at work

making progress in the one 'clear' space

Also happening here and about:

A Certain Young Man (no longer a Lad) home for Mothering Sunday. He made a lovely pork roast. And a Fine Man made a 'not fruitcake' simnel cake. Michael Barry recipe. Yumm

A very sick Dog :-(

A Mother in hospital for emergency op far far away. I guess since I can't do anything for her that my sis and the hospital can't do, the dog is actually being the bigger concern.

and hiding away in my room listening to Lord Peter Wimsey stories to stop the worry.

priming the pump

Having at last reached half-term - I'm not teaching again until 1 November - and using yesterday for doctor visits, I am at last ready to make something.

So, I have all sorts of things in mind to make, but what to start with? To keep from wasting the day with a "day off" feel, I decided to just get something out and get a start.

One of the things I am considering for the project the Thames Valley Contemporary Quilt group is doing with the museum is based on some doll corsets. The ideas coming to mind have to do with more twin needle cording which I have used in various ways in the past. So, today I got out several pieces of stripe fabric that I collected with the idea of using the twin needle technique.

the blue one has been done already

and armed with a selection of audio books

I have recently discovered Wodehouse...hilarious!

I set up my machine and the tape player before going off for a blood test

and then when I got back set to at the project.

Some fabrics are easier than others,
so that will help me decide what type of thing to go with
when I am ready to work on the project.

These will be great for samples for the students when I talk about creating texture with fabrics. and for now they have served to prime the pump. By this evening, I am ready to do something else entirely! So, I should be able to get a start on one of the projects which have a much closer deadline.

While I am off for half-term, I want to try to get into some sort of habit which I can use on Thursday and Friday during term time to actually get my own art work or garments done. Although I teach Mon and Wed evening, both of those days are taken up with preparing for the classes. Tuesday is recovering from one and storing up energy for the other. But the doctor visit looks like there may be something done at last towards finding out why I am in so much pain all the time.

--Maybe it won't actually go away, but I hope to find a better way to manage it! and having someone validate the way you feel does help with not feeling guilty that I need more time than most to cope with what I do. Perhaps it will also help me be more brave to just say no when it seems the world and it's sister want me to do one more thing!

Stay tuned. I hope to post regularly again, now that I have all the paperwork sorted that goes with beginning the year teaching 2 classes and 2 tasters.

Stencilled Dragon - Stitch

Going over the fine printed lines on the fabric with black to make more of a contrast for the background of the dragon.
Very delicate work, but easier with an audio book with Sister Fidelma (historical crime)plugged into my ears.

Fractured Wings - stitch

I have made a few adjustments to the Fractured wing piece. The dark places on the wing are now not so dark. Also, there is a bit of shadow at the bottom left, made by a layer of sheer green "mystery fabric".

I have also started the quilting. I used a varigated blue/green/yellow to do the pattern on the dragon wing....whilst listening to an audio book of one of the books in the series of the No.1 Ladies Detective Agency. If you have never read the books, or listened to them, you ought to do so. They are detective fiction with a gentle difference. and though set in Botswana, they make me miss my friend in Zimbabwe.

and another thing I did today was to spend a fortune for new glasses. But, I desperately needed new long distance glasses. The place where I go, you can get a second pair free, so I had that one made into sunglasses.
I have never tried varifocals or bifocals, but I am trying a pair of those for teaching. I have to keep chopping and changing from sewing glasses to normal glasses. I can't see the sewing with the one and I can't see the students with the other! For now, I want to keep long distance ones, especially for driving. So, I took in a pair from last time I changed. Being reading glasses, the frames were still good, so I decided to have them put the varifocals in that.

So, all that came to rather alot of money. But, I can't go on as is, so we shall see how it goes.

microphotography - with paint

Part of the challenge for the microphotograpy was to include painting. So, today I finished the threadwork on the white part of the piece and have painted the edge to resemble the edge of the slice of agate.

I need to figure how I will finish off the edges or mount it in some way.

I am listening to an audio book again. I recently found the ones of the No.1 Ladies Detective Agency. I listened to two dramatisations a few weeks ago, and liked them so much I decided to see if I could get the complete books from the library. I love the descriptive part of books, and that is missed in dramatisations...and TV shows.

So anyway, I have been listening to Tears of the Giraffe. Part of the appeal is that it gives me an idea of how the place where my friend Yvonne might be. Although it is Zimbabwe and not Botswana, I can imagine that the old ways in Zim were quite similar to the old ways spoken of in these books.

