A lot to catch up on

Do you realise it's 3 months since I wrote a 'proper' post on here?  Losing mum took a slice out of our lives and we continue to think about her and miss her.  Thank you to every single one of you who left messages or sent cards, it was appreciated at such a difficult time.

So, where do I start for the catch up?  Maybe I should start with a little creativity for a change.

With the coming of Autumn some friends and I had a go at getting impressions of leaves onto watercolour/rag paper by boiling in a strong tea solution with white vinegar.  I used some heavy weight paper that had some acrylic ink marks on it and I was pleased that they remained after the boiling.  This concertina book is about 4" square and I have plans to add some stitch to the pages eventually.  The concertina book was layered with leaves and clamped between some plastic sheets.  The little clamps I used to secure it all have gone very nicely rusty.

Did I mention that I had been experimenting with weaving?   So far I've mostly woven scarf size pieces.  I've just realised that I can't actually share them here until after Christmas Day but believe me when I say I am seriously taken with this new-to-me skill. 

This little sample is an experiment to work out how to include found objects in the weave.  Needless to say the seashore figures strongly in the theme.

On the subject of the seashore, after we got back from Ireland we travelled down to Cornwall for our usual pilgrimage.  We only had one week there as we had to rush back because of mum but we seemed to have packed a lot into that one week.  As it was September Arts and Music Festival while we were there, there were lots of events going on, not least a site specific installation by the ceramicist Jack Doherty. 

 
The pots shown here were displayed in St Nicholas Chapel on the Island in St Ives.  Their surfaces were beautiful and I liked the matt finish that the single firing gives them.  The colours spoke of St Ives. 

These beautiful vessels were in the smaller chapel on Smeatons Pier.

 I was also happy that some friends of mine, St Ives Textiles, were having their first exhibiton while we were there.  

 These beautiful figures were made by my friend Carolyn Saxby.

I thought I had taken more detailed photos of the exhibition but apparently not. 

As it was Festival I decided to do a couple of art workshops at St Ives School of Painting.  I did two classes with Liz Hough and while it was a bit daunting I really enjoyed it and brought away some skills to use in future work.  In the first class we explored some drawing techniques and in the second workshop looked at interpreting the landscape similarly to Peter Lanyon.  The drawing course involved a brief sketching trip on Porthmeor beach where we employed charcoal and rapid drawing techniques.

 We had to select our site quickly so I settled on the rocky outline above.  We were very lucky that it was a dry day.

 We had to make first a 10 minute sketch and then a rapid line drawing condensing the information into five lines.  The second sketch was looking out to sea.

The sketch and collage above came out of the drawings.  I'm not quite sure what I was channelling but a ship and a figure seem to have crept in!

The second workshop called for us to look at Porthmeor beach through the eyes of Peter Lanyon.  This involved more quick sketching from different viewpoints.

My finished collage is in the middle at the top.  Unlike the previous collage I was really pleased with this effort.  You can see some of the other students' work alongside.  It was interesting to meet new people and to work in a different environment and see how people worked given the same scene and process. Of course, the atmosphere of the famous Porthmeor Studios added to the experience.  The view from the window was a trifle distracting though.

Just by coincidence Peter Lanyon's son, Matthew Lanyon, was staging an exhibition at Porthminster Gallery and we called in in time to catch the end of a talk he was giving about his work. 

This mammoth painting is called, The Listening Seas.  Sadly we don't have the space or the money for it but I love that it tells a story as you move along it.  I do like his work, there is a lot to look at and enjoy in its shapes and colours.

Finally for this post, we were exploring St Ives burial ground and revisited the grave of Alfred Wallace.  

 This little shell had been left in tribute.

A Jaunt, an Anniversary and a Quilt

Well, we took our germy selves off to the east coast last week for a few days with the flimsy excuse that it was our wedding anniversary and we thought some sea air would help chase the grotty cold and cough germs away.  You know what thought did?  It thought wrong but at least we did have a lovely week and the weather was kind to us.  

We stayed at a little place called Kessingland in Suffolk in a compact and bijou bungalow on a small private site.  The owner lived just around the corner and let us in and made us feel so at home from the get-go.  The bungalow was metres away from a footpath to the beach and the everchanging skies were beautiful.

DH took a photo of our anniversary cards - 8 years wed and never a cross word!  Well, hardly ever ;-)

There was lots of inspiration in the patterns in the dunes and the edge of the sea.

We didn't go very far as energy was decidedly lacking but we did take the bus to Lowestoft (why drive if you don't have to?).  Here again there was plenty of inspiration in the sand and groynes.

On our last day and our wedding anniversary day we took another bus into Southwold.  The bus driver spotted hubby's camera and told us to go to the harbour instead of the pier end of town as he thought we would get better photo opportunites.  He wasn't wrong, although we had to play dodge the very heavy showers and had to shelter in the pub, twice!  It's a hard life!

I hadn't exected to see this style of shed here.  You get similar black boarded buildings in Hasting but they are twice the height to dry the fishing nets.

This little shed on its raised up blocks really appealed to me and made me think of  Scandinavia.  The little windows are draped in nets.

I'm sure I can use this text somewhere.

