Sunday Sevens #90 2.7.17

July 2, 2017 ~ Making Stitches ~ Leave a comment

Sunday Sevens number 90?? Crumbs have I really been doing it that long? I hope I’m not boring you! Thanks for coming along for the ride! 😊

So here’s this week’s installment of Sunday Sevens…

Another beautiful evening sky

I thought the clouds looked particularly pretty on Sunday evening last week. Unfortunately the camera on my phone didn’t quite do them justice. We are being really spoiled with gorgeous sunsets this summer.

End of term for dressmaking class

I can hardly believe that I have reached the end of my second year of dressmaking classes with the immensely clever Dorcas Hammond (you can read all about Dorcas in this post). It may seem a silly thing to do to end the year with the beginnings of a new project, but for various reasons I got a bit behind with my work this year.

I am now all ready to get cracking in September stitching this gorgeous Kafe Fassett fabric into a blouse.

Last watercolour lesson of the term

Similar to dressmaking I had my last watercolour lesson this week and again I spent my lesson working on a new project. I am attempting to paint a sunset I photographed a couple of weeks ago. I enjoyed playing with the colours to find the right tones for the sky and sea. I do fear that the trial run may turn out better than the real thing though!! You can also see my post about my hugely talented watercolour teacher Deborah M Lawson here.

Crochet therapy

Life seems to be very hectic at the moment, it shouldn’t surprise me but it always is at this time of year. As the school year draws to a close and we are inundated with notes and emails detailing special days and meetings and a flurry of birthday party invitations for children whose birthdays fall during the long summer break.

There have been days when I am sure I have had steam coming out of my ears and I’ve been contemplating running away and locking myself in a darkened room until September. However, I did make it to the weekend and next week is the last week of term for the Little Postcards. I did realise this week that I need to keep crafting to retain my sanity, so whenever I could, I grabbed a crochet hook and got busy on the border for this blanket.

Poniente breezes

Something which has gone in our favour this week is is the fact that the wind direction changed. Of late we have ‘enjoyed’ a Levante (easterly) wind which has brought with it hot and humid weather, this week we received a welcome break with Poniente (westerly) breezes bringing much cooler weather.

You could see the North Moroccan coast really clearly on Friday but blimey the water in the Strait was choppy. I don’t fancy being on that little boat!

Another blanket finished

TA-dah! The latest Sixty Million Trebles blanket is completed. This one is the result of a collaboration and was created by the Gibraltar Crochet Collective, I just joined it and added the border. This is a slightly smaller baby blanket and will go with two others to a drop off point in England when I am over visiting family this summer. For more on Sixty Million Trebles, you can see their website here.

Yesterday the organisation revealed the big news that they have reached the 3/4 point in their goal of reaching 60 million treble stitches. Hopefully they will hit 60 by the time the blankets are shipped to help Syrian refugee children in September.

Summer craft challenge 2017

Last year during the school summer holidays I challenged myself to do a little bit of craft every day in order to maintain my sanity. I amazed myself at managing to fulfill the challenge on all bar one day over the eight week long school break.

This year, I have decided to do the same thing. I began my challenge yesterday seeing as it was the first of July and it felt like the start of summer proper. I wonder whether I’ll be able to maintain my challenge again this year? Fancy joining in? If you do, you can follow my progress on Instagram, just use the tag #summercraftchallenge2017 with your creations.

Thanks for joining me this week. Sunday Sevens is a weekly blog series created by Natalie from Threads & Bobbins

Sunday Sevens #69 5.2.17

February 5, 2017February 5, 2017 ~ Making Stitches ~ 15 Comments

Hello there, believe it or not, this is the 200th Postcard from Gibraltar blog post! When I started this little blog back in the summer of 2015, little did I know it would still be going strong 18 months later or that I would start podcasting!

Thank you so much to you all for your likes, kind comments, and all round marvelousness. The virtual support I have received over the past 199 posts has been very much appreciated.

The past seven days have brought us another mixed bag of weather here in Gibraltar with strong winds and rain interspersed with some lovely sunshine. I hope you’ve had a good week. Here’s this week’s edition of Sunday Sevens.
Polluted sunset

We had a lovely sunset again on Sunday evening. Sadly though we couldn’t go outside to fully enjoy it. The toxic smell of chemicals from the Cepsa plant across the border in Campamento was so strong that it caught the back of my throat. Plumes of black smoke were seen billowing out from the chimneys at the oil refinery and blew right across the Bay.

