Gardening

I have had a rewarding if blustery afternoon in the garden, cleared another patch of couch grass, hopefully. Dug up my hazel tree which is twice as tall as me but still quite young so crossed fingers, hopefully if will survive, not sure I will it was hard work.
Poor hubby has got shingles so couldn't help. Also in the process of moving the tree I redistributed and separated some perennials. I think I have worn myself out I made five spelling mistakes in one sentence. Off to untangle the washing from the washing line.

Hi Christine welcome to my blog

Weaving

Progressing but slowly, you may wonder why it has flowers on it when the rest is geometric. My Mum has another of my pieces (my biggest fan) with similar colours which hangs in the same room as this will do, so its a reference to the other piece.

I have also started on another piece which will be for the exhibition that the South West Textile Group is holding at the Bristol Guild in June. The exhibition is 'Suspension' and I am doing a piece based on chrysalis so am sitting weaving tiny chrysalis in the evenings now.

Weaving

The top image is my latest progress on this piece for my Mum, as you can see it is progressing at a snails pace. I just can't seem to get in the mood for weaving at the moment, I have just under a month to finish it which should be plenty of time but I am constantly getting side tracked by things that needed doing yesterday and other projects which don't need to be finished until May but which are constantly changing and evolving in my head. The top image is much nearer the colour the yarns actually are.

Snow

The snow has nearly melted, though a fresh lot is on its way. Feeling a bit down today I think its the huge expanse of grey sky that has been overhead and all around since last week. The sun showed a gloomy face for about 2 seconds earlier this morning.
Some sort of wet sleety stuff is falling now.

One Year

I have been blogging for one year and have enjoyed writing and even more reading other people's blogs. It has been a year of exploring, learning, communicating with people on the other side of the world and trying out new things. I am so pleased I discovered blogging. I am not a very social person, and do not seemed to have learned over the last six decades how to make small talk but this way I can talk to and even better listen to so many interesting and different people.
 Recently I have had an increased amount of interest and page views, but still only four followers, I'm not complaining four is good. I follow far too many blogs, it takes up too much of my day reading them all but they are all interesting though I do have my favourites.
Anyway I would just like to say thank you to my followers and anybody else who happens to alight upon my blog.
Happy blogging

New weaving

Three posts in one day, this is the last one I promise.

This is going to be a hanging for my mum's birthday, finished length about 4 feet by 9 and 1/2 width. As these long hangings need to be wound on I take photos as I go so I can remember where I have got to so thought I would share them with you, only done about 9 inches at the moment. Can't quite get into the mood to do very much at a time.

Nettle warp and weft with silk

Snow

The view from my bedroom window, you don't realise how many telegraph wires there are until you start taking photos. As you can see its been snowing, very peaceful, not a dog walker in sight.

These pictures arn't that clear, can you see the snow bear in the next door garden.

The sea has frozen on the tide line, that's the  sea, right on the horizon we have the second highest tide in the world here and it's out at the moment.

More hand sewing

I'm having such fun doing these, though they are still very amateurish at the moment I don't really care. I can always add more later.

Winning

Wow, I am so happy, I have just been drawn from the hat, well rusty can of Jennifer at http://jennifercoynequdeen.blogspot.co.uk/ to win some rusted thread.

I don't think I've won anything since I was 10 and won the Grand National, and that's only because my horse was nearly last and then there was a horrible pile up and mine came galloping past.

I'm quite a few decades older than that now. Can't wait for the threads to arrive.

Couch grass

It has been a beautiful sunny day, no snow here yet. This morning I have been helping my brother prepare his raspberry bed and this afternoon I have dug up about another two square feet of my border in an effort to eliminate the couch grass. Its a bit heart breaking when you discover it growing back in the areas you have already dug so carefully.
I have decided not to replant my Lobelia 'Hot Lips' it was getting completely out of control. This means I can now reach the blackberry and loganberry growing on the fence without being attacked by the Lobelia.
Unfortunately trying to get the grass out of the roots of my three year old apple tree has destabilised it, not that I dug it up, just round it, I hope it will settle down again. I'm also not sure I should be digging up plants at this time of the year even when they are being replanted on the same day as it is so cold at night.  But then again one has to take advantage of any dry day at the moment or I will still be digging in the summer.
I'm also going to dig up and transplant my four year old hazel, eek, its not growing well as it is competing with a May Tree and Elder. Wish me luck.

Hand sewing

My first attempt, after many years, at hand sewing a piece of work. Its not exactly a masterpiece but I'm quite pleased with it. It is made out of off-cuts and old clothes, the stitching is done with the frayed edges of linen. Apart from the hearts and strips the other bits are simply left as the shapes I had. This is a problem, what to sew, I guess that comes with time and experience and a bit more thought. It is however highly addictive, I can see why so many of you hand stitch.
I've been doing it in front of the television in the evening and frequently finding the programme I was watching has long finished, its gone midnight and I'm still stitching.
I'm on my second piece now.

Experimental weaving with Kozo

A while back I wrote about different materials I would like to experiment with, this was one of them. The beaten Kozo strips have to be softened in water to use. The results were not that successful but quite interesting and may have potential for small areas as they can be manipulated and will stay in shape when dry. Weaving with a wet weft was not that much fun to do but I may try again sometime.

Latest weaving finished

My loose piece of weaving is now finished, I am quite pleased with it, after a bit of pulling and a press it stayed in shaped and none of the weaving slipped. Tying each of the 82 warp threads on to the piece of driftwood I am using for hanging it was a bit of a pain but worth the trouble.
I can't show you the full piece as I am entering it in to an exhibition which will all be of new work with the South West Textile Group which is not until 2014. So much planning ahead has to be done these days to reserve exhibition space, we have exhibition space reserved right up to the end of 2015.
 This is a good sign as it means there are a lots of craftspeople and artists out there exhibiting their work

I don't just weave

 I thought I'd like to do something other than weaving in the evenings. I don't do much stitching but as more of the blogs I follow are stitching than weaving I thought I give it a go.
The piece on the right is woven strips, blatantly copied from Jude Hill but we have to begin somewhere and copying the masters has always been a good start. I hope to start hand stitching this evening and embellishing it later.

 The denim piece was started some time ago but I haven't had time to continue it. Its all machine stitched and involves deconstructing old or not wanted by my daughter any more clothes.
This when finished will be a large wall piece, or depending on what shape it ends up may make a small bedcover.

Grey Days

It is a time of grey days, of sadness and introspection.