Ramshackle Ideas 21

The 31st October would have been the deadline for this work if I entered it into SAQA Forced to Flee. But although the theme seems just made for me, there have been too many things that kept me from working on it as much as I like.
I have been doing the machine stitching, even though suffering with my back. and to be honest, was really stretching myself to my limit.
However, I know there must be another venue waiting for it, so I am going to carry on. I did take a few needed days off...well, they were full of other things!

But, here is a little more of what I was doing the past week.

Since I am not overlapping the sections, I needed to fill the space I had left. So, Extra houses for the desert section. The bits that look like croquet hoops are meant to be housing set up for refugees rescued from the sea.

I have given them doors of a sort to look more like a house. A bit like I have done for the housing in the forest for other sea rescuees. (That should be a real word!)

Bead on 21-27 October

week 43 - 2018

bead on fabric

It is becoming very clear that one year doesn't take up as much space as somehow I thought it would!
If I carry on with this, I will have to change some of the bead sets because I only have enough of some components to do one year's worth.
I want to do something with stitch, so maybe the carrying on will introduce stitch and beads combined. I always meant to come back through and add some stitching.
So, some thoughts running around in my mind about this project. Still plenty of time to decide.

Something on Saturday

Cow 94

"Cow Girls at Sunflower Branch"
I made piece a few years ago. A phrase in my head that wanted to come out in a bit of whimsy.

I like Thankful Thursday

So, here I am post-op

now I am recovered/recovering... wearing sewing glasses with one glass removed! for sewing it isn't so great, but reading and computer, not so bad. And for long distance - my long distance glasses with the right glass taken out. Although the eye is not yet at full strength, it is so much better than before the op it is amazing.
The surgeon wants to do the other because of my shortsightedness and a 'mild' cataract. So, when I see her in Dec, we will find out how and when. I do know the difference between the 2 eyes is like seeing with the brilliance of LED lights and seeing with incandescent lights. One has a blueish hue and the other is definitely yellow.
I am doing a lot of winking type of activity!

I like having a go. Here is an experiment I am trying.

seeing if I can grow an avocado plant. I know they don't produce avocados when they are houseplants, but I'm seeing if it will make a new houseplant!

I like random things. When I went to London with my friends, we had a bite to eat at this cafe. Not the greatest, but it has good food and will change your order (brioche instead of bun, etc).

Love, Love the name! and also the phrase on the menu!

I like seeing patterns when I am out and about. I took this photo because I saw a face in the knot in the tree.

But when I looked at the photo, I also saw a doggie waiting to go walkies!

I like WhatsApp.  Now my sisters and I can send random messages and photos and it doesn't cost.
This from one sister

and even a photo of a squirrel's hoard in the outhouse at their camp!


Right, now I need to get on with that Ramshackle project. I have been posting process photos during the week.

Go have a look at LeeAnna's blog where she has links to 'likes' others have posted.

Ramshackle Ideas 20

Design dilemma...
Now that the sea section is cut out, the dilemma is the fabric underneath that shows through the openings. Basically, I haven't got any more of the spotted fabric I used for the rest.

Here are some options I considered. I hadn't cut out all of the houses because I was afraid they would be lost!

underlying fabric choices

Left - the reverse of the wave fabric I bought for the project and realised it was too not going to work. It gives a light grey look which gives small glimpses of the waves.
Middle - the fabric I am using for the backing of the work
Right - a blue fabric with small print of curved leaf branch...could read as waves.

The middle was too yellow. The right was very good and would work in another situation, but it doesn't work with the colours in the desert, mountain and forest sections. It is quite a bit too different than the underlying fabric on those sections.
What I chose was the left one.

ready to fuse

When I originally chose it, thinking to use it for the sea section, one of the reasons was that it worked colour-wise with the other colours. (Later I found it was just too bold compared to them and the houses would blend into the waves.) So, what I mean is that the colour works. It gives a similar colour contrast in value as the other fabric does in the other sections. The waves aren't so overwhelming when glimpsed through the openings that make up the sketch.

So, by now I have also decided not to overlap the sections. So, I need to finish off part of the desert.

Ramshackle ideas 19

Now for the sea or water section

The chalk drawing


one of the capsized boats.

Ramshackle Ideas - 18

So, we are getting there!

