NEW BOOK! by Fibrefusion - Contemporary Textile Art Group

Seed heads from Belstead gardens

This is so exciting! The textile group Fibrefusion that I belong to, has just had its 5th book published! The book ‘Muslin, a Stitched Exploration of Loose Weave Fabrics’ is an inspirational workbook using the lovely fabric Muslin throughout the book. The book can be seen and purchased from Fibrefusions website. On the website you'll as well find our 4 previously published books.
In celebration of our new book, Fibrefusion will be exhibiting from the 10th September to the 15th October at Art Van Go There amongst others, you’ll be able to see the samples and finished work shown in the book.


Belstead weekend: Muslin samples galore

Muslin, calico, scrim is such a fantastic, but also quite often an overlooked medium, which is why we chose it as the subject for our book. This past year we have had total fun working, exploring and stretching the boundaries for what can be done with Muslin and scrim. The result was an amazing amount of colourful, stunning samples many of which can be seen in our book. A big THANK YOU goes to Pauline Verrinder Fibrefusions mentor, who has done a huge, wonderful job in writing the text, keeping us honest and pulling it all together.


Belstead weekend: Fibrefusion girls at work.

In August the 16 group members met for a working weekend at Belstead house (link). We partly worked on the tying the last bits up for the book and exhibition at Art Van Go and partly on a new body of design work for upcoming exhibitions. We had a superb time and the weather was beautiful.

Belstead: Beautiful wall design

The missing Aminals :-)

'Animals'.... hmm... that's quite a challenge. 'Animals' is the theme for our monthly blog hop in the 'Unique Women In Business' (UWIB) group. Looked at my shop SewDanish - Scandinavian Textile Art to see if I could find anything remotely resembling animals or animal prints.

I knew that I wouldn't find any. I don't think that I have ever used animals neither as a design source nor as inspiration for a piece of work. Some years ago I made a quilt, and on the finished quilt (which I didn't like particular) I stamped cat paws, as if a cat just had strolled over the quilt 'I was here and left my mark.....' It was actually rather cute and made the quilt slightly more interesting. Unfortunately that quilt is in storage in the US, so I'm not able to show it to you. I like animals and love watching nature programs on the television, but in real life I have little experience with them. Mind you, we have our lovely old, ginger Maine coon cat who just turned 18 years old last month, so that's gotta count for something :-)

On a recent vacation we stopped at the Greek island of Mykonos. Quite a busy and touristic place, but it definitely still had a lot of Greek island charm.

I spend a lovely afternoon by myself wandering the back streets and ally ways of the main town. Took loads of lovely photos of white painted houses with their colorful trims.

In the lazy heat of the afternoon I came across this family of two adult cats and their 4 tiny kittens. They were semi feral and lived in an abandoned shed. They quietly accepted me hanging out with them and I had a lovely time watching them.

The Arches and Lights of The Grand Bazaar, Istanbul, Turkey

I have to say I would LOVE to go back to Istanbul. What a fantastic city! So much to see, so much to do.....and we had so little time. Istanbul has definitely made it on my list of places to revisit.

The following photos are all taken in the Grand Bazaar. A wonderful maze of intense color, sounds, patterns, lights etc. It took a while for us to accept that we would probably get lost in the this maze and just 'let go' and be absorbed. We did get sort of lost, but that actually didn't matter. Eventually we found our way out with our heads buzzing with impressions. I could have spend so much more time there.
Eventually :-)

I absolutely loved the architecture of this covered bazaar. Maybe we were lucky, because it wasn't particular crowded and it wasn't sizzling hot day. I can imagine that both these factors could make it a bit claustrophobic. The vaulted ceilings with bands of decorations were absolutely wonderful. In other parts of the bazaar it almost felt as if you were in a cellar even though still on the ground floor.
     

A truely amazing place.

Copenhagen, Rosenborg Castle and IPhone

Over the summer one of my trips went to Denmark to visit relatives. Had a lovely time catching up with family. I love living here in England, but one of the downsides are that one just cannot pop in for a short visit. I do miss that, but hey ho life is still pretty good :-)

While staying in Copenhagen we spend a lovely morning playing tourists. Despite all the years I've been living and visiting Copenhagen, I had actually never visited Rosenborg Castle. The castle is in the middle of Copenhagen in one of the lovely parks Kongens Have/The Kings Garden and I have walked passed it hundreds of times, but I never made it inside.

