Thank you

Thanks to all my friends who commented on my last post, service is now restored to normal. Obviously a Blogger blip.

Can anyone help?

While playing on another blog I was looking at followers options. This then seems to have deleted my followers gadget in my blogs leaving a blank space. I've tried deleting the gadget and re-instating it but that did no good. Can anyone help? I want it back! It's good to see my followers!

A fun exercise?

Well I did it, thanks Chittle Chattle It was very hard. I had to draw with my left hand and I'm right handed. To add insult to injury I couldn't look at the paper, I was looking at myself through the bathroom mirror and it is 1.37 in the morning! No need to lock the bathroom door, no-one else is up, even the cats have gone to sleep. Before you ask, no I will not be posting a picture in my Journal Blog which I now realise I haven't updated since we came back from Keswick. 

Very remiss of me but in my defence I have been busy, doing some embroidery/felting/knitting/crochet/dyeing projects, playing with the cats who will insist in getting in on the act and going to lots of exhibitions in Durham and Northumberland. 

Last week I was playing with metals with Alysn Midgelow-Marsden, great fun. I have over 21 small samples which are being backed and presented on small hangings so I have a record of a very pleasant two days. Sorry the photos are on their side but I just haven't had time to Photo-shop them. This is very much a work in progress.

Dying thanks to  Myfanwy

That's all I have to show you today, there will be more photos to follow. Thank you for reading my blog. All your lovely comments are read and much appreciated. An especially big thanks to my friends who keep my creativity going.

Tantalising dying

Well I now have my fabrics in their dyes, can I wait 24 hours to take them out. Silly me of course not. I might just be able to wait 6 or 7 hours. I am out all day tomorrow and Thursday so it will have to be done today. Don't they look fantastic. I'm not sure what I've done to the photo I think I have over-sharpened it. Never mind it gives an idea of what those colours look like.

Happy Summer Solstice

I hope everyone who went to Stonehenge last night had better weather than we had here! I suspect not.

Sorry I should have credited this image to The Stone Circle Blog and Mysticdreams.com.

Dying

I am just starting on some new dying experiments. Thanks to Chittle Chattle  I have everything ready and I had planned to start today but I went out this afternoon to visit a stitching friend that I haven't seen for a while. It was great to catch up and she gave me some beautiful purple lepidolite earings. I must take a photo and share their beauty with you. 
Then I fell asleep while watching a video and trying to do some of my crochet lap blanket. This evening has been spent catching up with me emails, reading blogs etc and now it's time to go to bed where has the time gone? 
Does anyone else have this problem? As I get older there is so much to do, so much I want to do and the days go by faster and faster.

Do What You Love

I just have to share this with you. Life is so precious we must make the most of every minute. Thank you Chittle Chattle for reminding me of this.

Paxton House & nostalgia

Helen's Exhibition was fantastic we had a good catch up as well. I then went into Berwick upon Tweed and while having a nostalgic trip to where my Mum was brought up and I was born met a brilliant 91 year old lady who remembered my mother and all her family. Absolutely brilliant. I wish someone had taken a photograph of the smiles on both of our faces.


Here is a picture of my Mum, Gran and Great Gran who all lived in Berwick.

 

This lady remembered all my uncles and went to school with Uncle Harry who was drowned at sea with his son-in-law while they were out fishing. I wish someone had been there to take photos of our faces we were both grinning like Cheshire cats!

Here is one of the pieces of work I have done over the last few weeks, it uses the above image along with the map of Berwick and Coldstream where my father was brought up. The embroidery on the piece reminds me of the first embroideries I did for my Gran who loved the pieces I did when I was a teenager. The painted Bondaweb, tissue paper fabric and scrunched brown paper are a reminder of my recent embroidery journeys. I have loved working on this piece and it is still a work in progress.

One more share of my recent work is a felted piece that uses up scraps from my TUSAL jar. The beads are not stitched on yet.

Busy Busy Busy

Like most of us Summer has brought on a manic case of Spring Cleaning, both of my home but, more importantly, in my garden, the new foster cats and my creative 'work'. There is a lot to tell you but it will have to wait for another time when time is not quite so pressing. Just to let you know two or three pieces of work are well on their way, a few more revived, more projects started. I need to take a whole batch of photos to share with you.


Today I am off to Berwick upon Tweed - the town I was born in and my grandparents lived - so real nostalgia, very in keeping with some of my current embroidery work. I will drop DH off and he will go for a walk and I am going up the Tweed to Paxton House to see an exhibition by one of my good friends Helen Cowans. Anyone living in reach of Berwick can see this up to 29th June should try and get to see it. Helen's photos have really inspired me to get up there and see the pieces for real! Well done Helen everything looks brill. Will make a report when I get back.

Meet Didi

Foster cat number 2, Didi is not as friendly as Holly and hated having a collar put on her this morning and went in the huff by hidding under the bed all day. There have been no fights between the two today either. Didi is certainly more aggressive than Holly and yesterday saw Holly off with some rather rude words! She is a beautiful looking cat but will be more difficult to integrate into our family.