Friday, September 30, 2016

As Julia Cameron would say "this week's artist's date"

Visited The Craft Study Centre in Farnham on Thursday to see an exhibition of the work of Diana Harrison  see http://www.csc.uca.ac.uk/new-events/2016/8/9/exhibition-diana-harrison-working-in-cloth. 

As the CSC website says

'Working in cloth is a major exhibition of textile art by one of the finest practitioners in Britain, (Diana Harrison's) recent work is often quiet, introspective and deeply considered ...'


The show is small, very well curated with delicate, repetitive and inspiring textile work in a beautiful setting and really helpful exhibit notes ... do go if you're nearby.

Farnham calls itself a craft town ... there's certainly lots going on there and plenty of traffic. One of those towns that is not very far at all from me and yet I'd forgotten all about it. It seemed a great place to return to now to get to know the polaroid zip printer I bought this week - and to find more images for stitch inspiration.

The printer is very small and so (unsurprisingly) are the prints ... but it was easy to set up. I downloaded the app, connected it via bluetooth to my phone and printed an image just the size for sketchbook work.

More details at http://www.apple.com/uk/shop/product/HJJT2ZM/A/polaroid-zip-instant-mobile-printer?fnode=9b.  And thank you, Julia Gahagan at Homegrown Textiles http://www.homegrowntextiles.co.uk  for the info on the printer ... its just what I needed.

Finally, yesterday I somehow found my way to a Youtube video of BKS Iyengar Teaching Yoga asana class in London 1985. its labelled part 2 of 2 (Clip 3 of 3) ... there are lots of great tips about what to move where and the length of the stretch in shoulder stand ... and it's wonderful to watch the Master teaching. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-M0z7_LdWr0
Have a good weekend all.

Tuesday, September 27, 2016

More not very unusual news.

A better than expected Quilters Guild workshop on Saturday to learn about miniature quilting - useful to know how some quilters use glue and net to hold those tiny pieces. I can see from the photo of my 'cottage' how crooked my finished piece is ... accuracy is key for pieces this small; obviously I went astray.











I've played with stitching my pasted and painted muslin ... not happy about the stitch holes. Perhaps there be some help with looking at work by professional textile artists so I'm off to a local Gallery soon to learn more.









So good to have daily autumn sunshine and unusually warm days as it starts to darken later and earlier each day. For me this means difficult to decisions about what clothes to wear. I noticed a whinge in my voice talking about these dilemmas -socks or no socks, how many layers- and then realised my good fortune that such things bother me.


I've been seeing a friend on chemotherapy for myeloma quite a lot these past few days. We spent time yesterday repacking her case for the next hospital visit -pyjamas and comfy clothes to wear waiting for the drugs to drip slowly into her body. We chatted about winter coats even though she's not able to go out and about. Not yet, I said, soon though, we'll go for a walk to the new cafe in the park.

I passed this wall on my way home on Sunday as I have many times before ... and was stopped by the light on the bricks.


On local walks there are quite a few benches, all sorts of hopes and sizes - places to stop, to pay attention, from where I can find something to inspire my daily mark making. I'm taking a leaf out of Helen Terry's blog see http://www.helenterryart.co.uk/blog/ to prepare for the Inspiration to Stitch course.

So far there are pencil marks and words and now I need to find other tools. It's not very me, it feels strange but I'm using a very small notebook so filling a page is not hard, or shouldn't be. Watch this space as I venture further with this novel daily practice.

   




A friend once told me that the way to see a city was to look up. Looking down in a small village is also rewarding! More possibilities for stitch patterns on the pavement under my feet.

Thursday, September 22, 2016

I've been away a while: back again now

Well, the title of this post says it all really so I won't dwell on reasons for my absence - those of you who know me will know why. If I have any readers left out there, hello again, and if you're new to my blog welcome, I look forward to your comments.

Onto reasons for this restart (yes, there have been many others): top of the list is enrolment on one of the Poetry School's wonderful online courses, called enticingly Secrets and Lies. So there's a real need for me to get writing again ... the blog is one way, resuming morning pages as I did today is another.


I'm also trying to collect some ideas for stitching - colour, shape, dimensions etc. I spent this morning in the garden so didn't have to go far for a reminder to look close -these are presently brightening the view from my kitchen window. 



- my garden is full of great memories, the first time I grew 'Chinese Lanterns' was from a cutting from Peggy's Maidstone garden. So good to have a tub of them with me now.








- I love the randomness of these splashes of pale, just like the random shapes when I free motion quilt.






I  may be back later with a catch up on the Splendid Sampler blocks from my summer sewing. And maybe I'll say something about my summer reading. On the other hand if the sun keeps on shining I'll be out walking of a while.

Remember you can comment as well as lurk in the shadows as a reader! Now to see if I can get this posted and shared around social media after all this time.