Texture

This flint wall formed part of the castle wall at Old Sarum. I was taken by the contrast between the mostly flat flint and those two very round pieces (bottom right).











The texture and colour of the lichen growing on
this rock intrigued me. If you click on the pic you
will be able to see it in close up.

I am always amazed at how plants can survive in the most unlikely places.












Yellow and orange are my favorite colours and I am always trying to take good close up photos of lichen. You just know that there must be some scrummy texture if only you could get close enough.








By jove I think I did it :) If you click on the pic, you can zoom in a little more before it goes too out of focus.

Old Sarum

Rolling English Countryside, photo taken at Old Sarum, near to Salisbury. The bright yellow is the rape seed plant.



Old Sarum is the site of a medieval Castle (built 1070), only ruins now. I love wandering around old ruins and this one has some very interesting bits. There was a privvy, which was a room high in a tower. Below was a huge chamber which some poor soul had to climb into and empty periodically. The moat is still there although it has grass on the banks now.








We were there in the morning and saw hundreds of baby rabbits.






A cathedral was built here in 1092, but dramatically damaged by a thunderstorm only 5 days after it was consecrated. It was re-built and enlarged but never finished. Instead the stone was taken and used to build Salisbury Cathedral. What you see in the photo is the foundations of the original.

Stonehenge

I have been travelling and can't resist sharing some of the places I stopped at along the way.

We drove to Salisbury and stopped to see Stonehenge as we drove past. It is difficult to describe just how awesome this place is, the stones are huge and it is oh so ancient. The large ditch and bank (the henge) were built over 5000 years ago. Originally there was a wooden structure in the centre but around 4500 years ago this was replaced with the stones. The circles use different coloured stone, the larger ones were brought from the Downs 19 miles away, but the smaller ones are bluestones and came from Wales 240 miles away! The blue specs in the stone sparkles where the light catches it.

See the tall stone in the centre of the pic, with the nobble on top? The lintels were held in place by these nobbles. The large stones are set a particular space apart so that the sun rises between two stones all through the year. There is another single large stone set around 100 yards apart and the sun rises over this one. How amazing were our ancestors!

Around the site are large humps in the earth, these were the burial mounds.

During the day there is a low barrier around the stones so I couldn't take close up photos, but I understand that if you camp overnight you can go right up and touch. There is a campagn to have the site totally open and free 24 hours a day, but I was perfectly happy to pay the small entrance fee. I can just imagine how long the stones would last once bits started to sell on ebay.

501 Bag

There are two reasons for calling this my 501 bag. The first is that it is made from my precious pair of 501's. I have only owned one pair, bought many years ago. Only pair of jeans I ever owned that fit on the bum and the waist. Pity they were 12 inches too long. By the time I got around to shortening them, I had gained weight and so they sat around for years, occasionally I would pat them but eventually I gave in and cut them up.

The second reason for it being a 501 bag is that is how many swear words I used whilst I was making it. The pattern came from a book and I couldn't understand the instructions. I made one from a piece of cheap calico to work out how to do it, there were many unpicked seams before I got there.

The last time I inserted a zip into anything was when I did my city and guilds in machine knitting and made a 'biker' jacket. I must have been crazy to put in 7 zips. I was a lot younger then :) Having a zip foot makes life so much easier and I only had to unpick and re-do one side.

I dyed some of the indigo shibori fabric (see post from June 08), some I bought ages ago. The pack had fallen down the back of the drawer and I found it when I had to pull the drawer out to fix it. I stitched and flipped the strips (onto cotton batting), trying to sew the strips uneven was a lot harder than sewing them straight. I had some hand dyed cotton which hadn't been a total success, it didn't have those lovely mottled markings but did have one splodge, so I used that to line the bag.

This is the third thing I have finished this year - hurrah!

Spring and my Magnolia

I have always wanted a magnolia tree but have never had a garden big enough. Last year I found this one for sale, and had a 'must have' moment, even though my garden is even smaller due to the building of the studio. The blooms are a wonderful lift to the spirit, Spring is here.

Spring means the end of the permanent dreary grey sky, instead we have wind and rain showers but with blue skies too. Spring is also the time when our famers like to show the incomers what rural life is all about. The first bright sunny day and they all get out the muck spreading equipment and you would not believe the pong...

Quilt 2

I have to explain that GG is 5, a very girly girl and I thought that she would like a pink blanket for her doll. However I have been informed that baby Ashley is a boy and he doesn't like pink. His special request for green was turned down as I hate green and didn't have green fabric. GG then suggested a multi coloured blanket. So here it is. I romped ahead with the piecing, feeling quite proud of myself, but oh boy the quilting is baad! I quilted from the reverse and it took a bit of unpicking until I got the tension right, then I used the instant tie off on the machine. Of course this shows on the back, which in this case is the front and it doesn't look nice. I don't mind the wobbles so much, but I am not sure I have the stamina to hand tie and bury all the ends that would have been created stitching the circles. And with hindsight, it would have been better to sew those with the foot on.

I think I might have to make loads more of these little quilts before I embark on a bed sized quilt. Thankfully GG has many babies to look after and each one will need a blanket...

quilts etc

I haven't been very creative since my studio went out of bounds, but I did have access to my sewing machine and a few fat quarters. I made 18 pin cushion baggies and yesterday I made this little quilt for GG to use in her dolls cot. It measures 17" x 14" and is as simple as can be.

I have only made one quilt before, full double bed sized and the only thing I was proud of was the fact that I finished it! It took so long to sew together that I forgot which pattern I was supposed to be doing. The stitching in the ditch missed the ditch in several places, the binding was awful, twisted and quite nasty. But I hung it on the wall behind the bed and it stayed there for several years. To be honest it just became part of the room and I stopped noticing it. This little one was a practice piece for The bed quilt I thought I might make for myself. I think I need more practice before I start on that ;)