niminy fingers

Promises to Keep

2012-01-03T11:08:00.000Z

woodblock print from Tea-and-Ink Studio - Etsy

Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening

Robert Frost

Whose woods these are I think I know.

His house is in the village though;

He will not see me stopping here

To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer

To stop without a farmhouse near

Between the woods and frozen lake

The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake

To ask if there is some mistake.

The only other sound's the sweep

Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep.

You have until Sunday 6th January to listen to the BBC iPlayer broadcast about Robert Frost's poem and his home in Vermont where it was written. Strangely enough he wrote it early in the morning on 21st June, the longest day. The narrator of the broadcast, a Scots poet, recounts that when he asks groups of children who they think is telling the story, they invariably say Father Christmas. Frost was very happy for us to have our own interpretations, so I hope you find a way for it to speak to you and have the time to listen to the programme (30 minutes).

The fabulous woodblock print is a card I bought from Etsy long ago and thought the title was joyfully evocative - I had no idea then that it was a line from what has become a favourite poem. You can click on the photograph and see it better in close-up.

Apology: Every cloud has a silver lining, if you are of a mind to make it so. But sometimes the grey lowering weather front takes a while to pass overhead and you can lose your confidence in the certainty of a shining lining. The last few weeks have taken me into some terra incognita, full of dragons, bewilderment and sometimes despair. The details are someone else's story, so will not be related here, but I claim the right to use it as a reason for the lack of blogging. But I'm back. I have promises to keep.

Chrissie

"Life is what happens while you're making other plans"

2012-01-01T23:10:00.000Z

Happy New Year! Thank you to all the kind people who have asked where I've been for weeks - I hope to be back blogging very soon.Chrissie

Magic Feathers

2011-09-15T10:16:00.001+01:00

Jude Hill, of SpiritCloth, is gathering 1000 embroidered feathers from around the world and sewing them together. She says:

"The Magic Feather Project is a collective stitching project focused on creative sharing and giving. The magic feather has been my personal symbol for almost forever. With the idea of making it a symbol of something bigger than just myself, I thought I would share it with you and you in turn might stitch one (at least) and send it to me so I might, in turn, sew a bunch together and put the larger cloth to some charitable use.My target for any charity efforts connected with this project is children. Their well being and education. I may give or donate some of the cloths directly or donate them for auction. We'll see."

She also has a Facebook page and a Flickr page, if you would like to see some of the wonderful donations she has already received.

I'm finding them a bit addictive to make.... These are sewn on a piece of roughish cotton which I indigo dyed at the shibori workshop I went to earlier this year. The one where I had to walk home 3 miles carrying a bucket and drainpipe and looking like a bag lady. Oh, don't remind me. Anyway, the bits where the dye was resisted look a little bit feathery in places, so I though I would use silks in similar shades to create some harmony.

The backing cloth in this one is an old soft thick piece of cotton which was an altar cloth in a previous life. It's actually a bit more of an ochre colour than it looks and is gently faded in the folds. The thread was some hand-dyed I bought years ago from Myfanwy.

In between feathers I've free-machine stitched some little brooches. This poor bunny perhaps needs reporting to the RSPCA, with its dislocated tail and withered back leg....

Job for today: removing Bondaweb glue from the ironing-board cover before my husband permanently fixes his work-shirt to it....

Chrissie

pussycat pussycat, where have you been

2011-09-12T12:42:00.001+01:00

Not to London to visit the queen. But to South West France, deep in the countryside in the Lot valley. Along with quite a lot of the population of Holland, it would seem!

Eating chocolate pud and creme anglaise a la menthe

here

watching the twinkling reflections of the stained-glass windows in a tiny hill-top village church

fois gras central in St. Cirq Lapopie

ancient village on a very steep cliffside overlooking the river Lot

33 degrees C at 9.15 a.m., so made a very sweaty retreat back to the house and into the pool......

A very special treat the day before we set of for France was a quick train trip up to Birmingham NEC for the Festival of Quilts. And it was worth it just to see this masterpiece by Carolyn, a kind and lovely blogger friend. See more about her quilt here.

I took some more photos, but in my excitement and because I hadn't invested in a programme, I didn't have the artists' names. So sorry.

little boxes and indigo

domestic scenes

unfurling ferns

no visit to FoQ complete without some purchases

sari silks

and threads

BIG ceramic hearts

REALLY BIG ceramic beads in lovely shades

slightly smaller versions

sweet little free-machine stitchery on felted blanket by Janet Clare

(v. cheap, so treated myself!)

And another one which became a brooch yesterday

Talking of brooches, there was quite a gathering of bloggers at FoQ, photos of which you've probably seen on other blogs, and I met some of my heroines that day. One,with quite unexpected generosity, pressed this awesome beauty into my sweaty palm. I was quite overcome and couldn't believe my eyes. I love Viv's work and just wish I had a smigeon of her artistic talent and freedom of expression.

Cakey interlude - three types of plums from our garden

And another 'birthday treat', something I've wanted to do for years-and-years and eventually managed to get to a few weeks ago - Gifford's Circus. They travel around the Cotswolds area during the summer months, camping out on common land with their traditional vehicles and bite-sized marquee. We went to see then when they were on Minchinhampton Common, for a matinee performance on a beautiful summer's day. I have to tell you that I haven't laughed so much for ages and was completely transported by the effervescent theatre, gymnastics, music and 'pure magic'.

OK, so this smart-alec can not only play the violin, she can do it dangling from one leg from the topmast of a circus marquee

sorry to have been gone so long - I'll be back soon, promise .....

Chrissie

In which we consider incongruity and birthday treats

2011-08-02T10:26:00.002+01:00

I've been thinking about incongruity. As one does.

I don't know if you remember Tony, my roughty-toughty motorcycle racer neighbour? The one who once got cross and (allegedly) set fire to Nick-the-Wig's toupe in the pub? Perhaps I didn't mention that bit before... Anyway, yesterday I was having a bit of a lie-in, still recovering from a lot of singing and dancing on Saturday evening, of which more anon. I was in a half doze, when I heard someone outside singing 'Morning has broken'. I stuck my head through the gap in the curtains. Tony, bare-chested and with a car battery tucked under one arm, was serenading Peter the Postman. I nearly wept to hear 14 stone of muscle and metal plates giving a sweet, falsetto, and just about word-perfect rendition of a hymn that he must have learnt at junior school. I gathered from the look on his face, and a retort that I didn't quite catch, that Peter was contemplating incongruity too.

Village life isn't always so touchingly harmonious and there's recently been the divisive topic of someone's neighbour noise issue which should have been resolved between the two parties involved, but sadly became front page news in the free paper and hotly-debated topic in a local radio programme phone-in. Nigel the cockerel was the villain of the piece, but such was his notoriety after this publicity that there was even talk of him being invited to open the village fete.

I've been indulged with quite a few lovely trips and treats lately, mainly to do with a recent Big Birthday. I'm the same age as Dennis the Menace.

Our first treat took us to London to the Imperial War Museum to see the exhibition of Women War Artists. One of the most striking paintings was by Anna Airy of a munitions factory. The exhibition is on until the end of November and it's certainly worth a visit if you are likely to be in London. We also had a stroll along the South Bank to see some of the exhibitions staged in honour of the anniversary of the Festival of Britain (also 60 this year) and happened to bump into my lovely neice who was having a birthday outing too - now wasn't that a coincidence?

Another rare treat was the opportunity to see all the exhibitors and trade stands at FibreEast, the first event of its kind locally in support of The Campaign for Wool. There's a button on the left to link to their website. Two marquees full of fibre to bedazzle the eye and tempt you to touch. What joy! Lots of it was aimed at spinners and knitters, but that didn't put this felter off, oh no siree. No chance of going home with any money left in my purse that day! One real delight was to meet Sara whose fibres I have used in my felting for a while. It was brilliant to be able to see some of her limited edition batts up close and I did eventually make my mind up about which two to purchase.

Further round the marquee I watched someone felting with a proper multiple needle-holder and realised that this was what I needed instead of the single needles which which I'm always drawing blood. So, with new needles and some of Sara's artistic batts, I have made myself some hearts, using the batts as a base and embellishing them with alpaca fibres I got in a swap a while ago from Loco Lindy the Lama Farmer (true).

I also bought some bits of lightly-felted blanket in lovely shades and some cute ceramic buttons with doggies on them and made a few brooches just for fun. These fairtrade buttons are made in Johannesburg and sold in this country by Injabulo, who are having a stall at the Festival of Quilts.

I loved their beads made from magazine pages too, and I'm planning to make some felt beads to go with them and construct a necklace or two. They are made in Botswana under the auspices of mothersforall, a charitable organisation teaching skills to women who are caring for children orphaned by AIDS.

Saturday's treat was an outing to Audley End for a picnic concert. So we joined the 9,998 other people sitting in the blazing sunshine on the hillside behind the house and ate our picnic listening (on headphones) to Test Match Special and the thrilling end of the first day's play in the second Test against India at Trent Bridge while we waited for the main attraction to appear on stage.

No idea who all these people are, but somewhere in there was Gina of Fan My Flame! Please go and visit her blog to see the wonderful snippet of video she took of the occasion.

You'll see from her clip that the star attraction was Tom Jones! He certainly gave us a magnificent evening's entertainment, I can't believe what a wonderfully strong voice he still has at the age of 71. And, of course, we boogied (is that the right word? I'm so out of touch with these things....) and sang along to Delilah at the tops of our voices. What a fireworks display there was at the end - surely the best I've ever seen - just magic.

(not my photo)

I'm sorry my blogging has been a bit inconsistent lately, not only v. busy, but having trouble with laptop and IE, so trying Firefox just to see if it helps. So far so good ....

Have a great week - what have you got planned?

