By the way...

The break was good. And the pressure is not so great as it was. The afternoon after the moaning post I heard that they have cancelled the Festival of Quilts this year. This is 😔 sad for a great number of people.

But the flip side for some of us is the pressure release of not having to work to a deadline when you have have the extra pressure of this stay at home thing.

Pansy tree 

Anyway, I have been spending time in the garden stitching, Doing Easter things, wasting time watching things on Facebook, cooking and other holiday things.

These photos were taken last week when the weather was lovely.

 Bleeding Heart just coming out.

Heather they have been doing well for some months now.

And my favourite bulb flower. Snake’s Head Fritillary.
Different shades of the amazing checkerboard pattern these flowers have.

Hummm

This is a moaning post, please ignore. 🤪

When the porridge boils over.

3weeks into c-virus quarantine-

I will post some photos soon. I am quite busy with a project. And just somehow lacking motivation when it comes to posting.
I hope you are muddling along where you are.
I guess we find ourselves looking at what others are doing, how they are managing their new situation, and it is easy to get caught up in that.

For Instance, in my case I already stay at home working to deadlines and trying not to be overcome by fibromyalgia.
And now my changes seem to be the reverse of others who are excited about having extra time and now we have a blossoming of  free workshops and challenges that I would be glad to take part in. But I have already got a schedule to work to and tasks to complete.
And people are finding the leisure of having space/time to make, but I have one scientist and one technical author working from home...in my space. So, my quiet thinking and solitary working is invaded somewhat. Yes, sounds a bit selfish, but adjustment required. Questions to work through, am I on call all day? Closing my studio door seems to invite more interruptions than leaving it open! I am glad they have both settled in ‘offices’ upstairs.
More effort is required from me to feed three, than if it is two of us. ( one still needing all of whatever it is that weight fitness demands.) Why do ‘simple’ pressure cooker stews, And even bolognese ;etc take an hour just to do the chopping?. I come to the dinner table in severe pain just from 1-2 hours making food!

But...still,
-I can look at the pictures of other work while continuing to do my own.
-Very grateful for some kind of harmony here that hasn’t necessarily been easy to find at other times. We even agree on evening television viewing!
-And I don’t need to stand in queues for shopping because the Thoughtful Man does that. I just have to write the correct thing on the list.
-Also, the weather has improved, so I can choose to eat lunch in the garden or maybe even today go out there to do the hand stitching needed for the project.

So really, it is not so bad! Perhaps being outside is the answer. I am tired of breathing the same air!

Apologies for unloading here.
At least I haven’t got the responsibility for 45 people in lockdown, most of them children, most of them under 8, with a leopard and a python hanging about! 😱 This is the situation for my friend, Karin in Ethiopia.
Perspective
And so, I am off to get some progress with this project.

Thankful Thursday on Friday

What fun!

I found a choir when I was making salad the other day!

I wonder what they are singing?

For more Of what people like this week, the link is on LeeAnna’s blog.

I started this post, but wasn’t able to get back to it.
Today is a special day. A Thankful day. We are recently back from a service to remember God’ Love through Jesus on the cross. Looking forward to Sunday to remember He is alive.
As I read somewhere: It isn’t about the bunny but it is about the Lamb.
Not sure what you have for a belief, but this is very important to me a a big part of my life.

I like these reminders of new life all around.

Breaking silence?

Couldn’t get into blogger yesterday.

Something like an update.
a good thing.  I got the all clear from the hospital that my eyes 👀 have healed fine from the cataract surgeries.
However ... I am still seeing double. Advice: see the optician.
Another good thing. Optician is very thorough with all sorts of tests.
Diagnosis: I can’t remember technical terms, but basically one eye is seeing lower than the other. “Look at the dot.” “There are two of them. One above the other.”
This was consistent throughout. So, she’s had them do some magical things like prisms and other things about astigmatisms.
In the meanwhile...
Seeing double. New glasses ready on the 18th February.

