Snow on the Black Isle

It seems ages since I posted here. A mixture of time constraints, having a few problems to ponder over and a general lack of inspiration. I suppose I just ran out of steam a bit.I find the longer I am away from crafting and blogging, the harder it seems to get back into it.  However I have some of my pictures hanging in a local gallery and have sold a few lately so this has nudged me into thinking about making one or two more. Some of the galleries in the area have been exhibiting postcard and CD sized artwork lately. I think this is a great idea at this time of year as they make great presents and are not too expensive. Easier to find space to hang smaller pictures too. I would love to take part in that next year.

I did enjoy going to a workshop with some friends in Dornoch organised by a local textile art group “Ross Stitch”. The tutor was the textile artist Hazel Reed who creates mixed media collage and takes the Highland landscape as her inspiration. She likes to layer up fabrics, in particular sheer fabrics and she incorporates machine and hand stitching into her work. Here is a sample I made at her workshop.

sample made at a Hazel Reed workshop

 It always amazes me the variety of styles and subjects that are produced at workshops. It is great to  meet up with other textile artists and share ideas.

Earlier in the Summer I made my first little art quilt and I enjoyed it so much, I decided to make another one based on the town of Cromarty on the Black Isle. I wanted to incorporate the Paye which is one of the cobbled streets, the Courthouse, Hugh Miller’s cottage, the Emigration Stone and some of the little cottages. I was aiming for a rustic, naive look for this piece.

Cromarty quilt

The Emigration Stone on Cromarty Links was carved by Richard Kindersley and erected in 2002 to commemorate Cromarty’s role as a main embarkation point for the Highlanders who left for a new life in the New World in the 1830′s and 1840′s. It is inscribed with the words that Hugh Miller used to describe the departure of the Cleopatra. The names of the 39 ships that sailed are also inscribed.

“The Cleopatra as she swept past the town of Cromarty was greeted with three cheers by crowds of the inhabitants and the emigrants returned the salute, but mingled with the dash of the waves and the murmurs of the breeze , their faint huzzas seemed rather sounds of wailing and lamentation than of a congratulatory farewell.”

Rather moving and thought provoking. You are left wondering how life turned out for all those people.

Apart from a few heart shaped stuffies I made as little presents for people, the only other thing I have made recently is a birdhouse doorstop to put behind my crafting room door.

Birdhouse doorstop

 I had been hoping to make some Christmas cards for friends and some little presents this year, but time has caught up with me as usual. I love all the build up and preparations towards Christmas. The carol services, the Christmas craft sales and markets, switching on of the village lights etc. I like decorating the house and baking Christmas treats. We are having a full house of family and friends this year and I am cooking Christmas dinner. I have made up my mind not to aim for “the perfect Christmas”  like you see in all the magazines. There seems to be so much pressure to have everything exactly right. I don’t think that’s what Christmas is about and am not going to stress about it. It will be lovely just to have family and friends together to enjoy the day with us.

I hope you are enjoying your Christmas preparations. Looks like we might even have a white Christmas this time.

I am sorry I have not been blogging for a while. I have been rather distracted and have not been doing much in the way of crafting. However, I hope to get back to my trusty sewing machine soon.

For the moment I would like to thank my blogging friends for all their kind comments and wish you all a joyous and peaceful festive season.

Fly agaric

These toadstools remind me so much of the “Pookie” storybooks I had as a little girl. I wonder which little animal has been nibbling at these ones? It seems to be a good year for fungi and for  poppies growing in the fields. I wonder why that should be.

Poppies near Muir of Ord

We took a little trip down to Edinburgh during the Festival and visited a few exhibitions including one at the Botanics by the painter and printmaker Carry Akroyd.I was greatly taken by her work. Her black and white linocuts portray wildlife and the changing English countryside and I love her compositions and the way in which she fills the page using bold geometric lines. You notice something new each time you look at them. Her work was accompanied by the poetry of John Clare the 19th century Northamptonshire poet. His poems are evocative of bygone days in rural England and were a perfect accompaniment to Carry Akroyd’s beautiful work. We decided to have lunch in the Botanics restaurant while we pondered on which prints to bring home with us. These are what we chose.

October

Field flowers

Swans by Carry Akroyd

 With possibly fewer distractions out of doors, I plan to settle down to a lot more arts and  crafts  over the next few months. One of the local art galleries contacted me this week to see if I would like to exhibit in their October exhibition which is nice. That seems like a good starting point and I am working on a few new landscapes at the moment. A blogging friend jolted me into getting out the sketchbook for the 2012 Sketchbook Project which has lain untouched for the past while.

