Ragged Old Blogger

A Nice Way to Spend a Cold Morning.

2012-01-31T12:05:00.000-08:00

Burnt offerings? Not quite - they are malt loaves made with dark sugar so are very dark anyway.
They are slightly overcooked even though I checked on them after only 40mins when the recipe said to bake them for an hour. Luckily they haven't dried out and still taste good.
I just had to taste the malt extract and it took me back to early childhood when I was given a spoonful every morning - lovely stuff - I had forgotten it's glorious gloopy stickiness.
My next effort was more successful but I have made this recipe several times and on the first occasion had to reduce the cooking time drastically and cover the cake with foil to prevent overbrowning. I really should get my cooker thermostat checked - my cookery books are full of little scribbled notes about reduced cooking times.
This mornings cookery splurge was on account of two over-ripe bananas which gave rise to this banana bread and then one thing led to another.

I found an interesting little cookery book in a charity shop and came across a recipe for Yorkshire Curd Tart. I remember how delicious it was when we stopped for tea in a little tea shop in Yorkshire on holiday years ago. This one seemed to turn out well though here again I checked before the alloted time and found it was ready. It's delicious and incase any purists out there think it doesn't look quite right, blame it on the cottage cheese which was low fat. I'm not sure how authentic my recipe is and a proper curd tart would probably be made with real curd cheese.

I shall slice the loaves in a minute and pack them in boxes and freeze them - out of harm's way! I'm not sure that the curd tart will freeze successfully - what a shame!!

Spring IS on the way, inspite of the forecast.

2012-01-29T05:16:00.000-08:00

I have been enjoying these white hellebores since Christmas - although they are known as Christmas roses they have never flowered at Christmas for me before.

Then, this morning I noticed a clump of these lovely pink ones and just had to get out there with my camera. On the other side of the garden there is a large clump of dark pinkish red ones which are still well hidden under their leaves and usually appear later in the year. There is also a clump of creamy yellow ones swamped by some tazzy dead grass, but I am loath to cut it all away incase the forecast for severe weather is correct.

I even spotted tiny catkins forming on the contorted hazel. I love the shapes made by the twigs. There is a tree-lined footpath beside our house and I can see the early signs of silver birch and alder catkins through the window, and the buds on the willow tree are just beginning to form with promise of pussy willow catkins before much longer.

We have lots of snowdrops now, all acquired from a small clump from our previous garden when we moved here many years ago. I'm so pleased they are happy in our soil and love them. It always surprises me that such a tiny, dainty, delicate plant can survive some really harsh conditions.

These are the first crocus to appear in our garden, with what could be more just to the left of them in the photo. I have almost given up trying to grow yellow ones as the birds eat them as soon as they flower.

I thought this post would give us all a lift in the event of the UK being under a layer of snow next week! I hope winter gets a wriggle on and does it's bit as I want to get out there and tidy up as soon as I feel a bit more lively - I think I must be the custodian of the National Collection of weeds!

This, or the phone, is the safest way of communicating with people at the moment, though I am so much better than I was. I've had real flu twice in my life and it's nowhere near as bad as that, but it is more than just an ordinary cold and I'd hate to pass it on.

Keep safe, keep warm and if you see a germ coming your way, hold your nose and duck!

Sniff, sniff - cough, cough - glub, glub!

2012-01-26T06:19:00.000-08:00

Four more pages from my book - sorry they are rather dark but the light has been awful for the past couple of days.

I have an absolute stinker of a cold and really need at least one extra hand while photographing - two for the photos and one for mopping my nose almost continuously.

I have to keep the pages pinned together so that when I come to assemble them, they will be in the right order. A great deal of muttering goes on as I check and double-check that they are all where they should be.

I wondered why I had kept that skeleton holly leaf all this time!

I should be doing more course work but don't think I can concentrate at present so might just do a bit more page edging which doesn't require much imagination.

Avoid the germs and keep healthy!

My little tatty book.

2012-01-22T02:37:00.000-08:00

These are the first four pages of my Tree Ogham book. It is a little more colourful than appears in these photos and is taking on a character all it's own. It is nothing like the way I first imagined it. It was never going to be elegant - I can't do elegant - but it is quite a bit more rustic than I planned.

I am limited by the size of the pages, which started out as one very long strip cut to size for another project which didn't come to fruition. I need ten pairs of pages for this book so here again the size was determined for me.

The tattiness really took shape when I was looking for an edging cord or binding and found some sari yarn which I couched down. Originally I had planned to stitch a neat machined edging but with some of my more chunky embellishments there was not enough room for the foot of the machine to get all the way round, so I had to work by hand.

I have joined each pair of pages, wrong sides together, with buttonhole stitch. What a good job I like handstitching so much - it takes ages!

I have also discovered that I am becoming less nervous of drawing if I tear an irregular piece of paper to the size and shape I need, distress the edges with Tim Holtz Distress Ink, and then start to draw. I colour the sketches with water soluble pencils which blend beautifully and add a little water to bring out the colour. I always got better results from doodling on the back of an envelope than from trying to draw seriously and 'properly'.

The fabric I am working on is a firm calico which I painted while wet. I have ironed it many times to get rid of the creases, without success. They do however give an interesting visual texture and add to the general tattiness! I had plans for a rather grand cover, but need a tatty one now to be in keeping with the pages.

I am off now to finish work on the first chapter of module 2 of my online course, then I can post that on my other blog.

Stocking up for winter!

2012-01-14T07:33:00.000-08:00

I had a parcel from Rainbow Silks yesterday, and among run-of-the-mill but useful stuff like calico, muslin and Bondaweb which I didn't bother to photograph, were these lovely machine embroidery threads. Nice to know that some of the products The Thread Studio sells are available here in the UK.

Also yesterday, I downloaded Module 2 of my coursework, so I shall be kept fully occupied for the next two or three months.

I bought this book a few weeks back and Lynda now offers free online courses for those who have it. I downloaded the first one today. More hours in each day please!She is very generous in explaining her techniques, and there are several ways of achieving wonderful results, so sure to be something for everyone.

When we were out on Thursday I came upon these gorgeous paints at such a good price I went a bit mad. I think the shop must have been clearing it's stock of them as in the past I have paid far more.

Some of the colours look a bit garish here but in fact are gorgeous and all intermixable. They are manufactured especially for use on fabric but seem to work on many more surfaces and go a long way.

In the same shop I found this little packet of wood slices - they are about an inch and a half long and quite thin. I think that two of them may well find their way onto a couple of my book pages.

We chose the perfect job for the coldest day of the year so far, and had to anchor one of the pond plants which I had repotted. It had been in a special floating pot but went missing until we found that it had sunk and was at the bottom of the pond! It definitely wasn't the morning for messing about in ice-cold water trying to fix things with frozen fingers. All seems to be well and our fixings will be hidden once the plants start putting on growth.

Another week bites the dust.

2012-01-08T07:47:00.000-08:00

Where does the time go? At least I have managed two short spells of gardening this weekend and tidied up a little. Today's efforts were spent on trying to eradicate the oh-so-pretty-sounding little white alliums that I planted a few years ago. They should come with a warning! For the past two years I have thoroughly dug over various parts of the garden and thought each time I had seen the last of them but each year, up they pop again, and usually in the middle of a lovely clump of something precious. I shifted another bucketful this morning. I daresay I'll find more as the year progresses.

I haven't been able to enrol for the next module of the Creative Sketchbooks course yet, owing to a computer glitch, so I have been amusing myself with a bit more hopefully creative recycling.

I recently read a fascinating little book by Karen Cater called the Ogham Sketchbook and thought it would be nice to make a much simplified fabric version of my own.

Karen writes: 'In ancient times, our Celtic Druid ancestors devised a system, part alphabet, part calendar/zodiac, which could be carved using simple notches onto wood or stone. Each character was a number and a letter. The consonants were time periods - mostly Lunar months - and the vowels were the soltices and equinoxes. Each symbol represented a tree or shrub, around which grew an extensive mythology. To the Celts, the whole landscape was alive with meaning and wisdom - the wisdom of the trees.'

Below is the first page of my book, the background of which was to have been a backing for another piece of work, and the other fabric components also started life being prepared for something else. B in the Ogham alphabet, stands for Beithe or Birch and represents the first Lunar month - 24th Dec - 20th Jan. It represents 'new beginnings' and the number 1.
I plan to add either a drawing of a birch leaf and catkin(s) or fabric and stitch versions to the right hand side of the page and there will be some kind of narrow border round each page. As usual, with all the handling, the pages get rather crumpled and will need a good press when they are completely finished.

The second letter of the Ogham alphabet is L for Luis or Rowan whose dates are 21st Jan - 17th Feb. It's meaning is 'quickening' or 'magic'. I have found several variations among the various books I have used to research this project, which can be confusing, but I shall try to stick to just one source for my information.
There are twenty letters in all as the vowels represent only one day each and not an entire month.
I played around with various ways of making the letters as I wanted each page to have it's own identity and not look like all the others. These below didn't make the grade although the shapes are alright. I like the B and M but the thread I used to create them didn't look right against their pages.

I wanted each letter to be more or less the same size, so cut a piece of cereal box into 2" squares and drew them on those. Having a template for each one makes life much easier as I can draw round it on the back of a piece of fabric with no lines showing on the front, or mark out my area on a piece of soluble fabric before machine embroidering the shape.

Plenty more to get on with! Eighteen more to do plus the leaves, fruit, catkins or whatever, to think about.

And I haven't given a thought to the cover yet.

Making a colourful mess.

2012-01-01T02:51:00.000-08:00

I had a lovely time yesterday, painting various types of paper. I spread sheets newspaper over a large sheet of plastic to protect the dining table, then put my pieces of assorted paper, etc., on top.
Above is Bondaweb which goes into lovely ripples when you paint it with very watery acrylics.

Then I did a couple of sheets of Tyvek which, in case you don't already know, has a plastic feel to it and distorts drastically either with heat from an iron or heat tool. It makes lovely beads if cut into narrow strips and rolled up before heating.

Things get a bit tricky now, as I can't remember exactly what papers I have here. I am hoping these are heat distressable tissue which I have never used before. The piece on the left has a lovely crinkle to it, the other two are smooth but the central one refused to come away from the newspaper it was lying on. I wonder why, when I managed to lift the others off. I shall still use it as the colours are so lovely.

I don't know what this piece is, though it does have a plastic feel to it and I think it will do strange things under heat. We shall see. I really must be more efficient and keep things labelled in future.

These two pieces are lightweight Lutrador which has a lovely filmy look. I do like the way the runny paint has gathered here and there.

When I was clearing up, I found that I had bonus sheets of colour where the paint had gone through the very thin pieces onto the newspaper below...............

................ making some interesting patterns .............

............. which I am sure .........................

................... will come in very useful for something one day.

I also noticed this readymade image of standing stones in a misty landscape. The newspaper had stuck to the Lutrador in places and this is what I saw on the reverse! I wasn't planning a piece based on standing stones, but I might have to now.

A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL.

2011-12-31T01:54:00.000-08:00

Here's hoping 2012 will be a good year for us all.

Signs of spring already!
I took these photos this morning. Whilst much of the cherry tree is still not in flower, more and more twigs are bursting into bloom about three months earlier than they should.

My primrose is also coming into flower though they get eaten by birds or insects. I have left it tucked up in it's blanket of leaves in case of cold weather to come. It will look much better later on, in Spring. Nice thought.

I can't believe I haven't posted for 10 days! I seem to have lurched between being frantically busy and total idleness. Time to get a grip and become more organised but no New Year resolutions - that way I don't have to feel guilty if I can't keep them!

A CHRISTMAS CARD FOR ALL MY E-FRIENDS.

2011-12-21T02:19:00.000-08:00

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year.

Thankyou for all the 'virtual' friendship throughout the year and here's to more in 2012.

Joseph seems to have gone missing. I think he got fed up with all the visitors.

I couldn't decide ..................

which image ........................

to use, so posted a selection.

The calendar above was made for me by my son's Japanese friend. Each Sunday is subtly overprinted with a little sleeping cat and bank holidays have a green moon symbol. She drew the grids by hand and the kimono shape is that of an opened out kimono - the fabric is a gorgeous Japanese cotton print, and two little metallic butterflies finish it off. Everything is perfectly aligned and a little paper heart secures the hanging loop on the back.

Caught in the Act!

2011-12-16T06:47:00.000-08:00

I glanced out of the window this morning to see this -

then he saw me and I had to be quick to get a picture. It's not very clear as I had to take it through the window.

He's doing is bit to save the birds from overeating. My husband puts out peanuts, niger seed as well as a mix of other seeds, suet or lard, apples, bread, meal worms and sultanas. I worry that the RSPB will be after us for the rise in avian cholesterol levels and obesity!

A New Breed?

2011-12-14T12:15:00.000-08:00

Poppy stood in front of me for two or three minutes before I noticed her like this. There was too much talking going on and not enough fun and games.

She looks as if she is wearing a surgical mask in this photo.

And in this one she seems to have a deformed nose or a small shoe attached to her face.

Apologies for the poor photo but the light was awful and the wind kept moving this branch of pink cherry blossom. Only one part of the tree seems to be trying to bloom, so hopefully the rest of it will wait until the correct time.

I completed all the work for the first Module of my course today but have not photographed it yet, so can't post it. I will probably have time to do it on Friday - hopefully the light will be better for photography then but no guarantees.

Strange beings, a little friend and a welcome sight.

2011-12-10T12:15:00.000-08:00

I can't believe that I am already working on the last chapter of Module 1 of my Sketchbook course. These strange faces are for chapter 9 and involved finding out about the work of the 16th Century painter Arcimboldo, who painted portraits with fruit and vegetables making up the features. Thank goodness I wasn't required to paint the face, but only had to create it from fruit and vegs. He even has designer stubble on his kiwi fruit chin! I quite like his sweet corn kernel teeth even if they are yellow.

This version, made up from fruit and vegs cut from magazine illustrations looks a bit sinister to me. It was a fun exercise to do and I never dreamed I would think of using carrots to represent hair.

I can't believe it is over a week since I last posted - I don't know where the time goes.

Today we had our little friend with us and in this photo I have just mentioned the word 'walk'. I think I got her attention! It is slightlty blurred as she swivelled her head round to look at me.

In a little wander round the garden, trying not to notice all the weeds that have been steadily growing throughout the autumn, I came across these Christmas Roses or white hellebores. They are well in bud and should bloom in time for Christmas. I have tried growing various hellebores for ages without success but in recent years they have been very obliging. This will be the first time the white ones have flowered for Christmas.

A more disturbing discovering was a spray of pink cherry blossom in the front garden - not due for three more months. I tried to get a photo but the light wasn't right. I do hope the tree will realise it's mistake and hang on till the middle of March when it becomes the main attraction.

The last two pages.

2011-11-30T06:05:00.000-08:00

The final pages of my little book are completed. That little blob is a real bird on the lawn in the photo and please note the three bees to the right of my stitched flowers - hand drawn onto the fabric with fear and trembling - it's a pity they seem to be flying in formation. The two birds on the bird table were done in the same way. I am breathing normally again now!