Thus why I have been avoiding the computer. It harder than the phone. But I haven’t worked out how to resize photos on the phone.

But I did help my friend to find buttons from my stash for the new cardigan she knitted!

One colour looked good on its own but not in multiples. The other colour was the same. And only a subtle difference. So we decided to alternate them! And you really can’t tell when looking at the whole cardigan with its lovely stripes. 😄

I am managing the bead project with plenty of lighting and even magnifying glasses. I expect because I’m not looking in one place for a long time. 

So, counting the days to the glasses! 🤓 and also sunglasses 🕶! But she did say it will take some time to get used to the prisms. So it will be a bit longer before I can drive.

Bead on - 24,000 - 1-12

12 days work representing 960 out of 24,000 Indian Christians who were physically attacked last year because of their faith.

The post previous to this one tells the thoughts behind what I am doing for the bead project this year.
10 beads in a stack or hump (like an inchworm) 8 stacks or humps done each day. There are also sequins, but they serve to ground the stack or hump where they meet the fabric.

To start with, I want to show you photos that can give an idea of what that means! Hard to photograph because the colours glow, like I meant them to do!
Day 3

Each day, I am sort of doing a nine-patch. For now, leaving the centre open so that it makes 8 x a day. In the above photo, you see the variations basically making up 3 sets of 8 small squares.



This is 5 sets of 8 small squares. The centre section is made of stacks and the 4 sets around are made up of the humps. (I wish I could think of a better word!)

This is 9 sets of 8 small squares. I want the colours to flow and to represent the colourful people of India.
So, I started another colour pattern to make the next 9 sets of 8 small squares.

Altogether, this is 12 sets of 8 small squares.
I may change things at some point and do a rectangle or other shape rather than a square, just so it is a bit freer.

So, that was a bit complicated. From this point I will show 1 or 2 photos showing the process and result for the week. I will post them on Sunday as before, with a bit of give and take.

I'd love to hear your comment about this idea...if you understood it for starters!
More explanations on Monday.

Bead on - 24,000 - the 2019 project

This is a long story, Bead project photos in a following post!
For 2019, I wanted to find out just how much 24,000 looks like.

Why?

Not long ago I began hearing about Persecuted Christians in India. As you may know, issues like refugees and persecution weigh heavy on my heart. I am not comfortable to go protest, but I can make and show work that might make other people aware.

And why should it matter? Well, it could be me or my family or my friends or my neighbours! Or yours.

So, we know India is a very big country. But I began to read that the current Indian government is led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). They believe that being a Hindu is part of Indian identity, and frequently turn a blind eye to attacks on those of other faiths. Also, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is a militant Hindu nationalist group linked with the BJP; they have stated that they want to see India free of Christians and Muslims by the end of 2021.
Organisations monitoring the persecution estimate that almost 24,000 Christians in India were physically attacked last year because of their faith.

What does 24,000 look like? I mean, each 1 making up to 24,000 is an individual. For a start, I looked up Cricket Stadium Capacity.

via

A list on Wikipedia states that Edgbaston Cricket Ground in Birmingham, England holds 24,803. The WACA in Perth, Australia holds 24,500. (If you are into football, Stadion in Malmö, Sweden holds 24,000.)

OK, that is a bit of an idea. It is a lot of people! But I realised I wanted to personalise it a bit more. I am not good at sums, but this turned out to be something possible.

24,000 ÷ 8 = 3,000 and  3,000 ÷ 10 = 300. So, If I used 10 beads 8 times for 300 days, it would take nearly a year to show what the count of 24,000 looks like.

Furthermore, I had this fabric with orange and black squares, which (if I got those sums right) should have enough squares to hold the record.

I chose this because I want to use beads in bright and contrasting colours like one might see in a crowd of Indian people. The sarees are so beautiful and so eye catching; pink, orange, yellow, bright purple, turquoise, blue and more.

