My Own Little World

So following such a wonderful trip to Cornwall it has been time to stitch a relevant journal page. I took a sketch I made of a sculpture in Barbara Hepworth's garden and used it as inspiration, along with other shapes of those forms for a small piece in hand dyed cotton and sheers.

The colour is so evocative of St Ives light and that bejewelled azure sea.
I have also been working on a journal piece neglected earlier in the year due to time constraints. This also has sheers but depicts a wintry light that I love across fields.

When it's complete I'll post it here.
The garden continues to be a joy and inspiration - a hot day and a hot hot poppy colour...so hot the camera can't really handle it! When a bee flies in the shimmering pollen is clearly visible on the stamens vibrating before the bee has landed even, just reacting to the motion of the air.

But then a semi shaded corner hosts a white lupin cool and stately

These aliums need sketching!

As does this wonderful garlic bulb. Isn't it amazing what colours are to be found in something so simple?

and finally some work on wizards - they continue to sell like hot cakes!!

All of it a joy, all of it makes the heart sing. Staying, for the most part, in my own little world.

Marathon Sketchbooking

The more I watch the Olympics and see all these active people, the more I want to sit on my bottom and play in my sketchbook!
 I have only a week or so left of my year of my Creative Sketchbook course and I need to get to finishing Module 4. I've had many a week where creativity has been at a low ebb as my mum moves toward the end of her life, but this past two weeks I realised how much art can be a therapy in these situations. It buys time to ponder and time to refocus.

I have decided to make a journal quilt each month pointing out where I have found peace. I am working on this in the sketchbook and as this white dove descended into the garden last week I resolved to begin the work this month,

Pockets from a photo are handy for collecting ephemera - in this case some feathers which I might use as printing inspiration.
See the end of this post for August's quilt.

This little pottery dove sits by my front door and the stars, so reminiscent of quilt blocks are on the floor all the way down the hall of my Victorian home.

Various cut pages.

Roll on Autumn - I love pumpkins!

I pressed this Bleeding Heart stem earlier in the year and have just taken it from the flower press.

A pencil rubbing of a lino block....

THE RESULTING QUILT

It was all ace. It was a part of my peace.

Monochromish

 Strange, how subconciously I opt for this rather monochromatic colour scheme every January / February. This year I thought it wouldn't happen as we have had no snow, the daffs are starting to bloom and our general landscape has been pretty green and verdant.

And still it happens. After Christmas it's as if the eyes need a rest.

These Japanese woven fabrics are just the ticket for some kind of relaxation and a sense of peace.

Even if they do turn into a chicken quilt without me really thinking about what I'm doing! This  one is for the kitchen table as Spring approaches.

Unbidden, this afternoon, six inches of snow fell in six hours. The first of the winter.

More fabrics laid out. More of the same easy hues.

I'm not sure what will happen to them!
But they lie here, winking!

A note in the sketchbook - snow surrounds the terracotta pumpkins.

January's diary shows a little more vibrancy. The month has been a difficult one with my Mum's failing health. After two months in hospital she is taken into a nursing home. We feed and water her. We make her comfortable.

Some solace in the sketchbook as printing is explored. Acrylic pears stamped with hand cut expanda-sponge and a watercolour dye wash.

The snowmen that my very good friend Tracy made me for Christmas are at last feeling at home in the seasonal weather.

Time to paint

'Birches 1'

(watercolour, gesso and charcoal pencil)

Meeting the Light

January - nearly over. A pretty uncreative month for me. Somehow the darkness and those blank flat skies hold little inspiration. So to something practical to satisfy those itchy "making fingers," "doing hands."

Just piecing block on block. Like a journey. Taking the steps. Eventually I get somewhere. Life is like this. Taking steps.

This year I seem to be drawn to houses, schoolhouses and cottages. My journal begins with an imaginary Cornish seaside sign. Inspired by January 1st spent at St. Ives.

Today it is bright, sunny and 6 below zero. It is refreshing my creative spirit.

February tomorrow. Moving on and as the bulbs are emerging in the garden so can I. Out from my corm? Ready to meet the light.

I am becoming so much more ME.

I have had a birthday. It was nice not to go gadding about but to have my meal cooked for me, the children to do their homework in a peaceful way (as a special treat!) and to be in my lovely home with everyone around me.
I am becoming so much more me.
This year is going to be good. I shall make time to give gratitude, to really LOOK around me and to listen and really HEAR.
I am reading a book called "Earth Pilgrim" sent to me by a great friend. It's by Satish Kumar. He reminds us that some of us are tourists - taking a journey purely to get somewhere, creating debris along the way, whilst others are PILGRIMS who are taking the journey for the journey's sake.

This is the meaning of life! I realise that all this making and recording and doing that I have felt compelled to do for the last couple of years is part of my being a pilgrim and I am going to continue with whatever mindfulness I can muster.

Mellow Fruitfulness

Here is the first book that I have made from scratch. I learned how to stitch the spine from Isobel Hall. I decided to make the cover topical as the Autumn colours have been astonishing this year.

The leaf has been glued on to the background of encaustic wax and Koh-I-Nor dye paint and the whole think acrylic waxed before stitching.

My journal has reawakened this weekend. We attended a memorial celebration for a family member at the beginning of October which I do not want to forget. The leaflet we were given  stuck on the left hand page has inside it some of the songs we sang and a poem which summed up Brigitte's attitude to life. I need to call this poem to mind often. I don't know who it is by:

I Will Not Die an Unlived Life

I will not die an unlived life

I will not live in fear of falling

Or of catching fire

I choose to inhabit my days

To allow my living to open me

Making me less afraid

More accessible

To loosen my heart

So that it becomes a wing, a torch, a promise

I choose to risk my significance.

To live so that which comes to me as seed

Goes to the next as blossom

And that which comes to me as blossom

Goes on as fruit.

This is the crab apple Evereste which we have just planted in our garden. It will have a wonderful cherry type blossom in the spring. The blackbirds eye the fruit.

 There has been an abundance of apples this year. I have two old trees in the garden - they are over one hundred years old and this time have flourished prolifically. There are two more in the allotment - one has huge eating apples and the other is a Bramley type cooking apple tree. Storing and eating it all has been the thing...

• I discover slicing and freezing apples on a tray with lemon juice on before bagging for the freezer
• shredding and mixing with orange juice for a better alternative to milk on home made muesli
• many apple crumbles
• more apple pies
• compost for the heap
• food for the rabbit and guinea pigs
• puree for sauce with pork

and today my son picked most of the grapes from the vine as there is to be a harsh frost tonight. They are a little tart but we juiced them with... you guessed it, apple juice, as a sweetener. This drink feels like energy on legs.

All these wonderful edibles need to be remembered and my daughter decorated journal pages with me.

That in itself is one happy, happy memory.