no tears

I have dry eyes so got some artifical tears from the pharmacy.  Instructions say to put one drop in the eye, there may be some blurriness.  I take off my specs, stand in front of the mirror, tip head back and can't see to put the blooming drop in.  Finally managed it and noticed vision very blurred.  Waited for eyesight to get back to normal.  Waited.  Started to worry and went to look for leaflet, found it with specs sitting on top!  Put specs on, eyesight just fine!!!

The thing is, I only put the drop in one eye, I couldn't understand why blurriness was in both eyes - I scare myself sometimes...

something that I should have finished ages ago

I finally finished this little book.  Well two really but one has already gone to it's new owner. It is only pocket sized and has hand made rag paper pages.  This one will be in the mail this week. 

Medieval Shreswbury

So many medieval buildings, so little time to take pictures....

Because the properties are painted in black and white, the pattern is so easy to see. The leaded glass was intricate too. 

St Mary's Church had so many gems.  The ironwork on the door was wonderful and in places it glowed orange with rust.

B spotted this gem, it was on the outside of the church over the main entrance door.  If you can't read it, click and it will be bigger. 

The floor tiles in St Mary's are Victorian copies of Medieval tiles, my photos aren't fantastic but the patterns are.  here

Medieval patterns from tiles and stuff

There were medieval tiles amongst the ruins of Haughmond Abbey, I love these floor tiles, imagine how many feet have walked over these.

These are from Wenlock Priory 

Whilst these are Victorian copies of medieval tiles from St Mary's Church in Shrewsbury. 

There are more pics of tiles here

Misericords

What is a Misericord?  In Medieval times monks spent many hours standing praying.  These shelf-like seats were for leaning on when they got super tired.  Strangely the designs were on the underside of the seat so were rarely seen.  The carvings had deep meanings but the craftsmen showed amazing sense of humour.  The armrests had equally fantastic carvings, unfortunately the ones here at Ludlow Parish Church were very worn. 

There are more pics of misericords from Ludlow here 

The joy of finding a quilt exhibition whilst on holiday

It was by a mysterious coincidence that we strolled past the Minerva Arts Centre when they had a quilt exhibition.  Or not.  It was a wonderful surprise to find Jackie Smith's work on display. 

Dramatically modified sweetcorn was incredibly textured.  Close up below.

The work entitled 'soft stone armour' was the one I wanted to bring home with me.  It looked very subtle but once you got close it had amazing textures and colour. 

This small area of 'summer' shows the delightful quirkiness of Jackie's work. 

Sheena J Norquay is another name I recognised.   I was hopping from one piece to another in excitement when I saw these.  The one on the right is from a hanging called '25'

This and the one below are from 'silver circles' and are great examples of how to turn simple mark making into a lovely hanging

'Uplifted' was another great use of simply painted fabric.  This shows just a tiny glimpse of the quilt.

There are more photos on flickr including photos of the quilts to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the European Quilt Assoc