Bruges winter flower festival

Kolleen and I went to Bruges especially to attend the Creativ flower show. This was a 5 day event and it gave up plenty of time to absorb all that was going on and attend workshops and generally enjoy Bruges in winter - oh and the snow ... yes it snowed ...

We saw some amazing and beautiful arrangements and installations like the room full of spotlit rose bouquets ...

Love lies bleeding ... Stijn Maddison designed this installation  - he's a very talented Belgium florist...

It was early December and of course there were lots of European Christmas arrangements ...

Christmas trees and door wreaths and ...

Kolleen and 'What a wreath'!!

 Christmas light installations ...

 

 and table flowers ...

And red rose and rose hips and apples in a bouquet wrapped in paper-thin veined leaves 

Red dried chillies an red roses and red baubles create this christmas centrepiece ...

An unusual arrangement of rose,baubles and sparkly bits

White amarylis on flat stones as a table centre piece

 A mad hatters tea party

My favourite red - red amarylis = I love it!

Snow capped cherries in a streetside window box ...

 Kolleen and I created some flower arrangements as well - we did these ones in a workshop ...

We were inspired and decorated this wreath over the fireplace in the place we were staying ... it worked out really well..

Here's a close up of our creation ...

And finally ... me!

~M~

the 9 lives of billy blue

 The flying carpet cat...

 The luxe cat

 The playboy cat...

 The high energy pole dancing cat...

 The come-to-bed eyes nap cat...

 The stretched out sun worshiping cat...

 The alert but relaxed cat...

The microwave(d) cat...

And lastly, the curled up fast asleep cat ...

..M..

Quilt show

Here are some of my favourite quilts ... from the show

What a range of colours and textures - I'm liking the abstract designs and use of threads, embroidery to add extra dimensions ...

Take a look.  

Invigorated by the show and outpouring of creativity, energy and determination

All the colours, textures and designs inspire me!

I have started on my next, more contemporary creation using hand dyed very colourful fabrics laid out in diamonds to feature the fabrics - stay tuned for this one.

M 

  

Blanketed in blankets!

I'll continue our journey through our group created blankets  - our obsession ..!  Its interesting to see how our ideas have progressed and how a square in a particular colour or shade can set the whole theme for a blanket...

All (or just about all) of these blankets have been created for Wrap with Love  A charity that has lots of knitters knitting away and creating works of knitting art to warm people up when they need it most.

So here are some more of our creations... 

Here are some photos of blankets in production.  We lay out the blankets before we sew them up - to work out the colour eb and flow.  I knitted most of this one with some donations from Libby's ladies and called this blanket 'It had to be pink'!  The sage green really complemented the lolly pin and baby pink with touches of baby blue.

 Almost finished, another blue and marine creation ... called 'Barrier Reef'  by Libby which seems appropriate.

I called this one 'tribal' - my nephew Wil, loved the strong, bright colours in this one.  Some of the donated squares came from Libby's ladies and my friend Jane also contributed to this blanket.

 This blanket has become a landmark in our blanket creation...

Stuart knitted a double square, that is knitted with two strands of yarn on bigger needles and created a lovely affect.  Then I ran with this idea and created this blanket in reds, cream black greys, fauns and greens.  Lucy knitted some squares in this one!

This has inspired us to create some wonderful 'double knitted' combinations.  This blanket was called 'texture'.

 A blurry photos of the finished 'barrier reef'.

 This blanket was made up of lots of donated 'double squares' in candy stripes that Victoria applied herself to and finished up.

Another 'autumn leaves' creation from Claudine.  Claudine has actually knitted some leaves into the cream squares in the centre of the blanket.

 Victoria's 'American indian jewellery' inspired blanket with silver, turquoise and red was a beauty that she understandably was very fond of and has kept!

 Me, Victoria and Libby with a table full of blankets that we displayed at work for a morning tea.  Don't the blankets look great!

 A mid-toned green, blue, orange and purple blanket knitted by Victoria, sewn up by Libby.

' Texture' completed!  It looked great and felt really warm and cosy with the extra thick double knitted squares.  An inspiration for blankets to come!

And finally, 'tribal' sewn up with some feature crotched squares thrown into the mix.