Happy New Year.......

everyone, mine hasn't quite got off to the start I would have wished as DH is in hospital having his blood sorted but hopefully he will be home tomorrow or the next day.
In the meantime I have been doing some Family Treeing and catching up with some blogs. If you have time on your hands they have made a film of Neil Gaiman's
"Coraline". I was terrified by the book and the film looks charming but is probvably scary too. But there is fun to be had here Coraline and there is some fascinating stuff on how the effect were achieved including a video of how they knitted the tiny clothes for Coraline but you will have to search to find it. Have fun.


If you have been hooked on altering books by Maggie's lessons then you should enjoy this fascinating little video by Roberta Lavadour I found this link thanks to Laura K.

The Cyber Fyber exhibition starts soon and the work of the invited artists is now on dislpay here Congratulations to you all, it is going to be a wonderful exhibition. I am still hoping to get some ATC's there in time for the swap.

A new year, new beginnings and new challenges.(A new header, not satisfied with it yet though) A new Calendar Girl 2009 challenge will be taking place and it promises to be an exciting one. I failed in the Take it Further challenge, I fell by the wayside in November and am not sure if yet if I will commit to the new one which starts on January 15th it is called Stitch Explorer details here.

October TIF....Heaven or hell

For this month Sharon suggested that we share our workspace, and out thoughts about it. Sometimes my workroom looks like this

and sometimes it looks like this

What do you mean, there's no difference!!! The second one is TIDY.

Now, being a Virgo, I long for a beautiful huge natural wood studio with huge windows and a large table and ironing space and a separate area for each machine, fabrics stacked in neat piles, you know what I mean but this room to me is heaven and I know how lucky I am to have this much space of my own. I have one very dear friend who is known to be very houseproud and she, poor dear, cannot bring herself to put her foot inside the door. It may look cluttered but I know where everything is and it only gets into a terrible state when I'm working full out. The funny thing is that when I do have a really serious tidy (about every 3 months) I sit there wondering what to do and it isn't until I start opening boexes that I start to make things again. One thing I do is keep the floor clean,..... sluts guide to housekeeping!!!!

Season of lists and expensive fruitfulness........

With apologies to John Keats!!!
First of all, I have been moved to put watercolour pencil to paper to record what seems to be a rare and expensive object. The Aubergine.

Yes, well I know it's an aubergine. Now what I want to know is WHY? Why, whatever time of year it is and whatever supermarket you go into, aubergines are 99p each. Is it just me evil mind or does this smack of price fixing? And have you noticed on other products, increasingly, biggest isn't necessarily cheapest. Buyer be aware!!!! These supermarkets are tricky blighters.
Never wanting to waste an opportunity, I played with my picture and produced these digitally enhanced versions.



Now LISTS. Well I have to say the theme of Lists for the TIF challenge did absolutely nothing for me, I gave it quite a bit of thought throughout the month but nothing lit a spark. Truth is I make lists just like everyone else but then I leave them on the table or, if I am having one of my good days, I take it out of the house and then leave it in the car!!! When I make a list I always do it the same way, I take piece of paper out of the printer and fold it in four so it's like a mini book.
This morning I was trying to make a list for the Knitting and Stitching show on Friday so I don't come back with the same things I bought last year......and then I found this little tyvek book cover I made some time ago
and then of course I had to put some paper inside. The I thought that talented people I hope to meet might see my list I thought I'd better paint the papers.
So here it is contribution to last months TIF (yes I know it's a complete cheat)
now all I have to do is complete the list and put it in my handbag.

Yes it's the silly season.......

This months TIF was about balance. So here I am on top of the world trying to balance the important things in my life.

I printed an image of my face and a background I had made onto cotton, same with the eath and the the "balls". I then assembled the doll which is based on the chia doll, you can find a printable template here. The earth is slightly padded.

Added note. The silly season obviously affected my spelling/typing as pointed out by a dear friend.

Challenges contd.......

The TIF challenge "What is it to be at the Half Way Mark?" I played with "marks",and thought it felt "been there done that" and then "Way" as in the path that life takes but in the end I couldn't rid my mind of the old Glass Half Full/Empty thing. I first came across this when I was at school. I had changed in the second year from an all girls school to a co-ed, we had a lesson with the Headmaster, he was very tall and always wore an academic gown which used to billow out behind him as he strode the corridors. He learned every pupils name and could identify you from 500 yards, so you behaved when he was about and you behaved just in case he was about!!!! I digress. In one lesson he strode around the classroom pouncing on people and asking them "Whe you have drunk half of your drink is the glass half full or half empty?" I hadn't a clue what he was talking about and was terrified of giving the "wrong" answer, I stammered out "Half Empty" and slid in to the role of one of life's pessimists. So here is my Half empty Glass

I used the alphabet facility on my sewing machine to make the works Empty and full and free machined the rest.

