Slow, slow, quick, quick slow........

Yes, I am totally addicted to Strictly Come Dancing but what I am talking about here is what I have been up to this week. Firstly I have been in a frenzy of making samples from the really exciting Fibre in-Form Textured surfaces online course. At the moment we are into preparing backgrounds here's what I have so far
You can make them quite quickly(apart from waiting for them to dry)so they are great fun and quite addictive and full of what if's.

This on the other hand is my slow cloth, I have been working on this for ages and the best bit is that I don't know where it's going. Inspired by Jude Hill of Spirit Cloth I wanted to make a little lap quilt for the chilly evenings,I wanted it to be slow so I made a chain stitch rose
and then my son gave me some undyed silk rods for my birthday and I made the door, "roses round the door" wouldn't go out of my head so here is the story so far

Now I have to fill in the gaps and the edges, full of ideas but like I said, this is a slow cloth, could be next wintwe before I have it finished.

I thought you might like to see my golf girls, they are already for Wear it Pink day tomorrow. They are very excited!!!!

At EG yesterday....

there was the rather unusal sight of one lady taking close up pictures of another ladies bosom. It has been a spectacular Autumn so far and yesterday I uneathed my Autumn sweater to wear to EG. I bought this sweater some years agao when we visited New England in the fall. Each year since I have worn it at this time of year and then I put it away again. Yesterday one of the girls was so taken with it she asked if she could photograph it so she could have a go at reproducting the patter, hence the photographs. We then decided a scan might be better so this morning I have had the fun of trying to scan a sweater (I did take it off), I thought others might like the leaves as well




In the centre pages of the Mail on Sunday there was an amazing picture of an owl taken byThomas Dressler, he has some great photographs of Africa, Spain, Morocco, Cuba and South West America. The one of the owl is in the South Africa, Portfolio Wild Africa and there is also a brilliant photograph of two monkeys.

Just found this on my dashboard. Forgot to push the publish button!!!!

October TIF....Heaven or hell

For this month Sharon suggested that we share our workspace, and out thoughts about it. Sometimes my workroom looks like this

and sometimes it looks like this

What do you mean, there's no difference!!! The second one is TIDY.

Now, being a Virgo, I long for a beautiful huge natural wood studio with huge windows and a large table and ironing space and a separate area for each machine, fabrics stacked in neat piles, you know what I mean but this room to me is heaven and I know how lucky I am to have this much space of my own. I have one very dear friend who is known to be very houseproud and she, poor dear, cannot bring herself to put her foot inside the door. It may look cluttered but I know where everything is and it only gets into a terrible state when I'm working full out. The funny thing is that when I do have a really serious tidy (about every 3 months) I sit there wondering what to do and it isn't until I start opening boexes that I start to make things again. One thing I do is keep the floor clean,..... sluts guide to housekeeping!!!!

A special day.....

We had arranged to go and see the Hadrian Exhibition at the British Museum, my son and me. We walked out onto the Strand to find it lined with people and were just in time to applaud the british athletes who had taken part in this years Olympic Games.




We dropped into Culperer in Covent Garden to pick up some of the renowned feline aromotherapy, in other words catnip mice, for my sons three cats.

We enjoyed lunch in a pub and then spent a fascinating two hours in the museum. We came out with a re-inforced belief that there is nothing new under the sun.
The day ended with a quick visit to the Cloth House . I could go seriously bankrupt in this shop but restricted myself to a couple of pieces.
Great day.

Couldn't wait.......

to get to grips with Maggie Grey's latest book Textile Translations. This is my interpretation of first "lesson"(it is step by step so easy to follow)


I was also impatient to try out one of the new spray colours I bought from Crafty Notions at Ally Pally(this one is Midnight Blueberry, more turquoise than I was hoping. Why are true blues so hard to find?)


Now I have to add a layer of sealant, so I'll think about that for a while. I am stopping myself from reading too far ahead, it is about time there was some discipline around here!!

I am also looking forward to taking part in the Fibre in-Form classes at the end of the month. Almost too much excitment.

Just for fun while I was scanning the sample I had a little play with a distortion layer in PSP.

The lettering is from a great blog called The Graphics Fairy

October Calendar Girls....

