Dreaming Spirals

I've Moved!

2005-11-23T20:37:00.000Z

Well, I've moved the posts, minus the pictures but you can't have everything! (Well, you will eventually after I've reloaded them all...).

My new blog is here: Dreaming Spirals. Welcome!!

I'll keep this one here for a while till I've got the other one organised....

Update: all my photos are now on the new blog but I'll keep this blog here so you know where to find me if you come across this link before the other one!

2005-11-23T20:16:00.000Z

I'm posting this as a test to see if it comes on the old blog or the new one to see if I can use Hello to post pictures on Wordpress!

Blog Moving Soon!

2005-11-23T15:02:00.000Z

I'm planning to move this blog to Wordpress soon on my website. The new blog is up and I've been busy reading instructions how to import all the posts from Blogger. So when I'm feeling brave - and foolish! - I will give it a go! Hopefully ... always hope.... this will go seamlessly... But probably - it won't! So just in case I disappear for a few days, that's why!

The new blog's URL is http://www.lizplummer/com/blog if there are any problems. Not much there at the moment but that's its new address. Don't click on the 'blog' button on my website yet because that still leads to this one, but I'll change it if all goes to plan. The RSS feed is: http://lizplummer.com/blog/feed/ . At least, that's what works with Awasu!

2005-11-22T20:05:00.001Z

This is the other side of the previous piece.

2005-11-22T20:05:00.000Z

This is an interesting piece of fabric. I'm not sure what it consists of but it is shiny on one side and matt on the other. It may have silk in it but it isn't entirely silk because it melts if I burn it, but this has been washed so it is fast.

2005-11-22T20:03:00.000Z

This is a piece of old silk blouse I got for 10p in a church bazaar!

2005-11-22T20:02:00.000Z

This is another piece of silk. I love the wavy sorts of designs.

2005-11-22T20:01:00.000Z

This is the best of the rusted fabrics so far. It is actually a silk scarf, so I may keep it as that. Silk really takes the rust well.

It's Valeri's Fault!!

2005-11-21T20:52:00.000Z

Numenorean

To which race of Middle Earth do you belong?
brought to you by Quizilla

Clickable website link

2005-11-21T17:53:00.000Z

I thought I'd put the http bit in so the links become clickable:

Dreaming Spirals

The rusted fabrics turned out well (minus the washing line one which is still shivering out there - frost again tonight!) - I'll post some pics tomorrow.

Website is up!!

2005-11-21T13:26:00.000Z

My new website is now up and running - please have a look and tell me what you think! Any constructive suggestions very welcome - especially if anything doesn't work on your browser. I've tested it on Firefox, Netscape and IE but only the most up to date versions so I don't really know what it'll look like on older ones...

You can either go to www.dreamingspirals.co.uk or www.lizplummer.com - the latter is the 'real' one because I couldn't get a co.uk address from my webhost and the com one wasn't available... Both seem to work equally well on my machine.

Some of the rusted fabric is now in the washing machine - the stuff I put outside around the washing line is frozen solid! I put it out because we've just had a VERY wet couple of months - perfect for rusting things... so of course, ever since I put it out, it's been frost and sunny skies. Which I'm not complaining about, you understand... just frustrating for trying to rust things... Anyone know if frozen vinegar-soaked silk will rot quickly??

2005-11-19T22:14:00.000Z

The photo's a bit blurry (camera batteries running down) but this is what I did this week, beside the website. I felted a couple of old jumpers by washing them at 95 degrees, cut them into mostly squares and sewed them together. Not sure where this is going because I've now run out of squares, but it's fun to put on my knees if it gets cold, even though it isn't finished!

What is your French name?

2005-11-18T22:39:00.000Z

Your French Name is:

Pénélope Origny

What's Your French Name?

Hilarious!

Frosty Friday

2005-11-18T22:21:00.000Z

I tried to post these with Hello but for some reason it is playing up. I'll try it again tomorrow.

This was the garden first thing this morning - crisp and frosty. It makes a change from wet and dark. The rusted fabric on the washing line isn't doing too well though. I think it would like more rain. It's frozen too. Oh well. I'll leave it until we have some - we never have to wait long for it here.

This is the angelica in my herb garden, looking a bit sorry for itself. It recovered a bit through the day, though.

Cross eyed computer user!

2005-11-16T22:12:00.000Z

I've been very busy these past few days: my webpages are taking shape nicely. And I've found out a few things about Firefox and Internet Explorer and their treatment of html... like how differently the same webpage can look in each of them if you're not careful! It's amazing how long it takes just to fine tune the look of the pages, resize photos, look for missing apostrophes or tag markers (or whatever they're called - the little arrow things used in tags.

I've found that it's addictive, too - time slips by without you noticing; 'I'll just finish this little bit' and before you know it, it's midnight!

I'm being very restrained about the rusting fabric, too -it's still there. I've resisted the urge to pull it off and look at it. I'm going to leave it a week at least.... it helps that it's up the end of the garden and I have to push through a few bushes to get to it!

