Headless Chicken!

Just keeping my eye on  you!

 I've just been checking my photo files and I'm in great danger of getting behind with my blog posts at the moment. I found these pics languishing in file from a whole 2 weeks ago! tut tut!

 I'd obviously been a stitchin and a sewing like mad, look I'd even broken a needle, lol.

And the object of my stitching frenzy...

 Big fat hen doorstops and...

Big fat owl doorstops. Oh how sweet a little parliament of owls too. They have all flapped and swooped their way down to the Gallery which wasn't easy as they are all full of wheat grains and not very aerodynamic I can tell you! I had arms like a Gibbon by the time I got there, lol.

Look what else I've neglected to share with you! Felt brooches!

I'm afraid these'll have to be a 'next time' post as it's way past my bedtime now.

Thank you for the cupboard love.

Till next time

Fi x

Not usually my thing.

 Before. 

Looking a little worse for ware and bit tired.

After.

Spruced up and ready to store again.

Back to normal stitchy stuff next time, promise.

Love Fi x

See! I'm not really doing it justice am I? It'll just vanish under all the junk! lol.
It really needs it's own little special place. 

Drawing with stitches

 Do you ever feel in limbo, not knowing what direction to take? Hmm..well that's how I've been feeling lately.

 Maybe it's not actually limbo, rather procrastination. Dithering about not knowing what to do or which direction to take, instead of just getting on and doing something, anything! Sometimes there are just soooo many things I want to try that I can't decide what to do. Or is just middle aged indecision, lol.

 Procrastination was one of the reasons I started this blog 4 years ago. Well if you're going to write to the world, you'd better have something to write about. So at first, blogging made me make things, so I  had something to 'show-and-tell' if you like. It worked! I sew most days and I'm now lucky enough to sell my 'makings' in a local gallery and online. 

Thinking about it now, you have all been a huge part of my journey.You have all contributed in helping me find my direction by reading this blog, commenting, emailing me, purchasing and commissioning work from me...supporting me with many gentle hands. I suppose, since mine is not the only blog you read, you'll be doing this unknowingly to many others out there, doing something really quite wonderful and understated, without even realising it. Well I've realised it and I'm so grateful to you all for each individual tiny little nudge in the right direction. As a whole you're a powerful friend. 

So here is my latest, 'what shall I do?' A little drawing done on the sewing machine of a friends daughter. The old linen napkin seemed a perfect choice for my subject matter as they are both what my life has been about, home, children, domesticity. They just seemed to go together.

 I came across the photo in one of my files whilst procrastinating! It was taken about 8 years ago in the back garden on summers day. The children kindly stopped their play to pose for me. 

Little 'A' sitting at the end was my chosen subject. I just loved the pose, the long gangley arms, the clasped hands and the lopsided bunches, lol. It's making me smile even now, lol.

Love Fi x

Thank you, both bunnies have now been re-homed :)

Bunnies are for life, not just for Easter!

Last two bunnies, 

Both looking for a loving new home. x

Embroidered hand felt and new beginnings.

Hi all. Here as promised is my latest piece of embroidered, wet felted...felt. Would you like a closer look?

I nearly didn't finish this piece. Although the wet felting went to plan,

I wasn't overly pleased with the garden bench in the centre of the picture.

Maybe I'm just being a bit picky though, probably because I found this part particularly difficult to do. My sewing machine objects a little when it stitches over the same spot several times, which is a bit of a pain when you're machine embroidering!

It's growing on me though. I particularly like the two small bunches of dark pink flowers in front of the bench and the fallen rose petals on the path.

There is quite a lot of machine embroidery on this piece.

I

It's then finished with lots of hand embroidery, each little pink petal is cut from silk which I space dyed myself and then individually stitched in place.

And this is it's new home (not for too long I hope). This is Chapel Gallery in Hawes in Wensleydale. A brand new arts and crafts gallery offering craft workshops, coffee and of course MarmaladeRose goodies.

The new owners Anne and Tim Smithies kindly let me take a few pics to share with you all.

I think Anne is hoping to fill the gallery predominantly with art and crafts from local Dales artist but there is a sprinkling of fabulous work from farther a field.

Don't you just love these luscious ladies sitting having a chat. These are by the very talented Anna Mercedes Wear.

Anne herself is very gifted. She works in more mediums than I can list here, but in these pictures you might spy her handmade glass decorations, beautiful patchwork quilts, machine quilting DVDs, hand drawn cards, cuddly toy bunnies and art dolls, not to mention handmade ceramic and glass buttons! That's right ladies I said BUTTONs and we all love buttons, lol.

Turned wood bowls, coloured glass bowls, leather purses, and ceramics.

More beautiful wood, needle case-cushions, a couple of my felt brooches and fat owls, and some lovely little round angels.

On the bird table we have...well...birds and underneath are growing some of my crochet flowers.

Here are the beautiful sparkly class ornaments Anne makes. Dangling and...

standing to catch the light.

Buttons, buttons, buttons, drool!

Bunnies, bags and bowls. Glass, ceramic tiles and lavender hearts.

And last but not least a stunning exhibition of photographs of 'the locals' by Richard Hanson called The High Life. . Click here to see the photos in close up and more of Richards exciting work.

I hope you enjoyed our little day trip. Unfortunately I didn't get a photo of Annes pride and joy...a very fancy, all singing, all dancing coffee machine! And I couldn't resist this last picture, lots new lambkins skipping about our fields. Aaaaah :)

Giveaway results and what's coming next!

 Hello from my corner of the sofa. Actually the whole sofa is mine, Wonderful Man has is own at the other side of the room (His corner is nowhere near as interesting as mine though). I'm sure you would have guessed that this is my corner anyway, I think the half made bunnies and baskets of wool are a sure giveaway, lol. This is just how I left it when I got up to go to bed last night and I just thought you might like to see it. Maybe we should have a 'my corner' post now and again and all share our respective comfy places and all the junk that goes with them.

 Now before we do the very important job of revealing the winner of my bunny giveaway I just want to tell you that next time you visit we will be climbing these old stone steps and exploring a brand new arts and crafts gallery that has just opened here in Wensleydale.

 I'll also be introducing you to my latest piece of embroidered felt which, funnily enough is now for sale in the above gallery. See! It's not just thrown together this blog, lol.

 So without further ado, bunny and I have counted and recounted and then counted several more times all the way to 91 skipping the comment that I left and a couple of duplicate entries from folks who forgot to leave their names the first time or hit the submit button twice. I do like everything to be fair and above board, lol.

 The winner is the lovely Sandi from Sandiart's Blog. 

Congratulations Sandi I'll be emailing you for your address shortly. To everyone else who took the time to tippety type me a lovely comment, thank you so much. I read every single one of them and wish I had a bunny for each of you but that would be a heck of a lot of bunny ears to stitch on (my least favourite part). It was lovely to hear from you all and especially nice to hear from a few of you who've been reading my blog for a long time but never left a comment, that's it now you know, there will be no stopping you, now you've done it once, lol.

Thank you all. A blog is nothing without it's readers.

See you next time for our day out at the new gallery.

love Fi x