Being inspired!

I am being inspired which is a good thing! The only trouble is that there are only so many hours in the day and only so much that one can accomplish. However I have discovered Microsoft One Note which is an amazing note pad facility in Microsoft Office. Using One Note means I can write notes, add pictures, even make audio comments and One Note automatically saves it all ready for the next burst of inspiration. This way as I finish one project I can immediately look in One Note for the beginnings of another. I have so many ideas just waiting to get a hearing that this was just what I needed. And one of the features which I most like is that if I copy something into it from the web that takes my fancy it automatically inserts the web address so that I will know where I found that feature later on when I will no doubt have forgotten. How often does one save something from the web only months later to have absolutely no idea where it came from! I do this all the time and it is so frustrating. So I shall be singing the praises of this neat little program!

Caity of CaityQuilter Blog tells me that August 11th is National Moth night here in the UK which is something I didn't know! I shall have to find out more! Thank you Caity!

So Grateful!

I am so grateful that I live on a hill and that Cornwall isn't suffering from the awful floods that they are experiencing in Gloucester and Tewkesbury and that vicinity. My heart goes out to those poor people especially as many of the flooded areas wouldn't have been so bad if governments had had their wits about them in the past. And they are still going to use flood plains to build houses! What is wrong with these people! We were in Tewkesbury a couple of years ago and it is a lovely town with glorious old buildings and full of history. My fingers are crossed that the worst is over!
=
It has been a week of the doldrums and I really haven't achieved an awful lot. However I have got the quilt top finished and am now in the middle of quilting it. This is a long winded affair as I am doing different patterns in different places and also it is quite bulky under the machine. But it's coming on. I did encounter a problem when I started as the free machining was very bitty and the cotton kept breaking. The front looked OK but the back is terrible. Just as well it's for me! I fiddled about and tried lots of things. It is working well now and I'm having no problems but the trouble is I don't know what I did or what the problem was in the first place. It could have been that I was using a thicker cotton and it didn't like it even though I was also using a thicker needle! The sample I did was fine. I have reverted to a normal cotton and that is working without problems so probably that was it. These things are sent to try us...and they do! Pictures when it's finished.

I rescued this moth when I opened the kitchen door tonight. It flew into the kitchen attracted by the light and then just fluttered about. When it lighted on the floor I trapped it in a cup and put it back outside. I then took some photos as it was of a variety I haven't seen before. We used to get loads of moths but they seem to have disappeared of late and now all we get on a regular basis are funny little brown ones. However I have noticed that we are getting more butterflies, even the little blue ones. This could be because the garden is awash with flowers and is making a really colourful picture at the moment in spite of all the rain. I have been taking pictures of the flowers for use later on when I want to do some applique work. They make such good inspirational subjects.

At last!

Finally I am back in my workroom sewing, creating, having fun! I have started on my circles quilt and I can see immediately that it is going to be much more experimental than my diagrams as I ran out of the fabrics I had chosen. But not to worry I had more fabric albeit slightly different and I think that difference is going to be beneficial. Everything is cut out and the large circles are sewn. It is going to be fun putting it all together and planning the colour mix. I was surprised at how quickly and easily I was able to cut out the drunkard's path blocks using the one template only method. It took less than two hours and that included sewing the twelve large blocks. There will now have to be a pause as tomorrow I have to get ready for a silk ribbon workshop on Friday. And at the weekend I want to dye some more fabric though I should have time to whizz up a few more blocks. So it looks like Monday for finishing it off. Tuesday I'm going to teach my Mum how to make folders and what to do with them when she's made them, on her computer. And Friday I have a private lesson again on computers so a busy week. And I have my grandson's second birthday coming up and I want to make him a small quilt with horses on it. He is made about horses which he actually calls Adders but then a rose by any other name and all that! I think a quick nine patch background in greens and blues with applique horses. Shouldn't take too long....I hope! So busy, busy, busy! No pictures as Blogger wouldn't let me insert any!

Show Time!