The forest section ready for fusing.

some of the different houses
Normal houses, refugee housing, angry (militant?) houses, attacked village

Bead on 14-20 October

week 42 - 2018

bead on fabric

Something on Saturday

cow 93

another doorstop, but for the kitchen door. Not so much use. Just needed when all the windows and doors are open so it doesn't blow shut. (and cause Holly to fret.)

Ramshackle ideas 17

2 parts of the forest section have been cut.

parts will be tweaked before fusing.

This is the destroyed village I showed the other day when it was just a sketch on the fabric.

a bit overexposed
I am trying to decide what to do about the windows. I had in mind a small solid line. But I have used that for villages attacked but not destroyed. On the photo above, you can see them on the right of the section... windows not cut yet. I am debating the idea of drawing the 'window' for that with thread.

I like Thankful Thursday

On Monday, I had a cataract surgery on my right eye. 😵Depending the result, I will update this to let you know how I am! I need to give it a few days rest, so I am setting this up to post without me.

I like K+S! Last Thursday I went to the Knitting and Stitching Show with my friend. I did take a lot of photos, but many of them weren't intended to go on the Internet.

However, I always like to see what the fashion students at Kings Ely have made. Quite a bit of theatre about them, but interesting anyway.

Sometimes you can just see what technique they were focusing on or what unit of study.

But most of them have a good grasp of how to make something work 3D - which is really what garments are because they have to go round the 3D moving shape which is the body.

And here is a detail of the work of Natalya Aikens that was in the SAQA Gallery "Concrete and Grasslands". I really like her work!

Natalya works a lot with repurposed materials, often plastics built up and stitched with images of New York buildings or bridges, but this piece is one from her St. Petersburg series that repurposes old laces to make a wonderful image of one of the crumbling buildings of St. Petersburg, Russia where she was born.

and of course, when my brain is on inspiration or art alert, I like what I see with a different view.

Quick photo of these braces (or whatever) spotted through the open door on the Picadilly Line. We were on the way to the show. I like the pattern they make.

So, hopefully my eye will be rested for next week. Apologies if I am unable to post.
But either way, today or any other Thursday you can see more I likes via the links at LeeAnna's blog.

Ramshackle ideas 16

one of the villages cut out and the pieces put in place.

The houses in the forest section are on stilts...like in some of the rain forest areas of the world. I hope when you can see them altogether they don't look like TVs!

Ramshackle ideas 15

some of the trees which have been cut in the forest section.

  

wondering why I decided there needed to be so many!

Ramshackle Ideas 14

So to the forest section...drawing the houses in chalk.

The villages are surrounded by various trees.

This part represents one of the villages which has been attacked.

Bead on 7-13 October

week 41 - 2018
bead on fabric

Something on Saturday

cow 92

We are nearing the end of the cows! I am trying to remember if there are some hidden ones. Maybe it will make it to 100?

Apologies for the condition of this one. She is a doorstop...at the back door and so she gets a lot of use and abuse! The paint is coming off and some parts are starting to rust...but it works.

windy day

I have said before that Holly gets worried about the wind. This time she was in such a panic she got me up early (exhausted from being at Knitting and Stitching show) and even followed me to the bathroom! Huffing and puffing. I was afraid she would go into a seizure. (Sometimes being worried about a fly will set her off).

I had been thinking about the thunder shirts I had heard about. But I needed something right then. So, large scarf to the rescue. She calmed right down and when we went downstairs laid down. Now and then she would lift her head when she heard the wind, but I would say it was ok and she would put her head down. Usually she would go into a panic again and come stick to my leg or try to find a safe place in the house. Later she actually went to sleep! So, now this is her worry shirt.

Poor wee doggie!

Thursday K+S

Apologies for missing Thankful Thursday this week.
I am at the Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace in London. Stewarding for the afternoon at the SAQA gallery Concrete and Grasslands.

Edit: Just see what I bought! It was late night opening. When we got there, it was nearly lunch and time for me to steward. So, we stayed after my shift and I managed to do quick purchases and look at some of the galleries. (loved so much of it, but really liked the Cork Textile Network from Ireland.)

Like I need beads, or thread and fabric if you think about it! from Paint Box Threads rainbow colours, from Totally Beads a possible project and replacing stock on the beads. Fabric from Bombay Fabrics and also different African fabric suppliers - Diligent Hands and Dovetailed London. I have used most of the African fabrics I had, but I have more to say about the African refugee situation which doesn’t get on the news.
A few of these are for possible dresses, too. No I haven’t used the fabric from FOQ! Yet!

