In the pink........

Well who would have thought it.  I read about it on  Gerdiary an of course I had to try it for myself.  What happens when you dye with avocado skins?  A beautiful lime green......no...the most notstaligic looking dusky pinks.

I peeled two avocado pears and waited until they were boiling,and added my bits and pieces, like I did with the blackcurrants. nothing seemed to happen for a while and then the materials slowly began to take the colour.  As with the blackcurrants and the snow the silk pieces gave the strongest results. Isn't nature amazing?

Some time in the winter  I read about crushing rose petals between fabric with a hammer and tucked it away as something to try. It has a proper name, "flower pounding". As our first flush of roses are just beginning to drop and I had all these lovely pink pieces to work with.I thought I would try it. I am sorry I can't remember the origianl reference but this seems to be quite a comprehensive "how to".  This is my result using rose petals, geraniums and petunias , I haven't done all the things you are supposed to do to the cloth to fix the dye so it will inevitably fade but it was fun to do.

Spirit Cloth......

...the journey continues and I am having so much fun...after making my first two bases I turned to making same elements that could be added to a cloth.  Because of my new way of thinking I call these "little harmonies" because  they were little scraps of material that came together, almost by themselves.  

I could go on making these little pieces forever, it is wonderful to put your hand in a little bag of scraps and then find little pieces that just want to be together. But the object of the course is to start to make a "spirit cloth" so here is a first thought on a new base (I could go on making these forever too)

These was a thought here but the cloth had other ideas.  I will explain later.

Now for something completely different, take a look at the wonderful  work of  mixed media artist Lisa Kokin.

 and thanks to Janne Robberstad for this link

Dreary Sunday.......

that is just the weather, I am thinking of switching on my SAD light I am so sick of grey skies. Enough! Every cloud..... as they say.  Today I have started on mt Spirit Cloth workshop in earnest.  I could almost hear the noise in the boxes as the pieces jostled for attention. These are the ones that I chose/they decided. 

apologies for wonky scan.

What will they become, I wonder.  Already "stories" are lurking around in my head.  I am loving this new way of thinking/not thinking, just waiting to see what will happen and learning to say what if.....

I made this piece after reading Jude's introduction and thinking about the picture of a feather she had posted here.  The shape of the feather resembled a knife and that brought the thought what if the knife was used to change the feather into a quill....perhaps the one Shakespeare used......books to bring colour to the world.

The silly season.......

My life seems just a tad overloaded at the moment, The Matchgirls coming up quickly, cat sitting for two sets of neighnbours, plant sitting for another, and so on and so forth.  Two escapes to hold on to though,  one is that I am excidedly waiting for the Spirit Cloth workshop to begin and when I want to shut of all together I dive into the "Celtic, Viking and Anglo Saxon Embroidery" by Jan Messent, I mentioned a short while ago.

This photograph is copyrighted and shown by kind permission of Search Press. please do not copy.

This book please on so many levels, as an inspiration and as pleasure to browse. Lavishly illustrated Jan  t decribes how she made six books  based on sources from these ancient times. She gives a brief summary of the history but the point that makes the book special for me is she emphasises the bond between stitchers now and then.  Our basic tools are the same, as are our basic stitches.In one of her books she has a page based on a Bronze Age sleeve of a garment found in Denmark, it looks very like kantha stich, so popular at the moment. 

Jan decribes the materials and techniques she has used on each page there are  beautiful illustrations.   Scattered through the book are fascinating snippets  from achives of all kinds relating to embroiderers and their work.  It makes my fingers itch and It will be a long time before I tire of delving into this book.

This photograph is copyrighted and shown by kind permission of Search Press. please do not copy.

Do click on the photos and then click again for a real close up.

For fun...

 thanks to Damn Cool Pics for the link.

A Day with Maggie Grey......

A beautiful summers day, a drive through the English countryside, a meeting with friends for a day organised by the Tunbridge Wells branch of the EG.  Congratulations to everyone involved, who must have worked so hard to organise all the bits and pieces, prepare the delicious lunch and the mountains of homemade cakes. Maggie was in fine form, always inspiring,  informative and generous, she gave two demonstrations in the morning and then in the afternoon gave a talk called "Visible to Invisible" with Clive, her husband,  working his technical wizardry to provide the stunning images. I couldn't take notes fast enough.

Unfortunately for my bank balance, Fay Maxwell and Myfanwy Hart had brought their wonderful displays of threads, materials and fun stuff.  I gave in to temptation, well , sometimes you have to don't you?  A good day.

With my cotton I bought last week I have nearly finished scarf number two but I sidetracked to make something I have been meaning to try for ages. I follow a blog called heegeldab, I can't understand the words because Marianne lives in Estonia but the pictures are wonderful. I saw a daisy necklace sometime ago loved it.  So here is mine, made from the varigated cotton.

Day out.....

I went up to see the Prism exhibition at the Mall Galleries, always a pleasure and  yesterday didn't disappoint, though I wasn't quite so bowled over as in previous years but then it is all a matter of what speaks to you. I bought a photographic permit but it is for personal use so I can't share them I'm afraid.

It was a glorious day, real flaming June and the Mall was sparkling, decked out with flags for this Saturday's Trooping  the Colour, unfortunately I am elsewhere on Saturday otherwise I would have been tempted to go and watch, I do love a military band.

The stands were ready and I found the Horse Guards Arch had a very modern halo

and St James' Park was so inviting

and in Trafalgar Square I found more elephants and this one was taking a rest in the shade.

