Nature in Art

I am getting very lax on the blogging front, but we have been quite busy this week.

It poured down yesterday but we still ventured out in the afternoon to Nature in Art at Twigworth to see the British Wildlife Photography Awards Exhibition.  It was fabulous.  (BWPA Awards)  An added attraction was the textile exhibition by the Rubicon textile group.  Unbeknown to me, Helen Crawford is a member of the group and was the Artist in Residence.  Helen loves trees and creates images of them in both textiles and mixed media.  It was lovely to see her again and catch up with what she is doing. (Helen Crawford)

Whilst having a cup of tea DH spotted a spotted woodpecker on the lawn picking up hazelnuts.  We currently have two in our own garden and can locate them by their calling and the noise they make tapping at nuts and acorns they trap in their favourite places in the trees.

I took this picture of the Green Man plaque on the wall for a friend who is currently stitching an image for our Travelling Journals.

Ledbury Quilters

Over the weekend we managed to get out and about.  On Saturday we went by train to The Big Stitch at The Ashmolean in Oxford.  This was the second time I had been and this year was equally as good as the first one two year's ago.  Terrific 17th Century embroidery on display in The Eye of the Needle exhibition.

Sunday morning DH and I went to Tarrington to visit the Ledbury Quilters Exhibition.  What lovely people quilters are.  We had a terrific morning looking at the work on display.  The Patchwork Basket from Newent and Maryke Phillips of Batiks and Beads were selling lots of goodies on their stalls and there was tea and cakes or Ploughman's lunches on sale to refresh visitors after viewing the quiltwork.  It was interesting to see the different outcomes from projects using the same pattern, particularly the 'Beyond New York Beauty' hangings they had produced with Lesley Conning.

I especially liked this quilt by Cheryl Kirby.

 It was enhanced with seeding (detail below)

This small quilt by Barbara Keen was also very nice and had been dyed with indigo and potassium permanganate.  As you can see from the size of the label it was not a large hanging, however the range of colours were very attractive.

I also came home with a copy of Constance Howard's 'Inspiration for Embroidery' by Batsford from the Sales Table.  It was a bargain at just £1 and has some fabulous illustrations in it.  Originally published in 1966 this copy was a paperback reprint from 1989.

Sad Day

Yesterday I had to make the awful decision that I had been dreading.  Sox had not been eating or drinking for several days and it was obvious that he was very poorly.  So I had to say goodbye to my little friend.

He has had a fairly happy life with us, much better than when he was a stray.  We had no idea how old he was, but roughly 12-ish we think.  For the time being there will be no more pets for us.  The road outside our house is far too busy.

Pear Updated

Since yesterday have found time to add some machine stitching to the pear.  I still do not like the edges where the colour has bled and I had to balance the grey from the right hand side to the left hand side.  Must say it does look as thought it has sunk into a cushion!  The fabric needs stretching to remove the wrinkles too.  Nothing like a wrinkly pear!!

Could be Pear Shaped

 Our Venture Group (Running Stitchers) met this morning and apart from other things a couple of people in the group showed us all some uses for Caran d'Ache Neocolor II water soluble wax crayons.  I drew a pear onto plain white cotton fabric.  It was then wetted with a paintbrush and water.  I found the colour bled into the surrounding fabric.

 I then made a rough sketch onto some smooth cartridge paper and whilst at first this seemed more controllable, the overall outcome was less satisfactory.

A bonus from making these experiments was the bleed through onto the kitchen towel that was placed beneath the fabric prior to wetting it.  I must now get the sewing machine out and do some stitching on the fabric pear.

Autumn Blooms

The past few weeks has seen these cosmos flowering their little hearts off.  An added bonus is that the honey bees next door love them.They were only sown with a view to filling in holes in the garden after the main flush of flowers and they are proving to be a real bonus.  Oddly, apart from this patch, the others seem to be all the same colour in each place - front border (white) and under the lounge window (pink).

Bookbinding Class

Back to college last Friday after the long summer break and we were all given a very nice album with accordian spine to make.  It is difficult to describe how we did it but I will try.

The spine was a piece of card made into a concertina at 1 cm intervals.  A slit was made in each pamphlet section and the folded card slotted through it.  We then slipped another piece of card just 7 mm wide and the same height as the page down the folded card to hold it in place (the tiny blue pieces showing on the inside of the pages).

 
The coloured card concertina adds a lovely feature to the outside spine of the finished book.

It was nice to be able to cover the outside of the book with some of the paper I had coloured when a friend was staying in the summer.  A button and piece of ribbon finished it off.