Vintage Christmas Collection.

Thanks to all those who took part in my giveaway and thanks especially for all your kind words of encouragement throughout the year. It really does make a difference and although I don't always have time to respond I do read and appreciate every word.

The winners are Alexa, Nan, Milly, Heidi, Elizabeth and Michelle. I hope you enjoy your app this Christmas.

The illustrations above and below are part of a new quilters Christmas Collection that I have designed for Makower. Hopefully it will be available in a quilt shop near you in the next few months, just in time to do all your Christmas 2011 projects!

In the meantime I would like to wish you all a very warm, safe and Happy Christmas. Take care x

Giveaway and work in progress.

We are delighted to announce that Apple have relaxed their controls on promotional codes, (until now these have only been available to customers in the USA). This means that I can offer six free copies or “promo codes” to anyone wishing to own our new app “The Bird with the Rainbow Tail” This will work on any iPod/iPad or iPhone. If you would like to share this E-book with your children this Christmas all you have to do is leave a comment and indicate which code you need e.g. iPad or iPhone and I will pick six at random. I will then need your email address in order to forward the code, which is valid for thirty days. This means that you have thirty days to download the app from your computer to your iPad/iPhone. I know this sounds complicated but I assure you it is quite simple so I hope you will throw your name into the hat. I will pick the winners on Sunday 19th so hurry! If you don't own any of the above you can gift it to someone who does.



Life continues to be problematic although the snow has now left us; we have had amazingly clear and sunny frost filled days, which have transformed the landscape into a Narnia world although as I write today is grey and dull with the promise of more snow.

I am very behind this year on all fronts, work, Christmas preparations, and blogging, barely able to keep my head above water or so it seems. I have been painting, painting and painting, so much so that my fingers are stiff and aching but feel now that I am getting towards the end of the “Owl and the Pussycat” poster for Long Barn Books mentioned earlier. There is just a little more work to do on the borders and I think it will be done.

In the bleak midwinter.

The last few weeks have been very challenging, elderly parents have needed our support and freezing weather conditions have made life difficult and traveling hazardous. Still, whenever possible I have been enjoying working in my studio, radio playing, heating turned up high.



Ted seems to like the snow and the landscape does look very pretty wearing its winter cloak. Walks have been cut short as the cold wind has been biting, enough to skin a rabbit.



It has been a time for slow cooked stews, warming drinks, sitting by the fire, sewing and taking one day at a time.

Happy days and reasons to be cheerful, part one.

It has been a very busy time here; lots of lovely projects and illustration commissions have kept me busy, so please forgive me if I have not visited your blog. I will endeavour to catch up soon.

I started work on the dream commission mentioned in my last blog post. I have checked with the publisher and have permission to tell you about it, although it is a work in progress and a million things could go wrong. “There is many a slip twixt cup and lip” but so far so good. The publisher will be Long Barn Books, which is owned by Susan Hill, It is a dream commission for lots of reasons, firstly because I have greatly admired Susan's work for many years now and am thrilled to bits to be working with her. Secondly, she tells me to take as much time as I need, how amazing is that? Time is something I will need plenty of because I am working on what seems like an enormous piece of paper and I want to cover the sheet with lots of details. As you may guess from the photo, I am illustrating “The Owl and the Pussycat” and the result will hopefully be available as a limited edition poster if all goes well. I am touching wood and crossing my fingers as I type this.



At the weekend I went along to my bookbinding group and took part in a workshop run by Mark Walmsley , we had a whole day of play - sheer bliss. The workshop was on Suminigashi sometimes called “cloud art” or “ghost art” and paste papers. We all made a great deal of mess and came home with an array of decorated papers for future projects.



I’ve also been looking for ideas for Christmas presents and once again I have raided this shop run by a very busy town mouse. Continuing on the handmade theme I have been covering little diaries with bits of decorated papers that I have accumulated over the years. Marbled paper, Tyvek recycled from Fed Ex envelopes, bits of mono print and a lovely new material called “stone leaf” sent to me to try by this company.

