Autumn Feast

I was surprised to find that a veritable feast of fungi have appeared in the garden this past week.  I do  not know what they are and certainly will not be eating them, but they are very pretty ....

This little chap was over in The Dell and was ever so tiny and I had not spotted the second one peeping out from under a leaf.

Very small puff balls

Above and below on the front lawn

All of the above were very small and I suspect the orange ones were growing where there used to be an old apple tree in the front garden.  This last one was on an old tree stump in The Dell.

Harlow Carr Gardens

I have just returned from a few days 'Up North' and no doubt the poor friend I stayed with feels like this after 5 days of me ....

We went to Farfield Mill on Sunday to see the exhibition by Joan Newall's students and it was fabulous.  On Saturday morning my friend and I popped to Harlow Carr and, although it was very foggy, we had a lovely time.

Mad Hares Riding Bikes

Anyone for Green Tea?

Owl and Baubles greet you

Mad Vegetable Patch

Lovely Seedheads

My main reason for visiting Yorkshire was to go to the Knitting & Stitching Show, but it is so nice to see lots of old friends too and catch up with everyone.

Reed Pen and Ink

On Wednesday one member of the Running Stitchers group very kindly brought along an A3 sized piece of paper, ink and pens made from dried reeds collected along the Worcester Canal for each of us.  We all had such tremendous fun, particularly when using extra long reeds which gave very little control over what was happening at the nib end on the paper ... not sure who did what now but some interesting marks

An onion was an option for those who wanted something to draw ....

Quink Ink with a splash of water

Some prefer a smaller scale

 

Could this be a compulsive doodler?

A Grand Day Out

On Saturday, although it was a wet and horrible day, we ventured out to the Annual Textile Fair at Compton Verney.  The first room as you entered Compton Verney was filled with a display of quilts by the Contemporary Quilt Group with the them 'Dislocation'.  It was excellent and made even better by the fact that there were several folders with handling samples and an explanation of how each one had been created.

A Little Piece of England - Lynne Pretty

Joan Eastham

Gillian Travis - A Broken Jug

There was also an additional room, which I believe is normally used for wedding receptions, which had several textile artists and quilting supplies for sale.  I particularly liked the work of Barbara Shaw.  I believe she has been artist in residence at Chastleton House.  We saw the British Folk Art Exhibition too and there were several quilts in some of the other galleries.  The exhibition of 'Art from Ammunition: Trench Art from the First World War' was amazing.  It was so busy we did not manage to have lunch in the restaurant, but still had a lovely day out.

More from the Print Class

Drypoint

The honesty and grasses were rollered with water based printing ink and then placed on top of a piece of dry paper in the etching press with a second piece of paper on top of it.  This gave me two prints, one from either side of the plant material.  I was amazed they came out so well.  It was a nice contrast to the cyantype printing we have been doing this week.

This section of a page from my sketchbook is very spooky.  I have been doodling about with stuff we did at the Bobby Britnell/Ruth Issett workshop and was using graphite powder and graphite pencils and wetted a watersoluble one I found in my pencil box.  When I looked at my sketchbook later in the day I noticed that a man in a suit seemed to be visible in my doodlings!!