Caversham Stained Glass

This is the work of my friend, Emma Davies, which I think has beautiful colour, pattern and texture. It was Emma who got me started with my art and textiles work about 4 years ago, when she took me along to a course in stained glass making. We both learned so much there. For me it was the start of my journey, as I loved the design work and wanted to try to make things out of fabrics, after the glass. For Emma, as soon as she started the glass work, she was on the right track. The bottom picture shows Emma's front door, which was her first piece. I am sure you will agree that it is lovely. Since then she has done a number of commisions for window and door panels. Based in the Reading area, Emma can be contacted on cavershamstainedglass@hotmail.com

The photos are by Emma from her portfolio

My Lollipop Lane

Here is my version of Shelagh Folgate's Lollipop Lane. I have just finished it, before February is upon us, as we will be receiving the next challenge then. I hope you like it. I am pleased with the end result, and have learned a lot while doing it. Doing the Smashees has reallly made me use my machine, and also made me apply techniques I have previously only dealt with fleetingly.

You can find Shelagh at http://shelaghfolgate.bigcartel.com

Hubble Bubble by Shelagh Folgate

Here are some pictures of the work I have been doing for The Smashees by Shelagh Folgate. This is for the second workshop Hubble Bubble. I have been following Shelagh's instuctions.

I enjoyed dyeing the fabric for this project, and was glad to use a different range of colours. For some reason, whilst at Windsor on the C& G course, most things came out either blue or green! It is inspiring to use this nice, bright pink and the shades of purple. Of course this also means I needed to buy some more embroidery threads!

I have been experimenting with my machine, an Elna Q 660, which has a large range of embroidery stitches. I chose this fine flower for the base fabric for my dolly

Here she is! As the mother of four boys, I have to say it is the first time a dolly has been in this house! It is good to make something so feminine and pretty

More Christmas books

The books I ordered from Amazon arrived at last! I have been longing to buy them for a while, but resisted the temptation, and they are a very good present, and good use of Christmas money. Maybe that is the way forward with Christmas, maybe we should all just buy presents for ourselves!

Print and Pattern by Bowie Style is a great reference book about my favourite things, texture, colour, pattern and design. I have been following the blog with great interest, and am delighted to have a book like this to look through.

Pattern Sourcebook : Around the World by Shigeki Nakamura has a vast range of source material and I think it will be a reference book which I will refer to again and again.

The publication V&A Pattern, The Fifties is a lovely little book, with small pages, so easy to take on the train and keep in your handbag when in need of some patterns to look at! I love those bold textiles patterns of the fifties, and will probably keep this book with me at all times!

Christmas books

January is always a good month for spending time with those Christmas books. I only had two this year, but don't worry, I have spent some of my present money on books I wanted from Amazon. I am waiting for the delivery as I write, so more on that soon, I hope! My friend, Val gave me this journal, which I can't wait to use. It has space to make notes of textile projects, room for fabric swatches and fabrics, and in addition some pages to read which are taken from old diaries of quilters and stitchers.

This is such a lovely book for anyone interested in textiles. I find Angie Lewin's work to be inspiring. Her book, which has been recently published is a visual feast!

The Smashees by Shelagh Folgate

This is the background of houses for LOLLIPOP LANE, part of the Smashees course by Shelagh Folgate. The on-line course is everything I hoped it would be. Shelagh sends a workshop each month, and we follow her instructions to make her designs. Feedback is via a closed mailing group , and we can post photos and share techniques and problems. The whole group follows the same instructions, it is open to individual interpretation, so the results are very varied . I will be adding the lollipops next-watch this space! Progress has been rather slow this month due to Christmas and having a house full of boys and young men!

Floodgates open

This is the calm side of the river on the other side of the weir, by Reading Bridge. I have been wanting to take some photos of the seagulls in flight, as they do fly around a lot. I happened to have my camera ready and be in exactly the right spot this time.

We went for a wintery walk by the weir at Caversham Lock. Luckily we chose a moment when there was some sunshine. The weir lookes amazing, as the floodgates were fully open, and the froth and foam was quite spectacular.