12th July 2009. Temple Bar.

Curved Street.

June 2009. Botanic Gardens.

29th March 2009, Grand Canal Dock.

(Left) Some lovely quayside cottages.

A sketch in the cafe.

New o2 Theatre in progress.

Dunlaoghaire Sketching. 22nd.March.

Another cold March day down by the harbour. This view is from the East Pier towards the County Hall.

Sketching at the National Print Museum.15th March.

The next outing was to the National Print Museum, in the old Garrison Chapel in Beggars Bush Barracks. It was very interesting to sketch the old printing machinery.

Another New Beginning! Sunday 8th March 2009

I joined the Dublin Sketchers a few months ago. My first outing was the Botanic Gardens. It was a very cold day, so after a while we all ended up in the glasshouses to sketch. Here are my first sketches done that day.

Starting again!

It is over a year since I have posted, The photo course was amazing and I learnt so much that I have  put into practice ever since.

 I have been experimtening lately with fabric, for backgrounds, for both cards and atc's. I hope to put up some of my efforts shortly. I am combining inked papers with fabric and free embroiudery.

 My machine is a portable Elna, and very old, and while it has zig zag stitch, it does not have a drop feed which is needed for the free embroidery. However, I was given this tip to place a piece of masking tape over the feed teeth, and cut a small hole in the centre for the needle to work through.   It works a treat. I did purchase a special metal cover but it is raised up from the surface and I did not like working with it.  However, I have noticed the metal plate on  newer machines is flat on the surface.  

I also remove the normal foot and replace it with a darning foot, which helps to stop the fabric bouncing up and down while stitching. At the moment my work is of a small scale so I do not have to use the embroidery ring.  

I  have  signed up for three one-day workshops in Fabric, over the next 2 months and I am looking forward to it.