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 

One week: a short time in weather

We had snow, it left quickly so no photo, that's all!   Very glad the roads were clear for the first of 2017's first Inspiration to Stitch day with Terri and Hazel see http://www.institchestextilecourses.co.uk,

I made a start on sketchbook pages on the theme of journey and did some printing for the last one to go into the Autumn book.

And today the magical experience of choosing a date for a walk weeks ahead that then turns out to be a blue sky day.

We walked from Coulson South to Banstead - along the green paths of suburbia with London on the skyline. All part of the London Loop, for more details see https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/walking/loop-walk

The weekend rain that made my drive to Kent a very unpleasant experience of spray and fog had  turned the bridleways (shared with LL pathways) close to Epsom Downs into mud baths. Thank goodness for good boots and good chat with good friends as we made our way along the northern ridge of the Northern Downs.

Our route out of Coulson took us under the wonderful walls of this new railway bridge  and
we reached Banstead over an old railway bridge with some slate 'roof tiles'. Two more examples for my collection of patterns I might, someday, stitch.   I just love the weightiness of the slate.

Finally, more lines in the evening sky as I close the blinds .... hopefully a good omen for tomorrow when I'll be dyeing fabric with the Institches fabric wizards.

Another Wall Wears a Quilt

At last, the quilt made with fabric bought in New York in December 2014 has made it way to the finishing line ... a journey of two years, so about average!


The last stitch in the hanging sleeve for this quilt was made with good timing: no need to tuck it all into the suitcase coming with me back to UK today. There's enough in there already including, of course, the tea bag work in progress.

Just love the paper that emerges when these are emptied. 

This quilt is a first for me in terms of main and border design and quilting.  But I'm not fond of large projects and can't wait to work small and slow in a sketchbook on my next Inspiration to Stitch day tomorrow.   More on this later.

Posting poems

Those of you who spend a little while with my blog know that, in the past, I've occasionally posted my poems on one of the header pages that is titled A Small Collection of Poems.

This explanation goes on for a bit so by way of light relief I'm posting photos of how the drop in temperature in the last few days has wrought its magic on our garden and the adjacent farmers track.

Just for a change, a winter leaf 

I love how the leaf skeleton is highlighted here 

Usually I kept back poems that I planned, one day, to send to magazines or perhaps and rather grandly, that might have been part of a pamphlet.  In doing this I was following poetry tradition and custom as poetry editors don't want a poem once its been published elsewhere and a personal blog counts in that respect.

Maybe a stitching pattern here

This year I plan to share my poems in a different way by publishing many more on this blog. Once a poem is on one of these general pages I'll add it to the Collection page and  look forward to your comments. I'd love for this to be a way for me to hear what you think, how the poem looked and sounded to you etc., etc.

Yippee, no more hours in the poetry office, more hours to enjoy the writing and rewriting and for reading and commenting on the poems posted on the sharing poems Facebook closed page I'm part of following the 52 project.   Its a  decision that feels a very good one to have made as a new year begins.

Answers in the comments secant please ... 

A slow walk today with my wonderful new camera (thank you, James) and some useful hints from Paul about how to keep still while pressing the shutter resulted in these and many other photos that I hope will be valuable for my new Inspiration to Stitch sketchbook.


Then we all had a fast walk with the dogs, off road, in and out of the sunshine, tracking the changes underfoot between the shady and sunlit verges.


Finally, here is today's poem (not that there will necessarily be one tomorrow). This is draft two, draft one was longer and I have some very good poets friends to thank for pointing out the repetition and the value of this particular poem being short.

 In fog

there are fewer lines to follow,

no place else where

other people live.

The smell of fog is full

of your own breath and

your ears hear you and you.

After a while the blanket

becomes a parcel and people

live in a pared down world.

And to close a glimpse of a scattering of seed stitches ...  a needle, thread and slow fingers   

Putting the Pages Back In ...

So pleased to report that the fog has finally left us, its now very cold so I've spent the last few days close to the fire reassembling my Autumn sketchbook or with the extra layer of a quilt as I read my way through Kim Moore's poetry (see more about her work at  https://kimmoorepoet.wordpress.com), and the story of the Twin Towers tightrope walker https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippe_Petit, plus very regular and very brisk walks with dogs, of course.

Here are most of the dissembled pages, awaiting the decision about what to include and what to maybe keep for something else ...

A few that might not make it into the Autumn Book

 

I quite like most of these 

Found one more use for the empty teabags ... just the right size to hold my sewn leaves 

Finally, some sort of order emerges ...

At last, a cover page

Definitely do not like these pages ... might make good collage paper another time 

I'll soon have to pack things together for my return to UK so the pages are now back in the sketchbook, in an OK order, although I've learnt to think about this more in advance. 

That's it for now by what of autumn as I've just had an email about what to prepare for the next day on the course, which is only six days aways and means a new sketchbook, new techniques and a new topic!

Leaves, and more leaves,



                                 and lots of loose ends