Chrissie x

CAKE

2011-07-10T07:23:00.005+01:00

I find that CAKE usually gets the attention of bloggers! This was my offering for the table at our fund-raising teaparty in a pretty garden in the village. We had so many kind people offering to bake cakes that I was able to be very generous with the size of the slices we served to go with the dainty cucumber sandwiches. Can you see my bunting on the trellis?

More cake - this time for my birthday lunch and made for me by a kind friend.

Some tomato tarts, heart-shaped in honour of my neice and her fiance who joined us for lunch to share news of their wedding plans for the New Year.

And some scrummy punnets of fresh fruit to end the meal, just to counteract all those cakey calories!

Today is the exciting day that the Postman's Knock cards are all received. This stunning version of my New York! New York! theme is from Joanna, who made a lovely envelope out of an old map of North America and inside was the very bling version of Liberty against a backdrop of the Manhattan street grids. Liberty is portrayed as a version of the goddess Kali, who is perhaps enticing emigrants into Ellis Island with promises of prosperity. I thought it was a most thoughtful interpretation and a very precious addition to my collection.

I forgot to take a photo of the Taking Flight one I sent to Lesley this time, but it's on the Postman's Knock blog if you care to see it.

Another big treat today was a visit to Gina's Open Studio. And it was 'two for the price of one' on meeting-the-bloggers front, as Gill from VintageRockChick was there too. I had met Gina before when she came to talk to our Embroiderers Guild, but it was great to get to talk to Gill for the first time, having laughed at her blog for so long!

We knew we were in the right place when we caught sight of the red phone box that Gina had decorated with her mobile-phoning figures. They were incredible close-up!

I think my favourite thing when visiting someone's studio is to explore their sketchbooks - I love to see how ideas develop and are recorded, which is something I'm just hopeless at. Gina's were real works of art. I did have a bone to pick with her, though, because her tidy studio was held up to me by my husband as the epitome of how a workroom should be kept. He rode rough-shod over my stuttering excuses. Nothing for it then, I'll need to have a clear-out.......

If you can get to Gina's studio, it is open again next weekend and the details are on her blog. There's lots of exquisite work on display and great fun to be had with her sock monkeys and 'More Tea Vicar' teacosies!

Hope you're having a lovely weekend!

Chrissie

heart bunting - vintage stylie

2011-06-26T08:45:00.000+01:00

Well, I did threaten to bore you with bunting ....

I placed some vintage fabrics, thick cloths with unfinished embroidery transfers (I love the blue) and some bits of old traycloths and lace and bonded them to shirt-weight cotton, made a see-through heart template and decided where to cut out the shapes for best effect. Little bit of zig-zag sewing in places, a wee blue button and yards of twine and lo! we had bunting. This is my first attempt, but I think I'll make some more, maybe a bit smaller?

This string is going with me to a Strawberry Day at the local watermill this afternoon, where I have been given a little sales table under "the hovel" - sounds delightful! However, I'm going to put a reasonably high price tag on it, and maybe it can come back home with me to hang in my lovely new kitchen!

These little posy-corsage-brooch-thingies are coming with me too, but I'd prefer not to bring them home! They came about when I was showing a friend's daughter how to put a stalk on a piece of flat felt. She made herself a flower, which she had meant to have a thicker stalk on to make it stand up. However, I loved them the way they are and I had a go at developing the idea using the nuno technique and trapping some floral chiffon in the fibres and making some brooches.

The one below has no chiffon, just throwster's silk waste and flax fibres on the petals

dark pink petals and floral chiffon

white petals and floral chiffon, which I think is my fave - what do you think?

The chiffon is a skirt I wore at every available opportunity when I was about 30 years younger than I am now and could get away with that Lady Di look ... nowadays it would be more sack-of-spuds (King-Edward's of course)!

Hope you're having a good weekend - what have you been up to? I'd love to hear, so do leave me a comment and tell me.

Chrissie

down the rabbit hole (and other feeble excuses)

2011-06-23T00:42:00.001+01:00

How can I have been too busy to blog? What is the world coming to? Didn't fall down a rabbit hole, but have been absent without leave. Fair amount of tedious stuff has filled my days, but not exclusively so. For example, I met Jill! I took a day off from committee works and whizzed over to Luton to visit her open studio exhibition. It was such a treat to meet her and be able to see her delicate and painstaking craft work and photographs and to chat to her about her sketchbooks. Such an inspiration. I bought one of her sweet needle-felted cards which I'll be getting framed to hang in my workroom. I specially love the little french knots worked in multi-coloured thread on the pink flower heads.

Also not tedious was this scrummy pud

eaten here

at a friend's special birthday lunch. We had a great day with lots of fun and laughter.

And someone I have never met, but whom I know to be a very lovely lady indeed, made me a gift which I shall treasure. Carolyn has just recently opened an Etsy shop, which is a rip-roaring success already, not surprisingly. She has been making tyvek beads which have miraculously turned into veritable Byzantine jewels and she generously sent me some beautiful turquoise and gold ones.

I've always loved Carolyn's St.Ives-inspired hearts and I couldn't believe that she created one just for me. What kindness.

Isn't it amazing? I adore this delicate knitted shoreline and the little quayside cottage. There's so much to see and explore in this fascinating work of art.

Not in the same league, sadly, but I have been felting one or two heart brooches - this is my attempt at being exuberant .... and resisting the usual strong urge to tidy, neaten, snip and straighten. I quite like this red and orange one, which has bits of an old Indian bag that fell to pieces through being loved to much. But the ones below just look a bit scruffy to me. Probably because I rebelliously and repeatedly stabbed them with my little pointy scissors!

Using some avocado skin dyed fabrics which I got from Heike last year, I stitched some little stitcheries to make into greetings cards

And Lesley might recognise some of the snippets in the blue versions. I've incorporated my indigo bits with some hand-dyed lovelies that came from Lesley's Shed. The snippets of lace were out of my Erosion Bundle - they were buried in the compost heap and took some dye from screen-printed fabric they were wrapped up with.

mother-of-pearl buttons and

pink knots

And, see, I can do loose threads and frayed edges .... but I did hide the stabby-scissors.

I was going to make you hang on for some more photos of some cards I made today, but I think you've persevered long enough. However, those who come back in a day or two will be rewarded not only with pictures of greetings cards, but with views of bunting. Heart-shaped bunting. Aha, now I've got your attention.

Chrissie x

Is this a 'Collection', or just 'More than One of its Kind'?

2011-05-31T16:05:00.002+01:00

I've decided that there's a difference between a collector and someone who just owns more than one of everything. When I was looking around for something to contribute to Lesley's challenge to other bloggers to show their collections, I couldn't help concluding that I definitely fall into the latter category.

My stamp-collecting passion faded in about 1962, having survived an attempt by my youngest sister to chew most of my Magyar Posta treasures, perhaps because they portrayed soft fruits of the region.

Since then, although I have gathered a lot of stuff around me, it's been more a case of "oh there's one of those things I've already got two of, perhaps I'd better get it to go with the others".

Many many moons ago, I developed a keen nose for identifying places that Victorians dumped their household waste. Not necessarily the most useful faculty, I grant you, but digging up an old rubbish-dump did provide an occasional diversion when the weekend had little else to offer. As a result, I became the proud owner of a large collection of Bovril jars. They were thankfully disposed of long ago, but I did keep a handful of little bottles just for sentimental reasons.

ribbed bottles, denoting that the contents could be poisonous if taken in quantity

oh, I seem to have kept one teenytiny Bovril jar after all....

hardly big enough to contain a tablespoonful

Eiffel Tower fruit juice bottle

The Foster Clark company was founded by George (who was for a while Mayor of Maidstone in Kent) in 1890 and these pale green glass bottles contained concentrated lemon juice, probably used more for culinary purposes than for drinking.

These stoneware ink bottles were picked up in a ploughed field (near Ayot St. Lawrence, the home of George Bernard Shaw - do you think he dipped his knib in them?) and I am truly besotted with them. I love the colour, the weight, the warmth, shape and size of them and admire the way they withstood many years' daily use and survived being buried for years before I came across them. They are always out on display somewhere, so that I can see them all the time.

These old broken clay pipes are special, too. I love the decorative detail they have been given, despite the fact that they were workaday objects destined to have a very short life. My vegetable garden is always turning up pipe-stems, broken by their owner probably 100 years ago or more.

I invariably rescue any bits of broken china I find in the garden or when walking alongside a ploughed field. Lots of it is blue-and-white, maybe a cup handle or the rim of a marmalade jar.

this one is a strange one, with a little hatchling making its way into the world

Bits of broken china were an important part of my mum's play in the late 1920's. In the back yard of her Glasgow home, mud pies were made and sold, the local currency being small shards of broken plate found in the household tip. Anything with a gold rim was treasure indeed. It must be in my genes!

What do you collect?

Chrissie

Paint the Town with Joy, (and other happinesses)

2011-05-29T09:15:00.002+01:00

Making some little owls for a woodland-themed craft demo on Monday

A wonderful addition to my New York New York! postcard swap collection, beautifully made by Sue.

Click on the this Postman's Knock link to see the latest batch, including the Yee-Ha! Ride 'em Cowboy one that I made for Jo. Can't seem to access the photo to post on here for you .....

We've all had a lot of problems with loading, logging in, commenting etc. on Blogger at the moment, so please excuse me if it seems I haven't visited you lately. Not for want of trying on my part!

And a few random Spanish holiday snaps, just to brighten a dull day. Wind and rain and cloudy skies here at the moment, but at least not the torrential hailstorm we had the other day when I had to give shelter to passers-by who were in danger of getting concussion!

Cap Roig botanical gardens

Calella de Palafrugell

shell-seeker

Aigua Blava

footprints in the sand

souvenirs

Hope this helped to brighten the day!

Chrissie

Shibori and The Tramp

2011-05-25T16:27:00.001+01:00

Back from sunny Spain, I decided to waste no time and set-to tying up pebbles with rubber bands in cotton sheeting,

wrapping more sheeting round a drainpipe and securing with string and thread,

and sewing circles and pulling up the thread to wrinkle the fabric.