Incidentally the Headmaster gave me a reference for my first job which I still have. He became less scary as the years went by and I hold his memory in a mixture of respect and affection.

Challenges....

I blame it on our lack of summer sunshine but I have been feeling really lack lustre, however I have finall managed to prod myself into activity so here are my submissions Calendar Girls 2008 and TIF

My card this month was for Carol and I wanted to do something metallic and funky but it just wouldn't come so I played with the original calendar page,

printed it onto cotton and added french knots and beads.

Still determined to get some metal in there, I added the three beads.

A Tale of Two Challenges..........

Do you have time?

Sharon's June challenge said "They (stash) are either purchased or scavenged materials that have accumulated over time and as such they often have a story to tell. Or it is possibly more correct to say that stashes are full of stories. The interesting thing for textile practitoners is that these materials can take on another story. They can be made into something new and take on other meanings in someones life.".

At the last EG meeting our lovely Jane, who brings us useful things like pelmet vilene and thermolan, had some bags of bit and pieces which she was selling for the huge sum of £1, of course I couldn't resist, well I needed it didn't I? (Like the proverbial hole). Having seen the colours for Sharon's challenge I challenged myself to use this bag of pieces for the June TIF. (The woman is challenge mad!!!)

When I opened the bag this is what I found.


I I examined them I realised that these were probably all fabrics from a bridal shop.
I spread them out

I had thoughts on weddings that happened and those that didn't and thought about
a fabric book for stitchin fingers but that will have to wait a while
because on closer inspection I found that the one's outlined in red and green

were very interesting indeed.

The one outlined in red was a part of a very small bodice and remined me immediately of Degas' Ballet Dancer

(hold that thought)

The piece outlined in green was some kind of head scarf/bonnet made of organza petal shapes.

I went away to think some more about the TIF challenge. "So this month the idea to think about is stories that are and stories that are possible."

Stories...hmm I love stories. Those that are... the scraps of material. Those that are possible.......the (wedding) dresses. Stories...... my favourite story is still Cinderella. Charming version here.

and there it was I would make a dress which showed the "ARE".. the rags and the "POSSIBLE" .....the ball dress.

The proportions aren't quite right but I was determined to work with what I had, I added some sequins and some gold ribbon for the sash and some eyelets for the lacing but everything else came out of the bag.



This is the Cinderella dress front and back. It was very difficult to photograph but it will give you an idea. Here are a couple of close ups.




It is imperfectly made but it is an idea that could be developed at some time so I will tuck it away until that time arrives.

Finally caught up.........

How do I see myself?

I have thought about this quite often this month, but always come to the same conclusion, I am a seeker, a searcher. The drawback is that I am not quite sure what I am seeking.

I am a butterfly, as soon as I discover a new technique, a new product or a new book I fly to it, sometimes convinced that I have found what I am looking for but most times as soon as the acquisition has been made,the technique fathomed, I am already pursuing something else. In other words I am a Jill of all trades, master of none, a dabbler who occasionally strikes lucky and produces a passable piece to work.

I would never call myself an artist,yes, I am artistic (I am certainly not a scientist, 6% in my first Chemistry exam proved that) but for me an artist is someone who produces work which touches something inside of me. Paintings have made me cry, pieces of sculpture have made me marvel how anyone could make such a thing from stone and textile pieces have made me yearn to reach out an touch them.

Maybe one day I will find what I am seeking and I will produce a piece of work which will prompt others to call me Artist but until then I will keep looking…………..and having a ball.

I give you my TIF piece for May illustrating my mind.....well I followed the colour scheme!!!!!



Actually it looks better on Teddy

There's good news....

and there's bad news.......for me anyway. I have a new computer, with a wonderful 19 inch screen so that I can stop peering at a tiny screen. I had it built by a local firm Matrix and I am so happy with the service I received. The bad news is that they are having difficulty retrieving the data from my old machine but they have promised that they will keep on trying so I won't give up all hope for the moment.
The moral of this story is BACK UP, BACK UP, BACK UP. I was always promising myself to do it and I do have some things on disk but it is going to take me ages to do re-load it all. I have bought a USB Flash disk and promised myself that I will do it regularly but for the moment "My Picture" is completely empty...weird sensation.

Hopefully I can now play catch up, the decorating is finished and the new carpet is down, I have already said that I have whimped out and this is my April challenge for Sharon. Change!!! There is still my room to do, as this became the repository of anything I couldn't decide whether I wanted to keep or throw out.

