A new blog for the New Year...

and here is what it's looking like...

I can hardly believe that I have been blogging here for 3 whole years and had some 26,000 views from around the world, which is something I find quite astonishing!
 
Each week and sometimes more often I have found things to say and share, I have met and mingled with some wonderful people and their inspiring blogs and thoroughly enjoyed being out here sharing bits and pieces and some of the joys and challenges of life, I feel I have made friends around the world and if I met you in the street we would all have lots to say!

I have loved being part of a crafty creative network and of a wider community too, I have had so much encouragement and lovely feedback which has helped me on my journey as a maker, and I have loved sharing what I make, even just taking a photo of my work aids my creativity

but, after much procrastination...which is tricky to say let alone spell...I have taken the leap to create a new blog in my own name...it will make it so much easier to follow other people and make comments and I will be able to be ME!

so I am clearing the decks and starting again...I feel a little sad to be leaving this faithful old blog, which has indeed been a friend, but it will sit here quietly, unobtrusively...whilst a new sister blog gets going

I would be more than delighted to see you all over there ...click the title image at the top or here...and I look forward to sharing some new ideas and thoughts and bits and bobs with you

...and it will take me a wee while to get all my following of your blogs sorted out, but I will be there as soon as I can!

 

love and blessings to you all in 2014

Emmaxx

first...the solstice

blown in on a gale with lashing winds, and this morning thunder and lightening, Mother Nature shows us who is boss! we seem small compared to her power! I love the winter solstice...

in winter deep

comes fire to warm 

homes dressed with green

gifts all

from the earth

 

in the darkness

 new life gleams

as we turn once more

 to the light

and the best news this week...is the arrival of Rachel...after a long journey up from south lakes she arrives in style...

mm...Ned not sure about this here new donkey in HIS stable!

isn't she just gorgeous?
 

welcome dear little donkey!

our best Christmas present, a new companion for Ned, whilst we still love Gwendoline in our hearts, rather like the solstice, we welcome the new and the sense of hope Rachel brings.

and there is still Christmas to come, hope your preparations are going well...I really liked this reminder from Cheryl Richardson...and I'm trying to put it into practice...

Friday night and I'm loving...

the cold weather, strangely, with air like a cool refreshing drink, real weather for October, no longer the warm Indian summer...the garden and hedgerows turning slowly to brown and bare, stripping everything for the winter's rest...

that being snug indoors is so welcome...after a blustery walk in the wind which clears your foggyness and gets the blood singing

that my studio is tranquil again after sharing for C-art with my oh so welcome friends and visitors, but now it's all mine to arrange how I wish, finding all my treasures after they were hidden away...and clearing out the bits and bobs I don't need or love any more ...so much easier when they're all neat in a box than spread out around all my tables...

that I had a workshop yesterday with 2 lovely ladies, helping 
them to be inspired and tap into their creativity, to get confident with free machining and playing with fabrics...and didn't they do well? 2 beautiful landscapes slowly emerged...

(please note usually an embroidery foot is used for free machining, but as neither had one they carefully stitched without a foot at all, obviously you must keep your fingers out of the way! also this doesn't go well with thicker fabrics, so they then used normal stitching witha foot on)

 

and it was a beautfully sunny day too with wonderful views over the fields and hills outside and inside a lovely view of art in the making!

 

first choose your fabrics, cut and lay out, pin then stitch...

hills and fields awaiting definition and detail...wait and see!

I do love a creative mess...fabrics, threads, books, samples, ideas, scraps...getting out the boxes of fabrics instantly brings life to the studio...making it a working space once more...

 

after a day's hard work here are Jennie and Sue's beautiful textile landscapes...  sorry don't think my photo gets the lovely dark blue shades of the velvet here so well, must be the moonlight!

hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Emmaxx

good friends...

are so precious and can make all the difference to life! they think about each other even when they can't be together...share experiences and most of all help each other out in so many ways...as well as remembering each other's birthdays even when they aren't 21 any more...

a good friend visited me on Saturday and brought these beautiful red blooms...aren't they stunning? I had to put them in "Grand Edna" our biggest vase (wedding present...doing well!) to show them off...

I spent most of Saturday with my friend, we talked and had lunch out and came back to my studio...she is an undercover poet (I was an undercover artist but am now 'out'!) and we are sharing a new experience of trying to work together...she with words and me with stitches... to create...well who knows what...we have no idea what will come out but the process will be something special too. She has a beautiful knack of observing the tiny elements of life and can create a moving image with her delicate framework of words...

and we share something precious...a history...an understanding of each other as who we are...for me especially of who I was before I became a mother...and we have lots of raucous fun too!

and I'd like you to meet my newest best friend, Lulu.... a real smooth mover and clicker...bright and sharp but soo kind and friendly and easy to use too...rather shy, prefers to be behind the lens but for once here she is in her shining glory...

it's funny to think I used to be an SLR girl in my youth famous for my big carrier bag of lenses at parties and weddings...I even once thought of being a photographer...but I now use photos all the time to help me in my work, and of course just for pleasure...

and this photo is of some of my work now in the shop at Tullie House Art Gallery in Carlisle...thanks to a friend behind the scenes...I am thrilled to see my creations in a proper shop!

