Capability Brown 300

I have finally got round to doing the background for my Capability Brown piece based on bark from a Cedar of Lebanon. Embroiderers' Guild has teamed up with 140 National Trust properties to do exhibitions of work based on elements of the Capability Brown landscape at each place. My branches exhibition is at Charlecote Park from 11th August to 31st October. It follows on from exhibitions by Solihull and Leamington branches. It is in The Orangery cafe.
The background is scrim Bondawebbed on to calico with more pieces of scrim on top with little highlights of silk. The threads are some of the threads I might use.
I used to think that I was a meticulous planner, but when I did that, nothing quite made it on to fabric. I now know that I am more intuitive and like to be spontaneous when it comes to the actual making. Having said that, the photos were taken more than a year ago and the materials were bought in March, so planning has been going on in my conscious and subconscious mind!

One Small Change

Dress is cut out.

My new dress is cut out. Mum helped me do that last week. Now I just need to sew it up. I'm determined to do it on my machine this time- which means sorting out a bit more in the dining room.

This the the latest baby blanket I am crocheting in Katia variegated yarn. It is between a 4 ply and double knit thickness. I am going to edge it in yellow.

This is the gift that I received in the Victoria Sampler Cyber Stitchers July Exchange. The pillow was stitched by Margaret Johnson. My pillow has reached it's destination, so I'm very pleased.

Another dress to make!

I got another bolt of African fabric on Barking market at the beginning of July. Again it was 6 yards for £25! A real bargain. This is the pattern I want to make- the dress with sleeves.

Selfie Sampler by Lizzie Kate

Here is the cushion I made of the Selfie Sampler by Lizzie Kate. It is for a July Exchange in my cyber stitcher's group.

Black and Blue

Black lives matter!
Blue lives matter!
Whose lives matter?
Whose lives matter more?
And to whom?

A hail of bullets 
Drowns out protest.
Protest becomes the gunman.

The gunman sought to replace the mass 
And so negates the mass.

Terrorism appals
And defies the message
In seeking to substitute one for everyone
Every one is silenced.

Iraq- companion poem to Somme

Iraq War
thirteen years on
Lord Chilcot says
Two point six million words. 

Not all options had been explored
The United Nations had been undermined
Saddam Hussein could have been disarmed

Take away the Weapons of Mass Destruction 
He didn't have?

Not a whitewash
But a sticking plaster
Not an indictment
But wriggle room

Words not strong enough to try Blair on
Words that still allow him to say that
He made the right decision.

No apology
Just weasel words
A man afraid of consequences
With no sign of remorse.

100th Anniversary of the start of Battle of the Somme in World War One.

There were posts on Facebook about this and a poem by my friend, Tony Church. He also talked about creative writing on his blog and it made me think about updating mine.
I was also inspired to write a poem. I used to write alot of poetry, but haven't done for years.
As always when thinking of World War One, I do so through the prism of Wilfred Owens' poems.

Somme
A hundred years on
As obfuscated 
As a cloud of mustard gas
Filling the battlefield.

'Lions led by donkeys'
The post war generation said
Wary of another war
After The Great War-
'The war to end all wars'.

After a century,
At The Cenotaph,
'The Glorious Dead' 
Are still hailed,
Despite the testimonies they gave.

All dead now
They cannot contradict
So revisionists rewrite
The history of the war.

The glory of mud and slaughter,
Of gunfire and going over the top,
So Empires could grow
And warmongers could get rich.

War serves a purpose.
Remembrance is sanitised,
So they can still peddle
That old lie:

'Dulce et decorum est, pro patria mori'.

Jumper for Oliver

The final thing in this catch up is that I've been crocheting baby blankets and made this jumper for baby Oliver Reynolds in April.
I usually have a blanket on the go. Fortunately with people having babies and women at work becoming grannies, there are plenty of takers.

African Cities Fashion

The inspiration for my African material dress was an African Cities Fashion exhibition at Brighton Museum.

Brighton Pavilion and the reflecting pool.