A yummy catalogue arrived from Fibrecrafts too - lots of dyeing supplies and screen printing equipment; and Zachary has got his eye on a little loom ...

2005-11-14T18:12:00.000Z

I went on another rusting-fabric spree this afternoon. Underneath all this fabric is a very rusty clothes line which I've been gazing at speculatively for a few months. I had to cut my way through the undergrowth to get to it though! I also wrapped up a few rusty tools and an old corroding bucket (as in bucket and spade) forgotten under the aforesaid undergrowth. No doubt I will have added to the neighbours' views of my eccentricity!

2005-11-13T16:45:00.000Z

And here's pud... straight out of the freezer!

2005-11-13T16:44:00.000Z

The table, all pristine. I don't know why this photo is so dark - it was sunny today and not raining for a change. We have had so much rain this month. I'm glad we live on a hill....

2005-11-13T16:43:00.001Z

The lamb, all ready to be carved.

2005-11-13T16:43:00.000Z

We had friends round to lunch today so I haven't had time to post. But here are a few snaps I took before they arrived.

It's Deb R's fault!

2005-11-10T19:36:00.000Z

Never admit that you haven't been memed....

1.Three screen names that you've had:
Well, I haven't really - only Dreaming Spirals. I made one of my email addys to be crazysewer but then DH told me how he would pronounce it and I sort of went off it...

2. Three things you like about yourself:
Duh... My imagination, my academic ability, my hair. I found this quite difficult... I obviously don't have a very high self-esteem...

3.Three things you don't like about yourself:
My nose - it looks like a witch's in profile. My timidity. My imagination for the reason that I scare myself quite frequently thinking of possible scenarios...

4.Three parts of your heritage: I'm totally English. Well, maybe Welsh 100s of years ago going by my mum's maiden name but my aunt traced back quite a long way and it's nearly all Staffordshire and West Midlands.

5. Three things that scare you: the future (see 3), crowded places (and having to talk to people I don't know), driving.

6. Three of your everyday essentials: Blogs/email, a shower, chocolate.

7. Three things you are wearing right now: Sloppy things - a blue fleece, plum sweater, grey stretchy trousers.

8. Three of your favorite songs: Bohemian Rhapsody, The Logical Song, Finlandia (Sibelius). And Fingel's Cave ... Mendelsohnn (not sure I've spelt it right but never mind).

9. Three things you want in a relationship: friendship, understanding, trust.

10. Two truths and a lie: I went to the same university as Prince William, I've met an Irish terrorist, I can speak Chinese.

11. Three things you can't live without: chocolate, computer, prayer.

12. Three places you want to go on vacation: The US, somewhere like China or Thailand where you can see traditional fabric being made, New Zealand.

13. Three things you just can't do: Drive for more than an hour at a time and that under protest, be tidy, make witty repartee without having half an hour in a quiet room to think about it by which time it's too late...

14. Three kids names: since I've got 3 boys these will all be girls' names! Clarinda, Melissa, Bryony.

15. Three things you want to do before you die: Travel the world, get accepted on a critique group like Quiltart (European), go on a quilt retreat like those here.

16. Three celeb crushes: I don't really go much for these. Colin Firth is the nearest it gets.

17. Three of your favorite musicians: groups, really...Simon and Garfunkel, Supertramp, Queen.

18. Three physical things about the opposite sex that appeal to you: sensitive hands, voice, hmm... don't know really...

19. Three of your favorite hobbies: (apart from quilting, painting, dyeing etc....)reading, walking, baking.

20. Three things you really want to do badly right now: eat chocolate, finish this wretched list, buy fabric/thread/books/anything so the postman delivers a parcel...and have something to eat, I'm starving I've been on this so long can I finish now please.....

21. Three careers you're considering/you've considered: librarian, archivist, herbalist.

22. Three ways that you are stereotypically a boy: I love wearing clothes to death - I hate it when a favourite piece of clothing dies; and I prefer comfort over looks; I like gadgets; I love setting up a new computer!

23. Three ways that you are stereotypically a girl: I like cooking, sewing, perfume bottles (perfume too but am allergic to it so that's out...).

24. Three people that I would like to see post this meme: Hmmm... let me see... Karoda, Valeri and Sonji

September Journal Quilt

2005-11-08T13:20:00.000Z

I started the last page after reading the article in Quilting Arts about fun self portraits using fused fabrics. This was a lot of fun and it resembles me metaphorically if not physically!

And here are the five hanging together at Houston, with thanks to Linda Minton for taking a photo of them for me!

2005-11-07T19:10:00.000Z

Here I've got as far as sewing them down with a grid design. I also added a bit of paint to make the whole thing blend in together a bit better. This was rather scary!

2005-11-07T19:07:00.000Z

Here are a couple of 'in progress' photos of my August journal quilt. I have prepared the flags, layered the fabric, sewn an outline of Africa and cut back to reveal the flags. I took this photo to help me decide on the layout of the newspaper articles around it.

