A real gentleman......

We were looking forward to having Lorna Bateman talk to us at EG this weekend, her talk was to be called "An Africa Experience". Unfortunately due to the volcanic cloud disruption Lorna was actually marooned in Africa. We hope she can come to us another time.  To cut a long story short we were more than fortunate to have Richard Box take her place. Generous, informative and very funny, what more could you ask in a speaker. My piece of paper was covered in notes which I hope I can decipher. I bought his book "Drawing Techniques" and I am kicking my self for not buying his DVD "Drawing for the Terrified". Richard  confessed to not being very computer oriented and  mystified us when he talked about "up-building" photographs to a computer . I have "up-built"  Richard on You Tube.



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Teesha Moore has posted 4 video tutorials on making fabric journal covers.  Looks like a fun way to reduce stash.

No flights......

I'm doing my own thing!

My sympathies to all those affected by lack of flights.  I think, by now, everyone in the UK must know someone who has had their holiday cancelled or who has had a struggle to get home.

I think I have said before, I don't know why we ever need to fight amongst ouselves, Mother Nature will win out every time.

A Novel idea.....

in a report from The Guardian of a  Sewing Cafe in Paris where you can hire a sewing machine or just stop in for a coffee and a chat. Could it catch on here in the UK?

Last Wednesday, as I think I mentioned, I went to the Van Gogh Exhibition at the Royal Academy of Art. Having left it too late to pre book a ticket I joined the queue, two and a half hours someone said, "no", I thought, " can't possibly be that long"...............................two and a half hours later I climbed the steps to the exhibition rooms!  Fortunately my time had been passed in conversation with two charming and very different gentleman.  I thank you gentlemen for your company and your fascinating conversation.

I loved the exhibition based on Vincent's letters to his brother Theo.  More than once I overheard the comment, that,  without Theo there would have been no Van Gogh!  The letter had wonderful little drawings where Vincent explained to Theo  the paintings he had just created.  In some cases, for me,  more touching than the paintings themselves.

Here is my contribution to this months Ideas of Inspiration, the theme is Yellow.  Who was, for me the master of yellow?  Van Gogh.  Here, with apologies to Vincent,  is my "Sun"

and from a Calendar Girls swap,  a couple of years back, some "Sunflowers".

From the sublime(Vincent's.... not mine) back to reality I am off to watch the first "debate" of the Party Leaders.!!!

A couple of years back I discovered Scribbler and played with it lots and then I forgot about it while I played with  newer toys.....today Deb had a link to, not only Scribbler but, heaven help us, Version 2.

and how about a rose!

I'm supposed to be doing the washing!

Give a girl an idea......

My last post was about making fabric roses, this is my latest.. made from another of John Lewis' faux batik cottons and bits.

Lynda picked up on this, from myself and Doreen, being Lynda she took it to a whole different dimension.  Talk about outside the box.  Go look here.  Gorgeous.

On my "to do" list is a visit to the V&A to see the quilts exhibition which is on until July, having nearly missed the Van Gogh exhibition at the Royal Academy(more of this later)  I found this fascinating video while checking the dates and then wandering around the excellent V& A site. If you like quilts take a moment to look.  Tracy Chevalier wrote "Girl with a Pearl Earing" so I look forward to the book she was researching.

There is also,( heaven help us, I'll never get anything done),  a wall of quilts where you can add your own quilt. Here is one I recognised from the blogs I follow. Deb of More Whiffs, Glimmers and Leftovers

Quilt of Quilts

Stars Out of Place

View this quilt on the V&A website

http://www.vam.ac.uk/microsites/quilts/quilt/detail/id/597

No wonder I'm always running out of time!!!!

Last week Ati's Little World  had pictures of shabby chic roses ,she gave a link to Anni's blog and Anni she gave a link to the tutorial by Roben-Marie. So here are the roses I've made.

Fun and quick to make, and really give a lift to an old cardigan. I love this sharing community.

I made a necklace as well

 The black links are fishing swivels,

 a tip given to me a by a lady whose necklace I admired.  I believe you can buy them in other finishes but my local  fishing tackle shop only had black,  The advantage is because they swivel the necklace hangs well.

No fooling..........

