If you hate sticky tape.....

With Christmas coming............Oh yes it is! I saw Christmas cards on sale when I was in town last week. I was fascinated by these references to a Japanese art called Furoshiki. A way of wrapping articles in cloth. I came across it on Layers of Meaning and thought I would pass it on for the benefit of persons like me who hate sticky tape. I always stick to everything except where it is suppose to go.(my children can look at a pile of presents and say "that must be from Mother"). Seriously, I did think it would be a fun way to wrap small presents using printed cottons. This is my first experiment, I oviously need to pay more attention to my folds but I love the idea.



This is a link to the Japanese Ministry of the Environment description of folds(PDF)

The one I like in particular is the one for wrapping bottles, I'll have to practise.

Scroll Stich and scrambled thinking.....

This is my little scroll stitch sample, I like this stitch a lot. I think I may have come across it when learning stem stitch at school but I can't remember the teacher saying "Oh what beautiful scroll stitch" she just told me to unpick it!!!!!


I read with amazement the article in the Guardian by Germaine Greer. (Links from Albedo Designs and Sharon B )I am not a quilter, but I have stood in front of quilts and been moved to tears by the beauty of the colours and the incredible skill of the stitcher.
What is art? To me it is something man made which has power to move one or all of my senses.

"What could be the point of such an exercise in futility?" Ms Greer asks. The same question I have asked myself many times in many different in many different ART galleries.

I know what I like.......

Great day, I went to the Summer Exhibition at the Royal Acamdemy as the guest of my best friend. I love this exhibition for it's variety, There is every style and size of painting, wonderful architectural models and sculpture. I really to fall into the "I know what I like" type of visitor(no formal art training). This can be abstract (usually because of the colour) or impessionist or realistic. This year there was one painting that drew me back three times. "Scene from a contemporary novel" by Nicholas Middleton.Please look at it.
This was in a room with the photographs which I thought was rather unfair as people walked by without so much as a second glance. But this is in fact and oil painting, the detail is incredible and also when you look into what at first appears to be monachome you find touches of blue and red and yellow. Amazing, I am so glad I have seen it.
Outside the Academy was an installation that was every rust lover's dream. Here are a few pictures.

Crested Chain Stitch

The summer months seem to be flying by and already the days are getting noticeably shorter, yuk! I am trying to make the most of it though, the leisure centre I belong to has an outdoor pool as well as the main pool indoors. I don't swim very well and I started going to try and help my back but the last couple of weeks it has been warm enough to swim outside in the sunshine. Lovely.
I am working on what will either be a present for someone or a UFO depending on how well it turns out and that is taking up most of my sewing time but I have tried the Crested Chain Stitch. It took me a little while as all twisted stitches do but then I got the flow of it and even incorporated it into the piece I am doing. This is the sample for my TAST collection.


As it is also called Spanish coral stitch, I thought flamenco, sunshine and bright colours,(not as bright here as in reality), I also had an excuse to play with my dusters and embellisher for the background.
Sun is shining, Ken has gone to play golf so I am off for, hopefully, a messy morning!!! It's ages since I had the opporunity to paint and dye.

Casting seed.....

Another place we visited this week was Wakehurst Place, Kew's "Country" Garden. It was our first visit but hopefully not our last, this is the home of the Millenium Seed Bank and there is a very good exhibition explaining the work. The were some amzing pictures of rare and unusual seed and this was the inspiration for my TAST stitch of the week, Cast on Stitch.
It's a good job my friend knows me very well as I sat and huffed and puffed whilst I translated the stitch. At one point I couldn't remember how to cast on (I have used the thumb method for years) and had to go and find a knitting needle and a ball of wool to remind myself. Cracked it in the end though and I love it.

Thank You.....

This is a picture of Scotney Castle in Kent which I took on Friday. I would not have been able to share it with you if it were not for the kindness of an unknown gentleman who handed in my camera. I did not miss it until my friend and I were going to Greenwich on Saturday. I had left it in the walled garden when we had a picnic, I didn't expect to see it ever again, I have no way of thanking the gentleman as he didn't leave a name so I will just have to put this into the ether and hope somehow he knows how grateful I am.