And, last but not least, we have finally got our children’s book application - "The Bird with the Rainbow Tail" which I have mentioned before here, into the iPad/iTunes store. You can see it here, if you are lucky enough to own an iPad, sadly I don’t have one but I know a man who does.

I hope your weeks are happy and busy too.

Grand days out.

I thought I would share with you some images from Shrewsbury, we went there recently to look for an art shop. I needed some large sheets of water colour paper for a dream commission which I am very excited about, (I hope to share more details about this soon). Sadly the art shop that I remembered has closed; this seems to be something of a theme, bookshops and art shops are disappearing from our high streets at an alarming rate. We did however have a lovely day out and took some photographs before my battery gave up the ghost.

It is impossible not to fall in love with Shrewsbury, with its black and white timbered buildings, some of which lean at impossible angles. If you click on the picture you will make out Grope Lane, I will leave you to decide how that one got its name!



Counteracting the tendency to rid the world of smaller independent traders are farmers markets. One such event is held monthly here at Rode Hall. When we visited on Sunday morning the gardens and parkland were bathed in glorious golden light. There was local produce and crafts in abundance, we even spotted some of my fabric from "Buttercup Farm Collection" sewn into lavender bags. After chatting with friends and neighbours and sampling this and that, we eventually came away with some very posh nosh indeed; two of Neil Broomfield’s hand made individual pies from “The Great Northern Pie Company” made from cheese, cauliflower, caramelized onions, star anise, nutmeg and carnaroli rice…. Delish!

Japanese Bookbinding Workshop

The four little Japanese style books pictured above are the results of a very enjoyable workshop that I attended last weekend. The teacher was excellent and I met a lovely, friendly bunch of people from near and far.

We made the books in a traditional manner using hand made paper string to secure the pages prior to sewing. The covers were made using beautiful Chiyogami papers, which are silk-screened using Japanese kimono patterns as their inspiration. Some of these papers have gold and silver details, all are sumptuous and a delight to work with and gave the notebooks an elegant feel.



Each book was sewn with a different decorative Japanese stitch pattern: four-hole, kang-xi, hemp leaf and tortoise shell using silk thread. We also made the cloth covered traditional Japanese Maru-Chitsu case in which to keep them, which is held closed at the foredge with a pair of Japanese bone fasteners.



I learnt much from this weekend workshop and feel that I could adapt this simple structure to bind my own books in the future and feel very inspired to make some more!

Gordon Setter.

I have been busy working on Easter artwork and a couple of commissioned pieces, none of which I can show you yet. This piece is something I did to illustrate a poem by Robert Burn’s; it was published by Kingfisher and appeared in “A Little Book of Dogs”. I am not entirely sure if the dog in question was actually a Gordon Setter but that was what I was instructed to paint by the editor at the time.

On Friday I hope to take it over to Chester where I will meet up with “Books Illustrated”, and so, in preparation for handing over the original I had the image scanned at my local repro house where they have a wonderful drum scanner. The repro house used to serve many of the local pottery companies; it is a sad sign of the times that in the last six months I was the only artist who used this facility. I dread to think what will happen if this scanner fails, it will be too expensive to repair and I have been unable to find another in my area. Of course I have a scanner here but there is no comparison in image quality. Before the world went digital I used to have my artwork photographed and put onto three inch by five inch transparencies, the problem now is the photographer cannot find suppliers of large format film. It is all very worrying and very sad, especially as I have to drive past so many closed down factories in what used to be the very heart of our pottery industry, poor old Stoke-on Trent!

On A Dog Of Lord Eglinton’s

I never barked when out of season,
I never bit without a reason;
I ne'er insulted weaker brother,
Nor wronged by force or fraud another.
We brutes are placed a rank below;
Happy for man could he say so.

Robert Burns

When life gets me down I find great solace in dogs especially my own little Jack Russell Ted. He makes me smile without fail; he lifts my spirits and keeps me fit. He gives me unconditional love and devotion and asks nothing in return except his keep. A dog that belonged to Lord Eglinton inspired this poem by Robert Burns but I think it will strike a chord with many dog owners.