Ready to dunk everything in an indigo dyebath.

Look what came out -

clamped with clothes pegs

concertina folds clamped with bulldog clips and pegs

string wrapped

marbles secured with rubber bands

here are the stitched circles

the drainpipe wrapping

more pegs

marbles and drawn-up stitching (looking mightily like dental x-rays!)

Although I loved the workshop and simply can't wait to try it again at home, the day didn't end well. We had been told to wear old clothes and shoes and to take quite a lot of 'props' for the various techniques we would be trying out. So when a misunderstanding seemed to have arisen about my being collected and driven home at the end of the day, I set off walking, expecting to meet the car at any moment. I ended up tramping all the way home. 'Tramping' could not be a more appropriate term, bearing in mind my tattered and faded combat trousers, gardening shoes and old grandad shirt covered in big splotches of red paint. I looked as if I'd had a severe nosebleed, or been stabbed. And of course I was carrying a collection of plastic bags, drainpipes and a bucket full of pebbles. Three miles is a long way to try and keep your head held high and remain dignified when the passengers of every passing vehicle obviously recognise you as a dangerous and probably pongy old bag-lady. No, don't ask me why I didn't have a mobile phone with me.....that's not helpful.

That was Monday. On Tuesday things definitely began to look up when friend Charlotte and her daughter came to learn how to make felt. What a wonderful time we had - they were keen and quickly picked up the technique and had lots of ideas about colour combinations and things to add to and trap in the felt. We started off making bobbles and 'sausages', to get the feel for the process and soon the kitchen was full of glorious drying felt. It was a very rewarding and inspiring day for me and I loved seeing how the girls wanted to use what they'd learned.

Chrissie

New York New York! and a magpie's nest

2011-05-15T18:43:00.000+01:00

Most of you will probably know that Blogger had a glitch for a couple of days and although I got my last post resinstated, the comments that went with it were lost. Now that's a great shame, as they were very very funny indeed. I was 'accused' of cutting and pasting pages out of the Boden catalogue just to make it look like I had attractive relatives! This seemed to initiate a spate of people resolving to dispose of all their family photos and just use magazine pictures instead. I have a suspicion that most of us would probably end up being 'related' to George Clooney!

The nephew pictured in the last posting was walking down a Manhattan street with his girlfriend and it reminded me of an older photo I have of him in that fair city. He lived there for a while when he was just a toddler and this is a photo of me pushing him in his stroller near the Rockefeller Centre .... I never imagined then that 30 years later he would be 6' 5" and that playing rugby would have rearranged his cute little button nose into about 5 different directions.

I definitely do heart New York - and Lesley has captured this so beautifully in the latest postcard in our Postman's Knock swap. The felted lovely above was just one of the wonderful interpretations she produced - she always has a head so full of ideas that she can never rein in her generosity and produce just one thing.

I think this concertina card is just magical. The faded vintage pictures of the skyline are so evocative and have just the right kind of nostalgia attached to them. And so cleverly presented through the lens and viewfinder of an old camera. Brilliant!

Look at all the layers of skyscrapers and landmarks that Lesley has incorporated into this 3D card.

And a well-travelled leather suitcase covered in fancy New York hotel stickers -

isn't it great?

And this is the card I made for Joanna, whose theme was 'Collections/Collecting'. I collaged a magpie out of scraps of paper from my Toast House & Home catalogue and made a shredded paper nest to fill with the magpie's collection of glittery things. I rather like the postcard I found to put it on and even discovered I had a magpie postage stamp.

OK - got to go and pack my bag for Spain - see you all in a few days!

Chrissie

The Curate's Egg

2011-05-14T06:20:00.001+01:00

Well, what's been happening around here? Curate's egg - "good in parts".

I'm not sure which category this falls into, but when I was walking to the postbox a man in a beat-up old van shouted "hello gorgeous" at me. When you're just about to turn 60 you can't be fussy, so I turned a blind eye to the fact that he had a face like a carved halloween pumpkin (only redder) and I smiled sweetly back at him. Just enough to be polite, you understand, not enough to lure him into further communication.

In other circumstances, this might have put a spring in my step. However, I've had a bad back and springing steps have been out of the question. I've therefore been under the physiotherapist, who referred to me as a "classic middle-aged gardener". Doesn't have quite the same ring as "hello gorgeous", but at least he wasn't gurning at me through the window of a rusty pick-up. Anyway, after he ground his bony knuckles into my spine for a bit and made me do some twisty contortions, I'm definitely on the mend. So that clearly falls into the good category.

Driving the car into a brick pillar (which, in my defence, was looking mightily like a hedge at the time) and denting (big-time) the front bumper definitely counts as not good. OK, reading that back, the fact that the wall was disguised as a hedge is no defence at all. The insurance company didn't seem to think so anyhow.

Firmly in the good section are four things to look forward to. A few days away paddling in the Mediterranean here;

a visit from my nephew and his American fiancee;

a workshop day learning shibori and dyeing the results in an indigo vat; and the next day teaching a friend and her daughter how to wet-felt.

Oh, five things - on Saturday opening Lesley's parcel which contains her NEW YORK NEW YORK postcard in this round of Postman's Knock. Can't wait!

Hope you all have a good weekend when it arrives.

Chrissie

Sorry to everyone who left those really funny comments - Blogger has managed to delete them in the past two days ....

From the Cotswolds to Manhattan

2011-05-03T10:35:00.000+01:00

What a weekend! We watched The Wedding, of course, and loved every minute. That Kate is going to be a real asset to the Royal Family. My feelings about some of the guests are perfectly summed-up by Hannah Betts' hilariously scathing article in the Telegraph - http://fashion.telegraph.co.uk/Article/TMG8484892/121/Royal-wedding-the-best-of-styles-the-worst-of-styles.html.

But the highlight of the weekend for me was, of course, the chance to meet Lesley and Cathy, who were in Stroud for the International Textiles Fair and taking part in a workshop. Richard and I drove through the beautiful sun-drenched Cotswold countryside to join them for a cuppa. We stopped on the way at Painswick, the quintessential Cotswold village, golden stone, delectable architecture and fascinating history. We had lunch in the courtyard of a tiny pub - Richard had a pint of ~~Fairy Liquid~~ this award-winning local beer -

apparently the hop leaves are left in to add colour.

Lesley suggested that we call in at the Gloucester Guild of Craftsmen Gallery while we were there and we found a room full of wonderful things. Silver jewellery, ceramics, woven textiles, prints and the most exquisite felted items. Purchases, needless to say, were made.

beautiful block-printed textile sketchbook by Sophia Blackwell

Meeting Cathy and Lesley for tea was a real tonic - although they had already been laughing together all day in their workshop, they certainly had some giggling left in them to share with us. Lesley's inspired conspiracy to help me persuade Richard that I should use an electric sander for my felting was so subtly introduced that even I didn't twig what was going on for a minute! And, if you are a dachshund owner, please contact me for a reference before asking Cathy to dog-sit....

Postman's Knock, round 3, brought me this magnificent 3-D pop-up card from Jane - full of my favourite Manhattan icons, even some bagels and a ticket for a Broadway show!

I made a 'Windows' card for Jill to add to her collection.

My next card was due to be from Lesley, who decided to give it to me on Saturday when we met. She had sensibly taped it securely into a box, so that I couldn't poke it and prod it to get any clues, and suggested, quite forcibly, that I shouldn't open it until the appointed date, a fortnight hence. All I can say is, I've lasted this far ....

OK then, off to the physiotherapist for more pummelling for my poor old back!

Chrissie x

A Lady for today only

2011-04-29T08:57:00.004+01:00

this card available at eighteen9 on Etsy

A friend on Facebook is encouraging us to make up a Royal Wedding name for the big occasion.

Start with Lady (or Lord)

Pick the name of a grandparent for your first name

Use the name of your first pet for your surname

and 'of' should be a street where you lived

So, for today, I'm Lady Jessie Petrie Pooch of Trenchard

(curtseying deeply)

and he's Lord Alfred Tigger of Beverley

(bowing from the waist)

What's your Royal Wedding name?

busy, busy, busy

2011-04-21T17:39:00.002+01:00

There must have been a lot happening in my life that kept me away from blogging here .... Let me think what's been happening ..... hmmmm

Well, there was the craft fair, a proper one, in a big building with three floors of stalls. We had lots of 'grazers' but it took a while before we sold very much, though I did have several good customers and took a commission for a big necklace to send to a lovely lady.

Other stallholders were saying that custom was a bit slow, so we wondered if it was because there were too many of us, but who knows. A wonderful ceramicist that I have come to know online but never had the chance to meet also had a stall that day - Karen from hodgepodgearts. I've bought a few things from her over the years and I was so tempted to sweep up all her beautifully-displayed wares. I managed to keep my purchases to some glazed ceramic beads, a cute button and a sweet little brooch. You have no idea how much willpower that took.

There was also a caff on site, with wodges of chocolate cake served by a young boy whose fingers were really clean - I know that because I saw him licking them.

Then there was the concert that we organised as a fund-raiser in our Church Room.

This is a 19th century building, opened by the Duchess of Bedford, and used as a resource not only for the church, but for the village as a whole. Since the only village shop closed (after an armed raid), we have had a little community shop housed in the Church Room and run by volunteers. Mostly the goods for sale are in a walk-in cupboard and the sales counter is an old school desk flanked by a wicker basket full of local eggs and a trolley groaning with penny sweeties. The Church Room is a wonderful place to go and dunk your digestives and catch up on the gossip.