Calendar Girls and Take it Further are calling me so hopefully by next week I will be up an running.

All change.....

How do you see change? As a negative or a positive. That is Sharon's challenge for this month and this is the colour scheme. I have given the concept a lot of thought and have come to the conclusion that it depends entirely on circumstances of change whether I see it as negative or not. I have had a few thoughts on the piece and must get to it soon as things are going to change around here.

We are about to have a major decoration job done, I am sure it will be great when it's done but the next three are four weeks are going to be messy, to say the least, amd I am not sure how much time I will have for creating and/or blogging as things are going to be disconnected!!!! The interesting thing is that though I mess with colour and stuff all the time when it comes to something like what colour carpet to chose, I freeze. It has taken weeks and I am won't know if I made the right decisions until it is finished. A classic example of how change can be negative or positive I think.

Just look what this artist has done to change a pile of pebbles!!

This is 100 in the World Beach Project.

Just for interest Neil Gaiman had this link to a talk on TED on what Leonardo Da Vinci looked like when young.



One more world on change, our Spring has just changed back to winter as it is snowing heavily at the moment. That definitely is a negative,

It's the little things......

you do together, as the Sondheim song goes.Sharon's challenge this month, to notice the little things was another springboard for a lot of thoughts.

Here are some bits of the stream of thought bit....

A small crack might be the sign of a deeper rift.

A detective looks for small clues that will help complete the picture of the crime.

An artist or photographer will focus on a small part/area and transform that in to the whole of the work

A finishing detail on a couture garment may be an indication of the quality of the whole garment.

I didn't say they were earth shattering, it is just some of the things that came to mind!

My first reaction on seeing the colours was "camouflage" and this resulted in this train of thought, camouflage, leaves on hats, ferns, bracken, the young fronds of ferns (bracken) which contain the form of the whole plant be it a small fern or a huge tree fern. I couldn't find the photograph I took of ferns so I looked in flickr and there I found this perfect picture. (which was much better than mine anyway)
I asked for permission to use it as a base and Nancy generously said yes. She has some wonderful pictures in her album it is well worth a browse.
I ran the photograph with the painted wood script in PSP9 to give it a more stitchy look and then printed it onto cotton.
Next step was it pick out some details to embroider. I used variegated threads to echo the lights and shadows of the original. The stems are couched and then split stitched. The insides of the curle are french knots, bullion stitch and detached button hole band (I didn't do TAST for nothing!!!)

At first I was going to make it into a post card but because I was stuck indoors with today's awful weather I played a bit. I dug out my encaustic waxes, at first I tried making fern patterns but it all loooked to heavy so I ironed it off onto a piece of material but then decided I like the remaing wax better so this is now the background for the piece. I found the whispy yarn and added it to give that tangly feeling you get when walking through bracken.This is the scan
and this is the photograph, neither are quite "right". Neither of them show the texture.

For me, just the word "bracken" transports me the Lakeland hills. Memories again!!

I have tried before to make journal pages but was never satisfied with the results. A couple of weeks ago Julie on The Land of Lost Luggage wrote a day by day tutorial and yesterday I sat down and had a try. I must say I am delighted with the result. I have a drawer on my desk where I stick bits and pieces and I just dibbed into that and let it happen. Page 1

Page 2

See that little tree, remember the cut out in my little book....well it just shows you should never throw anything away!!!!! The "doorway" came about because I was adhering the square with some interference white and when I tried to reposition it, it left a frosty "frame" which I loved.
I am still sewing as well and trying to notice details and come up with some inspiration for TIF but I really have enjoyed my paper based activities.

Camouflage.....

that was my first reaction to Sharon's TIF challenge.(Well my actual first reaction wasn't quite that polite.......). These are Sharon's actual words."Do you ever notice the little things, the small moments, the details in life? This months challenge is to do just that, pay attention to the tiny details. Sometimes the small things become emblematic for something larger. That is it!" Microcosms... hmmm very deep. What fun. Off to think.

All the Quilters.....

out there are probably going to throw up their hands in horror at my attempt at "log cabin" for the February TIF second offering. This one is using both memories and the colour pallette.

This is my school "satchel". I am left handed and pens never went the way I wanted them too, I suppose the only thing I was fortunate in was, that unlike some of my contemporaries, I was not forced to write with my right hand, thanks to the tiny village school I went to see here. The blue and white gingham is reminiscent of school dresses and the peach colour is not a million miles away from the colour of my school blouse at my first secondary school. The navy blue round the edge is, of course, my gym knickers complete

complete with pocket and clean handky on the back, though I don't think my school handkerchiefs ever had lace on them or stayed clean for long!!

