Space update...

This morning I spent some time clearing  my blog list of blogs which hadn't been updated in some months, then I realised that someone was probably doing the same to me.  So here is the present state of Space.

I found this commercial fabric at the Knit and Stitch show and though it ideal for my space animals.  So this is the great bear and the little bear between Jupiter and Saturn.  Astonomically incorrect I am sure but that is were they wanted to be.  I learned how to the star "maps" in the "Sun, Moon and Stars" workshop with Jude. Some of them are real constellations reversed and some are just pure invention.

More animals, the southern hemisphere seems to have a more interesting collection that we do, living on the edge of London it is very difficult to see stars at all. So here they are swirling around.  I may rest this cloth for a little while as working on the dark cloth is difficult in electric light but I know it has a long way to go.

Jude is to talk about eyes, I had already added one to the whale(apologies for fuzzy photograph) but I am sure the other animals will benefit.

A friend sent me this.

Play day.....

Yesterday was fun.  Inspired by this , Painting in the Round on Ro Bruhn's blog we decided to have a little go yesterday.  Just so we didn't get carried away we decided on a few rules, the shape would be circles and we would each only use two colours.    We painted for ten minutes and then moved round.  This is the first round.

A bite of lunch while it they dried off and then we added black for a bit of drama.

 It was very interesting how the first marks inspired the second and how different they all were.  Sparked loads of ideas for "next time" .Thanks girls.

Ro Bruhn is proving to be a bit of an inspiration  at the moment and hopefully assiting me to reduce the ridiculous amounts of "stuff" I have aquired over the last 20 years.but more of that later.

"Space" is coming along nicely and I will post soon, delighted that Jude is going to continue the Magic Diaries next year.

I was really thown in my blogging routine by the loss of Slide.  Still searching for an alternative.

But will it stay in place,,,,

I need to wear a scarf when it turns chilly, so when I was fascinated when I saw this saw this on Michelle Ward's blog .

Now which version will stay put best?

It was great....

I loved my first live American Football game, the whole experience was such fun. This is me on Wembley Way, you can see I didn't intend to be cold but in fact it the weather was just right.

A lot of the day was about flags, giant ones were passed tround the crowd

Everyone had one to wave.

National anthems

Cheer leaders

and the game

 

Tampa Bay Buccaneers 18 - Chicago Bears 24

Goodnight Wembley, hopefully see you next year. That was some birthday treat!

NFL comes to London....

and this time I was there.  Every other year the Fan Rally in Trafalgar Square has clashed with an EG meeting and of course there has bee no contest........this year I was ecstatic when my friends pointed out that I could attend as we don't meet until next week.  So this morning found me in Trafalgar Square.    I think I have explained before the thing that hooked me onto American Football was seeing what is known as a Hail Mary pass in one of the early televised games in the 1980's.  I have been always useless at throwing and especially catching (always the middle in "pig in the middle")so this as far as I was concerned was magic.Today I threw a touchdown pass to Wes Welker.......well.....to be honest it was a picture of the delectable Wes and he didn't really catch it but I did put the ball through the hole.This has to be one of high spots of my life.  I know,.... simple soul.

It was a great day. The weather was literaly sparkling. There were all kinds of fun things going on.

and it was great to be entertained by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers cheer leaders

and the Chicago Bears  drum band

to see some of the players and coaches

and to see Cecil Martin up close.

 

It was a fun day and I am even more excited for tomorrow and the actual game.

Mars...

the red planet, the god of war and memories of  Journey into Space. Who else remembers sitting close to the radio, riveted by the adventures of Jet, Doc Mitch and Lemmy.   I have never thought about it before but that is probably where my love of science fiction started. Before that was Dick Barton, Special Agent, eat your heart out James Bond. Dark winter nights and a cup of Horlicks before bed.  But I digress, or perhaps I don't,  perhaps this is part of what belongs to slow cloth, the time to think or reminisce.  Here is the my red planet, with canals

and with explosions

Only one more sleep to the NFL game at Wembley, as neither the Bucs nor the Bears are "my " team I'm not sure who I will shout for, probably both if they make it an exciting game.Must be careful not to have son disown me.

A detour at Venus....

Over a week now since the Knit and Stitch.  I enjoyed the show this year, wasn't going to buy anything...but couldn't resist this...

from The Crochet Chain, enough to make a sweater in one huge ball,  just perfect for watching Australian Master Chef!!!!

All the planets are in place on Space but it needs a rest at the moment. This is Venus at the start, Goddess of Beauty, she is soft and a little bit sparkely.

 Goddess of Love she sends it out into the universe.

Other diversions were my most successful tarte tatin ever...

and yesterday under sky of the most amazing blue, a walk round the park and  through the woods at Knole 

 where we collected chestnuts and acorns and saw wondrous things...

and at home more wonder....a rainbow on the carpet.

 Excitment mounting because it is only one week to the NFL game at Wembley, my first live american football game,  a birthday present from my son.

Mercury.....

The planet nearest the sun and the first one to be put in place on  "Space"

Images of Mercury from theMariner 10 spacecraft show losts of craters and I was pleased how these turned out with just simple stitich. Mercury was of course the messenger of the gods so I gave it some wings.

and here it is in place.

 I have actually placed all the planets, I have missed out Earth because I have this dream in my head of making it the other side of the cloth. We shall see.

More feathers...

These I have been made for some while but involve a trip to the post office and queues but I promise to get them off  this week,  Jude put up  a brainstorming sheet here.. I spotted "the tear" and thought that could be read two ways so here are the tear as in cry

and the tear as in rip

and this is just a feather and some flowers.

These pieces are all about 4" long.

St Petersburg-TheCatherine Palace -not

 On our second day we were driven out through the city to visit the Catherine Palace.  Be prepared for a serious gold overload.

Well this is as far  I went before I discovered that Slide has ceased to function.  I was going to show you all the gold work in the Catherine Palace and link it cunningly to the fact that to day is our Golden Wedding Day.
Here is one of the pictures, it was amazing.

There is  quite a good tour on You Tube here.
Does anyone know another good slide maker?

St Petersburg, Hermitage Part 2

These two slides shows represent just a fraction of what we saw and an even smaller fraction of the whole collection.

 

One thing I didn't capture in the Winter Palace was the way the marquetry on the floors reflected the design of the ceilings, quite amazing.

St Petersburg - The Hermitage

 I first became interested in paintings, living in Paris in the 1960s . As I discovered new (to me) artists it seemed that many of the pictures they painted where llisted as being in The Hermitage Museun in St Petersburg, at that time completely out of reach.
How fortunate then to not only visit The Hermitage but, thanks to a Golden Wedding Present from our son and daughter, to be provided with a personal guide, Tatyana. At the beginning we were the very first people to walk through the magical galleries. It brings a lump to my throat even now, the sheer wonder and excitment of it all.  Students  are allowed in before the crowds arrive to study and copy and as we saw as we left the crowds are huge.  The Museum has a very good web site with the history and  virtual tours which can show you details and object which we didn't see.It is made up of three palaces which are painted different colours on the outside,I liked the idea of colour coded palaces!  The first slide show is the Winter Palace.  

The Slide had cropped this photograph, this corridor is inspired by the corridor in the Vatican.