A week off.........

well not exactly.....last week was our long awaited exhibition and I am happy to report that it was very well received.   We had some really nice comments in our visitors book which pleased us all. Where I failed was not taking as many photographs as I thought I had but this is a small flavour.
This is a general view of the room, with our "Tea Party" centre stage. There was also 4 other tables and a sales table.

It was very popular.

Some of last years teddies helped hold my tea bag bunting. I am a little(a lot) disappointed with the way the framing of my Homeland turned out.   Not sure what's wrong, the frame, the mount?  Perhaps one day I will work it out and change it.

 

My tree piece was finished on time.

 

I have cobbled together 4 photographs to give you a suggestion of a lovely panel made by my friend. Hopefully if you double click you will see it closer.

These are another of her exhibits.

and her quilt set off our group project rainbow,

.This was a mixed media piece by another friend. Fabric and pottery.

I don't know how I missed our group challenge of the gloves.  Fortunately I took a few photographs a while back.  For the challenge pairs of gloves were separated and hidden in paper bags. We each chose a bag and were forbidden to tell which glove we had.  Then we had to alter it. When the pairs were put back together it was very surprising.

My piece is the glove reaching for the clock. I called it the thief of time, thinking how time passes when we are absorbed in creativity of any kind.  

Exhibition over, mind turns to what next.  I have finally bought Janie Crow's Mystical Lantern pattern.  I have started, whether I will finish remains to be seen. I must find something to continue my 1 Year of Stitches.

Today I went to the Craft Show at Ally Pally, It wasn't spectacular but had improved since the last one I attended and I managed some satisfactory shopping. There was a strange balance, thousands of dies for die cutting but no machines or accessories. I did manage to replace my cutting plates but only after a long search.  I bought some Versafine pads which I hadn't used before. Looking forward to playing with new toys,

Variety is the spice........

.... so they say, so this week has been quite spicy. Visit to the Library, followed by a visit to the electrician to repair my beloved Dyson handheld which I had wounded by putting in the cleaned filter before it was completely dry. I thought it was dry but it wasn't. Expensive mistake.

Realisation that our long awaited exhibition is now coming up SOON, sent me into a bit of a panic for I have framed my pieces but am still working on the piece which I am submitting as part of the 1 Year of Stitches challenge. I think there will be leaves on the trees before I am finished.

I need to frame this too so when they said it was going to be a very mild day yesterday I put myself on a train and went up to London for the first time this year.  Bliss.  I met my daughter for a quick coffee and then had a lovely wander. Bought my frame in Muji and just took my well trodden route around Seven Dials and Covent Garden, didn't have time to do more but I was very envious of the people who were wandering along the south Embankment of the river as I left.
But I took pictures, another first this year.
Covent Garden was very boisterous with Lincoln football supporters hoping for glory.Alas their hopes were dashed but I am sure they enjoyed the anticipation at least.  Be proud Lincoln first non league side to reach quarter finals since 1914.

There was a mixture of winter and summer treats on offer.

there was more colour with these flowers.

There were four decorated benches which were delighting tourists being photographed on them.

A more subdued arrangement was also being used as a back drop.

The market halls are undergoing some restoration and one end is clad in what looks like tin giving marvellous reflections, so I decided to have my own souvenir photo.

This fine fellow must have seen missing the tourists who usually surround him as he is rather hidden at the moment.

From the train on the way home, the London skyline is ever changing the building in the middle of these three was only the lift core the  last time I went up.

and I love this mix of old and new,

I said I was enjoying the Great Pottery Throwdown so I fell in love with these  teapots which were on Seth Apter's Sunday Papers last week.  The artist's name is Andrew Massey.   My son has a big birthday this year and I would love to get him a piece but I think shipping may be an issue.

hoping to see The Viceroy's House this week, I was introduced to Lord Mountbatten many years ago, he was totally charming.

 

Lady in waiting........

......that's me this week.  Fingers crossed, tomorrow I will be having a long awaited gall bladder operation.   I have been trying to anticipate all the things that I won't be able to do for a couple of weeks like bend stretch and lift. Somehow I haven't managed to do quite the amount of de-cluttering  that I promised myself I would do but then embroidery, paint play and a trip out with a friend are so much more appealing don't you think?