Connect-Disconnect A2 Finished!

At last I have finished the final piece in the Connect-Disconnect series for the EquilARTeral group. I am quite pleased with it.

There are 3 layers...the papery layer I dyed with coffee, a layer of cream muslin, and a layer of tan "mystery fabric". The top layer has been given a surface design treatment of crayon rubbings on rubbing plates and subsequently ironed against the thin mystery fabric to melt the colour of the wax in to both.

At the last posting about this, it was just joined with buttons and beads. Today I sliced it in various places and stitched the edges with a buttonhole stitch. Then I used different threads and stitches to stitch the pieces back together with a bit of a gap (like variation of faggotting stitches).

I have photographed it on black, rather than against the cupboard doors, and it does show it off a bit better.

front back

It was a nice quiet thing to do today...staying in, listening to an audio book and trying to get rid of this cold.

Fund Raiser - 4

A bit more work on decorations for the fund raiser. Instead of beads, I am using dots of gold paint. Nice mindless work to do whilst listening to an audio book.

Connect-Disconnect A2

Way back in September, I started the preliminaries for the last piece in the Connect-Disconnect series I am doing with EquilARTeral.

Finally, this week I have been able to get on with doing more. Luckily, the techniques are simple ones, and quick to accomplish. So, I put on an audio book, and just started working.

Here is the front.

Here is the back.

If I can, I will begin the next step tomorrow. I will have to take a photo against a different background so you can see the detail better.

Craft Workshop samples

Today I worked on some samples for another workshop for the library. I thought these would be good for February. I am calling the workshop "Thinking of You". Although there is the option to make Valentine related bits, Valentines isn't such a big deal here as it is in America. So, these could also say Happy Birthday, Thinking of You, Get Well Soon, etc.

I painted little wooden shapes, stuck them together, made little "stitch" marks with a fine sharpie and wrote the various words...also with a sharpie. These have ribbons on to use as gift tags, but there will also be the option of putting a magnet on the back.

I stuck these together with a glue gun, but since we have to watch cords and hot things at the library, I will actually use tacky glue or something instead for the workshop. This is one of the reasons the workshops have followed more of a craft theme than a sewing one for now. Perhaps once we start having regular workshops we can hold something seperate where the space and Health and Safety aren't such an issue.

Once again I let the hands do the work while I listened to an audio book. This one is a Dorothy Sayers Mystery.

Audio books

A good time to start a blog is when your computer has stopped speaking to your camera! So we start off with photos that are already in the files.

I like reading, but when I am trying to get sewing projects done, I have to avoid books. However, I have discovered that I can order audio books from my library. They are very good at helping me concentrate and get jobs done. If I am engrossed in a story, I don't have such a tendancy to go off to the kitchen for something to munch on, or wander round the house trying to find things to start a wash. (Funny I am never tempted to clean the oven, but I do attack the hob once in a while!) Another help is that when I have got to a stuck place on a project and have allowed it to become a hurdle, I've found I can put on a book and then just let the hands and instincts take over, and before long ...Voila! I can get onto the next thing.

So, anyway, because of this audio book dependancy, I have developed a really special relationship with the librarians at the Birch Hill Library. (Mainly Simon and Lisa) I also take my BIG projects down to show them...well, after all they have sort of had a hand in it. Last year, before Pat retired, I showed them some of my journal quilts, and they let me put a selection of them in the display case in the front entry. This year, Simon, who is now in charge, asked if I'd like to do another display. So, I have had more work up for a few months.

I finished off the Solar Optics pieces I had started, put them with the rest, and also the Migraine pieces. Apparently there is alot of interest. Below is a photo...but the display glass makes it hard to photograph.

Here is the Blurb:

Sun in My Eyes

In these pieces, local Textile Artist, Sandy Snowden,
explores the effect of the sun on vision.

Close your eyes.
What do you see when you’ve been in the bright sun?

The bright pieces of art are from a series called Solar Optics;
Sandy considers those bright spots you can still see
when your eyes are shut.
In the darker pieces, she investigates migraines,
brought on by the sun.

And NOW...they said, "Do you want to do a little workshop?" Usually we rely on people from the "big" library to come do things. But, we could do our Own thing... SO, on the 26th Nov. I will be doing a workshop about making Christmas boxes!