It all makes work.......

.......for the working man to do!  This just about sums up my life at the moment, the man came to mend the fridge and managed to knock down part of my garden wall.  I've been waiting a week for them to come and fix it.   Enough moaning.

Last week we went to the Summer Exhibition at the National Gallery, looked forward to it because it was co-ordinated by Grayson Perry   and it didn't disappoint.  One of my favourite things about the Summer Exhibition was the smaller rooms crammed with all kind of art, chocolate box next to surreal and people, This year n the first gallery, which is usually reserved for reverential large canvases by Royal Academicians, was hung in the same way on bright yellow walls.  The effect was exciting.

There was a lot of "political" subjects, things to scratch your head over but also things to make you smile,
Want an idea to use up all your old jewellery?

Or perhaps you have an old rug you could re-cyle?

This was fun

The bits Constable left out by Chris Orr RA

as was this

Seaching for the Missing Button at Jackson's Chris Orr.

Our only criticism was that if anything there was too much of a good thing, we were in brain overload when we came out but that might have been due more to advancing years than anything else.  I would love to go again and start at the other end.

The fun started even before we went in as we paid our compulsory visit to look at Fortnum and Mason's window displays. The theme was picnics.
There were chimney pot raised pies,

loaves of bread with sunglasses

and tennis ball fizz.

I have been making journals but haven't got round to photographing them yet.  I would like to make another video but it all takes time which seems to be short at the moment.  Past the longest day.  Horror.

Well.....

... I can see the floor but I find it impossible to be as ruthless as I would like.
However play has been resumed with work on another journal, sort of a bit Gothic this one....the first page.

I have a new book, The Collage Workbook by Randel Plowman.  I came across it on Carolyn Saxby's always beautiful blog .
She is planning to work though it along with her sister Evelyn Flint , they previously worked through one of my favourite books Surface Treatment Workshop  So I thought I would perhaps try and combine the two.
The first exercise is to make a collage in five minutes.  I'll have to try that again because this took me about 15minutes.I used bits leftover from my Book of Trees  

This is the first one I tried mixing collage with paint.

I have to wonder why nearly all my mixed media attempts turn out like these mountainous landscapes.  I think this one is waiting for the delivery of Seth Apter's Deep Sea Embossing Powder 
I don't think I mentioned I had these on per-order from the excellent That's Crafty. 
I have no affiliation , It's just I have found them to give excellent service and we know how much I like that.

On another tack if the CEO of Marks and Spencer would like to contact me I could probably solve a lot of his problems.  

Busy, busy....

...my birthday week. We went to see our daughter in her last week in Matilda in the West End. I couldn't resist a "Matilda pose".

Sometimes you have to be a little bit silly.

For my entry of the ITAC 17 challenge which was on the theme of Africa,I made a piano hinge book with some gelli print and joy of joys some pencils I have been hoarding for at least ten years.

 You know how I love serendipity, well I have a box of cigarette cards and I knocked it on the floor.  I thought I had picked them all up and then as I was finishing the book I looked down and there was the lion card.  Love it.
The next challenge is the Americas and I don't have an idea in my head which is encouraging as the deadline approaches.

Absolutely delighted that Chris Froome has won the Vuelta, such a gentle man. Amazing teamwork helped an individual succeed. Wonderful.

 

There was somewas some amazing scenery on the tour of Spain, places that are off the usual sun & sand image of Spain.  It was a treat and is part of the joy of watching these grand tour cycle races, bit like a nice comfy car ride but with spectacular aerial shots as well. It was only marred by the dreadful commentators, obviously given explanations of points of interest that would be highlighted they, for ther most part, chose to ignore these and continued with their endless speculative repitition or made facetious and feeble jokes.  Worst commentators ever Eurosport. Thank goodness for the ipad. Rant over.

It was hot.....

...................I am a chilly mortal and love warmth but our little heatwave last week knocked me out.  I did nothing  a little bit of gardening very early in the morning collapsing onto the sofa and reading for the rest of the day. Now thank goodness we are back to normal British summer and can move again.  Yesterday we went to the lovely town of Faversham for the Open Gardens.  We only managed about a third of them but the talking point was the variety and the fact that quite ordinary houses hide amazing spaces. The first one had a wonderful wildflower meadow

 Then there was this tiny little garden  (with a very cosy looking garden room ) crammed full of interest

Another slightly larger garden but still smaller than mine with a lovely summer house which also had a heater for the chillier days.

These three were my favourites, others we saw were too manicured for my tastes. One set of gardens were very interesting and very productive but I didn't get any snaps because they were a bit congested not only with plants but people.  The Gardens belonging to the quite modern houses were small but in addition they had small pieces of land belonging to the local school which they are allowed to use as they see fit as long as  it is tended. the land is on  the other side of a small stream, wish is crossed by a series of small bridges. There was an abundance of vegetable and fruit trees and one even had a chicken house. Hopefully I can go back next year and do better.
Our last visit was the Physic Garden behind an Elizabethan building which originally a grammar school. The garden is being restored and enhanced.  A wonderful tangle of everything.

