A Jaunt, an Anniversary and a Quilt

Well, we took our germy selves off to the east coast last week for a few days with the flimsy excuse that it was our wedding anniversary and we thought some sea air would help chase the grotty cold and cough germs away.  You know what thought did?  It thought wrong but at least we did have a lovely week and the weather was kind to us.  

We stayed at a little place called Kessingland in Suffolk in a compact and bijou bungalow on a small private site.  The owner lived just around the corner and let us in and made us feel so at home from the get-go.  The bungalow was metres away from a footpath to the beach and the everchanging skies were beautiful.

DH took a photo of our anniversary cards - 8 years wed and never a cross word!  Well, hardly ever ;-)

There was lots of inspiration in the patterns in the dunes and the edge of the sea.

We didn't go very far as energy was decidedly lacking but we did take the bus to Lowestoft (why drive if you don't have to?).  Here again there was plenty of inspiration in the sand and groynes.

On our last day and our wedding anniversary day we took another bus into Southwold.  The bus driver spotted hubby's camera and told us to go to the harbour instead of the pier end of town as he thought we would get better photo opportunites.  He wasn't wrong, although we had to play dodge the very heavy showers and had to shelter in the pub, twice!  It's a hard life!

I hadn't exected to see this style of shed here.  You get similar black boarded buildings in Hasting but they are twice the height to dry the fishing nets.

This little shed on its raised up blocks really appealed to me and made me think of  Scandinavia.  The little windows are draped in nets.

I'm sure I can use this text somewhere.

Since we've been back we've both got worse with our coughs and 2 trips have been made to the doctor's, returning with antibiotics of the strongest order.  I think today, finally, I can sense a bit of a turnaround and I can actually speak without collapsing into coughing.  DH is still making a fair amount of cough-y noise but he is improving.  We have to be better for tomorrow as it's Mothering Sunday and we want to fetch Mum from her care home.

I havn't been completely idle this week while I've been stuck at home.  I've been working on the back for the Take 20 quilt top that I have been making with mum's pinnies etc.  I decided to carry on using the vintage fabric for the back so that the quilt will effectively be reversible.  So, I have made 30 blocks, some of which have had to be pieced as I didn't have big enough pieces of fabric left.

Above are 2 squares 15" x 20" which the whole back will be made up of.  I am pondering whether to cut the blocks through and rejoin them combining different colourways to break the big chunks of colour up, but that may be a step too far.  The beautiful hand dye is by Maggi Birchenough.

This is the pile of blocks waiting to be ironed and then designed into a quilt back.  I think I may have to use a room at Stitchcraft Studio to sort out the arrangement as our bed isn't big enough and I don't have any floor space that size either.  I can hire a room there for just £5 for 3 hours so well worth it.  Once I have everything ready I am going to get Trudi Wood to do the quilting as it is way too big for me to cope with.  The quilting will break up the solid blocks of colour so maybe I won't fiddle about with it.

I think my fat quarter drawer is a bit revealing:

Liking blues?  Moi?  I think I need to have a dyeing session and get some reds, oranges and yellows in there!  Obviously this is not the only fabric I have, larger pieces are stored elsewhere.

As I said earlier, it's Mothering Sunday here in the UK tomorrow so if you are lucky enough to be spending time with your mum have a lovely day.  If you cannot be with your mum I hope you can enjoy happy memories of good times past. 

Sewing For Pleasure Show

Despite the most determined efforts of the fluey cold that has been attacking hubby and me for the last two weeks to keep me away, I joined the coach to the Sewing For Pleasure/ Fashion Embroidery & Stitch Show at the NEC in Birmingham yesterday.  We made excellent time and arrived at the NEC before 10.30 so started the day at a fairly relaxed pace.

I really like this show as, although it combines three shows (including Hobbycraft) there are less exhibitions to get round and you can see most of it without getting stressed.  Unless, of course, you are looking to shop till you drop too!

So, let's get the shopping confession out of the way first.  I took only money I was prepared to spend and didn't flex the plastic AND I came home with cash!

So this is my total haul!  Did you spot the cicular paper?  I got it from Stephanie Redfern and I'm looking forward to having a play, especially as it's khadi paper and will take stitch.   My first port of call was Hilary Beattie and Jenny Rolfe's stand and their exhibition of The Shape of Nature.  Hilary is prolific and you will easily find images if you google her name in google images and her blog is overflowing with her dynamic work.  Several of Jenny's pieces in the exhibit can be seen in her gallery if you follow the link.  Hilary and Jenny did not want photographs taken and I was happy to support Hilary as a friend and local artist so I bought the catalogue.