2012 Sketchbook Project

Oops. Spot the deliberate spelling mistake above! The subject I chose is “Stitches and folds” and I thought for the next page,  I might make a foldout stitched fabric story. I have had a quick look on the Project website and their are some amazing sketchbooks taking shape.

Then I seem to have gathered a heap of UFOs over the Summer. Things that either didn’t turn out as I had planned or things that were put aside to finish later. I am getting together next week with a couple of crafting friends who also have a few unfinished objects to complete, so it will be fun swapping ideas and seeing how everything turns out.

Unfinished felted landscape

seaweed scarf

This started off life as a seaweed inspired scarf, but I think it might get incorporated into a wallhanging. I have lots of bits and pieces like this and it would be great to recycle them into other pieces. Nothing is ever wasted and everything finds its niche eventually. I have a big sheet of Lutrador to play with at the moment. I have never used it before but it seems you can do lots with it, so I will have a play over the weekend. Flicking through textile books is always a great way to get the imagination and enthusiasm fired up.

These are the favourites at the moment. All full of brilliant ideas and techniques to try out. So lots of arty crafty times ahead for the Autumn.

Out in the garden there is still lots of colour. The crocosmias are in full flower. I love their zingy colours and the way they splay out like great fireworks.

Crocosmia

These rudbeckias are just so gorgeous! Summer may be over, but Autumn has so much to offer. Have a great weekend.

Dornoch beach

Dornoch beach detail

 I  then realised that I hadn’t given any thought as to how to finish off the edges and decided the easiest way was to make a plain blue fabric frame and backing for it.  I also put a piece of stiffener in the middle . It was so quick and easy to make and I really enjoyed it. I had a great piece of driftwood in my workroom for ages, thinking it might come in handy one day and now that I could use it for the wallhanging, it has disappeared off the planet.

One of the presents I was given for my birthday lately, was a book by one of my favourite artists Angie Lewin entitled”Plants and places”. The book shows how the natural world inspires her work. She is renowned for her beautiful wood-cut prints  and  I  have always particularly admired her images of seedheads. The book includes pages from her sketchbook and photographs showing how her work develops from an idea throught to the finished picture. Packed full of wonderful illustrations and inspiration. Its one of those books you would never tire of looking through and I know I am going to enjoy learning from it.

The present came complete with a beautiful textile gift tag which my DH found on a recent trip to Stornoway. It was made by one of my blogging friends  which makes it even more special. Its from the Helen Suzanne Studio. Have a look at her blog where you can see more of her lovely work.  http://thestudio-helensuzanne.blogspot.com    It hangs from a lovely silk ribbon and I  have it on my wardrobe doorknob at the moment. I love the colours.

Textile gift tag by Helen Suzanne Studio

 Amongst my birthday cards, I was given this lovely linocut entitled “Planting out” by Clare Curtis.

"Planting out" by Clare Curtis

While the sun was shining, I had a play with a new lens we have for the camera. Just a few shots of flowers around the garden.

Daisy

Poppy seedheads

Honeysuckle

Sweet peas

Meconopsis leaves

 Now that the rain has stopped, its back into the garden for now. Is it just me,  or has anyone else noticed the huge amount of rasps this year. Our bushes are groaning under the weight of rasps and the blackbird family have been stuffing themselves. We have had all sorts of delicious raspberry desserts, and have also frozen a lot, so I feel a jam making session coming on this weekend.

Happy crafting.

Lotte Glob's studio

 We went to see her “50 years in clay”retrospecive exhibition at her croft which overlooks the loch. We wandered along the old sheep paths which wind through 14 acres of heather and heath and admired the sculptures along the way. I particularly like her flying stones which sway in the wind over the heather.

Flying stones

Floating stones

Loch Eriboll

 We have admired Lotte Glob’s work for some time and it was interesting to see so much of her work and how it has developed over the 50 years since she started. We came home with another one of her floating stones for my birthday which is coming up soon.

Lotte Glob ceramics

Wildflowers at Munlochy

In our own garden, the lupins and delphiniums have provided a lot of height and there are hidden spots where you can sit surrounded by honeysuckle, roses, sweet peas and philadelphus with all their perfume. Like a secret garden. It is a very rambling, higglety pigglety sort of garden full of wildlife, colour and scent. We are so pleased with how it is developing, as it was a shaky start four years ago, having heavy clay soil which was very difficult to work with. Just need to keep on top of the dreaded Mare’s tails now.

