I may have mistakenly given the impression

that I was going to start the first stitched piece of the FDA this week.

Turns out I was wrong.

We did have a session on Wednesday entitled ‘Everyday Cloths’. [The first stitched piece has the title ‘Everyday’. Cue Buddy Holly. But I digress.]

We did do some stitch.

But any connection between the session and the piece was strongly discouraged.

We started by looking at everyday ‘textiles’ [in my case a tea towel, a kitchen cloth and a pan scrub] through a magnifying glass and a microscope – and drawing them with graphite sticks and ink. Then we rubbed the graphite with linseed oil and splashed the ink with water. Hence the ‘stick’ through the pan scrub top right, which is a dribble.

Then we made ‘collages’ inspired by the drawings – followed by stitched pieces inspired by the collages. Design twice removed you might say – and a loooong way from the originals.

I am particularly fond of the ‘pan scrub’ which is a giant whipped spider’s web worked on a junk CD. The strange lumpy thing on the left is gathered calico with added bits. No, I don’t like the colour scheme either, but we were leant on [in this totally non-directive course] to use the colour scheme of the collage.

Next time I'll think about the newspaper I use. Oh, the dear dead days when newspaper was just black and white…

Mind you, I did get away with making 3D collages which were supposed to be 2D but ‘reflect the depth’ we saw in the microscope.

Actually it was a very enjoyable session! I need a microscope. And an OHP.

Today’s excitement was the arrival of this lot - the results of me going  a bit mad with the plastic a day or two ago. I decided we didn’t have enough books. [I can hear the laughter from those that know me from here…]

But it was here – so this lot didn’t break the bank. We get their paper catalogue, and Wensleydale fancied the book on North Yorks monasteries, and I fancied the one on Nano Nature.

But while I was on line I strayed into the textiles section and a few more books fell into my shopping basket.

Janice Gunner’s ‘Shibori’ book is one I have coveted for a long time, since I dribbled over A’s copy years ago. Full price - £18.99. Amazon's price - £11.99. Postscript’s price - £4.99.

I am not responsible for any damage you do to your credit card if you go over to Postscript …