This is another view of Scotney where as you can see the Autumn colour seems to have started early, we found this in other gardens we visited this week.
I love this view and have photographed it, painted it and embroidered it in the past.

TAST rolls on.......

I took the opporunity to have a quick five minute on my new toy to make the background for this weeks TAST> Buttonhole wheels.

A great texture adding stitch, I love Sharon's examples especially the last one.

Smocking........

Saturday was Embroiderer's Guild Day, always exciting, but I could have done without the added excitement of a puncture!! It was a Smocking workshop with Heather Spaulding, I arrived three quarters of an hour late thinking that I would never catch up. What a lovely day. Heather was a very good teacher and had prepared packs for us to make a bag. There was a piece already pleated on one of those marvellous (but expensive) little machines. Throughout the day she took us in twos and threes to explain the stitches and to make sure we had understood. Unfortunately in my panic I went without my camera so I can't show you Heather's wonderful examples, but she had flower panels and abstract pieces and the one that I really lusted after was a chatelaine for her sewing bits made in back organza and gold thread.
This is the front for my bag (which I finished off last night).
We just used a couple of stitch yesterday but I found this site which has lots of stitches and clear instructions.
I found the whole day really satisfying, there were many shared stories of domestic science classes at school and my main memories connected with smocking are the fronts of my dresses which my mother made for me, which were so heavily worked they felt like body armour.
Now I just have to pluck up courage to cut the tacking threads and then to find time to turn it into a bag.

A question of gender?..............

Thanks to Sue Bleiweiss for her generously shared instructions and inspired by the many wonderful ones I have seen on my travels through the blogs I have made my first padfolio, using my favourite dusters and emulsion and ink techniques shared by Purple Missus




Flushed with pride I showed it to my husband who instantly said "it fold the wrong way". I assured him I had it right and showed him pictures, he still insisted it folded the wrong way. When my son came to visit I showed it to him and he agreed with my husband that it folded the wrong way. We came to the conclusion that it is a male/female thing akin to double breasted suits and buttons which go the opposite way round. Strange. So now I will know should I ever make one for a male I must remember to make it fold the other way.

No, now I'm really in love......

Today I became the proud owner of a Pfaff 350p Embellisher. I have dreamed of owning an embellisher for some time now but on Saturday at the EG SE area day I watched a demonstration by the lovely lady from Winifred Cottage and that was it, I decided the time had come. Today we went to Sewmaster in Guildford and

I haven't had much time to play but this is what I have done so far.

This was the "wrong" side a piece that I had done by hand (see the postacard in the previous post). I was amazed how quickly it was smoothed out and how much more robust it became.



This was the raw ingredients of my first experiment. A cheap duster and some bit pulled out of a cheap scarf.

This is the resulat and is destined to be the background for this weeks TAST, buttonhole wheels.

This is two threads joined together, making a whole new piece which could be added to something else.

This is just pieces or organza from my bits bag.

Such fun!! The Pfaff has no foot lever so I keep finding myself reaching behind to lower the foot with no result. The other habit thing is trying to cut off the thread when you have finished.

I love it, I will try not to bore you to death as I get to grips with it.

New toy..

These are the results of my two experiments with fuseFX which I bought yesterday
This one is a postcard which I had made

and this one is part of a UFO which now has a new lease of life. I used the fuseFX to trap threads and then ironed it onto the UFO.

I am in love........

Today was the meeting for the South East Branches of the Embroiderers Guild. What a loely day, which re-affirmed my belief that women who ply the needle(of whatever shape) have something special going for them. I loooked with pride at the diversity of our stand and the thought came to me that all these wonderful things came from the simple action of threading a needle(or not so simple depending on your age!!!)


The people I met all had a joie de vivre and humour about them. Such a delight from our usually negative thinking every day world.(I hold up my hand!!)

The theme of the exhibition was Festivals and we had everything from flower festivals through the Festival of Britain to Glastonbuty (which was the winner of the displays. Well done Worthing branch).

