Day 2.....

The Sea of Marmara and Dikili. Could a non sailor ask for a calmer sea than this.  We had to keep checking to make sure we were moving.

This is the whirlpool on our deck, can you feel the heat?

A little more exploration found the corridor to the main restaurant

and the library

Another visitor to Dikili, one of the Wind Star yachts.

There was trip to Bergama Pergamon but we were saving ourselves for Ehphesus.

This is deck 8

The "round window" is the roof of the spa and in the bottom left are the tables of the Patio.  Lunch here was perhaps one of my favourite parts of the whole journey. A glass of ice cold pino grigio and a buffet with everything from gaspacho to beef burgers. Salads, pizzas, dips the choice was bewildering but the chips(fries)......aah the chips, simply the best I have ever tasted.  We tried to find the secret but all we could get was that they were fried and then dipped in some magic formula and then fried again.  Oh, I miss those chips.

As we slip away from Dikili in the evening sun

I leave you with this detail from one of the sculptures on board to play with.

First day.......

This is the easiest method of spreading a flavour of our wonderful holiday among my friends, so here goes.  I will try to include at least one "arty" photograph which you are welcome to download and use in any way you want.

Day one: we flew to Istanbul. If we had been wiser we would have gone the day before so that we could see something of the city!. As it was we had a bus to the yacht.  In the bay I have never seen so many commercial ships in one place.  I lost count at 48. Do click on all the photos for a closer view.

At the port we were welcomed with cold towels (something which became a feature) and a cool drink.  ID photos were taken and then we were welcomed on board.

 We joined our luggage in out cabin which you have seen and this is the bathroom.

 

We found our daughter and then went out on deck to watch the departure from Istanbul

Then a tour of the yacht to get to know it.

The tables in the bottom left hand corner is The Patio which became our favourite lunchtime spot and served the best chips in the whole world.

First of many wonderful meals in the restaurant and then bed,

Every evening  these were the sights that greeted us at the end of the day, with the addition of a few suprises (as you will see) provided by our wonderful strewardess Diana. On the board was the itinerary and menus  for the next day.

An today's "arty", this is the central staircase.

Have fun.

Holiday of a lifetime........

that is the only way to describe it.  Because our daughter is presently working on a cruise ship I stifled my dislike of water and we joined the Seabourn Odyssey  in Istanbul for two weeks of sheer heaven. One of the reasons for my prolonged silence is that I was so terrified that we wouldn't be able to get there because of the possibility of a strike at the airports I couldn't think of anything else.. Happily all my worry was for nothing .  I promise not to show you all of the 1762 photographs I  took but here are just a few to give you a taster 

The Odyssey in Kotor, Croatia

Our suite

and just one of the stunning places we visited.

This is Oia on Santorini, a dream of mine for many years which didn't disappoint.  I have pictures of our favourites,   peeling paint  and rust but for now back to the washing!

Who is GaGa me or SAGA?...................................

It is a long time since I had a rant!... Three weeks ago DH renewed our car insurance with Saga.  Two forms, one cheque in the same envelope.  He received his new cover note but I didn't.  We waited a couple of days to take account of the variance of 2nd class post and then I telephoned to find out if  my car insurance was on the way.  No!...........because he had paid on one cheque "they" decided that he had overpaid and they were returning a cheque for the over payment.  No one could  explaine what had happened to my original form but they would send me some more forms.  They sent the forms which we completed and sent off with a new cheque. As of today still no "over payment "cheque! Another phone call tomorrow!!
That was yesterday.  I was told that I had now been insured and the second cheque would be returned to us.   Today my cover note arrived but another phone call had to be made because,  on checking the bank, they had cleared both the original cheque and the second one.  I was told it will take TEN DAYS to issue the cheque for the money they owe us.   Luckily for you words fail me and I won't even start on the press this button, key in this number calls I had to tell the bank we were going on holiday.

Photo is me as Old Min in "The Matchgirls".
I

Beast and birds.......

Last week my friend Annie came to stay and we went walking. I won't mention the 145 almost vertical steps, on our first walk, the pain is still too close......We took a lovely walk through the woods from Westerham, around past Chartwell and back to Westerham. I am really enjoying my Patchwork Beast class with Jude Hill at the moment and some sort of heightened awareness had me finding "beasts" at every turn. Camel anyone?

A horned beast

I had put together a cloth in the Spirit Cloth class and was going to add a Beast but the cloth had other ideas.

It is called "Love at First Sight".......... I don't know why, it just is.  I am loving these classes.

Here is me best beast find....a little green man sleeping with a baby dragon....

honest...click and have a close look.

Snow in summer....

Last winter I tried snow dying, now in the summer I have been using some of the cloth.  This was mainly from the second batch which wasn't as vibrant as the first. 

This is my Doodle Bag, it was made for the EG South East Area Day. I outlined the colour areas on the cloth and then filled each one with a different stitch. The bag is made from purple dupion lined with lime green.

The odd  bits of cloth have been joined together as part of the classes I am taking with Jude Hill and form the base for the piece I am working on at the moemnt.

More seaside.....

The Spirit Cloth workshop has finished, this is my first completed cloth....

or as Jude would say "what if it isn't finished?" Is that a star fish or is it the man who fell to earth?

My thanks to my friend Gudrun who gave me the lace piece which was the basis of my story. I have a book full of notes and a head full of ideas and  fingers itching to stitch and build.

A day at the seaside....

I have a new toy and a day out in Deal with my friend Pam where there was an open studios event was not to be missed on all levels.We had a  lovely day though we only visited a few studios as being one of the hottest days of the year we were drawn to the sea and then to a delicious lunch and of course I had to play wiith my new Lumix FZ38.  Before I show some of the shots I have to tell of a remarkable co-incidence.  At one of the studios I was fascinated by two "Cabinets of Curiosities".  These looked like the kind of exhibits that you used to see in a small town museum when I was a child but closer inspection of the labels showed that things were not always what they seemed. Do have a look, amongst the real curiosities were sly little jests such as a broken empty eggshell labelled "Curate's eggshell. The good and bad parts have been removed" and my personal favourite "the invisible bottle" When he was working on the first cabinet David became "interested in the authority of the label and the fact that a label can convince its readers that what is stated is correct"(Remind you of some textile labrels you have read?) Fascinating stuff which made you want to create your own cabinet, the co-incidence was, that out of the few studios we visited, David Nicholls  had actually done a very successful workshop on Celtic Design for us at Sevenoaks EG in May this year.
Here are a few experiments with my new camera.

Middle Street

                                                                        The Beach

A bronze of brave men.

These two are adjusted in Paintshop Pro to highlight the amazing fog bank that was off shore.

 

and finally if found a friend for the little stone I found two years ago.

Lovely day, thanks Pam.

Time....

for a little progress.  Thiis is my experiment with ragged aplique on the Spirit Cloth workshop

I wanted to do a hare, but he became a ragged rabbit. 

This is my next experiment with a ragged mask

I do love making these little pieces and I love the way they want to link to other pieces. 

 I am still working on my seaside piece, other thoughts gathering on it.

 I thought Wimbledon was a bit of a damp sqib this year.Apart from the marathon match there was nothing to keep me on the edge of my seat.  Still it was a good excuse to sit and stitch.

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.