Today I was one of the craft judges at Stithians Show. Stithians is a small village where I onced lived for five years. Immediately before I moved here in fact. The show has been going for decades and still has a country village, parochial feel about it which is lovely, even though it is the second biggest show in the county after the Royal Cornwall Show at Wadebridge.It is very much a farming show with livestock and machinery. Last year when I judged it was so hot I thought I would expire and there were so many thousands of people there that it was impossible to move. This year with lots of rain over the past week and more to come there weren't as many people and it was fresher and cooler and much more inviting. Sadly there just arn't the craft entries that there used to be and it is hard when there are only three or four entries in a class. In fact one class had only one entry but that one was so good that I wrote on the ticket that it deserved a first anyway! The quilt I gave a first to went on to become best in show which was pleasing.

I had a minor panic when I came to leave as I couldn't find my car amongst the many thousands that were there! In the end common sense prevailed and I retraced my steps and voila, there it was! Oh what a relief! My only excuse is that I had been up since 5.30 and was getting tired! I don't do early mornings very well!


I thought the colours of these plums and apples and other fruits were so exciting and that this picture might act as an inspiration for a piece of work later on.
=
Now that I have got that outing out of the way I can concentrate on other things. I am planning to do a drunkard's quilt block.


This is the design I have in mind. I used EQ5 to design it in and scanned in some of my own hand-dyed fabrics plus a piece of Liberty Lawn. I'm still not quite sure that this is going to be the final version. I'm actually enjoying playing with it and moving things around. It will be on these lines though. I want to do something fairly traditional but which isn't that traditional.

Finally, the project!

This is the project that I couldn't show you! It is a memory quilt that I made for my sister's 60th birthday and just in case she looked at the blog I had to keep it quiet. But her birthday was yesterday so I can reveal all. How cool is it that she was 60 on 07-07-07! What a lucky day if you're into numbers! I had great fun making this quilt even though the printing of the pictures had a few hiccups due to the printer playing up. This was annoying, especially as I'd bought a new Epsom especially to do this. However in the end my little HP came up trumps which is probably why I'm an HP fan. I even dusted off the embroidery attachment for my Bernina and made a label! Probably the first quilt label I have ever made. I'm almost ashamed to admit to that!

I have decided that to get me moving and not let that 'lazy gene' get control I'm going to start by finishing off some of the many things that are half finished. A lot of them started as class samples which is why they get left! Too busy rushing onto the next thing. So with this in mind I dug out the two pieces of faux chenille that I have and flung them into the washing machine with a pair of Martin's jeans. They are now in the tumble dryer. When they are finished I am going to turn them into a pair of cushions. I am organised! I can do this! At the same time I have been making a start on my class worksheet for next term. After all September will be here in next to no time. There will be a sampler lap quilt for beginners so I am choosing blocks (different ones to last year and the year before) and colour schemes. This is the part I like. Then I am going to design a machine applique quilt which can be made in blocks. I'm thinking gardens, flowers and cottages. I want the students to think about colour and using fabric to get special effects. We will also use fabric pens and crayons to add to the fabric colours. Again another bit that I especially like. But there is a sad note here. The meeting for tutors that I went to yesterday was bit disheartening as I found out that the funding council has stopped the concessionary rate for over 60's. The reason? Because it's ageist! Hellooooo? These people make up the back bone of the Ad Ed craft classes and they need every help they can get on the whole. The cost of the class has increased by over £20 a term which is a lot of money when you have to find a lump sum. So I won't be surprised if I don't get enough students to run the classes. Especially as the minimum number now needed to run the class is 8 and to get full pay 15! Private classes will have to be thought about. I already run several classes from home but I haven't got room to have many students at a time. If it isn't one thing it's another!

Reflections.......

