The Bead makers......

In  the woodland men laboured mightily!

and round the corner in a clearing we found the potter and the beadmakers.

There was a very friendly looking green man

a wonderful beehive kiln,  I thought the roof had a touch of Gaudi about it.

A pretty picture.

and a cloth which I am sure I could have found a use for.

Time travel.....

yesterday I stepped back to 1553...at Kentwell Hall.  I took over 100 photographs (so I will edit them a bit) and even then now realise the ones I missed..    The Hall and the grounds are given over to a recreation of life in Tudor times and great pains are taken to achieve authenticity.  The vist kept us absorbed for nearly five hours and kept the conversation and questions going all the way home.  One thing was evident though, for us the day had been about cloth. For rich and poor, the making, using, wearing  and mending of cloth was an intergral part of life. We saw the spinners and weavers

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the felters, cross I didn't take a picture of the hats.

 The dyers, (so taken with the results I missed taking the vats).

The laundry had been done.

and in the house the seamstresses stitched their linen with linen thread.

and everywhere people wore clothes which had been made to create as nearly as possible the clothes of rich and poor in those times.

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 (Mask on the last two thanks to skeletal mess)
There was one more personto do with cloth but for me she was very special and deserves a post of her own.

Dragon on the lawn....

I have been making lots of  pieces in preparation for the Magic Diaries which starts next week.  This piece got a little ahead of itelf.....

I love him because I drew him free hand. I don't think he is finished, we shall see.

Sun, moon and squares

The weather having turned into the typical British summer I have spent my time stitching,
A sun....

 

a moon....

 

and some squares.....

I am just picking up cloth and seeing what it turns into..so soothing. I hope all these elements will eventually come together but if they don't it doesn't really matter , the pleasure is in the doing.

Thinking...

..outside the button box.  Ever wondered what you could do with all your spare buttons.  Here's an idea.     
Found on Craft

Sun, moon and stars....

The course with Jude has come to an end and I shall miss her daily "whisperings". It was fascinating and thought provoking, I loved it. This little piece (about 8" square) is what I have made on the theme but a lot of other stitching has gone on too. As my forward birthday present to myself I have signed up for a series starting in July, how could I resist something called "Cloth Whispering/The Magic Diaries."
That is my hand sewer taken care of and this months Workshop on the Web speaks to the mixed media child in me. Lynda Monk and Gina Ferrari have articles which require investigation and experiment.

I have decided that watching Andy Murray is akin to watching Dr Who, it is so nerve wracking you need to watch it from behind the sofa.

Prism...

Annual visit to Prism today.  As I walked down the Duke of Yorks steps I heard military music, now I am a sucker for a brass band and/or soldiers marching especially in London so imagine my delight when I found there was a full scale rehearsal for the Trooping of the Colour taking place. Sorry no sound which was very stirring.

I really enjoyed the exhibition this year, there was a great variety and many pieces I liked very much.  For me the highlight of the day was meeting a delightful lady called Bea Sewell.  We fell into converation admiring the work of Debbie Williams.Unfortunately I cannot find a link for Debbie.

No copyright breach intended please advise and image will be removed.

Later in the conversation  I realised that Bea was responsible for the exhibit which had kept me captivated for a long time.

 No copyright breach intended please advise and image will be removed.

All the samples on this tree are a result of natural dyes and over on the right are the most enchanting little note books which had examples of her natural dyeing experiments.  It's a good job they were tied down or else.....the little pots around the tree held examples of the plants and berries she has used.  The whole experience was a delight,  I hope to see her again at Kentwell which she told me about and which sounds a fascinating and entertaining day out.

I really found this an inspiring exhibtion this year.  Next year they have to ajust their times to fit in with the Olympics, they will be a week later i think and we will have beach volley ball on Horse Guards instead of soldiers....

PS.  When I came out I was going to take a picture of a rather magnificent Stars and Stripes I had noticed but  President Obama must have left Buckingham Palace while I was in the exhibition becasue it had already been taken down. 

A day at the seaside....

Yesterday (on the one cloudy day this week)  I went to the seaside, to Margate, the home of the brand new Turner Contemporary.  The building looks a little like a big tin shed so I took pictures of the sea instead.

 and the harbour wall indicating something special was nearby.

I could have happily have spent the whole day playing with this window!

which made full value of the nothern light which Turner loved so much about this town. i would have liked a movie camera to capture the stange effects of the replestions as people walked to and from the window,

In the galleries upstairs there was of course a Turner of the Volcano which you can see on the website, my friend and I stood before it and both felt as though we were being drawn into the painting so that details which at first were hidden became clear.  The whole painting filled with more light as we looked at it.  I have never experienced this before and would have thought it was imagining it, if my friend hadn't confirmed it.

My favourite of the artists on show in the gallery was Russel Crotty this may be because of my present interest in Sun, Moon and Stars or because of my old love of geography, lettering, the sea........whatever.....I liked it a lot.

Do click for a closer view, you will be amazed.

Margate is a town in need of a lot of TLC, so sad, but hopefully the Turner Contemporary will help fill the empty tables.

Excellent Fish and Chips at Peters Fish Factory.....good day

In control.......

I would love to have this control over my machine. this from P Nosa via Craft.  Might be fun trying.

Clever....

I don't know who created these pictures of Johhny Depp and Angelina Jolie as there is no credit on the Damn Cool Pics site , you can see more here. Fun.

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.