On the production front very little has happened, I am blaming the weather for what is a massive production slump.


Not producing but I loved these intructions by Mary Corbet of how to open Mill Hill Beads. When we had cats I used to blame them for me getting beads everywhere but I am just as bad without them.

Something completely different.......

 For my 1 Year of Stitches this week I have started a picture of trees, for myself this time.  I made one each for my son and daughter for Christmas, they were pleased and I thought "I want one". I am using some wonderful material  from The Cloth House. At £38 a metre it is the most expensive material I have even bought but it is perfect for this job. It is slow progress as it will be seen from both side I need the back to look neater than I normally do,.

If you are wondering about my little world, I have decided to have if framed professionally so I need to ask there advice before putting in the final stitches.

A good week n the whole. It started with a visit to Hidden Figures . I really enjoyed this film and think it derserves far more accolades than La La Land. Learned a lot, laughed and cried, what more can you want from a film.

I finished my Cronwall book, moderately pleased with it. It was difficult to photograph because of the size and shape. It is made from the black cards which come with DH's Royal Mail stamps. they are approx 9x5inches. I covered them with old Gelli print papers and then a mixture of paints and  collaged photographs from our holiday back in 2012.

I like the way it will stand up as well though I couldn't get a good angle to photograph.

The other highlight of the week was a meeting with 'the Girls'.  Always a joy we tried our hands at needle felting.  Our animals may not win prizes but we had the best fun.
Blue bunny.

 Bad angle on this, he has a wonderful beak.

  Mine was supposed to be a sheep but ended up as a sheep dog..... possibly.

I came across this, forgot to keep link.


Crafting is a major growth activity internationally – it generates a retail economy of over £3.5bn in the UK alone. Almost 70% of British women have crafted in the last year – that’s over 18 million people. Craft Intelligence is our influential, biennial study of the crafting habits of UK females, conducted by Kantar. And the number of young crafters is growing rapidly – in the UK, crafting among 16-34 year olds is up 9% in the last year. And 23% of UK women have tried a new craft in the last year.
Bluewater   and others please take note.

It won't last......

....not just a pessimist, I know myself ...but while it lasts.  Here is the firt day of "1 Year in stitches"

I took me ages to actually start and then came "Yellow Brick Road "...so we will have to see where it leads.  It doesn't look very inspiring but it has already sparked another idea.

Last night watching Tom Brady do his stuff, I made these "journal" pages.(I have no intention of keeping a journal, like I said, I know me.  Butterfly mind and a difficulty with finishing off.)

Gosh that man is inspiring! 

 Seriously,  great fun, I haven't done anything like this for ages. A while back I found that if you use sticky tape, my preferred is Scotch Magic, you can remove imagaes from the Sunday paper magazine supplement. The little red berries in the first picture and the strip along the bottom of the second were done this way. I like the magic tape because it has a matt finish. 

To inspire you .

Happy Christmas......

....a bit of general silliness for you.  I couldn't resist.   The kind gentleman who took the photograph for me said "I don't wish to be rude but you are the oldest person I've seen doing this"........little does he know.

 

I will...

...get beck in the rhythm of blogging, just don't know when.  Days are flying by, dark mornings and the nights are drawing in. This post will be photo heavy, if blogger allows

We had a really enjoyable workshop with  Viv Sliwka at Sew Not Strawberry Jam. Just what I needed after my miserable weeks.  Good company, lovely setting and good cake!

I just love this place, I may have mentioned it.

This is Viv's thread nest and travelling companion.

 

I loved the way  Viv had laid out the little samples she used to explain what we could do.  Absolutely no restrictions on what we wanted do. 

These are my bits, I love my little grey brooch which says "Embroidery is easy to begin."

Lovely day, thanks Viv, thanks Sam.

Our latest voyage was our annual pilgrimage to the Knit and Stitch Show.  All in all a good show.  

Off to a good start with this amazing mural made entirely from re-cycled fabric by DAMSS

 Closer

 and closer

So clever. Mesmerising.

Well if that hadn't been enough our next surprise was a full sized fish stall by Kate Jenkins

What a huge amount of work and what fun. As was this exhibit from the Royal school of Needlework. The needlewomen are Elena Thornton and Connie Wynn.

I will never look at my sieve in the same way, given the size of the stitches I don't think I will be trying this at home.
These next darlings were on the New Zealand Contemporary Art stand  he artist is Sherril Jennings. 

and the last exhibit I photographed was this chess set by Mavis Walker. I particularly liked the pawns.

So that's it for another year, I enjoyed it and di a little shopping though I was disappointed not to find even weave canvas which was on my list.  Saw lots of cross stitch but no tapestry.  Interesting how the emphasis changes, a few years back it was all beads this year there were a lot more dressmaking stalls.