I used a small rubber stamp for the butterflies on this page, inking only half the image for the sideways views, but I did draw the robin, trellis, foxglove and bumble bee disappearing into one of the flowers.

Here is my 'Silly Bird' brooch which I won in Maggie Grey's recent giveaway. It arrived in this morning's post, rather the worse for it's journey but I can nurse it back to fitness. There is a crease right across the card. Goodness knows what they do to our letters, but at least it reached me.

Also in today's post was this book. I do wish talented textile artists would stop writing books I just have to buy!! It is excellent value at £12 plus £2 postage and is full of great ideas. I know I shall use quite a few of them in the project I am hoping to work on next. If you are interested, it is available from the d4daisy website.

Thankyou Maggie, and thankyou Lynda.

Strange fruit and vegs and other things.

2011-11-25T07:06:00.000-08:00

I am at least three-quarters of the way through module 1 of the course I am doing and have been having a lovely time printing with apples and potatoes recently. I don't know if it is just the dull natural light or if my laptop needs adjusting as everything I post seems to look wishy-washy compared with it's actual colour although the colours look quite accurate in the camera.
I used a Brussels sprout and lemon to make other prints and was quite surprised by how well they worked. All the work will be posted on my other blog when I have completed the chapter.

At my group's December meeting we each take a handmade Christmas card, put them all in the middle of the table and take one each. I made mine this year from strips of sari ribbon sewn down onto a backing fabric with various decorative automatic stitches. I then cut out three different bauble shapes and stuck them onto a card and gave them a cord and gold ribbon bow. All I have to do now is remember to take it with me!

This is another page from my book and represents the line 'I think how lovely it will be when all my flowers are there to see'. This picture looks washed out too although the thread colours are reasonably accurate. I might need to carefully press each page when it is complete - all the handling is making it look more rustic than I intended!

I cheated with this page - 'the sky is full of butterflies' - and stuck on a variety of ready made butterlies. The smallest ones are tiny buttons with their shanks cut off and the others were a sort of decorative braid and all joined together in a long strip. I have painted over their original colours which weren't at all suitable but I'm not sure that what I have ended up with is suitable.

I have just had a nice surprise and learned that I have won one of Maggie Grey's Birdie brooches in her giveaway. I will post a photo of it when I receive it. I can't say I never win anything now, can I?

My little book is growing.

2011-11-19T07:17:00.000-08:00

Four more pages. The one below suggests the line 'but nowhere are the one's I've sown'.
Followed by 'Instead the garden's full of thistles, daisies, clover, stinging nettles'.

Over the years, I have collected some very nice wild flower rubber stamps and used them for these two pages. I didn't have one for stinging nettles though - you'll have to imagine those. I tore rough squares of good drawing paper, applied gentle colour from Tim Holtz Distress Ink pads and stamped the flowers using the same inks but in a darker green. The daisy petals were coloured with a white gel pen and I used water soluble crayons for everything else. At least I drew the grass myself!! I pierced holes all round the edges of each piece of paper to make the stitching easier when I applied it to the page.

This pages precedes the other two in the book and so I should have loaded it to appear before them. I had problems loading them and am just pleased to find them on here at all. I made the little tree on water soluble fabric and hand stitched the commercial flowers in place and added a few bits of greenery.

I have broken my self imposed rule to work each page in correct order. This is the last page and I can't tell you how many times I tried to make a convincing looking chair! It's quite tricky getting sufficient detail to identify the object when working so small. This is the best effort to date, but could be superceded if a better one comes along.

There are four more pages to work on and they will be the most difficult I think, as they involve birds, bees and butterflies. One of these days I'll make life easy for myself and take up knitting squares for blankets.

A small adjustment and hopefully a slight improvement.

2011-11-14T04:19:00.000-08:00

I added another 'rock' in front of the very dark bit and a scattering of tiny dull beads. I think it is an improvement.
I realised when working on this, that I'd worked the previous stitched photos on slightly larger canvases but have none of those left. I'm trying to make use of the stuff I have and not buy more. The extra size gives a bit more room for additions and makes things much easier when adding the stitched elements. I must remember that in future.
A short post today as I have just posted on my other blog. I haven't been able to email my tutor yet as they have a malfunction in the email department. Hope it will soon be fixed.

This and That.

2011-11-12T06:39:00.000-08:00

Not very impressive as autumn colours go, but only 24 hours before I took this photo almost all the leaves on our cherry tree were still green. I don't think I have ever known them to change colour in such a short time.

Another page of the garden book - albeit slightly wonky.

I like the idea behind this piece but I'm not sure it is right, and am having trouble arranging my rocks in the foreground. The two pieces jutting out to the far right are only pushed in place and I will have to fiddle around a bit before I am satisfied that they are in the right position. The dark mass is an unidentified piece of something picked up on a beach. My homemade rocks are painted pelmet vilene stitched in place onto an artist's stretched canvas. The photo had been stuck in place first. I am limited as to how far toward the edge I can stitch owing to the wooden frame of the canvas.

You don't need a picture.

2011-11-11T01:18:00.000-08:00

I came upon this poem in our local magazine and had read it recently elsewhere. I found it very moving, the moreso as it is written anonymously by 'one no longer fit and able to march'.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS.

'Why do you march, old man
with medals on your chest?
Why do you grieve old man
for those you laid to rest?
Why do your eyes gleam old man
when you hear the bugler blow?
Tell me why you cry old man
for those days long ago.'

'I'll tell you why I march, young man
with medals on my chest.
I'll tell you why I grieve young man
for those I laid to rest.
Through misty fields of gossamer silk
come visions of distant times
when boys of such a tender age
marched forth to battle lines.

We buried them in a blanket shroud
their young flesh scorched and blackened,
in a communal grave so newly dug
in bloodstained gorse and bracken -
and you ask me why I march, young man.
I march to remind you all
that but for those apple-blossomed youths
you'd never know freedom at all.

His comrades rest in peace - I hope there are times when he knows peace.
WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.

A few additions.

2011-11-09T06:21:00.000-08:00

I have added a little tree in a pot to the first page of my fabric book, and a bit more 'planting' on the left of the photo.

I found just the right place for the mini garden tools on the third page. I have left page 2 unaltered and must now think up something to illustrate the others.

I added more hand stitching to the little landscape made on the embellisher with silk and wool tops, silk rods etc., on a knitted background, and mounted it in a box frame. I usually prefer textiles not to be under glass, but this particular design needs protection. There are two other pieces to be worked on but I don't quite know what to do with them yet. They will be landscapes too, but I want each one to have a different feel to it although they will all be made using the same techniques.

I thought you might like to see a close up of the stitching. The photos are not good as the light is awful today and I can't get on with my coursework which at this stage involves mixing and matching colours.

This is the top part of the design and even worse as it seems blurred to me - apologies for that. It actually looks better in reality!

A little rustic book.

2011-11-04T05:45:00.000-07:00

These are the first three pages - not complete yet, I may make small additions - of a little fabric book inspired by a poem written by one of my cousins who died recently. The pages are roughly 5 inches square and it will be a concertina book, not opening left to right but waterfall fashion so that the whole poem can be read at once.

I bought these tiny garden tools years ago - 10 or 12 maybe - and knew I'd find a use for them one day! I think the dibber might make a nice closure for the book and the trowel and fork will be added to one of the pages.

My Garden:

I have a garden of my own

and in it are some seeds I've sown

like cornflowers, pansies, pinks and stocks,

forget-me-nots and hollyhocks.

For weeks and weeks I've paid attention

to my garden, not to mention

all the watering required.

And so I'm feeling rather tired.

I think how lovely it will be

when all my flowers are there to see.

With colours yellow, pink and blue,

the air will all be scented too.

Ah, now at last my plants have grown

but nowhere are the ones I've sown.

Instead the garden's full of thistles,

daisies, clover, stinging nettles.

But what is this before my eyes?

The sky is full of butterflies.

They flutter down, they love my weeds

and so do all the birds and bees.

With butterflies red, white and blue,

with buzzing bees and songbirds too,

I sit and gaze all summer long.

Can next year all my seeds go wrong?

Jean Streader.

I know I ought to try and centre the poem but am to scared to try. I might lose the whole thing and have to start again, besides which it's lunchtime and I'm hungry!

A beautiful afternoon.

2011-11-01T12:49:00.000-07:00

It was just too good to be indoors this afternoon so we hopped in the car and drove a few miles to Oldbury-on-Severn to walk toward the river. The sun was brilliant and the lichen on all the trees and bushes was golden.

I was surprised at how many sloes there were everywhere.............

............. and still masses of haws and even a few blackberries. Plenty of food for hungry birds.

That's Wales in the distance, the Forest of Dean away to the right and the river Severn across the middle of my photo. More of the river was visible to the left of this view, but I couldn't take a picture as the sun would have been shining right into the camera. Also to the left is the yacht club and we were walking along the private road built for members cars and trailers which go to and fro. It is so quiet and peaceful - good to get away from busy roads and habitation for a short time.

There is a blot on this idyllic landscape - the power station - but it is a necessary evil I suppose and looks almost attractive on a misty morning rising out of the mist.

I just had to come down these steps and find out what was at the bottom.

I found this narrow pathway winding between the field boundary hedge and the bank on which the present road is made. I wonder how old it is. It was so dark and shady I thought this picture may not come out clearly enough, but I keep my camera on the auto setting and it has rather overcompensated and I have lost the sense of mystery . Where it looks so light at the top of the picture there was thick dark vegetation.

I looked over the gate at the bottom of those steps and there was this beautiful lady enjoying the lush grass. She is so sleek and looks in lovely condition.

This is St. Arilda's church perched on it's little hill. I went inside some years ago on a very windy day and it felt like Wuthering Heights up there. It seemed as if the church hadn't changed for a couple of hundred years.

A glorious tangled mass of dead stems and seedheads lining the path - I love them.

When we got back to the car I noticed this amazing tree stump. It looks as if things have been planted in the hollows at the top and it appears to be still rooted where it grew.

Back home for a cuppa.

Leaf project.

2011-10-28T07:04:00.000-07:00

The group I belong to has been asked to demostrate various textile techniques to a local art group. Only 2 or 3 of us will be needed to take part but we are each asked to contribute a textile version of a chosen leaf shape.
I was looking for an interesting leaf in the garden and came across this hosta leaf after the snails had enjoyed it during the summer. Above is a coloured photocopy - I love all the holes and made my version by layering a piece of fine Lutrador between two pieces of synthetic sheer fabric.

I had traced off the shape onto the Lutrador so that I had lines to follow, then machine stitched through all layers, following the lines. I cut out the leaf as close to the stitching as I could and then burned away the holes with a soldering iron.

I have to decide now whether to leave it as it is or pluck up the courage to paint in the yellow and green areas which appear on the original leaf. I am afraid of spoiling it with paint and quite like it as it is.

I'll take it to our next meeting and see what everyone else thinks!

It is a glorious day here today and such a contrast to yesterday which was grey, wet and dismal all day long. This morning I was watching little clouds of steam rising from our neighbours' conifer hedge where the sun's warmth was catching it. All along the pergola the same thing was happening. I tried several times to get a photo but they came out looking misty and unclear. The garden was still soaking wet and the sunlit raindrops sparkled everywhere like diamonds - so lovely to see, but very hard to photograph well. I should be out there doing more autumn clearing - hope tomorrow will be another dry day with better conditions underfoot.

The finished article.

2011-10-24T07:10:00.000-07:00

Apologies for the draining board background but it was the only place with good light. This is the front of my book - it is roughly A6 size and made entirely from recycled bits and pieces. The pages were made from spent transfer dyed papers. The backing for them came from my unsatisfactory leaf prints and the cover is made from a piece of fabric formed by bonding cut up tangled threads between two pieces of organza. I had almost thrown this fabric away several times as I couldn't think of a use for it.

This is the back of the book.

My original plan was to work a variety of flower stitcher foot flowers all over the cover but that was not to be as it didn't like the shiny surface of the organza, but I managed to sneak a few in to decorate the spine but working them on kunin felt and then burning the felt away. I hand stitched it in place and daren't inspect the stitching in a good light as it was worked last night in artificial light.

The best thing about this way of working is that there is no need to line the cover as it becomes reversible.

Umm! what shall I do next?

Work in Progress.

2011-10-23T05:38:00.000-07:00

This is going to be the cover for my little flower book. I have a lot more stitching to do to cover the surface and found out very quickly that the flower stitcher didn't like working on this fabric. It is a sandwich of snipped up tangled threads bonded between two layers of crystal organza, and kept slipping so that the cirles went into untidy spirals rather than neat flower shapes. I had to resort to free machine stitched flowers, then had the idea for free machined leaf shapes all round the edge. These I worked over soluble fabric which I hope I haven't washed out completely to allow them to stay firm and a bit crisp. The light is poor today and the colours are much nicer than they appear here. The fact that it is still damp from washing out the soluble fabric probably hasn't helped!

Quite a bit more stitching required and general tidying up!

I am very irritated by Blogger right now as it won't let me leave comments on some blogs - even some which I have hitherto commented on regularly from the start. It is such a shame, especially when someone has left me a nice comment and I can't say thankyou or answer a question. I wouldn't like those people to think I didn't appreciate their remarks. So, if you are one of those bloggers and wonder why I have gone silent and uncommunicative, I have tried to reply but have been denied access.

I am beavering away on my coursework and should be ready to post again on my other blog next week.

The weather forecast led us to believe there would be all sorts of stormy conditions this week and I expected strong winds, lashing rain and frosty nights. I think we must live in a sheltered spot and often escape the worst of everything. It has been a bit windy and we've had the odd shower and a nip in the air, but nothing untoward. I could have done with a bit more rain and will now have to water the vegs and things I planted in pots for the spring. Some people are never satisfied.

Bird Brain!

2011-10-16T05:20:00.000-07:00

This quite large pigeon tried to take a bath in our mini waterfall feature yesterday. It's antics were hilarious. He or she had just done a lot of feather ruffling before I took this photo but sadly each time I tried, I missed the best shots and they came out blurred. There is only about 2" of water in there, and inspite of almost lying on it's side and stretching one wing up in the air for balance, I can't imagine it even managed to get wet. I had difficulty getting a good view as I had to take it through a window and there are canes and strings outside which kept trying to get themselves in focus instead of the pigeon. Hence the not terribly clear picture.

The final four pages of my little book. I have lost count of which ones you've seen so apologies if these have been posted before.

I now have to make a cover and find a way of fixing them into it. I hesitate to use the term 'book binding' as I don't really know how to do it properly.

I have just posted my fourth chapter of work on my other blog and am exhausted. Trying to get all the examples and notes in the right order so that my tutor knows what she's looking at gets very complicated, and at one point I thought I'd lost it all and would have to start again. Luckily I had clicked 'Save Now' after loading all the pictures. Thank goodness there were only three to worry about for this post.

Is the moon tired........?

2011-10-12T01:30:00.000-07:00

"Is the moon tired? She looks so pale beneath her misty veil".

I took these photos last night and they reminded me of a poem I learned as a very small child. Sadly, I can't remember any more of it, or who wrote it. Maybe someone out there in Blogland has the answers.

I've been working on my little book pages and here are two more. The one on the left is waiting to be stitched but I think the other one is finished.

