Grrr!

I’ve known for a while that although G-mail was talking to Outlook, Outlook was only talking to G-mail when it felt like it. Turns out that, for the last few days, Outlook was telling me it had sent my e-mails when it hadn’t. So apologies if you were expecting an e-mail from me and haven’t had one. It seems to be working again since I reset it all – although for a while I was getting 4 copies of everything.

My second Grr is human based – we have just waited in all day for a delivery we were promised would arrive today – and it hasn’t. Familiar story, I know, but irritating none the less. And as it’s a five barred gate its not the sort of thing they can leave in the porch.

So now we have to phone and ask why, if on Wednesday they told Wensleydale to his face it would be delivered today – it wasn’t. And when are they going to deliver it?

  Ah, well – back to the shells.This one isn’t really gold inside, but it looks as if it ought to be.

No embroidery today, but I have made a duvet cover and pillow case for Babybel. I gave up making adult sized bedding a long time ago – my boredom threshold is too short for those long straight seams – but cot-sized is tolerable, and I had a piece of pretty flowered cotton that was just the right size. No photo, I’m afraid, because they are in the wash, as the fabric had been sitting in my stash for – mmm – a year or two …

More embroidery has taken place.

 

Some rather sloppy stem stitch.

 

 

 

 

 

The inspiration for the shapes came from one of my texture photos  - a panel from a fence – although it has morphed a bit.

I think this would lend itself to several embroidery techniques. I keep seeing a nude in it too.

Embroidery has occurred.

 

Not a lot of it, admittedly, but after the weeks of [metaphorical] drought … 

This is a bit of felt I mucked about with on the embellisher a while ago. There is a felt bound book in ‘Re:bound’ which uses shrunk knitting but I decided to use my embellished bit instead. So it has had a bit of free machining added and tomorrow it may get some hand embroidery as well. Has the muse returned? We will see.

Of course the drought is only metaphorical as it continues to be cold, wet and miserable here. Wensleydale and I have bought what can only be described as Pacamacs. [Curious how what you laughed at when your parents had them seem sensible and practical after the third such ‘summer’.]

Will the purchase of rainwear be enough to overcome the curse of St Swithun? My money’s on the saint.

And as a change from shells – some visual texture spotted when transferring the shopping to the fruit bowl.

After admiring it, and photographing it – I ate it.

Another shell

with a very interesting texture – layers of sheers zapped with a heat gun or a soldering iron, I think.

Just a quickie as we’ve had a busy, enjoyable day celebrating our 38th wedding anniversary. Just proves what a patient, long-suffering man Wensleydale is!

Normal service can now be resumed.

Or what passes for normal at Cheese Acres.

I spoke to Babybel and her daddy last night and although she isn’t quite back to normal – only chattering fifteen to the dozen instead of her usual nineteen – she is definitely on the mend. Thanks for all the kind messages – they are very much appreciated.

So here is the delayed texture photo – a stone I found on a beach somewhere.  Lines of stem stitch, I think.

And another book …

I am really on a book making bender at the moment. The excuse of making sketchbooks has long gone – I have to admit I’m just in the mood.

This one is based on the tutorial on Diane Aldred’s blog – very clear and very thorough.

I found some more of the black Asian paper for the cover – but unfortunately that really is the last of it. And I can’t get to the Knitting and Stitching show this year to stock up again – wonder if there will be any at Festival of Quilts?

I love this ribbon binding – it would be wonderful for a book about corsets. I used some of my Pollocked paper inside.

Today’s texture photo is another shot of the late lilac tree  - definitely manipulated fabric of some kind – perhaps clusters of gathered sheers? Held down by French knots, of course.

Another one

from an intermittent series of Hampshire moths. I think they keep presenting themselves for photography because they have come in to get dry -it has been raining pretty heavily here – oh, since about the beginning of the month …

I’m afraid this is an odd angle – blame the photographer, not the moth!  This is visual texture rather than real texture but as it’s all 2D anyway…

More paint – and more texture.

I sploshed some more paint around this morning – and this time I remembered the additives.

Clockwise from top left:

• washing up liquid and salt;
• Brusho powder sprinkled on damp paper;
• plastic canvas put on the wet paint and left till dry;
• ditto with bubble wrap.
• I picked these up on our walk yesterday – I know what they look like but they are actually bark chippings from a woodland path. Rather than trying to reproduce the texture in stitch, I'm thinking of incorporating them in an embroidery – when I get my muse back…

A Wednesday wander

to the Hillier Gardens again, this time with Mr and Mrs Cheddar, although Ronaldo the wonder dog had to stay in the car. [She had a walk and a game of football later.]

