Moving on

My first little sampler is finished, a mere 5cm x 7cm I had to be quite careful about what threads to use as the fabric, calico and cotton, is quite a close weave. I particularly like the way the shiny purple rayon catches the light and looks like some exotic ammonite, and the transition from closed to open chain stitch in the centre part, blending from rust to indigo. I've tried to echo that in the finer chain stitch coil to the left

Now for the next one, in bright hot excitable colours! This one 6cm square ('ish) and just beginning.

What fun!

sampler number 1

A little bit of embroidery, just tickling along, trying out stitches, seeing what I can do next. This is the cool colours version, still have the hot to go.

oooh, learning

I'm really rather excited! I've embarked on a City and Guilds in hand embroidery being run by the Guild I've recently joined. We're being taught by Barbara Walters, whose work you can see here.

So I spent Saturday in the company women, doing things that felt almost guiltily like play! We sploshed paint onto paper and fabric in Barbara's lovely back garden to start with, preparing the bedrock of our later creativity. Then we were treated to tea and biccies before spending the rest of the day learning about line and mark making, colour, design, thread and stitching. We were given much sage advice about preparing to work, using copious notes and taking pictures to document our work. I shall post piccies soon. Suffice to say I am having enormous fun trying out threads, fiddling with design and wondering about transferring to the fabric.

Oh yes, we did eat our packed lunches as well .......

And there are more sessions to come!

Watch this space.

a full weekend!

Uffington is finished, I now have to decide what he should be surrounded by - perhaps this vivid blue silk, found in a flea market for very little.

and we have had ad weekend full of people, we who are normally very quiet.

Neil's niece and her man, on their way from here to there, stopped by overnight; a fleeting pleasure as they had to be gone early the next day. Then followed, good friends and their two children, who had come to sample the delights of the area. They stayed the following night, so we had the delight of childish stage whispering early in the morning, the two youngsters full of unsuppressable excitement at being somewhere different overnight; two young souls used to having their eager questions answered. I found myself on the floor wiht them, pencils out, drawing elephants, cups and hot air balloons. A delight to be with, full of interest in everything, full of delight in being alive, eager and thoroughly exhausting! They loved the dell where the badgers dwell, and played with the cats on the lawn. It was their mother's birthday and she was wistful, being far from her family in France. I felt for her. I hope these brought her some balm

we are really enjoying the garden at the moment. 

Thinking of Jude who is in the storm across the indigo sea, I am conscious of being in a very good place.

A feather for Jude

This little feather is flying all across the sea to Jude in New York for her Magic Feather project. The feather is for my daughter Jen - Jen the hen, but not a hen's feather, rather a wren's. The rose is for Mum, Rosemary really, but always "Granny Rose" to Jen, both much loved women encircled by my love for them. You can see other feathers flying in to the project here. It is one of the things I've been stitching recently, along with Uffington who is gradually getting his space filled by many many little stitches. I'll post a picture of him later, when his landscape is more complete.

All that stitching though, is not good for the bit of me that needs much more exercise, so today my dear one and I went to the Seven Sisters Country Park for a wonderful perambulation along the meanders and down to the sea, where we saw

wide open spaces

layers of landscape

layers of time, flint and chalk slowly, slowly sifting down over millennia

marsh samphire, glowing red despite the hazy day

 greater burdock, all spikes and rough edges

carline thistle, like little captured suns

teasel rising sturdy above a soft bed of silverweed

stone and wood, weathered and feathered to soft shapes

sea lavender drawing lacy patterns against the while chalk cliffs

and a great many people, all having a pleasant time wandering along, photographing each other, listening to the wind, the sea, themselves, each other, mobile phones, dogs and children

We walked for a goodly while, the day hot and humid with much moisture in the air, other's conversations drifting in and out of focus as we passed fellow walkers. Then we stopped for lunch at the Exceat visitor centre where this fern caught my eye - such a soft glowing green against the weathered tiles

and drove back home over Beachy Head and down through Eastbourne to the Pevensey levels.

A good way to work off the stiffness and stagnation that comes from sitting too long - even if that sitting is productive !

Autumn

something quiet is forming, just a start of something - will see where it goes.

I was going to talk about walking today, but then I found a treasure trove.

Yesterday we went for a wander around Hastings Old Town, which has many delights, if you can ignore the tacky seafront circus of penny arcades and amusements – which sounds very elitist but isn’t meant that way – it’s just an odd conflation of the very old, irregular and full of history, with the very new, jangly and full of loud excitements. The day trippers love it. However, the Old Town, which is the venue for the Jack In The Green celebrations I blogged about earlier this year, is also the place to find lost treasures. It is packed with little shops stocking all manner of mysterious things, old books, old paintings, Aunt Edna’s English Village Tapestry fire screen, the scraps and leavings of others' lives. There you can find embroideries that can be picked up for pence and might be “useful” for “something”. There I found this delightful set of table linen. I was looking for old, worn pieces that I could use in a new way – once I figure out how! However, these treasures will be kept for their original use, not translated or re purposed. I couldn’t bear to do anything to mark or damage such exquisite embroidery.

Even the back is masterful!

 I’m not sure whether they are the work of a very skilled “home” embroiderer or high quality commercial work. I am sure they’ve never been used or washed, the stitching is too undisturbed and the transfer lines are still visible – I’d guess they’ve been tucked away in a drawer waiting for a special occasion that never arrived, or were, perhaps a gift that didn’t fit the decor. No idea what period they are, but there are 8 napkins and one tray cloth. They will be “tucked away in a drawer”, but used, with pleasure, if the occasion arises – if I can bear to risk them …..

How much were they? An absurd £2.80!