Rosy Lady

Those lazy, hazy, crazy days of Summer

It's a long weekend in England with Monday being a bank holiday.  We are enjoying the last of the Summer sun before Autumn starts to set in.  We've been spending time at the Italian market in town, swimming, playing tennis and today I want to go to a garden show.  We've been to the show a couple of years ago and it provided great opportunities to take photos to inspire future design work.  These are some of the photos we took last time but this time, we'll have a better camera:

xx

Yellow therapy for a grumpy girl

I often find that colour can affect my mood and yellow, although not particularly my favourite colour, I find make me feel happy.  I did not sleep too well last night and woke up feeling grumpy, so please excuse my indulgence in some yellow-therapy as I think happy thoughts.

Always makes me smile.

Cornfields in the Cape.

Sunrise, sunset...

If all else fails:

Hubby impressed with the size of seafood in South Africa.  Always makes me smile.

Hope you have a good start to the day and if not, I'm sending happy thoughts your way - it is Friday after-all and for us in England, we have a bank holiday on Monday.

xx

Random textures - makes me want to touch

I've been going through my photos and noticed a few with a focus on texture.

 

Yes, I quite like the feel of a snake!  I'm scared of spiders but snakes - not so much.  I was born in the north of South Africa and we had loads of snakes in our garden and sometimes in our house (which caused a lot of excitement as the majority could kill you).  But, I like 'em (and no, I'm not one of those weird people who have pet snakes).  Anyway, moving on...

I quite like the colours that rust can create.

Seaweed, not so much for touching (too gooey).

Pebbles and seashells?  Who doesn't go home with pockets full of interesting shapes and sizes after a day at the beach?

The crystal chandelier in our previous home.  Can you tell that I did not touch these too often with the duster?  Oh well, moving on swiftly...

I like architecture, the patterns often inspire me.  This one is from Bristol (England).

I love finding a spot of colour when you least expect it:

I love these metal gates (spotted somewhere in the Cape):

And this one:

Love the beaded peacocks and flowers in this one:

Wooden shutters with layers of paint peeling:

A fabric shop where you can touch to your hearts content:

xx

Festival of Quilts 2009 - Part 3

I thought I would share a few more of the lovely quilts that were on display at the Festival of Quilts.

I wanted to finish with this quilt because I think that every artist can relate to these words at one time or another in your life:

Festival of Quilts 2009 - Part 2

As promised, here are some more photos of some of the quilts that were on display at the Festival of Quilts:

 Hope you're enjoying these as much as I am.  More photos to follow tomorrow.

xx

Festival of Quilts 2009 - Part 1

I've had a really good time at the Festival of Quilts.  There were so many beautiful quilts to see and I took plenty of photos, which I would like to share with you over the next few days.  I also met Amy Butler at one of the stalls.  At first, I felt a bit star-struck, hovered and then went over to introduce myself and ask for advice about submitting my textile designs.  She was very friendly and helpful.

I the evening, I also attended the event, 'An Evening with Amy Butler'.  She spoke about recent trips to Bali and India and showed some of her photos and shared the inspiration behind her next fabric line, which is called 'Love'.  

She also shared some of her future projects, which include handmade rugs, luggage and another book.

I met so many wonderful people from all over the world - kindred spirits - and it was great to talk to everyone about their interests and to share mine.  There were young and older people and the quilts ranged from traditional to contemporary with something for every taste.  It also struck me that despite the big crowd, people were polite and considerate, no rudeness, pushing or elbowing. So, without further ado, I would like to share some photos of some of the quilts that I saw.  I will not be able to give credit to any of the artists as there were just too many to remember.

Hope you've enjoyed these with me.  More photos to follow tomorrow.  Hope you have a good day.

xx

Feature

The link that I gave on a previous post for the little blog feature on tigerprint doesn't seem to be working so, I wanted to post the full link here for future reference:  http://tigerprint.typepad.com/tigerprint/2009/08/featured-competition-entrants.html

 Anyway, off to the Festival of Quilts now.

xx

iphone spruce-up

I've been contemplating for a while now to do something with my iphone to personalize it a bit more. Although I have been looking at different covers, I have not really seen anything that I like.  So, today I decided to do a quick make-over with some stickers that I got from Accessorize a while ago and here is the result:

 

Have a lovely weekend!

xx

My first blog feature

I am so excited to find that my blog has had it's first feature!!!  Thank you so much tigerprint!!!

To add to the excitement, I have got the rest of the afternoon off with Hubby and tomorrow I have a whole day devoted to designing.  The weekend I will be off to the Festival of Quilts.  I was hoping to go by train but there are a few train strikes so, I'm not risking getting stranded in Birmingham.  Instead, I'm going to drive up.  I've driven around Birmingham before and got really lost so, tomorrow I will also go hunting for a tom tom.  

My mind is really in design mode now.  When I design, I find that I mentally go back to those childlike moments where I just 'play' and see where my imagination takes me.  Sometimes, I start with a good idea of what I want it to look like, sometimes it is all sketched out and sometimes I just have a colour palette that calls me to combine the colours without too much thought.  For me, it is all about finding the inner-child.  

This photo was taken on one of our holidays to the Cape and I love the children playing in the water, whenever I see this, I am reminded how carefree children are, and that is how I feel when I am designing.

Heirloom textiles

I returned to work (my day job) on Thursday after I had two weeks off with the flu.  Although it is great to feel better, it means that I now have to use evenings and weekends again for my designing time.  I am currently working on my first fabric line to put forward to companies out there but as I can't show you any of those designs, I thought I would show you some photos of vintage textile patterns.  I took these when we were in the Cape, South-Africa, in February this year.  We stayed in an old house on the side of a mountain, amongst the vineyards and just outside Stellenbosch.  The house was packed with antiques and family heirlooms.  I could not resist the opportunity to take photos of some of the vintage textiles that was in the house.

I like the colors in this one:

I love this potholder: 

I've always loved vintage hand embroidered pieces so, I thought that I would include these too:

There are still loads but I think these will do.  Looking at pieces like these, it always makes me wonder about the people who made it.  Maybe a young bride sewed those pot holders to use in her kitchen?  Maybe it was lovingly made by a creative grandmother?  Handmade pieces are so special and become heirlooms and handed down from generation to generation.  How special to think that the sewing/quilting/embroidering that we do today, may be loved by generations to come?

I hope you have enjoyed this nostalgic journey with me?  Next weekend I am off to Birmingham for the Festival of Quilts.  I should have plenty of photos from that to share with you.  I am also hoping that someone there will sell me a rotary cutter so that I can crack on with that free pattern which I promised in my last post.

Hope you've had a great weekend!

xx