Amazing!

A sunny Bank Holiday weekend - although it is beginning to cloud over now. I hope the weather has been good where you are too.

We don't usually go out on Bank Holidays - if I tell you that our visitors hit the tail of the traffic queue 9 miles from here, you'll know why. Fortunately our visitors, and us, know how to get where we want to go    and avoid the M3, so we did make a special trip on Saturday.

To have a picnic and see the choo-choos - and have a ride on one too. A small one, as you can see. 

Unfortunately Babybel wasn't very well - a virus generously given to her by the VHC - but as you can see, the VHC had recovered sufficiently to inspect the engine carefully. He was even allowed to sit in the cab of the Eurostar 'University of Southampton', miniature version. 

Since then, we have stayed resolutely at home. Wensleydale gave the ivy on the front of the house a hair cut, and I sat in the back garden and finished this, 

which started life like this, then met iColorama and some printable fabric.

I like it.

What I don't like is the virus which the VHC has kindly shared with us, too. He is a very generous little boy!

At last...

Having said it was 'nearly finished' over a week ago, here at last is the completed 'Florilegium'.

It took rather longer than anticipated, partly because sewing it together was hard on my hands, partly because it was difficult to photograph - these are the results of my third attempt - and partly through idleness. 

It has,as they say, been a learning process. I learned that working machine satin stitch on craft Vilene with a top stitch needle is not a good idea - the base, which is just Vilene with no fabric, is already splitting. I also learned that it would have been better to sew the sides from the top rather than the base, as there was slippage. And I also learned - or rather confirmed - that I do not  like craft Vilene. Should I make anothe vessel like this I will have to find a more sypathetic and practical way to stiffen the sides.

But I like the finished piece, with all its faults.

Since finishing it I've been in a creative slump. I've done a bit of sketchbook work, and I've got lots of ideas, but nothing is coming to fruition. Fortunately I have the pink and grey blanket knitting, which is making steady progress both during Swedish and British TV programmes. 

On a more positive note, we had an enjoyable trip down to Bourenmouth last week, to see Cleo Musso and Matthew Harris's  exhibition at the Russell-Cotes. We had seen Musso's colourful mosaics before, as she had a show there the first time we ever visited the R-C - but although I knew about Matthew Harris, of course, I'd only seen his work in photos. Like most textiles, it is even better in reality than in print. The exhibition was inspired by Japanes artefacts in the R-C, and by a trip the two artists made to Japan. A fascinating show, made even better by display cabinets showing the artists' sketchbooks and 'left-overs' of the materials they used.

And although the cafe has changed hands, it is just as good as it was - lovely scones. We did miss the old  sea-inspired deco though, the new style is a bit mundane!

And this one is nearly finished.

All the embroidery is done, including attaching the silk to the Vilene backing and machine satin stitching all round, while holding my breath in case the spool of thread ran out before I'd finished. 

Bottom left shows how the Lynda Monk treatment of the Vilene turned out. It isn't quite as vibrant as I'd expected, perhaps because I didn't quite have the right materials. However, muted is probably better.

Tonight will be spent whipping the pieces together to make a vessel.

Now to find something else to do, apart from the never ending blanket knitting - several rows had to be unpicked owing to making mistakes while reading subtitles in BBC foreign thrillers on Saturday night, and as it's knitted in the round, the rows are getting longer as I go on.

I've started so I'll finish.

Many months ago, possibly before Christmas, I went to a Contemporary Textiles Workshop where we made started a 'dress for Eve'. Then there was Christmas, and getting ready for the NEC, and having flu, and getting ready for Hanger Farm, and Eve languished, unclothed, all through the winter.

But after going to the latest CTW on Friday (more of that anon), I decided it was time to finish what I'd started. (It could have been the mention of the end of of year exhibition which did it.)

When Eve was cast out of Paradise and had to make herself some frocks, she had to use what was available - some leaves, some old curtain material which she sun-printed with walnut ink, and some bead trimming she'd inherited from her mother. (Wensleydale quibbled about the last bit.) She also seems to have had a sewing machine...

I put it on a skirt hanger for the photo, it is actually three times this width. I like the way the back lighting (sunshine!) makes the other layers show through. 

Some of the leaves are beginning to disintegrate, but that and the dodgy machine embroidery are, of course, quite deliberate. Hey, it's been around several million years, it's bound to be a bit tatty!

Flushed with success, I also finished this week's CTW challenge. Seams. 

I started the cream side in college - 'conventional' seams using stitch and haberdashery. Someone mentioned band samplers, so that is the reason for the shape - although you can be forgiven for not seeing the connection. 

We were supposed to move on to less conventional seams in the afternoon, but I didn't get round to it, chiefly because I insisted on hand sewing the seams.  A hand sewn French seam on the bias is not a good idea.

Wensleydale said that when I bring stuff back from college it always looks boring (he was much too scared polite to use that word, but it's what he meant).  Then I disappear into my workroom and come out with something more interesting silly.

So the conventional seams got some dayglo sttich and beads, and I decided to make a separate piece for the unconventional seams. There are small dog lead clips, split rings, lacing (hope that counts as 'not stitch'), safety pins, ties of various kinds, duck tape, brads and a pipe cleaner through holes. I made a lot of holes.

