More work....

Well, the weather has been so atrocious this last week that I have battened down the hatches and got stuck in to work. I finally finished the Hare Wheel Quilt. I just need to find a suitable bony stick from which to hang it. I'll show you close ups next time. That is a Hare's head in the middle, by the way, not a tadpole, as my small son thought. He also commented that all the words go round and round in circles 'just like your words do when you talk, Mummy'. Hmmm, I'm not quite sure what to make of that!

Here are the fox and magpie, tricksters and lovers, spirits circling and dancing.

And some of the composition sketches, large ones by my standards, listed on Etsy, as I REALLY need to start paying the rent on the studio :)

The Year of the Rabbit begins...

I need to start this post by saying an enormous 'Thank you' to everyone, blog readers, customers, friends and family, for their help and support over the last three weeks. I have been humbled by your kind words and offers of help, and in grim moments it is incredibly heartwarming to find a lovely email or have a friend call to offer help. Please know just how much I appreciate this. It was a pretty awful Christmas, as I went down with 'flu and a subsequent severe chest infection within 4 days of Steve's accident but everyone rallied around us, and my wonderful mother stepped into the breach ( what would we do without them?) and looked after everyone. My children have been fantastic, especially my eldest, who is eleven. She cooked, and kept the fire lit, and walked the dogs, and was altogether amazing!

As you can see, Steve is home, and well on the mend now.
Beetle is pleased to have a cosy lap to sleep on all day!
Christmas came and went in a bit of a blur - I sent no cards, and we didn't decorate or have a tree, as we were entirely snowed in and barely able to get out of bed. I did however receive one very special gift - it was actually commissioned for my birthday, but was just finished in time for Christmas.
This beautiful pendant was made for me by Jason of England.

I am SO pleased with it, I have barely taken it off since. Jason made our wedding rings for us several years ago, and I have been coveting another piece of his work for years. I requested that the pendant incorporated a silver hare, a piece of gorse wood, and 'vertebrae' bead. This finished design is better than anything I could have imagined!

And now, there are changes afoot for 2011. I am taking the plunge and moving to a larger rented studio, in a central location in the village. This is really exciting, although rather scary. It means I have to be more disciplined about work, though I hope this will be easier by not working from home. It also means that I will have to raise my prices this year. Not for prints, which can remain the same until ink prices rise, but originals are going to have to rise a fair bit. Charging £50 for a piece which takes me 2 days just doesn't make business sense! (But don't worry if you already have work commissioned with me for this year - it wont apply to anyone with whom I have already taken commissions)
Anyway, I'll tell you all the exciting details once we are safely in, hopefully next week!

So, my painting things are packed up, but in the meantime I have started a new quilt for these winter nights. It features hares (again!) and bees and some gorgeous recycled indigo scraps.
Happy New Year!

Stitched Hares and Guilty Dogs

At Last, I have finally listed the Hare quilts for sale. They are NOT in the Etsy shop, but currently HERE on the gallery pages of this blog. If you are interested, do email me :)

The latest Quilt, 'The Hare Wheel' is very nearly finished, although this is progressing painfully slowly. Time is so short on these long summer days, I rarely come indoors until the light is fading. Quilting is definitely better suited to winter evenings.

Here is Daisy dog, in terrible disgrace.
Friday was a bad day in her eyes, right from the start. I was out all day, and she hates to be left behind. To add to that, when I returned home, I had to take Magpie to the vets to have the dressing removed from her tail, revealing a nicely healing cut with 8 neat staples in it ( that's a story for another time!). Daisy was left behind BY HERSELF, which she was most put out about. Later we all went out to a barbecue, and the dogs were left behind AGAIN. ( I hasten to point out that in between being left at home, they had been for two good walks). Several glasses of wine later, we wobbled home, and were horrified by the scene that met our eyes when we opened the front door. Magpie had chewed all the staples out of tail, and re-opened her cut, and due to the extreme wagginess of her tail, had flicked blood all over the kitchen. Daisy, meanwhile, had decided to remove half the stuffing from the sofa, and there was fluffy wadding everywhere. Luckily Steve and I both saw the funny side of it, particularly as Daisy was so racked with guilt that she was unable to look at us. Magpie, on the other hard, spent the rest of the evening staring mournfully at us, mortified at being made to wear the 'cone of shame'.

Kestrel is three weeks old now, and growing stronger and bolder.

He likes to play with Sandpiper, who is much more tolerant than his mother, even though he keeps chewing her legs.

Look who's arrived!

This is the reason I have been absent from my computer for a few days - isn't he gorgeous? Marlene gave birth to this little colt in the early hours of Sunday morning. He is dun at the moment, but likely to go cream I'm told. His sire is the Highland stallion Glenmuir Buzzard( the same sire as my beautiful Sandpiper). Marlene is so proud of him, and is busy keeping him hidden away behind rocks and bushes at the moment so none of the other mares can get a glimpse of him, although she is quite happy for us to coo over him. We have decided to call him Kestrel.

And I managed to get some rather rubbish shots of the quilts hanging in their exhibition. I'm sorry they are so wonky! They look pretty good in reality ;)