2005-11-06T14:13:00.000Z

This is another piece of the handmade felt similar to what I used for the back of the cocoon quilt. (I actually tried to make a bag by felting just the edges of both pieces but it didn't bond very well so I just abandoned that idea and used it for the journal quilt. I've yet to think of what to do with this piece. Maybe I will just stroke it now and then....

July and August Journal Quilts

2005-11-05T15:24:00.000Z

July Journal Quilt

Here is the statement for this month:

I did a mindmap on the word ‘cocoon’, stencilled green silk dupioni with Markal paintsticks and machined the words of the mindmap around the layers. I decided to back it with hand made felt to add to the feeling of warmth and safety. I quilted around the cocoon shapes with invisible thread - not satisfied. Whilst walking I thought of trimming away the wadding of the outer shell of the cocoon to give a trapunto effect and adding quilting lines with dark green thread to the inner shape to made it recede as if into a hole and bright metallic threads round the outside to represent the lightness of the outside world. I handstitched the edges of the felt to the front as binding.

Here are my rough notes for it:

Started one based on cocoon mindmap - used ‘sky’ fabric and wrote mindmap words on it in free machine sewing. Rolled brown paint over with sponge roller/elastic band wrapped round. Not too sure about this. Intend to couch some wool over it into cocoon shape, or to mirror the spiral. Not sure how to proceed here.

Worked on the cocoon piece again. I drew a new design and stencilled it with Markal (Shiva) paintsticks. On green silk dupioni. I liked the way it looked but then left it for about a month! Decided to back it with hand made felt to add to the feeling of warmth and safety. I put a layer of thin wadding between the silk and felt and quilted around the cocoon shapes with invisible thread, but didn’t like the effect. Walking to school helped distance me from it and the idea suddenly came to me of trimming away the wadding around the outer shell of the cocoon to give a trapunto effect and adding quilting lines with dark green thread to the inner shape to made it recede as if into a hole and bright metallic threads round the outside to denote the lightness of the outside world. I agonised for quite a time over how to bind it. I wanted the edges of the felt to extend to the front so I decided to hand stitch them down. I like the effect I ended up with, and like the back as much as the front!

I haven't taken a photo of the back and can't now because it is not here, but it is some felt which I made with green, maroon and yellow wool fibre. There are words in gold metallic thread embroidered around the cocoon - you can't see them very well in the photo. Words like 'dark', 'security', 'safety'... This is my favourite of all the journal quilts.

This is the statement for August:

To highlight the issues surrounding the G8 summit regarding Africa, I painted satin ribbon with the flags of the 8 G8 countries and wove them together then layered and cut back an outline of Africa to reveal the woven flags underneath. I sewed on relevant newspaper cuttings treated with dilute PVA. Backed with felt and bounded with strips of ripped African fabrics. After London bombings added paper beads torn from newspaper clippings about the effect they had on the summit.

I started this first as an aid to prayer for the issues surrounding the G8 summit regarding Africa. I painted 8 pieces of satin ribbon with the flags of the 8 G8 countries and wove them together then layered them with some orange fabric to represent the colour I always associate with Africa, sewed an outline of Africa and cut back inside it to reveal the woven flags underneath. I collected newspaper headlines and articles about the summit and issues of debt and trade and painted them with dilute PVA. Backed with felt and bounded with strips of ripped African fabrics. I finished this on the morning of the London bombings with tears and added paper beads torn from newspaper clippings.

May and June Journal Quilts

2005-11-05T15:07:00.000Z

I've already posted pictures of these journal quilts as they were also ones which went to the Art Doing Good project. I haven't heard if these sold, so if you bought one and happen to read this, do let me know!

May Journal Quilt

May piece
Fused page. This was the result of lesson 2 of Lily’s course, playing with patterns and doodling. Adding lines. I wanted to experiment with fusing fabrics. I like the bold colours and shapes. I enjoyed playing with the shapes and putting them together like a jigsaw. Quilting - not sure at all how to proceed. Have quilted lines down the length of the long pink piece and the shorter green/brown piece. How to do the background - spirals? Square spirals? Not sure I like it now it’s partly quilted but that may be the effect of it only being partly completed.

Eventually decided and quite like the way it is now. Zigzagged the edges to bind it with a decorative zigzag stitch and metallic thread. Not sure if I like this.

June Journal Quilt

Worked on the wisteria pod design again., and developed the curvy shapes outwards. Decided to use shades of brown fabric on it - different fabrics to experiment with texture and layering and arranged from light to dark outwards to inwards. Sewed it by applique from the back and decided to leave most of it with raw edges, just satin stitching the outer edges of the curves.

I made quite a few odd 'wondering' notes at this time - here they are:

Maybe do one of the hand which I’ve drawn in ‘Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain’, copying it on to fabric with the light box and painting it or using Markels.

Landscape?