I have been trying to work out why I don't get as much done as I used to a few years back and then it came to me! I work for four hours every afternoon and that kills my day for me. Work is necessary to pay the mortgage so there is no going back but I am going to have to re-structure my days and my attitude to them. There is going to have to be a more positive attitude to actually doing! When I'm in teaching mode and I have one if not two classes coming up every week I can get really stuck in producing samples and writing hand outs and I get it all done on time and usually with enjoyment. So why is it that as soon as I have a couple of months or so away from the discipline of teaching do I fall apart? Where is all the work that I was going to do for me? Where are the experimental pieces and the trials of different techniques? I'll tell you where...in my head! Because I have no deadline, no approaching performance, where I'll be in the spotlight and will have to succeed or fail by my earlier efforts, there is no feeling of urgency. In fact there is instead an insidious feeling of endless time with the summer stretching ahead of me, and in complete contrast to that a hidden thought that with not much immediate time at my disposal each day is it worth even starting! It's as if because I can't spend the whole day doing things my brain has a spoilt brat moment and refuses to do anything. So how can I overcome this? I know that once I get started routine will kick in and I'll be fine but its taking that one step to get started. So I'm going to start by writing down and thinking about some things I want to do. If it's in black and white I will have a beginning. And then I will map it out from there so that I have guide posts along the way. In this way when I get sidetracked and slip back into my un-productive ways I'll have a route to follow and I won't wallow in indecision. Because it's not that I don't have ideas nor that I'm not bursting with creativity..that's no problem...its the lazy gene in me that has to have the perfect setting to work in and short periods of time don't do it for me when there is no push from outside. So tomorrow after I've been to a meeting for Adult Education tutors in the morning and had coffee with a friend in the afternoon, I shall make plans. I will be organised while still leaving room for happy accidents! I'm going to start by printing some more pictures onto fabric and this time I'm going to make sure that the *%$"*^ Espsom printer works for me! I bought it to use for just this purpose and I'll make it work if I dye in the attempt! Well perhaps not so drastic but on those lines! And hopefully I'll
be able to crack it and make the time I have work for me rather than the other way around.

Is this summer?

I am now totally bored with the rain. To begin with lying in bed listening to the rain fall out of the sky was exciting but now it is old hat. I am grateful not to be one of those in different parts of the UK who are suffering from floods. The pictures of their flooded houses look terrible. It is a good thing to live on a hill several hundred feet above sea level!
-
I have finished my project and am feeling quite pleased with myself. It went quite well though I think next time I do something like this I will make a few modifications. Pictures later! At the moment I am trying to have a clear out so that I can see at a glance exactly what fabric I have to hand. Every time I go to find something I have to wade through several useless pieces of stuff before I come to anything good. Why do I hang on to these less than perfect pieces? It's fear! Fear that I won't have just that colour! Fear that I won't have enough long strips! Fear that I might someday run out of fabric! Hello? Run out of fabric? When I'm dyeing 100 metres every week or so? Do I need to see a shrink? Am I unique in this fear of lack with regard to fabric or do others also not want to bankrupt their fabric supply? And I never have the right colour regardless of how much fabric is in stock. In the same way that I don't have the right clothes for any given occasion regardless of the fact that my wardrobe is bursting at the seams. But this I think is partly due to 'once in a Blue Moon' occasions cropping up when one can't be expected to necessarily have the right stuff! Well that's what I tell myself. So with all this in mind I'm going to sort and clear this week. I'm looking forward to it. Well I think I'm looking forward to it!

Left overs

I had a very satisfactory dyeing day yesterday and managed to get all the right blues to finish my project plus a selection of very useful plains. With the left overs I dye-painted some super pastels with the occasional bright. Unless it is watered down Magenta is always very bright however little an amount is in the container. I have learnt to use half the quantity of reds as I do of other dyes or else in mixtures red predominates and it is hard to get lovely lilacs, mauves and peachy colours. The new yellow, Buttercup, is lovely being a much richer colour than Lemon and making fantastic greens. Usually my dyeing comes under the category of 'suck it and see' but I have in the past made a colouring book using specific quantities of dye so that I can reproduce more or less hundreds of colours. It was fun to do and is useful but I get a bigger kick out of just throwing the colours together. It makes the pressing more fun as that is when the pieces of fabric really take shape. Below is a sample of some of the fabric I did using left overs.I like being able to collage the photos in Picassa as it makes it easier to insert into the Blog! Anything for a simple life!

Rain, rain and yet more rain!

I think Caroline had the best fortnight here. The day she left it rained and it has been raining ever since. Rain on its own isn't so bad unless it's a downpour but there has been quite gusty spells of wind which hasn't done the plants any good. Fortunately I have had enough to keep me occupied in the house so the inclement weather hasn't been too much of a problem. As Caroline was leaving here to go to a camp at Avebury for the summer solstice I feel very sorry for her. It can't be much fun to have two small children and a large husband in a camper van in the pouring rain! Glastonbury this coming weekend looks as though it will be par for the course with mud, mud and even more mud. Gone are the days when I thought Festivals were fun! Now I'm old and crabby! :-)

