Sketchbook pages . . .

. . . trying out various paint techniques.

 blogger being useless tonight.  Will juat save it as it is and come back and edit somewhen.

Fruit and veg . . . .

. . . from the greenhouse.  Elegant green bits!  Bit small though, they aren't doing as well as they might.

 Plus some peas, beans and courgettes though they make a bit of a show.  Mr. and . . .

. . . Mrs.

And these came from wild plum trees up the lane at the end of the road.  They are very tasty, small, just a little bigger than damsons.  There are yellow ones there as well, all now settled in our freezer for winter crumbles. 

Feb - May journal quilts

I decided to go back to doing Contemporary Quilt Group journal quilts again this year.  They are 10" square this time and have an additional aspect which must be included.  in this set it was circles.  The next four need some lettering in, and the final 4 buttons. 
Some people have tried to hide a very small or not at all obvious circle somewhere but I tried to put as many circles in this one as I could.  There are circles of sweet wrappers under strips of organza, machine stitched down with more circles and circular scribbles.

 This one has circles printed over it using things like a cork, an empty party popper, thread reel, pencil end, card tube.  The concentric circles are done using a drawing pin stuck upside down with masking tape on the sewing machine.  The sandwich is pressed onto the pin and revolves neatly with the stitching.  Shift the pin across for the different sizes.  A bit cheaper than those gadgets you can buy.  I started cutting back layers (there are fabric scraps trapped under rusty calico), but found it really hard to cut away my nice printed circles, so stopped!

 This one has transfer painted circles applied with zigzags and swirly background quilting.

 This has more choc wrappers flattened and stitched.  The main circle has some foiling across it and black net, with patches of purple net under,  cover the whole

Weaving . . .

. . .  inspired by some lovely stuff seen at the Dorset Arts and Crafts Association show at Bovington last week, done by the Dorset Weavers, Spinners and Dyers.  It pushed me to find a couple of articles in past copies of the magazine Stitch with the Embroiderers' Guild about doing small tapestry-type weaving (the second photo) and a kind of darning - first photo.

Although it is not crochet I am a bit hooked on it at the moment, the latest thing to drive me to stitch.

Journey to Jerusalem

Well, in spirit not in fact.  With the help of a few other people I got these painted for use at our church during the week before Easter, for reflecting on the events of that week, leading up to the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  7' x 3'6" each, quite a task, but one I found really satisfying.  They are painted on medium weight calico, using household emulsion paints, mostly leftovers from people's home decorating.  I call it the feeding the 5,000 principle - collect the bits you've got and do something interesting with them!  See John's gospel chapter 6.
I used photographs as source material.

An olive tree in the garden of Gethsemane.  This one is still out, in a corner of the church.

One of the gateways, rather simplified version!

They did have to be simplified versions, I'm not skilled enough to do anything more precise and accurate.

The view over the city from the Dominus flevit church, up on a hill.  And the garden tomb.

Just a bit more creativity . . .

. . .from DGD 5, a cupcake cushion cover, all done by her except the free machining on the icing.  I'm not letting her loose on my machine to that extent yet I'm afraid.

 . . . from me - one of 6 paintings 7' x 3'6" of places on Jerusalem, for use in our church over the Easter period.  I'll put pix of the others in somewhen.  Done on calico using remnants of household paint.  This one is part of the view over the city from the Dominus flevit church, commemorating the place where Jesus Christ is thought to have wept over Jerusalem a few days before the crucifixion.

 . . .  and from God - lichen or fungus of some other sort forms on offcuts and remnants of wood DH collects around the neighbourhood, saving people dumping it in landfill.  These shapes and textures are so extraordinary!

Books again - exploring covers

Looking for something a bit different from the painted and printed papers I've mostly been using for covers, folded over padded card and stuck down.  I'm interested in stitching on fabric, here filling the space with lines of running, back, chain stitches and whipping or lacing them, then patching in couched cords or extra stem or herringbone lines to fill any gaps.  The stitching is done here on a sort of muslin plus wadding, and i've laced the pieces over the card.  Now why didn't I take a photo of the back!

 The text block is stitched over tapes - ribbons here, plus endpapers of folded card, which will be stuck to the boards.

This is paper again, but it is torn bits overlapped and machine stitched down to a piece of brown paper - recycling envelopes.  The painted bits are brown paper too.  The signatures lined up all have a painted folio on the outside.  No tapes for this one, so the painted folds will be visible under and between the stitched lines joining the signatures. 

Talking of grandchildren . . .

. . . here's what the 3 eldest ones in Scotland made with mum's birthday sewing machine, on a recent visit of grandparents carrying supplies of fabric bits.  Amazing!

 And what DD had wanted the machine for - making some cushions.  I showed her how to do appliqué with bondaweb and zigzag stitching round, and free machining for the flower centres.  Also how to put a zip in.  She and her eldest DD have since made annother, with one big flower, all by themselves!  Clever girls.

Giving up apologising . . .

. . . for not putting any new posts up for ages.  I just don't want to spend as much time at the computer these days, and something has to go.  But maybe I just need some new ideas for the blog, a different approach.  Well, not today anyway, but I'll think about it.

The latest craze is making these felt brooches.  Very simple, just felt, some buttonhole stitch and beads, and a bit of organza and / or net, and a safety pin stitched on behind.  I've been doing some with the grandchildren and at the birthday party of one of them (11 year olds), where they all made one, and some even two, with hair grips instead of safety pins.

Now to make up for lost time . . .

. . . post a pic or two . .

. . . of a quick visit to Munich via Heathrow just before Christmas to visit DD3 and some Christmas markets, for which Germany is famous.

 Sun going down over southern England ... and beyond.

 Willkommen in Bayern . . . with a speciality or two.

 The view out the back.  Why the view of this field beyond the garden fence to the Stadtbahn rails by the line of trees fascinated me I don't know, but I had to keep looking at it!

 Visit to the Christkindlmarkt in Regensburg - angels in the arty section . . .

 . . .  nice blue house, one of the oldest in town . . .

 . . . a bit of snow . . . and more nice coloured houses . . .

 . . . a bit of Glühwein . .

 . . .  off to the oldest Wurst restaurant in the world, by the Danube, which was looking a bit generous . . .

 . . . and on the way home, a queue on the motorway.  I know its blurred, but its an interesting image! Try clicking on it.

 Next day, into central Munich, and the Viktualienmarkt for fabulous piles of food . . .

 It was a rather chilli day, minus about 5 degrees.

 Down in the Ubahn, lovely curved roof.

 Waiting for the train to the airport, orderly graffitti.

 And auf Wiedersehen snowy Munich.

 And hallo London, with the Thames looping away and the millenium dome visible in the first curve.

 Back home, now to try out these lovely Valdani quilting threads bought in the quilt shop I found right in the centre, behind the Stadmuseum - Quilt und Textilkunst.  They had a small Quilt Art exhibit there, some of the pieces that had been at the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham back in August, and a lovely stock of fabrics.  Pity the euro was so high!