APTT Garden Party

Yesterday I hosted a garden party for the APTT (Association of Part Time Tutors) We had a fantastic day. The sun shone and the food was an amazing spread. Everyone contributed. Many thanks for that. There was good company and conversation. The last person left at 9pm and I was in bed by ten.

AWOL

Yes I have been AWOL for a while. I have given myself time off from my daily blogs to do WORK, look after my new family of cats and go on courses.
So here goes with my update.


1. Didi and Holly are now well at home going outside, except in the rain over the past two days.

Holly knocking over the plant-pots while chasing frogs

 Didi sitting on one of my houseplants

DH has now made small stakes to dissuade her from making this a permanent sleeping spot. The plant dies back occasionally anyway and will recover soon.

2. My pretty pink and blue papers are now safely in new poly pockets in a new lever arch file and nowhere near my dye solutions.

3. I have completed Purple Rain 2 a felted and beaded wall hanging.

3. I have been to three exhibitions recently, I may have told you about some of them, Helen Cowan's Exhibition at Paxton House, Stitch-in-9 exhibition in Sunderland and Influences plus exhibition by It Happens at the small Bailiffgate Museum in Alnwick. Oh and of course I went to Hampton Court Flower Show and two small textile and design exhibitions on the South Bank.

4. My garden has taken some time to look after as everything is growing so quickly and I am having my bi-annual Garden Party on behalf of the APTT  next Sunday 24th July so please keep all fingers, and toes, crossed for good weather. Here are just a very small sample of the 130 photos I took going round the garden the other day after coming back from London.

Cucumbers

 Tomatoes and other veg in pots

 Clematis over the stumps of two trees

 More seedlings in the shed

 Holly investigated the shed, the wall and next door's garden

 I have a few of these chimes around the garden

 I got this one from my sister

 BIG strawberries 

Passion flower

 Cabbages

 Garlic

Update on the Stone River

I think I had better stop as you will be tired of the tour. Thank you so much for visiting.

Another busy week

  After the accidental dyeing incident last week I have sorted my wet papers and dried them out and the majority are still readable. So the file has been reconstructed. They are such pretty colours. The mop up cloth fabric is starting to look quite pretty but the large poly-cotton drip cloth still needs a bit more work.
  On Monday I went on a visit to Alnwick Gardens and had a lovely day with DH, DD and friends.
  On Tuesday I went to London with DD and partner, Wednesday was a trip to RHS Hampton Court Flower Show and a meet up with DS. 
  Thursday was a visit to the new Embroiderers Guild headquarters at Walton on Thames, a short train journey from DDs home. In the afternoon I went into Central London and visited The Design Museum and the Fashion and Textile Museum. This was a busy day and ended with a walk along the South Bank of the Thames with DS and a mediocre Greek meal.
  Friday back home and a lovely weekend outside with the cats loving the freedom of the garden. Holly got stuck on next door's extension where the roof tiles were so slippery she could not hold on and kept skidding  She had to have a helping hand (wooden board) to return to the garden wall.
  There are photos to go with this post but they will have to wait until later when I have time to download and process them. Thank you everyone for your kind thoughts and comments about my accidental dying.

Accidental Dying

Why do things go wrong when you are at your busiest? I am preparing for visitors. All my dying bits and pieces were put into the garage as DH does not like it lying around the kitchen! This morning I went to get something from one of the boxes and I noticed that my cat litter tray with mop up cloths and files soaking wet!


I blamed a leak in the garage roof - no said DH dry as a bone. I took the file and fabric out of the tray to remember that I had decanted dye into jars - separate tray - and not wanting to waste the drops left in my dye bags I had filled them up with a bit of water to perhaps use later.

Of course some of them had leaked out and the water + dye had wicked up over the week through two pieces of fabric that I was going to dye later and the poly-cotton drip cloth that really wasn't very messy after the dyeing process. All fabric is now prettily tie-dyed and all papers in the loose leaf file is soaking wet.

 I have stood all afternoon separating papers and remembering my paper making placing them between J-Cloths. Fun.