Jessie Lilac Blog

I've started a new blanket. I love to crochet it's such a relaxing thing for me to do in the evenings. My favourite part of course is choosing the colours! W hen it's finished I hope to have it for sale in my Etsy shop even though I know I'm going to love it myself and I'd be tempted to keep it but I have a LOT of crocheted blankets and as you can imagine I'm running out of space to keep them!   I also love the actual stitchery part of crocheting too so I had an idea of something I could make very quickly from some old jute string that's been hanging around the garage for many years. I  don't like throwing away those plastic sponges that lots of us use for washing up the dishes.  I thought I'd make a little washing up cloth out of the jute, here it is! It was really quick to make, probably quicker than it took to make this blogpost and it's good to know that it can be composted when it's worn out one day. Before I go, ...

When I'm not painting, I love to create with beautiful coloured yarns. It's such a joy for me in deciding which colour to use next while I'm making, it's a bit like how I paint too.  I could make these colourful crocheted blankets for ever and ever but if I did that then my house will be so filled with them I wouldn't be able to move 🤣  so I've added a new section to my Etsy shop. Please  CLICK HERE  to see. They're very easy to wash and dry in the machine and lovely and cosy too!   They make great picnic rugs or as a throw for the bed. ********  So in painting news I've been enjoying using watercolour. Here are the latest pages from my sketchbook.  This one was done in watercolour along with a black pen. Same again, watercolour but not quite so much black pen action this time. The veins of the leaves were done with a white Uni-ball Signo pen. I tried it first with a white Posca but it di...

This past week or so I've been painting on paper and enjoying using some lovely iridescent inks. The ones I use are by Daler Rowney from their FW Pearlescent range. You can use them straight from the jar and they'll sit quite happily on even the most darkest of backgrounds. They can also be watered down to create a lovely glaze like I've done on the figure in this painting.  The little  gold dots here are painted with golden ink and they twinkle and shine in the light! The blue background area on the right is a shimmery blue glaze from the FW Pearlescent range. You can see from the two photos how it changes in the different lighting. What better subject to use my sparkly inks than on a magical mermaid! I made a mini video (of only a few seconds long!) to show how she changes ... This larger (8 x 12inches) painting's a mix of acrylic paint, inks, souffle pens and iridescent inks. I call her 'Aurora'. She's in my Etsy shop alo...

Well those April showers are in full force today! So what have I been doing on this very wet day? Well apart from decorating the bathroom that's been in dire need of repainting for far too long, here are some recent creations of mine. I've finished making a crocheted cover for my old chair. I love making these colourful granny squares! And here are a few pages from my sketchbook that I've done recently. watercolour black pen watercolour and black pen acrylic background and Posca pens and finally, this one below was done with an acrylic background, with the addition of  Prismacolor pencils for the girls' faces and hands and a few squiggles of my Posca pens for the dresses and flowers. As you can tell if you look closely this is the last page of my current art journal. I don't like to waste a nice inside cover when it can be covered in paint and made pretty! xx

And so I reach the end of another colourful blanket. This one was only going to be a shawl but I didn't really want to stop at that point so it carried on getting bigger and bigger until it was a decent sized blanket, fit for a single bed! I love putting the colours together, choosing which one I'm going to use next, pure joy. Now I've swamped my entire family with them I was thinking maybe I could make them to sell. What do you think? My sketchbook drawings continue each day. I love choosing the colours for these too but I don't find it as easy because paint colours are limitless and choosing balls of wool not so much, I have only the wool from my stash to choose from. Of course choosing which pen to use is a bit like picking out a colour from my wool stash. I have purple glitter yarn and now I have a purple glitter pen!   ☆ ♥ ☆ ♥ ☆ ♥ ☆ This is one done with Intense pencils. I tried to limit the colours but as soon as wate...

After the dramatic weather at the start of the week things have calmed down and we've even had a snippet of sun. It's very cold though!  We had a beautiful rainbow over the harbour. I've just noticed that boat in the foreground is called 'Serenity'. It seems to sum up the picture doesn't it?  ( actual reality = bitingly cold wind! ) Shall I show you my new woolly creations? I've knitted myself a jumper in these gorgeous colours. ♥ ♥ ♥  I bought a ball of the coppery brown to go with the multi coloured wool. I think it matches quite nicely. I love this colour combo so much, I'd like to cover the whole world in it. ♥ ♥   ♥ ♥ But I won't just yet  Because I have a large bag of double knit that's been waiting patiently to be made into a shawl. I spent ages choosing which colours to use but there was one in particular that had to be included. Can you guess which one? Oh my lordy how much do I love cr...