Kizzie ate my specs

Kizzie chewed my glasses, I needed an eye test so wasn't too cross.  Well I was but c'est la vie.  (move over Del Boy).  Astigmatism in both eyes was a bit of a blow as it was only in one eye last year, but the cataracts came as a bit of a shock. 
I will be picking up my four new pairs of glasses on Friday, in the meantime the delightful young woman in Specsavers in Sleaford made my old pair wearable for me, even though I didn't buy them from there.  Unless you look very closely you won't see the chew marks and they no longer fall off each time I move :)  I wouldn't normally bother to name a shop but the opticians that I have been going to for several years told me they were unrepairable and I needed to claim on my insurance.  So grrr to them.

I guess my style will be more abstract than ever and I may interject a little quirky colour into my work from now on - hey! my stuff may improve out of all recognition from now on ...

There goes the groom

Ros and I went to Kisco in Leicester today.  We bought dyeing cotton and a fat Quarter bundle each and on the way out we saw a groom setting off to his wedding. 

He looked very self-consious but very happy.

I understand he was accompanied by his family to the hall where his bride was waiting. 

I hope they have a long and happy marriage.

Indigo happy dancing

I set up my first solo indigo vat.  It is pretty obvious that the dyed pieces are not perfect so why the happy dance?
I wanted an indigo dyed fabric with rust marks.  But I didn't want to rust my fabric because I am afraid it will rust my sewing machine.  I scrunched dyed some cotton poplin with orange rust procion dye. It came out orange with white marks. Then I stitched and tied the fabric and dipped it into my indigo bucket.  You can see the results.   (Two of the pieces were undyed)

I used the Hydros recipe in Janice Gunner's book, it was simple 'bung it in the bucket and stir' and it worked.  The hydros bleached out the orange colour where it reached = the blue fabric with orange marks = happy dance.

bark inspiration

Today I went off to Peterboro with Roz and Julie to visit some of the open studios.
We started at  (16) 'Art and Stitch' where Sarah was teaching how to make beaded buttons, along with showing her quilts, embroideries and sketch books.  Angela Watson and Pam Pardo also had work on show.  There is a shop attached and I bought some wool felt to dye. 

On to (4) with Sue Shields, Carol Burnett  Anita Bruce and Lindsay Wisniewski. Carol's freeform beaded bracelets were especially
wonderful.


Next stop was (5)   Julie Reid Ann Bellamy and Kathryn Moore.  Julies

paintings were serene, absolutely lovely.  Ann's jewellery was quirky and fun and I came home with this pin.  Kathryn hand spun, hand dyed and then wove the resulting yarn.  She also plays the piano rather well.

Julies garden was wonderful, interesting and restful and we did indeed rest and ate a scrummy cream tea whilst sitting in a shady spot. 

On to (8) where Kay Hall was showing her embroideries and mosaics along with Nadine Gereson and her silver jewellery.  Kay's mosaics were made using glass, textured, coloured and with metal and paper and goodness knows what.  (I wanted one in particular and may go back for that at a later date.)  Kay's garden  was amazing too with mosaics and rusting metal sculptures and glass mobiles and a simple pine tree with the most interesting bark.  The tree had been covered by jasmine until recently and what a beautiful and inspiring trunk reappeared when the jasmine was trimmed. 


I didn't take many pics of the work on show, so you will have to visit either the studios or the web sites for a look.  Most studios are open tomorrow and next weekend, info here