Week four already of the 1 Year of Stitches challenge and my piece has taken an even more nostalgic trip.

Hopefully anyone who has ever visited Barrow in Furness will recognise the crane from the shipyard. On the way to Barrow the road passes the Dolly Blue Works. Forgive me if I have told you about them before. The road now by passes the factory which is has become a residential complex but one of the delights of my childhood was to  to drive past the factory with its blue walls in the hope of spotting a blue man.  The men wore blue overalls and their skin would be covered in the powder as was everthing around. Oh the excitment if we saw one.  There is an good piece about the factory here,
 The trip was to Rochester, it was freezing cold and foggy but a lovely brisk mooch round the galleries and shops.
Today it reached 9 deg c. and after last week felt like Spring so the garden had a quick tidy and the apple tree had a hair cut before I have to put my feet up.   Lovely to see the white of the snowdrops just beginning to show and the hellebores pushing through. Daylight lasting a little longer too. Hurrah.

I am going to cover the paint play in a separate post becauser I need to link it.
. 

No pressure then........

 ....my first offering for 1 Year of Stitches 2017   received 489 "Likes" and 60 very kind comments.  I hope I managed to respond to all of them but if I missed anyone,  thank you.  It has certainly been a fascinating week, the variety of stitches and styles is amazing. I have become slighly obsessive about my piece which now looks like this..

I am not sure about my attempt at  mendung clouds   , I find blues very difficult  to work with.   When I first started making stage costumes(amateur) the lighting designer (professional) told me that blues were the most difficult colour to light.  I think I should have stuck to my trusty indigo range but I was trying to brighten up.  We shall see if they balance out as the rest progresses otherwise they will have to come out. Not a pleasant thought as chain stitch may be one of the easiest to do but I have found it is a "b*****" to undo.

One of the unexpected benefits of 1 Year is the links to other places.  Here are two I liked. First

 A beautiful site for ribbon embroidery with very good tutorials. One of these days...
The other is Folksy a site selling modern British craft. I have ordered these buttons in anticipation of vast production this year.

We have a had a liittle snow here and worse, a biting cold wind so a bit of surfing (web) hs been the order of the day.
Please go an look at this site   Kirsty Mitchell    . I don't want to risk breaching copyright so I can't post a picture but I promise you if you like colour you won't be disappointed.
 I was hoping to be able to comment on La La Land but the weather put paid to that little trip.  Hopefully next week.                                                

First week .....

...passed in a flash.  This is what happened to the yellow line.  Not the Yellow Brick Road after all,(well it might be) but something triggered in what I laughingly call my brain and suddenly I was thinking Hundertwasser
I have long wished I could see some of his work for real, fascinated by the complexity of the shapes and love the wonderful colours.  So here is the beginning. For scale this is in a n 8inch/20cm hoop/

Remember that teaser, well it was a sort of "Wot I did on my holidays" except I was a home but I made it over the Christmas time .My inpiration was a picture I saw on Pinterest, I do wish people would make their links to the actual post not just the site. It took me 20 minutes to backtrack until I came to the orginal to that I could acknowledge it.. It came from this post
 This is what it turned into.

The background is part of an old pair of linen trousers.  Now what to do with it?
I had a huge beef this week with the Spring Knitting and Stitching Show    I received an email offiering a discount on entry tickets, after last year when we were horrified at being charged £17 "on the door" I thought I would take up the offer.  When I applied nearly six hours before the deadline it rejected the code, after several tries I gave in.  We will NOT be going to the show this year.

John Lewis had taken one more row off the haberdashery department in Bluewater and allowed Mac cosmetices to play music.  Shame on you.

I also managed these this week. 

 

Right.....

...here we go then.  Last day of 2016, another turn along the road.  Tomorrow see the start of
1 Year of Stitches challenge, I mentioned in the last post. I want to make something vivid. not my usual muted palette.

We shall see.

Here is a sneak peak of something I have been working on over the holidays.