Something with soldering iron - using workshop ideas.

What I like:
bold ethnic designs
Realistic landscape, nature designs
Copy historic textiles?
Try some of the textures I did for the stones/walls board.
A face or drawing of a person - solitude, isolation - link to cocoon idea.
I find that the way I work is in little bits, the idea comes and gets developed slowly and often agonisingly; I leave it for long periods for the right side of my brain to work on it and often there is a long gap between completing the top and starting the quilting and binding. I don’t like traditional binding so am experimenting with lots of different methods. I found Valerie Campbell-Harding’s book ‘Edges and Finishes in Embroidery useful.

Saturday Mayhem

2005-11-05T12:06:00.000Z

Maybe the next installment of journal quilts will be up later today. Meanwhile it is now 12 noon and so far this morning I have:

- prepared pork chop casserole for lunch
- helped son #3 deliver 39 leaflets about Scout post for cubs
- taken son #3 to Sainsburys to do his homework - write down all the different sorts of bread and draw them...
- nagged the other two to do their homework
- found a 'B' pencil for son #2 to do his art
- pretended to be asleep in an armchair for son #1 to draw me for HIS art homework
- cleaned 3 lots of shoes for school next week
- made sure son #2 got to his writing group on time -luckily it is in town and he can walk there
- got swimming things ready for son #2 to go swimming with friends this afternoon.

Now I am tired... but I am going to the library this afternoon because there is a book called HTML, XML and CSS for Dummies waiting for me.

Why don't Mums get the same pay as Executive Directors????

2005-11-04T18:16:00.000Z

April Journal Quilt.

April page - inspired by weeping willow with sun behind it. Prepared background quickly to take away for Easter holiday - took piece of calico and layered silk of different thicknesses - greens, blues, yellows, browns - over it. Wanted to do abstract design based on falling stems with new leaves with light behind. Enjoyed doing it but again difficult to know whether I had done enough. The trouble is in being able to see a finished piece when it is mid-way through and looks messy and awful. I THINK I like this though there isn�t much contrast in value - a bit wishy washy for me. I like the shiny effect of the silk.

This was one of the four which did not go to Houston. I donated it to the Art Doing Good project and it is now in the collection of Peg Keeney.

What famous leader are you?

2005-11-03T19:57:00.000Z

What Famous Leader Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

Hmmm.....

March Journal Quilt

2005-11-03T15:37:00.000Z

I returned to the wisteria pod theme later on in the year, but March and April Journal Quilts were different. I did Lily Kerns' Journal Quilts course at Quilt University in March which I can thoroughly recommend.

My statement for March read:

Rumer Godden’s evocative description of a kitchen in The Greengage Summer inspired me to represent it abstractly by collaging fabrics, stamping with fabric paints and adding beads and other textures. Not sure whether it is too cluttered…

and here are my rough notes for the whole period, including all my meanderings about other possible routes to take:

Excerpt from The Greengage Summer - tried to experiment with an abstract rendering of the words and collage. Echoed words and shapes with fabric and paint and added other fabrics for texture and to enhance the atmosphere of a welcoming kitchen. Not sure about final page - looks a bit cluttered. A bit like a design journal for a piece of work with the notes added in writing. A lot going on in a small space. Maybe would work better as a bigger piece.

Did journal quilt course with QU. This added to my ideas but also to my confusion with the profusion of ideas and possibilities. I did the road quilt in raw edge reverse applique. It is a simplified drawing of spaghetti junction, a notoriously complicated motorway junction in Birmingham, UK, graphically illustrating all the choices and questions I was asking, all the techniques and design ideas open to me. Added question mark. I like the contrast of colours in this.

I posted a picture of this already. right at the top of the page

I did April today as well but my wretched ISP cut me off and this was all I could recover. More when I'm not so cross-eyed!

January Journal Quilt

2005-11-02T16:25:00.000Z

This is January. This is what I wrote in my statement for Houston:

January
I saw the single wisteria pod hanging on the bare branch. Highlighted isolation/loneliness which was an issue for me. Painted on habutai silk using gutta and backed it with green/orange fabric for stability. This worked well, echoing the colours of the borders and binding. I liked this page - uncluttered and simple design.

I actually started the February journal before this one but finished this first and thought it was a logical one to start with as it was a representational image.

February Journal Quilt

2005-11-02T16:14:00.000Z

These are my rough notes for January and February (February first for the above reason).

February
Wisteria pods hanging on bare plant. Photo. Drawing. Picked some and drew round some.
Echoed side shapes

Let it sit for a week and added bits and decided what looked best
One idea led to another. Got quite zany in the end. Difficult to know where to stop and when adding any more would spoil rather than enhance the page.

January
Decided to do the silk painting one because the first had got very bitty and wanted to portray the raw/stark simplicity of the image of the image.
Chose to outline pod with gutta and back the silk with green/orange fabric for stability. This worked well, echoing the colours of the borders and binding. I liked this page - uncluttered and simple design.

