Beautiful Handmade Bowls.....

I am fortunate enough to know a very talented person who makes very beautiful bowls!!  This chicken design was made to cheer me up when my Mum died, and I absolutely love it!

I purchased this second bowl from Jayne, as my Husband wanted it as soon as he saw it!!

Jayne is super talented and very creative and is just pulling her blog together and sorting out her website and facebook pages, but you can look at some more of her lovely creations by clicking Here.  Feel free to contact her directly if there is something you want, as she will gladly help you turn your thoughts and ideas into reality!!

Mental Blockage!!!

I have been struggling for a few weeks now with a mental block!!!  I should be designing and ....... quite frankly ............ I'm not!!

How do you overcome such blockages? Certainly not by ripping your house apart!!!  This only adds to the mental hysteria!!!

Well, I feel I can see the light, as I went to visit a friend, and we went out for some retail therapy at the fabric shop!!!   I had some material from when I was a fresher at Uni and had been wanting to make something with it for soooooo long, rather than wasting it, so I added a new piece freshly purchased ....

The bottom piece (blue floraly one) is the new one...... NOW the fun could begin......

I wanted to make something that would be useful for both bean and peanut ....

TA-DAH!!!!

I made 6 bags, which can hold anything and everything and are all fully lined and they fit neatly into one another to save storage space if not being used!

The last time I did any sewing (proper sewing - not messing around with the sewing machine), was 11 years ago, when I made a Baptism gown, complete with bonnet and booties, so I was a bit apprehensive when making these, but everything came flooding back....... a bit like riding a bike!

Guess what else? ........ My Design Mojo has returned!!

Slow Progress!!

The progress on my contribution for the girls rooms has been very slow..... due to a mixture of things.  I've enclosed a sneak peek of what I have been doing, but not that much of  peek that you will be able to guess what the end result will look like!

There have been some additions with the colours.  I will reveal more as soon as I am able to!!

Happy Days!

We are busy re-doing the girls bedrooms, so I thought I would contribute, by making something for each of them........

Bean and Peanut chose the colours they would like.....

The top three colours in the top picture are Peanuts choice and the bottom three are Beans!

I have a few balls in each colour......and.... they are wools and cottons! :-) Hehe .....  I just need to get going..... so watch this space for progress reports and updates!



Lots of Yarn ..........

Apologies for not blogging sooner..... but things have been hectic of late.......

I have been given a bag full of yarn .........

There are some lovely colours...... and it is acrylic! (Yes!  I have become a yarn snob!!)

But..... waste not.... want not....

I just need to decide what to make with it and what/ who it will be most suitable for .........

Degree Show 2011

My degree show begins on Friday with a private viewing.........


http://cherylgraftextiledesign.blogspot.com/p/degree-show-2011.html

Garments

A couple of garment halves.

12 gg dubied
The garment on the right has been created using wool and the garment on the right has been created using spun silk, which creates an amazing fabric, but requires steam pressing every time it is folded, as it creases very quickly!




I managed to get hold of two amazing models for my full garments........

Ella

For the full picture & .......

Jody

for close ups.

They were both very patient and stunning...........even without makeup!  Thanks must also go to the photographers Markus and Jo.

More samples.

A selection of samples.

A closer look ........ the sequins are knitted into the fabric.

A plain half garment front.

Some knitted scarves.

Sample Glimpses.

A peek at my samples through a sample.

The sample I looked through.

The samples.

A closer look at the samples - mainly knitted with monofilament.  The sequins have been transfer printed and knitted into the samples.

Buttons and Ribbons.

I did some transfer printing onto material to cover some buttons and see how they looked with my knitted ones.........

I also need to decide which ribbons to use......... decisions........ decisions!

Some different flowers.

A simple 5 petal crochet flower.

A mixture of three simple crochet flowers.

3 crochet flowers.

A nice big crochet flower in two colours.

Occassionally I do knit flowers!  Very occassionally....

A bit of fun.

This was the first quilt I ever made 17 years ago with the guidance of my late Mum.  It was originally intended for a pregnant friend, but after a week of staying up until 1am every morning, cutting out material and stitching it all back together again, I couldn't bear to part with it, so I bought something for her baby instead and kept the quilt! :-)



Button Tins

I saw these tins and knew they would be ideal for my button collection!  Anything to create a distraction!

Another favourite past time!

A Selection of Cross stitch bits!

My bird bookmark.

My Egyptian Queens face - work in progress.

Bradford Textiles Competition Entries 2011

My Bradford competition Entries.

Both are based on abstract bugs and beetles.

Bits and pieces!

A selection of self covered buttons (waste not, want not!) and sequins which have been printed by me with my own designs, as well as sequins knitted into fabric. Simple, yet effective.

Transfer printing has finally clicked!!

More Baking ;-)

Yummy Cupcakes :-)

Baking :-)

Mmmmmmmm........... Brownies!  Yummy!!!!!

Knit - Year 2

Here is some Monarch knitted fabric. I chose to have my designs knitted in plain white yarns of polyester, tencel and lycra, to enable me to dye the fabric in the colours I chose, rather than colours from the shelf.

More year 2 images to follow.

Sketchbook Glimpse - Year 1

Ok.......... I'm not brilliant at drawing, but I get by........

The two images above were based on morning coffee for weave - rotation one.

Below is a glimpse into my transfer print sketchbook - folk art work.

Knit - Year 1 - Rotation 2

This project was based on re-interpretation of various shapes by artists like Lucienne Day, Ben Nicholson, Sonia Delauney, etc..

I made a sleeve using a domestic machine and 7 gauge dubied.

Weave - Year 1 - Rotation 2

This weave rotation was called Eco warrior.  We were required to weave fabric and create something afterwards using recycled material and a samurai theme.  I chose black bin bags and recycled jeans.

I made a little bag.