Time for me!

It had become almost impossible for me to spend quality time at the local library choosing books. This was of great sadness to me as I love to read and will find time to read even under the greatest pressures of work. So I decided to wade through the lists of various authors and order them from the library on line. To begin with this worked well and then I found that there were weeks when no books were waiting for me as people were taking far to long to finish reading and return them. So I ordered more books and again with a greater list to call on everything worked well and I was assured of at least a book a day to read. Well that all went wrong this weekend when with five books still to read at home I returned some books to find another sixteen books waiting for me. So I now have twenty one books in hand! With authors ranging from Mazo de la Roche to Dorothy Simpson and Anthea Fraser. I'm also reading the Wycliffe novels and there is the odd Sally Spencer mystery and a couple of Jayne Ann Krentz and Nora Roberts. A catholic collection. I have the latest Ann Perry on order and I have a Phil Rickman novel to read that I bought cheaply to read on a journey and didn't. So I have to admit that I won't be getting an awful lot done this week! But it is the first week of my holiday from teaching so I'm allowed! After all I need to get away from all that I've been doing over this past year, empty my head and start afresh with new ideas and new projects.
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Plans are evolving. On the dyeing front I am going to take one colour each week and only use that colour. For example this coming weekend (I dye at the weekend as I have the house to myself) I'm going to only use blue...all kinds of blues from navy to royal, turquoise to electric blue. Plus black. It is amazing the difference black can make to a colour in various quantities. Then I will discharge and overdye but again only using blue. This will be followed by yellow and then red. Then I will use two colours only and finally I will have a weekend dyeing browns. After that I'll do some dye painting and overdyeing and some batik and ......by then it will be September and I'll be back into teaching mode and dyeing across the board as per usual. I'm really quite excited about this as I will have the time to do things I don't normally do and also keep notes and build up a sample book.

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I also want to make a Crazy Quilt by machine using up all the myriad pieces of silk I have and the beads and trims and silk ribbon. I want to do it by machine as this way I know I'll have the time. Obviously the beadwork and silk ribbon embroidery will be by hand but if it was put together by hand then I would be still working on it in the next decade. I have always been inspired by the work that my friend Martha Green does which is beautiful. Before I had even met her I was impressed with her work. The combination of machine sewn patches and hand embroidery and embellishment is stunning and so practical.

That is all that I'm going to plan to do. I know that other things will be done but I'm not going to make any other plans as they will as Robert Burns said, and I misquote...'go adrift'! Because there is also the garden to do; the house to decorate; children who will visit and necessitate days on the beach; and books to read! Which brings me back to where I started!

I have had great fun folding fabric and making flowers. These here are part of a Baltimore Album quilt but I think they could look good on a Crazy Quilt. Especially with the buttons and beads. They are easy to do as well. This is just a small selection.



Just a note to say that I am beginning to find my feet with Wordpress and my other blog 'My Small Cornish Garden' is coming on. There are things that are not so easy especially now that Blogger or should I say Google have made some aspects of blogging easier but then on the other hand there are lots of things on Wordpress that I like and find easy to use. Its a bit like sewing machines. No one machine has all the features that one would like. But I'm persevering!