And so, then I had a cataract op! 😵  So, I waited til I could see a bit better and caught myself up on the project.

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!

Weeping Woman - 3

Since working on this piece, I feel as if I should also make a weeping woman for Syria, for Yemen, for Iraq, or ..... India, Burma, North Korea and so on...
or even for mothers of children who never came home from school - gunned down in 'safer' countries.

I came across these words recorded by Jeremiah the Prophet and was amazed that this is the same type of weeping and wailing coming from women of these places of trauma and disaster here in our day.

“Consider now! Call for the wailing women to come;
send for the most skillful of them.
Let them come quickly and wail over us
till our eyes overflow with tears
and water streams from our eyelids.

The sound of wailing is heard from Zion:
‘How ruined we are!
How great is our shame!
We must leave our land
because our houses are in ruins.’”

Now, you women, hear the word of the LORD;
open your ears to the words of His mouth.
Teach your daughters how to wail;
teach one another a lament.

Death has climbed in through our windows
and has entered our fortresses;
it has removed the children from the streets
and the young men from the public squares.

Is it true that we are nearly in 2017 and houses are in ruins so that people must leave their lands? And is it true still that death climbs in through our windows, removing children from the streets and young men from public squares?

This is my Weeping Woman. The colour or place doesn't matter...
But why are we not weeping with her? That should matter!


***********
By the way, it took me around 2 hours to get all that statement down to the 300 allowed characters!

Weeping Woman

A few weeks ago, I sat on the settee next to the dog for a little break. I looked across out of the patio window to the outdoors and this caught my eye...

The reflection in the window of the house opposite across the back seemed to show a weeping woman.

So, this has stuck in my mind, especially as I still cannot get the weeping mothers and women of Nigeria out of my mind. (The story behind Tears for the Daughters of my People.)

So, when SAQA extended the deadline for the Trunk show submissions, I decided this would be my piece if I could get it made through the travelling and so on we have been doing while my mother-in-law was ill.

Here are a few photos of the steps involved with developing the piece. Most of this was done on Friday when I was still processing the news of my mother-in-law's death.

Little changes here and there. The first was too peaceful of a face and as I went on, then concentrating on the folds of her headdress.

A few more changes have been done, but mostly this is how it looks before the quilting.

The 70,273 Project

Recently I heard about a project set up by Jeanne Hewell-Chambers at The Barefoot Heart. Jeanne has a heart for disabled people. When she heard on a documentary that between January 1940 and August 1941 (before the Holocaust began), many of Germany's loved sons, daughters, father's, mother's, relations and friends were murdered at the command of the Nazi's because they were deemed "unfit" or an “economic burden on society", Jeanne decided those people had to be commemorated. Some were visibly disabled, some were old, some were mentally disabled, some were slowly recovering from an illness or injury. They were men, women, teens, boys, and girls.
Three doctors were to read each medical file, and when two of them made a red X on the page, the disabled person’s fate was sealed. Most were murdered within 1-2 hours. Very few of these 70,273 people were even met by the doctors who wrote an X, let alone examined.

The 70,273 Project involves collecting 70,273 pieces of white fabric, each with 2 red X's on them. These will then be made up into quilts to be exhibited in various places around the world.

This speaks to my heart, too. And is made even more poignant knowing people like my 96 year old mother-in-law who would have never reached that age under those circumstance. Or my brother who lived over 20 years after having a kidney transplant. Or to bring it even closer home - me...with my pains and headaches and 'malaise' or what ever you might want to call fibromyalgia.

I have read a lot about that period of history. I recently read about a nurse who was made to let them come and empty the building of her disabled patients...being told they were being taken to a lovely place in the country where they could get much better. But I didn't know about the totality of the decisions on this aspect of the Nazi regime.

So, I decided to make some of the blocks. Here is the info about the blocks.