Branches were celebrating their 25th and 30th anniversarys (we are mere striplings at 7 years) Silver and pearl, lovely displays.

Now why, you are asking, is she in love. Well apart from the Guild branches there were Stallholders. Yes, I spent money. Something I have been coveting ever since I saw one is a Bobbin Saver. (I am using this link because it is the best picture I could find I bought mine from Winifred Studo) If these means an end to those masses of wasted thread it is a treasure.

The other thing I found was on my third visit of the day to those awfully nice people of Art Van Go. I as just paying for some bits and bobs when I spotted fuse FX I wish I ahd bought more than one packet as I am sure it is going to be a favourite. I will have to wait until daylight tomorrow to photograph (how I miss my scanner) my first impatient try outs of this wonderful Stuff.

I leave you with just a fraction of the wonderful "squares" wall which just show what you can do when you thread a needle.



I

Two for the price of.....

I really am treading water on TAST at the moment, because summer's here (somewhere) I have been playing more golf than normal so the days have been flying by. (The only thing I don't like about golf is the time it takes) I have also still in the doldrums with anything I try to create. So here are my Arrow stitch and Sheaf stitch, perhaps next weeks promised difficult stitch will get me motivated again. I still don't have my scanner working, never realised how much I used it.

Flying by....

Time and the Tour de France..... I enjoyed yesterday morning in the sunshine waiting for the Tour de France to whizz by.


This was the road near us yesterday, it had a real carnival atmosphere with chairs on the pavement and early morning "brunch" being served and people airing their knowledge of the significance of the "Yellow jersey" and words like "peleton"

The support procession was quite good but the actual race went by in a flash of brightly coloured lycra. I decided to watch instead of photograph so this is all I took.


And so to TAST... this is my bullion stitch, it is done in a Stef Francis thread on a needle felted background.

they are quite tiny and in the continued absence of my scanner the photograph will have to do, it's not too bad if you click on the image.

Half way through...

and Half a Chevron. It is amazing how quickly the 26 weeks of TAST have slid by.


I like this stitch, it has a good flow it.

EG yesterday and a talk from Kathleen Laurel Sage, she does not appear to have a web site but her work is often featured in Stitch. She showed us beautiful panels,made out of layers of organza, stitched mainly with a flower motif and then cut away. She also gave us a slide show of her equisite vases, again made out of organza. She is a very entertaining speaker so it was a very enjoyable day.

A trip to Town....

I popped up to London today. I visited the Opus BA Show wonderful work but a little beyond me I'm afraid. I will go to their Pathways exhibition next week. Having the day to myself I went up to the British Museum,what a treasure house this is...I have to take it in little bites. Today I looked at the Snettisham Hoard I had never heard of it before but I was fascinated by these strange neckpieces They must have been uncomfortable to wear but must also have been impressive as some were very thick.

Photographs courtesy The British Museum.
I had a lovely wander when I came out, there are some wonderful old building around the museum, my walk was enlivened by a great idea from the National Gallery. Around corners and in the oddest places where reproductions of some of the gallery's treasures.


I thought the juxtaposition of the street sign gave this one a Banksy feeling
A brilliant idea, I often pop into the National I wanted to go off in search of more but I didn't have any time left today as I spent a happy hour(and a bit of money) in the London Graphic Centre I bought some inks and nib pens.......because they were there. Delighted and a bit dismayed(for my bank managers sake) that the are now stocking Golden Liquid Acrylics.

The long and the short of it.....

In an effort to be neat and I decided that straight edges were the order of the day.
As you can see it didn't quite work. I actually think the name of this stitch is a bit misleading because in fact apart from the beginning it could almost be called "all the same stitch"!!!


I think it shows that this isn't one of my favourites.

Desperation........

is the name of this piece!!!


Desparate for inspiration!

Last week my son looked into my room, shook his head(in a loving way) and said "So much stuff", now I thought this a little harsh as, bless them, he and my daughter provided much of it for birthdays and Christmas. They are both very good at bringing me things that I didn't know where just what I wanted which is marvellous,the trouble is for some time now I have been longing to do something with it all, even knowing what I wanted to do but not knowing where to start. I have been mulling over it all week and last night I went down and just pulled things out and this is the result. Absolutely nothing to do with what I have in mind (which I am not going to put into the air right now) but does seem of have helped with a partial unblocking.