At the beginning of May Dave and I went to Brighton. I love Brighton, but have not been when I haven't been at union conference so it was nice to just 'do' Brighton. A worker from the Pavilion told us about the reflecting pool.

Sweary Cross Stitch

There is something very cathartic about stitching swear words! This is one from 'Subversive Cross Stitch'- or at least it is a saying from one sampler and a border from another.

A Present

I made Dave a collage picture for his birthday on 4th June. Here is his band, Collibosher, and him playing bass guitar.

I made a dress and a bag!

At the beginning of May I bought a 6 yard bolt of African print material on Barking market. With the help of my Mum, I made myself a dress. At the end of June, Mum helped me to make a bag to go with it.
I've made 4 garments in my life. A tennis dress at school when I was 12, 2 when I was 26 and now this one, age 58.

Had a great workshop today making tags with Angie Hughes with women in my EG branch. I did one with imagery from Shrewsbury and one with a picture of fishes on a pillar at Papplewick Pumping Station, steam driven, it runs 2 Victorian James Watt beam engines.
I loved Angie's lower case alphabet rubber stamps.
http://www.angiehughes.com/
You can see what Heather did here http://heatherramsden.co.uk/2015/06/27/day-178/

Summer

Tina Francis Tapestry blog update has inspired me to update my blog.

The going is tough at the moment coming up the the anniversary of my husband, Tom's, death on 18th June and with the weather now the same as when I was visiting the hospital this time last year.

I have been catching up with the Travelling Books for Birmingham Embroiderers' Guild and plan to get my home book up to date this week as I am off work. Travelling books is interesting- I've done 2 pieces based on lichen, Coco Chanel's little black dress, a piece based on Ironbridge and Coalbrookdale and a piece inspired by Maori tattoos ( the owner of the book went to New Zealand last year). Now I have another book to be inspired by for next month. I now work on 2 pieces at the same time- one for the home book and one for the travelling book. Pieces are A5 size max, so manageable to work with.

Here are some photos from Mum and Dad's garden.

Through Our Hands have an exhibition at Bilston craft Gallery. I particularly liked the pogaji patchwork with ink leaking down it and Laura Kemshall's quilt that has text 'Will thy restless heart return to mine?' running through it. It spoke to me strongly of memory and loss.

Finally, there is a fascinating building over the road from Bilston Craft Gallery with 'Science and Arts' over the windows and portrait roundels. Unfortunately it is increasingly derelict and now dangerous. There are 3 portrait roundels on the side walls. Here is one..

Time to revitalise my blog!

It's  been a while, but I thought I'd revitalise my blog.

In January I started going to the Birmingham Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers. In March and April I did weaving workshops. The Saturday in March was spent preparing the warp threads and setting up the (borrowed) loom. In April, I finished setting up the loom and started the weft. The warp and weft threads are cotton and the colours are the colours of lichen.

Christmas Cards and New Year Greetings

 This is the Christmas card I made for an exchange. It is silk dupion on linen with vintage kimono shibori fabric for the flame. The holly and bow are from vintage cotton fabric.

This is the card I received in the exchange. It was from Faye in Australia and is of gum flowers. They have a white dusting for real, which resembles snow. She also sent me some Australian and New Zealand fabric.

I had an email from my cousin Loraine that reminded me about my blog. I will try to keep up with it more frequently in 2014. Happy New Year!

The indomitable Flylady says that you are never behind, just jump in wherever you are. I suppose it can apply to blogs too as well as decluttering and house cleaning. Just as in those areas the thought was liberating. And I'm over the idea I might only be talking to myself. The idea  of the blog is to help my creativity, so here goes!

I have been fascinated by lichen for a number of years since I found coin size pieces of crusty lichen- one yellow ochre, one green and one grey white- on a crumbling 16 th Century brick at Rufford Park near Sherwood Forest in Nottinghamshire.

I had only seen crusty lichen until we went to the Lost Gardens of Heligan last year and was fascinated with the foliate and fernlike lichens on the trees there.

When I put up one of my photos as wallpaper on my laptop I discovered mauve as well as greens in the lichen.

I'm amazed a piece made it into fabric and stitch at last!