feeling orange...

must be something in the air...autumn is hinting it's here...misty mornings when you can't see the hills, a sense of peace and calm after the heady summer days, quiet birdsong, flowers still colouring the garden...but seedheads and dry grasses filling up the hedgerows...change is afoot 

and C-art has been amazing again, 2 weekends done and one still to look forward to...been so great being with Ian and Steph in the studio once more...making art and conversation

and I've taught 2 lovely machine embroidery workshops too...can't beat a little bit of furniture moving in the middle of C-art!

Stephanie has been printing away...I love watching the process of her inking and mark making and playing with line and texture...

from all these bits and bobs somehow in Steph's hands... magic happens...

and in between talking to all the lovely people, drinking tea and eating cake... I have been able to play with fabrics, thread and stitch...and I am glad that textiles and machine embroidery is what I do cos it's much easier to clean up than paint!

happy? I should say so! 

hope you have a lovely week...maybe you're feeling orange too?? 

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

Travelling light...

you can make and sew and stitch anywhere...all you need is a big plastic box (I know...not attractive...but very practical!)...your selection of fabrics...needles...threads...scissors and delicious pincushion (of course!)...and you can get creative where-so-ever you travel...or if you're out for coffee (it's a bit like breastfeeding in public..get used to strange looks!)

and just look how many felted wool rose brooches I was able to make...

we've had a blissful little holiday staying with wonderful Grandparents...with Swiss cousins and Sis-in-Law we had a fine time..so lovely just to be away from home and all the usual chores and "creative mess"...and to spend time with loved ones...tho' it is always a strange contrast with our tranquil countryside as we headed into the buzz of the urban life of London ...

the highlight for me was travelling on the Tube...reminds me of when I was young and carefree...it's soo exiting to be surrounded by all kinds of people from all over the world...and then the DLR (Docklands Light Railway)...and a driverless train!!

and food is never far away...Grandma's fondue set was put to good use with a genuine Swiss chocolate and strawberry fondue orgy...

mmm...can you just taste that strawberry and choc combo...

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

old friends and upcycling...

what to do when your trusty sewing machine isn't very well, for the first time in 20 years and you have  to take it to the machine doctor...

and then a 'Making in The Studio' workshop is happening and we are a machine down as someone's machine has come without a foot...

it's time to call on Singer and Jones...sounds like a double act or a firm of solicitors...but no, they are my old friends...

this is Mrs Singer...such a wonderful machine...smooth and well-oiled...daughter mine loves the smell of her!! 

 
and here is Miss Jones...a hand worked beauty with a lovely action and a tiny spindle-like spool hidden in her depths...both are gilded ladies fit for a fancy drawing room or front parlour...

sewing using a hand machine is soo soothing...clink and chink as the handle goes round and the needle smoothly moves up and down...

Victoria arrived equipped for anything...and brought a friend...a lovely Mollie Makes doll which she had made...and a fab pincushion...

Sandra did a show and tell ...a beautiful crocheted rug she had made and  gave me a gorgeous gift of a crocheted bowl, to which I added a lovely button and filled with threads...isn't it a gem?

I do soo love it when people bring things they have made to show...or send photos of items finished after they they go home...

Sandra's busy here sewing on to the front the pretty leaves which she had embroidered with beadwork...

  
Helen came with her cute little basket of goodies...

Sandie got to use Mrs Singer and enjoyed herself no end...and did hand sewing and then got on to making a corsage...looking good! She had made her pretty beaded bracelet by the way...so many talented makers here today!

and after a day of hard work and fun and concentration and sewing and cutting...and tea and cake...4 beautiful bags appeared...Sandie's has a bit to go to be finished as she made hers slightly differently but here is Helen's with pretty suffolk puff decorations...

and a later photo...thanks Helen...love the covered button...

and Sandra's gorgeous soft green bag with beautiful embroidered beaded leaves...

and Victoria's messenger bag...with fab flower in just the right fabrics after much debate in the studio...

Ladies I salute you! You have all made gorgeous handmade handbags...hard to tell that when you arrived these beauties were all old wool jumpers!

I soo love doing workshops and meeting wonderful creative folk who take a making idea and run with it! You are all an inspiration!