OOlie's HERE!!

Oolie arrived on Monday...

and to greet her in her room were all the flats

Happy Day!!

So happy to have her here

a wonderful distraction from the daily grind.

Love to all of you.

Promise to post our creations as they come down the pike....

oops!

I posted my last two posts on the wrong blog!

This was to be on polkadotponie....and the other one, which is there, is supposed to be here!

oh well.....

These are ornaments in preparation for Valentine's Day.

Happy Hearts to all of you.

Can't wait to hear about Miss Arkell's Class at West Dean (!!!!!!)

Taylor and Di, hope it was wonderful!

xo

Left overs

Happy New Year Pantry Violets. It has been ages since I blogged, but I have been enjoying all your work. I have just finished a quilt from left over pieces from the bunting I made and was quite delighted to find a use for those Suffolk puffs. I took the quilt to a nearby church yard (1000 year old norman church) to photograph it and fell in love with the burial stones. I particularly liked Martha Palmer of 1768.

Joanna

Hello violets!
You may be interested to know that I have finally started a blog

Les petites marguerites
- Voyages à travers les textiles - Travelling through textiles

http://lespetitesmarguerites.blogspot.com/
which will mostly be about the textiles I admire or create myself, a bit about my travels or other discoveries I would like to share. Since I live in a multilingual environment, the texts will be written in French, followed by an English version.
I hope you will enjoy your visits to my blog

WHERE DID LAST YEAR GO??

Hello Violets!


Happy New Year!  Hope you all had a fabulous Christmas.


I'm getting very excited about my first workshop of the year!  In about 10 days I'm off to West Dean to do Julie Arkell's paper mache workshop!  Yes again!


Last year you will recall, I made these figures:

I had a great deal of trouble dressing them as they all had limbs all over the shop and it was not nearly as easy as I had imagined!  I got little Iris, finished before Christmas (the little figure with her arms in the air) and have made some progress with 'Bless', the figure above in a shawl:

She still needs a bit of work but is pretty much there.  

Given my experience last year, this year I have decided to try more sculptural projects - which need no dressing!  I have a few ideas to conjure with and will post when I get back.

Very exciting too, I will be meeting Taylor! I'm so looking forward to having a Pantry Violet to work with.  I'm also looking forward to being in a workshop with Julie again, And seeing more of her lovely work - which I now truly appreciate!   

Here is her collection from last year ...............

Love to all

xx

Di

"Inchies" Make A Noise!!!!!!!!!!!

Dear, Dear Clare-

I am not sure how to reach you......! Hopefully you have settled into your new home and are enjoying it immensely! The last time we were in contact was before Christmas, at which point you had 5 inchies left to do and were going to try to get them off to Katie. Please let me know if that plan worked and if they are indeed in France. If not......and you still have them....let's go to "Plan B"! Let's return to the original mailing list that Jone drew up, giving the next Violet a heads up before they are sent on in case of a request to have them mailed to a work address or a change in plans due to extensive travel, etc. People are asking me what is up with this project and by communicating here on the blog we can let everyone know easily. Please respond here on the blog when you get a minute.

Di is next on the list (I think!) and may want them sent to her office. Can you two get in touch please?

If they are at Briancon, Carol can you let us know the status? That would be so helpful!

Thank you everyone involved. Jone and I are so looking forward to putting the finishing touches on them and getting a finished Inchie sent to all of you! LOVE- Oolie

the "Girls"

Here they are:

The Collection of Fridas

what fun....

Happy New Year!

Stitched Classes

Hi All,

Just wanted to let you know about these online classes. I think there are 20 in all and some look very interesting.

Hopefully the link will work.

Hope everyone has a wonderful New Year!

xopaula

Click here to view more details

Russian Nesting Dolls

I was in San Francisco last weekend visiting my niece and her family. She is an interior designer and has the most wonderful little gift shop next to her design office on Hayes St. I fell in love with this set of cloth dolls in Jeannie's shop and am enjoying them on the window panes as I lug bags of groceries thru that door every day! When you have a free moment, check out her web site.....it is very fun: Lotus Bleu Design. I am presently surrounded by sick family members and am keeping my fingers crossed that I do not succumb! I am making chicken noodle soup to ward off the germs and help them all feel better! What I really want to do is hide in a corner and papier mache a box with children's book illustrations, inspired by a lovely gift under my tree!!!!!!!!! Hope all you Violets out there are well! LOVE- Oolie

Merry Christmas

to ALL

May the Holidays be Merry and Bright!

I love and miss all of you Violets...

You are always close inside...

xo

Happy Holidays Violets!!!!!

