Muddy Walk

A lovely day for a walk but it was so wet and muddy.  I have never had so much mud on my trousers!! Avid photographers were on the oriental bridge trying to spot the resident otter.

Back to Bag Making

Months ago I promised to make a larger bag for one of the ladies I cycle with through Women on Wheels (WOW).  She wanted to be able to get her sandwich box in it.  After eventually managing to locate some more cycle fabric from Bombay Stores and the padded lining that Empress Mills sell I have got round to completing it. I even managed to add a pocket on the inside with a button and buttonhole to stop things falling out of it.

Playtime again

The last solo printing session before Christmas so decided to try out some thermofax screens I had borrowed from one of my stitchy friends.  They were based on lace and I combined them with a bought honey bee screen I already had and a barbed wire screen created from one of my drawings. Initially I worked into my sketchbook.

Next I used some decoularant through the screen onto some black discharge fabric.

Finally I printed onto some fabric.

Which reminds me I need to heat seal it with an iron.

Autumn Leaves

Spent a few hours at Westonbirt today dodging the rain.  A lot of the leaves have fallen and others are still to change colour.  I remembered there were some engraved metal words somewhere and managed to find them eventually ….

Also these rusted metal leaves adorn the top of them

You never know who you are going to find in the woods ...

I am still here ....just

I do not know where the time goes …. still cycling as much as I can fit in between the wet weather, which is occasionally rewarded with lovely views towards the Malvern Hills like this.

Also finished and delivered a quilt that I made as a present for the lovely lady who got me cycling who has recently got married.

Making some progress with printing at the moment too ….

Exhausting Cycle

Nine of us set off from a layby on the A38 for a 35 mile Intermediate Ride on Saturday.  The pace was fast and the wind was extremely blowy.  Everything was going just fine until an hour into the ride one of the riders got a puncture - a large thorn through her tyre! Much hilarity and lots of help in changing the wheel and we set off again.  We had a stop for refreshments at Hillers Garden Centre before setting off on the return journey.  The wind had become even stronger and we were then riding into head on into it.  It has to be the hardest Intermediate Ride I have done so far and I started to lag behind towards the end.  As always the rest of the riders encouraged me to keep going and always have everyone's safety and health as their first consideration.

Looks like a meeting of minds to resolve the problem

Time Flies ....

I have not disappeared but have not really been having lots of fun either. I have had to drive up to Yorkshire twice recently to sort out family stuff.  I did however fit in a visit to Clive's Fruit Farm at Upton to buy a bag of apples and discovered they had a new flock of guinea fowl.  They looked to be quite young and had not fully developed their gorgeous spotty feathers.

Also got DH to go to Spetchley Park Gardens one sunny weekend as they had a sculpture trail and he needed to get some exercise following his knee replacement some months ago. Really liked the above plaque. There were four of them in total.  The others depicted asparagus, strawberries and apples, all local produce to us of course.

Another of the pieces of work on display at Spetchley.