About Me

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I am a lifelong fabric artist who loves bringing a home to life with quirky, unique and sumptuous pieces of textile art. I learnt my craft from sharing many a happy hour sewing with my talented mother. I particularly like collage, free-machining, needle-felting and creating home furnishings using a combination of machine and hand sewing. I love incorporating vintage and reclaimed fabrics, buttons, beads, jewellery and other items in my work to give them a second chance at being beautiful.

Wednesday 22 June 2016

It's poppy season! WOYWW

Good afternoon folks! Thanks for dropping by to catch up with the activities from my work desk this week.

So here's the desk today...

Regular visitors may recall that I love to felt poppies. So you can imagine my delight when I saw was my first little cluster of poppies this year. OK, so it was just on a roundabout on the ring road but it immediately prompted me to pull out the red fluff and needle felt some poppies.

These are a work in progress. I started with a wet felted background onto which I've felted a variety of green wool and other fibres to create a background. Onto this I've felted red blobs then free machine embroidered over the top to create more texture and detail. To this I'll be adding embroidered daisies and beading all the poppies to give them centres.

Shropshire has some beautiful fields full of poppies so I shall be looking for opportunities to photograph them.

On the subject of photos, here's one I took from my lounge window of the summer solstice sunset last night. Whatever was going on behind those trees must have been pretty spectacular - such gorgeous shades of pink, purple and blue.


Visitors to last week's blog post will know I had a 'meet the maker' event planned at Shropshire Hills Discovery Centre on Monday. The centre sells my pictures and the aim was to give visitors an insight into how my work is created. Here's my 'work desk on tour'...

I had a lovely afternoon. Lots of people stopped to look at what I was doing and I had some great feedback about my work. I even did a demo for a group of 15 primary school children who were visiting the centre. Children ask the most interesting questions, don't you find?

"How to you get red sheep wool... do they dye the sheep?"

"How many times have you stabbed yourself with that needle Miss?"

"Do you like my spiderman wellies?"

All good fun and a few enquiries about WI and craft group talks so it was a worthwhile day.

Anyway, that's all my news. I must dash as we've just bought a bicycle seat for Ben to ride on my hubby's bike and we want to take him for a spin before it rains (again!).

Thanks for stopping by, I always really appreciate your comments.

Happy crafting,

Max x





19 comments:

  1. Fields with real poppies are always a delight to the eye. We get quite a few too but earlier in the season of course.
    The Meet the Maker thing sounds great. It was a different form of meeting your maker than I had imagined.... much more fun I'm sure!
    Happy WOYWW,
    Greetings from sunny Spain,
    Lisca

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  2. Max, I'm just so in love with your work and your poppies are my fave! I would love to come to Shropshire to see them in person, that would be awesome! But I think I will have to live through your photos - by the way that sunset photo is gorgeous! I sounds like you had a great with your "meet the maker!" I love your display table! I totally get the cute kids questions....I work in government and I frequently have to give tours to children and you are right, they ask the cutest things! Have a wonderful Wednesday and rest of the week! Blessings, Felicia #40

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  3. You've got quite a wonderful production line going there. It is always great fun discussing your work with folk and I'm sure you inspired them. Have a great week x Jackie 22

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  4. gorgeous felted poppies, they're one of my favourite flowers too, in fact everyone seems to love them! Hope Ben enjoyed his bike ride. Helen #1

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  5. Ooh how beautiful - I love your poppies, I think I've seen my first ones of the year this week - summer is definitely here at last! I am so glad your 'meet the maker' went well, and you must have had trouble keeping a straight face with some of the children's questions - they can be a hoot can't they!
    Have a lovely week,
    Diana #17

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  6. poppies are beautiful, yours and real ones :-) Anne x #20

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  7. A fab post Max - so much colour and texture and I can tell how much you enjoy your work by the way you describe it so beautifully! x

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  8. Beautiful sunset. My Mum's sunsets out her kitchen window are so beautiful - all deep reds and purples and so vibrant. I LOVE the poppies! Gorgeous work. Have fun with Ben on the bike.

    Sharon K #37

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  9. Thanks for sharing the kids' questions, they made me laugh! Especially the one about stabbing yourself, lol! Great if you get known on the WI circuit, you''ll be set up for years :-)
    Hugs, LLJ xxx

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  10. I do so love your poppies. Kids just know what to ask don't they bless em! This is another late visit for me today as we've been to the Lincolnshire agricultural show. Happy woyww, Angela x 21

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  11. Your poppies are darling, xoxox Donna #4

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  12. Oh wow you poppy's look beautiful! I love poppy's too.

    Greetings, Sofie #39
    http://sofie-s-world.blogspot.be

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  13. Hi Tilly, Poppies are starting to rear their heads now, aren't they. I think they are lovely to see, especially as they are so much rarer than they used to be.The dyed red sheep question really made me laugh, and reminded me of something said by my youngest when he was about 6. Too long a story to tell here, but I'll try to remember to put it in my post next week!Have a great week, Hugs, Shaz #7 xxx

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  14. what lovely work you have done, I love Poppies,

    Lilian B # 22

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  15. Wow...totally impressed, your work is fantastic & I too absolutely adore poppies❤x

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  16. Wow...totally impressed, your work is fantastic & I too absolutely adore poppies❤x

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  17. Wow...totally impressed, your work is fantastic & I too absolutely adore poppies❤x

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