My friend Pat came with me. We left here at 9am and got home after 11pm! And last week we were also in London on Thursday, so I am done now for going to London! Too much of a good thing.

Ramshackle ideas 13

and the desert section pretty much there.

The refugee tents in the desert near the top and the places they fled from in the bottom.

The gap on the left side is still there while I am considering if another section will overlap. I can rub that house out with a cloth, or go ahead and cut it out...I left that area unfused. maybe a few more smaller houses further up.

Ramshackle ideas 12

and so, some of the desert city houses

and some of the damaged houses and villages

and then fusing

Ramshackle ideas 11

Getting an idea of what the houses in the desert will look like.

The desert background will be there, but I must cut the rest of the houses out first.

Bead on 30 Sept-6 Oct

week 40 - 2018

bead on fabric

Something on Saturday

Cow 91

I forgot about this trivet until I went to look for something to hold a bundle of fabric down in water.

I am trying an experiment for what is sometimes called eco dying. I used avocado skins. I don't have a recipe for it, but I have read a bit about some of what people are doing. The bundle is still wrapped and I will open it in a day or so. But when it was boiling, I needed something to hold it under water, so this cow trivet got the job.
I have used it in the past under jars for a water bath when preserving something. So, it is not the deep green it used to be and the coating has started to come off.

Ramshackle Ideas 10

So, the next step...
The desert section.

I decided to put a break between top and bottom...a place for the sort of refugee camps where people fled from the IS extremist militant group. Seeing images of the endless rows of tents, side by side off into the distance, really moved me.

At the top is the refugee camp. I may want to add more, but I need to see how the bottom part looks first.
I am working on the houses, but I have been doing 'adventures'.

I went to London last night with 2 friends to the Anniversary celebration of an organisation called Release International. They are one of the groups we support who help Christians who are persecuted, imprisoned and attacked for what they believe.
They help to support the ones who have had to flee extremist groups and are either internally displaced or have fled to other countries.
Our church helped to buy tents through one of those organisations when the thousands began to flee IS.

So, anyway, the meeting was very challenging. One church leader from Nigeria spoke about what was happening there. He has had a gun to his head before. Last Sunday, their church was attacked...the day before he came to the UK. When he gets back this weekend, they have to work out where they will meet even this week.
Not sure if you readers go to church, but just imagine if you were in a meeting and suddenly you all were attacked. All your equipment and things you need for the group are broken up and thrown outside or looted. You fear for your life.   Or perhaps you have to have guards because there are suicide bombers trying to blow the place up. Taking advantage of the openness of your meeting - anyone is welcome to go to church - to destroy people.

Anyway! this is one of the reasons I feel passionate about trying to tell some of these stories with my work.
Also why I went beyond my physical capability to trek into London and get back after midnight! Today has been rough, but actually I am blessed. I don't have to worry about being beaten and chucked in prison. 😱 It gives you a different perspective!

I like Thankful Thursday

I like measurable achievements...

all the mountain houses, plus a few extra that it needed, are cut out. Now they also have been fused. (not shown) I am working on the next section.

I like chickadees. So this was a wonderful gift my Mom sent recently.

According to my bird book, they are quite like coal tits over here, but I have not seen one. I think they are my favourite bird...but, then there are robins and blackbirds and ...

I like trees!
These trees were in the car park of the community centre. On Saturday we had our sewing group. I had to stop to take a photo!

And I like walking in the woods.
We went to a nearby park with the friends from church, including a few of our dogs. Lily Hill Park. The park used to be part of the grounds for a mansion which is now offices.
They do a lot with the fallen trees including the longest picnic table in England.

picnic photos from a few years ago.


So we had our picnic. and then went on the walk.
I love the patterns you can see on trees.
twisted
the little bit of limb left looks like a water tap you can turn on!
The bark is amazing.
     
This clearing was a fun place.

a portal

in the distance - steps cut into a tree stump.

So a lovely weekend! Holly, is usually a grump with other dogs. Our friends have a puppy, Charlie, who is about 8 mo. old. We didn't know if she would snarl at him or what, but she decided he was a good friend! phew! It was so fun to see her playing with him. It would have been good to let them both off the lead to play, but he hasn't learned not to run off yet. (Sorry, I didn't get a photo.) The other dog, Lily, is quite old. Holly only grouched her when she though Lily was going to come get our sausages. Sausages is her Favourite! After the picnic, she had no problem with her.