Hole in one...

I spent the afteroon watching the Open on TV. It turned out to be a bit of an anti climax but the time wasn't wasted as I was catching up with my Holey Moley excercises as I watched. Here is this afternoon's results

and this is the book cover I made for my notes

and these are the samples of my flower stitcher thanks to a suggestion from Doreen.

Exhausted.......

Today was the South East Area day of the Embroiderers Guild at Ardingly, at 7am I loaded the car with everyones work and with Marien wearing her "don't panic" brooche we set off. No one said that part of my usual route was going to be closed! The leafy lanes of Sussex are beautiful on a summer's morning.......but panic was definitely rising as we tried to find an alternative route.

We did arrive in time and and set up our exhibit which we had called "Trash to Treasure" the overall theme of the exhibition being "Re-invent, recreate and recycle - Embroidery for the 21st century. I wish I could show you all the branches, Brighton won the day with a very striking and topical "Rubbish in Space", Tunbridge Wells, who were next to us, had a chair and table set for afternoon tea complete with a vase of flowers, every bit made from denim, very clever. It was so popular with the visitors that Marien remarked that there wouldn't be a bit of denim left in the charity shops come Monday afternoon.

Our own (Sevenoaks) display didn't win any prizes but it won a lot of interest and a lot of smiles. Our theme was trash to treasure and we had rubbish tippling out of a council recycling box interspersed with the members items.



One of the most exciting parts of the day was when the exhibit was filmed by Jennie Rayment and her team for a brand new internet site called Just Hands on TV. Just click on the link to have a look at the exciting venture.

Hung over the boards is my own contribution and tomorrow I will photgraph it properly and show what has been keeping me quite for the last three months.

Ice and holes...

The Calendar Girl picture for July was chosen by Pippa
This is my take on it

I painted Tyvek with a rough impression of the image, zapped it and applied it to pale blue satin with freemachine stitching, coered in chiffon and given a beaded edge. It's on it's way to Sandy in America.
From the other side of the world came my Holey Moley lessons. These are few of the experiments.

I have to confess that I enhanced the colour a bit on this one.

After I had scanned this one I set it aside and then realised that it was tanding on a coaster which had a "hole" in it and the fact that it was standing made the hole on the paper look completely different.

And again this time catching a flower reflection.

I have been very frustrated because I can't do any the slash and burn stuff,(I am housing some EG stuff in my workroom at the moment and don't dare do anything near it) on the note of burning I took a trip to Art Van Go this week, on my (long) list was Kunin felt. Would you believe that the makers of Kunin felt have started to put a flame retardant in it. So it won't burn...... Now what are we going to do?

Holey Moley.....

Some time ago I signed up for a year long season of lessons with Dale Rollerson of The Thread Studio and today the first thought provoking lesson has arrived. This is real distance learning and one of the joys of the internet. The course if labelled the Holey Moley Club and is a sort of a mystery tour as Dale is keeping the elements close but not suprisingly the first lesson is about holes. Now from the little work I have done so far I can see that I could become a bore (hole?..Sorry!) about holes. Just thinking where you find them, lace, cheese,old clothes, stones, and so on is fascinating and of course, I had to google and came across the The Holey Dollar and here one of those fascinating little stories I love and how appropriate that it should be Australian. Briefly in 1813 to overcome a currency shortage (nothing changes) the governor bought Spanish silver dollars and turned them into two coins by cutting a hole in the middle,the coin with the hole was the Holey Dollar and the cut out piece a separate coin known as the Dump..result double the coins in circulation. Clever trick eh!

Photograph Numisnet World Any problem with copyright please advise and image will be removed.
Back to work....

Sunshine and friends.....

I am loving this burst of warm weather, this was the colour of the sky this morning, and this was the Darenth Valley on Saturday morning

The scent coming back in the evening was amazing.
Last Monday I spent a day with friends being introduced to doll making, I had a wonderful fun and laughter filled day which rounded off on Saturday when one friend presented me with these

which I learned were terrific for turning things inside out and for getting stuffing into tiny places. The other gift was this adorable, handsome little gentleman

Thank you so much girls. All this in Wimbledon fortnight. If this is the kind of weather it brings long may the roof on the centre court last.

'orses 'ead 'andle......

For the last few months I have been helping out with a children's theatre production. One of the items is an enactment of "The Lion and Albert" the monologue by Mariott Edgar made famous by Stanley Holloway. I have loved this fun piece since I was small, the children (all from the London area) are making a great job of their "northern" accents but the piece needed a vital prop, as in this verse,
A grand little lad was their Albert
All dressed in his best; quite a swell
'E'd a stick with an 'orse's 'ead 'andle
The finest that Woolworth's could sell.

So........


I formed this out of Crayola Model Magic and then covered it with a layer of scrim and PVA, a layer of gesso and then a layer of Paverpol Next came the paint with beads for eyes, I added the "silver" band(tape covered in silver Rub and Buff and a final layer of Paverpol.(I am hoping it will last more than one performance!!)

I have never attempted anything like this before so am quite pleased with my efforts, obiviously my time watching Royal Ascot wasn't entirely wasted! (I thought there were some really stunning hats this year which made up a bit for me missing the exhibition at the V&A)
If you want an old fashioned chuckle listen here.

My new keep fit regime......

A friend sent me this link. May not please the purists but it is amazing.