In preparation for our concert we had to move all the shop stock from the main room into the cupboard, so that the performers could use the stage area (about the size of your average dining room table!). And as the idea was to have the audience seated cabaret-style we had to put out all the tables and chairs early on in the day while the shop was open for business. Michael, the duty volunteer shop assistant, kindly worked around us. Sort of. He's a bit of an ivory tinkler himself, with an eclectic taste in music. While the committee got on with the furniture moving, Michael set up his iPod and selected some suitable musical accompaniment - Stephane Grapelli, Chopin then Bryan Ferry singing Cole Porter. And just when I thought we might have more or less got the job done, a lovely man who lives further up the lane wandered in with a bottle of last year's home-made raspberry gin and his pockets so full of shot glasses that I feared his trousers might fall down. The gin, and Bryan* crooning in the background, all rather put paid to my Head Girl attempts to keep everyone focussed on the task.

I rented the premises myself last weekend. A small group of local ladies wanted to learn how to make felt, so I offered to do a workshop for them. I started everyone off learning how to wet-felt a bobble and a 'sausage', so that they could see how hot and soapy the water needed to be, how to handle the wool fibres, and how much pressure to exert at various stages of the felting and fulling process. Being a bright lot, they soon got the hang of it and wanted to get on with their own projects, which we had discussed earlier in the week. These included wrist warmers, a collection of bobbles with embellishments for a bangle, several pieces of flat felt which would be cut up to become a brooch and a small hanging with an imaginative representation of rock strata. It was wonderful, so inspiring and rewarding for me, and everyone having a very jolly time indeed. Stupidly I forgot to take any photos, but one thing I did remember was to make sure the door was locked so that friendly gentlemen with jingly pockets and bottles of rosy pink nectar couldn't come a-calling.

Talking of workshops, Louise of Hope & Elvis produced a great little video of our Julie Arkell one. I'm about 1 min 33 secs in, saying goodbye to Julie, me carrying a cardboard box and dressed head-to-toe in, well, brown - Julie looking gorgeous in a very gay collection of vintage garments.

And for those of you who seemed excited at the prospect of being able to take part in such a thing, Julie is making a return visit to Hope & Elvis in 2012 - get your names down now!

a big Suffolk Puff bangle with workmen's buttons from my vast collection

Postman's Knock is going strong and we did our second swap last weekend. Gina sent me the most painstakingly stitched image of the Empire State Building wreathed in clouds. The intriguing pull-tag revealed ..... King Kong! Isn't it clever - I know it must have taken all Gina's ingenuity to work out how to do it.

I made Angel Bright to send to my latest swap partner. She does look a bit barmy for some reason. The angel, not my swap partner.

Best wishes,

Chrissie

"Taxi!"

2011-04-04T11:35:00.000+01:00

You may have read in a previous post that 12 friendly bloggers have pooled their various talents to take part in a fortnightly postcard swap, each having chosen a different theme for us all to illustrate as we wish. My theme is NEW YORK NEW YORK!, which it was Cathy's turn to illustrate.

We all posted our cards on Friday 1st April and most of the excited participants received them on Saturday. But, as I live in ~~the Outer Hebrides~~ north Bedfordshire, I always have to wait a day longer than everyone else and not only that, but rarely get a delivery before 11.00 a.m. So Cathy was drumming her fingers and drinking cups of coffee this morning, anxiously waiting to hear whether I'd received her creation.

Well, it was certainly worth the wait! I absolutely love her interpretation of the theme and the yellow cab is sooo realistic, I could just jump in and whizz off into the bright lights of Manhattan right now! And that cheeky and clever old Cathy has included a hilarious extra - try this - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgMEPk6fvpg.

If you click on the Postman's Knock link on the right, you can see all the fab cards that have been changing hands for our first swap. They're all wonderful and I'm so glad I'm taking part, it's such fun!

Chrissie

Julie Arkell workshop

2011-03-21T20:03:00.004Z

Until quite recently I thought a Suffolk Puff would probably be served up as part of an East Anglian cream tea. It took a day with Julie Arkell to put me straight. Now I'm completely Puffed out.

I was very fortunate to discover that she was taking a workshop at the wonderful Hope & Elvis in Nottinghamshire and got my name and my sister's down early to secure a place. I can't tell you how excited I was. Nearly as excited as lovely Louise Presley who arrived to open up the studio on Sunday morning and suddenly realised that she had forgotten to bring something. Something really important. Something that would spoil the day if it wasn't fetched at once. Something called Julie Arkell. Fortunately Julie was quickly gathered up and the day could start (once we'd all had coffee and cake).

Julie told us about the quilt made of Puffs that had been displayed at the Quilt Exhibition at the V&A, each puff having a little central tuft of felt or thread, and how this had inspired her to make some brooches and bracelets using a similar technique.

She did a little demo and then we were invited to raid Louise's suitcases full of fabrics to start making our own. Most people plumped for making a bracelet and got their heads down to make the 8 or 9 puffs required. I was a bit slow off the mark chosing some fabric because I was lost in a magnificent reverie just absorbing all the heavenly surroundings.

Leather suitcases full of fabrics, tins of buttons of every size and hue, secret drawers hiding reel upon reel of thread, poppers, lace, pins and needles all stabbed into delightful pincushions. Little shelves held old toys and photographs and loveables of all sorts. And there was space, acres of it, to spread out and cut up fabric with big sharp proper tailor's scissors that went scrunch-crunch through the material.

As a result of this dreamy admiration, (and a lot of nattering and conspicuous cake consumption), I didn't actually get my bracelet finished before it was time to go home. So I finished it this morning.

The one below is the one my sister Rosie made while I ran and fetched her poppers, fabric to be auditioned, and suitable threads (and cake).

I think it has a Japanese flavour, don't you?

Julie also showed us how to make the puffs into bunches of flowers to turn into a brooch

and her wonderful charm bracelets and watches were also on display to inspire us

and so was Stanley

If you ever are tempted to take part in a workshop and live within striking distance of Nottinghamshire, then don't hesitate to jump at the chance to go to Hope & Elvis. I thought we had driven a fair distance, 2 hours up the M1, and then I discovered that someone had come down from Dumfries for the day. I know she won't have regretted it.

Did I mention the cake...?

Stanley went home with Rosie ....

Hope you're having a good week!

Chrissie

Gert & Daisy*

2011-03-11T07:16:00.005Z

May I introduce two new members of the clan?

Gert

Daisy

These two lovely ladies joined us last week. We saw them advertised online by a farmer who was giving up the free-range egg business after 25 years because the supermarkets don't pay him enough to cover the cost of his feed bills. Sad. Fortunately he has managed to sell nearly three thousand of the flock, with another two thousand still to go before the end of March.

So we drove over to Silverstone, just beside the Grand Prix circuit, and joined a queue of people waiting to load their hens into some pretty fancy modes of transport. Nothing less than a new Range Rover in most cases .... or at a pinch a BMW towing a horsebox. Reminded me of a comment in a recent Country Living article about keeping hens now being a 'lifestyle choice'!

When our turn came I was feeling slighty anxious that the hens might take one look at us, under-dressed as we were without the Hunter wellies and Puffa jacket, (not to mention a vehicle that is more than three years old), and refuse to get in our cardboard box with airholes in it, preferring to wait for a better offer. So when we were asked if we would like to come into the field and catch our own chickens, I said we'd be fine with two picked for us. My husband stipulated that he would like pretty ones. I'm not sure what the farmer's daughter made of this, but she did bring us these two sweet ladies who obviously passed muster in the glamour stakes!

*Gert and Daisy

Settling them in has been a slightly troublesome business. Madge and Fanny are not impressed at having their quarters invaded by two young glamour-pusses and have been making it clear what the pecking order is. I hate all that, really hate it, so we've done our best to get them used to each other without subjecting the new girls to too much violence. Bedtime on the first night took an hour and a half to negotiate, but we're now down to ten minutes, thank goodness. The newbies are laying lovely eggs and having a whale of a time scratching up my veggie patch, so they seem happy enough, but all the growling from the other two doesn't seem to be completely subsiding quite yet. I understand that it can take a couple of weeks (or more) for things to settle down - I hope Gertie's still got some tail feathers left by then.

Anne persuaded me that what they needed was some toys to distract them, so we had a trip to the thrift shop to see what we could find. I had to put my foot down about Anne's choice of a push-along plastic crab with nasty snapping claws. She made it quite clear to me that, No, a jigsaw puzzle wasn't suitable..... even though it was a farmyard one. That's why we ended up with a tortoise with a revolving ball in place of a shell and a string of plastic people that rattle if you shake them about a bit. I'll report back next time on whether these delights have been a success. I think you can draw you own conclusions.

Instead of watching hens, my main activity at the moment ought to be making some things to sell at a craft and vintage fair I was contacted about a couple of weeks ago. As it's not too far away from home and looks like it's well-advertised, friend Charlotte and I are taking the plunge and sharing a table. I've made myself a display board - wonderful what you can do with a bit of Amazon cardboard box, a staple gun and some wadding - so that the brooches I've been making can be properly on show. (see my comment below for design credit)

I've also felted a few bangles, but need to get on and make some more. I used some silk fibres and nepps that Lesley was clearing out from her stash. That girl never ceases to amaze me with what she's got tucked away in corners!

And here's a cute button card that I treated myself to from Etsy

and thrifted glass buttons with a sweet mother-of-pearl brooch that was amongst them

pretty pink

and we all know that the answer to this question is 'Sugar and Spice and all things Nice'

don't we?

Hope you have a good weekend

Chrissie

Postman's Knock

2011-03-10T07:26:00.000Z

We're at it again! This time with a much expanded group of unwitting participants. I'm not sure they know what they've let themselves in for and, seeing Postman's Knock, the new blog that Cathy has kindly set up for us, neither am I! You may recall that Lesley, Cathy and I had a tag swap last year and really wanted to do something similar this year and invited anyone else who might be interested to join in the fun. So this time we're going to swap postcards, each chosing a theme that the others will use to make us a card to be sent each fortnight. There are 12 of us about to embark on this exciting creative journey, and I for one can't wait! First postcard will be sent on April Fools Day - I'm taking that as an omen.

