TWTWTW.........

or for the young "that was the week that was", (a satirical TV programme in the early sixties)

For me it just sums up how quickly the weeks pass.  Last Sunday we took a trip to Farnham, Surrey for  the Quilters Exhibition and Fabrics January Sale. I didn't know there was that much quilting material in the world. It was an amazing experience, if you think the Knit and Stitch is busy, you should try getting round this event.  I didn't really need any material but I couldn't resist the "scrap" bags which were perfect for my hexagon quilt which is growing (slowly but definitely growing).

It was also an opportunity to meet up with Sharon I met online  in the Calendar Girls 2008 postcard challenge, Sharon has a wonderful shed on her allotment which I covert. Lovely to catch up.

One of the other highlights of the day was an exhibition by Creative Cloth Doll Makers of Farnborough, Surrey.
Meet Fagin

 

and I liked these smart circus figures

but this was the star.  A Steampunk Crow .His tag reads "Keep Calm and Carrion"

In the middle of the week we had a play day.  Using cotton reels and keys. This was the table,

This was the result of my labours.  No practical use whatsoever.  What fun.

This wasn't this week but I thought you might like these photographs to play with. Part of the roof at the New Kings Cross Station

and I loved the colours in this, the Garrick Theatre facade.

Wk 6 Documented Life....

I seem to be all over the place with my numbers and last week was indeed Wk 6.  A bit more drama this week,a trip to August. Osage County at the cinema, strong stuff but riveting and good acting and a trip to see my daughter in From Here to Eternity the musical. strong stuff but riveting and good acting and then a  pleasant day at the Maylands stitching group.  All of which helped take the mind off the rain.
The Documented Life prompt was "Open your Pinterest board and be inspired".  Didn't take me long to try an emulate the work of Jill Ricci. I love her work so this is my attempt.  Gelli print background, snippets of other gelli prints and another old photograph.

 

Because it had to be folded into my journal I needed to make a cover so another photograph received the treatment. Don't do pink usually.

and for the runner I had palm trees and an aeroplane and the date of Pearl Harbour which is the climax of "From Here to Eternity". The sea is both for FHTE and for the dreadful battering our coasts are taking.

Wk 4 and Oh dear!...

For Week 4 of the Documented Life the brief was to "add a doodle border to your page".  This tied in nicely with one of my latest book purchases "Zenspirations Dangle Designs" by Joanne Fink.







So far so good.  Then I decided I would throw out a lot (and I mean a lot) of old photographs and it was going well until I saw one and thought, I wonder what that would look like if I put it through the Big Shot.  
What happened became the theme of my page, here it is the larger circles are from a very out of focus photograph.

Oh dear, a use for the photographs......another thought this is a piece of sky from a very boring photo put through with an embossing plate, painted with craft paint, stamped with Distress Stain, there was a piece of paper on my desk which had the words in it, so here it is mounted on a piece of gelli print.

 Oh dear another use for the photographs...... and then this for my present "tree" decoration.

 The photgraphs have gome back in the box.

My runned band for last week has teeth, which were a big feature and celebrate an outing to see an amateur production of  "Avenue Q" performed by some very talented friends.  Great fun.

So that is January been and gone already.

L...

The letter L this time on the Craft Barn Alphabet Challenge but with a twist.  A window had to be included.  I had a look at Lattice but kept coming back to Landscape.  The landscape I wanted to use was a photograph of Wastwater in the Lake District which I took in May.. I also wanted to suggest the whitewashed  houses you see in the Lakeland, so this is a sort of inside out view of the Lake.

the windows were packing inside a child's game. I did think of putting lattice in them but it obscured the photograph.  The wall is painted with PaperArtsy Grunge paste and Fresco Nougat and here it is with tag.

It was a full day on Satuday at EG,   we were treated to a talk by Libby Smith, she took us through the inspirations for her work and brought a wonderful array of examples.  From large and small beaded tassels to fantasy shoes we were able to examine each in detail.  My favourite piece was an encrusted purse made in the shape of India (a source of much of her inspiration). I can't quite remember the phrase she used but it was something like "not quite goldwork" in other words she has used goldwork techniques but lots of others as well.  I forgot to ask if I could take a  photograph. We also had Neredah's Threads do delight the eye and dent the bank balance. (No web site I'm afraid). I managed in between things to put about 6 french knots on my Snowcloth.

My Snowcloth started here after I had vaguely maked out the ares of colour I realised that it was a bit like the way I start a doodle....idea!  So I am now gradually filling in the areas in the same way I would doodle, it is great fun working out which stitches to use to make the different fillings. 

The Darenth Valley was beautiful in the morning but I didn't have time to stop but on the way home I couldn't resist this

and this

and best of all

Tulip time...

