Spring cleaning and blog moving

Spring is in the air and I'm in the process of moving to
http://threadspider.wordpress.com/

Plenty of blog things to sort and pack yet and I'll let you know here when I have made the final move. But I'd love to see you over the way at Wordpress . Please drop by and say hello-even if usually you just lurk-I'll be needing new neighbours to help me settle in.

Today I am dancing through daisies

After a routine visit to see my eye consultant, and a heart breaking talk to another patient who was losing her colour vision and her sight, I walked home in glorious sunshine and was thankful for both the blessing of sight and the gift of colour. I danced through the daisies. It seemed the only thing to do.

Finished 6 x 4 "

The butterfly that flew

..straight onto the cover of my sketch book. It seemed a perfect place for it to settle, like the hibernating Red Admiral in the garage.

And a bit closer...
And the cast of thousands in the making....


Ivory silk; metallic acrylic paint in gold, white & bronze;fabric medium; stamp pad and butterfly stamps for working over the painted surface; appliqué Chinese brocade butterfly-not shown; sepia waterproof marker; Seta Real silk threads in gold and copper; assorted sequins and beads;cream evenweave fabric for journal cover.

Silken threads

The butterfly sat on my desk all day Friday , waiting for the moment it could fly. I mulled the next steps while I worked, took a trip to buy more lovely silk threads after work and settled down with them in the evening-copper, silver, black.

I worked on the butterfly, adding some stronger lines to the stamped images in the background, finishing beading, adding some stitches. And then realised the birch quilt was calling for silver too.

At some point in the last week the birch quilt changed in personality, became richer. The surface with the quilting feels wonderful and I have a new momentum to work on it after the hiatus. I wondered what it would look like if silver was added -in colour, not metallic-to the leaves of the fourth tree.

March TIF

Click to enlarge

I was intrigued by the March TIF challenge- noticing the little things. I've spent my life crawling around looking at little things on the ground so I guess I think of myself as a noticer of little things. Spoiled for choice really, with this challenge, but I have finally settled on playing with some new techniques for me and a different subject.

I wasn't keen on the colour palette-I seem to be stuck in a hard metallics sort of place at the moment, favouring soft golds, bronzes, blacks. I think it as a result of working on the winter palette of the birch trees that does it. And the grey light outside. I guess I am trying to compensate for that by seeking some sparkle.

The inspiration came from the outdoors. In the garage, we have a hibernating Red Admiral butterfly-it's under one of the shelves that are carrying the tools, nails etc, right by my clothes drier. And on the garage door there is the chrysalis of an unknown moth or butterfly. They got me thinking about lepidoptera in general and after doing some research, I decided to incorporate a butterfly with some enlargements of their wing scales. And a few random extra sparkly things.

This is a pretty site to look at- butterfly wings in close up. And is my way of leaving you with a pretty thought as I will finish this posting later. Work is summoning me.