Threads of Feeling

2011-02-26T14:03:00.003Z

As I write, it's touch-and-go whether this post will have photos, as, although I've scanned them, they always save to some mysterious ether-filled netherworld that requires a husband's skills to access. He does keep showing me how to do it, but infuriatingly (for him) I can't seem to grasp it. They're in there somewhere, but let's not dally - Onward!

Anne and I had a trip on the train into London to the Threads of Feeling exhibition at the Foundling Museum. I know lots of people have blogged about this, and you've probably read all about it before, but I'm not going to let that put me off!

We walked from the station to Bloomsbury through some sun dappled squares full of crocus and snowdrops, and debated whether we were city girls or country girls.

The Foundling Hospital was the dream of Thomas Coram, who worked for 17 years to raise funds to establish a Hospital to take in the abandoned and deserted young children he had seen in the streets of London. In 1739 he was given a Royal Charter and the Foundling Hospital was built.

From the moment of its inception, the Hospital made strenuous efforts to keep records of all the children given into its care. Each baby had a registration form, or 'billet' and the mother was encouraged to leave a token which was attached to the billet as a means of identification. These mainly fabric tokens pinned to the children's billets were the subject of the Threads of Feeling exhibition.

While it was patently a very moving story, it was also a fascinating insight into the range of colourful printed textiles available to even the poorest women in the 18th century. As the guidebook says, "The poor did not live in black and white".

I love the names of the different fabrics, some of which weren't familiar: calimanco and camblet, susy, cherryderry and linsey-woolsey.

The billet checklist had 23 items of clothing in which the child might be dressed, but, tellingly, only a very few items were ever ticked. Not only were the fabrics exotically named, but the names of the clothes were slightly mysterious too. We worked out that a clout would be the modern equivalent of a nappy (diaper) and would usually be just rags, and these would be covered by a pilch, a slightly more substantial wrapping. A biggin turned out to be a night cap, a mantle was a long sleeveless garment, but if anyone knows what a barrow is I'd be pleased to know.

Tragically, although Florella may have been "call'd for Again", hundreds of children actually died in the Hospital and most of those who survived were not reclaimed.

In order to protect the anonymity of the parents, the babies left with the hospital were given new names and in the main part of the Museum there is a list of some of the children taken into the care of the Hospital. In some ways, I found this one of the most tragic aspects, that a child's connection with his family name would be severed. It was clear from the list that many surnames were chosen from London boroughs: Westminster, Stratford, Newington, Farringdon. Some were garnered from further afield: Nottingham, Gloucester, Colchester and Bristol. Others were really far-flung: Thomas Africa, John Europe, Richard Asia. The inspiration for a few is rather hard to fathom: Epimonidas Allen, Chaloner Ogle, Cloudesley Shovel. There was even a Tudor Plantagenet.

Although the original Hospital buildings have been demolished, Coram, as the charity is now known, still exists 280 years on, continuing to work with vulnerable children and young people.

You have until 6th March to get to London to see the exhibition for yourself and if you possibly can, I would urge you to do so.

Have a good weekend!

Chrissie

Thomas Coram

with love from ... ?

2011-02-13T21:38:00.000Z

For the one I love

ceramic disc from Karen at hodgepodgearts

fabric from Lesley

Happy Valentine's Day

from

xxx

Some new felt brooches for my Etsy shop

2011-02-02T13:45:00.000Z

At last! I've managed to get a few bits listed in my Etsy shop, camera problems notwithstanding (I love the opportunity to slip that word in!) Stupid thing won't talk to the computer any more for some reason, so have had to borrow Richard's fancy camera, which I'm not so familiar with. And, of course, the English winter light is far from favourable for fotography.

This is a very big one we've seen before, but those below are new ones

smaller and sweeter and much lighter, so that you don't list to starboard when you're wearing it on your shoulder

one with proper petals, about 4.5" across

another quite big one, but not so big to poke your eye out

a sophisticated charcoal merino, silvery-white silk and flax 'bar' shaped one

and a more colourful version, again with silk and flax fibres felted into the soft merino - this one's about 5" wide and some kind lady has already put it in her Etsy Treasury. How kind of her.

Gina's got some lovely new corsages in her Etsy shop too - go here to have a peek.

I've 'volunteered' to do a felting demonstration next week for our village Women's Institute. Now watching someone felting (or at least fulling) is like watching paint dry, so I'm going to have to work on a 45 minute stand-up comedy routine to keep the ladies entertained. I'm also worried (because I'm such a messy worker) that the front two rows are going to get soaking wet. I might have to drape them in decorators' dust sheets so they don't go home damp and sudsy. It'll be a bit like a trip on the Maid of the Mist under Niagara Falls.

Now I've got to find some inspiration for a photo for Emma's February Splash of Colour...

Hope you're all having a good week!

Chrissie

Third Degree (Robert) Burns

2011-01-25T17:38:00.000Z

Being married to a bagpiper leads to a surfeit of invitations to Burns Suppers round about now. We always go to the village one, which has few speeches, plenty of haggis and loads of Scottish dancing. Some villagers even remember the steps from year to year. Tonight we're going to some friends for another one. This time - loads of speeches, plenty of haggis and hardly any dancing.

This is the Supper that I made the two corsages for. The girls are wearing their kilts and I've felted some merino with a touch of alpaca and silk to try and echo their tartans. The top one is Ancient MacDonald and the lower one is Black Watch with my version of a Scottish thistle. The photos don't really show the colours all that well, but everyone seemed more than pleased with them, which was a big relief. It's aways slightly nerve-wracking making things specially for people. But, as the owner's cat curled up on the Black Watch brooch, I felt reassured that it had at least one fan.

amo, amas, amat

Always feel a bit guilty about cutting up even old decrepit books but closed my eyes and punched some hearts out of The Oxford Book of Latin Verse. (Thrifted, of course.)

Still got loads of brown wrapping paper from Amazon deliveries, so made a

bag with rows of layered hearts machined on

a big 2" version with enough hearts to make a 3D bauble on red thread

and a wee one on a tiny cream coloured tag

with a dangly red thread

Are you feeling all Valentinesey now?

OK, I'm off to practice my "Wee, sleekit, cowrin, tim'rous beastie" in case I'm called upon to contribute to the evening's entertainment!

See you soon

Chrissie

Brightening up Boston ... and a brooch

2011-01-11T09:13:00.004Z

A lovely lady who is a favourite and faithful Etsy customer needed something to brighten up her Valentine's Day. Now there's a girl who plans ahead - me, I've only just got the Christmas tree down!

I usually send her Etsy parcels in a muslin bag, tied up with a pair of stringed hearts.

So, at the lovely lady's request, I made a bundle of heartstrings and sent her a photo, which she somehow managed to access on the train into work in a cold and gloomy Boston, (that's Massachusetts, not Lincolnshire). Isn't technology wonderful?

I'm also experimenting with some new ideas for brooches and playing with merino that I 'drizzled' flax and silk fibres on to and wet-felted some sausages. The ones below are a bit short and sturdy to bend into petal shapes, so something else will become of them, but the longer ones worked quite well and made a big 6" daisy brooch.

And I've now got a commission to make 12 different coloured egg cosies with contrasting bobbles, so the kitchen is about to be invaded by big bags of bright merino wool in every shade under the sun. And since we've got rain and lowering skies (it's 'dreich', where I come from..) for the next few days, I shall welcome the invasion of some cheery colours.

I've also been asked to make a couple of corsage brooches which can be worn on Burns Night in a couple of weeks, so I can be mulling over some ideas for them while I'm rub-a-dub-dubbing at the sink with those cosies. Don't worry, there's sure to be some photos in due course!

If you want to brighten up a grey day, click on the link on the right to go to Emma's Silverpebble Splash of Colour page - lots to cheer there!

Lots of love

Chrissie

....and a Happy New Year!

2011-01-01T10:01:00.001Z

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-24T17:03:00.004Z

I'm sorry that I haven't been here lately. We've had some bad news about the health of two close relatives and have been concentrating on that for now. Hope to be back blogging again in the New Year.

Also (and I know not remotely in the same league) a fox stole our little Hilda Hen and thereby removed a simple source of joy from our lives. Poor little Hilda who did no-one any harm and laid us lovely wee brown eggs nearly every day.

But I wish you all a very joyful Christmas and hope that 2011 is a happy and peaceful year for you. Thank you all for your friendship, your comments and kindness.

gathering

2010-12-06T18:09:00.001Z

Before you go jumping to any conclusions, I need to say straight away that I did not create these to-die-for fabrics. That was Lesley from Printed Material, who is so adventurous and artistic and generous all in one person that it's hard to believe she's real.

You have to be so careful about saying you like something she's done, or the next thing you know, there's a postman ringing the doorbell because he can't make a big Welsh parcel fit through the letter box.

I've wanted to show you these lovely pieces for ages, but what with the C*******s fair production-line in full swing, I haven't had time to work with them in a way that I hoped would do them justice. And they deserved a better fate than to be 'put away for best'.

I love the way these sage leaves remind me of the stands of rustling poplars we see on holidays in France. And, oooh, who doesn't love indigo-and-rust.

Please address any questions about the methods employed to produce wonderful cyanotypes to the lady herself - it's all waaaaaay beyond my ken!

I really wanted to make Lesley something using her fabrics and decided that what she needed was a gathering bag. I know she's already taken the first timid steps towards being the kind of person for whom such an item is indispensable. She has flirted with having a 'collections tray' when (allegedly) working in the garden and she lives on the beautiful Pembrokeshire coast, so opportunities a-plenty for gathering.

What size to make it? No good if it's too small and squashes your precious leaves and feathers treasure. But if it's too big you won't want to be bothered taking it out with you and on top of that there's the danger that you might be tempted to 'gather' heavy things.