We managed to get round most of the Art in the Garden we hadn’t seen last time. Lots of animals this year, although we didn’t spot any dogs. The pink pig apparently has a hornets’ nest in his nose, which is perhaps why he’s got it in the air …

 

 

There were also several flower-like forms. I love the rusty ball full of nails.

 

 

 

 

 

And lots of real flowers.

 

 

 

 

Today’s texture photo is also a plant – the stem of one of the enormous Gunnera plants near the pond. Amazing to think that last autumn they were cut down to stumps and now they are back to 6 foot +.

I’m not sure how you could work those little projections in stitch – perhaps picots?

Oh, Pollocks

You may remember that on the day the tree fell down I had intended to go out and slosh paint on paper – but it was too wet and windy. And the weather hasn’t got much better. Today it is sunny [so far] but still too windy to spread sheets of A2 out on the grass. So I put down a lot of plastic sheeting and newspaper in the conservatory  and sloshed inside.

I had been inspired by an article by Jacqueline Sullivan, in the Spring 2005 edition of ‘Cloth Paper Scissors’, about using transparent watercolours to make backgrounds. I have a lot of watercolours of different types but I have no idea if any of them are transparent. And most of them come in small tubes or cakes and don't really seem suitable for diluting in water and spreading liberally on paper, using plastic water bottles.

Then I had an ‘Aha’ moment. Brusho.

So I mixed up some yellow, brilliant red, ultramarine and grey [Brusho not running to colours with names like ‘alazarin crimson’ or ‘Payne's grey’] and sloshed them on as per the instructions.

This is the result. Good, no?

Of course they are nowhere near as subtle as Sullivan’s – and I completely forgot her suggestions for adding stuff like salt, metallics, sand, charcoal, alcohol or plastic wrap. [She doesn’t mention washing up liquid but that does interesting things to wet paint, too – just make sure you get the colourless stuff. Unless you want green or yellow blobs, of course.]

I would add a couple of suggestions to Sullivan’s instructions.

First – after the first couple of sheets I took up the newspaper and put down brown paper and wallpaper under the sheets I was painting. Paint was running all over the place and I didn’t want to waste it. 

 

Secondly, Sullivan suggests that you drain off paint into a drip tray. I put paper towels into the tray to slurp up the paint. Instant painted paper towels – a bit murky but not too bad. 

 

It wasn’t just the paper that got painted. Do you know how difficult it is to photograph the soles of your feet? Of course sane people like my readers probably wouldn’t want to…

While I was sloshing and dribbling I had a go with some walnut ink, too. 

So what is all this Jackson Pollocking in aid of? Book pages of course.

 

While I was in the conservatory I spotted this little fellow on the window sill. Not heavily textured but look at his spots!

And he is such a perfect 90 degree angle he is calling out to be tessellated, I think - or something clever with folded hand made paper – with frilly edges.

Must get a book of British moths, then perhaps I can work out what all these are!

I promised you a book

but in an outburst of creativity  I made three.

This is the Raven’s Foot binding from ‘Book Arts: Beautiful Bindings for Handmade Books’ by Mary Kaye Seckler. Sorry about the flash reflection – the photos with no flash were even worse.

It’s what I started yesterday but gave up when I got to the last signature and realised that I didn’t have enough thread left to tie it off.

Annoyingly, when I was deconstructing it today, I discovered that if I had spotted an undetected tangle in the second signature I would have had enough after all. However I think I did it better the second time, so it was probably a good thing really. [‘Always look on the bright side of life’ -fill in your own Eric Idle impersonation here.]

In case you are thinking ‘How could she run out of thread on those little ravens’ claws?’ – this is what ate the thread – the sewing and  wrapping which holds the signatures to the ravens’ ‘legs’. [I think one raven may have a badly mended break in his.]

This is the second book. Like the first, the covers are made from offcuts of plywood which Wensleydale donated – skilfully cut and drilled by him, much less skilfully varnished by me.

As you can see I was feeling purple when I made this. It is yet another attempt at a Coptic binding – I’ve tried following several different sets of instructions but don’t really understand any of them!

Then I used the leftovers from the pages of the triangular book to make this one.

 

It uses the technique we were taught in Contemporary Textiles. I made four pamphlets and then held the four together by weaving in and out of the stitching on the spines.

 

Today’s texture photo is another moth – unless you want to look at the texture of the laundry he’s resting on. It was difficult to get a good photo because he was quite small – about 3 cm from wingtip to wingtip. I think he looks like ruffled lace.

