Today chez moi ....

Its been a while! I've been busy  ... so a quick catch up mostly in pictures ...

.

The transformation of 6m of white cotton to a beautiful set of colours for  my next stitching project  well, that was last Friday and Saturday taken care of ..

So relieved that all the buckets and bags remained whole as I drove home ....

Its hard work rinsing and washing all that fabric but exciting as the colours emerge

Some sunrise colours here

and the black to pale grey set will be perfect for pavements and stone walls ...

Finally, I found them a nice resting place  .... but they won't be there very long.












One short flight on Sunday and now I'm enjoying some late autumn sunshine at home in France .... there are five dogs, two people and walks twice a day  ... so twice along the quiet back road in the morning and twice around the lake in the afternoon. Lots of steps and lots of time for reflection.

In between my kennel assistant routine I slipped in some sedentary jobs. So, big news here, today I sent my novel, well, the first three chapters and a synopsis, out to several agents.

It felt the right time and I now have to wait for, what? Well, who knows. Fingers crossed ...

But doing that leaves my mind free to continue with what at the moment I am calling Novel 2.

That felt a big thing to be doing so in between  I tacked a small quilt ready for, yes, you've guessed, quilting. There was a slight hiatus in this gentle activity when in the middle of the morning I lost the thread and scissors.

They were there when I went out to feed the hens and gone when I returned.  The fabric was undisturbed, my pincushion was there but no scissors and spool of tacking thread

The culprit was Naomi ... loveable and naughty and very fond of chewing ... and eventually I found the evidence.  She now has a hard(ish) rubber ball to chew and I have learnt not to leave temptation in her reach!!!


There's a book review coming up in the next post .... do read on or is it up?

Leaves in stitch .... and other things

Good Monday morning ... hope your weekend went well.

We are still eating figs -rocket, avocado, goats cheese and fig salad was great with a from the garden/ market Spanish omelette.  And the fig jam is very good on scones. I have, at last, found a recipe using plain flour. Self raising is not available in France and my previous attempts have been less than light!
So thank you to https://www.bbc.com/food/recipes/paul_hollywoods_scones_70005.



I am still stitching ... 24 fish complete and now its leaves and more leaves ....

Next will be the eyes of the fish ... suggestions on how to stitch these please.

And in case you missed my FB or tweet about this great post on journalling, here's the link

https://medium.com/@janfortune/how-to-cultivate-the-powerful-mindset-of-a-writer-a7ad6df6bba6

I've been thinking for a while that I should combine my morning pages notebook with my daily journal and the other notebooks I have - mainly to lighten my load when travelling. Jan's post has convinced me to give that a go.

I also need to explore more of the entries on Medium and maybe posts some of my thoughts there.

Meanwhile, I have at last found some French language podcasts at my level ... they are good to listen to as I hand sew.

Finally, away from the electronic world I'm going back to the garden to do some gentle and therapeutic clearing rubbish and weeding.

Back here soon ....

...

Thoughts on hanging stitched pieces ...

It is hot, 32C at 09 00 and so I did some brief morning Pilates indoors. The laundry is done and dusted, I hung it out to dry carefully avoiding the wasps nest that needs to be dealt with.

Now its time for doing things in the cool of this lovely house. The cool indoors is thanks to thick stone walls and the opening and closing of shutters and windows as the day progresses.

 - small break while I close the shutters to the midday sun .... and wow, look what came into the kitchen while I was there ....

Back to today's topic. (BTW the figs are very wonderful)

Some of you know that I've been considering ways of mounting and hanging some of the small stitched pieces I've made during the last few years. Quilts are the easiest! Add a sleeve to the back, find a pole to fit the sleeve and hook that up by the best means for the wall that suits.

You can see an example of that in the background of this photo. The Bargello Quilt is incomplete and finished. It should have been much larger but I ran out of patience with tiny fussy pieces.

In the foreground are five small stitched pieces of my dyed fabric ... my aim here was to see what stitch added to the patterns produced by the dye techniques.