Heavy things are fine if you're out strolling with a new beau, who, in his adoration of you, is only too eager to fill his pockets with sandy pebbles, skulls of small rodents, hag stones, acorn cups, razor clam shells, wool that caught on the barbed wire, interesting bits of broken blue-and-white china, sea-glass, useful rusty pieces of broken farm implement, pheasant tail-feathers etc. etc. However, big mistake when the honeymoon's over and you are made to carry your own stuff....

So, though I have no reason to doubt that Lesley's husband is still in that, "oh sweetie, let me carry that heavy feather for you" phase, I made a tactfully average-size linen bag in case the girl has to make her own arrangements. It has a calico lining, a handle made from that hessian-y kind of tape which I think is something to do with carpet binding and a weeny free-machined tag held on with a wooden button.

A hand-shape appealed to me and I chose a piece of Lesley's fabric that suggested there were pebbles resting in the palm. I appliqued it on to some sandy-coloured fabric with beautiful bold leaf/seed pod shapes printed on it.

Thank you Lesley. Hope you enjoy gathering!

Chrissie

Jim

2010-12-01T09:07:00.004Z

A few weeks ago I attended the funeral in the village of an old man whom I had met only a very few times, a man who once astonished me by telling me that he remembered me in his prayers each night. Jim was born in this village and lived here for over 90 years. His family has long associations with the area. Deep roots and spreading branches.

His funeral was held in the Baptist Meeting, an early 18th century stone chapel at the top of the hill, where Jim had worshipped all his life. I've always loved this building. It stands four-square though quite small, full of soft pine pews polished for nearly three hundred years by the seats of woollen trousers. Like many non-conformist places of worship, it has an upper balconied storey, keeping the congregation close and cosy. When the minister stretched up his arm from the pulpit below, I could almost have touched his hand.

The minister knew Jim and his family well and conducted the service with great affection. There was a bit of a muddle with the order of the hymns and he graciously suffered a fairly robust reprimand from the organist - herself 90 years old, deaf as a post and clearly not one to stand any nonsense.

Although I was only in Jim's company on a handful of occasions, he unfailingly told me the same old story. His wife would roll her eyes, affectionately. But I cherish the story and he always held my hand during the telling. Hold my hand. Here's the story.

Jim was the youngest of a large family and on the day that he was born his father had been out toiling in the fields all day. When he arrived home he bounded upstairs to their cottage bedroom to greet his wife and asked, "Well, girl, what have you given me this time?" "I've given you a little cherub", she replied.

Birds of a feather

2010-11-25T14:46:00.000Z

linen robin

Well, thank goodness, I think, that the craft tables are pretty much done and dusted. Sales weren't brilliant, but then I wasn't really at the right kind of venues to ensure they would be. One was our local church bazaar, competing with White Elephant stall, home-made cakes and bowling for the pig. What chance do you stand?! Lots of people were very complimentary about my stuff, some even bought things, but there was the inevitable "£3! Just for that!" It was the end of a long day, and with hindsight my reply was perhaps a bit snappy.... She did go and purchase a revolting glittery plastic poinsettia at the next stall, so I was glad she didn't want one of my cinnamon sacks. I only want them to go to good homes. Since I was trying to do two of these events on the same day, my dear husband offered to act as gofer and lovely Anne spent her afternoon manning my second table - she's a treasure and a much better saleswoman than I'll ever be! To say (an inadequate) thank you I made her some owl bunting from an online tutorial I saw. Actually, the one I saw said 'Merry Christmas', but time constraints dictated that Anne's version only said 'NOEL' .... not even a 'JOYEUX' ....

Moonstitches owl pennant tutorial.

Star Strings

I love making these and they're usually popular. The picture just shows the middle section of the 'string' which is over 4' long: there's more bobbles and circles of hand-made felt with a big star with a wooden star button on it at the top, and a big silver jingle-bell at the bottom. I took a few orders for these at the weekend, as I'd only had time to make 4 for the fair.

A few weekends ago I drove over to a craft fair in a village near Cambridge and had the privilege of meeting artist Celia Hart and seeing her work at first hand. (Celia's blog is Purple Podded Peas). I absolutely love her nature-themed lino cut prints and treated myself to a bundle of bird notecards ....

... and a large card print of a Buff Orpington hen - (it just reminded me of Fanny and Hilda Hen, who are both moulting at the moment - I have told them that snow is forecast - and have lost their tails) ...

... and a collection of tree ornaments, a hen, a reindeer, an angel, a bear and a comet.

Can't wait to see them hanging on the Christmas Tree.

Celia has also recently started a collaborative venture with Rachel Simpson and together they have produced some beautiful jewellery - see it here.

These sweet little tags below from Pearl Crafted are taken from an old Rupert Annual. I remember reading Rupert stories to myself when I was little and being slighty uncomfortable about the rhyming couplet captions, although there were ordinary prose bits of story too. Oh, did that sound as if I would have known at the age of 7 what a rhyming couplet was? Though that does bring to mind a conversation at the tea-table on the day that we had our school photograph taken, when I must have been about 6 years old. Dad asking, "And did the photographer have his camera on a stand with three legs?" Me - "Oh, do you mean a tripod?" Precocious, moi?

Butternut squash with black rice, pine-nuts and raisins - made for veggie friends - there was Bakewell tart too, but, strange to say, nothing left to photograph today ..... (sorry about the buttery smudge on the page, but then all my favourite recipes seem to have remnants of ingredients and greasy thumbprints over them). The squash was sooooo delicious that we'll be having it again very soon.

Did I mention that I've got a nasty cough and cold? Which is why I've managed at last to get a new entry here on my blog - I don't feel too guilty about being snuggled up with my laptop as I've been instructed (at least twice) to take it easy today. I did plump some cushions and vacuum the landing carpet, which was covered in little threads and scraps of fabric which had been walked out of my workroom stuck to my socks. That's enough drudgery for one day!

See you again soon!

Chrissie

Giveaway Winners!

2010-11-12T21:14:00.001Z

Thank you to everyone who entered the Giveaway and left lovely comments.

I gave each comment a number, wrote it on folded paper and placed them in two boxes, depending on which set the commenter had chosen.   The few who didn't specify were divided equally between the two boxes.   Then the random number picker (my husband) pulled out a piece of paper from both boxes and the results were:

                      drrrrrrruuuuummmmm rollllll please -

Commenter number 16, Kim, of thewildhare, who seems to have left the choice to me, so she wins the linen and cinnamon collection.

Commenter number 4, Jee from Jeeandme, who chose the birdie and bobbles set.

Congratulations! If you lovely ladies can email me your addresses, I'll parcel the goodies up and get them to you pronto.   (see my Profile for email address)

Christmas trees for my craft stalls

Must dash ..... but I'll be back soon!

Chrissie

Christmas-Crafty Give-Away

2010-11-06T09:22:00.003Z

filigree

I'm so excited! I've managed to book myself on a workshop with Julie Arkell, woohoo! You can see some of her work on the Loop website and on Ticking Stripes blog. The workshop is at Hope and Elvis in Nottinghamshire, which isn't exactly on my doorstep, but it's so reasonably priced that it's worth the little trip. It's not until next March - too soon to start counting how many more sleeps. So, to keep me from swooning with impatience, I decided to try and make myself one of the kind of brooches that I saw on some of the workshop photographs. I gather it's inspired by some 1940's brooches that are in the Imperial War Museum. There's a real make-do-and-mend/clothing-coupons feel to them. And to stay in keeping with that, I just used thrifted bits and bobs in my own version, which I think is quite pretty.

So, ta-da .......... the giveaway. I decided that although the linen set is rather lovely (and aromatherapeutic!) I ought to do a more colourful collection too. (Especially as I'm joining in on Silverpebble's Splash of Colour to brighten up the winter - just click the pic in my sidebar to see all the cheery photos.)

The linen lot is made up of a sack of cinnamon bark chips with a wooden heart and cinnamon stick tied at the top; a luggage label dangly calendar with a stamped wren decoration; and a padded heart with hand-embroidered snowflakes, hanging on a hessian string.

The birdie & bobbles collection is a long garland (about 52") of hand-felted merino wool bobbles; a padded birdie on a string with its own felt bobble; and a matching luggage label dangly calendar.

If you would like to enter the give-away, please just leave me a comment telling me which you would prefer - Linen & Cinnamon or Birdie & Bobbles. I'll do a random number draw on Friday 12th November and announce the winner that day.

Big thank you to everyone who kindly pops in to read my blog - I do hope you'll feel free to enter the giveaway, even if you don't normally leave a comment. I love Lurkers!!!Don't be shy - the more the merrier!

Have a lovely weekend everyone!

Chrissie x

'Slightly wrinkled' and plans for a Give-Away

2010-10-30T16:05:00.001+01:00

When my baby kilner jars were delivered from The Jam Jar Shop the box was stuffed with sheets of slightly wrinkled sturdy brown wrapping paper which I just could not bring myself to put in the recycling bin. There's something about the not-shiny side of the paper that really floats my boat. (I don't get out much.) After a wee bit of pondering over a cup of tea and a crunchy/chewy Ikea biscuit, I decided that all this yardage of brown wrapping could be turned into paper bags for my craft fairs. After absolutely no pondering whatsoever I also decided that 'slightly wrinkled' only added to the handmade aura, so no point ironing it flat. HAHAHA, me, ironing!!!

The lovely little wren stamp is from the rubber stamp gallery

Quick whizz up both sides on the sewing machine, trim the edges (tried with the pinking shears but it looked too twee and anyway using pinking shears hurts my thumb), and stamp with a pretty birdie and soon had a big pile of paper bags ready for the hordes of buyers who will be flocking to my craft stalls at the end of November. They will ....won't they?

linen lavender bags by me.

sweet tape from petits details on Etsy

linen cinnamon sacks

full of heavenly-scented cinnamon bark chips

big luggage tags covered in pale linen

all ready for the New Year

Look out for my next posting: I'm planning to have a give-away of a little seasonal collection of the things I've made for the Christmas Bazaars.