The buddleia behind the garden seat didn’t make it through the Winter, so we might try a philadelphus behind it to provide some perfume and to hide the fence.

It was suggested to me that I should join Facebook a few months ago. I eventually took the plunge and I have found it a useful way to keep in touch with friends from Edinburgh that I don’t get to see very often. I also added some contacts from the world of textile blogs, but I have been thinking it might be better to make a separate page for textile interests.Then again, this all takes up time which would be better spent crafting!  If I have unfriended any of you on Facebook recently, please forgive me and don’t take it personally. If I ever get around to making a Textile page I will let you know. For now, I will be taking a break from blogging, Facebooking and crafting for a little while and when the weather turns nasty again, I will get back to arty indoor things again.

Hope you are enjoying the Summer.

Since it has hardly what one might call Flaming June, it’s a case of going out and about between the showers. On a recent outing to Redcastle, which is on the other side of the Beauly Firth, there were some Canada geese on the shore. More the sort of thing you might expect to see here in Winter perhaps. It was one of those very calm Summer mornings and the view is looking back towards Beauly.

Canada geese on the Beauly Firth

 We spent a few days staying over on the West coast at Clachtoll last week. We stayed in a cottage not far from Lochinver and from the hill above the cottage you can see Suilven which is only a few miles away.We set off with wellies and wet weather gear at the ready, but apart from the first day, we were lucky and the sun shone.

The skies on the West coast always fascinate me. They seem more dramatic there with intense vivid blue colours and great cloud formations. We drove up the coast to Balnakeil on the North West corner of Scotland where we hoped to see  the elusive corncrakes. They are known to nest in the grassy area above the beach and although we heard their distinctive call, we didn’t manage to see any. Maybe next time…

Balnakeil beach

 Further along the beach, past Faraidh Head there are huge sand dunes. The scale of them is difficult to imagine, but certainly, I have never seen anything like it in Scotland. It is easy to imagine you are in some far off desert country.

Dunes at Faraidh Head

The countryside is gorgeous  here on a good day.

I happily snapped away at anything that took my fancy. The colours of lichen on this rock appealed to me.

And these lovely little sea pinks which are so undemanding in where they grow.

While we were at Durness we bought another floating stone made by the Danish ceramic artist Lotte Glob. We love the colours she uses and the story behind her floating stones. http://www.lotteglob.co.uk/newsetc.htm Worth having a look.We are looking forward to visiting her Retrospective exhibition “50 years in clay” at her croft at Loch Eriboll.

Lotte Glob floating stones

 We have our ones floating in a blue glass bowl in the garden and they make a pleasing gentle ringing sound when they brush the sides of the bowl.

At Kylesku  we spotted some  jellyfish beside the jetty. They are so beautiful to watch in the water. Very graceful.

We enjoyed a walk in the Assynt Estate which is teeming with wildflowers and birdlife and seems to be a haven for dragonflies. We came across this little shelter  with a turfed roof overlooking the loch. I like the way it fits into the surroundings.

The water lilies are not quite out yet, but they look lovely anyway.

The bog cotton looks so graceful shimmering in the breeze.

We had some visitors back at the cottage, who wandered right past the back door. Some wild red deer who seemed totally unconcerned by our presence. We are quite used to stepping over the sheep to get through the front door, and the odd wildcat has been spotted. You can’t put the rubbish out too soon, or the badgers get into it, but we have never seen deer this close to the cottage before.

Back home from our little break and the garden is filling out well. Plants which seem to struggle for the first year or so, seem to thrive once they get their roots down through the clay. The lupins have gone a bit mad and we will probably replace some of them gradually, with other things. They have been great for filling up the borders with colour and height over the first few years though. Amazing what one packet of seeds provides.

One plant we are thrilled with this year is a lemon meconopsis which we planted 2 years ago. This is the first year it has flowered for us.

We have a family of blackies in the garden just now and there is much furious flapping and crashlandings going on as the babies learn how to fly. Lovely to have them here and they are so amusing to watch.

The first seedheads are appearing now from the Spring flowers and I especially like this anenome.

It looks like it will be too wet to garden much this week, so perhaps I can get on with some arty crafty pursuits.  Hope the weather is sunny where you are.