Because each block commemorates a perfectly imperfect person,
blocks can be perfectly imperfect, too.
There are only other two guidelines:
~ finished blocks must be made in one of three sizes 3.5″ x 6.5″ (9 cm x 16.5 cm) or 6.5″ x 9.5″ (16.5 cm x 24.2 cm) or 9.5″ x 12.5″ (24.2 cm x 31.8 cm)
~ A completed and signed Provenance Form (release) must accompany the blocks.

For more information about The 70273 Project, visit www.The70273Project.org. There are also links on Jeanne's blog where you can find out how to get involved, more specific detail about making the blocks, and how to get your group or family involved.

If we don't tell people, who will stand up if we are the ones on a list somewhere? Actually, in some places people are being ticked off a list.
More information on the "T-4" programme can be found on the website of the Holocaust Memorial Museum.

I have started out with the small size. I want to document them on the blog.
I haven't the skills to do a patchwork quilt, but I can contribute blocks for the people able to do that!
x1

x2

x3

x4

x5

x6

x7

x8

While we were visiting my Mother-in-law in hospital last week, I made the first 5. They don't take too long. Just the thing for keeping your hands busy. Perhaps I will put a few blank pieces and some red thread in the kitchen to do while waiting for things to cook.

Hunter - Gatherer Stage

There is a SAQA call for entry coming up called H2OH!. They are accepting wearables.
I had thought maybe to develop further my Ripples and Swirls top from the Pattern Review Sewing Bee...add beads in an 'eddy' here and there. But it is so very comfortable I don't want to lose sight of it should it be accepted!
Furthermore, a small top in a big place would not make much of a statement. So, I have been thinking and have had an idea for something watery for sometime. So, I am going with it. I have had a few more thoughts and bright ideas and now it is time to begin to develop it.

SO, today I started the Hunter-Gatherer stage. Collecting fabrics and embellishments which might contribute to the whole.
I am also not yet at the stage where I want to say what I have in mind, but it will come!

Fabrics

Embellishments

I may add to this and will almost definitely take some things away. I guess you would call it a palette from which I will work.

I have also oiled Mademoiselle because she squeaks very loudly as you turn her this way and that draping and stitching things. This was almost too much when I was stitching on the 'tears' to the last piece!

And should these pieces not be accepted, no worries. It will mean I am ahead with garments for shows! The solo show the last 2 weeks of March at Lady Sew and Sew, Henley Art Trail and The fashion show at the Festival of Quilts.

Tears for the Daughters of My People

So, nose to the grindstone the past few days. But both deadlines accomplished.
Not, however the beads, but I will do them tomorrow.

Photos of the SAQA Layered Voices piece:

detail

Tears for the Daughters of My People

Imagine this: 275 girls from your child’s school are abducted. 47 escape. 3 ½ years later, 228 are still missing. Furthermore, in the last 5 years, on average 38 women/children are abducted each month from your area.
This is Nigeria. Hearts bleed.
Shed tears for the daughters of their people.

Materials: waxed twine, cotton pearle and linen threads. Reclaimed cotton, cotton lawn, and quartz stone chips.
Techniques: rust dyeing, knotting for nets, machine and hand stitch, beading.

front

back

So, Wednesday and Thursday I stitched 266 quartz chips (tears) to the dress. 228 for the missing Chibook girls Plus 38 to stand for the nameless ones abducted each month.

This was the first time they are accepting wearables, so I wanted to really say something. and a big change from my 'Fantasticals'. I hope they do want this piece. I have also entered Ramshackle Villages which returned from the European Triennial last month.
********************
And also I received word that Ramshackle Place, my donation for the SAQA Benefit Auction was sold before the lowest price! So, that is good to hear!

And the bead keeps going on and on... Fabric squares

As I have done in past years, I will be doing a fabric bead project on alternate months. So, for 2016, square fabric bits are what I will sew beads to.