 

And here is my wish for you all.

Well.....

this is one of those times when you don't have time for anything other than Christmas preparations. So you pop into the internet for a little R&R and what happens you find a couple of things that you want to start right now.

How about this one......

"One Year of Stitches" filling a hoop with a year's worth of stitches.

Seems doable. We shall see. Here is the link if you want to play along.

Finished.......

.....I think.  I put it aside as finished several times and then next time I looked there was another little gap to be filled but for the moment this is it.

 

It is a strange uneasy time in the world so I am grateful to be able to pick up a needle and block it all out. 

I have been busy completing things for our little textile group but can't show them yet.

I popped up to London to see my daughter and watched a student protest march as it passed by.

There did seem to be nearly as many photographers as there were students, all hoping for a riot no doubt but the whole thing seemed to pass off peacefully. I think the cost of the police presence with attendant helicopter might have paid off a few student loans. For people of my generation who remember the years after WW11 the word "austerity" has different meaning I think.  But they are young. Bless.

 I did quite like this shot.

So things to look forward to.  My sister in law is coming to visit this weekend and we are going to see my daughter in "Matilda"

Friday would have been my brother's seventieth birthday he would have loved this show so he will be in our thoughts. For years Brian's birthday was the start of Christmas, we weren't allowed to mention it until his birthday was done.  I remember once being told off for wanting to make paper chains. So it will be quite 

for me to go to Sew Not Strawberry Jam 

 for a Christmas themed workshop with Caroline Zoob

I hope the weather behaves as it has been a bit nippy this week and I did see some of the white stuff.

Stay warm and safe.

 

Make that 11......

projects on the go.  I had forgotten that I had signed up for a Feltalong with Sara Lechner. This is my first attempt, an excuse to use the embellisher which I haven't touched for ages. We are to make a small book,  not sure if I have made it thick enough but it was fun.

Wk 6 Documented Life....

I seem to be all over the place with my numbers and last week was indeed Wk 6.  A bit more drama this week,a trip to August. Osage County at the cinema, strong stuff but riveting and good acting and a trip to see my daughter in From Here to Eternity the musical. strong stuff but riveting and good acting and then a  pleasant day at the Maylands stitching group.  All of which helped take the mind off the rain.
The Documented Life prompt was "Open your Pinterest board and be inspired".  Didn't take me long to try an emulate the work of Jill Ricci. I love her work so this is my attempt.  Gelli print background, snippets of other gelli prints and another old photograph.

 

Because it had to be folded into my journal I needed to make a cover so another photograph received the treatment. Don't do pink usually.

and for the runner I had palm trees and an aeroplane and the date of Pearl Harbour which is the climax of "From Here to Eternity". The sea is both for FHTE and for the dreadful battering our coasts are taking.

Marvel.....

Thanks to the Embrouderie blog I visited the web site of Michelle Carragher who embroidered the costumes for "The Game of Thrones"  TV series. 

This is a taster, if you like stumpwork and embroidery go and marvel..

Wk 4

Still managing to keep up....just.  It was a peculiar week.  A good theatre visit to see "Juno and the Paycock" at the Geoffrey Whitworrth theatre, a local amateur group with a very high standard. Rest of the week was a bit of a misery with various dental issues. Uck so my Documented Life this week looks like this.  The prompt was to write a message and then obliterate all but one word.  I won't tell you what I wrote but the page looks like this.

My runner is a bit more cheerful and records the theatre visit and the fact that the snowdrops are up in the garden.

Good job that we can see them from the window as gardening is out of the question. We are moaning about the weather but only mildly inconvenienced, my sympathies go to those who are so badly affected. 

Documented Life....

   This is going to take some keeping up but here is week 2.  The challenge was to include a selfie, well the reality is a bit gruesome so I did a "self portrait".......with gelli print background.

and the flyer from the Designer Crafts.

For my band on my cloth I chose a couple of pots and paintings to represent the exhibition and a little representation of the National Gallery

 I think I am taking up a bit too much space and the cloth will be too long for the table but I suppose a couple of  boring weeks  would take care of that.