Mercury.....

The planet nearest the sun and the first one to be put in place on  "Space"

Images of Mercury from theMariner 10 spacecraft show losts of craters and I was pleased how these turned out with just simple stitich. Mercury was of course the messenger of the gods so I gave it some wings.

and here it is in place.

 I have actually placed all the planets, I have missed out Earth because I have this dream in my head of making it the other side of the cloth. We shall see.

What's this ........

Can it be .....Tacking ?

..never been known!  Attaching space to my black hole and making planets. Mars is the first one to be made.

They won't be in relative side otherwise Jupiter would probably cover the whole cloth.

Time travel.....

yesterday I stepped back to 1553...at Kentwell Hall.  I took over 100 photographs (so I will edit them a bit) and even then now realise the ones I missed..    The Hall and the grounds are given over to a recreation of life in Tudor times and great pains are taken to achieve authenticity.  The vist kept us absorbed for nearly five hours and kept the conversation and questions going all the way home.  One thing was evident though, for us the day had been about cloth. For rich and poor, the making, using, wearing  and mending of cloth was an intergral part of life. We saw the spinners and weavers

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the felters, cross I didn't take a picture of the hats.

 The dyers, (so taken with the results I missed taking the vats).

The laundry had been done.

and in the house the seamstresses stitched their linen with linen thread.

and everywhere people wore clothes which had been made to create as nearly as possible the clothes of rich and poor in those times.

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 (Mask on the last two thanks to skeletal mess)
There was one more personto do with cloth but for me she was very special and deserves a post of her own.

Dragon on the lawn....

I have been making lots of  pieces in preparation for the Magic Diaries which starts next week.  This piece got a little ahead of itelf.....

I love him because I drew him free hand. I don't think he is finished, we shall see.

Sun, moon and squares

The weather having turned into the typical British summer I have spent my time stitching,
A sun....

 

a moon....

 

and some squares.....

I am just picking up cloth and seeing what it turns into..so soothing. I hope all these elements will eventually come together but if they don't it doesn't really matter , the pleasure is in the doing.

Dream on.......

Last night I dreamed Jude Hill came to my house. She came with a group of my friends, they were all stitching but she had nothing to do so I offered her my bit box which she started to sort through

 When Jude left she promised to come again, which would be lovely. Nice dream. It probably all came about because I am looking forward to joining in the Cloth Whispering Hearts which starts tomorrow.  Before I went to bed I had started to make a cloth which I thought might make a background ,

I have finished the project which I have been working on for eighteen months, I can't show it yet because it will be in our 10th Anniversary exhibition in a couple of weeks time. 

Beast and birds.......

Last week my friend Annie came to stay and we went walking. I won't mention the 145 almost vertical steps, on our first walk, the pain is still too close......We took a lovely walk through the woods from Westerham, around past Chartwell and back to Westerham. I am really enjoying my Patchwork Beast class with Jude Hill at the moment and some sort of heightened awareness had me finding "beasts" at every turn. Camel anyone?

A horned beast

I had put together a cloth in the Spirit Cloth class and was going to add a Beast but the cloth had other ideas.

It is called "Love at First Sight".......... I don't know why, it just is.  I am loving these classes.

Here is me best beast find....a little green man sleeping with a baby dragon....

honest...click and have a close look.

Dreary Sunday.......

that is just the weather, I am thinking of switching on my SAD light I am so sick of grey skies. Enough! Every cloud..... as they say.  Today I have started on mt Spirit Cloth workshop in earnest.  I could almost hear the noise in the boxes as the pieces jostled for attention. These are the ones that I chose/they decided. 

apologies for wonky scan.

What will they become, I wonder.  Already "stories" are lurking around in my head.  I am loving this new way of thinking/not thinking, just waiting to see what will happen and learning to say what if.....

I made this piece after reading Jude's introduction and thinking about the picture of a feather she had posted here.  The shape of the feather resembled a knife and that brought the thought what if the knife was used to change the feather into a quill....perhaps the one Shakespeare used......books to bring colour to the world.

Something special....

Jude Hill of Spirit Cloth has produced a video, the first of a series, she promises, where you can watch her actually creating a cloth.  I found a wonderful calm watching the gentle rhythm of her stitching.  Go here and enjoy.

Slow, Snow cloth...

 or just doodling with needle and thread.    We shall see.

What the rabbit saw.......

This little man peaked over the fence and to his delight he saw a row of carrots and ...........(to be continued)

My very Best Wishes to you for a Happy and Peaceful New Year.