Things to come

No photos tonight. It's late and I'm tired. So why don't I just go to bed? Daft.
Anyway, Valentine's is past and Mother's Day is approaching, along with Spring (I hope). The Workshop has been freshened up and no trace of Christmas is left!
I had a busy day on Saturday, for this time of year, which was encouraging and I hope it continues. We have a new range of candles on display, made in Scotland by a company called Dekassa. They are scented, in little tins, and have our designs from some of our cards on the lid. Karen, from dekassa, has licensed the use of five of the designs for a start, with five more in the pipeline. They make great companions with the cards to match.
Today was very mild, and I was drawn out to the garden in the afternoon. The shop is closed on a Monday ( our day off ), and Bob and I usually have a swim in the morning - I can do 40 lengths to his 50. So this afternoon, I went out to survey the damage after months of neglect.
I like working in the garden, but have been somewhat put off since last summer when I managed to drop a very heavy boulder on to my right hand, and broke the index finger. Even after all this time, it is still not 100% healed.
Anyway, today I filled ten refuse bags of leaves and detritus. A start made.
It was back to card making tonight.

What I Used To Do

To celebrate, or should it be commiserate, the fact that it is TWENTY YEARS since I had the time to give to the following type of work, I collected together some of the pieces produced between 1980 and 1989, mainly for my own benefit, to remind myself where I stopped.
At that time I was a new stay -at -home Mum and found the time to enjoy stretching the boundaries of canvaswork in a series of textile pieces. It helped that EMBRYO, now Edge had just been formed, and it gave us a focus of exhibitions to work towards. What happened after 1989 - Embroidered Originals, that's what!
One day, there will be time again... I hope!
Each of the pieces is based around canvaswork, or needlepoint, but with added applique, quilting, fabric painting and anything else that worked as a contrast to the texture. They probably look a bit dated now, as textile art is influenced by changing trends like any other art form. And when I lift my needle/open my sketchbook/throw around some paint again, I think I will be going down a different path - not sure what yet - hence the reason I looked out these photos - to be a reminder of where the last path stopped.
All of these pieces have found new homes and I haven't seen them for 20 years - so glad there are pictures to remind me, although it was long before digital cameras and the photo quality is pretty poor. What the hell - here they are...
Shorelines

Forgotten what this was called

Three Tassels

Pink

Moss

Drizzle

Dark Cloud, Bright Lining

Blue Trees, Gold Triangles

Shorelines ( repeated, by mistake- sorry)

Precious

Pink ( again, going senile!)

Mondhuie

Old School Ties

Grey Skies

Dianthus

Autumn Border

Colours on Canvas

Thanks for looking - there are more on my Flickr page, with descriptions of the process of creating each piece, if you're that bothered!

Snow? What snow?

A bit of colour to start with in the form of one of our new Flower Patch cards.

This snowman was created by our daughter and husband in their garden near Nottingham, nowhere near Fife (see below).

Britain is apparently hidden under a blanket of snow. Transport has ground to a halt, schools closed, snowmen sprouting up all over the place......except here in Fife! We have brown ground, dark skies and freezing temperatures, but... no snow.

The workshop is almost too cold to work in and we're mostly huddled round the coal fire - very cosy - but not conducive to work! The photo was taken at Christmas, I have to say, hence the decorations, but the fire is just as cosy now - minus decorations.

Work hasn't stopped though. We're making headway with the orders from the Trade Fair - the first batch went out this week - and we've had a steady stream of website customers, the latest from Australia where the sun is no doubt shining and it's hot. Ah well, Spring can't be too far away here.