Is this the beginning.......

of the end of blogging as we know it? For some time now I have felt that there has been a distinct lack of momentum both in my own blog and in the ones I follow. Some have cut down the number of posts and others have become very repetitive so when I read that Paula Hewitt of The Beauty of Life has decided not to blog anymore I was sad. I understand and respect her reasons and my sadness is totally selfish as her blog was always varied and entertaining, sometimes very touching and sometimes made me laugh out loud, I will miss her. My thoughts made me check on my own blogging patterns and I found there is indeed a pattern the winter months are high activity and August is definitely the bottom of the pole so perhaps this is just a temporary blip. I hope so.

On a more positive note this is the piece I have made a result of the first Holey Moley sessions. It has four layers and some can only be seen by peering through the holes. A mixture of Tyvek, nappy liner and gold thread. The rings are a mixture of couronne and flower stitcher on Romeo (vanishing medium). I have put two pictures because I just couldn't get the camera to get it right, it is really a deep rich purple.

Holes

Last week I had a firend staying with me and we had some really good trips out. I had explained Holey Moley to her and by the end of the week she was pointing out holes to me. I put these few together.

Tgis and that.....

This video contains strong language but I needed somewhere to keep it as the "mother" is my daughter. Just wait until she gets him home!!!





Mary Corbet has started a course on Long and Short stitch on Needle 'N' Thread this is a stitch I have tried this stitch before without much success so I am hoping to follow along.

This is something I started while sitting chatting at EG last week, it started out with a little square and then I started adding bits and suddenly I had a little church in front of me so I used a few Holey Moley techniques to make the windows and the tree.


Now where's my list of things to do....

Oh dear.....

not another reason to become atached to the computer. Yesterday I was directed to One & Other. My friends brother has actually taken part. This is the occupation of the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square by ordinary mortals each having an hour to make there mark.It is the inspiration of Antony Gormley. I had actually seen someone when I was in town but he didn't seem to be doing much except talking on his mobile, which I suppose is a quite contemporary statement, but I hadn't realised that the whole thing is live on line.Eat you heart out Big Brother.

Yesterday we visited the House Mill in east London. There has been a flour mill on this site for centuries and there were some very interesting holes!

Hole in one...

I spent the afteroon watching the Open on TV. It turned out to be a bit of an anti climax but the time wasn't wasted as I was catching up with my Holey Moley excercises as I watched. Here is this afternoon's results

and this is the book cover I made for my notes

and these are the samples of my flower stitcher thanks to a suggestion from Doreen.

Ice and holes...

The Calendar Girl picture for July was chosen by Pippa
This is my take on it

I painted Tyvek with a rough impression of the image, zapped it and applied it to pale blue satin with freemachine stitching, coered in chiffon and given a beaded edge. It's on it's way to Sandy in America.
From the other side of the world came my Holey Moley lessons. These are few of the experiments.

I have to confess that I enhanced the colour a bit on this one.

After I had scanned this one I set it aside and then realised that it was tanding on a coaster which had a "hole" in it and the fact that it was standing made the hole on the paper look completely different.

And again this time catching a flower reflection.

I have been very frustrated because I can't do any the slash and burn stuff,(I am housing some EG stuff in my workroom at the moment and don't dare do anything near it) on the note of burning I took a trip to Art Van Go this week, on my (long) list was Kunin felt. Would you believe that the makers of Kunin felt have started to put a flame retardant in it. So it won't burn...... Now what are we going to do?

Holey Moley.....

Some time ago I signed up for a year long season of lessons with Dale Rollerson of The Thread Studio and today the first thought provoking lesson has arrived. This is real distance learning and one of the joys of the internet. The course if labelled the Holey Moley Club and is a sort of a mystery tour as Dale is keeping the elements close but not suprisingly the first lesson is about holes. Now from the little work I have done so far I can see that I could become a bore (hole?..Sorry!) about holes. Just thinking where you find them, lace, cheese,old clothes, stones, and so on is fascinating and of course, I had to google and came across the The Holey Dollar and here one of those fascinating little stories I love and how appropriate that it should be Australian. Briefly in 1813 to overcome a currency shortage (nothing changes) the governor bought Spanish silver dollars and turned them into two coins by cutting a hole in the middle,the coin with the hole was the Holey Dollar and the cut out piece a separate coin known as the Dump..result double the coins in circulation. Clever trick eh!

Photograph Numisnet World Any problem with copyright please advise and image will be removed.
Back to work....

Blame.........

the Bank Holiday, the glorious weather.......whatever I am so behind with everything and now we are goinbg to take a short break to my home town on the edge of the Lake District so production wise things are not going to get any better. Here is one of the main reasons, the weather has been so beautiful that we have spent loads of time in our tiny garden. The roses this year have been almost the best display I can remember, the best photos (I hope) are on my non digital camera and have to be developed but this is one view of my little garden

and here are two of the stars I took today


and here's one to play with

after playing with negative,displacement and crop





I am stitching, I promise. I am working on a piece which I hope I will be able to offer for the branch stand at the EG South East Area day in July, so hopefully I will have something to show soon.

Super issue of Workshop on the Web just out with very tempting tutorials by Maggie and Lynda

And last but not least I have signed up with Dale for Holey Moley. I love Dale's blog and work and her gorgeous threads and fibres have had me opening my purse at the Knit and Stitch for the last few years. The title intrigued me and when I found that it was a years course but only one lesson every two months I couldn't resist. Watch this space....or should that be hole?