Latest shell collection

Two kinds of oyster shell - one smooth, flat, thin, the other thick, chunky, multilayer, could be mistaken for rock.









I like the deep ridges on the shells in the middle picture.









And there are a few tiny shells trapped in the holes in the ginger-colured stone. Nothing alive in them!

Completing the red and green story . . .

Confession - the 'Lowry' in the previous post was taken on a foggy Boxing Day morning 3 days later! Sorry.

But back to stitching, and the red and green sampler quilt I mentioned in an earlier post - it was the daughter who got it off me we were spending Christmas with, so there was a chance to take a digital photo , plus Clyde the cat for colour contrast! The quilt fits a king-size bed. It has 25 x 14" blocks and a border.

I followed Lynne Edwards' measurements and basic instructions from her 2 books on sampler quilts, used blocks from them and some magazines, and some I invented.

I used the 'quilt-as-you-go' method, making up each block sandwich and quilting it, by hand, or by machine, then joining them.

We got there in the end

5 minutes to go to our destination, and the sun is trying to come out.


And the next day, on yet another visit to the beach, at last real full winter sun . And chance for a few arty photos - I especially like the 'Lowry'!

Journey south part 2

Continuing the epic trip - when we left the M4 for the A46 down into Bath the sun was shining. We had actually climbed to above the fog! The frost was a surprise - was the weather really more severe here in the south than in Manchester? Descending to the town meant going back into the fog.
















We stopped overnight with one of our daughters then continued next day, in fog and frost again!











but back in the sun where the road climbs higher.







An interesting trip!

Going South for the holiday . . .

. . .we joined the M6 at junction 17, on the foggy Wednesday before Christmas. After the winding country A roads of Cheshire the motorway
was only too real!

Birmingham, and Frankley services on the M5 where we ended up inadvertantly in the lorry park.

(Blogger won't load any more for me)

Doodlestrips

My version of the embroiderer's equivalent of doodling with pen or pencil during meetings and telephone conversations. You thread a needle, select a stitch and sew till the thread runs out. Then you take another thread . . . . and sew on and so on. Sorry! Occasionally I've used it to try out a new stitch, but that is not the main purpose, unlike similarly named 'doodle cloths'. I've used up ends of thread left from something else. Waste not want not, which anyone brought up during rationing will know something about. But mostly it is simply a means of satisfying that urge just to be stitching, but without having to work out a design first, or, in fact having to make any preparations at all. Don't work it out, just do it.

Fabric book of stitch samples

A very simple way I made a stitch sample book during City and Guilds some years ago was by making pages, then simply stitching them together down one side, then onto a soft cover that folded over them.

Each stitch type was done on a piece of fabric which was then either sewn to a background piece of roughly appropriate size, or was extended by adding strips. The book was added to over a period of time, and each 'page' was simply sewn to the existing ones when finished. A couple of bits were even sewn in just as they were. I like the rough look of it, its the sort of thing that appeals to me. I can't do neat!

Shells from St. Andrew's.

I don't know the names, except for the long ones, which are razor shells. And one of the barnacle-encrusted bits is a mussel.

Back to the seaside . . .

. . .but 500 or so miles away from Nov 6th blog entry! St Andrews, in Fife, Scotland has this amazing beach, seems like miles long, a broad band of pale sand with sparkles in it. Last Saturday the sun shone on a visit with the part of our family that lives in Dundee, as we braved the wind to stroll on the beach. One of us, age 7, paddled, in his wellies. We all picked up white shells and watched the waves come in and loose sand blowing, leaving layers on the surface.





I think this makes an interesting composition!
























And this would make a good textile or mixed media landscape, with layers of fabric or paper and some stitching in the foreground.

Seaweed postcard

Trying a different approach from the crazyq-type pc's I've been doing - couching lumpy threads plus lots of small beads onto a painted background. And instead of buttonhole round the edge, a couched thread.

Chatsworth visit

We've lived here just the Cheshire side of the boundary with Derbyshire 12 years and never been to see Chatsworth House, the home of the late Duke of Devonshire, just 20 miles away. Isn't it often the way, you live somewhere, you don't get to see the sights. We're going to be moving back to our roots in Dorset this year, so we'd better catch up!
So here's an internal window, a lovely patchwork of sheets of blue john, a famous Peak District mineral; a quarter of a precision display of seashells; a marble tabletop.