I can't decide if these are finished or not. Sometimes a little tinkering does the trick and sometimes it just makes things worse! To tinker, or not to tinker. That is the question!!

If you don't like flowers, don't look!

2011-10-04T06:40:00.000-07:00

I grew these little zinnias from seed and they have flowered for weeks on end. The plants had begun to look really scruffy and have now been pulled up, but I just had to save these last few flowers and enjoy them a little longer. I love their bright yet soft colours and have taken off one or two dried heads to save the seed for next year. I hope I get the same colours again.

Don't faint with shock - I have been drawing!! I was looking at Frances Pickering's book - she creates the most delightful little fabric and paper books and is a very talented artist. I was thinking as I admired her work what an advantage she had in being able to draw so well and then I thought 'It's no use sitting there wishing you could draw, just have a go'. So I did and above is the first thing I tried. I copied it from a Gardener's World magazine and think is is a cone flower - echinacea - but mine isn't 'coney' enough. I drew directly onto a piece of the coloured paper left from the transfer dyed papers I did a little while back. I have heard that colouring pages before drawing takes away the terror of a blank white page and wonder if this is what helped. I then coloured my drawing with water soluble pencils and crayons before bonding the paper onto thin fabric. I used the fabric from my less desirable leaf prints so nothing has been wasted. Then after being so thrifty, I stitched simple running stitches to accentuate the petals using Stef Francis silk threads. I have a small box of silk threads which I look at from time to time and then decide not to use them in case I waste them on something that doesn't turn out well. This time I went for it and used them - because I'm worth it!!

I copied this little daisy design from our Portmerion dessert bowls. It looks rather flat as it is waiting to have stitching added to it, and there are more designs in the pipeline.

I think these little pieces are a breakthough and hopefully will see the end of my artist's block, which is a great relief as it has lasted nearly two years. During that time I have dabbled at various things but they have all been projects set out by someone else and not original ideas thought up by me. I am hoping to make enough of these 'pages' to become a fabric book. The title will be 'Earth laughs in flowers' and I have plans to use the flower stitcher foot to decorate the cover.

My tutor's computer is back in working order again so I have just posted another batch of work on my other blog 'Inspiripedia'. Poor Viv - it must have taken her days to reload everything and get set up once more.

New Sparrowcote!

2011-10-02T04:18:00.000-07:00

Many years ago I fell in love with some handmade dovecotes which we saw for sale at a princely sum of about £300! Apart from the price, they were far too large for a small garden, so my husband set about designing and making a much smaller affair which he called 'the sparrowcote' as it is too small for anything dove sized. Fortunately he loves working with wood and his prototype lasted for many years, being repaired and repainted from time to time. It finally reached the point of no return and he has just had to make a totally new model which is now installed. It is purely decorative although many birds from starling size downward seem to enjoy hopping in and out of the little archways.

I don't know about you but this heat is getting to me. I feel as if I have had no benefit from sleep for the past week and last night seemed to be the worst. I was leaning out of the bedroom window at 4am breathing in gulps of lovely cool air. To make matters worse, only just over a week ago I was so cold I put the thicker duvet on our bed! Our climate seems to have gone mad. It is another glorious day here and I am typing this by an open window, listening to the bees buzzing in the clematis which grows over the pergola - when our neighbour stops mowing every now and then. I might camp out on the back lawn tonight! Only joking - my bed is softer than the lawn.

Winter Greens!

2011-09-30T07:15:00.000-07:00

I decided to try to grow some winter vegs this year and have planted lettuce with violas in the pot above.

These are a type of sprouting broccoli which I hope to deter the pigeons from eating before I get the chance to enjoy them. The 'proper' gardeners among you will cringe at how close they are to each other, but I have no real space for vegs and just have to squeeze them in as best I can.

In this wooden half barrel I have black kale with more lettuce. I shall give both the cut-and-come-again treatment. This is an experiment really - I have no idea if these plants will put up with the conditions I have given them. I have strung old CDs from canes to deter the birds and just hope the bugs etc., keep away too. In this heat the lettuces will probably bolt!

It has been too hot to do any real gardening lately so I have been getting on with my course work with the french doors wide open. My poor tutor's computer completely died on her earlier this month and she has had to wait for it to be repaired and must now try to reload everything before being able to carry on with her work and sending out tutorials. I have two lots of work ready to post on my other blog but will wait until I hear from her again before I do that.

I am enjoying the course immensely though am not finding it easy. The course is so well written that even when I have produced a piece of work that I find disappointing, I feel I have still learned a lot from it. Just two of my problems lie in trying to remember to time myself on each activity and to breathe when I am painting!

Inside and outside.

2011-09-27T06:16:00.000-07:00

It's been too wet to work outside lately so I had another go with the Flower Stitcher foot and am beginning to get the hang of it now. I even managed to get a small circle centred inside a large one, after the third attempt. The first two look like googly eyes!
I like the border you can get by taking a hot soldering iron round the outside edge, and it is very therapeutic sitting and burning out the centres with it. I plan to try attaching single 'flowers' to the ends of a cord for decoration.

Yesterday morning we woke to grey skies and fine rain which left everthing decorated with tiny drops of water.

This is the bronze fennel which I keep meaning to cut down before it seeds itself everywhere. If the sun had been shining the droplets would have sparkled like diamonds.

The purple toadflax keeps on flowering week after week. I'm longing to cut it down but can't yet as the bees love it, though it is getting to look rather untidy.

I love this 'beaded' netting over the strawberries - isn't it fantastic? It would have taken ages to stitch all those in place!!

Strangely this spider's web escaped the drops of water completely. I'm glad to say the occupant was not at home.

I seem to be making preparations for Christmas!

2011-09-25T04:08:00.000-07:00

I'm not usually so well organised but came across this recipe in my book about preserves and thought it sounded good. I liked that I could prepare the orange peel sticks and then store them until nearer the time I want to use them.

Here they are just beginning to bubble away, after which they sat for 24 hours.

This morning they had another session of bubbling away and are now looking like this and sitting in the airing cupboard for another 24 hours to dry out. As long as my husband doesn't chuck any clothes on top of them all should be well.

I am left with a small bowl of delicious tangy orange syrup which may set into clear marmalade, or find its way onto something for a pudding for this evening. I can't waste it.

This is the sloe gin. It's had it's daily shake up for the past week and now only needs shaking once a week until the beginning of December when I can strain and bottle it. It should be left to mature for 18months but I can't see anyone in my family wanting to wait that long!

57years ago today, I was buttering bridge rolls for other members of my family to spread with various tasty fillings for our 'afternoon tea' wedding reception. How the years have flown by, and how things have changed, particularly with regard to weddings. We were lucky to have the church already decorated for Harvest Festival - it looked wonderful. Many things were still in short supply - not least money - and I was lucky enough to be loaned my cousin's wedding dress. My grandmother kindly lent us her garden and allowed the local scouts tent to be put up on her lawn. When it had been decorated inside with trails of ivy and flowers it looked lovely and provided covered seating for about 50 guests. It was very much a family/DIY affair and parents, cousins, aunts and grandmother all had a hand in it. I remember being surprised at the number of people in the church. It was a magical day and all done on a shoestring. A lot of hard work all round, but very worthwhile and a great success.

What a grey day!

2011-09-23T08:26:00.000-07:00

I have spent ages today, mixing colours to produce various shades and strengths of grey. It is much harder than I thought, apart from the obvious method of mixing white and black. Even then I found it hard to get an even progression from dark to light.

Considering the fact that the complimentary colours are made up from the primary colours, I was surprised at the different tones achieved by mixing two complimentarys and then adding white, compared with mixing all three primary colours plus white. I found it quite hard to achieve a good grey and kept getting lovely rich browns and at one time a rather nice dark green.

I took these photos quite quickly and in not a good light - in reality the grading is better than it appears here. I must correct that when I photograph them for the blog post for my tutor.

My poor tutor has not been able to contact me for the past ten days as her computer has had to go for repair. I haven't liked to do another post before she has a chance to deal with the previous one, but hopefully will be able to post again some time next week.

I am off now to clear up the awful mess I have left all over the dining table. We have a lounge diner type living room so I can't just shut the door on it, and I do hope no-one calls and has to be asked in before I've tidied up.

Flower Power.

2011-09-18T05:45:00.000-07:00

I acquired this Flower Stitcher foot in a giveaway months ago and it was ages before I realised I would need an adaptor to fit it to my Bernina sewing machine. There was a further delay when I found I had to order one and wait for it to be posted to me. I had previously treated myself to Dale Rollerson's little book 'Let's Play with the Flower Stitcher' and have found it so useful and much clearer to understand than the official instructions which came with the foot.

It's full of useful tips and suggestions for trying out the various stitches on the machine - not just the decorative ones. It's also packed with colourful samples of the many different patterns possible as well as pieces of work incorporating them.

Here is my first attempt - a bit of a shaky start and I have distorted the fabric slightly. I began with the smallest sized holes and worked on kunin felt so that I could burn through the centres. The larger holes on this piece are done with utility stitches.

The four linked circles are done with an ordinary zigzag stitch - the others with a decorative stitch. I must do some more and keep a note of which stitch gives each effect as it is all to easy to forget what you have done.

These are all utility stitches and I have gone round about 3 times on each one to get a more pronounced pattern.

Getting better! The one on the left is nice but the thread kept breaking on the right hand one.

I found it easier with a smaller piece of felt and changed thread too. The three rings at bottom right are simple zigzag stitch, and all the others are different utility stitches. I think I like these better than the decorative stitches.

It doesn't even look too bad on the reverse side. To get a really interesting effect the circles need to be massed as on the front of Dale's book. The circles can be worked in several sizes and small ones can be worked inside large ones, but that sounds a bit advanced to me. I must do a lot more experimenting to become more proficient before I can add them to my work, but they are fun to make and have great possibilities.

Just when I thought the flowers in my garden were coming to an end I noticed this ...........

................ and this, and there was another picture of the variegated weigela just coming into flower again. I seem to have lost that one somehow. I thought they had all done their stuff for this year.

I can see a small patch of blue sky through the window, but it has become a wet and dull Sunday here with sporadic downpours. What a good job I reproofed my wax jacket a couple of days ago!

Garden Bits.

2011-09-17T12:26:00.000-07:00

These should have flowered back in the spring and I didn't expect to see any blooms on them this year after dividing the plant. I now wonder if I will get any next spring. I can't remember their Latin name and call them Double Kingcups. The pond weed has gone mad and completely covered the surface of the water. I have had to scoop quite a lot off twice already this summer after thinking I'd have to buy some earlier in the year when it just wouldn't get started.

It doesn't feel very much like summer any more and the leaves are beginning to turn colour. However, my pot of strawberries is having another go and they are ripening quite nicely. The cherry tomatoes are also cropping quite well since being put into the greenhouse, so I can pretend it is still summer for a little longer.

I love this clematis - it's Bill Mackenzie and has completely filled a corner of the garden. He can get a bit untidy and needs a good haircut every so often. The flowers in bud look like little yellow Chinese Lanterns and the seedheads are very soft and silky. The petals of the open flowers look thick and almost as if they have been cut from lemon peel.

I'm nearly ready to post again on my other blog. I hope the light will be good enough tomorrow or the next day to photograph the work I have done.

I also want to try out my flower stitcher foot. I acquired it months ago and wasn't quite sure what to try to make with it, then I bought a little book by Dale Rollerson, full of great ideas, only to find that I needed an adaptor for it to work on my machine. Now I have no excuse for not using it. Maybe in my next post there will be one or two samples to show you.

A lot of crying!

2011-09-11T09:16:00.000-07:00

It seemed like a good idea to make onion marmalade, until I remembered I can only slice two onions before my eyes stream and my nose runs! I dug out my little food processer which has a slicing blade and cut down the time considerably, but there was still a lot of nose blowing, eye mopping and sniffing before the 2kgs of onions were ready for the pot. No gain without pain - I hope it tastes good after all that. It looks decidedly amateur in my motley collection of jars and lacks the shabby chic of the Country Living look. They are the last six remaining and I even had to evict half a jar of jam into a plastic tub to get those.

I found the recipe in this little book on Preserves - one of the titles in the River Cottage Handbook series. I have already made the Hedgerow Jelly using sloes and crabapples and want to make Sloe Gin next. My sloes are in the freezer as it is recommended that they be frosted before use. Leaving them on the tree is risky as the birds could well have eaten them all before we get any frost.

Apologies for the rather blurred photo - the book has a very textured cover which prevents a clear sharp image. That's my excuse anyway. Pam Corbin is the author and the book is full of useful information, interesting recipes for flavoured vinegars and oils, and as well as the better known ones for preserving vegetables and fruits there are also some quite unusual ones. I walked past a tree today absolutely laden with rowan berries and thought 'I wonder what they'd taste like'.

I must pick some more blackberries - we've already eaten those we picked a couple of weeks ago. They will have to sit in the freezer till I can use them as I've run out of jam jars and shelf space in the larder. I love blackberry and apple jam and my husband loves blackberry and apple crumble so I shall need several pounds to keep us both happy until next year.

It's beginning to look a lot like autumn.

2011-09-09T06:44:00.000-07:00

It's a rather dull, drab day here today so I thought I'd make some sunshine soup to cheer things up. It's really just a vegetable soup made with chicken stock, but this time I added butternut squash which gives it a lovely golden colour. It tastes pretty good too, if I 'says it as shouldn't'.
It went down a treat with a couple of little cheese and herb scones.

I am very miffed with the postal service. You may remember from some time back that I made fabric hearts for the second Heartfelt exhibition in Bristol. I posted them weeks ago to the person who was setting up the exhibition only to learn that she has not received them. I put my name and address on the back of the package so there is no excuse for them not being returned to me, even if they can't be delivered to the address on the front of it. Luckily they are not of any real value, but would have been sold in aid of charity and might have raised a bit of cash.

I have just completed the first chapter of my online course and done my second post on my other blog. There is a link to it (Inspiripedia) at top left here. I will start work on the second chapter next week.

Hope we all have a nice weekend - I want to do some much needed tidying up in the garden. Whatever you have planned, have a good time.

This and That.

2011-09-03T13:02:00.000-07:00

I have been spending quite a bit of time with this little furry friend recently. She was with us over last weekend and again today while her owners were busy elsewhere. She is such good company and can be quite vocal when she wants my attention.

It's doubtful that the Glastonbury Thorn will ever look like this again after being vandalised several months ago, but the good news is that the new shoots which appeared earlier this year are growing well and there is a strong possibility that it will even flower at Christmas.
.

I have started work on my course with Distant Stitch and made the first post on my new blog which is named Inspiripedia. My daughter came up with the name after I had got fed up because every time I thought of one, I found it had already been taken.

The first exercise was mark-making and I had to use various implements and brushes as well as different papers but work with only one tube of paint, apart from creating a contrasting background colour. I started quite tentatively and then found it hard to stop. I hope I haven't done too much!

I read through the new Workshop on the Web programme yesterday - there are some great things in this issue and I have printed off a couple. I can foresee a very busy autumn ahead.

No pics. today.