Hope you're all having a good weekend!

Chrissie

Fairies at the bottom of my garden

2010-10-15T09:24:00.001+01:00

Thank you to everyone who had a stab at working out what on earth the heading of my last post meant! And specially to those who came up with other versions and brought back memories from schooldays - it's reassuring that I'm not the only one whose upbringing seems to have been seasoned with nonsense.

When not hunched over my sewing table working on the craft fair production line, I have tried to take some time noticing what's happening in the garden. I'm elevating that from the reality of it simply being avoidance tactics, I know.

There are so many berries this year: hips and haws, elderberries, ivy, sloes - am I to take it that this presages another cold and snowy winter? There'll be plenty for the birds to eat if we do have lots of snow again.

I think there's something special about the Autumn season, particularly if we get some sunny days to appreciate the wonderful glowing colours. Strange to think that a lot of them are as a result of the decaying process.

Something weird has been happening in the garden on the fungus front. I'm hoping that this too isn't a sign of death and decay for our trees. Some of the specimens we've seen have appeared overnight, several inches tall and I can't wait until I've got some time to read more about them. In the meantime I've been taking photos (more distraction activity), ostensibly so that I can try and identify them later.

Fascinating unbelievable delicacy.

They do have a certain fairy-fascination, don't they?

Who lives deep in these dark woods?

OK, off to put my shoulder to the wheel and my nose to the grindstone, and other contortions unsuitable for a girl of my advancing years. Just what tactics have you been employing to avoid those pressing jobs? Go on, own up, don't make me feel bad!

Lots of love,

Chrissie

ABCD boids, MNO boids, OSAR, OSAR2

2010-10-08T12:42:00.000+01:00

lots of love

flamingo's elbows

2010-09-29T13:34:00.000+01:00

My blogs these days seem to be full of holidays and days out and, indeed, life has had more than its fair share of such things in the last couple of months or so. This is mainly due to the fact that my dear husband is on a lengthy sabbatical from work. Much deserved, it has to be said. So, last week, with the sun beaming down from blue skies, I wheedled my way into a trip to Coton Manor nearby in Northamptonshire. I think I'd seen some appealing photos of it maybe in Country Living. We arrived in time for a lovely lunch in the dappled shade of a huge tree in the courtyard and afterwards set off with our map to wander round the gardens. The first thing that struck me was the amount of vibrant colour still showing in the herbacious borders. They were stunning and awe-inspiring.

There was some very relaxed wildlife strolling in the grounds with us. I couldn't get over the way these flamingoes kneel down - aren't their elbows funny!

These preening funny-footed bantams are called Mille Fleures d'Uccles - they've got huge great ungainly feathers sticking out at right-angles from their feet, but have beautiful detailed plumage.

Our tea-table. Unfortunately some children had rearranged all the cans so the waitresses were having great problems delivering the meals to the right tables!

Spanish spoon from a few blogposts ago - couldn't show it sooner because it was a hen-sitter's pressie and she's a faithful reader of this blog!

So that was last week - this week I have been mostly making birds/calendars/hearts for two craft stalls I accidentally agreed to do in November. On the same day. I thought I was just manning a stall at one of them, but, no, it turns out I'm also providing the wares to sell. I have a vague memory of promising never to do any of these again! Am I completely mad?

ribbons & ricrac

Calendar tags

birdies

stars

waiting for hearts

Lots of love,

A Grand Day Out

2010-09-17T13:59:00.004+01:00

"Didn't we have a luvverly time the day we went to .....?" It was a magical-mystery tour, getting on for a couple of hours from home and the two passengers in the back of the car were kept in suspense about our destination. About an hour into the journey they were getting restless and I hadn't had the foresight to bring something to entertain them with, so I passed over the AA Road Atlas, being the only reading material to hand. I gave them a clue, "We're on the A14 heading east and we've just passed Newmarket." After a lot of reading out of road signs and stage-whispering from the back seat, they announced that they had worked it out. They were being taken to the docks at Harwich to be sold into the white slave trade. Hmmm, tempting, but wrong. As we got closer to the destination it was hard to keep it a secret and it finally dawned on them that they were going to Constable Country. This, of course, necessitated a juvenile joke or two about policemen.....

We all had lunch in a nice pub in Dedham, and not too much squabbling about who could have a spoonful of who else's pudding. Then on to Flatford Mill and Willy Lott's Cottage, where John Constable painted the Hay Wain.

I tried to take a photograph from about where I though the picture was painted, though the banks are now overgrown.

Willy Lott's Cottage

Flatford Mill

The route home through Suffolk took in some places I used to live when I was a little girl. It was quite hard to recognise our house in one village, everyone now has very tall hedges and the trees are all over 50 years older! And my little village school is now a private house. I'm not surprised, as there couldn't have been more than 12 pupils altogether when I was there. I remember being late for school one day (we lived opposite the school and I only had to cross the lane ...) and being mortified because everyone was already gathered around the upright piano singing "Jesus bids us shine". Another house we lived in around that time is now in the grounds of a prison. When we visited the other day there were loads of kids around riding bikes in the road. The years just fell away as I remembered doing the very same thing in about 1957/8.

So after a nostalgic tour, we set off for home once again. This time the two in the back seat decided to speed the journey by providing their own entertainment and singing along together. Unfortunately, it was never the same song. Except the one that went, "lalalalalala, pub with no beer, lalalalalalala, pub with no beer, lalalalalala, pub with no beer". They don't write 'em like that any more.

So if you know anyone in Harwich who wants to make a bob or two by exporting a septuagenarian and an octogenarian, (soprano and tenor), I'm only at the end of a phone!

Hope you have a good weekend!

p.s No, I'm not sucking my thumb, I'm chewing my necklace. Different thing entirely.

In the pink

2010-09-12T16:54:00.001+01:00

When I was a girl living at home with my three sisters, I was very fond of Bird's Custard (so long as it didn't have lumps, but that needn't detain us here). The most interesting thing about Bird's Custard Powder is that it was pink. Until you added boiling milk, and then it turned yellow. My wonderment at that bewildering alchemy is now rivalled by my discovery that you get pink dye from boiling green avocado skins. True. A little while ago Heike had some lovely bundles of fabrics for sale, dyed just this way, and I had to buy one to see for myself. I loved the delicate subtle shades of Heike's samples and had a go at making my own avocado dye. I achieved some of the same soft tones, but a silk carrier rod really absorbed the dye and became a rich dark burgundy. And we ate the avocado.

In this little quilted piece, I wove some of the strips of Heike's fabric together and used a bit of my own dyed calico to form the background.

One or two of the applied pieces are from my Erosion Bundles, which had some of the same delicate 'watercolour' look about them. There's a bit of that old rent book which had some pink smudges on it and a scrap of lace that took some of the dye from a piece of printed Chinese paper it was wrapped up with. And then I dotted around some running stitches and sewed on an old fabric button. It was my first attempt at anything of the sort and I'm hoping that Heike isn't groaning at the mess I've made of her lovely fabrics!
And the first one to ask "but what's it for?" gets a poke in the eye....

Please have a seat

so long as you're ok with heights - 20 feet up a castle wall in Spain!

We had a few days away last week, in Catalonia in northern Spain. It's an area we've been to several times, just for short breaks, and we don't normally stray very far from the shore. But this time we went inland into the ancient volcanic region just south of the Pyrenees to the old town of Besalu. You have to leave your car on the other side of the river and walk across the bridge and through the portcullis into the narrow cobbled streets and up to the market square.

I managed to resist most of the wares displayed for tourists in the 'souvenir' shops, but I did buy a beautiful little wooden spoon from a girl smoking a fag while leaning over a counter of rustic hams and sausages. She didn't look at me once during the transaction and her only communication was to tell me the price. Such a contrast to the lovely pharmacist who gift-wrapped the insect repellent Richard bought!

on the door beam

swimming hole at Aigua Blava

I'd forgotten how much I love sea swimming - we spent ages floating around in the waves in this little cove by the hotel. Richard thought we ought to have snorkels, but in a kind of way I'm quite happy not knowing what's going on beneath the surface!

a fisherman's front door

I just wanted to say that it's been a nightmare trying to upload and edit my photos using Paint.net, or to get access to Blogger or my hotmail account today, or do more than five minutes before the laptop crashed. Grrrrr. One of those days, eh?

Hope you're having a better one?

A display box for Seaside Tags

2010-09-02T22:28:00.000+01:00

Lesley, Cathy and I have now all made special 'containers' to house and display all the wonderful Seaside Tags we sent each other during the summer.

This is mine - a Dorset Cereals muesli box, cunningly disguised with calico, silk and deck-chair striped fabric, an old photo, a few bits of driftwood, a shell or two and some free-machine stitching.

I wanted to put the tags in something that could be left out for people to have a rootle around in and not worry about keeping them in any particular order.

Don't the girls' tags look lovely housed in here?

You must go and see what the other two have done (click on their names at the top)- you'll love them!

Here's some little brooches I made last week, using some gorgeous ceramic buttons I bought when I went to the quilt exhibition at the V & A Museum earlier in the year. The buttons remind me so much of the little broken bits of blue-and-white domestic pottery I'm always digging up in the veggie patch. I hand-felted some blue merino to make a sturdy backing, appliqued some vintage lace snippets on and made a few delicate brooches to put in my Etsy shop.

And this is a bloomin' great hairy-chested moth which landed on my workroom window one night. The picture's not brilliant, because it was taken with flash through a rather dirty window pane. Anyway, Googled it, and discovered that it's a Red Underwing. So now you know.