..............just Happy Easter.

Fame at last.....

I just want to thank  Maggie Grey for mentioning my blog as part of her article on Textile blogs in the Workbox Magazine. I was so thrilled. 

Another lovely surprise in the latest issue of Stitch was to find an article, again by Maggie, on Lynda Monk and Carol McFee.  As you know, I'm a fan.

Day out continued....

I am still managing on my laptop, my hard drive had been corrupted and I am waiting to get it back and, more importantly to see what has been saved.  Fortunately I have a fairly recent backup so hopefully it won't be too bad.

I promised the other part of my lovely day out.

After leaving Margaret I went to the British Museum to re-visit the Dark Ages galleries and also to see a part of the Stafforshire hoard which was on show.  It was great to see these objects just as they had been found, encrusted in mud, with the gold gleaming through.   Sandy has some great pictures on her blog, my camera wasn't up to the task.

From there, a quick visit to the Cloth House for a browse, an eaves drop on a guy who was buying yards of fabric to make a sort of seaside tent  and a very small purchase, just half a metre of this

Don't ask, I haven't a clue what I'm going to do with it.

Next port of call was the stangely named Haunch of Venison which I didn't know existed until Margaret  told me.  So pleased she did as I was able to catch the final days of an exhibition by Chiharu Shiota. 

This wonderful structure was made of window frames, it made you just want to wander round and gaze up and through, and I so wanted to sit on one of the chairs. 

In the next room was something completely different! Click on the photographs for a closer view.

Like something out of Sleeping Beauty, this webbing was all made out of thread, apparently it took two weeks to install, but how one would know where to start I can't imagine.  I took this from inside a web tunnel, it was an amazing feeling.

In the next room were some smaller pieces  

No less amazing in how they had been constructed.

This wasn't all but will have to do for now. 

Hurrah.....

today it was  warm enough to brave the draughty station platforms so I took myself to London.  I had a special reason for wanting to go up, for some time I have been following Margaret Cooter as she took a foundation course in Art and Design at the City Lit college in London.  Today was the first day of their graduate showcase. I enjoyed the exhibition as a whole but I thought Margaret's little corner was very special. Named "Journey" and made of paper clay tablets on long fragile legs it is a piece which changes from every angle.

This is the base of the "staircase"

which Margaret describes as being like those "we find ourselves climbing constantly in nightmares"

On the wall was part of her "travel writing"the aim of which is to "draw a straight line ata constant speed, perhaps pausing at station stops - making real-time records of invisible spaces.

Here Margaret is showing her current piece of "travel writing"

also in the photo is Sandy Snowden who I was pleased to meet along with Carol Wilkes, and we had a lovely discussion about rust dying.  How civilised is that?  ( I'm sorry I didn't get the gentleman's name)

On they way out there was more of Margaret's work. 

I loved these. 

Apologies for the standard of the photographs, my proper PC is in dock so I haven't been able to tweak. It is always good to meet fellow bloggers and this was no exception. More if my super day out later in the week when, hopefully, I will have my machine back.

The sun is shining......

the birds are doing their thing.  Yeah.

This morning, inspired in part by Lynda's blog and part by a Mother's Dat gift from my son of some holographic embossing powder (along with some interesting papers) and probably by the sunshine, I had a little play.  Ages since I've done anything like this.

I unearthed a piece which I had made when taking the workshops on Fibre in-Form, Scrunched up torn fabric, stitched onto pelmet vilene I had painted it with blue and bronze acrylics from Atlantis Art Materials and then I started in with the holographic powder.  I was still lacking something so I dug out my gold flakes and added them till I was happy.

I then mounted it behind a samll gold frame, it is only just over 5"x5"

The may be a week to go but as far as I am concerned today is the first day of Spring.

Snow cloth finished.

When I was wondering how to proceed,  Jude gave me the advice to "let it do", such advice is precious and I tried to follow it.  I outlined the the main areas of colour and then I started to fill them in just as I would when doodling.  As I worked I realised that there were even more subtle changes of colour so then became a little area too.  I  tried to use a different stitch for each area just as I would make different marks.