Difficulty in all of them to know when finished - when it had enough quilting, embellishment etc, and when it had too much.

Here is February's:

And the statement:

I played with the pod design a bit more. I layered cotton fabric, velvet and metallic organza, stitched the pod shape and cut back to the velvet. I kept looking at it for a few days; eventually added yellow and orange pieces and cut it up to echo side shapes and backed it with a linen placemat! Started to experiment with alternative bindings.

General Journal Quilts notes

2005-11-02T15:12:00.000Z

These are my 'before I started' journal quilts notes. They are brief and fragmented, like my train of thought! This was written back in January:

"JOURNAL QUILTS - NOTES

Things considered.
Cityscapes/ houses. People in them? Detritus around.
Drawing on the right side of the brain. Lots of stuff coming at me about spaces in between, looking at negative space. Not just from the book.
Raindrops/ reflections in puddles/ distortion.
Would like to experiment with drawing figures with sewing machine/ use of words
Experiment with different types of binding as I hate traditional binding.
Trouble is all these ideas and what to do first and where to start. Wallowing in a sea of confusion.

Sketchbook. Read Sandra Meech, Maxine’s articles in Quilting Arts magazine, Ann Johnston's book on design to work out how they went about deciding on an idea and taking it forward. Have signed up for the Journal Quilts course with QU.

Would like to try to depict abstract themes, emotions, feelings, protest etc.

Trouble deciding how to start."

I will intersperse the rest of my notes with the photos of the journal quilts because that was how I wrote them.... but for now I have to go and collect Zachary from school. More later today!!

Journal Quilts coming soon!

2005-11-01T12:27:00.000Z

Now that they have been displayed at the Quilt Festival in Houston, I can post photos of my journal quilts. I thought that I would also post my notes which I took through the year to accompany them. I had to pare them down severely to fit them onto an A4 sheet for the festival, but I will post them in their entirely. It may be a day or two though, because the kids are just back to school today so I have lots of catching up to do. And I've got a book out of the library, Making Web Pages for Dummies, which is jolly useful. Meanwhile, here are two postcards from the Blogring to brighten your day.

2005-11-01T12:26:00.000Z

This card is from Sandy at Dangling by a Thread. All glittery and colourful. It is entitled 'Mullion Windows #3' and she was inspired by a technique by Margaret Beal, who is the lady who does lots with a soldering iron. I went to her workshop earlier in the year. Thank you Sandy!

2005-11-01T12:24:00.000Z

This is from Jen of Scraps. It is called Cool Kelp Forest #4. I love the fabric and the little picture inside the big one. Thanks, Jen!

2005-10-30T17:59:00.000Z

A postcard from Karoda! The title is Textural, and that is an apt description of it. Gorgeous! Thank you, Karoda. It has lots of layered threads and fabric layered under tulle and then all sorts of yarns couched on top.

2005-10-28T16:52:00.000Z

I'm posting this for two reasons. 1. To brighten my blog up. I don't take many photos in half term week. 2. To see if my Hello is working as so many other people seem to be having problems.

Dreaming Spirals it is!!

2005-10-27T21:24:00.000Z

Thank you everyone for your comments and thoughts about naming my website. I thought about it long and hard and appreciate the pros and cons of promoting my name rather than 'dreaming spirals'. It was, however, Rayna's comment "raynagillman.com just doesn't do it for me. No glamour. No pzazz. " that finally swayed me. "lizplummer.co.uk" doesn't do it for me either. Even less if anything... So Dreaming Spirals was what I decided on.

I've been sweating hard the last few evenings and have more or less hammered out the homepage and basic layout (had a crash course in CSS from the internet in the process; there are some brilliant sites out there!). Having done that, I've now got to refine the content and learn all about thumbnails. Watch this space...

We had a fairly fun time at Cadbury World yesterday ... it would have been better without the half term crowds, but we stuffed ourselves on chocolate - lots of samples and a fun tasters of yummy melted chocolate. At every turn I bewailed forgetting my camera. "If I had my camera I could blog this...." was the lament several times during the day.

I found a nice fabric shop in the morning visit to Worcester too. I bought some ballpoint needles to see if they make it any easier stitching on soluble fabric and some Janome bobbins because I keep treading on my old one ... I'm used to my old machine with metal bobbins. These plastic ones are too flimsy. Are you listening, Janome??

We also climbed the tower of Worcester Cathedral - puff, puff, all 256 steps of it. Wonderful view. More laments.

2005-10-25T16:19:00.000Z

This is from Jannie Mylof in the Netherlands. It is lovely and sparkly with lots of beads.

2005-10-25T16:17:00.000Z

This one is from Jan Thompson in Georgia. It is called Kites in the Sunset.

2005-10-25T16:16:00.000Z

Time for a few more photos of postcards received: this is from Anna Sasse in Nebraska City. The back is almost as nice as the front - she has drawn trees on it so it feels as though you are walking through a wood.

