I have now completed an experimental picture of Purple Tzania from the series by Catherine Wood.  I base coated her with a mixture of dimensional paint and pva glue which made it quite thick.  When it was dry I painted the canvas dark green and then added a wash of cream paint.  After it was dry I sanded it gently to give the background a nice light texture.  I then painted the design of Tzania onto the board and embellished the background  with diamond shapes made up of gold dimensional paint and glitter.  I also put a purple netting into the two corners to add interest and added glitter to the gold dots on the hat.  I did enjoy the project and will be experimenting further to see what further effects I can produce on another picture.

My lovely flower appliqued quilt which I completed earlier this year – goes with the Pansies which I grew and are flourishing in my garden.  the other wall hanging is one which I started at a local workshop and has another lot of flowers which I also added Suffolk puffs to.  I Love flowers!!! will be showing you more of them soon.  I hope to paint them as well – who knows I might even put them in a card and add beading – can`t get enough of crafting!!

My next work shop will be painting as my quilting friends would like to have a go at  this craft!  Will show you their results  later.

Here is my latest painting from a series of paintings  by artist  Cathryn Wood.  This is called Sepia Siiren and is painted in various shades of brown which is a good exercise in mixing colours.

This next painting is one that I completed last year and is called Lady in Grey.  Again it is using a monochrome colour of black and white with various shades of grey for highlighting.  I enjoyed painting this and it was fairly quick to complete although it was challenging to do the facial features.

My next work shop is to make this Seminole patchwork bag measuring 17″ x 15″.  The name originates from the Seminole Indians of Florida, whose clothing was decorated with hands of coloured fabric. Fabric strips are stitched together, then cut into sections and re-sewn either straight or diagonal strips to make patterns.  These strips are useful as borders for quilts or as part of an overall design.

I have made several of these bags and each one is totally different as I used different colours and designs.  They are quite striking and would make good beach or shopping bags.  I use mine to take my quilting bits with me to my various work shops.

Here is another picture of the workshop showing everyone really engrossed in their work!!

And Here are a some of the finished neclaces modelled by the students.

Here is a picture of my jewellery work shop which I conducted at the local Woolsery Art and Craft group.  Everyone made an illusion necklace with glass beads and they all enjoyed it so much they want me to come back and show them more jewellery making.  They all made a lovely necklace which was a first time for most of them.

This painting was completed over a two day course at Gill Hobb`s workshop.  The butterfly wings were embellished with silver leaf and an outline piping medium was used to outline the clover and butterfly wings and body.  Piping medium was also used to add  words to background.  I incorporated my grandchildrens` names into the words. Size of finished picture is 50cm x 40cm.

This is a picture of one of my students wearing an illusion necklace she has just made from glass beads.  This was a simple technique using tiger wire and crimp beads.  This was her first attempt at jewellery making!