If Craft Matters To You

Hi

I had an email today from the Craft Council.

It wants to know why craft is important to you.

So if you live in the UK click on this link http://www.craftscouncil.org.uk/about-us/press-room/view/2009/craft-matters/

It sounds like a very interesting project that you could be apart of.

This is also a very good website to see beautiful crafts from leading designers in the UK.

Craft matters to me because quite simply its my life, sounds a bit dramatic but it's true.

It is my living and my social life.

It brings people together, gives me inspiration and Its a way I can express myself.

Its the best sort of therapy.

Happy stitching.x

Textile Landscape

I'm making slow progress on the stitching, my sewing machine is being serviced this week, not before time, its been in constant use and needs a bit of love and care.

So I am adding hand embroidery to my picture which I really enjoy, very relaxing and I can multi task, watching a good film.

On Sunday I was watching Pride And Prejudice for about the sixth time, I love the rain scene!

I always seem to connect more to the piece when I start the hand stitching, it gives a rhythm to my composition.

The picture above shows it displayed, balanced on my bookcase, I'm not sure yet how I will display this larger piece, any suggestions welcome and also any more good films to stitch to!

Time To Stitch

It's half term week so I have been busy trying to finish jobs in the house and also fitting in more time to sew.

I have been making my flower brooches in the evening for a Christmas sale in aid of cancer research.

I also decided I wanted to try working a landscape on a larger scale, inspired by the textiles I saw at The Knitting & Stitching Show.

This size is enormous for me, especially if you compare it to my landscape brooches.

It is quite liberating to work to this scale and I kept standing on a chair to look down at it !

This is at the stage before I have added any embroidery, I have embellished the wool and silk fibers down with my embellisher machine.

My inspiration is from the sketch I made in France and I want to portray the atmosphere of the colourful Mediterranean landscape.

The colours are so vivid and intense in the strong sunlight.

I hope to bring it more alive once I start adding my stitches although I think this may take some time!

If You See A Tree In The Post

Now I think you may find many trees in my blog posts but have you seen one in the post?

I found out my embroidery work which was featured in the Sew Somerset magazine has gone missing in the post.

It turns out it was mailed out from the States at the beginning of July and has not been seen since.

It's this work here http://kaylacoo.blogspot.com/2009_06_01_archive.html scroll down to June 8th.

So if by any chance you may see it, slim I know.........

We put so much faith in our postal service and there is always a risk that it reaches the wrong destination.

I think it's unlikely I will see it again, I wonder if it ever made it across the Atlantic or not?

I posted my Nieces Birthday card early because of the postal strike, due at the end of this week here in the UK.

I do hope they can resolve this dispute soon, as so many small business sellers will find it crippling.

I'm busy sewing lots of flowers at the moment, for a friends Christmas sale in aid of Cancer research, so I best get back to my petals.

Silver Tree & More Threads

I must be slightly mad, I spend entire days just threading up sewing machines and then I come home and do the same!

As the art & design technician I spend a lot of time helping students, by showing them how to set up the machines and how best they can use them.

So I'm surrounded by threads at work and at home, obsessed I am!

These are a few of the smaller stitched pieces I have been working on, including a commission of a silver tree for Carolyn over at http://love-stitching-red.blogspot.com/.

Luckily she likes it!

I must say thank you to Linda who cheered me up, she sent me some fun handmade book marks from her give away.She makes very pretty jewellery too, you can find out more from her blog

http://aefondkis.blogspot.com/

Recently I found out that a friend of mine has a relative who stitches and she has a blog too, a small world!

You can see Ruth's embroidery work on her blog here http://rutholearytextileart.blogspot.com/

Ruth uses some very beautiful traditional embroidery techniques including goldwork and applique.

Thanks again for your lovely comments and now it's time for me to sort out school lunch boxes!

The Knitting & Stitching Show 2009

I spent Thursday at the Knitting & Stitching show and I loved it !

The textile art was incredible, such a diverse range of different stitching styles and materials.

I find it inspiring talking to the textile artists who must have spent so much time getting ready for this show.

I enjoyed looking at the work of Tom Lundberg who's detailed fine stitching created rhythmical patterns.

His work is small, many just pocket size which are inspired by the symbolic intensity of badges and stitched emblems.

Then I found Alice Kettles stand with embroidery and clay pieces.

Alice's stitched pieces flowed from cloth to ceramics, her work combined with the ceramicists Helen Felcey in Place Settings and Alex Mc Erlain in Conversation Pieces.

Her stitched hangings in pure white, a departure from her usual colourful embroidered paintings ,but still undeniably showing her distinctive style.

My favourite was the one depicting many drawn urns and pots, stitched freely as quick sketches.

I will save more artist's for another blog post.

I was not sure if I could take pictures and I don't really feel I should have them on my blog without the artists permission.

So just the entrance to share with you and my pictures on the Stitch Magazine stand.

Hope you have a great time if your going and I'm sure you will be itching to stitch!

Trees For The Gallery

I had a phone call at the beginning of the week requesting more of my brooches for the gallery in Leamington so I have been busy making these.

They wanted them as extra stock for Christmas.

This has given me an incentive to get some more work completed.

Next week I'm planning a visit to the Knitting & Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace, first time I have been to the London show in years!

I'm so looking forward to seeing all the amazing art textiles in one place and I'm hoping to take photo's to share with you.

Then of course there is all the different varieties of fibers and threads, I can be overwhelmed by the choice and the book stalls full of textile books, which I know will tempt me.

I have been working with year 8 students this week in textiles and we were experimenting with batik.

This is a sample I made to illustrate the technique, we had great fun creating patterns and they will then use their samples to decorate masks.

Another busy week, so I'm looking forward to a rest at the weekend, but it will include some sewing!

I must say before I go, thank you very much for all your kind comments.x