This is a semi permeant hanging (!) to test whether I like it. So far, I do ... it's great seeing the pieces from afar as I walk into my room.

Each piece is tied onto (hidden) fishing wire and could be removed if I wanted to put them in an exhibition. My best guess is that they will still be there this time next year.


The next few pics show three embroidery pieces (hemp thread on linen) in box frames from Leroy Merlin. Easy to put together and inexpensive. I stretched each finished piece over foam board and fastened it with flat head pins. No glass as I like to see the 3D effect of textile pieces.  The box files are useful in places where fixing frames to a wall is a challenge. They stand up well and can be moved somewhere else if necessary.

The top piece is white linen embroidered with dark thread on a wherever the line leads basis, then mounted on hessian and linen and fixed to foam board with more flat head pins. Simple mounting to suit a simple piece.

 This is the Swindon Postbox, Inspired by the real thing in, yes, Swindon, made with painted fabrics and lots of free motion stitching.

It was stretched and mounted by the Framer in Fleurance. Very expensive and looks good but I realise that I can do this myself so a lesson learnt.

The edges are unfinished, this tends to be a theme of my stitching ....

And finally here, one more DIY framing, hanging on another beam. The piece is fabric dress pattern paper and old maps, printed with eucalyptus bark then lots of machine and hand stitching.

Probably not the best photo here - sorry!


It turned out to be just the right size and shape for that particular place and that place allowed the randomness of the edges to shine.

Here's a better photo of the piece ...

The fragrance of figs is reaching my room, and I hear sounds that tell me the jam making has started. I'll be back here soon.

Comments on the above very welcome. Please tell me what you do with your small stitched pieces, or any other small art works. Thank you.

2017 .. a final post about puppies and projects

My day here in Le Gers has gone from warm and sunny  - morning yoga and breakfast on the terrace - yes, really, and a sunny walk with Crumble - to whippy wind and rain as I turn on the lights.

So a chance to write a final post for 2017, or rather to post some pics that speak more than words.

The puppies continue to give much joy ... today they all had a wash and brush up by the stove  - the way to shiny coats  - and one of their now regular runabouts  - and then, of course, lots of sleep afterwards.

And here are some pics of stitching ...

Eco printed leaf ... and my favourite stitch 

Still plenty of room for more lines of stitch 

More blanket stitch ... leaves, steam, paper, muslin and tea dyed silk  ... loving this combination.

Off the needles at last ... colourful yarn and simple stitiching  

 Happy New Year, thank you for reading this. See you in 2018.

In passing ...

.. breakfast coffee and a quiet moment to have a mini brag about progress with a couple of projects!

the shadow for the brick quilt is freezer paper ready .... just need to make decisions about the quilt backing fabric, and tack the sandwich and then quilt it ... and play with ways to include the shadows. Ideas welcome.





And below, presently decorating the floor, you can see some small progress on my 4th plinth project. Fabric pavements are printed, the donated old blanket is cut to size for the wadding.
Now what to do next?

Finally, on the wall, where lots of ideas begin, (where else), two pieces of fabric from my 2017 dyeing efforts. They seem to be saying 'put us together' .... but how and why and ????

Step by step ...

and slowly! At the moment my so called brick quilt, or maybe its the shadow quilt, is occupying some of my bedroom floor,

and the rest of the room is full of stuff usually in the linen cupboard. Hopefully the small changes to the laundry room will soon be complete -maybe some pics this week - and I'll be able to move more easily around the bedroom.

The quilt in progress might also be there for a few more days  ... I'm still undecided about the the size of the shadow that I'll add after the quilting, and even more undecided about the border. Still, its great to be working with my own dyed fabrics and a photo taken of Crumble and I out for a walk last winter .... maybe by next winter the finished quilt will be on my lap.

To close a couple of recommendations. If you're a stitcher then do take look at Michelle Carragher http://www.michelecarragherembroidery.com/Game-of-Thrones-Gallery(2829575).htm for some inspirational hand embroidery. I heard her speaking on Saturday ... such skill and dedication, and a great speaker.

