Recovering chairs

Finished chair

Pad removed

Original cover looking the worse for wear

The fabric that I am using to cover these eight dining room chairs is now in its fourth house, having resided twice with me and twice with my Mum. They were originally curtains made for us when we lived in Dubai. They have since been unstitched, restitched and altered several times. One pair is still hanging in the dining room. The covers are made from another pair that were very short, after being altered for a smaller room and the others are being remade for my daughter's house, so that will be their fifth rehanging. Now that's what I call recycling.
Our furniture moves round between all our houses as well as our needs and space change, the chairs we had made, again in Dubai but the sideboard and table once belonged to my Mum.

Chaim Potok

I would just like to say thank you to whoever's blog it was I was reading who recommended the book My Name is Asher Lev, its brilliant, I am now looking forward to reading the sequel. In the meantime I want to look up several of the Jewish references with which I am unfamilier. Having been for the last week in an area without internet I was unable to do this whilst reading the novel.

The dress

Lovely sunny day for the wedding, in fact the church was extremely hot so looking a little rumpled.

Summer again and some sewing

We keep having glimpses of summer a few lovely days, hot or warm and then the cloud takes over and rain is forecast for tomorrow. These roses are beautiful they start out this rich yellow and then fade to yellow and pink. If I wasn't so lazy I would find out what they are called. My son gave them to my mum for christmas and couldn't understand why she wanted a plant that looked dead, we sent some photos.

Roses from my mums garden

Having finished the work for the exhibition I am now sewing a dress for my nephew's wedding in two weeks time. Its posh, morning suits for the men so I thought I ought to have a posh frock.
Patterns have changed so much since my early sewing days. Everything machine stitched, no facings, turn overs and hems sewn before the side seams. Had a lot of trouble dealing with the neckline just a 1cm turn over, I fear I have stretched the fabric but hopefully a good press will sort it. I have decided after just having done the armholes that less care actually works best, they worked quite easily. Also Vogue patterns seem to be made for very tall women, so had to take about five inches out of the length so hope it still looks like the original when finished.

Vogue pattern

Sixty pounds worth of fabric to cut, nerve racking but it would have cost a lot more to buy a dress like this. The fabric is not pink it is burgundy wine coloured

Silk Dupion

By the way for those of you living in the UK it was actually cheaper to send off to the States for this pattern, even with postage.

Pictures from an exhibition

My work

 The lighting wasn't great but here it is our exhibition in the Weston Quarry gallery.

The first day was a Sunday so not that busy but quite a bit of interest.

My work

My work and Liz Hewitt's vessels

My work

My work

Liz Hewitt's work and my weaving

Liz Hewitt's work

My weaving, Liz's eco dyeing

My eco dyeing Liz's prints and rust dyeing

Exhibition

We open on Sunday, anybody who lives near here, would be lovely to see you, we will be there in person on the 14th, 20th and 21st.

Progressing but not fast enough

It comes to something when you have hardly time to write your own blog let alone read other poeple's. Two or three I always read everybody else is from about four days ago. I'm even two months behind on Jude Hill's 'Small Journeys".
I only have myself to blame so I shouldn't complain, but that isn't really the case, I did leave enough time to get the pieces done, other stuff happens and happens all at once. Two serious family illnesses, helping my daughter move into a house that was, well frankly dirty and needed a lot of cleaning, building flat pack furniture and the other half so busy with work he can't help much and what happens, I don't have time to do my work.
Anyway enough of that, this is Quarry Face 2, it is actually a couple of inches higher than these photos that I took yesterday but still has a way to go. We are hanging the exhibition on Saturday, we only have 3 hours so are planning it all tomorrow, so I only have two days to finish the weaving, finishing and hanging.