And like most of the rest of the British Isles, we have a glut of plums this year, so besides giving them away to unsuspecting friends and relations, sharing them with the hens and wasps, I have actually made some plum cakes (Nigel Slater) and a couple of frangipane and plum tarts. And Autumn Plum Chutney. Oh and stewed some to put in the freezer to remind me of summer during the long winter months. And, Anne, PLEASE come and pick some more and take them away!

Got fed up waiting for any sunshine and warmth to ripen my tomatoes, which when they did turn red and yellow, weren't all that tasty for some reason. So picked them and made them into Green Tomato Chutney to a recipe my mum used to make, which might have belonged to my paternal grandmother. Whatever - it's gorgeous and we've got pounds of the stuff now. Am I alone in loving a sup of sweetened vinegar stolen from the preserving pan while the chutney's reducing...? OK, maybe it's an acquired taste!

The ones that 'ripened' went in a slow oven to dry out and intensify the flavours. They've been great scattered on baby leaf salads. Yum.

So that's about it for today. Except to apologise to some lovely bloggers that I try to follow. I'm having mysterious problems trying to sign into my blog every now and again and therefore can't leave comments on other people's, but I am as always enjoying reading all my faves.

Tomorrow we're taking some visiting Aussie rellies to Cambridge for the day, so we're hoping for sunshine. Hope it shines on you too!

Love from

Erosion Bundle Project

2010-08-18T10:29:00.000+01:00

At the beginning of this year, I joined the Erosion Bundle Project and quickly selected some items which I made into two bundles. One to hang in a tree in the garden and one to bury in the compost heap. The idea was to the leave the bundles for three months, open them up and then create something from the recovered items.

As it turned out, I could have been a bit cuter about what I bundled up in order to manipulate the results a bit. I had hoped that fabrics and papers would transfer their dyes and make marks on each other and that weather and ground conditions would cause significant deterioration. Certainly there was some leeching of dyes, but the weather and underground conditions had less effect than I anticipated. And I had to make quite a lot of insect-life homeless in the process.

The main piece of fabric here is a 6" x 6" section of a large piece of screen-printed wool which I bought at a thrift shop. The dyes helpfully moved themselves around a bit and the wool began to speckle and rot during its three months exposure.

The little black specks on the wool made me think of hundreds of tiny seeds and some of the pieces of lace and crochet suggested the shape of seedheads and an idea was formed. I added some beads, embroidery and one of my favourite stamps of a cow parsley seedhead. It's quite a tactile piece, and soft, being sewn through two backing layers of old much-washed wool blanket.

The base for the three hangings in this 'tryptich' was a linen napkin. It, again, didn't show major signs of erosion after three months exposed to the worst of England's weather. A few dirty marks and some pink dye, but nothing to make much of a feature of.

The paper has lost most evidence of its original incarnation. It was pages from a rent book from the late 1940's/50's, each receipted entry being validated by a tuppeny postage stamp. The stamps, though they came unglued, were in almost perfect condition after their time in the compost heap - Her Majesty completely unblemished. And the black fountain-pen ink, although a wee bit faded, still speaks out well from the pinky-paper.

At this point I would just like to mention that I wrote this with a packet of frozen peas on my head. I am such a clutz that I stood up quickly under an open cupboard door and cracked my skull, so now I've got a big lump, a headache and a very stiff neck, not to mention double vision. So it didn't help that Blogger seems to have devised a new way of uploading photos .......... or is it just me?

(OK sorry, just looking for some sympathy...)

Anyway, this is just some other thing I made, not with eroded stuff, just having a play to make a postcard-sized piece with scraps and old buttons and a print from an old French postcard which I bought in Saffron Walden when we went to Audley End House.

And this is the beginnings of a journal cover which I started while we were away on holiday. I followed a link from Arlee's inspiring blog to Teesha Moore's, where there were some little tutorial videos and fabulous examples of quilted pillow journals and bags that she had made in this style. This is just the front cover, so a way to go yet. Actually I could have made the back cover while we were away, if I'd been careful enough to make sure the little pillows were all the same size. Unfortunately, I had four biggish ones and four not-so-biggish ones, which serves me right for not taking my Dad's advice to "measure twice and cut once". Gaahh, knew he'd be right!!

And thank you to everyone who took the time to leave a comment and visit Cathy and Lesley's blogs to look at our Seaside tag swap. It looks like we may have some more friendly bloggers to join in on the next one, whatever that turns out to be. Isn't that great?

Hope you're all having a good week!

Sun, Sand, Sea and .... Sauciness

2010-08-15T18:25:00.005+01:00

(by Cathy - 3D bathing belle emerging from the sequinned waves)

Early in the summer, three brave bloggers conspired to throw their artistic insecurities to the winds and take part in a 'tag swap'. Cathy from Menopausal Musing, Lesley from PrintedMaterial, and me. We selected the topic of 'Beside the Seaside' with four headings: On the Prom, On the Beach, Seaside Memories, Favourite Seaside Resort and every couple of weeks we would send each other a tag illustrating the current heading.

(by Lesley - witty use of paint chips, Scrabble tiles and vintage knitting patterns - what a hunk!)

Part of the intention was to try and challenge ourselves to do something unfamiliar, out of our normal comfort zone. Making something experimental to send off to someone else was exciting, but it was also rather nerve-wracking, even though I knew that Lesley and Cathy were not going to be sitting in judgement on what they received.

(Cathy's sand sculpture at her favourite resort)

We hardly knew each other and I did want to make them tags that they would be pleased to have. Fortunately I did manage to relax and have some fun as the weeks went by! It was amazing to see how we all interpreted the themes: sometimes simultaneously tuning into similar ideas, other times chosing quite unexpected methods.

(by Lesley - heady nostalgia, seashells and starfish)

You can imagine the excitement, nay, impatience, waiting for the postman to arrive with the next tag from the girls. Two of us had to admit to being ripper-openers-of-parcels and peekers-at-presents, while the third (naming no names, but you might be able to work out who) confessed to being able to 'leave a parcel on the side'! (Chrissie and Cathy scratch heads in utter bewilderment....)

(by Cathy - who has a worrying tendency to set fire to things..)

We've so enjoyed the experience that we would like to do something similar, not necessarily a tag-swap, and were wondering if anyone else might be interested in joining in? Do leave a comment on any of our blogs if you would.

I'd be so pleased if you visited Cathy's and Lesley's blogs to see some more examples of the tags that we swapped. It's been so much fun taking part and I feel so lucky to have received some wonderful pieces of original art to enjoy and treasure.

And, more than that, to have had the opportunity to get to know these two lovely ladies better and to have made some new friends. What could be more rewarding?

(Lesley's folded book tag taking strolls around Sidmouth, with vintage ladies)

(Cathy's giggly memories of a trip to Bridlington to have her ears pierced)

nice to be home

2010-08-09T09:53:00.003+01:00

So we're back from our sojourn in south west France and now you have to suffer the holiday snaps.

Prayers for a pigeon

trompe l'oeil ladder

shabby chic shutters

chariot of fire

shadowland

turning to the sun

chez nous (for two weeks)

glimpse on the way to market

tartelette framboise

sunshine softly falling on stone

only the spiders visit

green gathered in the garden

nice to be home - did you miss me?

Not Waving But Drowning?

2010-07-19T12:52:00.004+01:00

Sadly, one member of the family couldn't wait until the whole Pavlova was photographed!

Last week we took a trip to Cambridge, principally to see an exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum - The Wave, a collection of sea paintings by Maggi Hambling. You may know that she is also responsible for a sculpture on the shingle beach at Aldeburgh in Suffolk. Before we saw the paintings we started to watch a short film of her drawing on the beach and talking about her work, accompanied by a stirring orchestral sound-track. However, Richard wandered off saying "There's only so much Benjamin Britten I can cope with before lunch". Here, here. And I have to say that Ms Hambling's opinion of her contribution to art made me slightly uncomfortable, but we went with an open mind to view her exhibits. (Stepping over busy art students lying on the floor drawing her paintings as we went). Anyway, click on this link to see her doing a show-and-tell as she hangs her paintings in the Museum.

One thing I do love her for is the throw-away line, "as I approach early middle age..." - she was born in 1945.....

Maggi Hambling

There's no doubt that she boldly captures the alarming and ferocious power of the North Sea: it looked bulging and wild, free and unstoppable, ready to rip the shingle from the beach and fling it back spitefully in the next rush-and-tumble.

It gave me some ideas for my Erosion Bundle Project, which (as I've been very busy on another {secret} collaborative project), I haven't actually started yet and it needs to be finished by the beginning of August...

Had to visit the shop, like you do, to buy some postcards and this monotype by Lino Mannocci stunned me. Do click on this link to hear him talking about his art - there's 12 minutes of it, but he has such a mellifluous voice and talks so sensitively about how he produces his monotypes, and with such a lack of pretension, that it's worth listening to. This phrase touched me, "I want it to look like I've just done it, but it's been there all along."

Lino Mannocci

Added to my collection of Angie Lewin cards - one day I'll have to stop and think hard about what it is that appeals to me so much about her lino and woodcuts. Do you like them too? Managed to upset the lady I bought them from - I referred to her gallery as a shop. I'm such a pleb!

I gave myself a birthday treat last week and acquired some beautifully hand-dyed pieces of fabric from Heike Gerbig. She has encouraged a trend to dye using avocado skins - you can find out how on her blog. Can you believe that green skins produce this fantastic range of pinks going almost to burgundy? I'm going to have to give it a try just to prove it to myself. Anyone for guacamole?!

Carolyn from Love Stitching Red has produced some wonderful results using the same technique too - have a look at them (and so many other inspiring delights) on her blog.

Finally, I made a soothing mosaic from some of my favourite photographs on Flickr and then I lost all the bloomin' html code for the links .... so here's the mosaic but perhaps you could go to my flickr page for the linkythings until I work out how to retrieve them.

Anyhows - hope you all have a good week - only 4 more sleeps until we're off on our hols!!