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