The colours are still not quite right, I've tried indoors and out.  There is much more contrast between the purples and green. For the moment I have turned it into a bag which I will use for the EG South East Area Day Tote challenge, I have made it so that it can be converted into a cushion later on.  It has taken me two months and I have to say I enjoyed every minute.  I would like to try it again sometime, either with stronger colours or  maybe in monochrome.

When I was chosing the material for the backing the salesgirl in John Lewis said "Well, the embroidery's quite RAW!".  I smiled sweetly and said "I think you mean FREE!". Everyone's a critic!!!

I don't want to gossip.....

but did you know that a certain lady of uncertain years is spending a lot of time with this young man.

OK I'll confess.  I was given a Wii Fit Plus for Christmas and over the last few weeks I have slipped into the habit  of spending 20 minutes each morning with "my trainer".  I strive for perfection in the hope that he will say "You're postures fantastic.".(He is not giving me a gold star here, it is just the flash on the TV screen) Seriously I am really enjoying using the system and I am beginning to see the benefits apart from having a good giggle. You should see me trying to fly in my chicken suit! I leave you with that thought, I hasten to add I have absolutely no affliation .

How to amuse the children.....

Official video for  "This Too Shall Pass" from the album "Of the Blue Colour of the Sky" by OK Go.  Thanks to Damn Cool Pics. 

I want to play!

EG...

Todays speaker was Louise Jessup, her talk was called "A Journey in Mental Health with Textiles as a Companion".   The work she had to show us came from the last eight years, her recovery years, because although she had turned to textiles many times duing her illness she had destroyed all her pieces as not being of any worth.  Louise told her story with humour and honesty. Very moving and thought provoking. You can read more about Louise here

February fill dyke is certainly living up to its reputation and it isn't as beautiful as this painting by Benjamin Williams Leader which is in the Birmingham Art Gallery

Something special....

Jude Hill of Spirit Cloth has produced a video, the first of a series, she promises, where you can watch her actually creating a cloth.  I found a wonderful calm watching the gentle rhythm of her stitching.  Go here and enjoy.

Don't mention....

Sat Nav to me!!!   I trusted the *'*^ thing and where did it land me?.......In the middle of a housing estate....where fortunately I found a lovely family just going out to do their Saturday shopping.  Dad said in his lovely Suffolk accent, "Oh no, Love you're miles away".... Great! I was already late,  but he gave me excellent directions and, if by some miracle he ever comes across this, I thank him for getting me where I was supposed to be just the teensy's bit late.......well actually he wasn't the only one...when I overshot my excellent directions, there was the other lovely gentleman,, just setting out for his morning walk, who set me right.  Suffolk is a lovely county, I even saw a beautiful Suffolk Pink cottage and what looked like a Watermill as I flashed by.

Where was I going?  For a lovely day out, taking part in a Transfer Painting on Lutradur with Dijane Cevaal at the invitation of Sandy Marcoux.  I took loads of photographs because Dijane had many examples of her striking work with her but you must go to her site to see these.  These are our papers drying in the sunshine 

and these are some papers made with some of Dijane's wonderful lino cuts.

I have to admit that I was having such a good making papers and listening to the fascinating conversations that I didn't get round to getting my machine out, (watch this space) but I came away so full of ideas.  As per usual  I find it difficult to be "creative" in a workshop environment but I am hoping that the ideas are going to flow when I get into my own room.  Thank you Dijane and Sandy for a good day.

Coming home?  Well, I didn't need my Sat Nav so I did it in 40 minutes less!!!

Waiting......

...for spring,... maybe, I don't know what I'm waiting for but everything seems to be on hold at the moment. Here are a few more bits of my snowcloth, nearly there now

Yesterday the sun shone and it was light until after 5pm, today grey murk again....so I'll keep on waiting.

This weather......

At 4.45 this evening I went upstairs on a lovely sunny evening, this is what I saw

The white blob is a reflection . Actually the Dartford Bridge was clearer than this, as though it was in a spotlight but I had to run downstairs for my camera.

This was seconds later

and then

it moved to quickly and then suddenly we were in the middle of a blizard, it went so dark.In ten minutes our clear road was completely covered,

DH spotted these on the greenhouse when he went out to put the heater on.

Nature never fails to amaze and inspire.