Tea Parties and Texture

The week started well with an invitation to a  tea party...

Which was attended by some very important guests.

I also managed to enjoy the gorgeous weather we had this week, and did some collage work in the garden. 

I had my assistant beside me...

But he wasn't much help... because he kept on falling asleep. 

I finished my texture collage, and it looks something like this:

 I also finished off my stained glass applique sample.  Here is the design inspiration,

And here is my 'window'.

More collages are on their way to completion and I shall post again soon regarding progress.  And tea parties.  :-)

Easter Bunny Bags

This weekend I have been a busy bee, or perhaps I should say 'busy bunny' making these Easter Bunny Bags for Freya and William.  (Ok so William is a bit small for Easter Egg hunting but it won't be long before his time will come!)

Anyhow, I have decided to be enterprising, and am going to be making them to order, for the bargain price of £9.99 inc. p&p.  There are two options...

Light blue and green

 or...

Light and dark pink

They measure approx 18cm x 13cm, and are made of felt with an appliqued felt rabbit on the front.  Perfect for little ones hunting out those eggs, and can be used year after year! 

If you would like to place an order please email me at;

sarahnorton4 (at) hotmail (dot) com 

and I will be in touch :-)

Happy Easter x

On the Beach

I am trying to come up with inventive ways to present my work for my course.  This is a lot of fun, but certainly more time consuming than just sticking information into a portfolio!  But I do love a challenge and not to always go for the easy option, so this is what I came up with to present my work on...

And here is my 'texture' research, although I can't decide which picture I prefer.  This one...

On the rocks

or this one;

On the sand

As it happens, I took the 'on the rocks' picture, and Pete styled and took the 'on the sand' picture.  So the jury is out!

I have also managed to find time to do a little bit of sewing.  Here is a picture.  It looks a bit dull but the brief for the module is 'black, white and muted tones'.  (Not really me at all!)  This sample demonstrates the use of freezer paper - a technique of ironing the shapes around freezer paper so that the fabric takes their shape, and then you applique it on to the background fabric.  I came up with a very basic design as using a hot iron with complicated shapes could be tricky and slightly hazardous! 

I am now working on my final sample for this module, another stained glass applique piece.  It's coming along well but I have hit a stumbling block - I have run out of plain black fabric for the bias binding 'leading'.  So I have ordered more from my favourite ebay shop, Brenda Higgs Favourite Fabrics, along with some rainbow coloured solids for the samples for module 5.  Financial constraints meant that it had to be a purely 'essential fabrics' order, but it was sooooo hard to resist all her gorgeous fat quarter bundles! 

I shall post again soon with my stained glass applique.  I do enjoy this technique as it uses lots of colour.  And it's good to have more colour in my life.  Hooray!

Talking About Texture

In the rare moments when both of the children are asleep, it's a race to get my craft things out and crack on with my coursework, because either one of them could wake at any moment, and bring progress to a grinding halt. 

So here are some of my texture designs so far - the brief was to fill basic outlines of your source material with the hand made textured papers.

Landscape picture

Black on white - Lighthouse at Corbiere

White on black - Lighthouse at Corbiere

The last one, white on black of the lighthouse is my favourite, as I think it's quite dramatic and evocative of a huge thunderstorm.

I have a few more designs to come up with using this technique and then I have to try different collage techniques such as folding, pleating and tearing the papers.  Lots of ideas in my head, and I can't wait to get started.  Perhaps Pete can take the children for a long drive around the island...

In other crafty news, I received both Popular Patchwork magazine and Modern Quilting magazine this week.  I like Popular Patchwork magazine, it has some interesting articles and information, but I have to admit I do feel like I must be one of their youngest readers!  I find some of the fabrics and designs a bit dated, and there are quite a few pictures of older ladies!!  Modern Quilting magazine is definitely aimed at a younger audience and the fabrics they use make me want to drool, they are so gorgeous.  There really is a much more contemporary feel to the projects and style of the magazine, I just love it and I am so pleased I came across it in time to get the first issue. 

Hopefully I will get a moment this weekend to come up with some more texture designs, I shall post more progress soon!