-
The photo printing has gone well albeit that it was done on my old HP printer. The new Epsom that I bought especially to do this because the paper doesn't turn on itself during printing, failed to accept the fabric-paper combination. I didn't have time to fiddle so will have to have another go later. I used to do it very successfully on my old Epsom so I can't see why this one doesn't work. I hate printers anyway! But at least with an Epsom printer I can now use my Epsom scanner to copy with. It wouldn't work with any other make of printer on the copy facility. So I now have a printer-scanner set up with my laptop upstairs and ditto but HP downstairs. I think that's what one would call overkill. When I've finished this project I have some ideas for using photo printed fabric and will try them out. I've been taking photos so that I'm ready.
-
This weekend I am going to do some dyeing as my new dyes have arrived. Some yellows that I haven't used before which will be fun. I have bought some plastic so that I can stack pieces. My method of dyeing is very quick and simple and ideally suited to working in a small confined area. I either work on acrylic sheets or in small plastic tubs. Either way there is no hassle. On the sheets I can dye paint if I want and in the tubs, which vary in size, I can mix as well as folding in different ways. When the fabric has cured in the dye I then rinse it out immediately in cold water (a rough rinse) and then stick in the washing machine where it gets a hot, very hot, wash and lots of rinses. Then it hangs to dry or I iron it wet. Even wet being ironed on a white cloth there is no leakage of dye and I haven't had any problems with dye leakage when the fabric has been washed and some of the T-shirts I've dyed get thrown in with the washing in the normal course of affairs. I don't understand why people go through so many stages of drying and then washing and then drying again. Even with my painted fabrics they just get rinsed in cold and then a hot wash. Works for me! But then each to his own. But bearing in mind that people will only spend so much money on hand-dyed fabric it behoves one to keep the time-cost down. So how do you dye your fabric and what process suits you best and why? These are a collaged sheet of some of the fabrics I had for sale last year. Which made me wonder Mary how did your projects work out?
Click to enlarge for greater detail!

Time flew by!

Caroline and the children were with me for a fortnight and the time flew by. They had the best of the weather as when they left it started to rain and has rained ever since. Which is good for the garden but not for going on the beach. We spent a lot of our time on our local beach at Swanpool and I actually went in swimming several times. The water was freezing! But I kept telling myself it was good for me.

We also went to the Helford River to Grebe where the beach isn't very sandy being composed of flat slatey stones which are good for skimming on the water. The children had a great time looking for shells.


We spent a day at Bird Paradise where the children were more impressed by the small train and the gazebo than with the many variety of birds!



They were enthralled though with the penguins and the otters. The otters won the popularity contest hands down as they were so cute.


In fact it was a terrific couple of weeks and we did so much. I love the opportunity to travel around this part of Cornwall and Caroline spent the time saying how much she wished she still lived down here. So many of the places we went to were favourite haunts of her childhood.



Now I have to really get down to doing some work. I have just over a fortnight to get a project finished. More of this later. I have set up my printer with my lap top in the spare room and it is working very well. I have yet to try photo printing on it but I have my fingers crossed and hope that it will cause me no problems. I have ordered some more dyes as I was getting very low on some and out of others. The next thing will be to order another bolt of fabric. I usually buy about 100+ metres at a time. This is just about the amount I can lug about on my own without keeling over. And this weekend I am going to try out a new method with the dyeing so watch this space.

=

Caroline made me go on a juice detox while here and I lost over half a stone so in view of that I am now committed to following through. I have an incentive for attaining a sylph like figure as my niece is getting married next May. Gives me plenty of time.

Visitors

There may not be many entries in the diary during the next few days as I have my daughter and grandchildren visiting. This means nothing gets done. My new printer arrived yesterday and I haven't even opened it yet! But I have been to the beach twice and each time I went into the sea for a swim! The water was freezing! But I felt quite invigorated when I came out or was that relieved! We bought the children a small tent to play in in the garden and they love it. It is bright pink! My favourite colour. I won't even be able to do any dyeing as the house looks as if it has been hit by a bomb. But then I don't see them very often so I shall make the most of every minute.

Today is my birthday....

