Who says trees are brown?

Don't you just love the quality of light you get at this time of year - especially late afternoon?

I had to dash out and try to capture the moment before the sun sets completely and this ancient apple tree becomes almost invisible in the evening gloom. The sun has to be really low in the sky for this effect.

I've often photographed these beech trees that border our garden. Normally they form a dark silhouette against the bright sky but today they turned gold and lime against the blue. Looks strangely unreal doesn't it? Especially where the light catches the tops of the shrubs beyond the pond.

Back inside I can relax and enjoy the sunshine through the window rather than brave the cold outside. It's a pleasure to sit and embroider my linen scrim with double cross stitch and beads.

This is no great work of art but I think it might make a lovely book cover - that's what I'm working towards anyway. Of course I'll let you see it when it's finished.

Even though the mornings are cold and frosty we are planning for summer. Granddad has his helper well trained already. He's brought most of the potting shed indoors for a day or two so she can sow the chilli seeds. It's warmer in here!

Not surprising when you see what I've been doing in the kitchen next door. Bertinet's olive dough today - that's lunch sorted for the gardeners then!

Bye for now and thanks for dropping by.
Linda x

I'm gonna need longer arms!

I've not had a lot of energy for a couple of weeks due to an unpleasant viral thing. On the positive side, it has meant I've sat about doing nothing very much except hand stitching my patchwork. Although that's quite relaxing, true to character it has also become a compulsion. Every time I finish one row of piecing I'm so desperate to see how the next row will look I have to carry on. I've heard, but not really seen, far too many late night films on TV as I sew away beneath my daylight lamp.

You're seeing this from the side as it's too big to hold up the other way. The width of the quilt is now exactly what I need for the bed so my next task is to fill in the half hexagons that will complete the sides and give me straight edges. What you are seeing at the bottom of the image above is the right hand side of the quilt where I intend to join a dark diamond to a pale  triangle so the pattern of tumbling blocks isn't interrupted.

I've just placed a couple of patches here to give the impression of how that'll work. I have to make 2 more rows of tumbling blocks at the top and the same at the bottom and I'll be almost there! My sister doesn't know it yet but I'm planning to commission her to quilt it on her longarm machine. I had thought I might hand quilt it at one point but I don't think it would be finished in my lifetime!

It's dangerous to spend time trawling the internet when you're under the weather. You feel sorry for yourself and think you need a treat. I might not have had much energy but I wasn't too feeble to press 'buy me' buttons. These seemed tempting!

It's great to be feeling back to normal and I like to have options on the go so there's always something I can be working on. I've narrowed my selection of beads and Madeira Lana threads down to a few colours and found out some coarse linen that was sold for polishing windows. I'm sure I can come up with something more creative to do with it than that.

My trusty Mary Thomas's Dictionary of Stitches is open, the linen's hooped up and I'm ready for the off. I'll let you see what transpires!

Bye for now,
Linda x

Through Our Hands and an exhibition

You probably know about Through Our Hands by now as we've mentioned the Magazine and the Portfolio lots of times, but have you seen the Through Our Hands Facebook page? We'd love you to visit and like the page!

It really is essential reading for anyone interested in the creative arts and not just for the opportunity to see the work of the 27 affiliated artists connected with Through Our Hands, although of course that's wonderful too. Annabel is doing an amazing job to include the most fascinating links and features you might otherwise miss. Just take a look and be sure to visit often because there's something there for everyone and always something to inspire.

With the wonders of the internet, we aren't limited by geographical boundaries and we can discover diverse art from people all over the world. Excellent as it is to enjoy exhibitions online though, it's sometimes an advantage be able to see the work up close and personal. If you are within travelling distance of Llangollen, Wales you might want to put these February dates for Quiltfest 2016  in your diary. Some events open tomorrow and from February 10th the Nineties Collection of the Quilters' Guild of the British Isles will be displayed along with more recent work from some of the original participants. I was one of those commissioned to make a piece back in the '90s to become part of the Guild's permanent collection.

'Demons in my Head' 

Linda Kemshall

I've realised in my usual scatterbrained fashion that I never took any photographs of this piece back when I made it but when the collection was exhibited in Walsall a few years back they used my quilt for the advertising poster!

'Demons in my Head' (detail)

The detail of the apple with its telling missing bite was always my favourite bit! It should be interesting to make comparisons to see if there have been changes in style and technique over the intervening years. 'Demons in my Head' will be on show together with 'To the Brim' made in 2015.

Hope lots of you can get there!

Thanks for reading today - Love Linda

Painting from scratch

I'm trying to get to grips with oil painting. It's a completely different kettle of fish from watercolours or even acrylics so I feel I'm starting pretty much from scratch. First thing is to chose a subject and preferably nothing too complicated.

I spotted this beautiful jug on a bric a brac stall recently and couldn't resist adding it to the collection of jugs and teapots I've been collecting over the years. There is a signature on the base but sadly I can't make it out - the date though is 1906. I'm amazed at that as it looks so contemporary. I may never use it for its original purpose but it earns its keep by becoming a subject of a still life!

I decided to paint just the one jug on a square canvas panel. It's not much of a composition but it'll do  for practise. This is the first layer of colour. It's still very wet so I have to be patient for a few days before I can correct the drawing with opaque paint and then start to add thin layers of colour to try to better describe the rounded form.

My biggest challenge is to stop painting like a watercolour painter and keep thinning the paint till it runs. Oil paint applied straight from the tube stays where it's put and holds the mark of the brush, completely unlike watercolour which flows across the surface with a mind of its own. To help me make the switch and stop reverting to old habits, I experimented with a knife for a while. I liked that a lot but I think it may be technique more suited to less smooth and shiny subject matter. Looking at what I've got so far I can see that the shadows and highlights are going to be all important if I'm going to capture the shiny surfaces of the tiles, the window and the jug. I can't wait to have another go!