One of my problems was that everything I tried to do was derivative, you know what I mean "as seen in this magazine,... that blog.....the workshop. I think I am now coming to terms with the fact that this is how it has to be for me, I can imitate but not invent. So having come to terms with the fact that I am not going to be Grandma Moses I am going to try and create, albeit in the style of others, just for the process of making something, hopefully just a little bit different.

Dumbing down.......

Facts I thought I knew were true:

1. The BBC is one of the most respected television networks in the world.

2. The post of Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdon is a very important.

Therefore, can somebody please explain to me why the candidates for this post were presented to us on the BBC 6 o'clock news as though they were taking part in the latest "reality" television programme. Would we,otherwise, not be able to understand?

Normal service resumed...........

...sort of. It's been a strange, not to say expensive, week. My computer is sort of fixed, still can't scan but at least I can get to my photo files. So fingers crossed....

Here in the UK it is the longest day today, nearly half way through the year and the nights will start drawing in. My son thinks it's very funny when I say this and it is silly because this is really only the start of summer but the it is also the silly season. I saw a definition that it was because Parliament was closed but I don't really think that would make that much difference!!!!

Augusten Burroughs
"I myself am made entirely of flaws, stitched together with good intentions." This was a timely entry on the Quotes of the Day blog One of the things that has come out of this week is a promise to myself to make a real effort to stop saying "I must do....xxxx......tomorrow, soon, next week e.g. back up my computer!!!!! But not only that but important things like contacting friends, it is too easy to let the weeks slide by.

And now to last weeks TAST, French knots. I love French Knots, there is something very satisfying to me in making them. So in keeping with the silly season and summer here is an ice cream dotted with hundreds and thousands (can you still buy them?) Oops I spilt some...



I would have preferred to scan this for better definition but it will have to do for now.

This is one I did sometime ago, a representation of a pebbley stream.


So now for long and short stitch.....she said enthousiastically, it is a stitch that I love when other people do it but I am never satisfied when I try it, I think you realise by now that I am not awfully good at neat!!!

Unepected silence....

Just as I was getting back into the swing of things, my computer collapsed. It is away being given new innards and I hope to get it back next week. At the moment I am using my husbands laptop. The good news is that I can keep up with what everyone is doing, the bad news(for me) is that I cannot post my TAST French knots photo as I haven't worked out the connections to scanner etc.

Everybody's do'in it,................

do'in it........do'in it..........Rust dyeing that is, so of course I just had to have a go and look what I have,


This was the bottom of an old baking tray. I am do excitied, can anyone else see the dragon, Ken can see a mouse wearing glasses(spectacles)!!!! I really want to do something special to this but will have to think about it for a while.

I have been touched by the responses to my last post both here and on Flickr, I am so touched to have awakended memories in others, I only wish I had started to research my past at a much younger age, when there were people around, like grandparents, who could have added the "flesh" to the names that came before them.

Wheat Dreamer

My TAST sample this week is not very original but it has been a very interesting piece to do. First of all the background. Ken was cutting down a dead tree in the garden which was covered by the most gorgeous green lichens. Ignoring raised eyebrows and pitying looks I wrapped some pieces in wet calico and then in cling film and waited to see. I was delighted with the result and decided this would make the perfect background for the wheatear stitch. As I stitched I was carried back to childhood walks with my dog, watching the fields change from ploughed brown to gold. I don't usually add other stitches to my samples but I just had to add some poppies. Isn't it amazing how you can remember scents? The one I liked best was after the wheat had been cut, a mixture that I can't describe but I can smell it now. One of natures miracles of packaging, (like the egg and the pomegranate) one of the other things I liked to do with a ripe ear was take out the seeds, one by one, out of the little cup that holds them. Aagh simple pleasures!!!
When I was researching my ancestors I found that many of them were agricultural workers and I tried to find out about the kind of life they would have had. For many families the gleanings of the wheat field would be all they had to keep them through the winter. Women and children would scour the fields picking up every grain that had been missed. A far cry from deciding whether to have white or wholegrain this week!!
This article gives a very good description.