Yesterday the gloom lifted and in beautiful spring sunshine I took the train to London where I had arranged to meet Lynda so that we could investigate the art store called http://www.atlantisart.co.uk/. In my excitement I arrived at Charing Cross about an hour before I needed to, so I stepped into the Embankment Gardens, and this is what I found.
Dech chairs waiting for the band...
A man on a camel..
A rather distraught young woman...

and tulips, tulips everywhere
..



Our visit to Atlanis was a success but our visit to the Backyard Market was a little disappointing, perhaps we hit a bad day. On the way home I walked through Trafalgar Square which was even busier than normal, there was a Visit Holland event in progress and guess what... more tulips.

This is one in my garden that had opened out wide to take in the sun (a bit like me)

I can tell you, for me, one of the great joys in life is stolling through London in the sunshine and passing the time with a friend. Good day.
Please feel free to use these photographs.

As a follow up to the last post Stephen Durrant's Owl was runner up in the competition and was shown on the programme. Congratulations Stephen.

Cold enough for you?.......

This is just one of some stunning photographs of Russia which I found from a link on Les passions de Solange

Can any one tell me what "incentivising" means heard in a BBC Television News report? Because I didn't know "incentive" was a verb!!

Thank you....

to everyone who has left a comment on my March TIF piece. I have tried to contact each one but some of the links didn't work so if I missed you I'm sorry.

Here is a link that I have just found if you like books and Libraries. Cyndi of Layers upon Layers posted this link to Curious Expeditions who has some wonderful photographs of beautiful libraries all round the world.
This photograph is of the chained books in Hereford Cathedral, it says they were chained to prevent theft. Readers of Terry Pratchett know better. Oook!!

I am suprised the reading room at the British Museum doesn't seem to be there.
It did strike me that some of the photographs would make terrific basis for design and colour schemes.

North East memory

Sharon has been reminiscing about a holiday in Whitby in the north east of England. Being a mixed media artist she has some good pictures. She has a beautiful photgraph of Rievaulx Abbey
This is a photograph I took when we visited some years ago, someone from English Heritage, with great imagination, had placed this figure of a monk in the grounds, it had no face it was just the shape of a figure draped in a monks habit, it stood under the trees just "watching". Very effective and spine tingly!

This is a page I did in an altered book, the background of the "chapel" is a digitally altered photograph of some of the wonderful arches of the ruins.


Thanks for the memory jog Sharon.

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!!!

Casting seed.....

Another place we visited this week was Wakehurst Place, Kew's "Country" Garden. It was our first visit but hopefully not our last, this is the home of the Millenium Seed Bank and there is a very good exhibition explaining the work. The were some amzing pictures of rare and unusual seed and this was the inspiration for my TAST stitch of the week, Cast on Stitch.
It's a good job my friend knows me very well as I sat and huffed and puffed whilst I translated the stitch. At one point I couldn't remember how to cast on (I have used the thumb method for years) and had to go and find a knitting needle and a ball of wool to remind myself. Cracked it in the end though and I love it.

Thank You.....

This is a picture of Scotney Castle in Kent which I took on Friday. I would not have been able to share it with you if it were not for the kindness of an unknown gentleman who handed in my camera. I did not miss it until my friend and I were going to Greenwich on Saturday. I had left it in the walled garden when we had a picnic, I didn't expect to see it ever again, I have no way of thanking the gentleman as he didn't leave a name so I will just have to put this into the ether and hope somehow he knows how grateful I am.

This is another view of Scotney where as you can see the Autumn colour seems to have started early, we found this in other gardens we visited this week.
I love this view and have photographed it, painted it and embroidered it in the past.

A trip to Town....

I popped up to London today. I visited the Opus BA Show wonderful work but a little beyond me I'm afraid. I will go to their Pathways exhibition next week. Having the day to myself I went up to the British Museum,what a treasure house this is...I have to take it in little bites. Today I looked at the Snettisham Hoard I had never heard of it before but I was fascinated by these strange neckpieces They must have been uncomfortable to wear but must also have been impressive as some were very thick.

Photographs courtesy The British Museum.
I had a lovely wander when I came out, there are some wonderful old building around the museum, my walk was enlivened by a great idea from the National Gallery. Around corners and in the oddest places where reproductions of some of the gallery's treasures.


I thought the juxtaposition of the street sign gave this one a Banksy feeling
A brilliant idea, I often pop into the National I wanted to go off in search of more but I didn't have any time left today as I spent a happy hour(and a bit of money) in the London Graphic Centre I bought some inks and nib pens.......because they were there. Delighted and a bit dismayed(for my bank managers sake) that the are now stocking Golden Liquid Acrylics.