Today is my birthday and it started off very well with lots of delightful cards and presents, including a bottle of blackberry wine! I had a great time in Falmouth and enjoyed lunch out with a friend. Then in the afternoon after Martin had gone to work I dyed some fabric....not a lot, just a couple of metres; enough for a small project. So far so good. I put the fabric in the washing machine which had a small hiccup and had to be restarted. Five minutes later it blew up! The plug was completely melted and the fuse blown in the wall socket. So no kettle, no microwave, and no juicer. The washing machine was the only appliance on at the time- I am very careful not to overload the system. My dyed fabric was sitting in a pool of water locked into the machine and I was anxious that the dyes were all intermingling. Then the door lock clicked so I knew I could open it. It is a front loader so obviously the water was going to go somewhere when I opened the door. To cut a long story short I held a bowl under it and managed to escape a full flood and hauled the wet fabric out. I then took this down to my mother's and she washed it out for me. The joys of living near to her! So I now have a useless washing machine half full of dirty dye water and it will remain like that until Martin can look at it tomorrow. And tomorrow my daughter Caroline arrives with the two grand kids! Such good timing! I have a repair man coming on.......Wednesday! I just hope this isn't indicative of my next year! They do say cry on your birthday, cry all year! So I haven't been crying...just cursing, drinking blackberry wine and eating chocolates! At least I can now view it all quite dispassionately if a little hazily! And the fabric is ace! But then I haven't got my glasses on! :-)

Looking at the past!

I have had a day of tidying and sorting. A good game played slowly! So I thought I'd take a leaf out of Shirley's book (Dyeing to Design) and show some of my old and unfinished work.

Top left is a piece of white poplin on which I drew flowers using water colour pencils. These I outline with stipple quilting which made the flowers stand up. I have still to think of a way to use it. Top middle is a piece of hand-dyed cotton with folded roses sewn onto it. This was a sampler done for a class on 3-D flowers. Eventually I might turn this into a cushion. On the end at the top is a small piece of silk painted habutai which I am embroidering with silk ribbon. Eventually I might get it finished! There is hope!

-
The middle row is a pastel drawing of African violets and then next to it a free standing applique and machine lace depiction of the drawing. And on the end an abstract piece of mixed media work inspired by the original drawing. Some time I want to work on these and work them into a larger project.

The last row is a lesson in organisation. These are all fabrics that I have dyed at some time. They all sold very quickly. What is the problem? I didn't make any notes as to how I achieved the effects! I can guess but that isn't good enough. This has been a salutary lesson and in future when I'm doing something different I shall make sure that it gets entered into my notebook. The middle one I'm sure is a piece that was discharged and then overdyed. The first one in the row is totally beyond me which is a pity as I'd like to do it again. The last one I think I dye painted on folded fabric. The only way to find out is to try and re-produce them. I deserve a smack!

The Coldest May....

Looking back over this month it has been so cold. Such a change from April which was, at times, blisteringly hot! I have been really quite lazy this month probably because the weather was uninspiring, though I have read a lot of books! I am working my way through the Whiteoaks series again and finding the storyline fascinating. It all takes place in Canada. A Canada at the turn of the last century up to the 50's. So different from today and the social mores and life in a big family are intriguing. As a contrast to this I have also been reading the Wycliffe series. This is a set of stories around a policeman set in Cornwall and was made into a television series which I didn't see. The books are quite gripping though and I'm enjoying them immensley.
-
I did manage to get the Double Drunkard quilt finished and quilted. I still need to take the tacks out. Tack guns are wonderful for holding the three layers together but then a pain when the tacks have to be removed as it isn't a quick job. With the first quilt Double Drunkard's Eye (see earlier in the month) I did a meandering squiggle for quilting but with this one I did a zig zag squiggle which made the 'eyes' have the look of trilobites....well I thought so!



I have been trying to get rid of even more things to make room. It is now getting difficult as a lot of the stuff I have is now things I really like even if I don't think I'll ever use them again. But I have to make room so that I can put my computer cupboard up which will free up space in the living room. I gave over 300 books to one of the local charity shops. These were mostly fiction books - non fiction books I'd sold either through Amazon or in class. And I still have a houseful of books which runs into four figures. I have been ruthless with fabric though I still have a draw of Liberty lawn that I've been thinking about using for at least seven years! I am full of good intentions but you know what they say about the road to Hell! My daughter is coming down for a fortnight's visit on Sunday but when she goes back I am going to make a resolution to actually make something each week. (This is on top of all the dyeing I'm going to do.) Even if it's only a cushion! And hey, what's wrong with cushions? I'm going to need new cushions anyway!
-
We have got into the habit of having dinner and then having dessert later when the dinner has gone down. This is good as there is something very pleasing about enjoying a dessert and possibly coffee or wine when one isn't just about stuffed with food. And I've noticed that I sleep better and have lost the odd pound or two! Of course this might have no bearing on either of those two things but I'll go along with the idea for now! So I'm off to enjoy strawberry sorbet icecream with chocolate sauce! Yummy!