Half term and website overload!

2005-10-25T16:05:00.000Z

It's half term but so far I've spent most of it glued to the computer looking at websites. And 'view source'... And I've come to the conclusion that my ideas are a lot too ambitious! I did a 'Building your first website' course at the HP Learning Center in the summer but I can't see it being anything more than pretty basic.... And I've found lots of 'teach yourself html' websites too. But so far I just feel confused... duh...

Oh well, we're off to Cadbury World tomorrow. Yummm!

The Book Lists

2005-10-23T21:08:00.000Z

I was inspired by Deb's post at her blog Red Shoe Ramblings to compile my own list of favourite books. I noticed that most of the books on The Complete List | TIME Magazine - ALL-TIME 100 Novels that I HAD read were ones which I had studied at school and not read voluntarily. Lord of the Rings was the only exception and that took me 2 years to plough through! I do like reading Evelyn Waugh, though, especially Brideshead!

I don't know about everyone else, but when I discover an author that I like, I have to read everything they have written if I can get my hands on it so this list will mostly consist of authors rather than individual books. And be heavily weighted to my love of children's books.

So here we go.

Antonia Forest - all of them.
Elinor M Brent Dyer - author of The Chalet School series.
Cynthia Voigt - Homecoming especially.
Madeleine L'Engle
Jane Austen - Persuasion used to be my favourite but since seeing the BBC series, Pride and Prejudice has taken its place.
Charlotte Bronte.
Neville Shute - A Town like Alice, On the Beach
Daphne du Maurier - especially The House on the Strand
All the Harry Potter books.
Diana Wynne Jones (she wrote Howl's Moving Castle which has recently been released as an animated film).
Malcolm Saville
Arthur Ransome
P G Wodehouse
Josephine Tey

My ISP has been playing up all weekend - emails keep going on and off... it's driving me mad!

Close Up

2005-10-22T16:06:00.000Z

Here is a close up. I'm not sure what to do next - I might layer it and quilt it from the back with a thicker thread in the bobbin along the gridlines. Or maybe not...

2005-10-22T16:04:00.000Z

I then cut out the little squares to reveal the rusted fabric.

2005-10-22T16:02:00.000Z

Remember this piece of fabric that I rusted back in March or April? I decided to do the same thing with that. I put a brown linen placemat which I picked up at the school fete on top of it and stitched a grid design through both of them. Here it is on the reverse. (Very recycling friendly, this piece, by the way - the rusted fabric is an old silk shirt).

Zachary's Blue Peter party cake

2005-10-22T15:22:00.000Z

Specially for Rayna, here is the link to the recipe for the Blue Peter party cake which Zachary made.

2005-10-20T19:23:00.000Z

Here is a close up of part of it.

2005-10-20T19:22:00.000Z

I then cut away the squares to reveal the painted/fused paper underneath and then melted the Tyvek too. This is not a terribly good photo.

2005-10-20T19:21:00.000Z

On Monday I suddenly had an idea for a quilt using one of the painted and bondawebbed papers we created at the embroidery class I did a year ago. I haven't got a photo of the paper but it is brown paper painted with acrylic paints in brownish sorts of colours. On top of that I have ironed painted Bondaweb - greens, blues, all sorts of scraps of it from other projects. Some of them also have gold coloured foil ironed on to them. Oh, before ironing the Bondaweb on, I scrunched up the paper to make an interesting texture, and the whole thing was fused on to calico. In this photo I have laid a black fabric on top of it and some rectangles of painted Tyvek on to that, and stitched a grid pattern all over it. There is some brown painted Tyvek too which I have melted with a heat gun - you can see it if you look carefully.

2005-10-20T19:14:00.000Z

I got a yummy postcard from Frances of Island Threads. Thank you, Frances.

Weblog Usability: The Top Ten Design Mistakes (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox)

2005-10-19T17:07:00.000Z

This is an interesting article for bloggers: Weblog Usability: The Top Ten Design Mistakes (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox)

2005-10-19T09:24:00.000Z

This is a cake that nine year old Zachary made - it is one of those ones where you melt chocolate, butter and stuff and add crushed biscuits and then put it in the fridge. It is made to a Blue Peter recipe so he is planning to send a photo to Blue Peter (which is a BBC children's tv programme by the way). It was yummy and didn't last very long!!

2005-10-19T09:21:00.000Z

This is the plastic which was under the painted fabrics the other day. I must think of some way of using it!

2005-10-18T13:15:00.000Z

And this.

2005-10-18T13:14:00.000Z

I took this at my brother's wedding last year.

2005-10-18T13:12:00.000Z

Funny how just moving to another angle makes it look so different. I love looking at light through glass and liquid. I'd love to try and reproduce it in fabric or paint someday.

2005-10-18T13:11:00.000Z

I found a recipe in last weekend's newspaper for flavouring olive oil with herbs. This is it! extra virgin olive oil with rosemary, lavender, fennel, thyme.... must be a few more I've missed. At last I'm using all those herbs in the garden! Now I've got to wait a month for it to be its optimum taste...

