many more hearts

so ...

I'm just going to pretend that we are in mid-conversation

and "conveniently" forget that I haven't blogged since Christmas

and share some things from earlier in the year

vintage and prim

as it's Monday I'll start with these mosaics

which have a very pretty vintage and primitive feel

1. jewels 2. prim bunny pin cushions 3. 1947 dress form 

4. untitled 5. detail of altered couture top 6. isn't she lovely!

dressing up

inspired by beautiful vintage textiles

and childhood dressing up clothes

1. clothes #1 2. dressing up 1 3. vintage lace 4. vintage elegance 5. dream 6. textile crafts work 051 7. heading for the coast mixed media collage 8. large sheet of paper texture 9. dress close up 10. nuptual nostalgia 11. vintage dress 12. textile 13. untitled

lace dressed windows

beautiful whites
and beautifully dressed windows

1. Layers 2. Country living bed gothic window 3. Barely there 4. White window 5. Book cover for Alex Itin to finish (detail) 6. A love affair with white

and while I was having a love affair with white

we had a white theme on Tag Tuesday

I made a little book of four tags

tied together with a white crystal organza ribbon

wintery harbourside cottages with silver snowflakes

I took some photos of each tag

before I tied them with the organza ribbon

a perfect little white sand dollar
 

a little white cottage with snow covered roof
and silver snowflakes on a mulberry tag

a hand made paper tag with a whitewashed cottage
on warm white sand with scrim, shells and beads
there are tiny french knots in white too
but you can't see them so well

 and the largest tag is a brown parcel tag

with whitewashed cottages on melted white satin

with white scrim, shells, buttons, beads and pearls

set in clasps that are like little lobster pots

with more silver snowflakes

for the last two weeks of January

our themes at Tag Tuesday were "vintage" and "lace"

so I used this vintage image of a little girl

with a pretty white lace dress

most probably her "Sunday best"

I dipped the image in wax before using it on my tag

which added some lovely texture to the paper

and decorated the tag with more vintage lace

little lace flowers and sweet heart shaped pearl buttons

I had fun with vintage lace for the next two tags as well

the first was for the theme of "hearts" at the beginning of February

 

again the image has been dipped in wax

and the hearts were cut from tissue paper dipped in wax

which gives them a lovely translucent appearance

 

the vintage sheet music reads

"that I love you with all my heart"

que je t'aime de tout mon coeur

I added more lace and little flowers

and the word "sweethearts" printed onto vellum

and then it was Valentine's Day

(Diane I know you are laughing ♥)

for Valentine's Day
 I wanted to use this image of two young sweethearts
and made my tag much the same as the one for "hearts"


it's such a cutesy image ♥

now ...
I don't buy into the whole Valentine's day thing

as I don't believe you need a special day

to show your loved one how much you love them

and I try to let my love know every day

but we do like to have some fun

so we treated ourselves to some nice foodie treats from Marks

pumpkin and tomato soup

beef wellington * charlotte potatoes * fresh veg

spotted dick * custard

hubby laid the table all pretty with candles

and we played silly board games

 snakes & ladders * draughts * ludo

in love with you

for Valentine's day
I made a heart from cotton, silk and lace fabrics which I

dyed with red geranium petals which my sister gave me

© Evelyn Flint Photography

my sister is such a very talented photographer
she loves to experiment with textures and brushes
and her photos sell on Getty and are very popular on flickr
you can see here photos here ... if you like ♥

Evelyn Flint Photography

she kindly lent me the originals of her photos to "play with"
and here I have used a nice texture by Les Brumes
to add a soft white background

© Evelyn Flint Photography

anyway ... after she had finished with her still life shots
 she thoughtfully saved the petals for me to use in my work

♥

the petals were really very lovely when she first gave them to me ...
but I forgot they were in my bag
and a week or so later they looked like this ...

yuk!

never mind ... I used them anyway
and achieved some nice vintage marks on the cotton

the heart is made from silk with layers of lace and cotton on top

it's decorated with a red heart bead and vintage buttons

stitched with dark red threads
 

and more vintage buttons stitched with red

my heart went off to a good home ;o)

a mosaic of hearts in whites and natural vintage tones

natural love

 1. lavender lace sachets 2. je t'aime 3. fabric heart 4. vintage white valentine heart 5. hearts on a string 6. linen heart with buttons 7. heart no. 3 8. autumn love 9. heart cookie at Yalaha Bakery 10. heart photo holder 11. 3 white hearts 12. embroidered heart 13. pair of hearts 14. heart spoon necklace (sold) 15. lavender heart 16. white hearts 17. imagine 18. button heart 19. ♥ 20. two hearts pillow close up

  

♥

so many hearts

each year I make a mosaic for Valentine's day

and within it I incorporate previous mosaics made with hearts

the centre square is a mosaic

and within that there are two more mosaics

you can see another one top right

so next year I will put this in the centre of my mosaic

and surround it with more beautiful hearts I discover or make

the links are here if you would like to follow them:

1. happy valentine's day 2. wall hanger be mine 3. love stitching red 

4. heart egg cosies 5. hearts I ♥ 6. listen to your heart 

7. a rather romantic heart 8. SDC10049 9. February 10. seam line

11. naturals and red 12. lavender hearts 13. sunshine on my hearts

♥

now ... in my Christmas post
I shared with you Caterina's work in Sew Somerset
 because I won her giveaway

and my friend Colette from Canada is also featured
in the same issue so I would love to
share with you these pieces of her work

you can see why I love love love

I've been in love with Colette work for years now
she loves to use my favourite tones of red
on natural fabrics

this is where you can find Colette's work

a bird in the hand

so I was delighted when Colette sent me this gorgeous tag
that she made for Tag Tuesday back in January
 how beautiful is this?



I ♥ {adore} it thanks Colette



within the pages of my Sew Somerset I found ...
this lovely ceramic heart button that I had put there
for safekeeping
{ ? ? ? }
(I know ... don't ask!)

it was a gift to me from Margaret of Liberty Belle
when we met up in May 2012

I've used the heart button to adorn a little heart I'm making
and I've now made four small red hearts for my shop
two custom orders and lots of new beads
(some in gorgeous autumn reds browns golds)

my shop will be updated on Wednesday and Friday this week
as, after a busy summer of custom orders,
I'm now back working for my shop again

well ... dear blog readers ♥
I must go and start the family tea

thank you so much for visiting today
I do ramble on a bit don't I?

love ♥