Typical country road 

Flushing - a tiny village on the water front opposite Falmouth. Best view is from the other side looking at it across the water.  

View of Falmouth harbour 

I always wanted to live in a house with a tower overlooking the sea!  

View up the Carrick Roads 

Rockpool complete with anenome 

St Mawes Castle on the other side of the River Fal estuary from Pendennis Castle. These two castles were built by Henry VIII to protect the entrance from the Spanish.  

Fishing boat coming in with the ever hopeful gulls circling round. 

St Anthony's lighthouse and the entrance to the Carrick Roads and the Harbour. 

Tree roots growing through the wall. 

Deadly nightshade berries hung like jewels in the hedgerows.

Wonderful day!

Today is definitely going to be wonderful! I jumped on the scales this morning and I have lost a tad over 1/2 a stone! (for the uninitiated a stone is 14lbs!) So this very easy way of eating is actually losing weight for me and I have to say that I have done no more exercise than usual. You know the odd walk (and all my walks are odd! grin), a bit of yoga and climbing a few stairs! So in approx 10 days I have done really well! Time will tell!

And secondly yesterdays dyeings were amazing. Several pieces definitely had the WOW factor for me and will be hard to part with. In fact one I shall keep because immediately I saw it I saw a use for it. The exercise was to dye a batch of browns for an order and as you know to make brown you need a fair amount of colours. These had to be bluey browns so I limited my red palette. The results were awesome! Well to me anyway! And what was even better was that the pieces I dyed last using up the remnants were all brilliant. Not a wash out among them. A couple I'm not sure about but then I could try stamping, stencilling or something on top! More fun! The ones I've posted are all of the last remnant batch. I don't very often do fabrics larger than 20x60 as I work in such a small space and last night I was even having to batch pieces on the floor having run out of counter space! Just as well I was on my own!

Of the list from yesterday I did everything except work on my 'Orb' project. I may be able to do some more to it today. And then again! The McTavishing book was interesting to read and I might try it. I already vary my quilting so as not to use stippling constantly. The DVD wasn't one of the best I've seen and in fact not one I could watch all the way through in one go. However it was interesting and some of the quilts shown were beautiful. My students tell me I use the word 'interesting' when I'm not sure about something but don't want to offend anyone! lol I wish now I'd bought the Ricky Tims DVD instead as there were a lot of good comments about it on the British Quilt list and very positive they were too. Perhaps I'll have to buy it as well!

Its a lovely sunny day here so perhaps we will go for a coastal footpath walk this afternoon. We could go in the car to our starting point and thus venture further afield! But now its time for lunch and I'm starving!

'Pond Life' Again done using the dregs and folding.  

The second 'under piece' from the previous dyeing. Lighter but slightly different.  

Georgia O'Keefe type flower made by folding and throwing on the remains of dye. This I have to keep!  

Floating leaves. Folded FQ with drops of dye from a pipette.  

This FQ was dye painted and I love the way the dye has run.  

I don't know whether I like this FQ. I call it 'Percolating from the Bottom'  

20"x60" folded and pegged and then all the oddments of dye that I had over from a commission for browns thrown on! I love it!  

Saturdays come round with such regularity! And Saturday for me is usually into town in the morning and then dyeing in the afternoon and evening. However this week I was up early to press the fabric I dyed last night. Sometimes I just need to do some dyeing and last night was one of those times. So being up early meant I could get a lot done. The fabrics pressed up well and I was pleased with them. I was going for reddish browns and that is what I got. I was using basically tan, orange and blue and so I did a few greeny pieces and a couple of blues. These colours are always useful. A couple I really liked and they will be ideal for backgrounds. I wasn't dyeing for backgrounds but for applique but I really don't think I want to cut into these.

I have tidied up the workroom so that I can walk in and start on something immediately without have to clear some space. Then I organised my threads so that I can lay my hands on them quickly. Really I'm trying to save time so that I can get more done. Today I have a friend coming to see me this afternoon so that I can show her how to get her digital photos onto the computer. XP is such a wonderful thing as everything is immediate. I remember before XP that it was necessary to have installed a program on the computer before one could do anything. Now I can just plug my smart media card into any card slot and it will read it. Of course there has to be a suitable program installed for showing the pictures!

So today I want to:

Spend time with my friend Yvonne

Make some more postcards

Do some more dyeing

Work on my 'Orb' project

Look at the McTavishing book which arrived yesterday

And I have to say that I am really loving my steam press as it turns what was a real chore into an enjoyable experience and the results are definitely superior!

Using up the left overs. Autumn leaves with frost!  

Leaves or another background piece 

I think this one would make a good background. 

Ferns? or leaves touched by frost? 

Branches or wood complete with knot holes 

Good for tree trunks 

Some of last night's dyeing results.