At first I did a bit of sampling to work out what size to cut the fabric. I was looking for several things.
- I wanted to cut down on the time I was spending on this part of the bead project. Although I enjoyed doing the little booklet/cross shaped pieces, they did take up quite a bit of time.

- I wanted something simpler altogether (although I did consider going a bit too far with these!) Not just for the time scale, but also so they would be easier to consider as embellishments for garments or something.

- I wanted to use a black on black fabric (in this case, black on very dark grey) after having used white on white fabric last year. My thinking is this: they will be easier to use as a set if I have, for instance, yellow beads on white and yellow beads on black.

Here is the fabric I am using.

- I wanted something that was simple to fold up to hide raw edges. Yes, this sort of thing could be done - for instance making little tiny Suffolk Puffs - but it would be a bit too fiddly to even get it to the point where beads could be sewn to it.

So, I decided to go back to the technique from 2014 where I folded in the sides to hide the raw edges. And as I mentioned above, I worked out a plan to end up with a square shape. This way I could go around the edges and then do something in the centre.

The left one in this sample set ends up 2cm square. The one on the right ends up 1.5cm square and the top one is 1cm square.
The 'big' one could work, but when you are talking seed beads, it would take more work in the centre to make it look right. The 'little' one basically was tooo little to handle!
So, the just right one is what I settled on.

This is what they look like. (Keep in mind this is 1.5cm square!) One side and the other.

I had considered just adding to the centre of one side. But I found it was easier to do a continuous thread path if I beaded 2 sides; then stop at the corner to go across the centre. Then go across the centre of the back side to the same corner. Then carry on beading the remaining 2 sides. Then tie off.

Or at least that is what I think will work for making these. I haven't timed them, as I will get quicker as time goes on. But already they take far less time than the fabric ones from 2015. Just right to get going in the morning and then getting on with something else.

As you see, I have started with yellow. Yellow is the one colour I have the least variety for, so use it for the shortest month. February isn't as short as usual, but still.

And the bead keeps going on and on... 1-2 Jan

Day 1+2 January 2016

The plan for the start of 2016 is to carry on with beaded fabric bits alternated with tassels. I started tassels in October as a way to bead onto small charms. In doing so, I found the solution to the concern I had about re-designing something every other month. (Because the alternate months were beading onto something unusual.) I enjoyed the designing, but not the pressure of coming up with something each time. And usually, the project took much too much time out of my day.
So, this year, I am trying to get back a bit of the time involved with the daily project. As I have less energy for things, I need to use it for the big things and not use it all up on small things!

However, as you may have noticed, I have been doing some of what I called bead samples. These are fun to work on when I am taking a break from other things, or in the evening when I haven't got much wits left for full on creating. So, I plan to carry on with these. Probably something new each month, but who knows? I am not going to pressure myself with times and goals on this. I do plan to keep each 'sample' going until it has become a trim that I can use on some of my fantastical garments. So, I guess at this point, I will begin to call them trims!


So, anyway, I am starting this year's Bead On project with the tassels. Next month will be the fabric bit... which is still in the thinking stage.

Trial - I wanted to develop a design similar to the others, but the way I was doing them, it meant that they always had an even number of dangly bits. I wanted to try something to get an odd number - 5, if possible.

There was one more before this trial set - but I forgot about the 5 part and it had 6! Okay, why do something new if you have 6! Plus, there were a few changes needed. So, here is the one that works with 5.

And then one more step was to get it to hang better when you would stitch it to something. The above piece would work great as an earring or pendant, but I want to have the possibility to stitch them to a gown. Just a minor change of making the loop endings closer together. I think they still could be slightly asymmetric earrings, but they lay against a surface better.

no.1

no.2


By the way, I am still posting the week's beads on Sunday.

Sample updates

The even count peyote is now 17cm.


The ladder stitch is now 31 1/2 in.


I have been working on them off and on. Major projects have been put on hold or cancelled whilst I am just taking it easy for a while.

