Maytime

I had such a pretty postcard from Chrissie yesterday as part of our Postman's Knock fun. My theme is windows and Chrissie has created a perfect little Boulangerie window, complete with awning, lace curtain and a selection of breads. The card came in this lovely wrap and I must admit that my first thought at the red, white and blue tie was with Friday's goings on rather than the Tricolore.

 The lace curtain is even on a rod.

It has been a busy week where I seemed to achieved little.  Last Bank holiday Monday I did an hour or two at the local country fair promoting the Artists Network Bedfordshire's open studio event in June.

This is Jo, a very active member behind our stall which drew lots of interest. The info is not all there on the website but I will let you know details later if you are in the area.

On Wednesday, Sally  and I got together to do some planning and I have made a list of 'things to do'

On Thursday I did something completely different.  I visited a group of alpacas which are kept as 'pets' by the couple here - I realise now that I don't know their names.  I went with my U3A Natural History group - although not quite 'natural' to our local surroundings I did learn a bit about these animals which are domesticated in Peru.

The alpapcas were very friendly as demonstrated here!

They are shorn once a year and the owners usually donate the fleeces to local spinning groups.  In fact a couple of the ladies at 'Nutty Knitters' were spinning some last month.  The fleece is incredibly soft and thick and has no lanolin so does not need to be washed before spinning.

a couple of examples of  knitted yarn from the alpacas.

When down loading these photos which I took with my 'point and shoot' I found this one of Marvin taking a bit of time out on the bed, something which is not encouraged, but tolerated in dry weather. Here he is trying to prove to me that he has been keeping up with the dry cleaning. 

At the moment like most pets, he is moulting like mad and could be a rival to those alpacas!

It is also that time of the month AGAIN, and as I only seem to be managing one post a week, my calendar pages appear rather too quickly.  I hope you are not getting bored with them.

April seems to have been sunshine all the way. The lack of rain has meant a lot less snails this spring so although the young veg hasn't been eaten, it does needed a lot of watering.  However even the lawn (moss patch) is beginning to turn brown, so a bit of evening rain would be useful.  I also find it difficult to be creative this weather.  I want to be sitting stitching etc, but the outdoors is calling.  I try to ration my gardening time due to dodgy joints, but even after a spot of weeding I haven't been able to settle at my desk or sewing machine. However I did enjoy creating my calendar pages.

May is rather flamboyant.  I bought some metallic and pearlised acrylics so had to give them an outing. The squares are cut from pearly paper.

I hope you are able to enjoy this holiday weekend and I will try to put in some extra 'comment' time.

Have a good week.

Jill

No eggs here

Firstly, happy Easter!

 Quite a lot of you are very 'quiet' at the moment, I hope it is because you are enjoying the holiday and sharing the glorious, if somewhat disquietening, weather we have been having, I haved to keep reminding myself it is still April, even though the garden seems to think it is the middle of May.  Today has been much fresher, but still warm enough to sit outside in short sleeves.

I have been busy this week, but don't have any photographs to show for it. However last week I did experiment more with different materials and the heat tool, (with plenty of fresh air) so I shall share these with you.

Each piece is postcard size and I was influenced by the layers of leaf debris found on woodland floors.

 This first piece is layers of felt, bond-a-web, mixed fibres (including grasses) and painted Lutrador blasted with the heat tool which melted it together, and then machine and hand stitched.

Wasn't sure about the hand stitches, so I stopped.

This second one is similar, but I included some sweet wrappers and angelina fibres. I also painted strips of bond-a-web. There is more colour showing through the layers.

I machine stitched round all the holes created when I heat blasted it and then added some hand stitched herringbone.

I like this one better.

This final one was built up on a piece of cotton velvet. I cut pieces of painted bond-a-web, felt, organza and painted Lutrador. I then added transfer foil when the bond-a-web was warm and tacky

I machined stiched the layers before heat blasting them so the effect was less dramatic.

This one looked very landscape-like and so I added some hand stitched grass.

Hopefully I shall have some more to share with you later in the week.

I am beginning to get ready for the open studio event in June -  more about that at a later date!

Have a good week.

Jill 

Reminiscing

Yesterday was Postman's Knock arrival day and the postman did knock, at about 9.30 while I was writing a few blog comments.  He had this package for me.

I patiently photographed it before opening and carefully cut the paper not ripping it off, which I usually do. Inside was my second window postcard, this time from Jane

It was 3D and depicted a beautifully draped window - very realistic, with clear cellophane panes looking out at a beautiful garden.  There is no way I can photograph the view without dismantling it, so I am the only one privileged to fully appreciate the work that has gone into this lovely card.

 Clicking on the pictures should give you a close-up view.

It is lovely.

My contribution this time was to the theme "Yee Ha! Ride'em Cowboy" which got me rummaging in the back of the cupboard for the bag of memorabilia I had kept after my epic USA trip in 1977, in which I travelled round the US on the Greyhound buses.  My old bus pass, timetable and a map centred on Colorado formed the main body of the postcard and an old book about cowboys belonging to Mr T provided the buckaroos. As the US is such a large place I wanted to convey this, so made a folding card to get as much map as possible.

I then distressed it as I wanted it to look as if it had been stuffed into a traveller's pocket for a few thousand miles!