So much going on...

did I say, already, that someone asked me if it was difficult to fill you days when you retire???

I said there were two things for the TIF memories that I was going to work on. The first one is the Liberty Bodice, this image is from the V&A Museum of Childhood.
This unlovely garment was invented to make sure your wool vest itched to it's maximum potential. Well no, it just seemed like that, it was designed to keep you warm, the thing I remember most about it is the rubber buttons which started to crumble as they perished. This is a bit of a cheat as it is actually made from bits of the January piece and is therefore in January's colours. I couldn't find rubber buttons in my stash but these I thought filled the bill,the felt backing represent the itchy vest and the lace represents my remembered longing to have a dress like the Cinderella in my Ladybird book.

And then there were the navy blue gym bloomers with the pocket for your handky, but that's for another day..

If you have five minutes.....

The Altered Page last week had a survey of artists which produced some interesting answers and links to artists I had not heard of and also to some interesting blogs.

More TIF memories Ati on the Crazy Road remembered knitted bathing costume, it appears hers, like mine, stretched when it was wet.Priceless stuff

I went up to London today to the Opus Exhibition.
There were quite a few pieces I liked but no one piece that I wanted to run away with. They have a good thing this year you can buy a cd of all the exhibits. I shall look forward to it coming so that I can study my favourite pieces in detail.

Open the floodgates...........

Sharon posted the new TIF challenge for February. The colour scheme is an interesting one

but the concept "What are you old enough to remember?" occupied my mind for most of yesterday evening.This may be, of course that at my age there is quite a bit to go on.

I realised that what Sharon was talking about were things that have been superseded by technological advances, or objects that have disappeared all together but first I sat and tried to think of my earliest memory and that was when I disappeared into the past for hours.

I was born in 1941 in Barrow in Furness which at that time was in Lancashire. My earliest datable memory was the birth of my brother in November 1945.but some of these memories may date from before that. When I was about two we moved to Ulpha in the Duddon Valley where my mother ran the Travellers Rest while my father was a mechanic in the RAF. All my earliest memories therefore belong to Ulpha. I will list them just as they came to me.

Sunshine and male voices singing, I have always thought they were Polish soldiers who were billeted in the hall further down the hill,as that is what I remember being told. They may well have been detainees.

The hill, still known as Travellers Rest Hill though the TR is now appartments I believe. You can see from this photgraph how steep it is and on more that one occasion I can remember a lorry in the yard.



I remember the swing fixed on the branch of a tree, a pet lamb we had, called Larry of course, listening to Listen with Mother on the radio and another programme which was called "Music and Movement" I think, "Find a space and we'll begin". As well as the lamb there were bantam hens and pigs, a horrid memory this, of pigs squealing at slaughter time. There was the snow house we had, must have been the winter of 1947, we had an old piece of carpet to sit on so our bottoms wouldn't get cold. I broke my sisters tooth when she was teaching me to skim stones and there was the monkey puzzle tree which we used to hide under, I visited a few years back and it was still there.

There was old Joe Yoodle (yes that is a real name) who wore corduroy trousers and big boots which I would stand on and he would hold my hands and walk me round the back bar room.
I went to the tiny school, only 15 children in the whole school and when I was the youngest they used to turn my table upside down so that I could have a rest in the afternoon, the teachers voice would lull me to sleep.(Used to affect me later in life in things like Maths and Physics!!!)
This is the school building (with ugly addition) it is now a house.


But the best memory of all was my "house". At the bottom of the hill there is a field which leads down to the River Duddon, over a dry stone wall like this

, these wall are wonderful and many have little gardens growing on them like this


and in the middle of the field is my "house" where I played, by myself, for hours, and hours.

What do you mean it's a pile of rocks!
This is what I saw.


Thank you Sharon for giving me such a wonderful evening. I have a list of objects too but that is for another day.

I like these.....

very different ideas.
The first one is a link to a tutorial for makover of the kind of canvas bags they are encouraging us to use thses days. I thought was a good way to reduce stash and cheer up shopping day! Corry of Dutch Blue gave me permission to use her photograph.



I guess everyone reads Maggie Grey's blog but just in case you missed it back in January, ever inventive she wrote about swoopy photographs and now she has a novel use for the scanner. swoopy scans

This is a piture of the V&A by night when I went to the Couture Exhibition
and this is same swooped!

This is swooped photo with snake skin displacement map in Paint Shop Pro


This is my TIF piece swooped over the scanner

This takes skill I might tell you!!
This is it cropped and using the reflective mirror in PSP.

Can you see a jungle idol, or is that just me.
Great fun on a dull afternoon. She knows a thing or two that Maggie!!!