2011-08-31T06:29:00.001-07:00

My USB lead is out on loan so I can't post any pictures today. I have been creative in the kitchen and made some crabapple and sloe jelly. I had a few crabapples given to me, then added the meagre crop from our little tree, only planted this Spring, and needed something else to bulk up the quantity. The River Cottage Preserves book gives a recipe for Hedgerow Jelly which uses a half quantity of crabapples and half of any hedgerow berries. I found two sloe bushes only yards from our house, which are laden with wonderful fruits. I have never seen such big sloes - I picked 2lbs in a very short time. I'm sure they are sloes as the leaves look right and I have the scratches from the thorns as additional evidence! They have given the jelly a beautiful rich purple colour and added quite a plummy flavour. I skimmed off the froth and being unable to waste anything I tried it on a piece of bread and butter - delicious and sweeter than I imagined though there is a tang as well. I have never used sloes before and am going to pick some more shortly and make sloe gin for Christmas. There is also a recipe for making thin strips of candied orange peel dipped in chocolate. They sound very good without being too rich or wicked.
I am going to start work on my course today and when the new blog is up and running I will let you know, in case you are interested.
Will September bring us an Indian summer? In case it doesn't, I have taken down our two hanging baskets of cherry tomatoes and put them in the greenhouse in the hope that they will ripen more quickly. Three cherry tomatoes at a time is not enough, even for a small household.

Getting organised.

2011-08-26T08:15:00.000-07:00

Some of my time and energy this week has gone into tidying the garden shed and greehouse. On Wednesday I took everything out of both and cleaned the floor areas. It was such a lovely morning I was lulled into a false sense of security, but shortly after lunch my husband said 'I wouldn't leave it too long before putting things back if I were you'. How right he was. I had just about rehoused everything that needed to be kept dry when the heavens opened and I was actually marooned in the shed while the rain hammered down. We had a mini moat round the house for a few hours.
The painted wall and curtains in the shed are reminders of the time when our youngest daughter had it as her haven. She would spend hours up here reading and listening to music. There was no junk stored here then and it looked quite charming with pictures on the walls, etc. Now it has reverted to being a shed and a store for all the flower pots, seed trays and other gardening paraphernalia. The blue china pot is not what it might appear! It used to have a houseplant in it.

The greenhouse is a magnificent 7'x5' - hard to imagine that until yesterday those wooden slatted shelves, now up in the shed, used to be in here too. The green plastic units stood centrally, one on top of the other with the wooden ones on either side. There was scarcely room for plants.

It is right outside the backdoor and had become a real embarrassment in it's previous untidy state. It was all too easy to shove things out of the way in there. We still have to clean the glass and disinfect, then it will be ready for my geraniums to be tucked up for the winter.

I have just enrolled for a two year online course with Distant Stitch - the title is Creative Sketchbooks and will be quite a challenge for me. The main reason for taking the course is to improve my drawing and painting skills but it will also involve photographing my work and probably using Photoshop, as well as setting up a separate blog to show my work. The theme for the first module is fruit and vegetables and as I unpacked the week's shopping yesterday I reached for my camera before putting everything away. I love the colours in the picture above.

I like the slightly soft focus of the above picture, but have to confess I was aiming for a sharper image. I have been collecting images of fruit and vegs from gardening magazines but thought it would be good to have a few photos of my own. I shall need some to play with on Photoshop.

I love the shape of peppers and their highlights and shadows.

It is much easier to photograph them than draw and paint them!

Good enough to eat and a nice variety of textures.

I think I have everything I need for the course and start work on 1st Sept., and if I am brave enough to 'go public' I'll let you know when my new blog is up and running.

So much to do and so much to learn. Lovely!

A bit of doodling.

2011-08-22T11:24:00.000-07:00

I have been working into some of my prints using various colouring media. The one above is one of the reverse leaf prints, where I liked what was on the back of the page better than the front. All the prints were made with acrylic paint and on this first one I added a little ochre oil pastel here and there and a wash of Koh-i-noor waterbased dye in blue. I think this is the best of the four.

The second one here had Caran d'Ache water colour crayon added with pencil crayon to bring up a bit of detail.

On no.3, I just used Caran d'Ache crayons as there was quite a lot of colour already on the page from the original print.

This was treated in the same way. The paper was copy paper as advised by Gina - fine for the prints themselves, but it wrinkles when water is added and I'm not even sure it has dried in this last photo! I could have ironed or pressed the pages of course, but am far too impatient to do that.

It has been such a lovely day today that I sat in the garden doing these this afternoon. Hope you have had a lovely day too.

Monoprinting 2.

2011-08-20T07:39:00.000-07:00

Very mixed results again. Inspite of choosing what I thought was a feathery leaf for the sample on the left, it has come out as a solid shape as have both the others. Tansy leaf on the left and Alchemilla mollis bottom right, and can't remember top right!

Printing them again using their reverse sides has given a much more interesting result and I quite like these.

This leaf has a more interesting shape but I still like the reverse print best. The leaf is from a Japanese Anemone.

I didn't bother to clean off the roller each time and so some paint was applied to the back of the sheets picking up echoes of the leaf shapes and giving a sort of collage effect. I rather like it. Two for the price of one and if you don't like the main print, the other side of the paper might give a better result.

Another 'back of the paper' print.

I have just signed up for an online course with Distant Stitch and will be starting work on 1st September on the Creative Sketchbook course. These prints will come in handy later on in the course when I have to produce work on a designated theme - as long as I choose leaves, of course.

Monoprinting 1.

2011-08-19T08:13:00.000-07:00

Here are my attempts at Gina's monoprinting exercise - see her blog 'Fan My Flame'. I jotted down her instructions and was fooled by the seeming simplicity of them into thinking this would be a breeze. In fact, I found it quite difficult and haven't yet produced anything I'm pleased with.

I threw away my first two attempts. I used Galeria acrylic in a tube and that was far too thick. Then I tried Inscribe acrylic in those little bottles but that was too runny. (This sounds a bit like the tale of the three bears!) Then I had a go with an Adirondack acrylic paint dabber and just removed the dabber part to put a blob onto my plate. This worked better but did dry very fast.

I also drew my first two attempts with an old plastic knitting needle but found a biro far easier to use and it gave a better result. The ball point glides over the paper so smoothly.

I seem to have an echo going on here. I don't know how that occurred.

My ghost images are a little too ghostly even though I rubbed my hand over the plate quite firmly each time, and thought there was enough paint on the plate to begin with.

I shall rediscover them up by adding more colour to the background and to my design. To get a good result, I think a lot depends on the paper being used as well as the type of acrylic paint. I enjoyed trying this technique and have pressed several hopefully 'ribby' leaves to try out the next one.

Transfer Paints.

2011-08-15T11:13:00.000-07:00

I read an interesting article in Quilting Arts Magazine about using transfer dyes and plant material to create pattern on fabric. The dyes used by the author of the article came in powder form, but I remembered I had some liquid transfer paints tucked away, probably from when I went to college 2o or more years ago! They work in a similar way by being painted onto paper and when dry you place the coloured paper face down onto synthetic fabric and iron until the colour is transferred. I watered mine down as the colours can be very intense and I didn't want that and the fact that I recycled an old cotton/polyester sheet for my fabric probably softened them further.

To create my patterns I had previously picked a few different leaves from the garden and pressed them in a very fat dictionary for a few days. I am very pleased with the clear image of the fern in the picture above. The first example was made using geranium leaves.

This one is not so clear as I sprayed it with Glimmer Mist and have lost the sharpness. The slight orangey tinge to the tips of the fern is due to the fact that I reversed the leaf from the previous sample and some of the colour from that application has adhered to the leaf and transferred itself onto the fabric for this sample.

I sprayed this one as well to get rid of the rather nasty pink I ended up with. I left the leaves in place and sprayed over them.

I mixed the colours slightly on some sheets and quite like the effect. These leaves are from my Goat's Rue plant.

Another Goat's Rue sample. I like the streaky effect of the background and think it would be extremely difficult not to get streaks when brushing the paint onto the paper. The paper absorbs the colour quite fast before you can get another brushful ready to apply.

Ivy leaves this time. If you look carefully you can see where the veins of the leaves have been impressed into the fabric. I don't know how long they will stay like that.

Getting adventurous with colour here, or was I just using up the leftover paint?!

This is almost identical to the first one - I must have liked that arrangement. All I have to do now is decide how to use them.

There may still be unspent colour left on these papers but even if not, I have some rather nice sheets to use for other projects. They might be very useful during the online course I am about to enrol on . I am very attracted to the Creative Sketchbooks course offered by Distant Stitch which was set up by Sian Martin. It will be a double challenge but that will be good for me as I will have to extend my computer knowledge and skills as well as my artistic ones. Scary but good scary!

The Toll House Gallery, Clevedon.

2011-08-14T01:42:00.000-07:00

I did my stint of 'meet the artist' stewarding yesterday with one other member of our group. It was a dull and windy day but we had a steady stream of visitors throughout. They seemed very appreciative of our group's work though none was in the mood for shopping! Here is a small sample of the work exhibited but I think my photos have not done them justice. I didn't bother to take any of my pieces as you have seen them all before - small fabric landscapes with standing stones.

The views from the window were lovely too, even on a dull day. I am not used to looking out onto rocks and water so it was quite a novelty.

I love the textures of the rocks, shingle and seaweed. When the tide had gone out a bit there was sand too.

There is this dinky little pier which was very popular throughout the day. Just a little less breeze and a bit of sun would have made a perfect day for the holidaymakers.

Clevedon is North Somerset and in the far distance just to the right of the pier in the picture above is Newport in South Wales and to the left is Cardiff. The exhibition runs till the end of August and we are on duty again next Sunday. Hope the sun comes out!

Latest sketchbook page and Macro experiments.

2011-08-08T06:02:00.001-07:00

Our latest task was to take a small area of one of our drawings, roughly the same proportions as a page of our sketchbook. We had to trace off the main lines and shapes, enlarge them to fit the page size and try to reproduce the colours of the original drawing. Well I seemed to have boring straight lines everywhere whereas Gina's drawings had lovely curves and sinuous lines - much more interesting. My first attempt was abysmal and is no more. The second attempt is as near as I can get it but still not true. There is too much contrast between the central green area and the darker one to it's left and the crossed lines on the base of the thistle are much too dark but I was afraid of messing it up altogether if I continued to add lighter shades. I found it much harder than I imagined to increase the size and try to replicate the colours.

Linda - whose blog is Blue-Eyed Girl - takes wonderful photos using the Macro device on her camera. I knew I had one on mine but had never used it, so decided the time had come to see what it did. These are my first attempts.

Above is the centre of a day lily. I think I need to adjust the amount of light somehow.

A petunia - also too light.

Part of a spray of buddliea - rather blurred but everytime I focussed the breeze moved it. I should have loaded these is the reverse order so they got better as you viewed them! It would be sensible to use the CD that came with the camera and which would give me full instructions - but that is too much to ask!

More Sketchbook.

2011-08-06T09:05:00.000-07:00

I thought I should do a bit more work on my sketchbook pages or I'll get left behind, and it is only now that I can see in the picture above that I should have continued the darker area further to the left. It ends too abruptly like this. I had originally thought it was too dark in the centre so wet the page again and blotted some of the colour away. Then I changed my mind a added more dark colour and I think I have overworked it.

I've almost done the same in this one but it isn't quite so obvious. I had great fun scribbling the colour on with water soluble crayons and then activating it with water. Where it became too dark I could blot it away with a dab of kitchen roll. I added definition here and there with various pencils, and drawing pens.

I treated this page in the same rather random way and feel that I am not really in control of what happens on the page. I just go along with it, hoping for the best! In fairness to myself, these pages look better in reality than they do here and at least I have learned what doesn't work and have enjoyed doing these exercises.

Exhibition at the Toll House Gallery, Clevedon.

2011-08-05T12:07:00.000-07:00

The weeks have flown by and I haven't mentioned our - Gordano Textile Artists' - exhibition at the Toll House Gallery on Clevedon Pier. It has just started and runs throughout August. I had meant to post a photo of one of the posters but distributed them without doing so. We are having 'meet the artist' sessions each weekend and I am doing my stints on Saturday 13th and Sunday 21st between 11am and 3pm both days. I hope we get lots of visitors and will try to remember to take my camera with me on my days there. I haven't exhibited there before and am looking forward to seeing how our work looks there.

I had a lovely surprise this year when I noticed this agapanthus coming into flower. It had been growing in a pot for years and became so congested I took it out and divided it into four. That must have been 3 or 4 years ago and this is the first one to bloom. It's such a gorgeous blue. Perhaps the others will flower for me too.

I also split this double kingcup last spring and both halves looked very pathetic for such a long time. I had given up hope of flowers this year as they usually bloom so much earlier, but two days ago I saw these lovely pom-poms. Luckily Chester missed it when he took his dive!

I came upon this old wooden ladle in a very interesting shop in a little courtyard in Ledbury yesterday and thought it would look good hanging in the kitchen above my spice and herb cupboard.

I bought the little cupboard years ago when we were on holiday on the Isle of Wight. At that time all my spice and herb jars fitted beautifully on the three shelves inside. Recently the size of the jars has changed and now they are too tall. I still like the cupboard and will have to find an alternative use for it. Although it looks as if it has been around for hundreds of years I do realise it was probably made with suckers like me in mind, about a year before I bought it.

Trials and Tribulations.

2011-08-04T11:48:00.000-07:00

I have had this melting pot for some months and only just now got round to using it. I found the technique I used here on the CDRom 'Paper and Beyond' by Maggie Grey and Jane Wild. These are my first attempts and are not very good. I put Ultra Thick Embossing powder into the pot with some copper embossing powder and stirred them together before switching it on. When they had dissolved I dipped small snippets of lace, etc., to see how they would react.

All the light coloured pieces are various scraps of lace. The bottom sample in the middle row is lace that had previously had gesso and paint applied to it. The top right piece is a scrap of canvaswork and below that are two tiny bits of knitting.

Here they are after dipping into the molten embossing powder. Not a roaring success but I will reheat them with the heat gun and see if I can disperse the 'enamel' to reveal the patterns of the lace. The top left sample looked quite promising but was too floppy and I couldn't control it to lie it flat on the nonstick sheet. The stuff sets as it cools and you have to work quickly. The knitting was hilarious as it absorbed the melted powder so readily and kept sticking first to the tweezers and then to the kebab stick and I thought I'd never be able to put it down. I didn't bother with the second piece of knitting.

It was interesting to see that the piece of lace that had been gessoed and painted turned out better than the others so maybe if I gesso all the pieces of lace I will get better results.

I found it much easier to use with paper. All these were done with heavy watercolour paper.

The first row are simple squares with their edges dipped into the molten powder. Next I tried dipping the fronts of the squares and then stamping into the wet enamel. Again I had to work quickly as it cools and dries so fast. The second attempt is better than the first but I even like the third which was really a disaster. Then I tried dipping paper shapes cut with decorative punches. These were easier to do though it needs practice to control the amount you take up each time.

I went back to my 'frames' and coloured the backgrounds with pale Pro Marker pens and stamped small flower and leaf images on top. These could look quite nice on cards or make little gift tags.

At least I have learned what not to do!