2005-10-17T13:37:00.000Z

I put this piece of cotton scrim underneath one of the other painted pieces to catch the drips. I think I'll use it on this quilted piece in some way.. I was wondering how to bring in that pink bit at the top...

2005-10-17T13:36:00.000Z

This is a poly-cotton damask which I used quite a bit of brown on. It is actually a deeper colour than it looks on the photo. (By the way, the reason I know they've all got some polyester in is because I got my soldering iron and burnt them - the ones that stuck have got polyester in them! Less risky than setting them alight with a match...). I'm saving all my cotton for dyeing, not that there's much left from all the previous dyeing playdays...

2005-10-17T13:33:00.000Z

I actually used poly-cotton fabric as acrylic paint seems to stick to it as well as cotton and I have HUGE amounts of it on my shelves... at least, when you splash it on your clothes it never seems to come out ;{

2005-10-17T13:32:00.000Z

On Friday I decided to splash some paint around and have a go at Sonji's method of fabric painting - see October 1st entry - wonderful pictures! I decided to keep to oranges and yellows too but I used a right mishmash of paints as mine all seem to be small bottles of this and that. Oh well... if I use all those up I've got an excuse to buy some HUGE bottles of acrylic next!

2005-10-13T21:00:00.000Z

This is the photo which sparked off the perambulations round the house. Something Lily Kerns said on the Quilt University Journal Quilts course reminded me - about getting on the floor to draw something from a mouse's perspective. So here is a mouse's view of our floor. (you can tell we have kids...). I've joined a new challenge on the Quiltart List called Changing Perspective (which came up shortly after I took this photo) so I thought I'd do something on the theme of seeing things from a mouse's eye view, or something along those lines...

2005-10-13T20:57:00.000Z

This is the cereal box shelf. Above the tumbledryer.

2005-10-13T20:55:00.000Z

You can tell I'm running out of inspiration for my blog. Here is the inside of my fridge. I was going round the house the other day just snapping things with my camera. That is the beauty of digital cameras - you can waste pictures with impunity and you know you don't have these prints sitting round for eternity, mocking your photographic ability....

2005-10-11T18:16:00.000Z

Most of the trees are still fairly green though. (See that rubbish van down there... I saw three all at once yesterday - just like buses. You wait for ages for one and three come along at once...).

2005-10-11T18:14:00.001Z

And holly - not in our garden. I saw it on a walk yesterday.

2005-10-11T18:14:00.000Z

And honeysuckle - highly poisonous, apparently.

2005-10-11T18:13:00.000Z

Evidence of autumn. Here is the pyracantha (the burglar deterrent by the gate at the end of the garden!).

2005-10-10T13:38:00.000Z

Valeri's postcard arrived today! Thank you, Valeri. It is entitled 'Rock Pool # 1' and has a background of, I guess, Valeri's hand-dyed fabric with shells and a starfish appliqued on. The rocks are outlined with 3 dimensional paint. Yummy!

2005-10-09T19:59:00.001Z

And this is a close up of a mallow flower. I thought I might try and paint it as I did with the tulip. Almost like a kaleidescope pattern...

2005-10-09T19:59:00.000Z

The evening primrose plants are still going strong...

2005-10-09T19:57:00.000Z

Such a gorgeous pink!

2005-10-09T19:56:00.000Z

This is a surprise gladioli that suddenly appeared in the herb garden. I must have dislodged it when I dug the patch over before planting the herbs, so that it sprouted again! A nice surprise!

Colourful Cubs

2005-10-07T13:26:00.000Z

Zachary enjoyed his cubs night last night, although he came in and announced that he felt sick, having ate so much! Akela had asked each Six (which is the name of each individual cub group) to bring in food of a specific colour. Zachary's six were green, so they had a three course meal consisting of melon, kiwifruit and lime for starter; peas, beans and brussels sprouts for main course and green jelly for pudding! Plus, of course, the drinks Zachary took. Zachary's friend is in another six whose colour was yellow and orange and they had banana split for pud. I don't think anyone was enterprising enough to colour spaghetti or rice with green food colouring - I remember having red spaghetti whilst in a student flat at university! But great fun was had by all...

2005-10-07T13:24:00.000Z

This is how I've got it at the moment though I'm not sure it'll stay that way. They're just pinned on at the moment but I keep playing around with them and changing them.

2005-10-07T13:23:00.000Z

When I started making these beads I couldn't stop and went about it with a sort of manic compulsion...

2005-10-07T13:22:00.000Z

I finished the tulip quilt earlier in the week. I did toy with the idea of making it petal shaped but because it is so long and thin (mostly because when I painted it I was only trying to work towards a journal quilt size) I didn't think it would be wide enough. I've finished it with about four rows of zigzags of varying widths and a sort of wiggly zigzag stitch that I've got on my machine. I like this better than traditional binding (I have a sort of antipathy to binding for some reason...). A sort of ragged petal edge.

