A great day out

Had a great day out at the Knitting & Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace yesterday. Lots of shopping and lots of admiration for all the work that was on display. It's on today and tomorrow too so if you haven't been yet, I'd strongly urge you to go.

I'd been trying to get hold of some Sheer Heaven but couldn't find a UK stockist and was loth to pay the shipping charges from the US. I noticed that Dale at The Thread Studio in Western Australia had some on her website so dropped her an email to find out if it was something she was planning to bring along to the Show. Unfortunately, her supplies had already been sent on ahead but she actually put some in her suitcase for me. How's that for service! She'd also posted a question on her blog before leaving Perth for visitors to the show. If they visited her stand, answered the question, they could win one of her 'Pommie Bags' and I won one! Lots of lovely little goodies including various threads, some hand dyed chiffon and a mysterious other piece of fabric that I've yet to identify.

I timed my visit to Maggie Grey's D4Daisy Books stand in time to see Carol McFee and Lynda Monk demonstrate some of the techniques in their new book, 'Stitching the Textured Surface'. Had a nice chat with them about the new books and the online course I did with Carol/Lynda a while ago and they were kind enough to gift me one of their gessoed lutradur pieces. How fantastic is that!

I also touched base with Jan Beaney and Jean Littlejohn to introduce myself before we meet on their course at Masseria Della Zingara in Puglia, Italy at the end of this month. We talked about the materials list for the course and the kind of work that they've planned. It all sounds very exciting and I can't wait.

Shopping wise, lots of threads found their way into my bag, along with more sari ribbons, screen printing textile ink, four new textile books and some fine yarn made from hemp that will be coming to Italy with me - not for knitting, but for hand stitching. I couldn't resist getting a lucet having been entranced by the flashing fingers of friendly and engaging Ziggy Rytka. Check out his website here for more info. Not that I need yet another new art/crafting activity of course!

After the show, I met up with John at the V & A in South Kensington (they open late on Fridays). On the first 3 Fridays of the month, they hold a free, hour long recital by a musician from the Royal College of Music in the Norfolk Room. And very nice it was too.

We grabbed an excellent pizza at a little Italian cafe next door to South Ken Tube station and then made a mad dash to catch the 9.30pm train home from Liverpool Street. That's when the lovely day turned into a bit of a nightmare. To cut a long story short, due to signalling problems, we finally walked into the house at 2.15am!

Something just for me ...

I'm off to Ally Pally next Friday so I decided I'd make myself a new bag to carry home all the 'stuff' I'm planning to buy to add to my ever increasing SABLE (Stash Accumulated Beyond Lifetime Expectancy).

At the Festival of Quilts in August, I found a bundle of gorgeously coloured sari ribbons which, being ridiculously cheap for real silk, came home with me. So, I took a piece of calico and, using the embellisher, attached the ribbons. Then some stitching and quilting. Then much headscratching and pondering.

I wanted to line the bag but couldn't for the life of me work out how and where to stitch it together but still be able to turn the outer through the gap I planned to leave in the lining.

I pinned it together and went to consult my dear husband. He was adamant that what I'd done wouldn't work. I disagreed. So off I went and quickly stitched a sample using my planned method and guess what - it worked!

Here's the result. And if you see this bag bulging at the seams accompanying me and several plastic carrier bags at K&SS, you'll know that I didn't make it big enough!

Which one is "art"?

I've been reading some acrylic technique art books lately and had a play at producing a couple of pieces of "art".

As usual, my dear husband, when asked his view of my efforts, thought the one that I didn't like was better than the one that I did!

Which one (if either!) do you like?

'Arcs':-

or 'Autumn rapids reflected'?

Apologies for the poor quality of the photos - I've discovered it's really difficult to take pictures in these gloomy, dark autumn days we've been having.

Transfers transformed

I've been playing around with some photos I took over the summer and transferring them to some bits of cheap, plain old calico using inkjet transparencies and acrylic medium.

The first one was a photo of ripples on the river near where we stayed in France:-

Can you see the scary faces?

The next one was a tree trunk covered with lichen. I took the original, mirrored, copied and pasted it, then took both images, mirrored and copied and pasted those.

