A wonderful day....

and by that I mean a day full of wonders.
But first I must say thank you to those kind people who who sent me birthday wishes and commented on my last post. Comments from people whose work you admire are always precious.

For my birthday my best friend bought me and Art Fund card. What a wonderful present, I couldn't wait to start using it so I planned to visit the Oiticica exhibition at the Tate Moderen. I told Ken I would be back by lunchtime and on a beautiful golden September morning (I love my birth month) I took the train to London Bridge and thought I would walk along the South Bank of the Thames. As I walked from the train I thought "I have never visited Southwark Cathedral". So as there was no rush I made the deviation and found myself in the middle of Borough Market. What a delight, I am sure that this is one of those places that everyone but me knows about but for me it was a revelation, I was able to buy a piece of Ginger Parkin for my Yorkshire born husband and for my Lancastian self I bought Morecame Bay Shrimps. There was so much else I could have bought, here is a taste.(sorry about the pun)




I tore myself away from the sights and sounds and the tastes of the market and realised that I still hadn't visited the cathedral. It was worth the visit, although Shakespeare was buried in Stratford, I believe, there is a memorial to him here as it was so close to where here worked at the Globe Theatre.
As I finally made my way toward Tate Modern I realised that there was more activity than normal but then it was a beautiful day. I went to the Oiticia exhibition which made me think about using squares and oblongs. I promised myself I would try some different page layouts. I do not understand "modern" art I only know there are pieces that I like for their colour or form, I wish I knew more but it is like music there is a point where it appears to hold nothing for me. (Pop music stopped with Billy Joel as far as I 'm concerned:-))
When I came out, ready to quickly make my way to Charing Cross and home I realised that there was definitely something going on, when else do you have people dancing tango on the south bank of the Thames? It was in fact the Thames Festival . It took me three more hours before I reached Charing Cross as I enjoyed music from all over the world, dancing, bubbles, Punch and Judy, stalls and food and hundreds of people enjoying the autumn sunshine. What a delight.




I finished up in the newly refurbished Royal Festival Hall,where there was a "happening" organised by [re]design where various organisations had come together to allow all kinds of creativity, making badges from scaps of fabric, monsters from recycled blankets, knitted plastic bags, stools from old newspapers and a wish bench from old cardboard.
I made my wish and crossed the Hungerford bridge for home. I sat on the train with my mind teaming with ideas that will probably never see the light of day but THIS day was a rare and special treat.

Well now.........

A busy week which started with my birthday on Sunday, 66 on the 99, I thought there should be something terribly significant about it appears not. Unless it marks an acceleration of the crumbling process, which is a very poor attempt at a link for the Lutradur and Lace challenge on the Fibre and Stitch Group .
Pictures are worth a thousand etc... so here are the stages.

I was tempted to leave it at this stage but I can't resist trying to see what will happen if.....so I added organza, zapped and then leaves
.
Beads came next

Still not satified I zapped again...and the piece is now called Atumn, Bounty and Decay which makes it a very appropriate piece for my birthday.

I may add some more stitching and it needs mounting on a proper background, I think it will probably end up as the cover of a book.

The Missing Link....................

TAST week 36 and Cable Chain Stitch. I had a little trouble with the twist to start off with but then I was away and running out of thread was the only thing which stopped me. This is definitely one of the repertoire.


Almost inevitably this became a chain and I added the missing link, sometime in the future I would like to try and use this stitch for something like a charm bracelet.

Who's a lucky girl then...

What a lovely way to start the week.

The first thing that dropped through my door today was this lovely scrim I had ordered from Lynda, Purple Missus.
The depth of the colours is wonderful.


While I was still admiring the scrim another package came through the door and this was from Britt, Stitcherty Grub .


Don't you just love that sleepy little koala bear?

The bottom ATC has a little story attached.

Once upon a time a lowly duster crossed land and sea until it reached a far away land, this must have been a magical place for when the little piece of duster finally arrived home it was transformed into something sparkly and beautiful!!!
Ir this the most travelled ATC I ask myself. Thanks Britt, what fun.

But that wasn't all,


Britt also sent this card, her wonderful little scrissor-keeper (makes it so easy to find your scissors) and a bag or wonderful bits.

Well this was all too much for me, I headed for my workroom and my embellisher and this is the reult. Some of Lynda's scrim, some or Britts threads, and a bit of organza, no idea in my head but this is what appeared.


There are only three stitches in this piece, those holding down the "eye", the rest is all the embellisher. Marvellous machine!

Information overload..................

This weekend I have experienced what can only be called an information overload, on the same day I received Fibre and Stitch, Cloth, Paper and Scissors and yesterday, Workshop on the Web., not to ignore the fact that I hadn't yet completed my TAST this week.

CPS and WOW were both very good issues and right up to standard, F&S, if it keeps up this standard, will be very good and at the moment the Yahoo Group for F&S(which is by invite), has so many messages,that I can't keep up.

But now to this weeks TAST. When I read Shisha stitch my heart sank as I once spent a miserable afternoon in a Workshop trying to come to attach a mirror. Suprisingly I couldn't find the mirror!! But I did find some large sequins and managed, hoorah, to fix them to the cloth. Thanks Sharon!!! I always associate India with bright rich colours mainly because of this small but brilliant Phaidon book on India so here is my TAST sample for this week.

Not as bright as in reality but my computer seems to have a problem with red and pinks. Little does it know it is soon to be replaced. I hope!!!

What I did.... and other matters.....

First of all thanks to Gerry and Gail who like the post on Japanese wrapping. I guess you quilting ladies could make some really wonderful wrapppings. If I haven't mentioned it before(and I have been known to repeat myself!!!) what I really admire about quilters is their neatness and precision. If I could buy it, I would. I am a Virgo and we are supposed to be meticulous in all we do. I am the exception that proves the rule.....

Essential information, Sharon B can now be found here.. All the best with the new site Sharon, I don't envy her the amount of transferring she is having to do. And so To TAST. Portugese stem stitch, I really like this stitch, and will mark it as a favourite. Just a quick memo piece.


You will have probably gathered by now that even by English standards we have been having a rotten summer but yesterday the sunshine returned. Now does anyone agree with me that there is something that happens to the sun in late August, the sunshine that we had today is a compeletly different colour to the sunshine we had a couple of week ago. For me the Summer has turned toward Autumn. My son will inform me that Autumn does not start until the end of September and my husband, bless, just says "Yes, dear" when I start talking about the quality of the light! Whatever, yesterday in the golden light I decided it was a lovely day to work outside and I took Beryl Taylor's wonderful book as a starter and made this "fabric" paper. I don't know yet what I'm going to do with it but I'm really pleased with the way it turned out. I went to look for a link to Beryl's book and found she now has a web site and blog.



I also added to a piece I was making using the Purple Missus technique, I added some paper napkin images and some dried flowers, it isn't finished yet but was pleased with the way it looks so far.

Very autumnal I think, tee hee!!!!!

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.