I have been doing a weekly course about managing fibromyalgia pain. However it is in a town to the south of us about 1/2 hour, so the to and fro added to 2 hours learning does take a lot out of you. We have a break now for Christmas and will have the last 2 sessions out of the 9 after the New Year.

There is so much stuff - mostly good - but you really can only take one or two things a week and try them out. After we are stopped, then we can concentrate on getting to grips a bit better with what we have been discussing. And then we have a session about 3 mo later to see how we are getting on. Probably for motivation as much as anything!

Pumpkin Pie Story*

*Watch out for run on sentences and other unacceptable literacy habits.

Last week was American Thanksgiving. Over the years we have done a bit of Thanksgiving, but not on Thursday because it is a working day here and you can't do justice to a dinner like that when you don't know the arrival time of the Thoughtful Man.
So, we generally have it (when we do) on the Saturday. It used to be that we had people around to 'experience' Thanksgiving dinner. Over the years the Thanksgiving  I cook doesn't much resemble the one my mom cooks because I have blended in British. and in the last several years, I only do a token attempt because we have Harvest already in October which we celebrate with the church. Besides, A Certain Young Man has either been in uni or in America or too busy or something.
And furthermore, on the changes in the meal, it also has something to do with the fact that I am 1 person and my mother had 4 girls and before we moved when I was around 10, we had Thanksgiving with my dad's family who also had 4 sisters/sisters-in-law + Grandma. And so you could do this kind of a meal as a team!

But this year A Certain Young Man wanted to do a Turkey with a capital T. He is volunteering to do it... the turkey, that is. (He doesn't 'cook' unless it involves meat.) Well, there was a bit of a 'discussion' when he found I was already doing something on the Saturday last week. And was not willing to give on what he was doing on the Sunday.

So, a compromise was made and we are doing it tomorrow. (Even though I am meant to go to a Christmas lunch at 12:30! So, I won't eat much.)

Because it seems A Certain Young Man is really hankering after an American version of Thanksgiving - meaning the sort of food he had when he was living there with my parents and being fed by all their friends because he was such a polite young man (!)... I decided to do a few things I don't normally do.

1-peel the potatoes before cooking and mashing. (I had digs/lived with a family in college who kept the peelings on because it was more nutritious. This sounded like a plan to me instead of wasting valuable time rushing around whilst making dinner!)

2-used a recipe out of one of those recipe collections by real people - a New England version. I found a mashed potato recipe which has sour cream and cream cheese which can be made ahead and set in the fridge, then baked on the day. This also sounded like a plan, so I made that yesterday.

3-found a recipe for green bean casserole in another one of those books. Years ago I got fed up with the version I had been making, but A Certain Young Man has specifically asked for that. So, I made this today and put it in the fridge to bake on the day.

And then I made pumpkin pie. I usually double the batch so I can freeze one for another day. It takes the same amount of time, except rolling out the pie crust. I got a ready-rolled shortcrust pastry because it tastes more like what I remember of some Thanksgiving relative's pie crust (mom made oil crusts, which are not quite the thing for this)...and the American pie crust recipes call for shortening, which we don't have and which I always forget to buy the alternative to use with an altered recipe. Besides, ready-rolled means you are on your feet for less time, which really counts when you are already going to be on them more than you are meant to be doing.
However, I generally make one ready-rolled crust stretch to work for 2 pie crusts!


So, there you are and that is the big story for today...apart from the fact that my feet hurt and I need to cook the sweet potatoes tomorrow. But I am going to mash them because they are sweet enough and none of us can stomach any longer the thought of sweet potato slices with syrup and marshmallows baked to a golden gooey mess to be eaten as part of the main course! Someday, I might just make that for pudding/dessert so we can see if we can tolerate it that way. It makes my teeth hurt to think of it!

Oh, did I say there are 3 of us? I have already warned A Certain Young Man that I am not doing a Sunday dinner to follow that! We should have more than enough left over even if he eats his (ab)normal amounts!