Amazing!

I'm always amazed when I'm able to update my website and it actually works! I use Dreamweaver MX and it is a very user friendly package but even so I'm not always sure of what I'm doing and when I get reasonably acceptable results it gives me a warm glow. I've just up-dated the website with some pictures of my students work that they've done over the past year. Unfortunately I didn't think to ask them to bring work in until the last day of term and so I only got the work of a few of the class but its well worth a look! Go here!

-

I must now make the effort to update the fabric pages. I've been doing a batch of dyeing today and been well pleased with the results. As well as a batch of mandela type fat quarter's I also did some over-dyeing using black and was well pleased with the results. The original pieces were on the boring side (though I firmly believe that no piece of hand-dyed fabric is unusable!)but now they have life! The top left below is a mandela over-dye using black. The top right is a wrinkled over-dye again using black. The two at the bottom were over-dyed using black, royal and raspberry. The original colours in the bottom two were nearer to mud than anything else! I have to say I do like bright and strong colours! I'm not a pastel person though saying that some of the pieces I've dyed tonight have been on the pastel side because I was experimenting with putting lots of water into the pots after I'd put the dye in rather than mixing into the dye solution first. It worked well and there were some lovely soft colours which will work for an order I have.

Another year older....

Today was Martin's birthday. As he is two years younger than me he is still a spring chicken! I had to work this afternoon but this evening we decided to buy a pizza and go and eat it on Pendennis Point which overlooks the bay. There are views from the Manacles (below) to St Anthony's lighthouse. The manacles are of note because of the basking sharks that can be seen there.

Pendennis is a castle that was built in the reign of Henry VIII to protect the mouth of the river from primarily the Spanish. On the opposite side of the estuary he built a castle at St Mawes. The small turreted building in the bottom of the picture is the block house at the water's edge. This is just a basic watch tower. St Mawes castle is the smaller of the two and more delicate if one can use a word like that about a castle. Pendennis is more basic and down to earth. It would have housed the garrison and the commander of the garrison. Accommodation was very sparton though the commander's rooms were lined with wood panelling and had more amenities than were available for the men. Now they are both tourist attractions.

This is the birthday boy himself inside the block tower. It is still possible to climb to the top of it but it is not for the feint hearted and so I didn't attempt it.

It was getting late in the evening and the fishing boats were coming back into harbour, with a trailing of seagulls. The buoy in the centre of the estuary is called Black Rock Buoy, and the rocks can be seen at low tide.

This is the view as we drove home along the sea front. Swanpool is the furthest inlet.

The setting sun going down in the west. The sea was calm and very inviting for a swim but only for the brave or fool hardy as it is near to freezing! Or so it seems!

So a pleasant evening out. I spent the morning cutting out fabric for printing photos on. The freezer paper is all attached and tomorrow morning I will actually do the printing. Fingers crossed!

Penzance

Today we went to Penzance and it was much sunnier there than it was at home. It is no wonder that they are ahead of us where plants are concerned as the weather is at least a couple of degrees warmer all the time.

As we drove into the town there was a Tall Ship coming into the bay. It was far out on the horizon but was moving at quite a pace. By the time we sat on some rocks to eat bananas and Kit Kats it was close enough to see properly and take some pictures. The tide was out so it wouldn't be coming into the harbour but would anchor in the bay. St Michael's Mount at Marazion, which is reached by a causeway, was looking good and I tried to take pictures from every aspect.



We parked in a side street just down from The Admiral Benbow which is a lovely pub and restaurant. It is about half way down Chapel Street which is one of the older streets in Penzance. It is decorated with cannon and figure heads and the main restaurant is in the form of a ship captain's cabin; most of these things including the woodwork of the cabin, having been brought up by divers from some of the wrecks found off the Cornish coast. There is a figure of a smuggler on the roof!




This fascinating cottage was right by our parking spot. I love the name. It was most probably a cafe in days gone by but is now just a cottage. As we have coffee houses now, in the 17th and 18th centuries drinking chocolate was all the rage.