This last one was a blue garden chair and the shadows it threw on the shirt of the person sitting in it. Again, I did the mirror/copy/paste thing and I'm quite pleased with the abstract design that came out as a result.

La Belle France

Make yourself a drink and put your feet up because this is going to be a long post!

We've just got back from another beautiful week spent in St Cirq Lapopie in the Lot valley in France. This village is the perfect place to just get away from it all and relax; eat and drink the some of the best food in the world.

This is the fifth year we've been back to stay at La Maison du Bourg in the heart of the village.

http://www.frenchconnections.co.uk/en/accommodation/property/3842?u_id=95727

This ancient stone house is on four floors with a delightful little garden where we spent most of our time sitting soaking up the sun (it was warm and sunny every day - 28-29 degrees even in September). Here are a few pictures of the house and the garden to give you a feel for the place.

This is the house looking up from the garden.

The back door taken from the garden - and yes, that IS a bunch of grapes right outside the door.

This is the study - the enormous fireplace or 'cantou' is almost big enough to stand up in (but isn't functional unfortunately - not that we needed to light a fire)

The bedroom is tucked up under the eaves and this is the view from one of the two little windows:-

The village is built high up the sides and on top of a cliff that looks down over the River Lot.

The cliff on the right drops right down to the river.

Walking around the village, the cobbled lanes wind up and down the hill. There are new vistas to enjoy at every turn.

From the garden. you can watch the morning sun rising. It soon burns off the mist hanging over the valley.

And, in case you were wondering if there was ever going to be any artistic endeavour in this blog post, here it comes.

My watercolour interpretation of this view from the garden:-

A photograph of the view of the church from the garden . . .

and my attempt in pencil . . .

And a more abstract version in acrylics.

Quiet - woman at work ...

The little pond in the garden attracts birds, great big dragonflies and two local cats who came for a drink every morning.

The bench, pond, garden chairs and the tall cypress tree in an abstract representation in acrylics

Before we went away, I bought myself a little present to bring along - 'The New Creative Artist' by Nita Leland. Here are a few ideas from the book that I played around with.

'Enclosed' doodles

Magazine collages:-

Paper weaving

But what about all those silk ties that you patiently cut into strips before you left I hear you ask? Well, just a few got hand sewn together before I decided that I'd wait until back at home and use my machine!

I've not been sitting around doing nothing ...

I've been planning a few projects that I can take away with me on holiday to France next week. I've been busily deconstructing a pile of men's silk ties which I plan to be handstitching while sitting in the glorious sunshine, (today's temperature there is 29 degrees C) sipping wine and generally chilling out.

I've been preparing pages in my sketchbook ready to try out a few ideas.

And I've been trying to decide if I can make do without clothes as it looks like all my luggage allowance will be used on art/stitching supplies!

Progress report to follow upon my return.

Things I'd forgotten

Did a little bit of tidying/sorting in my workroom today and came across these pieces which I realise I have completely forgotten to blog about.

A while ago, I read a tutorial on the method Susan Lenz uses to create her "In-Box". Susan has created a whole series of wonderful work using this method, some of which can also be seen here as well as on her usual blog. I didn't have much synthetic velvet so just used snippets of stuff from my stash.


Here's a close up where you can really see how the kunin felt melts away to leave the lovely crunchy foiled lacy divisions between the 'boxes'.


This is a shop bought wooden box (99p) which I covered in kitchen foil and painted with alcohol inks. I also did one with the painted foil method as a birthday gift for a friend but forgot to take a photo (sorry). This one will go into my gift stash ready for the next suitable recipient.


A couple of weeks ago I picked up a couple of shiny metal planters in John Lewis' sale for £3.00 each. I figured they were just a thicker sort of metal foil so they also got the painted look.


And these were two nasty shiny silvered ceramic vases that I bought in B & Q for just 10p each! The 'silver' finish hadn't taken properly in spots so I guess that's the reason they were so cheap. But hey - I saw metal so couldn't resist and they've been painted now too.


And lastly, this is a little pouch bag I made to keep my A5 sketchbook and pencils in. I can definitely see a coppery theme going on in this post. . . .