Watercolour ~ Snowman

This is my first attempt at painting anything snowy! A cute little snowman to make into Christmas cards.

 

I only used Ultramarine, Alizarin Crimson and Black, with masking fluid to keep the snowy bits snowy white!

I am going to put him on a Christmas card for sale.

I'd love to hear your comments about him :-)

Gillian x

Watercolour ~ Robin

With thoughts turning towards Christmas, I thought I would tackle a painting of a robin.

I wanted the background to be an evergreen Christmassy green but halfway through, I was wishing I'd left it a snowy, plain white. Now that it's finished and cropped I don't mind the background.

I am rather pleased with the robin though. I think I subconsciously made his tummy a little bit bigger than the robin on the photo but he looks okay.

Here are the progress photos. Slightly different colours as the weather was sunny/rainy/sunny so different light for each photo!

 

I am going to make this available as greetings cards and prints.

Hope you like him!

Gillian

Fine Art Website

I recently changed my wedding photography website into Drupal (don't ask! Computer speak - ask my IT husband) so consequently, my fine art website wasn't showing any more.

I am now in the process of re-vamping it and hopefully working on some new images to bring a little more cohesion to the collections. I am also hoping to be showing some of my watercolour prints in a gallery as well.

I am really pleased with the wedding photography website so hopefully the fine art site will look super as well.

Watch this space!

Gillian.

Sewing Stories ~ The Quilt is Finished!

Yay! Finally, after about three years and many small projects completed in between, my double quilt is finished! I decided to machine quilt all of the plain panels but hand quilted under the black outlining in the flower panels. The binding was 10cm lengths of all of the coloured fabrics randomly arranged.

When I laid it out on the floor to trim the binding, it was the first time I'd seen the over all effect of the quilting. It was a struggle at times, but I felt really proud of how it looked. All together, I'm really pleased although in hindsight, I wish I'd taken more care to trim the darker fabric under the seams of the white fabric as some of it shows through the light fabric. At that stage I was eager to get on with the machine quilting!

 

You can read about the inspiration for the quilt here and the trials of my machine quilting journey here.

I hope you like the quilt and would love to hear what you think about it!

Gillian x

New! Digital Downloads on Etsy

I finally opened an Etsy shop, to discover that they do digital downloads of images now. I browsed through my recent collection and came up with four images to try. It's always hard to know what will sell so I hope you like my selection!

Purple Poppies

Champagne Glasses

Garlic Press

Orange Gerberra

 They are all available as 10"x8"/10"x10" size Jpegs to download and use for your own personal use for £7.50. Here's the link to my Etsy shop.

Thanks for reading, and look out for more from my Etsy shop.
Gillian x

Watercolour Prints

I have at long last, got round to photographing my watercolour paintings with a view to getting prints made from them. It's a bit of an unknown quantity as you don't know whether people will like them or not. But once they're printed, they're printed!

I've been thinking about doing it for ages and now I think I should just go for it! I've never been one to think that my painting is great but I have sold a few originals and that always gives you confidence!

So look out soon for an Etsy store from me, selling prints!

Here are some of the paintings that I'm considering. I'd love to hear about which ones you like.

Thanks for looking!
Gillian x

Photo Friday #61

Pigeon Silhouette

I spotted this pigeon nesting in an arrow slit in Dunstanburgh Castle and it made a lovely silhouette.

Gillian.

Watercolour ~ Iris

Usually I paint from photographs and if I paint from still life, it's always indoors. My new iris had just flowered in the garden so I decided to set up my easel outside and attempt to paint it. It was a little windy and the sun kept going in and out but I perservered. Here is the result!

I love this so much that I might keep the original for myself! It has really captured a fleeting moment, as this first flower has now faded. When I have got round to sourcing a good art printer, I'll get some prints made.

I'd love to know what you think about it.
Gillian x

Photo Friday #60

On the Lookout

A sheep on the lookout on the coastal walk towards Dunstanburgh Castle, Northumberland.