Clearly in contravention of EU rules on pollution, the plant’s immediate neighbours must have been choked with the smell. So dangerous and so frightening. It’s no wonder that the number of people in this part of the world suffering from asthma is higher than the average.

Starting as I mean to go on…

This year’s Med Steps 5 challenge is just 3 1/2 months away so no time like the present to get fit so I can achieve 5 times round again this time! Monday morning was utterly glorious, so I left the unmade beds, laundry and breakfast dishes to go for a walk. The jobs were still there for me when I got home but I felt a whole lot better for it.

Gib & Rocksy

Do you remember Gib from Sunday Sevens #67 22.01.16? Well I thought he looked a bit lonely, so he’s got a new friend. This is Rocksy. They are the mascots for a new crochet group here in Gibraltar; the Gibraltar Crochet Collective. We have a Facebook page which tells you where we are going to meet each week if you fancy joining us.

Dressmaking class

The pattern is drawn for my princess line dress in my dressmaking class, it’s time to get cutting…

More Med Steps

This photo was taken from the sitting position! Phew after doing the steps on Monday, my legs were a bit stiff when it came to Wednesday’s attempt…

Watercolour class

At this week’s watercolour class, I went back to the primulas I was working on last week and finished them off. They now have a terracotta pot to sit in and their leaves are finished. I’m pleased that I managed it without making a mess. I had to be talked into going back to this by my teacher Deborah M Lawson but I’m glad I did.
And finally…

Do you think someone had a bit of fun at work one day??!

I have walked down this path quite a few times… this week I walked up it for a change and spotted this!! Is the stick man walking like an Egyptian or just doing the funky chicken do you think?

Thanks for stopping by! Sunday Sevens is a weekly blog series created by Natalie at Threads & Bobbins blog.

Creative Gibraltar : Watercolour painting with Deborah M Lawson

February 1, 2017February 1, 2017 ~ Making Stitches ~ 15 Comments

Throughout the month of February here at Postcard from Gibraltar, I am taking a look at some of the very talented creative folk who live here on the Rock. Today, it’s the turn of Deborah M Lawson..

Postcard from Gibraltar : Creative Gibraltar-Deborah M Lawson — Gibraltar Regattas

Deborah M Lawson is a Yorkshire born artist who specialises in watercolour painting. She came to Gibraltar around ten years ago, when her husband’s job moved here, leaving her job as a social worker in England to become a full-time artist on the Rock. Deborah now accepts commissions and offers watercolour classes to students.

Deborah says she has always been interested drawing and painting and enjoyed art as a child. Her father was a good artist, so she believes she may have been influenced by him. After studying art at A-level, she considered going on to Art School, but was encouraged to follow a more traditional and better paying career path, and so went on to study and take up a career in social work.

When Deborah’s children were in full time school, that’s when the opportunity arose for her to get back in touch with her artistic endeavours. Enrolling in a foundation course in Art & Design led to her achieving a degree in the subject. From that moment on, Deborah juggled four jobs, that of mother, part-time social worker, artist (painting for exhibitions) and art teacher. The move to Gibraltar allowed her to leave social work altogether and focus solely on her painting.

Portraits, landscapes and plants are her inspiration and Deborah particularly likes some of the architecture here in Gibraltar especially “old buildings which look like they are growing out of the Rock like Parson’s Lodge”. She says she’s interested in experimenting with abstract too but that’s harder in watercolour than in oils, a medium she has now given up.

Postcard from Gibraltar Deborah M Lawson — Parsons Lodge

On the subject of teaching, “I love watercolour so I enjoy passing on techniques,” she said “and the excitement it can generate when a student produces something they’re pleased with”. Many of Deborah’s students come to her as complete beginners and when they find they can actually paint under her instruction, she finds that very satisfying. “A lot of people find it therapeutic, so that’s rewarding,” she added.

As for her teaching style, Deborah says that she didn’t do much watercolour at Art College, so she has had to develop her own techniques and style by trial and error using books and looking at other artists. She says she made “a lot of muddy messes” before getting the hang of the medium. For that reason, she remarked that she’s “quite directive – you learn a lot faster if you’re shown how to do it”.

Her goal as an artist is to continue developing and hopefully sell more paintings. She says she would like to develop some more abstract work too.

Does Deborah have any advice for aspiring artists? “Work at it, it takes a lot of practice. Do courses, read and look at other artists’ work. Find some artists who’s work you like and borrow their techniques to develop your own style”.

Deborah’s work can be seen on her website : www.deborahmlawson.com. She also sells small items at the Arts & Crafts Centre in Casemates Square and the Cruise Liner Terminal.