Blue-Green

I was knocked out by the fabulous colours of these banded demoiselles when I saw them dancing across the River Wharfe this afternoon. I wish I had had the video camera with me so I could share the amazing fluttering flights of these damselfly, its enough to make you believe in fairies.  

Until I saw these I had quite liked the colour pairing in my latest bit of stitching, but now it seems so drab by comparison. Ho hum. Might put some thought into a damselfly print though ...

Swedish Thread 2

I've still got my thread head on, much buoyed up by the lovely comments to my previous post and by the arrival of a small stack of embroidery hoops :)


This one preempts what I hope will be a summer holiday spent gazing into rockpools, one of my favourite past times (equal place with beach combing). I'm hoping to work on some prints on this  theme but in the meantime I've been thinking about limpets. These gastropods are soft squidgy critters in a tough conical shell and they are near impossible to remove from a rock. Amazingly they gouge away at the rock and produce a shallow depression that is "home" then range around grazing for algae and other food before returning "home". I like to think they are performing a little dance as they go, maybe a limpet dosey doe or tango. 

and from the previous post...

And the giveaway goes to....

Mackin-art! 

A big thanks to everyone who left comments, it was lovely to read such happy stories (and the odd hilarious mishap:))

swedish thread 1

During a big tidy up a few weeks back I came across this little bundle of threads, felt and woven fabric that I had bought in the fantastic Svensk Hemslojd store in Stockholm a couple of years ago. 

I hadn't attempted much needlework for a good few years so thought I'd  have a stab (literally!) at something as a break from print making.  But there was one thing I had forgotten about embroidery - it is so blinking addictive! Once I started I couldn't stop and was busy stitching away crouched over in bad light 'til gone midnight. It reminded me of the time I obsessively chained stitched an A4 sized piece until none of the fabric was visible (wonder where that's gone?). 

I had chosen these linen and wool threads with the landscape of Gotland in mind. Gotland sits in the middle of the Baltic and has fabulous sandy strands, pebbly beaches, low scrubby vegetation and its roads are line with the most fabulous displays of wild flowers. Here's the piece nearly done, just the flowers to add now.

Folksy 100th sale! Time for a giveaway

This week i sold my one hundreth item on Folksy. Whoop whoop!

For this I owe a big thanks to the Folksy team and, of course, all my lovely customers :)

Although global domination is obviously some way off, reaching this milestone has put a big smile on my face. 

 To celebrate I  am giving away one of my latest prints "Red squirrel" and a framed version of my paired aceo-sized prints "Winged Seeds East and West". 

For a chance to win leave a comment below, I'd really like to hear about the little achievements in life that have made you smile this week.  

 I'll pull a winner from a virtual hat on the 14th July. Tweet, facebook and share for more chances to win (but let me know in case i miss it :))

blue grey I art selection

available here

Collared Doves in Summer Rain

I've added a touch more dark grey ink to the version i posted yesterday and now it's done.

all lined up and ready to go!

 available in my Etsy and Folksy shops.

Collared Doves - nearly there

Here's a quick look just before the last layer of ink was added. Its too dark now to photograph the final version - fingers crossed for some time to do so tomorrow.