been waiting since March when Lucca was not even confirmed as pregnant! Anyway...now for the cute pictures.........


This is Blueboy.....too cute!



Here are the 2 lilac boyr, Uno and Mr Roo! We think we might be having Uno - he's the cutie on the left, nibbling his brother's neck!

6 little boys having their milk....

Here's Summer the malamute guarding the pups! You can just see little Uno's head squashed behind his brothers.

Cathedral Sample - picture at last!

So this is one of the thermofaxed images that I have started to work on. I screened xpandaprint through and heated it with an iron on the reverse. I then dabbed gold lumiere paint onto it using a stencil brush. To dull it down a bit and add more depth I dabbed on some liquitex bronze acrylic paint. I have started to outline the shapes with a dark gold thread - will post more pictures as I go along!

Creativity Course and Cathedrals

Using the thermofax screen I printed LOTS of cathedral arches on different fabrics, papers etc. I used hand dyed cotton, black discharge cotton velvet, black cotton sateen, undyed cotton, abaca tissue, coloured papers from C&G. I used discharge paste on its own and mixed with gold paint, I used a lot of black setacolour transparent fabric paint and also xpandaprint through the screen. One thing that I would like to try but didn't get round to is putting glue through the screen (PVA) and then using foil over the top (you need to wash the screen immediately so the glue doesn't block it)

Creativity Course and Navel Gazing! - part 1

Back in January I started on a day a month course called 'Explore you Creative Potential' at the Bramble Patch in Northants. This is run by Brenda Boardman and covers lots and lots of different techniques and ideas with the aim of you developing your own work and style. Brenda is a great mentor and tutor and I have been really enjoying these classes. I come back really fired with enthusiasm and often spend the next day working on what we did in class. Sometimes this is all the time I spend on my textiles in a month and it keeps me going until the next month.

I am a perfectionist and a control freak (lucky me!) and am one of those people that are always beating themself up about something! So I feel bad that I spend more time buying the materials and reading about textiles than actually doing! Brenda said something to me that was really helpful - she said that I need to learn (and accept) my own way of working. So for some people doing a bit each day works for them - I would like to do this and have tried it before but realistically with a puppy coming home with us in 2 months (more on that later!) this won't work. It seems that I work best just after the monthly class when I am 'on a roll' and then I work somewhat sporadically throughout the month. THe ideas are never far from my thoughts but putting them into practice doesn't always happen. Work also affects this - the busier and more stressed I am at work, the less sewig / creating I do. This is why I am trying to nip my work stress in the bud as I have only been there 5 months and it is starting to escelate! I blames this on mean but when I think logically it seems that if you work hard and are conscientious people think you can cope with anything and jsut do more and more and more!!

Anyway, enough philosophising - get to the pictures!! I have been working on medieval for a while now. I went to my creativity course with a sketchbook full of ideas, doodles etc but no real samples or progression in fabric. Brenda made some suggestions and I have started to move forwards. One week we did thermofax screens (GREAT FUN) and I created a design based on the arches of Notre Dame in Paris.