I love these little statues which pop up all over, I would love to see them all (258!) one of the main problems is they seem to be a very popular place to eat your sandwiches!

  I popped into John Lewis and found this

No prizes for guessing what I am going to make with it.

It worked.....

Thanks to a cold, dull Bank Holiday and tennis on the TV, I finished the Meobius scarf.

This is just long enought to make a cosy neck warmer, so next time more wool, more stitches.

Going round in circles...........

One of the things I like about our EG meetings is that you never know what is going to happen, or what you are going to learn.  If we brush aside how to restore the fuses, which I didn't really want to know about, there were two other delights yesterday.  One was Susanne's demonstration of how to cast on a Moebius Scarf, this a You Tube demo link and this is a picture of mine at the moment.

I have no idea if it is correct and won't know until I cast off.  I had a terrible time fighting against "casting on " with the wool in the wrong hand.  Great fun, thanks Susanne.

The other was Fay's heads up on a new book by Jan Messent, Celtic, Viking and Anglo-Saxon Embroidery.. Gorgeous. I have ordered a copy. Thanks Fay.

I have been very remiss with my postings on Ideas of Inspiration, the first part of may was glittering gold, hope this will do.

The second part of May was the letter E, I think these will fit, I found them on my last visit to London

Just realised this one qualifies on both counts. Hurrah!

Being nosy...

I think I have a lot of stuff but Ruth Rae has just  re-organised her studio  and has posted a host of little videos giving glimpses into her collection.  Wow, how many drawers of buttons?  I have a copy of Ruth's book  "Layered, tattered & stitched"

This is a card I made

Must do more.

Lazy bones.....

lying in the sun.....yes we have sunshine, proper warm, clear blue sky sunshine. At the weekend too. What a treat.

I haven't really been lazy, spending most of my time defending my lettuce from the invasion of slimy creatures. Ugh.  I was going to cut one pot and thought "No, I'll leave that another day"  Next day...gone! Ah, the joys of vegetable gadening. 
My other achievment is that I completed my vessel from my day with  Lynda  I loved the whole process of turning a cardboard tube and a piece of felt, through this (please notice the tasteful artistic background)

to this

I have also turned the piece which started out like this.

into this book cover.

I wanted to go to Lynda's two day workshop at Art Van Go in June but unfortunately it clashes with something I haven't mentioned yet.. 

"The Matchgirls".  I have been helping out with the Youth Theatre of the society I have been associated with for 30 odd years.  I retired from "performing" some years ago,or so I thought,  but when I was asked to play a gin soaked old biddy, how could I resist?  "The Matchgirls" is a musical  based on the strike by the workers at the Bryant and May factory in 1888. One of the first time women bnded together to stand up for themselves against their working condition, which for them included the risk of  the horrors of "phossy jaw".     I am putting the costumes together which is going very slowly at the moment and gives me a huge guilt complex if I pick up any other kind of sewing. 

But for now the sun is shining and the garden beckons.  Have a good weekend.

Go look see......

The best of International Garden Photographer 2010 in The Guardian. I just love this  photograph of a pear by Magdalena Wasiczek (if the link doesn't work just Google her name for some stunning photographs.)

There are 18 other photographs on the Guardian site

  No intended breach of copyright, please contact if you have a problem and the post will be removed.

What a day this has been............................

a day with Purple Missus.  Early this morning I had a look at Lynda's blog and voted on the quilts she had there, a few hours later I was touching the real things. Magic.
If you follow Lynda's blog you can imagine what a wonderful day we have had.  We have played with scrim, Lutradur, pelmet vilene, Xpandaprint, gesso, paint, heat guns, soldering irons, machine stitching and good old fashioned hand stitiching. There was not one piece of work which was like another, each piece was an example of its makers creativity.
 This is a piece I did with Lutradur, Xpandaprint, ink and salt and a little touch of paint

and this was the piece of kitchen roll I had underneath it.

Same paint, same salt, different fabric.

I meant to re-do this but became so busy I forgot.  Lynda in full flow.

and these were some of the beautiful example she brought with her.

Can't wait for tomorrow when I can continue the story when I do the next stages on my own "vessel". If you ever have the chance to do a workshop with her, grab it she will get your creative juices. 

 Wait for a twenty minutes for a bus and then two come along at once!

I have been stagnating for ages.  Two days ago I was  lucky enough to secure a place on the  course with Jude of Spirit Cloth, I am so excited and, now today,  something at the other end of the textile spectrum a workshop which has awakened all my love of texture and rust and mixed media. 

What a great couple of  days these  have been..............

Waitrose 1, Sainsbury's 0 ........

When I spend money, I like good, pleasant service.  I know, I know but I am just an old fashioned girl.  Last week Waitrose and Sainsbury's were out of items I buy regularly.  I made enquiries as to what had happened, both stores promised to investigate and call me.  Waitrose rang later the same day, ten days later I am still waiting to hear from Sainsbury's. Marks and Spencer are minus 59 at the moment. I won't bore you with the details, it would take too long.

Here is a combination of my favourite store, John Lewis  and one of my favourite singers, Billy Joel.


I am not really wanting to advertise,  I just think this is clever and charming.

Top marks to the lady in the Post Office this morning when I had to organise a complicated,  special, registered package. She dealt with it all with such patience.

Let's all complain when we have bad service and find someone to pass on a commendation for good service. Perhaps that way shopping may become more of a pleasure. I feel better now,  it's a long time since I had a rant.

Now would anyone like to hear my views on Self Service Tills??????????????

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.



 .

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!!!!