Yesterday I thought I would try out another 'toy' I have had for some time. Armed with Dale Rollerson's booklet for inspiration I set about trying to fit the Flower Stitcher foot to my machine only to discover that I think I need an adaptor of some sort before I can do so. At least I have her other two booklets on Walnut Ink and Sari Ribbon, so I can play with those instead.
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We had fun and games in the garden yesterday. One of our daughters called with her dog Chester - you can see him a few posts back. As it was such a nice day we went into the garden and Chester ran round exploring. I don't think he'd met a pond before and because the pondweed has pretty well covered the surface he tried to walk across it! Poor little chap - he disappeared completely for a moment before surfacing and climbing out up the little waterfall!

He was none the worse for his adventure and neither was the waterfall, and he dried off quickly in the sunshine. I just hope the frogs and newts weren't too traumatised.

Summer Reading.

2011-08-03T09:53:00.000-07:00

On Monday Pat, alias The Weaver of Grass, suggested that we post our current or most recent reading matter, listing 2 fiction and 2 non-fiction titles and the two books we might re-read.
For my first fiction title, I recently read Ken Follett's 'The Pillars of the Earth'. Set in twelfth century England amid all the political and religious strife, it tells the story of the building of a great cathedral.
The second fiction title was 'The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas' by John Boyne. The story is written as if by a nine year old boy who is the main character, and describes his life growing up in wartime Germany. The ending is quite a shock but the book is not gloomy or harrowing.
My two non-fiction titles are by the same author and I have just finished them. 'Wildwood' and 'Tales from Walnut Tree Farm' are by Roger Deakin who was a true countryman and loved to grow trees and work with wood. The first title describes many of his travels abroad and the second is almost a diary of a year in his life at home. Delightful, fascinating, very informative, sometimes humourous and very relaxing.
I have already read Joanne Harris's 'Coastliners' at least twice. It is a novel, set on a tiny Breton island and tells of the trials and tribulations of the local inhabitants faced with losing their way of life which has remained almost unchanged for a hundred years.
My other 're-read' title is 'The House on the Strand' by Daphne du Maurier. This is about two men, one of whom is a scientist who has discovered a drug which will take him back in time. He asks his friend to try it out for him to see if the effects are the same on him. There are fascinating and nearly disastrous consequences.
The good thing about reading is that it doesn't depend on good weather. If the sun is shining, it is delightful to sit in the shade with a good book, and if it's cold and miserable nothing is more cheering than settling in a cosy corner with said good book. It's a win win situation.

Hearts for the Heart Foundation.

2011-07-31T02:22:00.000-07:00

This is the front of the postcard advertising 'Heartfelt', an exhibition to be held at the Grant Bradley Gallery in Bedminster, Bristol, running from 2nd - 30th September this year. It must have taken ages to arrange all those pins to get such a lovely heart shape in the centre.

The hearts will be sold in aid of the British Heart Foundation and to mark it's 50th birthday. A similar exhibition was held last year and was a great success.

Inspiration was low until I found a hoard of experimental pieces, too good to throw away but I didn't know what to do with them. The one above is made from knitting with a variegated sheer fabric stitched on top and then distressed with a heat gun. It was once the centre of a cushion which I thought would sell! The beads at the bottom are homemade.

Another discarded experiment with some colourful stitchery to brighten it up a bit. It is a reminder that I must make hanging loops for all the other hearts.

This one is made from Evolon. I had never used it before and had only got as far as colouring the piece with transfer dyes (the ones you have to paint onto paper and then iron onto your fabric). You might remember the little daisy motif - it is an embellishing experiment - from an earlier post. I stitched both halves of the heart wrong sides together. I find it so difficult to do the other way round, having to turn them through and trying to get a nice smooth shape. I then made little impressions with the soldering iron all the way round. More homemade beads at the bottom.

The last one in the making. It will be a little string of five hearts and I must hurry up and get it done as I've promised to post them all tomorrow or Tuesday at the latest.

I've made two of the five - you'll have to imagine the others. I have applied a little printed felt heart in each centre and edged each purple velvet heart with that lovely variegated felt ribbon. The purple velvet was once the surround to the knitted piece in the first heart - waste not, want not! Again, homemade beads will link each heart and maybe two or three will hang from the bottom one.

We are asked to attach a label to each heart with a heart/warming/breaking/touching story. I find this the hardest part but the string of five velvet hearts will relate to my children who are greatly loved and so supportive. I am a very lucky woman.

Potato Prints.

2011-07-29T05:59:00.000-07:00

Moving on with Gina Ferrari's mini tutorials, we are now on to making potato prints. I thought about a suitable shape and could probably have come up with a simpler one but decided to carry on with the thistle as my design source. This bit of the exercise took me back more than 40 years to when our children were small and we kept the 'Rainy Day Box' behind the sofa - it was full of useful stuff like paper, felt, wool, cardboard tubes, egg boxes, match boxes, paint, glue, string etc. It was sometimes used on days which weren't rainy and kept us all amused for hours. I ended up cutting this shape freehand as it was impossible to hold the cut out drawing in place, and hold the potato steady at the same time. It is supposed to be a side stem and bud but looks more like an oven-ready chicken gone wrong!

First trial prints - not too successful. I kept getting a bald patch in the centre of my thistles and painted in the first two. Then I decided to place an old mouse mat under the page I was printing on and this made all the difference. I also experimented with using two colours of paint.

The shapes look too solid and heavy so I made an adjustment to the potato shape after the first two prints and scored criss-cross lines to suggest the 'scales' of the prickles. I think it helps the design and lightens the image.

I had to cheat and paint in the stalks before I could add my side shoots and buds. These are not so good.

Then came a delightful interruption when one of our daughters and her dog Chester called during their morning walk. So it was coffee and chat for a while and trying to keep Chester occupied without getting him too excited - he is only about 6 months old. Here, he is hunting for dog treats which we have hidden in an old towel - great fun.

That little interlude was well timed and by the time I got back to work the prints had dried and I could try over washing with watercolours. I really sloshed water and paint over the top and had to work quite fast as it seemed to soak into the paper so quickly. I like a bit of dithering time when using paint.

I played with mixing various colours and love this diluted purple and green together.

My thistles look a bit stiff, but then I suppose in reality they are rather stiff. I enjoyed these experiments but can't help thinking that a teacher would have written on the bottom of my pages 'Could do better'! Perhaps I can think of a way of improving them.

Further Developments - I can't stop!

2011-07-26T05:33:00.000-07:00

I kept coming back to this page and wondering what I could do to make it more interesting. I decided to stick the stencil itself beside the image and define a few details with a dark coloured pen. It still looked a bit ordinary then I had the idea to cut out the spaces between some of the stems and allow the previous page to show through.

This page hasn't worked as well as the others. I used ordinary wax crayons instead of oil pastels and think they may have dried out over the years so that they no longer act as a resist to the yellow ink I applied over the top. When the ink had dried I sprayed the page with Cosmic Shimmer Mist which adds a lovely lustre but it doesn't show up on the photo. This added to the misty effect and seemed to push the design further back which I quite like. I finally added a little definition with a water colour pencil in a matching purple to darken the central area of the design.

I think this was the very first page I worked on and have cut out simple shapes from the areas between the stems. I like this idea and it's 'buy one, get one free' possibilities.

This is what happened to the reverse side of the page. I simply outlined the cut out areas with a 'running stitch' in dark pen. I still have the fern stencil and would like to create a few more designs with it before it falls apart, but .......................
....................there may be a halt to these sketchbook exercises as these three small booklets arrived in the post this morning. I have only had a quick skim through each one but they are absolutely packed with great ideas and are written by Dale Rollerson. She and her husband own and run The Thread Studio in Perth, Australia. Dale's blog is 'Downunderdale' and well worth a visit as is Thread Studio website.

It took me ages to find walnut ink. Every art shop I went into had never heard of it and firms in the small ads. offering it for sale were out of stock, but eventually I tracked some down. Apart from 'ageing' white paper I wasn't sure what else to do with it, but I'm about to find out. That's a gorgeously colourful bookmark beside the booklet.

I already have a couple of hanks of sari ribbon and have learned that it works well with the embellisher. There are many other uses for it, so it looks as if my time has been accounted for, for the forseeable future.

Last but not least is the Flower Stitcher booklet. I was lucky enough to win one in a giveaway some months back but haven't plucked up the courage to try it. In this booklet there are some lovely examples of flower stitching worked on kunin felt and the felt burned away to reveal beautifully holey textures.

I think I am going to be very busy! Where do I start?!

A few additions.

2011-07-25T13:08:00.000-07:00

I have added a bit of detail to my thistle drawing as well as some lettering and rubber stamping.

I tore away part of the fern page to reveal the thistle below, and worked whipped running stitch along the torn edge. I found a fern stamp and wrote the word 'Fern' in the top right corner and shaded coiled part of the design. These photos are not good and were taken in great haste.

This is as far as I have got with my mirror image of the fern stencil. I'm not sure what to do with it now, and think a simpler shape would have worked better. For this page I used water soluble crayons.

Back to the drawing board with a new stencil?

Thankyou Gina.

2011-07-23T02:39:00.000-07:00

On Gina Ferrari's blog - 'Fan my Flame' - she has posted a little tutorial of design exercises which I thought I would try out. She explains it all much better than I have here. I took my shapes from this book of plant photos which I bought on a visit to Laycock Abbey. The photos are all black and white and taken in about the 1920's .

I don't draw often and know I should practise more - if I did I might improve!

Gina used a poppy seedhead for her examples but I couldn't find one I liked, so drew a very simplified thistle and fern. The photo showed up lovely textures but I only needed outlines for this. We then had to cut them out and use them as stencils, having first prepared some coloured background pages. I was reminded on another blog, of the lovely marks you get if you spread a piece of clingfilm onto wet watercolour paint and leave it to dry, so did just that. Some pages have better marks than others as there was a bit of wrestling going on with the clingfilm - we don't get on!

Here is my thistle outline, cut out and ready to be placed onto a page and have oil pastel applied all round it's edge. In fact, if you look carefully you can see oil pastel already on it - I had forgotten to take the before photo!

I love gold and turquoise together so used a gold pastel and rubbed it carefully into all the little spaces. After lifting the stencil away a darker coat of paint was applied and allowed to continue across the page. The oil pasted resists the new colour.

This is as far as I have got with the fern shape which I treated in the same way - I might do a mirror image with the cut out piece on the left. Gina suggests we work further onto these pages, perhaps adding shading and cutting some parts away to reveal what's on the next page. I like that idea but will have to think about what to do next. I've enjoyed this exercise and it's not often I let my sketchbook out in public!! Come to that, it's not often I work in it.

More of This and That.

2011-07-20T12:09:00.000-07:00

I recycled some very old Procion dyes and old cotton pillowcases a couple of days ago. I had had the dyes such a long time that I wondered if they would still work. As I couldn't find the instructions and only had a scruffy piece of paper with some not very helpful handwritten notes I was nervous of what I might end up with, but am actually quite pleased with these results. There are one or two pieces of calico in among the cotton.

I also made up a 'dye'bath of black coffee for the above pieces. I thought I had been too heavyhanded but the results are a range of very subtly antiqued cotton fabrics. The lace has quite a lot of synthetic fibre and didn't take up the colour much at all.

Shall I enter this for the Turnip Prize? or even the Turner Prize? Perhaps not. It is a section of the old shower curtain I used to protect my working surface from paint spills and smears. Over the years it has begun to look quite interesting.

On a recent visit to Slimbridge we had to stop by the otters enclosure to watch them. They are so graceful and I love watching them turn and roll in the water. They move so fast it is impossible to get a photo of them in the water so I waited until they came ashore. Even then they were very busy scuttling about.

These are Eurasian otters, not quite the same as our native ones but very similar. Lovely creatures.

Still at Slimbridge, another of our favourite parts is the enclosure for harvest mice. When we got to it I thought it was empty, then suddenly three appeared and raced around so much I thought I'd never get a picture. They are so tiny - their bodies are half the size of my thumb.

I had to take these shots through glass which gives a rather misty effect.

They are quite safe in their environment with no predators to worry about.

Normal people visit Slimbridge to see the birdlife and take photos of them, but not me. I just love these very old pollarded willows with their wonderful Tolkeinesque shapes and textures. This one must be almost hollow.This tree is still supporting quite a lot of foliage but still has lovely holes in it's trunk and lots of gorgeous texture.

I'm sure I did a similar post the last time we visited Slimbridge and you'll probably get another the next time we go. I'll try to remember to photograph some birds next time!

This and That.

2011-07-17T01:55:00.000-07:00

I caught sight of this strange creature feeding on the front lawn in the pouring rain yesterday morning and did a double take before realising it was a baby squirrel with his umbrella up!

Inspite of being soaked - it really was hammering down - he spent quite a time out there. Every now and then he would do a little jump to shake the water droplets from his coat.

Hopefully these pics will be clear enough to enlarge well and enable you to see just how wet he was. You can see by the size of the blades of grass that he is very small. That's not field grass - it's my husband's pride and joy!

These long trailing stems of wisteria have to be cut off at this time of year. I love the way they get longer and longer and suddenly coil back on themselves. I snapped this one just in time before my husband did his pruning bit. Some of them must be about 6 or 7ft long. The white blob is my finger holding the stem still in quite a stiff breeze.

After many failures I got this shot of the full moon the other evening. I would have preferred to see it through the branches of a tree, but the trees weren't in the right place and as I was ready for bed and didn't want to walk up the road in my jimjams to get a better picture, I settled for it peeping over the top of our neighbours' roof.

I have been doing more work with my embellisher and exploring creating texture. The piece above is made over a base of hand knitting - it measures approx. 4"x7" - and the texture is built up with wisps of wool and silk tops. The lumps in the foreground are silk and came in a little bag from Fron Isaf. I can't remember what they are called but in this colour they look just like tiny boulders. They look as if they'd be in a long string but in fact come in a glorious tangle.

I used two sections of silk rod to suggest tree trunks in this piece, plus small scraps of muslin and chiffon and my little boulders at the base. The 'leaves' are again made with silk tops - just tiny wisps worked in over each other to suggest foliage. There is no stitching on either of these pieces yet and they are of similar size. I am quite pleased with them and think this method has possibilities.

Flower Festival - Part 2.

2011-07-15T11:33:00.001-07:00

We walked through this archway to the Cathedral which is just beyond this lovely old building. It is a rather chilling spot as it reminds people of Bishop Hooper who was burned at the stake here by order of Mary Tudor, who is said to have watched from the window above the arch. Nice lady.

Looking through the same arch from the other direction you can just make out Bishop Hooper's memorial statue.

This was the first display to catch my eye on entering the Cathedral and I believe it was made by pupils of the Diocesan schools. It was beautiful and quite large.

A very traditional and striking arrangement surrounding a group of old photographs of local dignitaries.

I loved this very natural looking little garden created by a local nursery. It looks as if everything is just growing out of the floor.

I like the deep colours of this swag which decorates the plaque commemorating the life and work of local composer Ivor Gurney who had also been a Cathedral chorister.

One of my 'can't resist' photos. I am fascinated by these ancient battle colours which are so tattered they are almost like net in places.

This arrangement complete with little coracle, represents the Slimbridge Wildlife and Wetlands and is one of my favourite exhibits. I love the inclusion of the water birds.