Painted fabric background

 We had attached some cotton onto a piece of wadding, sponged and painted the background onto damp fabric and added a bit of detail with fabric pens.

In the second lesson, we began by machine stitching some grasses into the foreground. We used a zigzag stitch for most of it. Next, we cut out lots of little fabric circles to represent flowers, hedges or trees and machine stitched them on. Lastly we added some extra texture with  a lot of handstitching, mostly French knots which is very time consuming but therapeutic at the same time. None of us managed to finish our pictures and I still have a lot more handstitching to do which really brings it to life I think. Then a bit more work on the hills, tidy everything up, back it neatly and find a suitable hanger for it. It’s an interesting technique and I especially enjoyed learning how to do the painted background. I would do more with this method, but probably on a smaller piece. Cutting out the flowers was awfully fiddly and took ages. You could either frame the finished piece, or make it into a wallhanging.  A great workshop and some really beautiful pictures were created.

French knot detail

 I did a quick sketchbook page this week using a poem I like by Frances Cornford as a background for some stitching.

Sketchbook page

 The only other fabric picture this time is from a recent trip to Ragamuffin on Skye. They sell a range of unusual clothing made from mainly linens, cottons and wool. I love some of their colour combinations.

Ragamuffin

 The weather has been so iffy up this way lately, that as soon as the sun comes out we are off, out and about to enjoy it while it’s here. On one such occasion, we headed out to Cromarty on the tip of the Black Isle. We had a wander around the little harbour and there were so many exciting textures to be found, I had to get the camera out and snap away.

Cromarty harbour

 I seem to be interested in rust and peeling paint at the moment!

Peedie Lass

We came across this great old fishing boat with its peeling paint and rusty propeller. It had certainly seen better days, but I loved it. 

A few other things that appealed around the harbour.

Starfish

Cromarty collage

Hugh Miller's cottage

 Then past the entrance to the old walled garden of the big house.

I always get excited when I see a long forgotten, tumbled down walled garden. It makes me wonder what it looked like in its heyday and what treasures lie hidden in the undergrowth. What a haven these places are, for all sorts of wildlife. I would love to learn the history of the garden, but its secrets will probably remain untold which is part of its attraction.

We stopped off at The Pantry for a nice cuppa before heading back home.

Back in the garden, with all the rain we have been having, the plants look very fresh and lush. The lupins are in flower along with the delphiniums and poppies. For some reason, the slugs have not touched any of the hostas this year and they are looking great just now.  Not a hole to be seen. Very strange!

We are in a constant battle with the dreaded Mare’s tails in the garden. It seems almost impossible to get rid of them entirely, so weeding is always on the list of things to do. I quite enjoy it to be honest. At the moment, we have a family of blackbirds that hop around us enjoying the worms we turn over. I was saying to a neighbour recently, that although it is nice to have blackies, sparrows, bluetits and suchlike in the garden, it would be lovely to have some slightly more unusual visitors. She suggested putting out niger seeds, so we bought a special hanger and some niger seeds. Literally within an hour , we had about a dozen goldfinches, some yellowhammers, siskins, a willow warbler and a great tit. Amazing how quickly word gets round.

Goldfinches

 We are heading off over to the West coast shortly for a little break,  to a cottage near Lochinver, leaving DS at home to finish exams. I plan to take the workshop piece along to do a little more handstitching in an odd quiet moment if  or when it rains.  Have a nice weekend.

Beach near Clachtoll

Before I show you a few pages, I must just show you this gorgeous poppy from the garden. Isn’t nature  amazing sometimes.

Ladybird poppy

So I have made a start and have lots of ideas bouncing around in my head. The sketchbook is fairly small, so the blank pages don’t seem too daunting, although I am used to working in bigger sketchbooks and strangely, I am finding it challenging to work on a smaller scale. Interesting. Next I plan to do a little concertina book entitled Story unfolding and stick that into the sketchbook. And I like the idea of incorporating things like little envelopes with folded letters inside, a bit like in the Jolly Postman.

I was in The Greenhouse along at Dingwall recently, which is a local initiative, raising funds to reinvest in the local community. They have a great charity shop where I often pick up yarns and fabrics and this time I found a pile of wonderful old knitting patterns from the 50′s and 60′s. The photography in them is wonderful. Did we really look like that back then? I got them with the intention of chopping them up and combining them with little bits of stitching for a sketchbook page, but really it seems a shame to cut them up!