Dear Violets-

It is Christmas Eve here in Colorado and my thoughts go out to all of my lovely "stitching friends" scattered around the world! I am home after 2 trips up to the Boulder area which just got 14.5 inches of snow which is now melting in 50 degree temperatures and sunny skies!!!!!! We barely got the lights and a few ornaments on our tree! We will be sleeping in tomorrow, and then out for a hike followed by a meal cooked by Hartley, Laurel and myself......very low key! Mark thankfully does all of the dishes!

When I came upon this fun vintage needle card lately, it made me think of one of our "Julie Arkell stitching workshops" in l'espace at Briancon!!!!!! So many fun creative times spent together in that lovely corner of our world! May your stockings be stuffed, and your hearts full of peace and love during this holiday season! LOVE to all- Oolie

Merry Merry Christmas!

Dearest Pantry Violets!

I wish you all a Very Merry Christmas!

Love You All

Vintage Fairy Tales Rebecka

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas Pantry Violets,

I imagine you're all very, very busy getting ready for the Festive Season and making lots of beautiful things to delight your friends and family.

Wishing you the happiest of days and looking forward to seeing some wonderful posts in the New Year.

This is a photograph from one of my artistic endeavours this year - we made a huge piece of knitting as a group, then all exhibited our individual (artistic) responses to the experience. The exhibition explored the connections, joy and comfort of making things together! (Guess you can all figure what inspired that thought!).

Much love to you all.

Jodie

XXXXX

Sorry for the unfinished post! well, it takes some time to get the hang of the technical side of things! I wanted to add Lea's site

http://www.leastansal.com/

a very unprofessional photo to give you a feeling of the place, and a sample of the project of the day ("bracken"), though this one is not mine - but I promise to show it to you once it's done...

Hi Becky et al,

Oh, how I wish I were in Sweden today! usually we have glögg (mulled wine) on Lucia morning at work, and sometimes a visit from Swedish school children singing, but this year there were no such nice things. Still, yesterday my buns were popular at Lea Stansal's embroidery workshop

Buns of Light

I'm afraid I have not been very productive since my return from Dordogne.. except making more of those flowers I got so hooked on!

But the other day I baked heaps of Lussekatter - Becky and Sam will know! These are saffron buns that are eaten in Sweden for the Santa Lucia day - 13th December. Santa Lucia comes with her crown of candles and brings the light into the winter darkness. So with these bright buns, I wish you all a cheerful holiday season!

Those were the days....in Paris!

Oolie and Sam!

Found these pics from Paris, we were visiting some really nice places,

that a good friend had recommended.

I found some kind of tea cozy that also worked well as a

"Little Red Riding Hood hat"!

XX

Vintage Fairy Tales Rebecka

my new birds

I guess you could call it a "Bird Totem"

I like the colors and that it has a little

thread of whimsy running through it.

I promise to show the finished product

when it really is done.

We did many birds in the Fireside Embroidery class.

Xmas Vintage Treasures

I enjoyed an afternoon of poking and digging thru lots of Xmas stuff at a bi-monthly antique show here in Colorado Springs! I found these little treasures which all started out in Europe and eventually made their way to Oolie's house, where they will feel very welcome and quite at home! This middle pinecone gentleman is holding a mushroom: YEAH!!!!!! LOVE- Oolie

JENNIFER COLLIER WORKSHOP

What a fabulous day it was at Jennifer Collier's Studio 12 workshop in November making paper clothes!

Above is a shot of Jennifer's kid glove collection.  Her work is so amazing.  Jennifer is deeply committed to  recycling - and most of her work is made up of materials that have been cast aside - she upcycles old elements into new and varied forms which always delight the eye.

Here is a pair of gauntlet type gloves which believe it or not are made from teabags - the empty teabags provide little pockets which when stuck together from the fabric of the glove and stitched together exactly as you would a fabric glove - this provides depth and a real 3D effect:

My favourites are  the long evening gloves are just glorious, most of which are a collage old documents and images - again stitched together, incorporating button holes and vintage buttons adds to the realistic effect - I love them!

As well as the gloves we put together the collaged elements for a dress and a bib which we could complete at home with the addition of haberdashery elements.  Below are two of Jennifer's map dresses.

We came away with several pieces of clothing, a worksheet of methods including using plastics bags and were all fired with enthusiasm to carry on at home.  All in all, it was a great day out, not too far from home and a really useful grounding in methods I will employ in all manner of ways in future.  I have one pair of gloves nearly complete and my other clothes on the 'to do' pile - currently post-christmas!  

Many more pictures of Jennifer's paper objects - cameras, typewriters, shoes and teasets etc will be on tinkeringbythesea.blogspot.com next week!

I was back at Studio 12 the week before last for a pocket making workshop with Ellie Evans

- more on that soon!  

Love to all

xxDI