African fabric

What to do with the samples of batik fabric? well you could add a plain and a stripe and another VERY jazzy fabric, and put squares, triangles and strips together --
Some of the quilting is through the wadding and top only; the lines that were to be quilted through the backing as well were marked with 1/4" masking tape. Warning: the tape can leave a residue. Let it sit on some non-precious fabric for a while, so it leaves the nasty stuff there, and then re-use on the quilt.

This is about 16" wide and the edges were finished by sewing the backing, right sides together, all around, then cutting a slit where the sleeve for hanging will cover it, and turning the quilt right side out. The backing is the yellow-green fabric with the futuristic whirls on it - they remind me of the work of Edward Wadsworth.

Aerial view

One of the things that emerged from the bookshelves during clean-up was an old school textbook, probably found in a jumble sale aeons ago, on "mapwork" - it fell open to this view of fields in Alberta, and an explanation of how the prairie was carved up into ranges, townships, sections and quarter-sections. In the later 1800s the government put the land up for grabs, and homesteaders moved in and started farming.

Next project

This is about 35cm long, unfinished but coming along. It's based on a part of a quilt by Carol Taylor ("Counterbalance" in her Linear series). The orange, and the scraps, are what happened to come to hand, but I love that hot colour scheme, orange and pink with touches of green. Here's a range of fabrics for, first, some postcards; later --maybe-- a bigger piece (once the furniture is back in the living room and there's room to lay things out).

Seen on the street

Those heavy white sox must be kinda warm in the heat -- but this couple is keeping cooler --

Left behind

Every day, a little sadness.

A bit of improvement

The "workbench" is clear, the shelves are tidier, the lower shelves are hidden by the design board. And fabric for a new project is waiting on the ironing board.

The rest of the room, however, is full of refugee furniture from the living room, which Thomas is painting.

Two steps forward, one step back -- or is it the other way round?

Cheerful colours (on a hot day)

Sewing evening at London Quilters

Blocks for the group's Dear Jane quilt --Carmen's spectacularly miniature hexagons -- Sue's hand-dyed silk rainbow --
Monica's japanese folded circles --
Lucy's jewel colours, brought out by the black --And another of Lucy's --

Bookshelves

Before -- -- and after --
Some blasts from the past emerged --
In the late 80s I was doing "tapestry kits" and started to go to classes with the aim of designing my own. Instead, I got interested in what's now called Surface Embellishment (we were happy to call it embroidery!).The bookshelves are tidy, some books have been moved on -- but the other side of the room is yet to be done --
(How embarrassing. Surely cameras lie sometimes?)

Seen on Cork Street

Jann Haworth is showing at the Mayor Gallery till 28 July. She uses fabric in much of this work. To make donuts, newspapers, blue and white "china".And bouquets, and giant charm bracelet, and spooky grannies in rocking chairs with colourfully-veined hands and faces.
This is The Hollow Men - the figures are made of newspaper articles printed onto canvas.

Saturday morning in Bond Street

Shopping arcade with art shops, chocolate shops, shoe shops, jewellery shops
And all the famous labelsSpot the real people --
But there comes an end to the consumer dream --

A creature from....

... the deep dark sea? No, from the handbag department at Fenwicks. In the sale it was reduced from £249 to a mere £99. It's about 10" x 6". Whereas these coloured raffia crocheted and embroidered little change purses, called Zebra, were a mere £4.95, down from £16.95. The colours were jolly but their zips let them down.

Found object, and dilemma

The object falls into the "whatever was I thinking" category -- and dates back about 10 years. It emerged from one of the many bags that were stuffed under the beds in a big tidy-up months and months ago, before my big trip. I haven't accessed any of the stuff under the beds since then, and hope this will make it easier to get rid of it when it comes to the big cleanup?

What sort of "moving on" does this need? Should past-their-sell-by-date things like this go straight into the bin? Or are they a nothing-to-lose chance for being really wild -- doing something unexpected?

My first (and rather habitual) thought was to make it into a (useful) bag - hey, it only needs another dozen or so hours of handstitching, as well as the actual construction, and lining (with pockets of course) and then there's the challenge of handles ....

My second thought was that this was made 10 years *AGO* and my life would be none the poorer if it had not re-emerged.

But we all carry the voices from the past and mine are loudly saying that Nothing Should Be Wasted. If I listen to them, nothing will ever get thrown on and moving on will be impossible!

Spot the difference

Before:
After:

Open day at Kensal Green Cemetery

Sunday 2 July -- sunny! hot! -- the shade much appreciated.The place was swarming with Goths dressed to the nines. Great costumes!
But the motorcycle hearse was missing from the Parade of Historic Hearses.

New Designers

Art and design graduates from colleges all over the country, gathered at the Business Design Centre in Islington every year. I had only an hour to look around, and missed out the top floor entirely.Too much....... to look at closely... ... but sometimes there's a chance to chat to the person, for example Louise Brown --
And Jo Raine's delightful felt pieces --

Looking forward to...

A "collage" course with at City Lit next week. My first "creative embroidery" course was with Louise, and the UFO from it is still around somewhere. A photo comes easily to hand (from a 2002 project of reassessing past efforts, in an attempt to let go of the UFOs) --

And here's another photo, from the first "Cloth and Stitch" exhibition I took part in, 1993 -- those are my cushions in the window next to Louise's gorgeous piece.

Hao jiu bu jian

It means "long time no see" - the reason for the lack of posts on this blog is on http://krakowpix.blogspot.com -- a combination of conference and holiday.

This belt, half finished, travelled with me but did not see light of day. But now it's done -- quilted, appliqued, and beaded, and even has something to hold it on, a "found" silver buckle. The intended ties didn't work at all.
What to wear it with, though? A trawl through the closet found a Hungarian man's shirt (bought in Budapest in 1991) and a skirt made from Indonesian silk, dating back to my "buy-buy-buy ethnic textiles" phase, 1995 or so. For indoor wear only, perhaps!