Bobbin Robin

 

This little chappie was a surprise present at Christmas which I received from one of my very dear friends in Yorkshire.  He certainly made me smile.  The snow like spots in the background are actually raindrops on the window.  Luckily we have not had the amount of rain that my Northern friends have had to endure.

Scissor Poke

I have been messing about with this Scissor Poke for the past few weeks.  It was a kit I purchased a long time ago and which I really wanted to complete and use.  Well I have completed it at long last, but I cannot use it .....

.... as my embroidery scissors will not fit inside it!!  Perhaps it's an excuse to buy some more.

More Travelling Journal

As I am due to receive my own completed Yorkshire Travelling Journal back in January 2016 I thought I could possibly reveal some of the entries from 2014 now.  Above is the inspiration page for September 2014.  One of my friends is obsessed with pears and it set me off thinking, perhaps I could do something too.  I made a compressed sponge print block of a pear and then found a cutting in The Daily Telegraph and off I went ....

Front laid on a piece of dyed or painted paper or fabric

The reverse after a bit of daubing

We have completed three years of the YTJ's now and there have been between 7 and 10 of us participating in total. After the first year one or two new people joined the group.  Last year one person had to drop out due to family and work commitments and another is having a 'Holiday' for the time being due to ill health, but hopefully she will be back with us when we start again in February 2016.

It has been a tremendous way of keeping in touch with my stitching pals up in Yorkshire and has also made me complete a piece of something stitched every 6 weeks which I would never have achieved otherwise! An added bonus is going out to dinner at the end of the 'Journey' so that we can all look at each other's YTJ's and see what marvellous things have been added since we last saw them.

Allotment Surprise

Some of you may know that I have been working on a very loosely based allotment theme in the Yorkshire Travelling Journals this year so it was a lovely surprise to receive a Tamsin Abbott print for Christmas with a similar title ...

It is approximately A4 size and is a giclee print of one of her stained glass pieces. Lovely.

Also discovered a bit more about the sculpture.  It was inspired by the local environment and nature and was a collaboration between a sculptor and a local school.  When viewed from a  particular angle it is meant to represent the concentric curves of the design of a radar screen.  Shall have to go and have another look as I did not get it! It is called 'The Copse'.

Sculpture Discovery

I discovered this sculpture on the large housing estate not too far away from where we live when I went out to get some milk on Boxing Day.  It has no plaque to tell you what it is meant to represent but I presume it is something organic as they look like leaves.  It is next to one of the water catchment lagoons.  There are lots of bullrushes and some time ago when we had friends staying we spotted a Reed Bunting sat on one of the reeds.

Almost finished ...

This is a tiny piece of Sue Hawkin's canvaswork I have been doing.  It will eventually be a scissor poke.  I have really struggled stitching it and have pulled it out umpteen times.  Not a good idea when you are stitching with rayon and silk threads.  The colour here does not really show it off to its best and I am sure there will be a few errors in it here and there.  I have enjoyed doing it and the variegated thread is a delight with the randomness throwing up all manner of colourways you would never put together yourself.

I have decided to give away my little vintage caravan hanging and was surprised to find bits of the stitching which were really pleasing. I am sure I have blogged it before, but here are parts of it again.

Oh Christmas Tree .....

I know these are not a Christmas tree, but they were on the way to going to see some in Worcester Cathedral.  They are a feature of the River Severn in Worcester and a nice lady with a small child was throwing bread at them.  The river was well and truly in flood again, but not over the banks thank goodness.

I had to take my little car 'Nobby' in for his MOT test so spent a couple of hours in Worcester.  Going to see the Worcester EG Christmas tree at the cathedral was on my list of 'Things to Do'.  I was absolutely overwhelmed when I eventually got there.  There were lots and lots of them and they were fabulous.  The schoolchildren singing carols added to the general ambience.  Think they were rehearsing for a concert.

View towards the entrance

Worcester EG Tree

The Embroiderers' Guild tree was decorated with purple felt stars decorated in purple and silver which had been made by the individual members of the branch.  It did look very nice.

Cathedral Library Tree

Afternoon Tea Tree?

Spetchley Park Tree

Pershore British Legion Tree

Elgar School of Music Tree

This tree had to be my favourite one but it was difficult to get a decent photograph of it.  It was made from music stands adorned with stars made from sheet music.  It was just lovely in all its silvery presence.

Loved this one.  It was covered in tiny patchwork trees and underneath it there were several larger patchwork trees.  I think I might have to go back and have another look at all the trees as there were so many and it was easy to miss some of the detail.

In a Twist

Since I came back from Rydal Hall I have been messing about with some hyperbolic crochet.  There was lots of crocheted sculpture in the trees at Rydal and I seemed to recall that I had done something similar whilst at college several years ago. Ever since then I have been trying to work out what it was.

These are my first efforts and I am now on my second set of samples to perfect the technique.  I want to hang them from the trees in the garden like catkins, probably in the wild part.  Hopefully they will weather nicely and may even get some lichen growing on them like the ones at Rydal.

 

I used non-machine washable wool in the hope that they will eventually felt.  I may yet put them in the washing machine at 60 degrees to see what happens.

The ones I am working on at the moment are much shorter than these two and I think I have perfected how to add a bobble edge.

Mystic Circles

For some time I have been fascinated by the rock carvings called 'Cup and Ring' so it si no surprise that I have done some embroidered work based on them.  The piece below is something I made for a travelling journal, which has recently been resurrected by the Running Stitchers group ....

The page on the left is my 'artwork' and includes a couple of Gelli Plate prints which I made using a block made from funky foam printed onto Deli Paper using Golden acrylics.

The page on the right is my resolved work using a piece of fabric which had been pre-dyed with potassium permanganate. A flour paste resist was added.  Marks were made into it with a wooden skewer  and circular bits and pieces prior to cracking the surface.  DIY store finds (rubber grommits) were used to stitch over and form circles and some gold thread couched here and there to add a bit of interest.

How many men does it take .....

to erect a bus shelter?

This wonderful edifice took 2 weeks and 1 day to erect, plus many men.  It involved an awful lot of looking at and discussion, and much sitting in cabs to consider.  I am sure the local community are going to find it invaluable over the coming months whilst waiting for the rerouted bus service that now passes along this road.

For the Love of Books

For the past two weekends the bookbinding group I belong to have had a stall at a local H-Art craft market and it was my turn to steward on Sunday.  I do not know where all the lovely people were, but they were certainly not in Ledbury.

We also have a Facebook page now and hopefully this link will work Cut Fold Bind

All Boxed Up

Not done any blogging for a while for various reasons, one of which was problems with some major software on my computer which now has Windows 10 as its operating system.  None of my old creative software will work with it so I have spent absolutely ages trying to sort it out.  The problem is not yet resolved, but hopefully will be this next week, at great expense I might add.

Today I actually finished the two boxes that look like books that I seem to have been working on for weeks, so here are some pictures .... unfortunately I have not got the actual boxes at the moment as our tutor has gone off with them. I think the blue one may be for sale at The Hive in Worcester shortly as we have an exhibition in one of the cabinets there.

This is the pair of them finished.  The pink one is the better finished off, although I prefer the piece of embroidery on the blue one.

 The boxes are quite small, slightly smaller than A5 in size.