The River

The River Thames was glistening in the Autumn sunshine.

This week's Book

This week I am looking at Maggie Grey's Raising The Surface With Machine Embroidery.

I absolutely love the photo on the cover, and there are a lot more colourful and textural photos inside. There is a lot of information about a variety of machine embroidery techniques. Another must have book for your collection!

Textures in a Graveyard

There are always a lot of interesting textures to be found in a graveyard. I love the way lichens and moss cover the grave stones.

Tag Tuesday-Egypt

EGYPT is the theme for this week's Tag Tuesday.

For this week's tag I have gone for hieroglyphics spelling out  EGYPT.

 The symbols are as follows:-

E a reed

G pedestal for a jar

Y two reeds

P stool seen from above

T loaf

The hieroglyphics were surprisingly difficult to draw, I think I need more practice to be a scribe! I put them onto a gelli plate background and made a frame with simple Egyptian style patterns.

Signs of Autumn

The glorious summer which we had is well and truly over now. Signs of Autumn are appearing everywhere.

Lavender bag

                                           

                       I hand stitched a lavender bag, inspired by Clare Youngs in her book Scandinavian Needlecraft .              

Tag Tuesday-Wings

For my Wings tag for this week's Tag Tuesday I used an image from The Graphics Fairy of wings taken from a Natural History book. I coloured it with watercolour and collaged it onto a gelli plate print background.

Silk Flowers

While I was shopping in the little market town of Wallingford these beautiful blooms caught my eye in the florist's, Branching Out. Although they look like real flowers, they are actually made of silk. It was very difficult to tell which were real and which artificial! I was very taken by the striking colour combinations, especially the orange and purple poppies.

Books

 I have been looking at these books this week, Silk Paper for Textile Artists by Sarah Lawrence is full of mouth watering photographs and interesting ideas for textile artists. You may remember me posting about Sarah Lawrence earlier in the year, and her book Stitch, Cloth, Shimmer and Shine . Sadly Sarah is no longer with us.

Stylish Papercraft by Clare Youngs is another great ideas and projects book. I really like Clare's work, and you may remember I have blogged about her in previous posts.

Textures in France

Here are some photos of textures I found while I was in France.

Tag Tuesday-Mother and Child

The theme for this week's Tag Tuesday is Mother and Child.

I have chosen  a Russian doll or Matryoska, which I made using papers printed with my Gelli plate. I made a mother and her child, although they usually come in sets of 5 or more dolls, getting increasingly smaller.

Flowers in France

While I was in France I took these photos of flowers I noticed.

Book of the week;-Mixed Mania, Recipes for Delicious Mixed Media Creations

          

 This book, Mixed Mania, Recipes for Delicious and Mixed Media Creations by Debbi Crane and Cheryl Prater is full of ideas for mixed media and is written in a very humourous way.

France-Domaine de Roudeille

After spending a few days in Andorra, we continued our holiday in France, spending 10 days in this beautiful property, Domaine de Roudeille in the peaceful Ariege region. We enjoyed spending time in the grounds and swimming in the pool. These photos were all taken on the property.

Tag Tuesday-Eyes

The theme for this week's Tag Tuesday is Eyes.

Here is my Eyes tag, though strictly speaking it is an Eye tag.

Wedjet Eye or Eye of Horus

 The Wedjet Eye or Eye of Horus was a symbol of protection and a promise of reconstitution or rebirth of the body for the Egyptians. I have taken the design from Egyptian Designs in Modern Stitchery  by Pauline Fischer, and made my own version of it. I painted stripes onto my gelli plate (you can read about it here on my blog) and printed it off, then filled in the gaps with gel pen. The eye itself is embroidered with black thread for definition, and because both men and women in Ancient Egypt used to paint their eyes with dark paints to make them stand out.

Andorra

I have had a lovely summer, and now it is September and back to blogging! I had a lovely holiday in France with my husband and our youngest son, who is 15, and we spent a few days in Andorra too. I picked my favourite photos of Andorra to post, and I hope they show the dramatic mountain scenery at its best. Andorra is a principality, so too small to be called a country. In an area of 468 square kilometres it has a population of 85,000. We stayed in a spa hotel, and enjoyed the al fresco jacuzzi in the rain, which was very invigorating.  It is a ski resort throughout the season, but makes a very pleasant summer hotel. Skiing is very popular here, and Andorra has 130 miles of ski runs! 

Taken from our hotel room balcony

 We went for a walk in a nature reserve

I love the dramatic shadows the clouds throw out onto the mountains