This lovely card arrived from Jenny, it has a wonderful depth to the background.

and this is my offering for Susan
This was the calendar picture

I used the text and used the alphabet on my machine to put "old friend" on the gold and "new friend" on the silver. I printed the blue tulip, which I particularly liked, onto shrink plastic mounted that with silver and gold threads and finished the edges with silver on the gold and gold on the silver. The thought was the mingling of old and new friends, (not always an easy task)

Ally Pally....

I want to go back but it's just not possible. I thought I had been such a good girl and bought postcards and made notes (in my list book) and even had a few photographs but why do the thoughts of, "how did she do that?" "What was the colour combination of that?", wait until you are home? And why did I pick up the Kozo fibres and then put them down again?

I loved the mad crochet coral reef in the entrance hall,


and the giant piece of knitting


I enjoyed the shopping (except for the kozo fibres) and there was so much that I liked that I can't possibly get them all in. There was the wonderful kimono made of tiny sqaure beads by Takako Sako, the art of Louise Gardiner which made me smile and the Jessie Chorley delights. There was the fabulous fantasies of Diane Bates and the charming stumpwork of Barbara and Roy Hirst There was a quick visit to Maggie Grey to pick up a must have copy of textile translations,Clive told me she will reveal what to do with our catalogues on April 1st!!!! A visit with Dale which resulted in buying a wonderful bunch of fibres I didn't know I needed. I loved the Graduate Showcase this year and I hope they achieve their dreams and ambitions. It was great to meet with Lynda I am really looking foward to the new Fibre In-form workshop which starts on Friday.
As I look through my catalogue I can see there is a lot I missed, next year I am planning for two days.
So full of ideas, don't know where to start. Perhaps tidying my workroom might help!!!

Season of lists and expensive fruitfulness........

With apologies to John Keats!!!
First of all, I have been moved to put watercolour pencil to paper to record what seems to be a rare and expensive object. The Aubergine.

Yes, well I know it's an aubergine. Now what I want to know is WHY? Why, whatever time of year it is and whatever supermarket you go into, aubergines are 99p each. Is it just me evil mind or does this smack of price fixing? And have you noticed on other products, increasingly, biggest isn't necessarily cheapest. Buyer be aware!!!! These supermarkets are tricky blighters.
Never wanting to waste an opportunity, I played with my picture and produced these digitally enhanced versions.



Now LISTS. Well I have to say the theme of Lists for the TIF challenge did absolutely nothing for me, I gave it quite a bit of thought throughout the month but nothing lit a spark. Truth is I make lists just like everyone else but then I leave them on the table or, if I am having one of my good days, I take it out of the house and then leave it in the car!!! When I make a list I always do it the same way, I take piece of paper out of the printer and fold it in four so it's like a mini book.
This morning I was trying to make a list for the Knitting and Stitching show on Friday so I don't come back with the same things I bought last year......and then I found this little tyvek book cover I made some time ago
and then of course I had to put some paper inside. The I thought that talented people I hope to meet might see my list I thought I'd better paint the papers.
So here it is contribution to last months TIF (yes I know it's a complete cheat)
now all I have to do is complete the list and put it in my handbag.

The ultimate deterrent......

During the latter part of the "summer" I watched a lot of tennis and golf on TV. To give my hands something to do I knitted a square blanket from old balls of wool I had lying around. I know it wasn't beautiful ("Mother what you doing? asked my daughter)but I thought with the winter coming on (not much weather change there then) my ancient Mrs Fussy would like something to snuggle. She Hates It. I put it in her usual sleeping place, on the bed in the spare room, she immediately moved onto a shopping bag that was also lying there. I moved the blanket, she moved, and so on.....so if anyone has trouble with cats going where you don't want them to go, knit one of these!!

Unbelievable.....Having written the above,I just went upstairs to photograph the offending article and .......

Who said cats were contrary animals!

A door..

I thought it was about time that I posted a piece of work. I am working on a couple of pieces but I am not sure how they are going to turn out but I am not slacking..honest.

This is a kindness door because it was made on a piece of velvet which a kind friend gave me. It is made from silk rods which were part of a birthday present from my son.They are coloured by a mixture of paints and sprays and then embellised onto the velvet. I added some small beads to represent the studs. Hopefully this will be part of a bigger piece.

I was thrilled when I was catching up with Susan Lenz' blog. I sent her some beads when I sent her my Cyber Fyber card as when I saw them they reminded me of the gorgeous blues of her work and I thought she might be able use use them sometime and she has.