2005-10-06T13:11:00.000Z

I was walking round our house today taking miscellaneous photographs. Here is Cobweb looking very cuddly.

2005-10-06T13:10:00.000Z

These are sitting on a shelf waiting for tonight. Zachary has a cooking evening at Cubs - he has to bring green or white drinks. (The one at the back is Appletize not wine by the way!!).

2005-10-06T13:05:00.000Z

I was clearing out the compost bin on Sunday and look what I found! My husband can't even remember losing it... I think I'll be 'borrowing' it for a while when I next want to rust some fabrics...

Journal Quilts donated to the Art Doing Good Project

2005-10-05T12:45:00.000Z

The following four quilts are the journal quilts which I left out of my five which had to be sent to Houston. I decided to donate them to Laura Cater-Woods' Open Hearts, Helping Hands Project to raise money for the victims of the hurricanes in the US - see Art Doing Good. They will be in Phase 2, which are to be sold at Festival at Houston (see Quilts Inc for details).

I also donated 4 postcards but to my embarrassment I can't remember which they are so I can't post any photos, so if any of you are going to Houston, do look out for them!! Karey Bresenham, the organiser of the Journal Quilt Project, gave me permission to post photos of just these four before the event itself.

If anyone goes to Houston and manages to see any of these or my Journal Quilts, I would love a photo of them in situ seeing as I can't be there myself!! THANK YOU IN ADVANCE!!

Weeping Willow in Springtime

2005-10-05T12:34:00.000Z

I saw a weeping willow tree in Spring with the sun shining through it. This is my attempt to reproduce it in an abstract way. I've layered and overlapped various background fabrics - mostly silks, and hand embroidered the willow design. It has beads in it as well. Not a very good photo - I didn't find this one very easy to photograph. This one is my favourite out of the four I have donated and the one I found hardest to part with.

Playing with lines

2005-10-05T12:32:00.000Z

I developed this one from a design idea using lines and curves in Lily Kern's Journal Quilts course. I made it fusing fabrics with Bondaweb.

Wisteria Pods

2005-10-05T12:30:00.000Z

This is based on a design I developed from wisteria pods. It is applique from the back and I've done it in lots of different fabrics - velvet, Harris tweed, linen, silk.

Whimsical Self Portrait

2005-10-05T12:28:00.000Z

This is entitled 'Whimsical Self Portrait'. It isn't very like me (at least, I hope not!) but I thought it looked funny when I had done it. I was inspired by the article in Quilting Arts magazine.

2005-10-04T18:46:00.000Z

This is my next project to finish. I was playing around with fusing fabric and this was another possible journal quilt. I did a lot of playing around earlier in the year and these are just now coming to the top of the pile!

2005-10-03T20:56:00.000Z

And this one is from Joy in Australia. I feel I've got a little bit of Sydney with this one.

2005-10-03T20:54:00.000Z

This is a lovely postcard sent to me from Judy in Australia. Anyone know what those flowers are? (It has satin stitch round the bottom too but I managed to photo it without...)

2005-10-03T20:53:00.000Z

I'm making these beads for this wallhanging which I've posted before, to disguise the joins of the squares where you can still see black felt, and to try and unify the border and the inner bit.

2005-10-03T20:51:00.000Z

These are some long beads I was playing around with - kebab sticks wrapped round with thread and a strip of metallic stretchy fabric (the one on the right has some angelina wrapped round it too, but I'm not sure that is staying at the moment.

2005-10-02T12:35:00.000Z

This was made by Annette in Country Durham. She says it was inspired by a visit to the beach. It really reminds me of summer!

2005-10-02T12:33:00.000Z

This was made by Frieda from Scotland. I love all the bright colours I'm getting in these postcards!

2005-10-02T12:32:00.000Z

I thought I'd post some of the lovely postcards I've been getting from the Eurasian swap. This was made by Jannie in Holland.

2005-10-02T12:30:00.000Z

I did some stitching on it and this is it now. I think I'll just do a little bit more quilting (at the moment it has batting but not a backing) and a pillowcase turn (I think I've decided that's my favourite finishing technique - thank you Melody!) and leave it at that. Whatcha think?

2005-10-02T12:29:00.000Z

Remember this that I painted back in the summer? It was a possible journal quilt based on a closeup photo of a tulip which I took. Except I didn't do anything with it till last week. (It is fairly stiff calico painted with acrylic paints - so fairly stiff in total!).

2005-10-01T17:45:00.000Z

Last week I bought some of these blank cards with holes cut out from Lakeland Limited. I spent a happy hour yesterday putting various bits of painted papers and things behind them to make greetings cards. This is a good way of using up all those papers lying round...

2005-10-01T17:42:00.000Z

I finally finished off the large fire piece. I didn't do proper borders; I laid sheer fabric round it, turned it pillowcase style a la Melody and quilted it.