Bears Paw

Above is the quilt I have been working on lately. This is the first machine pieced quilt I have done. I hand pieced a small quilt when I was younger but this one is a lot more involved.  The 'bears paws' in the middle are all machined together. The bears, flowers and bee hives around the outside have all been appliqued on. This pic was actually taken a few months ago. I've since made quite a bit of progress on this. Will post up more pics later on. Am aiming to finish this in the next month or so. It will look magnificent when it is all finished and quilted. Have already been thinking about the next quilt I want to make. Can't wait!

Completed cross-stitches

Above is my cross-stitch collection. I started cross-stitching when I was about 8 years old. My Mum has always been a crafty person so she was able to teach me a lot growing up. The latest cross-stitch I finished is the teddy bears picnic, I really love this one. Am now about half way through the Santa cross-stitch which I posted a pic of earlier.

Santa cross-stitch

Here is the latest cross-stitch I am working on. I'm embarrassed to say that I actually started this approximately 8 years ago (where did the time go...) Have been so busy with everyday life and have had a lot happening in all the years gone by. Have been spending the majority of my 'spare time' lately painting and am focusing on finishing my quilt at the moment also. I must get stuck back into this again soon, it's been long enough in the pipeline I think!!!

Country tin

I finished off this painting last weekend :) It's probably the best one I've done so far in terms of painting technique. I am very happy with how the shading came out. Shading has always been a challenge for me. I must admit I was a little worried about painting on a tin surface, as I've only ever painted on wood, but to my amazement it was a lot easier than I thought it would be. I actually really enjoyed painting on this surface. The background is slightly textured due to how the paint is applied; rather than using a brush you simply apply the background paint by dabbing with a sponge. It gives you a nice even surface. I found also that you don't need to apply as many coats of paint when painting the design, so you end up finishing it quicker than normal which is always a bonus!

Completed folk art pieces

Here is a collection of the remaining paintings I have produced over the last few years.  All of these, except for the teddy bear, were designed by Renee Mullins. I stumbled across her website "Plum Purdy" by accident and am so glad I did.  It gave me the inspiration to start painting again and I haven't been able to stop ever since. I absolutely love the style of her designs and have purchased many of her books and patterns online. I still have so many more that I want to paint but look forward to painting each and everyone of them!

Hi there, this is my first post.  I thought I would start at the beginning and display one of my earlier paintings. I painted this one a while ago now, probably 9 years ago; wow how time flys!  I painted this during folk art lessons, which I took for about 6 months to get a handle on the basic painting techniques. It turned out surprisingly well considering I was just a beginner.