Tear Lay Cut

I've just had a wonderful, inspiring yet exhausting in-service weekend with The Textile Study Group. It hasn't been the best weekend to be away... tough family times again... and I almost didn't go, but I'm glad I did. It was a "Working Together" weekend called "Tear Cut Lay"with Ruth Issett and Bobby Britnell.

 

 

We were split into two groups and I started the weekend with Ruth, painting papers. We were limited to two colours and despite what it looks like in the photo abaove I was working with magenta and turquoise.

 

We then monoprinted more paper and working within a scale of four inch squares we tore, cut and layered the papers.

 

All the time limiting ourselves to horizontal and vertical lines.

Some pieces evolved into three dimensions.

 

Then after tea on Saturday the two groups swapped tutors and I spent the rest of the weekend with Bobby. We went from working with colour to drawing and mark making in black and white.

 

Before combining all the techniques and arranging the resulting squares in different ways to tell different stories.

 

Finally we put together a resolved piece and I combined a selection of my squares onto a background drawing... unfortnately the photo is somewhat wonky and out of focus... but it is too late in the day to take another. I'm hoping now I'll be able to take this forward into textiles.

 

Tonight is the last chance to win a copy of my limited edition print... Just leave a comment on this post... and next time I'm here I'll announce a winner.

One Last Splash

How about this for a final splash of colour in January... beautiful bold bright prints.

In the week between Christmas and New Year a brown paper package arrived for me... you can imagine my surprise when I realised I had won a competition that was held on the Selvedge blog. I have subscribed to Selvedge magazine since the first issue and always enjoy the snappy editoral style and glorious photography, not to mention looking all the gorgeous covetable objects they have for sale.

So I was delighted to win this printed tablecloth and set of tea towels from Swedish designer Gudrun Sjoden

But don't tell anyone... I think I might use the fabric for something other than adorning my table or drying my dishes!

On the other hand... maybe not!

Another Splash of Colour

Some more colour for this first week of January and some newly finished socks... knitted in the bright blues of summer skies and seas (well, with a bit of imagination)

These were Stewart's Christmas present, although they were only finished this morning. In his Christmas stocking he had one sock with a note...

Which was rather reminiscent of last year...

Perhaps I should start knitting his Christmas 2011 socks now instead of the week before Christmas?

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There were a few requests after my last post for the recipe for the orange & ginger soup so this is it:

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 medium onion, finely chopped

1 teaspoon fennel seeds

100g orange lentils

Approx 3 cm fresh ginger root, grated

400g tin of chopped tomatoes

Juice and zest of 2 large oranges

1 litre vegetable stock

Chopped parsley

Heat the oil in a large saucepan and saute the onion with the fennel seeds until soft. Add the lentils and the ginger, stir for a minute or two and then add all the other ingedients except the parsley. Bring to the boil and simmer for 30 minutes until the lentils are tender. Season with salt and pepper if required. You can liquidize at this stage but I quite like it chunky. Serve with a sprinkle of parsley. Eat and feel virtuous... although not if you follow it with Christmas cake like me!

Splash of Colour

Joining in with Emma's Splash of Colour week, this is my contribution for January. I have to admit that I don't really mind this time of year. I find the New Year with its promise of new beginnings and fresh starts all rather exciting... enough to make me overlook the grey skies and short days... at least for the first week or two. And my optimism extends to actually believing that I will lose weight and get fitter etc etc ... you would think at my age I would know better.

This is my favourite soup for when I'm in this "fresh start" frame of mind... an orange, ginger and lentil soup that feels as though it is doing good with every mouthful. Fresh flavours and fresh colours, especially when sprinkled with a liberal dose of parsley.

Happy New Year everyone!

Day Seven

As I was a little premature with my Splash of Colour post last week I thought I would do another and show the progress on my granny stripe blanket which is pretty colourful.

When I started it in the summer I thought it might be completed in time for Jacob's birthday in October.

Now I'm wondering if it will be ready to give him for Christmas.

Because the problem is knowing when to stop , although at the moment my plan is to make it square. However that is still several stripes away!

More colour is obviously required.

A Week of Colour

It was a busy week, last week... four days of teaching, four different groups, four different venues and four different classes.

So as I'm joining in with Emma's Splash of Colour project, I thought I would show some of the colourful fabrics created at ArtVanGo last Thursday. Ten talented ladies produced an amazing array of samples of which only a small selection are shown here. They started by making braids, which they stitched together to create new fabrics.

Colourful and sparkly!

Then they progressed to using sticky backed soluble fabric, laying down grids with the braids they had made earlier, adding bits and pieces as they went, finally stitching it all together.

With some of the ladies making colourful cuffs.

A beautiful selection of colourful samples.

If you have popped over to Emma's Slash of colour post today you will notice she has posted a picture of little P in a pumpkin costume... and it prompted me to dig out some pictures of Ben and Sam wearing their pumpkin costumes twenty four years ago! Sam was 18months old and Ben was just 4

The costume little P is wearing is the very same one that Sam is wearing here!

The busy week finished with flying visit up to Dundee as Stewart's Dad was celebrating a significant birthday. A lovely weekend with all the family.

Happy Birthday George!

I'm hoping this week might be a little less frantic... but knowing me that's unlikely as I'm frantically stitching pieces of lace!