As useful as a teapot?

Kirsten had spent three days doing a workshop with a fellow felter.Look what they were making......

...fabulous felt teapots. Fabulous shapes,not for tea perhaps but so quirky.

With lids that fit

A close up of  the lid,such attention to detail.

She also brought along these characters,can't remember who they are,but made for her children.You can just see behind the teapot another piece Kirsten brought a few meeting back,but it is now complete.

All hand pieced from Liberty lawn .

Glorious colour.

Both Sue and Patricia brightened this gloomy Tuesday with amazing 'pops' of colour.

Sue had lots of embellishing samples influenced by the changing skies she sees from her home in Portishead.They ranged from sunrise to summer day to storm ridden.Her skill in choosing snips of thread,yarn and fabric and putting colours together can be seen above.What might look unpromising in a random pile becomes something delicious .

Patricia had spent a lovely day with a friend who uses glass and the above was the result.She said she had just added pieces at random as she had no experience.The fusing in the kiln had created this,an explosion of lusciousness .The colours glow and are vibrant.

We also saw a neckpiece and two necklaces glowing with the same vibrancy.The green necklace was passed among us and every single one of us could have matched it to what we had on,they are really versatile.

World textile day

A reminder for tomorrow only.

           

Hearts and flowers.

Carol has been working on embroidering a convict bonnet for the mammoth project being run by Christina Henri 'down under' This is the name of the poor unfortunate who was convicted and deported to Australia.

This is the back of the bonnet embroidered so expertly with Heart and roses. The bees are such a lovely addition.The bonnet will also include the name of the ship she embarked on and the date.There have already been several exhibitions of the bonnets so far received.The final count is to be 25,000 to commemorate the women who were sent away after committing crimes.These crimes were often committed in desperation and were sometimes as trivial as taking a crust of bread because they were starving !

Carol also showed us her sunflower piece, now completed.

A welcome bright addition to what was a very gloomy day.

More coast.

Debby had bought a frame with multi openings which she had filled with her coastal pieces on a small scale,they look so very effective.

 

She had printed a piece of her work then used the houses repeatedly to collage and stitch the little scenes,adding in fabrics,text and snippets of other images.See the close up below.

She brought along the printable fabrics she likes to use .

She had also been playing with some of the stickers she had printed by Moo.com.

Highlighting areas with resin so that they can be made into little brooches.She is full of really clever ideas.

Another link to the coast was some wrapping fabric she picked up on holiday.The Japanese use it to wrap gifts,a tad longer lasting than paper!

A clever recipient can put it to further use ,as a basis for quilting perhaps.

Liz brought along the piece she almost lost in Cornwall.She decided to tie rusty items found on the beach into the fabric then tossed it into the surf........however she forgot to tie something to it so it wouldn't get washed away !

Luckily it was rescued ,but not without a soaking.

We liked the accent of blue meandering its way through.

Coast and rivers.

Viv was present this meeting and brought her sea piece.

She thought to put some hand stitching in the 'sand ' at the bottom but ripped it out as she disliked it.

We thought the marks left looked like seagull footprints left behind,unfortunately you can't see them in the photo !

She has more fabrics to continue with this theme.

 Sally has begun to turn her thoughts to creating pieces from her trip to the Antartic several years ago.

She has lots of inspiration,from photos ,drawings and memories.

Her chinstrap penguin drawings are so full of their character.

She also drew the wide open space of the glacier and has plans to create a panorama.

Barriers.

Jenn is working towards an exhibition with Sian Martin's masterclass group STA next August and has been looking at patterns within barriers and boundaries.She brought along some work where the embellisher has been used to mesh fibres and fabrics together.As yet they have no stitch,but they contain some of her indigo dyed fabrics from a few months back.

The patterns were hastily scribbled in various journeys in cars or on buses.They include wood ,wire and wrought ironwork.More still to come.