...no the scarves aren't mine, but the pictures are and you may recognise the basket of brooches and little birds...the spotty flower brooches are brand new EmmieandEmma designs...

and lastly I must thank my dear friend Fifi my sewing machine...she has been my constant companion these many years and without whom I could not make or create or stitch or sew or embroider...unthinkable! she too is rather shy...but here's some of her recent creativity...

think she's feeling a little summery...fingers crosssed she's right!

see you soon, have a lovely week my blogging friends...

love Emmax

To Pin..it...or not...

ho hum, easter is gone and the chocolates too...the sun is still shining...I love the yellow brightness of the brave and cheery daffodils outside...the ground is dry and the air still sharp and cold...but spring is moving closer...the lighter nights are a great uplift to the winterwoollyfied spirits...

...and I ponder over a new pincushion design...just what colour of pins to use...and how many pins is just enough?

 
is that about right do you think?

Quick, make... an Easter bunny or chick....

I know it's nearly here but there's just time to rustle up a few of these crafty little Easter goodies...for the children you understand...or maybe just for the child in us all!! So get making and stuffing...you only need a little felt...could be any colour you like...and some threads (I used embroidery thread but any kind will do) and a teeny bit of polyester wadding or similar to pad them out a little....it's child's play and that's the best sort in my book!

 

and wishing you the warmest and happiest and sunniest of Easters...and that the Easter bunny is kind to you...Emmaxxx

Getting creative ...or how one thing leads to another...

it's a funny thing...creativity...sometimes I can plan what I am going to make and start off with fabrics and threads and start cutting out... and then I don't like the colours I thought I was going to use so the colour changes and I need to re-think or re-feel what goes with what...or I pick up a new piece of fabric or spot a little sample of something I made months ago or I look out the window and see new inspiration...and what I planned gradually creeps away from me and I am led in a new direction...

I am still not quite sure where this bag came from...

but I love it! 

I love the whole process...whether I am making an intricate piece of art with weeks and weeks of machine embroidery..or designing and sewing a lovely new bag or I have a 'must make it now' idea for a new corsage...I love it when it works... when I get a feeling of happiness and contented satisfaction... or giddy exitement and a 'dancing around the studio' joy when some combination of stitch and fabric or colour goes 'ting' in my head and I feel it is just right...

like when I started to make these rose brooches and now I can't stop...the simplicity of their design and the endless possible colour combinations is soo satisfying...

then when I photograph the things I have made and they enter a new dimension as they appear in beautiful colour on a computer screen...the digital revolution has brought such unimaginable ease of visual reproduction...and what I made in private become visible no longer only to me as I dare to share them with the world...

and hope the world likes them too...

and again I feel the pleasurable need to create so return to my studio to start afresh and the cycle goes on...

P.S.

I hope my Etsy shop will soon be stocking these goodies...just some uploading to do but first a weekend away with daughter mine on an athletic quest...hurdling in Manchester...have a great weekend xx

a mother's day...

suhshine and clouds, blue sky and grey

so very cold outside

but warm within, warmed by love

signs of spring but yet still winter

snow on the tops and hail on our faces

mothers all salute our day

each day precious with the gift of a child

and thoughts of our own mothers

maybe gone but still here in who we are

and in what we pass on

with thanks

hearts and minds

together

sharing 

the day 

sharing a life

with joy

...as you pick up the socks and kiss a sore knee and hold a small hand...which grows to independence all too soon...hold the moment...it is surely treasure beyond price


  with love to all mothers everywherexx

studio tidying and a little knitting project...

it's such a joy after what seems forever to be back in my studio...my lovely WARM studio...out of the cold and icy weather which is so welcome as it bring sunshine...and beautiful wintry shapes...full of inspiration...

it may be a total mess in here...a creeative mess but it's all a pleasure to sort out...so much nicer than tidying the house somehow as I can play with fabrics as I go... and hatch plots of such great creativity and craftyness...designing here...artwork there...the only thing is not to get so diverted no tidying actually happens!

  

outside today is bright and sunny so a chance to sit out in a deck chair...swathed in hats, gloves and many fleeces...just bathing in the golden rays and feelng happy in the moment...Basil sleek and handsome cat that he is... joins me for a while... 

I take the opportunity for some playing in my sketchbook... I so want to just play around and see what comes, so I'm trying to do a little something each day... 

and here comes Emilia the cheeky chicken...my favourite but don't tell the others...

and here's a little knitting project you might like...I love to knit simple bags...bung them in the washing machine and ta da!

these are so simple to knit, choose a nice 100% wool and knit a biggish oblong, I cast on about 38-42 stitches with a nice thickish yarn say a chunky or Icelandic, and make about 30cm of i-cord for handles which I sew on...you can look on u-tube here if you don't know how to do that... I cast on 6 or 7 stitches and keep the tail ends for sewing on...knit the i-cord first and use the rest of the ball to knit the bag...just remember the knitting will shrink so make everything bigger than you think!

why not have a go...

I love felting in the washing machine as you never quite know how things will turn out...here's a lovely cardi all felted up and ready to turn into a bag...seem a shame somethime to cut them up but often they are sad and neglected and I can give one jumper a new life as bags, brooches, maybe put in a picture...ooh I do love it!

hope this inspires you to get making and playing...or just enjoying the moment you're in, have a great week...
love Emmax