I found this old pillar box quite fascinating and what is so unusual about it is that dates from the reign of George VI. As Elizabeth has been Queen now for over 50 years this makes this quite old as pillar boxes go. When I was a child it was still possible to see the insignia of Victoria but now it is quite rare to see anything but Elizabeth II.




This is the small inner harbour with some of the fishing boats.

Penzance is one of only a handful of seaside towns to still have a Lido. They were very much a feature in the 30's. This one has been renovated and done up.



All in all it was a good afternoon out. It was such a change not to have Martin working on one or other of his cars! And I also managed to dye a piece of cotton to use as a backing so that tomorrow I will be able to finish off my second Double Drunkard quilt. This time I dyed it a really bright raspberry red. And I read a book by Sally Spencer which was quite riveting so my day hasn't been at all idle!

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.
-
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.

-
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!

End of the teaching year!

Today was the last day of term and no more classes for Adult Education until September when a new year starts. Sad in some ways as the students become friends over the year and a rapport is formed between us all but also I'm glad as it means more time to develop ideas and plan for new projects. The picture below is of the room we use in the Adult Education Centre. It is actually quite light though the picture makes it look gloomy (no flash on!). And the wooden block parquet floor is wonderful for laying out quilts.

This is a picture of the Double Drunkard quilt I designed and put together for today's class project. I had a lot of fun doing this and Martin actually cut me out acrylic templates for the block which made life easier. It took me just one morning to do this top. It still has to be backed and quilted.

This is another version which I call the Double Drunkard's Eye! This again was a very quick top to do and this one is actually finished, quilting and all. This was the one that most people chose to do.

I also took some photos of the student's work for my student's page on my website. This lovely top is a Magic Squares version made by Yvonne. She uses my fabrics all the time which is very good of her!

Below is a Reversible Quilt made by Shirley. This quilt is made all in one go and again is quick. I like quick and so do my students. Again mostly my fabrics!

Shirley also made this small wall hanging.

This is just a small selection of the work done this term. I will get the page with all the pieces, up on my website this weekend . They are a great group to work with and have done some fantastic work. It is having students like this that makes teaching so worthwhile and such fun. I would really miss it if I didn't do it. I am doing a few workshops over the summer just so I don't get withdrawal symptoms!

Playing with my new camera!

I had to go into town with Martin so thought I'd take my new camera and do some tests. It was a cloudy overcast day but not actually raining so instead of standing around waiting while he got bits for his car I walked onto Customs House Quay (picture above) and took some pictures. This first picture is without the zoom and until I took the picture with the zoom on I didn't realise that there were cows in the field. The second picture is with the camera on zoom. You can see the difference, especially if you click on the picture to enlarge it. I was impressed!

I also took a photo of Arwenack Manor and one of Pendennis Castle on the way home. Considering that this last one was taken from a moving car looking backwards I don't think it is too bad! It would have been better on zoom as then there would have been more detail. Arwenack Manor is on the site of the original Elizabethan house but this was burnt down and almost totally destroyed in the Civil War. Falmouth being a Royalist stronghold. The church in the main street was dedicated to Charles I in 1665. The Killigrews who built the house are also decimated as a family but their claim to fame lies in the fact that they developed the harbour. Sir Walter Raleigh suggested to them that they develop the superb anchorage. Their name is commemorated in several street names, and there is a granite obelisk opposite the house which was set up by one of the Killigrews in 1737.

To end on a quilty note I have been rushing to finish a small table cover done in a form of drunkards path. I call it double drunkard as it has an oval in the centre. Hopefully I shall get it finished tomorrow and will take pictures. I used a mixed collection of fabric colours and they seemed to work. Not having sufficient fabric for a backing I quickly dyed a piece and I was very pleased with it. Its a bramble pink and will go well with the top fabrics. At the same time I also dyed a white cotton cardigan which I never wore because it was white! I dyed it brown but it has come out a mottled shade with a mixture of browns and greens. Actually looks better than it sounds. The only problem was that it shrank slightly. This made the sleeves shorter but fortunately it had been big in the body to start with so still fits OK and I can always push the sleeves up. And why is it when a garment is made of cotton that the manufacturers use polyester thread? This brownish cardigan now has white stitching! As it has largish white pearl buttons it doesn't look too awful. I can always just wear it in the house!