Millet "The Gleaners" Courtesy Wikipedia.

Another interesting piece I came across (and gave me my title) was about the man who saved the farmers of Kansas by introducing new strains of wheat.
Isn't it wonderful where a stitch can lead you. Thank you Sharon.

Back on track..

Here is my Crossed Buttonhole Stitch, I had a hard time getting passed the first stitch because the second stitch kept making a loop.....I kept peering at samples others had produced and couldn't see loops anywhere.......then daylight dawned and I realised that the "loop" was actually the cross and the base and if I just continued it would all come right.



and this is my Satin Stitch, when I look at embroideries with perfectly worked satin stitch it fills me with awe. Hovever, I have always had difficulty with the stitch because, there is no getting away with it, I am not neat. I can still remember agonies of unpicking, at school, over this one and that was a long,long time ago. However the sun was shining and DMC have just added to the varigated threads so here is my little piece of summer, not perfect but dare I say "naive charm"!!!



and now I can look forward to whatever Sharon has dreamed up for us this week.

Just amazing...

I am totally fascinated by the video Women in Art. I found this on the The Practically Creative site. It is one of the most amazing things I have seen. Beautiful and fascinating.

Catching up...

Thank you for the welcome back messages they mean a lot. I caught up with two of my friends yesterday. There is something very special about friendship between women, hard to define but it certainly is one of the most precious parts of my life.

I have come back with my head buzzing with things I want to do but don't seem to be able to settle to getting on with things. However I have done one piece for TAST. This is my Butterfly stitch.



As you can see it is a very quick sample but I do like the stitch and can see all kinds of variety for it with different thicknesses and lengths of thread.

Now for Crossed Buttonhole stitch

Whew!

Don't know whether holidays are entirely worth it, since I returned I have been paid bills, been to the hairdressers, done an embroidery workshop at the EG, signed up for the leisure centre,been to see my best friend, done the washing and re-stocked the fridge. Now I wonder which of of these activities you will be of interest????

OK then the embroidery workshop was with Fay Maxwell and was based on the article she has just had published in Stitch Working with blanket felt on silk. Both new experiences for me. And no tracing paper!!!!!

It was a really good day though I have a feeling that Fay despaired of me!! I always have problems in workshops, part of the reason is that I am left handed and relatively inexperienced as a stitcher therefore any new stitch(especially those with a twist) present me with a big problem. Once I get home and can use the computer to turn things round I am OK but in a workshop I panic a bit. I had real problems with the authentic Shisha stitch Fay was showing us. Her work is beautiful, an updating of the ancient crewel work and she was funny and informative so if you ever get the chance to take a class with her, grab it.

One of my other mistakes was to put a bird on my cushion.
This immediately locked me into feathers etc.. instead of being free to do exotic flowers and leaves.

I have actually pulled out the stitching I did in the workshop(forgot to photoraph)
and started again. I will show progress at a later date.

Now my main aim is to get back to TAST, (as very tempted to try and find an Internet cafe in Cyprus so that I could continue when the weather was bad) I am now three weeks behind but I hope that Sharon doesn't take a break because knowing me that will mean I am still three weeks behind when she starts again

Inpite of the weather I was pleased with some of the photographs I took in Cyprus so I will share them when I think of it.

This one was on the same beach as the chair.......aaah lucky M!!

I'm back

and hit the ground running. We jetted off to blue skies and turquoise seas(see last posting) to land in a thunderstorm which lasted a 36 hours and then a week of grey days even so I found a chair waiting for me on the beach.

Arriving back in England up a holiday weekend where it never seemed to stop raining for two days had me thinking how much the weather affects our moods and in some cases livelyhoods. I feel so sorry for people who were involved in events like the Kent Garden Show, people who run the Fun Fairs that I saw advertised, for many of these people they must rely on these holidays for a large part of their income. The real cruelty is that this morning, as people return to work, the sky is a bright washed clear blue.