Then I found a wrapped tube I made right at the beginning of my tube obsession, which happened to be black, cream and magenta. (Perhaps because I like those colours?) Once I'd decided hang them up, a silly cord was called for. Then the black side was slightly too short, so I added some silly tassels to extend it. (It was not a good idea to drop one of them in the kettle when I was trying to steam out the kinks.)

Pretty it ain't, but my principle in life has always been, you may not be good-looking, but at least you can make people laugh.

Spontaneity is the spice of life?

We had to go out yesterday morning, but it was such a lovely day that on the way home we played hooky from the boring things we had planned for the afternoon and went to the Hillier Gardens.

As you can see, the gardens were looking wonderful. I have no idea if it is normal to have primroses, daffodils, camellias, magnolias and rhodedendrons all in flower at the same time, but they were. That bed of ferns on the bottom row positively glowed in the sunlight, and I think that a few exhibits for Art in the Garden, which starts later this month, may have already taken root. 

What's the point of being retired if you can't skive off and enjoy the sunshine?

Silence...

does not mean that nothing has been happening at Cheese Acres. On the contrary. When the sun comes out, even intermittently, I start running around like a battery powered bunny. Well, almost. (I had actually typed 'batty' instead of 'battery', which may be a more apposite word.)

1. Books have been made. 

The large one is experimental. I wanted to try using a paper bag for a cover, and to try a binding with an even number of holes, like the illustrations to the section on making a sketchbook in Sandra Meech's 'Connecting Design to Stitch'. I've written before about finding these instructions quite confusing: some illustrations show an even number of holes, as suggested in the instructions. Others show a conventional 5 hole pamphlet binding, which is what I ended up using before, for example on the smallest book here.

Both experiments worked. The cover is made from the two sides of the bag, Bondawebbed together. It's lumpy, but quite serviceable - I think. For the binding I used a sort of Holbein stitch, which looks quite neat.  

Then I did what I should could have done in the first place, looked at Keith Smith's '1, 2 and 3 Section Bindings'. He shows several, including one with a similar thread path to mine, but done with two needles. 

Flushed with success, I tackled the middle sized bear book, which is also an experiment. I wanted to make a Sanda Meech style book but bigger, using A3 paper rather than A4. It also worked, though I can't decide if it is floppier than the smaller ones or not.  

2. Embroidery has been done.

These are the last two of the series, because I've run out of the background fabric. 'Teasels' isn't finished, and I've decided to put a border round them all, so there is still a bit of work to do. However, even though I haven't yet decided if they are going to be a concertina book or a vessel, I've started trying out ideas for the backing...

3. Paint has been applied,

inspired by Lynda Monk's 'Fabulous Surfaces': when it has dried, foil and tissue paper will follow. The process described in the book sounds a bit like magic, and I didn't have any Brusho, as recommended, in the right pink, so I used another Colourcraft paint and I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

4. Sketchbook work has been done,

based on a photo on Flickr I can't find any more. I seem to be in a floral phase. 

Daisies made me think of lazy daisy sttich, so there is a small sampler of detatched buttonhole as well. I like that daisy, it may reappear in another guise.

5. And finally, knitting has been done. 

I had 4 largish cones of grey left over from my machine knitting days, and several odds and ends of pink and grey, so they are becoming a blanket, using 5 strands together.  I've used up the first pink odd and started an end of grey. It will be slow progress as I only knit when reading subtitles, or after child minding when I'm too tired to tackle anything which needs thought.  

I'm exhausted just writing that lot. Silence will probably descend again.

A Day Off.

We had two three small visitors for the weekend. Babybel and the VHC's mummy was running in the marathon, and their daddy was providing moral and logistical support, so the small Cheeses and their dog  came for a sleepover. Fortunatly we had a lovley spring day on Saturday, so we could get out in the garden: we played a little football,  Babybel practised her running so she can be like mummy, and the VHC did a lot of 'doodling' in one of his granny's notebooks. 

On Sunday Uncle Cheese and his senorita came over and we went to Mottisfont (it is one of Babybel's favourite places thanks to fish to feed and  this). 

While we were having fun, B & VHC's mummy was working hard and completing the marathon in just over 4 hours, while raising £200+ for breast cancer research. We are all very proud of her! 

So what has this to do with a day off? Well, mummy took a well deserved one today, so we got one too, although  we hadn't been working quite as hard. We haven't had a Monday meander for quite some time, so we meandered off to Walford Mill, for a cream tea and a browse round the current exhibition. Both were good.

The exhibition theme of mapping is one I've played with a couple of times, so it was interesting to see other people's ideas.

There were several pieces by Wendy Dolan, whose map-related work we saw at Ramster a few years ago. Unfortunately I can't find any of the map pieces on her website.  I love her use of colour - scraps of maps set against a patchwork of neutral fabrics - and was pleased to be able to buy a tiny sample, of Corfe Castle, on a card.

I also liked the pieces by Amanda Wallwork, which looked at first glance like ceramics, but are, I think, painted wood, and Pauline Monkcom's real ceramic plates, with wonderful glazes.

Then we came home via Knowlton Church, which we saw on a TV programme recently and realised that we had driven past it frequently without knowing it was there.

It is a very atmospheric place, which provides beautiful views of Cranborne Chase, even on a grey day like today. The earthworks don't really show in this picture, but they are very evident when you are there, as are several yew trees. We'll be back when the weather is a bit warmer!