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