Gorgeous Beaded Wedding Dress and Bag

These are pictures of the beaded wedding bag [continued from yesterday]. Both the dress and the bag were made and embroidered by Emma's friend Debbie.

And on the inside is a label specially made by Debbie for Emma & Jack

This is the front of the dress, again exquisite beading and embroidery, with pleats from the yoke and another embroidered/beaded section around the waist. Emma drew a picture of the kind of dress she had in mind and Debbie designed and made it.

This is the back, which has a row of lovely decorative buttons.

A label on the inside of the dress too.

And this is the very talented Debbie with Emma. This is the first wedding dress Debbie has ever made! Wow!

Emma & Jack get married

I've been away for a few days to attend my daughter Emma's wedding in London. Emma married Jack at Marylebone Town Hall in the yellow room. I took the photo in the park and my son James took the others including the creative black, white & red one above.

The reception was at Home House, Portman Square and we had photographs taken in the park opposite.

Home House is a Gordgian town house and the interior was designed by Robert Adam [neoclassical style - developer of the 'adams style' fireplaces]

I shall post more photos tomorrow of the lovely wedding dress and beaded bag

Take a Stitch Tuesday - Vandyke Stitch

This week's 'Take a Stitch Tuesday' is vandyke stitch. It is a very easy stitch to do. I did one row and then did another one next to it over the lace to catch it down. I put a row of pink beads down the middle but I didn't like it so I took them out and I did a row of chain stitch instead. I think it would look better if the pink was a lighter shade but I decided to leave it. As usual I put my sample in my altered book.

When Colours Collide - Art Quilt

I started this quilt for the international patchwork competition called 'when materials collide' and I call my quilt 'when colours collide' as it has so many different colours in it. As part of the competition one had to 'overcome the restraints of fibre and to integrate non-textile materials into the piece'. I have blogged about the start of the quilt and bits of it previously in June. The  non-textile bits include paint, DVD's [cut up], plastic net, string, beads, sequins and tomato puree tubes. The deadline came and I didn't finish it [still not finished], I probably could have if I had really tried but I wasn't sure about it [it's not my usual style - which can be seen on my website] and with the cost to enter & delivery to France I talked myself out of it. It took a lot of hours as it has been all hand stitched and quilted apart from the edging, and was quite difficult to stitch in places where the paint was thick. I did try quilting it on the machine but I find big pieces too difficult and stressful[how do people do it?]. The question now is - do I finish it? What shall I do with it if I do? Would anybody want to buy it? Or shall I chop it up and use it in other work? I would be grateful for your comments, and tell me whether you like it or not, even if you think it is hideous. I do like bits of it but I'm not sure about the whole thing. To finish the quilt I need to finish the edging & I also have another stringy/bead thing to put on, so probably not loads of work, but now the competition deadline is way gone, the inclination to finish has too.

I'm sorry the photos aren't as good as they could be. When the quilt was hanging on the door the quilt was at an angle [I couldn't shut the door or open it fully], likewise when it was on the floor I took the picture from one end and some photos are a bit blurry.

Scottish Trip - The Trossachs

Last weekend I went to Scotland for a couple of nights with hubby, sister and brother-in-law and we stayed at Balloch near Loch Lomond. On a tour around the Trossachs area we called in at a tearoom called Wee Blether at Linlochard. As well as the beautiful views from the balcony, see photo above, there were funny signs to read and interesting things to see. Directly below is a crocodile in the grass

It's a beautiful area - and the weather stayed nice for two days.

Vintage Rose

digital collage

Moose Tree & Illustration Friday

Can you see a moose?

Click here for my picture for today's Illustration Friday - Star Gazing

Arrow Poison Frogs and IF - Caged

The Illustration Friday [link on right] challenge [6th] is 'Caged'

The gorilla was in one of my sketchbooks, done with Faber Castell Pitt Brush Pens in shades of grey & black. The lime green chicken wire was actual wire which I scanned into the computer.

Take a Stitch Tuesday - weeks 23, 24

Take a Stitch Tuesday

The stitch for week 23 was 'wave chain stitch' - I had a quick look at the instructions & thought 'that looks easy enough, I'll do it later'. Well when I did it later I knew I had done it wrong, it was more like fly stitch, so I tried again, but it still didn't look right [see sample - 3rd image], I think some of them look quite nice so at least I have got some new stitches. I went back to the website to follow the instructions properly for the sample in the book.

The stitch for week 24 is 'siennese stitch' which I did right first time!

Vintage Cushion Cover

I embroidered this cushion a while ago but I have only just photographed it.

 The cushion cover was part of a set, and the linen fabric was ready traced for embroidery, printed in blue [which can still be seen even though it has been washed]. It was among my grandmother's belongings, and my mother gave it to me after she died. I have a page of the 'Woman' magazine which had the offer of the linens, it looks like it is from the 50's and one cushion cover cost 2s.9d old money. [14p today?] The instructions say follow the pictures for colours [multi-coloured], however I wanted it for my living room so I used shades of red. I may try a different technique on another cover. [one day]

What a lark!

The lark was a mono print which was roughly torn around and stuck to a drawing

Sandstone & Stalagmites

Colorado Sandstone -  my interpretation of a photograph done when I was working on the 'layers' project [brush pens, felt tips]

I used a photograph of stalagmites & stalacites for this one too

Altered Book - North East England

I was looking through my images on my computer and came across these from an altered book I did a few years ago. I have posted pages from this book before but not these. The page above is all about bridges in the North East area. The Tyne bridge was the starting point for these two fabric designs.

The book was to get the inspiration flowing for the Vervey project 'Illusions of the North East'

The Baltic Flour Mills were converted into a gallery [for contemporary art]

I filled my version with images from photos I took, and other images such as the dragon which was on a bag from the Oriental Museum in Durham.

The picture above was changed a little for a canvas picture. And the one below was the idea for a mixed media 3D picture.

Heart Cake

Another cake, I was originally thinking of doing a dome because my daughter showed me a picture of one she liked, but as I was only going to make two cakes I didn't think it would be tall enough so I decided on a heart shaped cake. I drew a heart on some paper, placed it on top of the cake, took a big knife and cut through the cake following the paper. For the smaller cake I just trimmed the paper heart. It did look a bit uneven in places and bits of cake came off where they weren't supposed to. Two friends said after I'd done it that they had a heart shaped cake tin! The cakes were attached together with boiled apricot jam then marzipan'd before icing. I coloured the icing with food colourings and used cookie cutters for the flower shapes. I didn't put leaves on this time. I like the colours on this one especially the lilac. I didn't realise I had damaged it until I looked at the photos. The cake was for my lovely daughter & fiance who were having a barbecue in our garden  to celebrate their forthcoming wedding with their friends who live in the North East, most of them will not be going to the wedding in London. Weather stayed nice apart from about 10 seconds of rain.