Showing posts with label garden. Show all posts
Showing posts with label garden. Show all posts

Thursday, 6 June 2013

Quilts in the Sun

Such beautiful weather. It makes my heart sing when I can wash and hang out the quilts I've made.


Of course there's always lovely Smartie to take advantage of any quilt in the sun. What a fine combination.

He has freckles on his nose anyway but he seemed to be working on a tan today!
And so we shared a quiet moment. He holds my hand when he can.

The garden is a joy. Worth the agonising back and knee pain to get it to look this way!


A place to sew in the garden.
Later I visited David Austen Roses....I'm so fortunate to live nearby. The roses are late this year but I loved this sculpture by Pat Austen.

A good hair day all round!

Monday, 6 May 2013

Awards, Sketchbooks and Spring

Such sunny weather this week that it has been garden matters taking priority. The winter has been so long that seed planting has only been an option for the last week or so and that means that the greenhouse is now stacked with seed trays full of potential for both veg for the plot and flowers for the garden.
I love the "patchwork" nature of this Snakes Head which comes year after year although, strangely, some of its flowers are now pure white.
Art matters have taken a back seat, but nevertheless there was time to squeeze in a visit to the Uttoxeter Quilt and Stitch Show last weekend.
I was thrilled that my daughter Isabel, who is eleven, won the children's quilt category - here she is with her trophy. I'm more proud than she is!!
Yesterday when Isabel was playing hockey I took a stroll down the nearby canal where there is an interesting lock set of 21 tiers within about a mile. This is Dunstall Park Bridge. I stood and sketched those wonderfully interesting shapes in ink pen in my sketchbook on a previously washed background and then came home and added the tone in paint. I really like this approach, particularly to urban sketching, and feel fired up to work more this way.
You have to watch out for being run over by zealous dogs, cyclists and joggers on the tow path but that's part of the charm!
This is another sketchbook page - an idea from Laura and Linda Kemshall. The edge of the page is textured with gesso and painted with Koh-I-Noor dye based watercolours (as indeed is the sketch above).

Finally Wombourne Quilters had a visit from Lorraine Bates and we had a go at making some ceramic buttons. I'm looking forward to seeing the fired, glazed results - here are my raw ones...but there are more pictures here

Saturday, 10 March 2012

Paradise Found

A post by Sweetpeapath inspired me this week in summing up a way that I too use to get by in difficult times. It has to do with acknowledging the sometimes very small good things around us. Often I note them in my journal - always focussing on the positive. That way I can revisit these golden moments when I need to.
When there are seemingly too many challenges the brain needs a rest, it needs to feed, to breathe in.
Where are those little pockets of paradise which nourish and recharge mind and body for  you?
Here were some of mine this week.
Sketchbook fiddling, getting lost in play and fiddling with print, rubbings and paint.



A joyous full moon - one which cast sharp black shadows upon the silvery grass in the evenings.

An unexpected walk in the park with Janet and playing on the adult out door green gym - too funny and definitely NO photos!

The signs of Spring - tulips emerging, snowdrops giving way to daffodils and a rebirth in the garden.
A privilege of discovery. A little nook in an urban landscape. My neighbours went away for a week and allowed me to feed their chickens!
But firstly I marvelled in their little Victorian garden on a misty morning.
He had been head of a city Botanical Garden and obviously is a scavenger. Lots of Victorian chimneys and sinks for planting.

An air raid shelter still in the garden which he kept as a fernery
 
Some fabulous ironwork.
emergent and unidentified ...
...Thomas - always glad to see me
... and six beautiful girls waiting to be let out to scratch around the tiny espalier orchard.
I really had quite a chat to them twice a day. I can't wait until my neighbours have another holiday quite honestly because I'll get to see the garden again in it's summer mantle.

 So, what were your pockets of paradise this week? It does you good to think.

Thursday, 14 July 2011

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!

Wednesday, 19 May 2010

Common Scents

The most stimulating sense for me at the moment is that of the smells of Spring. Visually I have noted that greens, pinks and purples are exciting me in the garden but there has been an assault of fragrance this week as the weather has melted into warmth.
In fact the smell of the rhubarb and date chutney in the making has been really mouthwatering. It is so good that I have some at any opportunity and have put my recipe here:




Rhubarb and Date Chutney
4lb rhubarb
1lb dates
1lb red onions
1 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon or a stick
1 teaspoon Chinese mixed spice
1 teaspoon sea salt
1lb cane sugar
1/2 pint white wine vinegar
Chop the rhubarb, dates and onions and place them in a large pan with the other ingredients. Bring to the boil, and then simmer for at least two hours, stirring to prevent sticking.
This can be eaten straight away, which is lucky because it was...

In fact the peelings were even prettier than the chopped up ingredients and could be the basis for a great abstract don't ya think?



The other overpowering scent is that of the two lilacs in the garden. So heady at night it can make me feel quite drunk - oh, sorry no, that's the gin and tonic I'm holding, but anyway...
It's lovely to cut some to have in the kitchen to take away the smell of the endless chutney making!
The garden has somewhat overtaken the sewing as it still shouts at me to keep it in check and plant out, pot up and poke around whenever possible. It's worth it to see (and taste) what beauties the earth brings forth.