Since we've been back we've both got worse with our coughs and 2 trips have been made to the doctor's, returning with antibiotics of the strongest order.  I think today, finally, I can sense a bit of a turnaround and I can actually speak without collapsing into coughing.  DH is still making a fair amount of cough-y noise but he is improving.  We have to be better for tomorrow as it's Mothering Sunday and we want to fetch Mum from her care home.

I havn't been completely idle this week while I've been stuck at home.  I've been working on the back for the Take 20 quilt top that I have been making with mum's pinnies etc.  I decided to carry on using the vintage fabric for the back so that the quilt will effectively be reversible.  So, I have made 30 blocks, some of which have had to be pieced as I didn't have big enough pieces of fabric left.

Above are 2 squares 15" x 20" which the whole back will be made up of.  I am pondering whether to cut the blocks through and rejoin them combining different colourways to break the big chunks of colour up, but that may be a step too far.  The beautiful hand dye is by Maggi Birchenough.

This is the pile of blocks waiting to be ironed and then designed into a quilt back.  I think I may have to use a room at Stitchcraft Studio to sort out the arrangement as our bed isn't big enough and I don't have any floor space that size either.  I can hire a room there for just £5 for 3 hours so well worth it.  Once I have everything ready I am going to get Trudi Wood to do the quilting as it is way too big for me to cope with.  The quilting will break up the solid blocks of colour so maybe I won't fiddle about with it.

I think my fat quarter drawer is a bit revealing:

Liking blues?  Moi?  I think I need to have a dyeing session and get some reds, oranges and yellows in there!  Obviously this is not the only fabric I have, larger pieces are stored elsewhere.

As I said earlier, it's Mothering Sunday here in the UK tomorrow so if you are lucky enough to be spending time with your mum have a lovely day.  If you cannot be with your mum I hope you can enjoy happy memories of good times past. 

Busy January

Before you ask, no we didn't get to see the aurora :-( but January has turned into a very busy month.

First of all, the blitz on my shudio (shed/studio).  I've embarrassed myself with photos of said work space on Facebook so I should probably share them here too in the hope that it will spur me on to keep up the good work.

This is the state my studio has got into as a result of being used as a dumping ground.  The table and the counter in the first photo are supposed to be my printing areas but at the moment there's no chance.  I've made a start on de-cluttering and we've already made one trip to the tip.  There'll be a few more yet.

Inside, my sewing space looks nearly as bad:

That shelf on the bookcase is upposed to be empty so I can take my textile books down and have a look at them so how does it keep getting full of rubbish?!  

Work is ongoing to find some space to work in and I am making progress.

As I said in the last blog I have been busy with workshops this month, both teaching and taking.  I am really enjoying a series of workshops with Mary Sleigh exploring hand stitching and its place in design.  Mary has had us exploring some basic stitches and using them in little compositions.

 We started with a little refresher of basic stitches.

 

 This is cretan stitch which I havn't enjoyed in the past but the penny has dropped and I have plans for this stitch.

 Our first homework had us creating a small scene concentrating on tone and texture.

All of these little pieces are 4 cms square and will be incorporated into a book at the end of the 4 sessions.  I particularly enjoyed doing the cross stitch square which reminded me of the work of Julia Caprara who loved to layer stitch to create texture.

This piece is our homework for this week and it still needs some more stitching to be added. I will probably be unable to resist adding a few beads and a shell or two.

Away from workshops I have been tryng to finish a page I have been working on for a sewing friend to go in her beautiful garden book.

(My photo is a bit over bright because of using flash).  I started with some confetti cloth that I had made and then applied scraps of fabric as flowers and added a few buttons, beads, lace flowers and little flowers from some commercial trim.  I hope she's going to like it.  It's going into this beautoful garden book box.

Last week I taught a Friday Fun workshop on top stitched curved piecing and once again the ladies did really well.  I was nervous beforehand as I had a class of 12 but the general opinion was that the workshop ahd been enjoyed.  Sadly I didn't get to take many photos of the pieces that were made.  

This coming Friday I will be teaching my version of Funky Portraits in a 2 hour session.  I have spent most of today drawing up a handout and researching online versions of fun portraits.  You've seen my original funky portrait as it is my profile photo but I have made a new one for the workshop so I could take step by step photos.

For some reason I look a bit coy in this one!

This weekend I have been taking part in an initiative started by Myfanwy Hart to get people creating, if only for 15 minutes at a time.  Titled 'Be Creative' Myfanwy has set up a facebook page and a blog where she has listed a series of prompts throughout the weekend and people have responded with enthusiasm. My weekend promised to be rather busy but I have enjoyed seeing what everyone else has been doing and I have responded to the first prompt which was to draw 6 interlocking circles and fill them with different textures.  Inspired by a posting form another participant I decided to use fabric and came up with this:

I can't tell you how tricky it was to get the strips to behave but I enjoyed playing with the shapes and colours.

If you want to join in with the prompt inspired fun you can join the facebook page ready for the next round of prompts.  It's a great way to kickstart your creativity if you're feeling a bit sluggish with all the winter storms.  For a small charge you can also join Myfanwy every day on a private blog that will offer all kinds of inspiration and support throughout the year.  The fee is purely to cover the costs of providing a private blog.