Bye for now,
Linda

Blast from the past

An old school friend got in touch this morning. She'd discovered a photograph of us aged 16 on a school trip to London. Laura laughed herself silly when she saw it! What is my hair about?

Oblivious to issues of health and safety, here's Livvy and I up to our ankles in pigeons in front of the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square. I know it was a long time ago but really, black and white photos?? Had colour not been invented yet? Funny thing is, I remember that outfit so well. I made it myself from chocolate brown, pinstripe wool. There was a waistcoat too although you can't tell that from the picture. I'd mastered button holes for the first time and I really thought I was the bee's knees!

Back in the real world, I've been helping with Fingerprint orders a bit this week. This has involved slaving over a steamy iron and cutting up fabrics ready to post out to customers. I'm very cheap labour but I wreaked my revenge by plundering Laura's stocks of hand dyes. Now that I'm working on a huge quilt I need fabric! This quilt was meant to be a way to diminish my heaps of scraps but I've underestimated how many I need for such a massive piece. The main trouble is, my plans to be really random with colour choices have fallen by the wayside. I'm such a control freak I have to introduce some formality and that means bands and borders of consistent colour. Turns out odd scraps just won't do!

Here I'm auditioning the turquoise chevron border and the first few of the Tumbling Blocks that will surround everything. As you can see, there's still variation in the colours of the fabrics but I need to keep the values similar or the 3D effect won't read well. I've neglected this piece for too long but now that I'm back on track it's becoming an obsession - does anyone else stitch standing up in the kitchen while they watch the soup simmer or is it just me?

Bye for now,
Linda x

There are pencils and then there are pencils

I've been drawing on my iPad for the last few days and I think I may have a new obsession!

I've treated myself to an Apple pencil and it's made a huge difference to the detail I can achieve. Fingers just don't compare! If you're interested, I'm working in Procreate.

It's interesting when I compare the digital drawing with the oil painting. (Anybody else think it looks more like Sharon Osbourne than me - thank goodness I don't have to live with Ozzy?) Admittedly the painting isn't finished yet but right away I can see where I've gone wrong. The lips are too narrow and the cheeks too round! I worked both these portraits from the same photograph so they should be more alike. I'll need to slim the painted face down a bit which is no problem - if only it was that easy in real life!

Of course I won't be abandoning my paints and brushes just because I've got a new toy. The world is big enough for both.  I've already prepped a new canvas and I'm just putting off the moment. I've been prevaricating a bit - spent far too much time arranging and rearranging stuff this morning instead of just getting on with it.

Don't understand why I'm so nervous to start something new after all the drawing practise recently. The Art Diary Challenge really focussed my mind and it was so popular I am thinking we may have to do something similar again later this year. One of our Highly Commended winners for 2015, Annette, sent me a few more of her diary pages...........

Nature is always a wonderful source of inspiration and these prints have a lovely quality don't they? Thanks for sharing Annette!

Winter seems to have arrived finally and we woke to snow again this morning. Nothing to get excited about though - just a light dusting that melted away almost as soon as it had appeared. The day remained overcast and dismal - always a sign on a gloomy Sunday morning that the best place to be is in the kitchen.

I think I'm getting good at ciabatta! Today I followed the recipe in Bertinet's book 'Dough'. Last week's batch used his recipe in 'Crust'. We shall have a scientific tasting later today to decide on our favourite. Just waiting for these to cool down enough to slice!

I'm in a quandary right now. I've got the big patchwork I'm working on spread out over the table in the conservatory where the daylight is great for hand piecing but my easel and a brand new canvas are also set up ready for action - decisions, decisions!

Bye for now - Linda x

You can never have too many pencils

At least that's what I heard from our Art Diary winner today!

This is what we sent Jennifer as her prize. Its lovely to hear the parcel arrived safely in Denmark and I know the pens and pencils will be put to good use!

Our Highly Commended winners received a lovely tin of graphite pencils and a selection of our greetings cards. I hope they'll enjoy using them!

I also heard from one of our online students today. Gill is one of the last few people who have been working independently through our Creative Quiltmaking course. She kindly sent me a photo of her finished quilt and agreed to let me share it with you all. Believe it or not this is the first quilt, other than journal sized pieces, she's ever made. Great job Gill - I hope there will be many more to come.

She included a page from her sketchbook showing the source of inspiration for the beautiful curved lines of her piecing.

And a detail shows how the linear design developed from the theme. Thanks for sharing Gill!

I'm busy with preparation for a new DMTV topic. What's new you may ask - I'm always busy with prep! You can just spot the intriguing title of the old book I'm altering in the image above. You might question what all those magazine cuttings have in common but I think you can tell that colour is involved! I'll be trying my best to be imaginative in the way I illustrate many of the rules of colour theory. It's a subject that's so often written about in academic and dusty, dry terms - I hope to be more visual, inventive and fun! All will be revealed to subscribers very soon.

I'm also back hand piecing my mosaic patchwork quilt after a lengthy and frustrating interval. I've been battling a trapped nerve in my neck for nearly six months. It made the small motions of repetitive hand sewing too painful but now I'm much better and I'm doing my best to make up for lost time. Progress is being made but there's still a long way to go. Don't know why we decided a super king size bed was such a great idea but thanks for your patience if you've been waiting to see how it's turning out.

So, with the wisdom of hindsight can I say think of your posture and don't spend all day hunched over a computer like I do? It was the first question the physio asked me!!

Talk to you again soon - Linda x