Blues Guitar

It's been tricky finding blogging time - the summer weeks rush by and there is the call of the garden, sports days, end of school year concerts, music evenings and hardly a moment to sew. I have had to crack on in the chinks of time allowed with this piece ready for a textile exhibition at Bilston Art and Craft Gallery which begins in August. The name of the show is "On Yer Mettle" and this can be interpreted however we like. There used to be a lot of metal foundries, lock industries, nail and chain makers in this area and I was initially going to work something related to this but I found it impossible to get started, especially since I am mostly inspired by organic and natural forms rather than man-made ones.
There are, however, a number of exhibitions happening this summer related to heavy metal....no not those oddly named, more recent members of the Periodic Table, rather the likes of Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath etc - bands originating in this neck of the woods. It is said that heavy metal music was born in the West Midlands. So I went with that and have been working on this guitar piece - aptly made from old denim jeans.
I am placing the guitar on a background of hand dyed scrim, linen, muslin, silk and lace - some of which have been dyed using rust (to extend the metal theme). I now need to finish the blues guitar and hand stitch into the background...ho hum it looks like a lot of late nights!

Out in the garden the cornflowers are now four feet tall and I am astonished at how many colour varieties came from one packet of seed!

The garlic is harvested and hanging from the roof of the greenhouse. I don't want to cut off it's squiggly roots - they are lovely!

This morning - early - at peaceful 6am these lovely shadows from a wrought iron bench. They would be lovely to stitch....no, no, no, I must finish the guitar before embarking on anything else!