Sunshine award

I am delighted to say that I have won a Sunshine Award for my blog from Deborah Younglao who does the most beautiful silk paintings - do yourself a favour and take a look!

The award is given to blogs that are creative, positive and inspirational, and I'm thrilled that mine has been considered to be one of those blogs. It is also lovely to know that people are reading (and enjoying) your blog!

The rules are:

• Choose 12 blogs that inspire you
• Create a post with links to the nominees
• Include this logo on your post
• Let the nominees know they've been chosen by commenting on their blogs
• Link back to the person who gave you the award

So now I have to choose my 12 and this has been the tough bit! I follow quite a few blogs covering quilts, embroidery and jewellery because I read about things that inspire all the areas of my own creative journey. I have selected 12 blogs that have inspired me in some way over the last 12 months and whose work I admire (and would like one day to own!). The toughest part was limiting them to only 12!!!

So in no particular order...

1. Wanda Hanson at Exuberant Colour who creates the most amazing quilts and has been key in influencing my own early forays into quilting, especially my Mental Mashup quilt. Colour holds no fear for this lady and she still has much to teach me.
   
2. Karen Ruane at Contemporary Embroidery who makes absolutely beautiful pieces of hand embroidery mainly using white which really focuses on her immaculate stitching skills. I find her work very peaceful and one day I plan to own some!! 
3. Gina Ferarri at Fan my Flame who blogs about all aspects of her work, but mostly on her machine embroidery which I love. She is a talented teacher and I have taken a number of her courses over the last year and have learnt a huge amount as a result. 
4. Cat at Darkling Woods Studio which creates gorgeous paintings that she transforms into unique items of jewellery and prints. She often uses lines of poetry as inspiration and I love the imagination, humour and distinctive female characters in her pieces. 
5. Lynn at Creating Chaos who has been exploring fibres over the past few posts and producing some lovely examples, but like me she loves exploring lots of different creative areas and doesn't limit her creativity. 
6. Michala Gyetvai at Kayla Coo who creates the loveliest machine embroidered textile paintings which she makes in all sorts of beautiful items including brooches. Her trees are delightful , delicate and have a sense of humour to them. I wish I could do what she does - and her work is definately inspiring me to attempt to 'draw' with my sewing machine. 
7. Melody Johnson at Fibermania who is another lady who is not afraid to mix her colours. She creates some of the most colourful quilts you have ever seen and they work!!! Blogs like these give you confidence to break out of the confines of the colour wheel (contrasts and compliments) and really give it some welly!! 
8. The Erosion Project is a unique blog where contributors create a bundle of items which they leave out in the elements for 6 months. After the 6 months the bundles will be opened and the (hopefully) changed items will be used to create a new piece of artwork. Genius! 
9. Angela Watson at Land of no cooking - this is a humourous insight to the life of Angela as she works on her City and Guides and engages us with her busy work and family life. Her work on her course is covered and has introduced me to some techniques that I would not have previously attempted including working with Tyvek. 
10. Kassie at The Beading Butterfly uses beads to create the most beautiful pieces of jewellery which I love. I like creating small pieces of beading in the form of my own beaded buttons and Kassie creates inchies which are little inch square pieces of beaded work. I think this is a tremendous idea for learning techniques, playing with colour combinations and simply using up some of that perpetual bead soup! 
11. Leah Day at 365 Days of Free Motion Quilting is a fabulous resource for free motion machine quilting patterns and all of her videos are well designed and easy to follow. She also lots of brilliant tips for getting started in her FAQs section.
12. Dot at Dot's Life and Art creates the most delightful hand embroidered and embellished birds, Dotee Dolls and beaded cuffs as well as other items. Her work is detailed and has a gentle touch.

So thanks for the award - and thank you to all of those talented people who continue to inspire the rest of us with your creativity and hard work!

Sarah