If you like the movies then I and a few friends all really enjoyed Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool with Annette Bening and Jamie Bell. Here's one of the reviews https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/nov/19/film-stars-dont-die-in-liverpool-review-annette-bening-jamie-bell.  Lots of very good performances by the major and minor actors and, for me, a clever and powerful accompanying score and authentic set.

Have a good week. I'm going back to the last few games of the tennis final.

Practice without a purpose ...

... is a phrase I came a











... is a phrase I came across in Pencil Dancing (see https://www.amazon.com/Pencil-Dancing-Ways-Creative-Spirit/dp/158297005X). My copy was 50p second hand and is useful to dip into for a few minutes with my early morning tea, just a glance, a few rows of knitting and some birdwatching.  Sparrows are still feeding young in a nest in the gaps between the stones in the front house wall and I'm told a Hoopoe visits occasionally.

The phrase 'practice without a purpose' is a good label for what I've been doing for the the past couple of days with three lengths of white silk and some left over scraps of coloured silk.

rusty nails from a falling apart pallet - I love the sort of regularity 

odds of silk wrapped in an old chain and drill bit 

and below a melange of Procion dyed cotton marked with a Markal paint stick using our walls of lime plaster, hemp bricks and wood.

Most of marks were similar!!

Doing this has  given me some ideas for the 'brick quilt' that's slowly happening.   Watch this space.






Meanwhile ... as the pics below show my line a day project continues and also a hand embroidered and charcoal marked piece I started at the Textile Study Group's summer school two weeks ago. For more detail of this inspiring group see https://textilestudygroup.co.uk

one little basket of beautiful thread 

The heatwave here in France continues. A good time to have some slow days!  A good time for listening to Test Match Special reporting  the England v South Africa at Old Trafford.

I may be back here more regularly than usual ....

adding stitches to the marks, 

a line a day.   noting more 

summer school sampler now folded and stitched into a sketchbook 

Can't believe its June!!!!

A bit of a much needed catch up, mostly in pictures ...

After  many years I've found my crochet hooks. Now to decide whether to make lots of squares or to just keep on going around and around 

 Louise Tilbrook has kindly shared a really easy shawl pattern http://louisetilbrookdesigns.blogspot.co.uk

Well, its easy now I've worked out how to do the wyf slip stitch!!!
It's a good project for train and plane journeys and a great one to have alongside some stash busting blankets for Woolly Hugs see
https://www.woollyhugs.org


 

Baby blanket from one stitch onwards and upwards ... I love the simplicity of slipping the first stitch to give an almost lacey edge 

And with the help of blocking pins, usually used for knitting projects, I'm progressing with mounting some of the bits and pieces I've finished in the past few weeks.

I went to a very good Picture Mounting Workshop in early May at Farnham Maltings (https://farnhammaltings.com) with Lynne Friel see http://www.lynnefriel.co.uk

so I've no excuses now for a bit of DIY finishing off.

old thread, scrap scrim and linen ... learning how to stretch over mount board 

From the back - to be continued 

In the to be mounted queue 

Go to Margate, to Entangled at the Turner Contemporary ...

... go as soon as you can, its the most wonderful exhibition of threads and making by an inspiring group of women from all around the world.

Here's a small taste of what's on display ...

from the studio of Marion Baruch

delicate work by Chrisiane Lohr

Work by Tatiana Trouve

The bonus is that the Gallery's cafe has great food (I recommend the vegetarian hash) and Margate has an buildings that more than hint at an interesting past, including The Royal Sea Bathing Hospital and of course, Dreamland. 

Here's the link to the Gallery so you can find directions and opening times https://www.turnercontemporary.org/exhibitions/entangled-threads-making.  Go soon, entangled really is a fantastic display of what can be made with threads and associated materials.   

While you're there do stop to look at the steps down to the beach and this amazing door which is in the wall at the back of the nearby car park. I think I may have found a stitching project!!!