Tucked in a rather dark alcove was this wild and natural arrangement representing the Forest of Dean.

This represents the Dymock poets who used to stay in the village of Dymock - mostly between the two world wars I believe. Dymock is famous for it's Daffodil Trail in the spring, when the fields and roadsides are brightened with drifts of the little wild daffodils.

If I was clever, I would know how to post these two pics side by side to create a whole.

But sadly I am not, so you will have to manage with two halves.

My eye was caught by this rather lovely modern stained glass window - nothing to do with floral arrangements but too good to leave out.

This colour wheel arrangement round the font was stunning - you can just catch sight of blue flowers on the left of the pedestal as the colours continue to change. Members of the Mothers Union created these arrangements.

The font itself is rather splendid. It is made of lead, Norman and dates from about 1130.

The Festival was a marvellous event and brought many visitors to the Cathedral. It is sad to think that all these beautiful floral decorations will have been taken away by Sunday, but thousands of photographs will have been taken to record it all.

Gloucester Cathedral Flower Festival.

2011-07-14T11:19:00.000-07:00

We had a real treat today and visited Gloucester Cathedral which was celebrating 'Glorious Gloucestershire' in floral displays. Every aspect of life seemed to have been represented including industry, art, music, literature, education, religion, sport, stately homes, and more. I have taken so many photos I will show just a few in this post and a few more in the next one. You will see that I prefer natural arrangements over the more formal ones, though there were many beautiful pedestal arrangements.
This exhibit represents the Rococco Gardens at Painswick and you can pick out the white temple and the pink folly at the top. Kiftsgate Court, Hidcote Manor and Snowshill Manor were also represented, but I have picked my favourite.

This is known as the Lancastrian Tomb for a knight and his lady. There is no name for them but they must have been rather important to have a tomb in Gloucester Cathedral. They sleep in this lovely rose-filled bower. My photo doesn't do it justice - it was delightful.

Just before I reached the 'rosy' tomb I came to the entry representing mining in the Forest of Dean. It is very rustic as you can see, and huge, with sturdy 'pit props' and lumps of coal at the base.

The small photo of a miner on the left is of a sculpture which, I believe, stands in the town square in Cinderford. I seem to have blurred this picture. Although it looks as if there were not many visitors, it was really difficult to get a clear view and the place was packed. People arrived by the coachload and I couldn't get near some arrangements. I had to be quick and pick a gap in the crowd to get a clear view.

I think this little 'wood' was made by an organisation called Nature First. If I am wrong, I apologise. It was delightful and so realistic with bark chippings acting as the woodland floor and quite a selection of different trees and saplings.

This scrap-metal sculpture of a goat was part of the display by Lime Kiln Farm Dairy Goats. If you look carefully you may be able to see that the goat is eating a mouthful of flowers.

On my way round I couldn't resist taking pictures of my favourite bits - here is the beautiful fan vaulted ceiling of the cloisters.

And here is where the monks washed - just at one end of the cloisters.

Both sides of the choir were hung with these lovely swags.

The piece de resistance is this amazing floral carpet in the nave. It must have taken hours to make and the detail in the plain green areas is fascinating - so many different leaves and green things, even olives, have been included to vary the textures and add interest. It is like Well Dressing on a massive scale.

There are little tea lights in each of the small purple circles and groups of candles in the larger central circles. The whole thing is entitled Monument to Osric who was a Prince of Mercia and founded the first religious house on the site in 679.

I'll be back tomorrow or the next day with the next instalment.

Tewkesbury Medieval Festival.

2011-07-10T06:59:00.001-07:00

The weather was perfect yesterday morning as we set off towards Tewkesbury - sunshine and a lovely cool breeze - very necessary for the re-enactors as those medieval costumes look very warm. Our first port of call was the Living History Village and we saw these weapons laid out on the grass outside one of the tents.

Most of the tents were plain white, but one or two were quite colourful. They were clustered quite closely together and I wasn't sure whether I'd be welcome if I wandered in among them.

I stuck to taking photos of those around the edge of the village. I like the storage bags on the wall of this tent, and it was interesting to notice how much trouble people had gone to in their efforts to be authentic - wooden plates and sturdy pottery jugs and mugs, etc. No sign of modern cutlery, crockery, tea bags or sliced bread!

I thought this meal looked very authentic, bubbling away ready for a hungry soldier after the battle later in the day. This must be the medieval equivalent of a range cooker.

I think battle plans were being drawn up here. One man was doing all the talking and explaining that those taking part for the first time didn't have to join the battle unless they wanted to. He said he needed volunteers for plenty of other duties.

Free time for the villagers - they are preparing for an archery competition here.

These tents were set apart from all the others and I think they must have been the King's camp.

We visited the medieval market next, which was full of stalls selling equipment, clothing and other items that a re-enactor might find useful as well as those selling jewellery, books, gifts and craft items. There was armour for sale here but I couldn't resist a picture of this wonderful reproduction of the Sutton Hoo helmet. At another stall there were beautiful handcarved staffs and sticks, some with Viking dragon heads and Celtic designs. At yet another I saw huge bolts of woollen, cotton and linen cloth for those who make their own costumes.

Some of the stalls flew banners and this one caught my attention. It looks like an illustration from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.

There were many entertainers on the site and here is the Story Teller at work, amusing adults and children alike. There were also musicians, jugglers, acrobats and magicians.

There were plenty of food stalls too - this was my lunch - a dainty bacon and rabbit burger. Not quite authentic but very good nontheless.

It was quite difficult to take good pictures as there were so many people everywhere. I saw quite a few interesting characters in wonderful costumes just strolling about, but the crush was pretty dense.

This must surely be the youngest visitor of the day - he is 8 weeks old and his name is Clint! Isn't he adorable? That's not a full sized shopping basket - he's really tiny.

After a further wander around we went back to the car a sat in our camping chairs for a rest. It was then I noticed the sky and wondered how much longer it would be before the weather changed. It wasn't long before the heavens opened and we had to shelter inside the car. After staring at a wet hedge for half an hour there was no sign of it clearing so we decided to call it a day and head for home before the field had a chance to get churned up. We'd had a great time and it is a wonderful event which seems to get bigger and more popular each year. I hope they have better weather next year.

Just a quick moan.

2011-07-08T04:58:00.000-07:00

We donate regularly to various charities and receive several begging letters from others every week, and have had as many as five on the same day. I suppose our name and address has been widely circulated. The ones which really make me angry are those which send out 'free gifts' which our (and your) donations have paid for, or like the letter which arrived this morning, enclosing actual coins. The envelope bore the message: 'Please use the pennies inside to help us bring Peace and Joy to Africa's poorest children'. Short of taking them down to our Oxfam shop I wasn't sure how else I could comply with the request. I decided to mark the envelope 'Return to Sender' so that they could use the pennies more wisely, but don't hold out much hope.
In the past we have received a small blanket, a pair of towelling slippers, an umbrella, and a mug, none of which we wanted so took to a charity shop. Writing letters to these charities and making lengthy phonecalls explaining that we think these practices waste valuable donations seems to have no effect at all. It must cost so much to process one of these ridiculous campaigns - we certainly aren't the only household to receive such letters. How dare these people waste precious funds while the suffering goes on.
Rant over - I just had to get it off my chest!

In and Out of the Garden.

2011-07-06T04:59:00.000-07:00

Every time I set foot outside with a fork or trowel in my hand it starts to rain. However, with a camera I did a little better today and took a picture of this purple plantain leaf with the sun shining on it. I think it looks as if it could have been made from quilted silk. The colour is a bit washed out in my photo and is a lovely deep plummy red with hints of dark green.

I nearly missed noticing this water snail going for a stroll. We have had to put something into the water to get rid of the blanket weed - it has been dreadful this year, but is now under control.

I am so pleased to see this lovely day lily in bloom. I have had to be so patient. A friend gave it to me three years ago and the first year it just disappeared and I thought that was that. Last year the leaves appeared and one small flower, but this year there are three lovely strong stems full of buds to look forward to - this is the first one to open.

I persevered with my littel embellished landscape and kept adding hand stitching which has improved it slightly but more thought needs to go into the preliminary stage. It actually looks a bit better than it does here, but even so, as they say up north 'it's neither nowt nor summat'.

This should give a better result and I have paid more attention to building up areas of colour and texture with the embellisher. I haven't started to stitch on this piece yet.

The colours on this piece are really quite vibrant and rich. I have just been playing with strips of sari ribbon to see how it responds to the embellisher. It has a life of it's own and twists and almost shrivels under the needles. I was worried about ending up with straight rows but needn't have. All of these experiments have been worked over a small piece of knitting. I didn't like the colours of these pieces so haven't minded covering them up almost completely.

It's early afternoon and has suddenly gone dark - another deluge on the way. I'm quite pleased to have the rain and not spend my evenings carting heavy cans of water about, but do hope the weekend will be kind to Tewkesbury's Medieval Festival and all the other events taking place.

Carnival Day.

2011-07-02T07:36:00.000-07:00

Here we all are, waiting for the parade to begin. There were quite a lot of 'vintage' cars before the parade proper, but as most of them were younger than me I didn't bother to include them! The parade was led by the excellent military band of the Royal Logistic Corps but I somehow lost the two photos I took of them. It is really hard to get good shots of moving objects or groups while standing in a crowd. I'm not a good photographer at the best of times and my admiration goes to the professionals.

These two shire horses looked splendid with their polished harness shining in the sunlight. They were quite unfazed by the cheering and clapping.

I thought I had better include these Allied Forces support vehicles - we never know when we might need them.

As we are just a small country town, our carnival doesn't have those amazing huge decorated floats that larger communities have, but hundreds of people take part from all sorts of local groups. There were several pre-school and junior schools taking part as well as youth groups and the entire event is organised by volunteers. I can't remember who these little ones were.

These Irish dancers were very sweet and at certain places along the route stopped to perform a short piece.

A gymnastic group also performed along the route. I was quite concerned as they had no mats to land on - just the hard road surface - but all went well.

We have won prizes several years running in the Britain in Bloom competition and our committe took part wearing some very fetching head gear.

The good old WI was there, and these ladies had pushed a laden tea trolley the best part of a mile before they got to the carnival field. The Townswomen's Guild was also represented but as I was once a member of the WI I include them here.

There were several excellent bands taking part and I was surprised by how young some of the members were. They looked very smart in their uniforms.

I really wanted these next three shots to be clear and good but must have altered a setting. I do apologise for the poor quality. Our youngest daughter and her husband are members of a re-enactment group called The Lawmen and here is my son-in-law about to 'hang' his friend who also belongs to the group.

Our daughter is only just in this shot - I can't think what I was doing with the camera!

Part of the reason for poor picture quality could be because I had turned round to take these and was looking into the light.

Our son-in-law is wearing the cowboy hat and the hanging has been postponed!

Another excellent band. I noticed that for the parade they had all taken off their jackets. We caught sight of them beforehand looking very smart in black jackets.

One of the local fire engines ended the parade for us and got a rousing cheer.

My legs knew I had been standing for 2 hours by the end of it and I was glad to sit down. I am in training for next Saturday when we hope to go to the Tewkesbury Medieval Festival. Hope the weather is a kind then as it has been today.

Dewdrops and Playtime.

2011-06-28T12:14:00.000-07:00

We were about to go out on Monday morning when I noticed the tiny droplets of dew all round each of these Alchemilla Mollis leaves. I just had to nip back inside for the camera as I knew they'd have evaporated by the time we got home again. Aren't they beautiful?

It looks as if someone has sewn minute crystal beads round each leaf.
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Today I have been playing with Friendly Plastic and to begin with I recycled some offcuts and failures, and produced these first two pieces. Some of the colour shows from the original pieces and when I have decided what to make with them, I shall colour them with paint or foil.

I softened the pieces in hot water and rolled them together between two sheets of kitchen foil to flatten them out. I then resoftened the rolled out piece with a heat gun and pressed a rubber stamp into it and left it to cool before removing the stamp. I quite like the irregular and slightly ancient look.

This piece was similarly made using a different stamp. I haven't explained the process in any length but if you like the sound of this technique and product, Liz Welch's blog 'Rarelizzie' has amazing samples of all manner of things that can be made with Friendly Plastic as well as hints and tips on using it. She has written books about it and sells the product itself and other related items on her online shop. On her blog you will see that the most beautiful beads, items of jewellery, carnival masks and book covers are just some of the things you can make with it.

I joined two strips together to make this piece. It is actually black and I may paint it or just highlight the design with a gold rub-on cream.

This join is less noticeable and it is so easy to do. You simply dip one long side of each strip into hot water for a few seconds and then hold them together for a few more seconds. That's all it takes. I reheated the piece with the heatgun before pressing a rubber stamp into it, to get the design.

This was made using a piece of gold Friendly Plastic about 3" long, heating it and pressing an incense stick holder onto it. It has a medieval design running halfway along it's length which is mirrored for the other half.

These show up a little clearer.

Again I had to join two strips together and have used a dark green colour for this. I think that perhaps the design for this stamp is not really deeply cut enough for a sharp result but it has that antique look which I like and might end up on a book cover or box eventually.

I think I overheated the plastic for this attempt but actually like the distressed appearance it has. It saves me having to do anything else to it, to make it look centuries old! This is a very elementary technique but some of the more advanced ones give stunning results.

I must go and tidy up the mess I have made, and left, in the kitchen!

This and That.

2011-06-24T06:25:00.000-07:00

I have been doodling with the sewing machine onto the embellished knitted pieces I made recently. These are the first two I have done and I am rather disappointed with them.

The colours of both are greener than they appear here, and the machine stitching disappears into the background too easily - something I should probably have realised from the outset. I might try a bit of hand stitching to see if that looks better.

This little chaffinch has been a regular visitor to our garden for a couple of years now. We had noticed from the start that he didn't hop about as nimbly as the other birds but could never quite see why. I managed to get this photo of him the other day, and his disability is very apparent. He still flies well, comes to feed most days and seems to be none the worse for whatever it was that caused his deformed leg. There has been a younger chaffinch with him sometimes this year with a similar condition but I haven't been able to get a clear enough shot of it.
I've got one eye on the weather, and if I'm lucky I might just get an hour in the garden before it starts raining again.

Have a nice weekend - it's supposed to get warmer - I'm still waiting for that date with the garden chair!

A new addition to the family.

2011-06-18T06:23:00.000-07:00

This is Chester - a Laza Apso/Poodle cross. (I'm not at all sure about that spelling). He belongs to out second youngest daughter and visited us for the first time a couple of days ago. He is utterly adorable, about twelve weeks old and so soft and cuddly though rather difficult to photograph as he's full of beans.

This pic is sharper as he was taking a break!

In case you are cold, like me, I thought these sunny photos might warm us up a bit. I took them a few days ago when it was trying to be summer.

Today it has given up again and the clouds are tearing along and we have brief sunny spells interspersed with heavy squally showers. Bad luck for summer weddings and all those village fetes, etc.

It is supposed to be a fine day tomorrow. If so, I have a date with a comfy garden chair sitting watching the weeds grow!

Two and Four-legged visitors.