Sewing Stories ~ Machine Quilting

Some of you may remember the quilt I was making in this post. Well earlier this year I finally got a border on it and have just started free motion quilting on it. My first thought was "Yay, I can't wait to do this!". Then I practised a bit on some sample quilt sandwiches and I was less enthusiastic. Once I had adjusted my new darning foot as shown in this brill video, it worked like a dream.

I had originally wanted to do a stippling design on the white material in a green-purple colour changing thread but as the success of my practises were hit and miss, I decided to go for white thread on the white and black thread on the black. I have taken so much time on the design of the quilt that I didn't want anything to detract from it.

So after a lot of humming and haa-ing about what design to do where, I just did it today!! Boy, those little samples don't prepare you for quilting on a full sized double quilt! I'm finding it difficult to move the area I'm working on around, unless it's nearer the edge of the quilt. Once it gets going it's good although it also doesn't help that my machine doesn't stop in the needle down position.

Never-the-less, so far I've done black on black - you can't see the stitches ie the mistakes! And on the panels of colour up the side of the quilt, the black looks okay in a simple wavy line with a few loops in. I'll carry on in small bursts and post some pictures soon!

Thanks for reading,
Gillian x

Photo Friday #59

Taken on my recent trip to London. I love the repeating pattern of the shiny structures with the sun just glinting off them.

Thanks for stopping by!
Gillian.

Photo Friday #58

A shot from along Hadrian's Wall in Northumberland.

My Fine Art website is currently undergoing a change but you can still purchase photos by contacting me directly. Thanks, Gillian.

The Art of Letter Writing

I was looking through a box in a cupboard the other day and discovered some old letters I'd received from school and college friends. I had a chuckle as I read through them. It made me realise how long it had been since I'd actually written a letter to anyone.

It seems to me these days, we communicate so much through text and email and these forms of communication are so transient. I was watching a programme about Queen Victoria. One phrase struck a chord. "We know this about her through her letters to her son." I don't think that any programme in a hundred years time will say "We know this through his emails to his friend." Once you read an email you either delete it or it gets lost in the ether. I think we're forgetting how to write.

With this in mind, I decided to buy some pretty writing paper - not easy to do though! I also bought some ink cartridges for the cartridge pen that I was given for my 21st birthday all those years ago, and I wrote a letter to my sister-in-law. Whether I get a reply is a different matter but I enjoyed the process of writing the letter and hopefully she enjoyed receiving a letter through the post and not junk mail as is normally the case these days.

The next thing is to remember to write in my diary...but that's another story!

Thanks for reading, Gillian x

Photo Friday #57

I've just had a long weekend in London and there are so many fabulous buildings - I took lots of photos! This is one of my favourites, near the Millennium Dome. I love the patterns - so different.

Gillian.

Photo Friday #56

Kaleid Hydrangea

A kaleidoscope image from a photo of a pink hydrangea.
Gillian x

Gardening Gossip ~ The Willow Tree

Thought I'd share an update on how the hacked down willow tree is doing. Just fine!!

It got chopped to this long stump back in March and on the right is what it looked like then. Hard to believe that all of these young branches would just spring out of the bark!


Hope you enjoy a good Bank Holiday weekend of gardening!
Gillian x

Gardening Gossip ~ Shredding

Photo Friday #55

Willow Catkins

Spring is springing a little late this year, and I hacked the willow tree back so only have this photo as a reminder of the willow catkins. I love the colour of the young stems.

Gillian.

Photo Friday #54

Champagne Glasses 2

These glasses were all laid out ready for the toast, at a wedding that I was photographing. I love the reflections and the repetitive pattern made by the stems.

Gillian Cross Fine Art

Photo Friday #53

Lady's Mantle

One of my favourite photographs ever. I love the lush green and the sparkly dew drops. It just sums up spring for me.

Gillian.

