Travelling Journal

This is the inspiration page from my latest TJ input for Worcester.  I am not very happy with it as the supporting piece of work is not in keeping with the colour of this page.  Not much I can do about it now though.  I rubbed a wax candle over a piece of typing paper laid on a rubbing mat to get the washed out image on the right.  I am putting this on your blog as hopefully none of the Worcester group will look at it.

Bird with a broken wing

De ja Vu

Do you remember this way back in 2008?  Beautiful work from someone who had not been embroidering for very long.  Inspiration for us all.

embarrassing !

Despite my good intentions, I haven't managed to add to my blog in over a month and even now have little to show. In mitigation, I have finished the travelling journal ahead of time but can't blog that or I'll spoil the fun. Here then is what I have done when collapsed in front of the TV.

The stitch is very clever and produces a reversible rib, grey dominating on one side and purple on the other. I can't tell you how many times I had to repeat the set up to make the pattern work - I must be very dim. The cowl is artfully arranged so you can't see the errors but I have every confidence that my next attempt will be perfect !

willow birds

Had a lovely time at Artison today making a willow bird. Came home with sore fingers, two broken nails and a willow bird that is vaguely reminiscent of the pheasant it was supposed to be !

Playing with bean cans

I've been so busy lately that I haven't logged onto my blog for three or four days so it was good to catch up with the blogs I like to look at especially when there are new posts ! I have been working on my travelling journal this week and have fiddled about with the cover for ages. Paper is a very unforgiving medium when you machine into it - there's certainly no going back !

 I took a day out last Friday to our Pateley textile group. We had bought in a tutor , Michelle Pilkington ,to show us some techniques with tin and invited two non-members, Joan and Sue, to join us and keep the cost down. Don't know that I will make great use of the techniques but had a really good day - lots of laughing - Joan particularly, as I'm sure Hazeltwig will agree is a very droll lady !
I made a front for a small pink pig book but polished it so much I lost most of the colour I had carefully added with a blow torch - you can still see the ridges on the bean can though.

Help

This is the current fabric sample I'm working on. It is a representation of the river ure, which runs through Masham, bordered by it's fields of different hues.

At the moment it's not sewn and I was playing with a wider/narrower river. I was fancying machining writing along the length of the river - a la Annabel Rainbow - either about the course of the river from its source at Ure Head , down Wensleydale to Masham and then on via the Ouse and Humber to the North Sea or a general river poem ( which I haven't looked for yet ).
I have a lovely piece of indigo-dyed fabric which I shibori stitched in a lot of detail to represent the movement of water but the colour is all wrong with my dyed fabric fields - altogether too soft .I could handstitch on my fields rather like the first fabric sample I did and perhaps print 'Masham man' on the river - or any or none of the above ! Just a bit lost at the moment - help !

More Masham

I have also looked at the geological map of Masham.

Seem to have got it in the wrong orientation ! Never mind - I was just looking at the colours used for the various substrata - not particularly well reproduced on my computer - and looked for scraps of dyed fabrics to approximate them.

Again I have used handstitching after making my 'key' to the map. I enjoyed this but still couldn't see a final piece in my mind's eye.

Masham

For my Ineke Berlyn class I have been working up ideas based on maps of Masham. I started with a simplified drawn outline and essentially, coloured it in.

After this I sampled a fabric image painted with thickened procion and added handstitch but wasn't much taken with it.

Then, while I was looking at one map, I noticed a man's outline in the map - my camera needs upgrading so I don't know whether you can see him in this next photo.

This is a google earth image. His head is centre top, with his spine , arms and legs extending from it. Once I had seen it, it jumped out of every map I looked at . I have coloured him in on the next image so you can see him better.

So , Masham Man was born and I have been playing with him ever since.

Don't know yet whether he will feature in my final piece but he's certainly a consideration.

Shameful Cake

As you are failing to post blogs ... I am going to make you feel really bad by putting a picture of the delicious Orange and Almond Cake I made for my birthday this week.  It has orange zest and juice in it, plus orange liquer and it is a bit like a Lemon Drizzle Cake.  Dead easy to make too.

ENJOY ... at least this way it's not fattening

Packaging

This morning I received a delivery of the fair trade coffee I buy in bulk online - thrifty or what ! Anyway, I was so taken by the packaging, all recycled of course, that I had to photograph it for future textile inspiration.
This first one is like a nest inside the box

The coffee was cocooned inside and wrapped in more lattice- cut card

Here's a closer look at the lattice - surely I will be able to make something of this idea - perhaps a couple of journal pages - who knows ?

snow

We went out to eat last night as P has his op on Monday so we can't go out for my birthday. The forecast snow arrived as we were eating so when we got back I ran out to the garden to grab a few pics.

My birdie candle holder looked like this but by morning had grown a little !

I am tired of snow now and would like it to go away but was greatly impressed by the snow angel sculpture on hazeltwigs blog - perhaps next winter I'll try my hand at a sculpt !

Sashiko Quilting

Enjoyed a day with castle quilters last week. We are going to do one japanese style block each month and either make them into an object - cushion/bag etc or save them for a quilt or throw. I didn't sew very well - my block is three fans intertwined but the design is not very distinct. I think the main problem is that the fan handles do not line up very well. 

This design is one I did at C&G years ago. It has been looking for a home ever since.

 
 

getting ready for spring

Ever the optimist - here are my new raised veggie beds all ready for the new season. We've had to go ahead and get them done despite the weather as P's hip replacement will have him out of comission for a couple of months. They are all covered over as next doors cats will think we have made them new giant litter trays !

While we are 'enjoying' the weather, I have had a go at ice dyeing. I've tried this before with very wishy washy results but this time I 'cured' the fabric in plastic bags for 24 hours after the snow had melted and got much brighter results though not as interesting patterning as I had hoped . The fabric may well come in for a book cover as I have a journal in need !

 

stone me !

In the interest of blogging more than once this month , this is a stone carving I completed in November after a four evening course at our local art studios - Artison, in Masham. You would not believe the time and energy it takes to remove a half inch depth of stone from a 12 inch square ! The stone is Ancaster limestone from Lincolnshire which is , allegedly, one of the easier stones to work. The whole process is very satisfying and totally absorbing - the time flies by to the extent that you forget coffee time until prompted.

Week 1. Starting

 Week 4. Finished
The stone is now sitting on my garden steps looking very new - won't be long before it weathers in.

Wish You Were Here?

"Wish You Were Here"

happy new year

Am starting the new year with new resolve, hence this post although I have little or nothing to show. This is an ipad cover I made for my daughter's christmas stocking. As it happens, she already has a much more user friendly and efficient cover so it is being made into a (very small ) cushion so she can still enjoy it.

The dog was taken from an old Stitch magazine embroidered on calico and the bag was using up leftovers from other projects.