2011-06-15T08:29:00.000-07:00

It was a treat to see this young woodpecker and a parent bird on the birdtable the other day. I apologise for the rather misty photo but had to take it through the kitchen window and in great haste before they flew off.

The visitor above arrived by arrangement complete with her own bedding and toys. She is always welcome and is great company.

The furry fox was regularly 'killed' and well chewed ...............

................ and thoroughly shaken ....................

.................. and even worn around the neck incase the evenings turned chilly.

I was going to add more pics, but having had no Internet connection since Saturday and then been interrupted half way through this post with a message saying that the webpage cannot be displayed, I've been frightened off and I'm making this short and sweet.

Have a good weekend.

Boots, shoes and backgrounds.

2011-06-07T12:42:00.000-07:00

I have made another pair of fairy shoes and pixie boots. I posted the ones on the left in the picture above some weeks back, then decided to make some more. I didn't paint the insides of the latest ones as I couldn't achieve the degree of brightness with my metallic paint that Annette Emms got.

I tried to get a more interesting fabric by layering a sheer over fine cotton, but the effect seems to have been lost. I don't know how Annette gets the amazingly delicate effects her shoes seem to have - probably a trade secret.

I buttonhole stitched round the top edge of these pixie boots with a metallic thread ......

.................... and added a tiny metallic tassel at the back to finish them off.

I have been continuing my experiments with my embellishing machine with a view to making backgrounds for machine or hand stitching. It is quite hard to do good machine stitching on some embellished backgrounds. I 'stole' the idea of stitching daisies from Gina Ferrari's blog

'Fan my Flame'. She has done some beautiful daisies - in fact everything she does is beautiful. You may remember the background to my daisies from a couple of posts back - it was embellished onto Lutrador and then distressed with the heat gun. I cut it in half with a view of using it for cards. I have just quickly machined each one onto a piece of painted paper.

These next samples are my pieces of knitting which you have also seen before, some weeks back. I have worked wisps of silk waste into them, along with strips of dyed muslin, scrim and sheers.

This is the only one which had a backing of Lutrador which makes it flatter and firmer, and I think it will be much easier to stitch onto. They all look like landscapes to me, so trees will most likely be featured on them, but whether stitched by machine or hand I haven't decided yet. I quite like the idea of cutting these in half down the middle to make a tiny scene.

Free Gifts.

2011-06-04T03:46:00.000-07:00

I was so pleased to recognise the leaves of these foxgloves earlier in the year, and hoped they would flower for me. The one above is just across the path from the other two. The path itself is invisible at the moment being completely hidden by all the growth that everything has made - finding it again will be my next job.

This lovely pale one is as tall as me - I love watching the bees climb up inside the trumpets, but there were no bees on these and as the lower flowers are beginning to fall I imagine all the nectar has already been taken.

This much smaller one is alongside. I have tried to grow foxgloves for years without success. I sowed seeds and bought established plants but none of them would establish for me. Suddenly this year up popped these three and I think there maybe another one in the front garden which hasn't flowered. Will they stay and appear another year? I shall leave the dead heads in place and hope they sow their own seeds and start a little colony for me.

The handsome teazle here has gathered water in the little 'bowls' created by each leaf where it joins the main stem. I love teazles but they are not suitable for a small garden and it was dwarfing my baby acer tree so I had to dig it up. I apologise to the goldfinches who love teazle seeds, but we do put out niger seed for them.

This pretty yellow flower grows profusely all over the place and I pull it up by the handful if it is in the wrong place, or leave it to do it's own thing. It tolerates quite deep shade and awful soil so is a godsend.

This wild fern will eventually hide the ugly base of the fence at the bottom of the garden. It too is growing where little else will tolerate the conditions so I am very grateful for it.
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I have done so much work in the garden this week that I'm having a day off today to recharge my batteries. There are still some zinnias to plant out and if it was just a case of popping them into the soil I would do it, but the area needs to be cleared first so I'll leave that for another day. Have a good weekend.

Could this be a return to creativity?

2011-05-30T07:07:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I bought this book by Wendy Cotterill. It is full of ideas for using these heat reactive fabrics and she mentions that Lutrador can be worked on with the embellisher. I have had Lutrador for ages and never done anything interesting with it - likewise the embellisher - so yesterday, after being good and doing yet more weeding, I painted some sheets of A4 copy paper with transfer paints which is the best way of colouring Lutrador, and when dry I ironed my pieces in readiness.

The sample above had a base of kunin felt which I lightly embellished to hold the two layers together. I laid strips of organza, silk waste, hand made felt shapes and wool yarn with more wisps of silk waste on top and worked all over the piece with the embellisher to hold everything together. Sadly the colours are not accurate and look very washed out in these photos - in reality they are very rich and quite deep.

I then attacked the piece with a heat gun and achieved these nice textured holes as the heat went through the Lutrador and kunin felt. I have two heat guns - one shaped like a small hairdryer which is more gentle, and one like a long fat sausage which is more powerful - I used the more powerful one here and am quite pleased with this sample.

This little piece was embellished directly onto the coloured Lutrador with no backing at all. I used little strips of muslin, wool tops and silk waste. When you place strips onto the fabric they look rather straight and stiff, but the embellisher soon does it's own thing with them and you end up with softer shapes and trailing lines which I like.

When I heated it, the front looked very little changed but this is the reverse which I find more interesting.

For this piece I worked on cheap stretchy synthetic velvet, again with layers of silk waste and wool yarn. I love the silk waste and the way the colours can be blended as you apply little wisps of it.

Again, I applied heat but ended up with a fancy dog bowl! I like the holes in the centre but not the bunched up edges, but they could be avoided or minimised by trimming away some of the fabric before applying the heat. I just played here with no preconceived ideas of what I was producing. I suppose the more I play, the more control I will have over the whole procedure.

I also have some Evolon which has a lovely soft suede-like feel to it. It will be lovely for book covers.

Home from Glastonbury.

2011-05-25T09:16:00.000-07:00

I've had a lovely few days with our youngest daughter in Glastonbury. We stayed in a tiny studio flat very aptly named 'The Cubbyhole'. It made up for it's lack of space by being so well placed for everything we wanted. In the picture above you can see how the minerals stain the water from the Chalice Well which is said to be fed from beneath the Tor. The water has healing properties and many visitors take a little bottle of it home with them. The gardens which house the well are so tranquil and almost at the foot of the Tor, and I am so pleased I was able to get up to the top and enjoy the amazing 360 degree panorama of Somerset and beyond, spread out beneath us.

We had to make a visit to the Abbey ruins and grounds which I love - they too are so peaceful. I took loads more photos again this year but have posted only a few.

This little well is tucked through an archway in the Undercroft, one level below the railings in the following picture. I missed it last year.

I'm surprised there is any of the Abbey left as it was virtually used as a quarry for about 300 years after the dissolution. It is thought that many old buildings in the town have stone from here somewhere in their construction. The Abbey museum has a few beautiful tiles and shards of glass, but all the precious things were stripped away. It has a stunning model illustrating just how large the Abbey was.

In the space between these two high sections there would have been an arch and reversed arch above it forming an enormous curved letter X and similar to the one in Wells Cathedral. It must have been a breathtaking sight, and was the largest and most richly decorated Abbey in England, in it's time.

I bought this postcard of the Holy Thorn to remind me of how it looked before vandals chopped all it's branches off earlier this year. This tree is a descendant of the original one which grew on the spot on Wearyall Hill where it is thought that Joseph of Arimathea stuck his staff into the ground and it took root. It is interesting that this particular species of hawthorn is found in the Middle East and is not indigenous to Britain. It flowers twice a year - at Easter and Christmas - whereas our native hawthorn flowers only once in Spring.

Sadly, it now looks like this, but the good news is that tiny green shoots are appearing round the base of the tree and from several of the branches. Hundreds of people have been to see it and tied ribbons and messages of goodwill round the metal guard protecting it from the cattle and sheep which graze the field. It won't look the same, but it's definitely alive.
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I came home feeling much better and almost free of my cough, only to find that my husband had gone down with the same thing. He has a weak chest so even an ordinary cold is bad for him and has been quite poorly but seems to be improving. Antibiotics are helping the condition but making him very drowsy.

We both still tire easily but Dick mowed the lawns yesterday and I have done quite a lot of tidying up in the front garden and planted out the sweet peas, potted up some herbs and pricked out seedlings which were practically climbing out of their seed tray. All we want now is some rain, and then a bit of sunshine to sit out and admire our handiwork. Too much to ask? Probably.

I'm Still Here!

2011-05-15T03:40:00.000-07:00

I thought you might like to see this picture of my lovely Allium Christophii just coming into full flower. I am so pleased that it seems to like my garden and returns each year. Couldn't resist taking a quick photo of it this morning.
I've been so busy coughing round the clock that I've had no time to take photos even if I could have held the camera still! By the time the third lot of cough linctus wasn't really working I discovered that it was a viral cough and needed antibiotics. Into the second day of taking them I can say they are doing their stuff and as a bonus I have found a natural dry cough remedy using essential oils: 2 drops of lemon oil, 2 drops of eucalyptus oil mixed into 2 tablespoons of runny honey. Take 1 teaspoon of this mixture in a wineglass of warm water and sip it. It works for me and I am so grateful. I took this recipe from Valerie Ann Worwoods book 'The Fragrant Pharmacy'. I thought I'd never stop coughing. The only trouble now is that there are all those jobs that I have neglected over the past 10 days or so. They have been very good natured about it and are patiently waiting for me! Don't be surprised if I'm not back for another 10 days!!

Exhibition at Ashton Court, Bristol.

2011-05-04T11:47:00.000-07:00

The group I belong to, Gordano Textile Artists, took part in the North Somerset Art Trail over the past few days and held our exhibition in the refurbished gallery in the Visitors' Centre at Ashton Court. It is a lovely venue and one of our favourites, though for some pieces the beautiful stone walls can be a challenge.
On entering the gallery the first thing I noticed was the Pearl Project which we had made to celebrate the 30th Anniversary of the Bristol Branch of the Embroiderers' Guild back in February. I hadn't seen it in it's entirety before and think the fabric folds and driftwood set all our individual pieces off very well.
The next things to catch my eye were Kirsten Hill-Nixon's amazing felt vessels which are so tactile and Liz Hewitt's columnar strips of dyed stitched African mudcloth. The detail on them is wonderful. Liz appliques small shapes of various fabrics which take the dye differently and add to the effect.

I tried to take photos of several glazed pieces but without success as the glass reflected the lights and everything else, making it impossible to get a clear result. Added to that, I was not really 'with it' yesterday afternoon and trying to decide whether I had hay fever or a threatening throat infection - I'm still not sure.

So I opted for just a few to give you a small taste of what it was like.

This is another of Liz's long pieces which I love. The pattern is oak leaves with lots of hand stitching meandering right down the entire piece.

A close-up of part of it. This picture illustrates how the various fabrics used, take up the dye differently.
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The day after my last post the collared dove fledglings flew their nest. We always took a peep at them each morning and suddenly they were gone. They mature so quickly and it's hard to imagine they were strong enough to fly though we had seen them doing quite a bit of preening. I wonder if there will be another brood this year. I'll let you know, but promise no more photos of them!

Wonderful Wisteria and Bonny Babies.

2011-05-02T12:03:00.000-07:00

Our wisteria is looking it's best at the moment.

When we planted it I knew there was a white version but didn't realise that there were quite a few more types. This is my favourite and I'm so glad I chose it. The ones with the very long panicles of blossom would look silly in our small garden.

It has established really well now and stretches the entire width of the house. We planted it just outside the front door and have trained it along the wall in both directions. It meets up with the winter jasmin on one side and a honeysuckle on the other. I missed it last year as I went away for the week it was looking like this, and wet and windy weather had finished it off by the time I got home again. There will be a terrible mess when the petals drop - I practically have to shovel them up - but it is worth that small inconvenience to see it like this. A bonus is it's lovely perfume.

I love these alliums too and am looking forward to the larger christophii which are just breaking bud and will look lovely in a few days time. I meant to take a photo of the lilac - it's looking gorgeous. I'll post both next time.

I took this photo on April 27th - it is our two baby collared doves in their nest between the Sky dish and the house wall.

Just four days later on the 1st May they looked like this. They grow so quickly, it's astounding. By next week they'll probably have flown. I wonder if the parent birds will lay more eggs. They are very considerate neighbours and although so close, don't make any noise apart from a bit of cooing.

Damsel flies and Pea shoots.

2011-04-25T12:46:00.000-07:00

I was taking a breather from gardening by the pond when I noticed these damsel flies - they are almost in the centre of the picture and making a perfect upsidedown heart shape.

They flew away when I moved ......

............. but obligingly came back for another photo - again in the centre of the picture. I have been told that their presence means that the pond is healthy and balanced, so I'm very pleased to see them.

I love pulmonaria even though it seeds itself rather too willingly round the garden. It seems that each plant has a slightly different pattern of blotches on it's leaves. This one will have to go as it is growing out of the low wall at the back of the rockery; alright while it is still small but as it matures it will get leggy and untidy.

I have tried to grow auriculas for many years without much success. I had quite a few in different colours at one time and although I did everything I was supposed to and overwintered them in the greenhouse, used only terracotta pots and didn't overwater them, they never thrived and eventually died. This is one of three surviving ones, all the same colour, which I planted directly into the soil at the shady end of the garden about two years ago in a sort of kill- or-cure experiment. They looked very puny when I planted them out . Considering the harshness of the past two winters I wonder why I bothered with all that molly coddling because here it is with about six stems of flowers on it, and the other two have grown to about the same sized clump.

I was watching a gardening programme two or three weeks ago on which Alys Fowler said she had grown pea shoots from ordinary dried peas from the supermarket. Bags of fresh pea shoots are sold in the salad section for about £1 but these are so quick to germinate and were up in about 3 days! I think you can leave them to grow on a bit more, but I cut these this evening and left the bases to grow on again as a cut-and-come-again salad ingredient. I put one pea in each of the last eight modules when I sowed a tray of sweet peas and sowed them just over two weeks ago. It was on a Saturday a few days before a full moon and by Tuesday they were up. There must be some truth to planting according to the moon. It is supposed to be best to sow and plant on a waxing moon.

I sowed these outside about a week ago and they are already up though they didn't have the moon to help them but the warm weather has obviously had an effect. It's a very cheap way of getting fresh trendy salad leaves and much nicer than mushy peas! (Sorry if you like them).

Happy St. George's Day.

2011-04-23T12:39:00.000-07:00

We have been quite lazy so far this weekend and have sat in the garden as much as possible, coming in to cool off now and then. I love this clematis and do my best to stop my husband pruning it each year. He does manage to cut some back but it is so lovely left to it's own devices. The birds like it as it almost covers the nest boxes on the wall and gives them extra shelter.

Aren't these unfurling fern fronds gorgeous? I discovered them when I retreated into the shade as it was too hot to sit in the sun. I hope it's a bit cooler tomorrow as there are so many jobs out there waiting to be done and seedlings in the greenhouse nearly climbing out of the seed tray.

I thought I'd get a quick picture of my best hosta before the slugs find it. I cheat and plant it in a large pot and top dress it with gravel. They still get to it by the end of the season but it looks good for quite a few weeks. May seems to have arrived in April and everything is shooting up and flowering all at once, and it actually felt more like August today.

