Sunday 16 March 2008

Shopping!

Before the shopping another of those little blog quizzes. I like this one!

Your Inner Child Is Surprised
You see many things through the eyes of a child.
Meaning, you're rarely cynical or jaded.
You cherish all of the details in life.
Easily fascinated, you enjoy experiencing new things.
http://www.blogthings.com/howisyourinnerchildquiz/">How Is Your Inner Child?


OK, as promised, confession is good for the soul! VBG!



The card in the selection above came from the Visions exhibition and I bought it to remind me of the techniques used in one of the exhibits. I like the idea of combining different materials (fabrics and paper) with stitch and embellishments to create a new descriptive surface. I was very impressed (no pun intended!) with the quality of the stamps from The English Stamp Company. I bought a little bird stamp which I think should give me lots of use both on paper and fabric surfaces but I may well order more from them in time. I walked round the whole of the Hobbycraft Exhibition looking for the alcohol inks and found them on the last stall I came to, just inside the door! Grrrrrr! I would rather have spent the hour it took seeing more in the sewing hall.

This was a bargain! Yay! The edging was £1 a metre and the buttons, ribbon and chain cost £1 for the lot! Yippee! I love a bargain! :) BTW I'm not sure what to do with the chain. Should I rust the whole thing so I can then use it to rust-dye fabric or should I separate part of it off to use as an embellishment? I am very tempted to rust the whole thing......

As you can see the edging is sequined and sparkly.

I did get tempted on the Stef Francis stand, well it's hard not to be! tThe colours a bit off. The blues are more turquoise and the red is more pink/purply. Computers!!

This is a study pack of African fabrics and a piece of batik cloth which I thought would be useful in backgrounds. The fabric includes wax print, three cats fabric, kola nut & indigo dyed, hand dyed batik, adire - indigo resist fabric and mudcloth. The fabrics vary in texture, some being quite firm and others soft and yielding. Many of the patterns and symbols have meaning.


Last but not least, is this lovely yarn from Arthur Ridley. Again the colours have not reproduced well and are much more vivid in life. Arthur Ridley works with the embellisher as well as embroidery and his work is stunning. The little envelope contains embellisher needles which Arthur assured me will fit any machine! I hope he's right!

9 comments:

artisbliss said...

Thanks for sharing all your lovely stuff. The retail therapy must really be helpful, because I certainly feel better now!

Stephanie Pettengell said...

My goodness, that is certainly what you call yummy shopping.

DeeMom said...

WOW that was some shopping spree
all so beautiful

I took the inner child quiz...Imagine I too got the Surprise as did you

neat site

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Kate North said...

ooh, treasure. I think I'd rust the whole thing. Go for it :)

Gina said...

Wow, sounds like you had a wonderful day shopping - so many gorgeous goodies!

Mrs Moog said...

It looks like you had a really great day out Julie!
I love all your photos of the exhibition stands and boy did you shop well!!!
Gorgeous fibres and fabrics and £5for embellisher needles is a fab bargain!
Looks like you're going to be busy :)

xx

sharon young said...

What a bonanza , Julie, we shall all be watching very closely to see what wonderful works of art you come up with next!!! Thanks for sharing it all.
Thanks too for droppping by my blog. Always happy to see you :-)

Debbi Baker said...

OOOH Julie - I want to come and play with all your new stuff!!! It looks wonderful. Have fun with it!

Cape Cod Washashore said...

What fabulous treasures to create with! Imac told me to visit you, as you are also a fan of mixed media! When I'm not blogging my photos of Cape Cod, I'm blogging about my arts-n-crafts. =)