Fragments for a Wedding....

These two pieces are pure serentdipity.  I was having a much needed clearing of my workspace. combining it with sitting in our unaccustomed warm April sunshine. I came across two pieces.One was an experimental building which I made when following the Beasts workshop with Jude and the other was some pieces I had put together as part of the Whispering Hearts class I am taking at the moment. The church made me think of the Royal wedding on Friday. I reached for a needle and this is the hearts.

 Given the weather forecast for Friday the "sky" seems appropriate.
This is the "abbey"

If you click on it you can see the little fragments of bridal lace which have been moving around my workroom for some years!  The tree on the righthand corner was made on ages ago on a  couronne which of course also translates as crown.

Is this the answer...............

These potholes have been on the roundabout at the end of my road for over a year.

This morning on Craft I may have found the solution.

Not only could I mend the road and save wear and tear on my little car but I could solve that age old problem of how to reduce my stash!!
Incidentally how come outside the MP's offices in London they can have new pavement involving this amount of work

when all we need is a bit of asphalt?

Heart cloth....

This is the sampler I have made following Jude Hill's Whispering Hearts. I was quite pleased with it and then I held it up to the light.

and I was even more pleased. The base of this cloth is one of DH's old handkerchiefs dyed with avocado skin and topped with a piece of scrim from the same dye bath.  I love the band of light (because I didn't plan this and hadn't started in the exact middle).  Now you know why I was frantically searching for my cord winder!  I wound a long length of cord and then cut it to make the fringe.  The little white heart in the bottom right is someone else's heart.  I found it on our swaps pile at EG, someone had been practising stump work I think.  It wasn't complete so I finished it off in a different colour silk.  I like having it there. Heart Whispering has been a lovely experience,as well as video it has lots of little audio snippets where Jude just shares her thoughts, very soothing and inspiring.

My secret's out.....

In September 2009 I saw this on Sharon Boggon's blog and I wanted one. At the same time we started to plan our 10th Annniversary exhibition at Sevenoaks EG. I decided to make that my deadline. 18 months. No problem.  Having no idea what I was doing I set about making blocks and it all turned out bigger than expected. I finished two weeks ago! It is also rubbish to photograph.

It does not have the level of embellishment that I would like.

I will put it away for now but I intend, perhaps next winter to add some more seam treatments. At least it will keep me warm.


Our exhibtion was a very successful. I will try and get permission to post some photographs, it really is great to belong to such a wonderful group. I was delighted to have  Lynda Monk visit.  We had a super workshop with her and hopefully she will be coming to us again soon, in the meantime I am looking forward to her article  on Workshop on the Web in June.

It's been done before.....

but not by me.  Tuesday was the last day of our sunny weather so I prompted by a picture in the paper I took myself off to the nearest place to find bluebells to photograph.   I was a bit early the Ranger said but pointed me in the right direction and this is what I saw.

This magnificent tree is about 300 years old

It is home to many I'm sure

and it holds onto the earth with giant fingers

Come back in two weeks they said

Ah! Spring.

A small thing.....

but my own. Another unseasonably warm sunny day today, the last for a while we are told so i made the most of it. A couple of weeks ago at EG  we have an interesting and amusing talk from Helen Deighan, she spoke about dyeing, making coiled pots and making braids.  So armed with her book and some of her special "washing line" I sat in the sun and made a small pot.

I was fascinated how you can alter the shape just in the way you place the coils, using the same stitch all the while.It is only about 5 inchs across.

I found myself wondering about those first women made such things.  Perhaps they idly twiddled grasses in there fingers or twisted plaited grass. Who know but I hope they enjoyed it as much as I did.  Here is is, serving the purpose for which it was made, to hold my thread bundle.

Beautiful day....

Glorious day here today ,  I spent the  morning sitting in the sun stitching hearts.  

and it was the perfect day for dying my papers for the journal course.

Hearts......

My mind is full of hearts....the Whispering Hearts experience had started and I am thrilled.  I call it an experience rather than a class because Jude's presentation is so intimate it is like having a friend gently talking to you. For some reason my very first thought on the subject was "two hearts as one" and this is the result, both these hearts have one inside the other.

You may recognise the cloth from my dyeing experiments. I don't want to give too much away because that is not fair to Jude but I am so excited with the way my mind is working.  After the last few months, which have been quite stressful, it is lovely to be able to focus and let my mind relax and wander. I have also started my Journal making class but due to the fact that I couldn't find something this morning my plans to make my pages went by the board.

I have lost my cord maker. It looks like this.

I have searched my room, it was always kept in the same place and it has vanished.   I thought, blow it I will buy a new one but when I found out they were £15+ I decided to look some more.It is so frustrating.because I know that two months down the line, when I am looking for something totally different, I will find it. Grrr.

P.S. Sitting stiching hearts last night when I suddenly jumped up, went to my room looked in the box where I keep my wires and stuff and there it was. Hurrah.