They actually remind me of happy Winter afternoons spent sitting by the fire with my Mum. She would always have some knitting on the go and I remember having a little knitting set which had some brightly coloured wool, some plastic needles and it came in a little cardboard sort of basket. I was so proud of my first knitting effort. Must say, my knitting has not progressed very much since! It’s something I would like to explore properly when time permits.

The second part of the Painted Landscape workshop had to be postponed, as the lady who was teaching us had a bad fall sadly. Looking forward to finishing off our pictures the Saturday after next and will post photos of the end result then. I have not done any more to the Secret garden project lately either. I would prefer to wait until I have more time to get stuck into it properly. Hopefully over the next week or two…

We had a lovely day out over to the West coast recently. We drove over a notoriously steep and twisty road called the Bealach Na Ba or the Pass of the Cattle, towards Loch Kishorn and Applecross. The road is not for the faint hearted!

Bealach Na Ba

 Down the other side of the mountain is Applecross Inn where we enjoyed a lunch of fresh, locally caught seafood and the sticky toffee pudding is amazing too.

Applecross Inn

We went for a wander along through the village and came upon this lovely rusty shed roof with all its wonderful colour and texture.

Applecross shed

Some of the villagers have made little gardens jutting out over the beach and it was interesting to see what plants were thriving there despite the  sea air and winds.

In our own garden, the very high winds this week have finished off the tulips for this year. Now, we have lupins, poppies, delphiniums taking centre stage. Luckily, they are still all upright despite the winds. I especially like this lovely meconopsis at the moment.

Meconopsis

And over at Cromarty, I spotted this gorgeous old peeling paint on an old door.

Looking forward to an afternoon of crafting with a friend of mine today. Its nice to settle down for an afternoon without distractions and we always share ideas and come away full of enthusiasm and inspiration. Who knows, I might even manage to get on with my Secret garden project!

 The walk passes by the cairn and continues through farmland. The fields look very lush and fresh at the moment and there are plenty of lambs frolicking about. We had only been walking for about 5 minutes when we heard the first cuckoo of the Spring quite closeby. I was reading that their numbers have dramatically declined in recent years which is very worrying and such a shame. The track began to climb out of farmland and through mixed woodland with mainly birch, rowan and pine trees.

We left the cuckoo behind, but before long as the track opened out onto moorland, we soon heard and saw skylarks flitting about above the heather. We were lucky enough to get a good view of some wood warblers, stonechat, oystercatchers, sandpipers and a mistle thrush which was lovely. The bird we had most hoped to see was the black grouse which can be seen here in Spring, but today we were not lucky.

 The path continues over the top of the hill and winds down to Loch Comhnard where you can see divers, goldeneye, whooper swans and the occasional osprey fishing.

  We enjoyed our picnic looking out over the moorland and distant hills watching  the wildlife, before retracing our steps back over the hill to the cairn. It is such an exciting time of year to be out and about with something new to see every day.

Back in Beauly, there are 3 little ducklings on the pond.

The first swallows arrived in Beauly this weekend and the first of the bluebells are flowering in the woods nearby.

 Last Saturday, I went along to part one of a textile workshop at Patches  Studio in the village. The tutor was Sandra Ian and the subject was “painted landscapes” After  a quick coffee, we began  to work on the basic background of our landscapes. We drew a rough sketch  to work from and decided on colours to use.  Some of us had taken photographs for ideas. Next, we wetted some cotton, stretched it and painted and sponged the background using fabric paints. We then added a bit of  detail using pens and fine brushes. Then we pieced some cotton round the edges of the work to make a frame and tacked it onto some wadding. This Saturday, the fun part comes. We will be machine stitching, hand stitching and adding little pieces of fabric to finish our landscapes. It was interesting to see everyone else’s ideas and there was a wide variety of subjects. It’s always great to meet other textile enthusiasts and exchange ideas and information too. This week, our homework is to cut out lots of little fabric circles to stitch on as flowers. Very fiddly and time consuming, but its the sort of thing you can do whilst watching the telly at least. 

I had been hoping to share some pictures of the Secret garden project , but my laptop has been behaving very strangely this week. Loading photos takes forever and they automatically zoom up to the top of the post. Lots of other laptop problems as well. Must be feeling poorly. Hopefully some TLC or perhaps some stern words might sort it out. Younger sons can be very useful sometimes! Enjoy this lovely weather we are having.