I made the fairy shoes. I should have put a matchbox or some other small item beside them so you could picture how tiny they are - about 3" or 7cms long - smaller than the pixie boots. I don't think I chose the best material for them although it was good to work with, and would like to try another pair using organza and silk paper or some other lighter fabric. They look a bit too solid for fairy shoes - I must give it more thought before I start another pair.
Enjoy the rest of the weekend and make the most of this glorious weather while it lasts.

More Robins.

2011-04-21T13:16:00.000-07:00

It does seem rather greedy, but we have two robins' nests in the garden. I don't ever remember having one until now. I wedged this old tin kettle into the support for the summer jasmine years ago and have been on the verge of taking it out several times because nothing used it. In the last few days we have noticed activity there, and have seen the robins going in and out with beakfuls of building material. The robin in the picture here sat still for so long I wondered if I was looking at a dead leaf!
The robins eggs in the nest on the other side of the garden have hatched and we can hear faint 'peep-peeps' from the babies.
Mrs Dove has two new fledgelings to rear, and there are bluetits and great-tits nesting in other parts of the garden. I suppose it isn't surprising as my husband spends half his beer money on bird food! Only half, mind you! We are on permanent cat patrol to see that they all get reared safely as the two houses which back on to ours have four cats between them.

A lazy day and I hope you like robins!

2011-04-17T06:57:00.000-07:00

I made these little pixie boots from Annette Emms instructions in issue 70 of Stitch magazine April/May 2011 and completed them yesterday. I hope my next pair will be better, Annette's look perfect! I also have the back issue which features fairy shoes and want to try making those. Can this fetish for tiny shoes be because I have large feet?! . I have been very lazy today and spent much of it sitting in the garden and noticing all the jobs that still need my attention. While out there I enjoyed watching our resident robins tucking in to the meal worms my husband puts out for them. I clicked away happily and got so many nice shots I couldn't choose between them. Time and again they came to feed, in between flying off for tiny insects for the fledgelings which seems to be an all-day task. I think they must be glad of the mealworms to keep their energy levels up. Every so often one of the parent birds would perch on the tree and sing us a lovely song.

Oooh! These look good.

I wonder if it is safe for me to start eating.

She seems harmless enough and isn't coming closer.

I'm worn out feeding those babies - it's my turn.

Perhaps I should take some to the wife.

He/she looks as if they are saying thankyou in this pic. The photos are of two different birds - the male and the female - though I can't tell which is which and their babies are just a few feet away in this open fronted box on the garden wall.

It's hard to believe that a couple of years ago nothing would grow in this corner. It was dark, dank and horrible. Then our neighbours had about 10ft cut off the top of their ghastly conifer hedge and let sunlight in once more - what a difference. I have just planted a few more cowslips in the empty space round that square stone in front of the bench - they were selling them off at the garden centre.

This is the same corner from the opposite direction. There is a pathway through there somewhere and I think my next job will be to find it.

Mission Accomplished.

2011-04-15T11:43:00.000-07:00

This is the scissors case for the sewing box, shown here back and front. It took hours to sew those tiny beads all round the edge and the beading needle will never be the same again! I stitched them on in threes when they usually form a neat little triangle, giving a picot edging. Because the edge was slightly irregular owing to the canvas being cut on a slant for the shape of the case, they didn't form little triangles but still give a nice finish.

Toward the end I was desperately trying to work out if I'd have enough thread to finish the case. As it happened, I had about 6" left - a close call.

I may give the box a light rub over with gilding wax to highlight the textures of the lace. It looks rather drab here but in fact is a rather nice copper colour. The clasp is made from two tube shaped beads, one stitched to the lid and the other to the body of the box. A grungeboard shape painted to match the box forms the closure. I stitched one half of the shape to the lid and the lower part loops over the bottom bead. Grungeboard is available from good craft suppliers and is rather like cardboard but much stronger. It comes in sheets or various shapes and can be painted and stitched.

A Day Off.

2011-04-10T03:13:00.000-07:00

I am pottering about today doing nothing in particular after a very busy day in the garden yesterday. Everything aches gently this morning and wants a rest! I have been sitting enjoying a cuppa and watching the sun shine through the petals of these tulips. Over the years I have tried to build up a collection of more fancy tulips but they don't come back for me - I think perhaps mice eat them and I always forget where I have planted them when the leaves have died back and it's time to lift and store them. However, this clump and more in the front garden are old faithfuls and regularly turn up to do their stuff each year.

I love the flowers on this red sycamore - I think that's what it is. I was given three skinny saplings years ago and foolishly planted them all in our garden which is much too small for such large trees. One had to go when we installed a shed in the back garden and we were able to dig up the second one before it got too big and gave it to 'the tree man' from the local Council so it could be replanted somewhere in the neighbourhood. This third one is at the edge of the front garden where it is not in anyone's way and we can enjoy it. The leaves are large and a beautiful deep red when they appear but I love it best as it is now.

I am keeping the squirrels out of the garden in this glorious weather by sitting and working out there so much but the other day I spotted this one tucking in. I imagined him thinking 'If I eat

enough bird food ...................

........................ do you think I could learn to fly?!

I am off outside again now. Hope you are all having a lovely restful Sunday and making the most of this gorgeous weather, even though it is too warm for the time of year.

Change of Plan.

2011-04-05T03:36:00.000-07:00

I had intended to work in the garden this morning, getting rid of swathes of celandine which have made themselves very much at home. I do like them and they are quite welcome in small doses, but you can have too much of a good thing. The weather had other ideas and is drizzly, cold and windy so I have been putting the finishing touches to the pin cushion for the sewing box.

It is about 3" across and maybe just over 1" deep with a tiny orange button, top and bottom, stitched through the centre and pulled tightly to accentuate the shape. The colours are much richer and more vibrant than these pics show. The box is lined with a deep olive green silk and needs something colourful to brighten the inside.

I stitched three little glass beads to each corner, and made a needlecase in matching colours.

I must now pluck up the courage to put the box together. I've had two goes and not been satisfied but think I have worked out how to get a good result. After that is done, I have only to make a scissors case, but will need to buy the scissors first to make sure of a good fit.

An update on the collared doves: Baby dove ('Ariel') has flown the nest so we removed it and had a little clean up. Two or three days later, Dolly and Desmond Dove were back with more twigs having looked for the nest several times and given us dirty looks for taking it away. It was disgusting and literally a few twigs held together with bird droppings. A new nest has been made and Dolly is in residence once more, sitting on a new egg. We have given in, but are opening the bedroom window when we want to!

This and That.

2011-04-01T06:09:00.000-07:00

I am still in the doldrums when it comes to creating something original but thank goodness for people like Janet Edmonds and her book 'Embroidered Boxes'. I made something similar for our eldest daughter when she was 50 a couple of years ago. This one is for our daughter-in-law who is like another daughter to us, and her 50th birthday is later this year. I have only to sew up the sides and make a fastening of some kind and the box is done. It doesn't look much like a box yet - the plain section is the base; the far section is the front; the two 'arms' are the sides, and the bit nearest the front will become the back and lid. The texture comes from small pieces of lace oddments embedded into vilene with gesso, then sprayed with inks. I did 'scribble' all over the lace pieces with the sewing machine to make sure they were all safely fixed. I couldn't get the colour I was aiming for so overpainted with Stewart Gill metallic copper paint.

This is a close up of the lid section. I may rub a little gilding wax over the surface to finish it. I can't give someone an empty box so am fitting it out as a sewing box. Below is the top section of the pin cushion - thank goodness for Sue Hawkins too. This is being made from her instructions in issue No.60 of Stitch magazine - Aug.Sept.2009. It is a biscornu pincushion which has a fascinating irregular shape achieved by joining the corners of the top square to the centres of the bottom one. I'll post a pic. when I've done it.

Ignore the blue canvas - I found this piece left over from another project and it was just the right size. None of the blue will be visible when the pincushion is completed. I should have put the canvas into a frame to work it but as it is such a small design it should be fine with a gentle pressing on the wrong side and pulling into shape. I will also be making a needlecase and scissors case.

As Easter is fast approaching I thought I would at last do something with the bag of polystyrene eggs I have had for years. I covered each one with scrunched up tissue paper then painted them with Stewart Gill metallic paints. (I've had those for ages too and some were in danger of drying out so I thought I'd use them before it was too late). I decorated them with flower shapes cut with a paper punch, then added sequins to the centres. Finally I added dots of Stickles which are little squeezy pots of twinkly colour - I had a selection for my birthday and wanted to try them out. Do they need a narrow organza ribbon hanging loop?

I could have made a better arrangement of my eggs but was too impatient to wait for the Stickles to dry - they take ages, probably overnight - and I didn't dare try to move them. I don't think Faberge will be taking me to court, but making them was good fun.

Blowing hot and cold.

2011-03-27T09:28:00.000-07:00

I felt quite chilly this afternoon after the lovely warm days we have had, and thought the best way to get warm would be to do a bit of gardening. I was surprised by how much growth so many of the plants have put on during the mild spell. I hardly noticed the tulips a few days ago and these are almost coming out.

I do hope there are one or two more fritillaries to come - I had two or three nice clumps until lily beetles found them a couple of years ago. I can always cheat and buy some more.

The dicentra was just a nice looking clump of leaves at the beginning of the week and seems to have doubled in size since then.

We have had to tie in the new growth on this clematis and then I saw all the buds. It's a beautiful blue when in full flower, and right outside the kitchen window. The long hard winter doesn't seem to have done much harm and certainly hasn't slowed things down. If anything they seem to be earlier than usual.

The new arrival and a trip to Pershore.

2011-03-24T12:48:00.000-07:00

Here is our nearest neighbour! The hen has hardly left the nest and it was quite by chance that my husband noticed this hefty fledgling sitting in the nest. One of the two eggs was broken so this is her 'one and only'. Someone suggested we should name the collared dove and my husband chose 'Dolly'. Our youngest daughter thought 'Ariel' or 'The Dove from Above' would be more appropriate! Perhaps Dolly's baby should be called Ariel - that would keep all parties happy. I love the way the sunlight coming through the mesh of the satellite dish has cast that speckled pattern on the birds feathers. It looks more like some sort of quail.

After doing our weekly shopping we drove to Pershore today. It was a glorious day and I couldn't resist a stroll through to the Abbey. The building on the right of this picture is not part of the Abbey itself.

Before the dissolution of the monasteries the Abbey complex would have filled most of the green open space in the photo above where you see those big trees. All that now remains is the current building which was saved and serves as the Parish Church.

The High Street is through the gates behind this quaint carved stone ...........

............. which looks like this on the other side. There were clumps and drifts of daffodils everywhere among the trees round the Abbey, and on the way through to the town this lovely bed of pansies looked gorgeous in the sunshine.

We usually have lunch in a cafe on the High Street but it was such a nice day we took sandwiches and picnicked by the river just outside the town.

Eyes left and you see the busy road bridge, built in Victorian times.

Eyes right and the view is this beautiful medieval bridge, now only used for foot traffic.

It looks even more medieval from the other side and quite different. There has been a crossing at this point since Saxon times - a wooden bridge came first, then in medieval times a stone bridge was built and probably widened and strengthened a little later. During the Civil War, fleeing troops damaged it to prevent their pursuers catching up with them. The repaired section can still be seen in the central span.

The willow trees were all coming into bloom with their golden catkins, birds were singing and the banks were carpeted with celandine.

I just had to take a picture of this tree that has had a branch removed some time ago. I was fascinated by the way the surface of the cut has cracked and the bark has formed a rugged frame round it.

There are usually dozens of ducks scrounging for crusts at this picnic area, but they were absent today - probably busy nesting somewhere along the bank. It made a change to be able to eat without an audience with little beady eyes and eager beaks.

Another glorious day.

2011-03-19T08:44:00.000-07:00

It is another lovely day today and I feel almost guilty that we can enjoy such perfect weather in safe surroundings when the Japanese have so much tragedy and unimaginable worry to contend with. I decided to stroll round the garden to see what new things there are to see and am surprised by how much things have developed in just a few days. The little primula above is just coming into flower - I love the gold edging to it's petals - is it called 'Gold Lace'?

The pulmonaria is forming a good clump against the wall here. (Note to self: tidy up all those dead bits before taking photos!!) There are also other clumps dotted around the garden.

The aubretia is doing it's stuff on the rockery. I have tried to grow some of the other more interesting coloured varieties but this one is the only one which will settle in and stay for another year. I think our soil is not well drained enough inspite of all my efforts.

There should have been a whole row of these lovely anemone blanda along one side of the pond. I think I must have been a bit too quick off the mark to replant the area when the pond was enlarged, as some of the soil had to be removed when the paved edging was done and I think the anemone corms went with it. I wondered why there is only one clump by the pond, but others are popping up all over the place!

I had a morning cuppa outside in the sun and then went out again at lunchtime, even though I needed a jacket on. It was so lovely to hear the birds singing and bumblebees buzzing and to my amazement I caught sight of this beautiful Peacock butterfly sunning itself on the clematis montana. I went straight in to fetch the camera half expecting it to have gone on my return, but it was still there.............

............ and almost immediately the one above (is it a comma? I can never remember) landed on the rocks of the water feature. What a treat. I hope they haven't woken up too soon.

It's been a really good week this week. I think I am coming out of my doldrums and beginning to feel like myself once more. I have shaken off that awful lethargy which has dogged me for months, and although I am a bit tired today, it is because I have had a very busy week. I decided to give an informal lunch to mark my birthday on Thursday as I knew that two of our daughters had time off from work. The other two were free as well and although our son had to work during the day, he dropped in later. One brave son-in-law joined us and I was thoroughly showered with gifts, cards, flowers and the best company. It is hard to remember these days of catering for two, that for some years I produced three meals each day for seven without a seconds thought. Now it's a question of: Is that too much/will it be enough/shall I do some extra/I can always freeze the leftovers. Well, it was enough and we didn't have any leftovers. A most enjoyable and satisfactory day - the lunch was pretty good too, even if I 'says it as shouldn't'!

Stand by to be Hellebored!

2011-03-13T09:51:00.000-07:00

I just love hellebores and it has taken me years of trying to get them to establish themselves in my garden. I am no plantswoman and can't tell you their names. I do use the plant labels which come with the plants and stick them in the soil alongside, but find that during the winter these labels have been pulled out and lost. I'm just content that they grow for me.

These clumps are growing on the other side of the garden, and there is still one more plant whose leaves are different from the others, but it's flowers are not open yet.

Today has been absolutely glorious - whatever the weather throws at us next week, I really think spring has arrived. The frogs have been busy again and given us another big clump of frogspawn.

It is hard to believe that a few short weeks ago I photographed some fat green buds on our clematis. Now those buds are stems about a foot long.

Our latest acquisition is Arthur Bell, a climbing rose with perfumed golden yellow flowers. I don't think I shall be sitting in his shade this year but he's looking very healthy and will probably climb the pergola post before the summer is out and we might even get a flower or two. He takes the place of a clematis which refused to have any flowers.

It's not warm enough to sit outside yet of course, but lovely for a walk this morning with our daughter's dog - Poppy - who is always good company.