Yet more texture

We have pine trees in addition to apple trees – or they may be firs, I'm not sure of the difference. Possibly as a result we have a lot of squirrels. I know grey squirrels are vermin – rats with nicer tails – but then I like rats too – although not the wild kind.

So today’s texture image is a pine cone – and some interesting texture in the grass too. Possibly some canvas work stitches for an abstract pine cone, and random Bokhara couching for the grass?

I had hoped to show you a book as well – but my 2.5 metre length of thread was about 5 cm too short. So that is on hold till tomorrow when it will be restitched with a slightly longer piece …

As a change from apple trees …

here’s a plank. I think this would be interesting in free cross stitch or, as a change from French knots, four legged knot or Danish or Sorbello – which I think are all slightly different, although I could be wrong. Perhaps on top of free machining on something which will disintegrate if zapped with a heat gun …

Bad news on the alphabet - ‘P’ has turned into a bit of a disaster and will need rethinking.

And I was knitting so tensely while watching David Millar not winning today's stage of the TDF my hands are aching.

Time. I think, for a medicinal glass of white wine.

Despite the rain

we went for out planned visit to Whitchurch Silk Mill this afternoon – and even got a walk round the grounds in between the showers. Of course these two didn’t mind the weather.

 

Last time we went the garden of dye plants was looking very sparse and dry – but it seems to have grown a bit. So much so that most of the labels were hidden in the undergrowth and I don’t know what some of these are.

We came home with some goodies.

We paid for the guide book – the feather was a freebie plucked from the river, and probably donated by a swan.

 

 

 

Although the gardens are pleasant even in the rain and the mill is very interesting in its own right [technically minded husbands seem to enjoy it as well], we really went for this exhibition, curated by Lynn Szygenda, from the Embroiderers' Guild.

Like all exhibitions at Whitchurch it is small – two cases, one with smocks from the EG’s collection, and one with items by the Smocking Branch of the EG – or, as one notice has it, the Smoking Branch. Which conjures up an interesting mental image of women with smocking pleaters and other embroidery paraphernalia standing in doorways with cigarettes in their mouths. [Of course I just typed ‘smoking pleaters’ – criticising other people's typing is asking for trouble …]

I found the exhibition a real eye opener, especially the early 20th century pieces which were made for children or as demonstration pieces. I’ve seen pictures in books, of course, but books don’t do them justice –  the dense cream on cream stitching, both smocking and surface embroidery, is quite beautiful.

There is one smock which is believed to be a genuine 19th century work garment – and as you might expect, the embroidery is more utilitarian and the materials coarser.

There are also a few 1950’s girls dresses which may be familiar to those who, like me, were young then, and had mothers who embroidered. I particularly liked the red dress with matching knickers …

Worth a visit if you are in the area and want to see some interesting pieces. Last time we visited the mill we Gift Aided our entrance fee and were given free admission for a year – which is useful as there is an interesting looking exhibition of unusual knitting planned for the autumn …

Oh – and for those who coveted my little loom – they have some slightly different ones in the shop, which you can get to without having to pay to go into the mill. But don’t expect to pick up lengths of silk for a song. When you realise that just warping a loom can take three weeks, you understand why the stuff ain’t cheap.

Today’s texture picture is – yet again – an apple tree. [We do have several but unfortunately they are mostly unproductive, being, we think, about 80 years old – and, let’s be honest, neglected.]

This isn’t an easy one to envisage in stitch -  possibly bits of silk paper layered and stitched? Anyone got any better ideas?

I actually did some sewing today …

although I can’t show it to you. I did some improvisational piecing for the new Art Quilts Around the World challenge, ‘When/where sea and land meet’. So I found all my bits of sea-like fabric and sewed together some likely candidates. It all may come to nothing but at least I’ve done something.

I also got started on ‘P is for …’ which is drying as I type, but doesn’t yet have any stitch. I don’t think I’ll have time to start it tomorrow as we are planning a Wednesday wander, but hope to put needle to paper on Thursday. Yes, P is for paper – amongst other things …

I was wandering round the house taking photos of things I've done, – and surprising myself a bit about how much I have actually finished since finishing C&G, – when I spotted someone asleep on the spare room bed. So here is today's rather odd texture image. 

 

And this is my attempt at reproducing that texture in a Turkey work sample for C&G.

A Monday meander

to the crafts fair at Winchester Cathedral. We have been a couple of times before and always found it very impressive, so my heart sank when we walked in and almost the first thing I saw was a knitted toilet roll cover. However one we got past that the rest of the display was up to the usual high standard. We bought ourselves an early anniversary present – a lustreware vase like those in the link but in dark blue and gold.

