"Winter" Exhibition.

Today I have been to the hanging of an exhibition in which I have two pieces of work.
It opens on Saturday 21st November at Bilston Craft Gallery, West Midlands, UK. The name of the exhibition is "Winter" and it is held by members of the gallery's Textile Group which meet monthly to exchange ideas.

On Saturday there will also be a craft fair and mince pies and chocolate logs!!
The piece above is "Winter In North Wales", although some might think it could be any season there as it does catch the rain there rather (to put it politely). It is hand embroidered on embellished wools, yarns and fleece.

The other piece is called "Puddles and Slate" and is again inspired by a trip to Wales and the accompanying weather! (We have to take inspiration from everything, even when we are wet, blue and chilled to the bone!).

It promises to be a great exhibition and there will be gifts to buy too.

For example these bags below are made locally by Yuca Osumi and will be for sale - they are knitted in Arran wool with a variety of stitches and are so full of texture. They are immaculately made and unique I think.

On Monday I took a little Christmas shopping expedition out to Ludlow, Shropshire. I love this busy busy hardware shop. It is so full of cupboards, drawers, wooden boxes it is overwhelming. Each is labelled as to it's contents. You can still buy one nail or a screw here. The proprietor wears a brown overall and has probably done so since 1942. One wooden drawer was labelled "bits". I love that. I have lots of drawers in my house which should all have a label on the outside saying "bits"!

And here is another bit of "busy-ness". This little chap came back from the allotment with me this week on a bumper load of sweetcorn. He was having a fine old explore over all the hillocks.

Peace

Thinking about Peace.
Thinking of Christmas.
Thinking of the needless, unnecessary wars of our time...

Some free form piecing, collage, embroidery.

Allowing the cloth to grow.

Soothing, slowly, in peace.

"The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant.

We have created a society that honours the servant and has forgotten the gift."
Albert Einstein

I want to explore this style a lot further - it gives me time to think, to intuit and to gather strength. This strength is needed to guard against marauding forces...

Birthday Quilt!

I am a very lucky person. I had a lovely birthday last week topped by a totally unexpected gift of a quilt for my bed from Angie, my Mother-In-Law. It's very soft and consists of large squares of Kaffe Fassett fabric bordered by his shot cotton plains. I love it's earthy warmness. I love the surprise of it ... and I love the caring nature of the making of a gift such as this.

Recently my daughter has commandeered my sewing machine and has been making all sorts of stuffed ghosts and ginger cats!

Here is a little giveaway postcard from Quilt Rat - she didn't know it would arrive on my birthday! It's a coloured "doodle" (ha wish I could draw this well) which is then stitched with free machine quilting. Thank you!

Folded Manx Log Cabin - can be done in the dark!!!

This is what Folded Manx Log Cabin looks like. I'd never heard of it until last week when someone showed me how.

History: On the Isle of Man, Britain, it was sometimes called "The Roof Pattern", and was pieced with folded strips, sewn by hand onto a fabric foundation. As well as designs made with scraps, red and white Log Cabin quilts set in a traditional zig-zag werecommonly found here, some said to be dated earlier than 1850. The island was fairly isolated and rural, without easy access to modern tools and equipment. Lacking scissors and rulers in the past, quilters tore fabric into strips and used the length of their fingers, thumbs and size of hand-spans as measurements for the parts of the block.

It's folded and the stitches don't show so without adequate light one can still make neat blocks in this style. I have to decide whether I'm going to put sashing in between these blocks but it's been a nice mobile project to take around.

Autumn draws in and the days are short. The leaves are dying but other things are growing - the spores multiply and help the decomposition of other life forms and in turn, next Spring this mattter feeds new life.

I used to find Autumn depressing but the sense of nature readying itself for another year now helps me to face the winter months.

The spores below are feeding on the aging tomatoes of this summer...

Summer wasn't has hot as we'd have liked this year but October has been warm and dry. We went down to Devon last week and never wore a raincoat or wellies! In fact we were on the beach in T-shirts every day.

The photo shows the view from the apartment we rented at Bigbury on Sea. I even stitched some blocks on the balcony at 10pm when the light was poor - just to relive those quilting days on the Isle of Man and to prove a point!

Thanks for The Manx

This has been one of the most beautiful Autumn weeks that I can remember. The low lying mist and turning leaves have been such a stunning reminder of the glory of nature. These trees are in public parkland across from my house. It's Common Land so I have every right to graze my flock of sheep upon it...

...if I only had one. For now I don't - too impractical in The West Midlands...

...they'd only be trouble...

...we'll have to make do with the guinea pigs.

Tonight a little workshop on folded Manx log cabin blocks. You can see the sample here. This is all hand sewn but no stitches show. I have a mind to use a lovely jelly roll to make a quilt when we go to Devon. It's a great travelling project. I know that once more, instead of packing tomorrow I'll be cutting a quilt. God I always seem to do that, the day before going away, instead of organising our suitcases! Looks like I'll be up until midnight again!

Seasons Of Mists and Mellow Fruitfulness.

The slow cloth continuing reflecting the harvest moon and the falling of leaves. The light is wonderful today - a low Autumn sun and mists on the fields playing over a hint of frost.

I shall be searching for some silky soft vintage blues at the Knitting and Stitching Show in London on Saturday and some pale taupes and linens for a new winter monotonal project which is bubbling under.

Sewing and Harvesting!

Look at this! I bought this piece in a moment of joy from Jude Hill of Spiritcloth and it has arrived from the U.S. in the post. It is now probably one of my most treasured possessions (apart from my children and I definitely don't own them). It's so soft, being made from washed and worn fabrics, and is all handsewn. I have got a bit of an obsession with pumpkins so this fits in totally with our household decorations at this time of year!

Meanwhile I had started my own version for inclusion in my very slowcloth of moon patches..

More bounty...

My inlaws have just been on a fabulous trip to India and brought me back some colourful goodies...tomatoes from my greenhouse...

...oh yes and a bit more pumpkiness in a sketch with a black background of acrylic paint - may experiment with this further methinks....