Cats in the Kitchen, Flora in the Garden

Here I am back again, I have not posted since Friday and didn't even partake in Sunday Scribllings this week. I forced myself to take a break from my blog of a few days to catch up with many things that I needed to catch up on. Primarily, that was my house, it is now thoroughly cleaned and ready for autumn and winter. The weather has been warm and sunny the past two days, giving me the opportunity of washing lots of throws, curtains, quilts etc and hanging them out in the sun to dry, there is nothing as gorgeous as smelling or sleeping in outdoor sundried bedding. - Mmmm bliss! Also have been busy doing all sorts of small odds and ends, which although nothing by themselves, if left as I have done, become quite a list of things to do to wade through. Well all sorted now, and I have promised myself a couple of days of art and craft and am raring to go, with a few ideas buzzing in my head.


Above I have posted one of the ATC's I have done for a swap I am presently involved, in about favourites movies. This one is for The Wizard of Oz, hence the red glitter shoes, got to get the glitter in somewhere. They weren't difficult to work out the images for the cards, the difficulty was picking which of my favourite movies to represent, that took up the most time. I don't know if anyone will guess what movies they are from the cards, except, well two are pretty obvious. The ATC opposite is to symbolize the film Howards End. It is a film I adore, a Merchant Ivory Production, which are always so beautifully lush and rich, which is why I have gone for a very subdued portrayal of the film. Its a great book as well. The costumes in the film are just exquisite, and some of the scenes are actually framed around paintings, such as the scene in the beginning of the film with a lot of black and white in it and when it is raining.


The third card, opposite is obviously to portray Moulin Rouge. Believe me, when I first saw this film I remember thinking as it started, 'well I am either going to love or hate this'. Of course, I loved it, but I do find people either rave about it or can't stand it, there doesn't seem to be any halfway house. The way he mixed the modern and the true era in ambience and costumes just seemed to work so well.

It is just such an interesting concept to sum up the core ideas of a film on a piece of card 2.5 x 3.5 inches, it really gets your brain into gear. Some films seem to need to be portrayed sparsely, yet others can take everything and 'the kitchen sink'.


The last of my favourite movie ATC's is for Pride and Prejudice. I have tried to keep this card, pastel, with refence to an english rose and two, what I call, 'well mannered' words. I have tried to aim for a delicacy in it. This project has been such fun and these have to go in the post now to West Virginia, and I keep my fingers crossed that they get there before the 31st September, but they should do that.

My list of things to do now is basically, well I am continually stuffing material animals, and sewing parts of four more Daisy Faes, nothing else is finished because to build up stock I do this strange sort of system of taking every piece so far then a little further, so every article is at the same stage of making. It does seem to save time on the first batch, then after the first batch I make as needed. Next item to finish and get in the post before end of week are the parts of the chocolate swap I am crafting, and then do my 6x6 Friendship Piece.


I don't think I have mentioned this on the blog yet. I am hosting my first project. Wow... Fireworks explode, fanfares, bright lights, ... sorry that was my inner child getting over excited, but I am truly excitied to be doing this. It is called the Daisy Lupin Friendship Piece, there are seven of us and each month we are all producin a 6x6 fabric collage square. What it means is that at the end of seven months each one of us has made a piece for everybody else, and it is up to us all as individuals to decide how to use them, be it a miniquilt, a wallhanging or individual cushions or whatever. I will let you know how progress is going, because it is a long term thing and I thought it was a lovely means for seven people to get to know each other well. It's great there are three continents involved, I also like to think because I have called it a Friendship Piece Project that 'peice' could be swapped for 'Peace'. If it is a success I will run another one, maybe fabric collage again or maybe altered art.

There is this mad idea in my head that it would be a wonderful thing if I could get people of different cultures involved, imagine a 'pieced project' or 'peace project' that involved different religions and races in an effort to promote friendship and not war, a series of blocks of people swapping squares or collages. Am I mad? Well if anyone is interested and knows how this might be attempted let me know, its a lot better to communicate than fight and bomb. So please, if you don't think I am crazy, if you have the knowledge in how this could be workable get in touch.

Finally about the beautiful illustration above. I dug out of storage in the barn, a huge box of greetings cards that have been sent to one or another of my family over the past thirty years or more, I thought some bits might be useful for altered art. I did find some great stuff, however, I also found some lovely cards that are worth framing that I had forgotten about. The above is one of them Its about 30 years old and published by a company called Gallery Five in England. It is called a noteboard and is made of cardboard, and you just write on the back of them. There was a fad for these, if I remember correctly. The artist is named as Beshlie Heron, has anyone ever heard of her or her work? I am fascinated by the card, the plants and flowers are very true to nature drawings and yet it is whimsical at the same time. I would like to find some more of her work. I am also going to seach the net for her, but if you know of her come and tell me.