Then we walked past one of my favourite spots in the city – the tiny water garden behind the Cathedral.  Today it was looking like this.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today’s texture is lichen on an apple tree – almost felt-like, and I love the colour as well.

I’m still in the creative doldrums …

I think I know why – there is something which may or may not be happening in which I may or may not be involved. [Clear as mud?]

This is something which I really want to do, but until I know whether I'm going to be able to do it, I can’t settle to anything. Apart from a bit of knitting, and I’ve unpicked half of that once already. If all else fails, read the pattern …

So here’s a bit of texture. Ivy stems [?] wrapped round one of our elderly apple trees. I think this one could almost be very irregular patchwork, or the obvious couching over a very crunchy [foiled?] surface. I also wonder whether it would work as abstract canvas work  a la Mary Rhodes. [Not this one, who I never heard of till I Googled just now. At least I assume she’s not the same one unless she was writing needlework books in her cradle.]

More texture

This is the bark of a silver birch, but I think those black squiggles look like runes. I have been meaning to crop and Photoshop it but I haven’t got round to it – yet …

This is a quick post because it’s time to go and watch the only sporting event I have any interest in – apart from dog soccer, of course.  No, not Wimbledon – tennis leaves me cold. How can it compare with dozens of men in tight lycra?

This and that

First, thanks to Layers upon Layers for the link to Recycle Runway, which has lots of ideas for creative embroiderers who don’t like to throw anything away. I love the decorations made from Coke cans – it’s a pity we don’t drink Coke, or any other canned drink, come to that.

And how about this – although I wouldn’t like to sit down in it! Wensleydale has a lot of nails – I’m sure he wouldn’t miss a few.

As this seems to be turning into a links post, how about this wind powered knitting machine via Craft?

I’ve spent the afternoon stewarding for the Contemporary Textiles course at college. We were quite busy and a lot of nice things were said about the work. There are also displays by C&G Embroidery, Patchwork and Creative Sketchbooks, BTEC Photography and the life drawing class. Pretty impressive all round.

I spent a little time [and money] with the traders – Art Van Go  and Winifred Cottage. Who could resist?

The odd shape in this image is one of our Bauhaus knock-off chairs, in case you are wondering. The lovely paper bag under all the goodies is from Art Van go, guaranteed printable.

Thank you for the comments suggesting that I am perfectly normal. So to prove it today’s texture photo is – a mouldy satsuma.

 

 

 

 

It reminds me of these,  which I spotted at Mottisfont yesterday – also soft and green and plushy. Hand dyed velvet or French knots in a chenille thread – or velvet stitch perhaps, if I was feeling very patient.

Do normal people …

think ‘It’s a hot day with no wind so I'll take some paper out into the garden and spray it with old cold coffee?’

Wensleydale seems to think it is perfectly normal, but then he’s been married to me for 38 years this month, so his judgement may be unreliable.

The paper turned out very well. It is destined to become the pages of a book. Surprised?

In the afternoon we did something a bit more normal, judging by the number of people there.

We went to Mottisfont Abbey.  

We’ve been a couple of times before, but only to go round the house. It has a good collection of 20th century art and some trompe I'oeil  wall paintings by Rex Whistler. But we usually go just before Christmas when the house is specially decorated, so we have only seen a little bit of the gardens, like this Impressionist bridge.

There are some enormous trout in the river, which respond well to bread – provided the ducks don’t get it first.

 

 

 

Today we didn’t go into the house [apart from the café] but concentrated on the gardens.

We were a little too late to see the old fashioned roses in their full glory but there were still plenty of flowers to look at, and smell. The sun really brought out the perfume.

 

I love the shape of the honeysuckle [top left]. It reminds me of this – on a book which, coincidentally, I found in the second hand bookshop next to the cafe. [I forgot to mention the bookshop.]

 

 

 

We also met an ent.  Here are his feet.

 

 

 

And here’s the rest of him, seen from the walled garden.

 

 

 

 

 

I’m not saying what I think this bit looks like – but this may be in danger of becoming an X-rated blog…

 

 

 

 

And here, for  today's’ texture photo, is his skin. He was a sweet chestnut ent. I am not familiar with ents – er – sweet chestnuts - so don’t know if this sort of bark is typical – but isn’t it great? Smocking, I think, or twisted cords.

Do normal people wander round trees taking close ups of bark and envisioning them as embroidery? I got some funny looks and they didn’t know what I was thinking …