The fact that I had kept my bag of memories intrigued a few comment writers on Postman's Knock so here are a few more details.  In 1976 after being in a long relationship and encouraged by an adventurous flatmate I advertised in Time Out magazine for a companion to spend 4 weeks the following summer touring the USA. It was something I really wanted to do with my new freedom, but none of my friends wanted to join me, I certainly didn't want to go it alone, so advertising was the only alternative.  After meeting several prospective travelling companions - male and female (But that's another story) I finally linked up with Cathy, another teacher from London.  I had relatives on Long Island, friends in Santa Cruz, Cal, and my flat mate had met a couple of lads from LA whilst she was camping in France.  We put them up while they toured the UK and I was invited to stay with them.  Cathy and I flew to NY and after a free night (due to a special deal with Thomas Cook) at the Statler Hilton (Telephone Number: PEnnsylvania 6-5000), now renamed Pennsylvania Hilton, we visited Dad's cousin on Long Island. From there we started our 8,000 mile round trip of the states.  I kept a diary as we spent many hours on the buses and the long straight roads made it possible to write while on the move - not usually possible on buses here. (Why didn't I keep a sketch book too? I ask myslef now)

Using the bus timetables it was easy to log our mileage as we went from NY to New Orleans - via Washington DC and Chattanooga (bit of a Genn Miller theme emerged here). Then to Houston - popping over the border to Mexico at Al Paso; then the Grand Canyon; a memorable night in Las Vegas;  Los Angeles and a stay with the lads we'd met; Santa Cruz; San Fransisco; Salt Lake City; Denver and a day trip into the Rockies; Chicago; Niagara and a quick pop into Canada for an hour or so; Boston and then back to NY - are you exhausted?  Think how we felt, as we spent every other night or so sleeping on the bus.  So perhaps you can see why I have kept all this stuff with my diary - and no I don't think it would make a very exciting book, although we did have a few adventures.

I met Cathy once after the trip when we exchanged some photographs, but not since. We got on well at the time, but had little in common apart from the trip. I quite like it that way. Somehow it means I own all of the memories. Shortly after I came back I met the future Mr T, who is not greatly fond of travel, so that was my GREAT ADVENTURE and I am getting plenty of mileage out of it still.

Sunny days

What an amazing week we have had - I can't remember an April like it! Like a lot of you, no doubt, I have spent a lot of time out doors rather than in my 'studio'.  I will share a few things I have been up to, but it is not a lot. Firstly I have finished my Butterfly books and they are now in my Etsy shop.

I have also filled in my Textile journal.

Otherwise I have not done a lot on the creative front - just haven't been in the mood this week.

But I did spend a lot of time watching the waxwings which stayed until Friday by which time they had completely stripped the last of the berries off the cotoneaster.  This was the best shot I got, heavily cropped.

At one time we counted 22 of them on the TV aerial.

Otherwise I have been trying to get rid of some of these

Although very bright and cheerful, they are overtaking my garden.

MrT has been looking after his onions

I don't drink this yogurt drink ALL the time, but here are about a year's worth of bottles marking the onion rows. Note little 'fence' which seems to have kept the local cats off.

Most of the time I have just been enjoying these flowers which have burgeoned this week.

 aubretia

polyanthus

 plum blossom

 

spotted laurel (aucuba)

and finally a close-up of those polyanthus.

Oh, but I have been getting my next postcard ready for Postman's Knock.  You'll have to wait to see that.

Have a lovely week.

Jill

Teach yourself textiles - slashing and burning

Textiles I

I had a quiet weekend and have an appointment free week ahead so I am determined to fit in a few more exercises in my quest for textile knowledge.  Firstly, after watching a video from Fay Maxwell  about fabric slashing, I though I must have a go. (Thanks Lesley) Firstly I built up layers of fabric scraps on a piece of calico topped with a relatively plain piece of fine cotton.  I then straight stitched the layers together like this.

then taking a sharp pair of scissors started slashing the layers between the rows of stitches.

I only snipped through the back in a couple of places!

Slashing is only the beginning - the next thing is to wash the whole thing as violently as you can.  I was unprepared to devote  a whole wash cycle to this and unsure of colour fastness I hand washed it, but gave it a good scrubbing with my wooden lemon squeezer!!!  (Note to self - look for a old fashioned washboard) I then indulged in a fast spin, as it was very thick and then popped it on a rad to dry.

The green top fabric frayed so much I had to trim the threads, but the result is very tactile.  I am now deciding whether to add any stitching.

Natural Break

I did have to interrupt my stitching to cook a meal yesterday and when I popped into the garden for some rosemary a flurry of birds flew up from the cotoneaster which still has a lot of berries.  I had disturbed about twenty waxwings.  Luckily they didn't fly far and sat in a neighbouring tree while I rushed in for the camera.  The sky was dark and it was starting to rain.  There was even a loud clap of thunder, so no time to set up the large zoom and tripod which would have been better in this light.

A bit of cropping on this picture just renders enough detail for those of you familiar with this winter visitor to identify its characteristic profile with its tuft of feathers on its head.  I haven't seen waxwings and I am delighted to be able to add them to my weekly bird count which I submit to BTO Garden Birdwatch.

Textiles II

I have done the slashing, so here is the burning, although melting would be a better description. 

A selection of beads I made by melting anything meltable with my new heat gun.

 

 

Not sure what I am going to do with them - rather scratchy for  a necklace - but they are strung up at a window at the moment. 

Mr T was notable unimpressed by my experiments, but I know you'll be interested (I hope)

Jill