Photo Friday #52

Playing around with my studio lights last week, I took some photos of some daffodils I had bought. This was a beautiful double one. I'm not sure whether to sell this as a stand alone photo or display it with two others like my Yellow Daffodils from last week's post. Or maybe do both.

Gillian x

Sewing Stories ~ Peg Bag

Years and years ago my mum had a homemade peg bag. I seem to remember that it was brown and not very attractive. I had a plastic peg basket which has now snapped and broken so I thought I'd make one.

I hopped onto Pinterest and found some ideas. I came across this pattern from The Sewing Directory.

I printed out the pattern and adjusted the width and the line at the top to fit my coat-hanger. I used material from a stash that I'd got free with an order from The Tabbycat so I had to piece together the fabric to fit the pattern.

I got it all sewn up and put my pegs in it to find they wouldn't all fit in. So I unpicked the bottom and added some extra material to make the bag deeper. As I'd already pieced it, it looked like part of the design so that was fine!

Here it is, with all of my pegs in it - what do you think?

Thanks for stopping by,
Gillian x

Photo Friday #51

Yellow Daffodils

The classic colour combination of blue and yellow sets these daffodils off to perfection. I love taking the detail shots.

Gillian.

As usual, available to purchase. Contact me for details.

Crochet Crazy ~ Cushion Covers

Many years ago I made my cushion covers myself from fabric but I thought it was time for a change. Given my recent craze for crochet, I decided to crochet some covers.

First I started with a simple granny square (the cushion in the background). Using the bright turquoise and contrasting it with the black, I was hoping to give this stitch a modern feel. On one side is one big square, and on the other, four smaller squares giving a different feel to each side. I was really pleased with the effect.

My idea for the second cover was to make it in the turquoise and then make some motifs in the same colour to add some texture. I found a lovely pattern on One Little Rayndrop's blog. As I was adding some motifs, I decided to make the "bumpy" rows random.

I went onto Crochet Pattern Central and found some flower designs that I liked. I decided that the turquoise wouldn't be enough interest so I made a couple of flowers in black.

Then the best bit...a gorgeous butterfly modified from a pattern on King Soliel. As you can see, I did the last round or two in black to give the butterfly a bit more definition on the cushion. I love it and will definitely make some more butterflies.

I love the fact with crocheted covers, you crochet them around the cushions and if you've made them the correct size, they fit so neatly!

Gillian x

Photo Friday #50

The Latch

A lovely latch on a window at one of the wedding venues I was at a couple of years ago. Art and practicality!

Gillian Cross Fine Art

Photo Friday #49

Green Carpet

I love the brightness of the greenery under the sparse trees.

Gardening Gossip ~ Is Spring Here?

It certainly felt like it today! We went to Exhibition Park in Newcastle this morning and there were lots of gorgeous crocuses out. Then the sun made an appearance and felt lovely and warm.

Back home I got into the garden and tackled some weeding. The bug-bears I have in my garden are moss (in the lawn and on the soil), hairy bitter cress and the brambles which come through from next door's garden.

Still, these mini narcissi are enough to make you feel spring-like.

Gillian x

Knitting Notes ~ Chunky Jumper

Well I can almost guarantee that the weather will get warmer now because I've finished knitting the first of my chunky jumpers.

This is a Sirdar pattern knitted in their Crofter Chunky. I went down half a needle size to get the right tension and I decided to do extra rows on the round neck to make it into a closer-fitting polo neck than their pattern for the polo neck.

It is super warm and cosy!

Gillian.

Watercolour - Jug of Flowers

Another watercolour painting this week. My mother-in-law brought me these when she was invited for lunch so I thought it was a good opportunity to paint from life. Usually I paint from photographs.

Jug of Flowers

The blooms have been painted quite loosely but I think you can still tell what they are. Or the yellow ones at least!

Thank you for looking and I hope you liked the painting!

7x5 in a 10x8 mount.

Gillian.