Canals and Mills

We recently had a few days away visiting some old friends across in Cheshire, a very beautiful part of the UK.  We stayed in a converted coach house surrounded by lovely walks and some frisky lambs.

The property was at Rainow and you can see more of it here.

This is the complex of holiday cottages to the right.
 

Just one  of the beautiful walks from our front door.

The light on these trees was just wonderful!

Jodrell Bank telescope at Alderley Edge, about 8 miles away, visible from the hill behind our cottage.

 

These cuddly rare breed sheep live in the field behind the cottages were very friendly.

As well as spending time with our friends we all went out to a local National Trust property.  Quarry Bank Mill was a cotton mill powered by an enormous water wheel.

We were lucky to visit on a beautiful Spring day when the rhododendrons were in flower.

And also this wonderful wisteria.
 

The gardens are extensive.

This amazing tree was growing right out of the cliff above the ornamental gardens.

Inspiring shapes and design potential pop up in all sorts of unlikely places.  

 This waterwheel was one of the most powerful in the country in its day.

Cobwebs in a window reminded me of waves in the sea.  

The modern answer to the water driven wheel is the water driven hydro-electric system behind my friend Ann and myself.  Ann moved to Cheshire just over two years ago and we really miss each other.

Just a couple of miles from our cottage was the Macclesfield Canal and DH and I took a leisurely walk along there on our last day in Cheshire.

Couldn't you see yourself in a studio at the bottom of this garden?
 

 We were told a woodpecker was nesting in the trees near this bridge and I did get a glimpse of it leaving the nest, but sadly no photo.

I was taken with this poem attached to the railings at Clarence Mill on the Macclesfield Canal.

Life has been very hectic lately, not least with creative happenings.  I've made several more infinity scarves and I've started on a pair of casual trousers for myself, more of which another time as I am still at the rough copy stage.  Today I've been across to a friend's house for a day playing with dye, again.   All the farbic is still sitting in its plastic bags brewing until tomorrow when I shall get round to rinsing it, or employ my resident rinser.  When it's all dry I'll show you the results.

Onions, Onions lalala!

During my blogging rambles I came across a post about boiling fabrics in (red) onion skins as a way of dyeing them naturally and as I have been saving red onion skins for some time for just that purpose I decided to finally get the pan out and give it a go.

I've got an old aluminium saucepan that my father-in-law had finished with and put various pieces of folded and clamped fabrics into this and boiled it all up for about half an hour.  The clamps consisted of pegs, bulldog clips and also some plastic triangles to hopefully achieve some additional marks.  Everything was left in the water overnight (not with any heat under it!).

I was quite surprised by the colours I achieved and also by the intensity of the colours on some of the fabrics.  Above is a cotton hanky that was folded in triangles and clamped with pegs.

Above is a very pale offering of an old nylon curtain.  I'm excited to use this as an overlay.

What about this fabulous silk and silk dupion above! I couldn't believe how strong the colours are.

 

Above is a piece of gauze folded in triangles and held by a bulldog clip.

This piece of cottton was folded round 4 triangular pieces of plastic but the marks are not very strong.

Finally a small square of cotton held by a large bulldog clip and some beautiful vintage broderie anglaise. I also dyed some threads but sadly forgot to photograph them.

I had expected to get redder tones from the skins so all of these were quite a surprise.  I am thinking about using them in the International Quilt Challenge Archi-texture piece.  Watch this space! (I've saved the liquor from the onions to boil up again as it was pretty dark and may give some more colour yet).

And finally, all the while I was playing with the onions this little ditty was running through my head

 A toon from my yoof!

Cobwebs again

Yesterday I set up another experiment with the cobweb fibre this time with lutradur. I taped down samples of 4 different weights of lutradur (as I couldn't get drawing pins into my board - wimp!) and then stretched a small amount of cobweb across the board and pulled it underneath so that it was held taut.

Once the cobweb was spread out I sprayed it all with water and allowed that to soak in for a few minutes. I then dripped silk paints over the surface and tilted the board to allow the colour to blend all over. I did give one or two areas a spray of water where the colour was lying too dense.

You may be able to see that I laid one or two other fibres on the surface to soak up some of the colour and to see if this had any effect on the underlying surface - on this occasion it didn't. I resolutely left the board alone until today when I pulled the cobweb away to see what had happened both to the lutradur and the paper underneath.

There are some interesting effects on the paper which I will use in a future project. The colours have dried light and delicate.

As you can see, the light weight lutradur took up less of the colour. The cobweb has had a mild effect on the lutradur, probably as it is already a fibrous material. I will have to try this with other materials like tissue and calico.

My fabric paper is coming along. I have applied two coats of watered down pva glue to protect the surface and have also rubbed in some copper Treasure Gold.

The blue material is the lining for the book cover I am hoping to make this into. Unfortunately, I don't think I am going to be able to hand sew through all the layers so I am going to see if I can get any iron on binding or ribbon to finish the edge. If not I may have to re-think the tabs that will hold the book in place. All this sewing and making things is new to me.....I haven't a clue what I'm doing half the time but that's half the fun!

You may remember I mentioned a natural materials swap I am doing. I couldn't decide which of the cards I had made to put into the swap so I made another card yesterday from needle felted wool. I didn't use any backing material to support it so it's a little bit loose but I quite like it. I shall have to learn some more stitches for finishing edges, the blanket stitch looks a bit ragged, again.

These are the cards that my DH said he preferred so they are going in the post tomorrow.