So we spend an absolutely lovely morning visiting the castle before heading back to England. What was a lot of fun was that 1600th century culture mixed with 2000th century technology. While I was paying for the entrance tickets, my husband picked up a little slip with info about downloading the app 'neoreader' for Iphone/Itouch. Relatively new to these gadgets we just had to try. And it was totally amazing. Had our own private tours on our devices, scanning the square pixilated (bar) codes that were on lots of the 400-500 year old artifacts. It was so cool! Anyway before I get carried away, as I do love my Iphone :-) I better show you some of the photos that I took. More design inspiration. I absolutely love the ones from the mirror room!

BTW If you want to read a good novel then I can recommend  'Music and Silence' by Rose Tremain . It's a  historical fiction set at Rosenborg Castle during the reign of King Christian 4th. Excellent book!

Summer Fun Bloghop With SewDanish and Unique Women In Business



Denmark, June 2011

We are now well into July. Amazing how quicky the time flies when one has fun :-)
After lots of travelling (Italy, Turkey, Greece followed by a trip to Denmark) in Juni and July having a wonderful time, I'm now back home in Britain for at least a little while.


Effesus, Turkey, June 2011 

Shortly after returning back home, we went on a hiking trip to Wales with friends. Had the most superb time, and for Wales, we had the most amazing weather. Did about 25 miles up an down the mountains over just about 3 days, so not too shabby.


Wales,  July 2011

Ever since the weather hasn't been all that fantastic. Actually it's been rather cool with a lot of rain. All the rain we didn't get in the spring with the beautiful weather we had for weeks on end has now caught up with us. At least the garden is happy :-)



Back home in GB :-)

 But to be honest I don't mind the iffy weather that much as it gives me more time to stay indoors, catching up on heaps of stuff that has been postponed with me not being home and not feeling guilty about it.


Freshly dyed threads and fabric

What a great feeling to being almost on top of things. Have done a lot of fabric and thread dyeing this past week. I now have this wonderful pile of color piled up on my worktable. Some of the dyed threads will be listed shortly in my little shop SewDanish others will be used in some of the many project that I'm itching to get on with and finish. 
Hope you are all having a lovely summer where every you are and enjoying what ever you are doing. Take care and stay safe.

Canterbury Cathedral, stunning light and structures.

On a recent vacation my husband and I were due to fly out from Gatwick airport just south of London. Since we were down that way we decided to add a couple of days exploring for us an unknown area of England before flying out. The days were spend visiting Canterbury and Canterbury Cathedral and hiking several beautiful trails in Kent. The trail along The White Cliffs of Dover was totally beautiful.

Other peoples vacation photos are sometimes not the most exciting to look at, but I do love the way these photos from Canterbury Cathedral came out. The Cathedral was an amazing place. It was a very bright day with the sun keeping appearing and disappearing, and thereby constantly changing the light and the colours in the cathedral. The blue gray colours were just so lovely and added a completely different dimension to the stunning architecture.

The ceiling in one of the side chapels was just amazing. Everywhere you looked there was the most wonderful interplay between the light, patterns and structure. I might have to have a play with carving some printing blocks. Such an inspiring place.

Scotland, Bury St. Edmunds and SewDanish

Well, here we are almost two month later.... Life is great and so busy! I have to confess that I haven't done much sewing, crafting, designing nor computering lately. And I do miss it. Other hand there is a time for everything and sometimes it is good to take a step back and change direction for a while.

What recently has been taken my time are lovely visits from relatives and friends from Denmark. I'm always so happy when dear ones come to visit and are willing to spend their precious vacation time to come visiting. Lots of time is spend catching up (in Danish, my native language, bliss! :-) . And while showing and sharing my beautiful surroundings, it so makes me appreciate the beautiful corner of the world where I'm currently living.

As I didn't get around to do any blogging, I never properly advertised our recent OutOfTheFold exhibition at The Castle Inn, Bungay where we all had made a 12 x 12 inch piece framed in identical frames. I know I'm biased, but it really looked stunning! If you missed that exhibition, the same collection will be on display at Denny Brothers Art Gallery , Bury St Edmunds, England the whole month of July 2011. My piece is the one featured in the blog post.

Currently my other textile group FibreFusion is exhibiting at Sew In Stitches , Scotland with our 'Touchy Feely' exhibition. A selection of other pieces are on display as well.

Before I go, I want to share my happy dancing with you.......Last week I celebrated my 150th sale in my shop SewDanish . Thank you to all my wonderful customers. I really appreciate it :-) Thank you!