The other catalogue I bought was for ByDesign's exhibit 'Marginal - on the edge.'  The quilts arose out of two starter pieces made on an agreed theme by each individual artist.  'One of these two 'starters' is passed on by lot to another group member, together with explanatory notes about the idea.  She then works on this starter piece, contributing her own responses to the maker's original idea....'  The only proviso is that nothing may be discarded.  Two more exchanges by lot are made before the piece comes back to its originator to be finished.  Of course, now I've tempted you I realise I didn't take any photos on this stand either. Duh!  The second of the original pieces is worked up into a full size piece by each individual artist so that you can see the individual against the group interpretations. If you look in the gallery on the ByDesign site you can see some earlier collaborations.

One stand that I did take photos on was Gathered Memories comprising work by Jeryl Church, Lisa Earley, Elizabeth Saunders, Consuelo Simpson and Ann Smith.  Their profiles are here   together with details of the central piece.  I particularly liked the work of Consuelo Simpson.

I was so excited by this work that I forgot to note the Consuelo's commentary.  I blame the cough, it's addled my brain!

This joyous quilt by Gilli Theokritoff caught my eye too.  Her explanation is below. 

This evocative quilt by Sarah Showers also appealled to me for its blend of surface design and stitch.  I am increasingly fascinated by Bletchley Park since we visited there some time ago.  

I liked this little piece of embroidery on the Embroiderers' Guild stand.  The waters' edge is so richly described by the couched embroidery.

I havn't managed to see Les Miserables yet even though I've had the DVD since it came out!  What am I like?!  There was a collection of costumes at the show and I loved this beautiful dress with its multi-textured skirt.  Not the elaborate gowns of Downton but beautiful nonetheless.

I met several fellow contemporary quilters who I have only ever known as an online presence including the lovely Hilary Grayson who blogs as Living to Work, Working to Live.

Last week we took our cold germs off to Suffolk for a few days in the hope the sea breezes would rid us of the germs.  It didn't work but we had a lovely time.  I leave you with a beautiful Suffolk sky.

 

Spring

Well, it's officially Spring and for once we are getting some lovely sunny weather and today a very warm day. We had our first taste of Spring a couple of weeks ago when Easton Walled Gardens near to us opened up for snowdrop week.   We hadn't visited for a while and there have been some exciting changes to the gardens.

You might be able to tell that it was very windy when we visited. The snowdrops were being blown sideways!

 

We've joined as friends of the gardens so I hope that we will visit often this year.  My stitchy friends and I are planning to use Easton Walled Gardens as the basis for some work later in the year and I'm thinking it would be nice to visit each month and chart the changes through the seasons.

I've almost finished the bag I started in Wendy's workshop, I just need to make some button holes and add the buttons.

I won the jelly roll in a raffle on Stitchcraft's birthday last year and it's made a very pretty bag.

I've been enjoying myself making a small gift for a friend of mine and indulged myself making a rockpool that I thought she would like too.

It's about 5" x 7" and the base is hessian with a felt backing.

While on the subject of the sea, I belong to a Yahoo group that has lots of fun chatting but also responds, or not, to a monthly prompt.  The prompt for January was 'New' and the prompt for February was 'fictitious'.   I didn't manage to complete anything for January as I had planned to use my dremel drill to work with seashore finds, a new technique to me, but couldn't find my Dremel (sigh).  So, for February I explored a new way of working making a fabric collage of a fictitious (well, almost) place.  I was inspired by a coupleof ladies that I follow on Facebook, Louise O'Hara of Drawn to Stitch and Lynne White.  

This is as far as I've got and I still have to add some boats but I've enjoyed what I've done so far.  It's probably no coincidence that my fictitious town looks very like my spiritual home, St Ives.

I spend so much time on facebook that I have been trying to get off and do something more interesting and rushed off a couple of collages in the spirit of a 15 minute workout.

I thought less was more with the one above and thought it had an ethereal quality which I quite like (it looks harsher in the photo).

I didn't allow myself any thinking time with the collage above and pretty much grabbed papers from my box and glued them down.  The little piece of hessian was clamouring to be included. 

Finally (are you worn out yet?), I came across a fascinating artist on Facebook today.  Her name is Amanda Richardson and she lives in Cornwall.  How could I not have come across her work before?  If you follow the link and also find her on Facebook you will see that she is very generous and shares short videos of her technique as well as answering questions about her methods.  She uses transfer dyed satins and velvets and dyed raw silk to achieve beautiful marks on fabric which she then fuses to make beautiful textile paintings.  Do go and have a look.  

Have a lovely weekend and I'll be back soon-ish!