Searching for the Rainbow Scale

I've been gone a little while because every spare minute over the past two weeks has been spent doing this... hours and hours of hand stitching.

But I've finished! My final piece for my final assessment for my current module with The Julia Caprara School of Textile Arts. Another self portrait (35 cm x 50 cm), machine and hand stitched on artists' canvas, set in the chaos of my kitchen and inspired by the following:

All my spare time off housekeeping and mothering I spend trying to delve further, to find more. When one is young one is satisfied with a flower petal or a sparkle. Now I want more. I want the rainbow scale of the flower and the reason and the travel of the sparkle and most of all a long quiet time of intense peace and uninterrupted thought, none of which one can get.

Winifred Nicholson in a letter to Jim Ede
(c1948-49)

During the first level of the degree all our work is assessed as only a pass or a fail. This module is my first at level two and consequently will be given a grade so the pressure is on. All the work from the past three months is now packed up and labelled ready to take for moderation tomorrow. Despite initial difficulties I have found my tutor to be helpful and encouraging and she has really helped me challenge myself further than I ever imagined I could be. It has been hard work, at times frustrating and difficult but ultimately very enjoyable and satisfying. So thank you Kate.

I've now got three months worth of housework, cleaning, ironing and "To Do" lists to catch up with... before the next module starts on January 4th! And I believe Christmas happens sometime soon too!

Feeling Fruity?

Do you want to know how to go from this...

To this?

Then check out the latest edition of
Workshop on the Web

Not only lots of fabulous articles from some brilliant tutors...
but one from me too!

A Recipe...

For Frangipane Mince Pies. As several people asked it seemed easier to post it here. It makes about 36 pies.

• 750g sweet shortcrust pastry ( I actually used 125g butter, 50g caster sugar, 250g plain flour, 1 egg yolk + 2tbsp water and it was just enough rolled out very thin!)
• large jar of good mincemeat
• 200g unsalted butter
• 200g caster sugar
• 200g ground almonds
• 50g plain flour
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tbsp brandy
• flaked almonds

1. Preheat oven to 180 deg C.
2. Grease three 12 hole tart tins. Roll out pastry thinly and cut 36 rounds of pastry to line tins. Leave to rest in fridge while you make the frangipagne.
3. Beat the butter until soft. Beat in the sugar until pale and fluffy and then beat in the almonds. Mix in the flour, the eggs and finally the brandy.
4. Half fill the pastry cases with mincemeat and then spoon a heaped teaspoon of frangipagne over the top over each one. Smooth it over and sprinkle with flaked almonds.
5. Bake for about 20 - 25 mins until golden brown. Serve warm sprinkled with icing sugar.

(Recipe from Richard Bertinet in Times Magazine 21.11.09)

Feeling Festive

On Friday I met Dotty Cookie for lunch at our local garden centre. After eating we had a stroll around their Christmas shop... and we both ended up buying some little glass ornaments, which I'm sure one or other of us will show you soon! As a result I came home feeling very festive and had to make three dozen of these... mince pies with a frangipane topping... I say so myself but by far the best mince pies I've tasted in quite a while! (Recipe from The Times magazine from two weeks ago). In fact they are so good there are only half a dozen left!

The festive feeling has stayed with me all weekend so when Dotty Cookie posted a tutorial for a snow angel I couldn't resist giving it a try (despite the shadow of degree work to finish looming large)... and here she is!

And then I even had to get this out ready for Tuesday. Despite the children I still have living at home being 17, 20 and 24 there were still cries of "Oh, the advent calendar!" I guess you are never too old to be feeling festive!

No bags of chocolate hanging up yet though... I know my boys too well!

Circles

At my City and Guilds class on Wednesday one of my students Gill brought in a sample she had constructed from circles of felt. She had seen a cushion in a DIY store that was covered with these and had very cleverly worked out how it was constructed and made the sample below. We were all very impressed!

In typical tutor fashion, I then suggested it might work to make the sample from circles of sheer fabrics that had been layered and then cut out with a soldering iron, to which Gill's response was... "Well go on then!" (They have no respect for their teacher!)... So I did!

I didn't take photos of the process but this is the finished result. Tiny sheer circles, the size of a 2p piece, manipulated and stitched down onto organza ribbon.

Which makes a very impractical bracelet.

Quite pretty though! And there is no point me making suggestions if I'm not going to follow them through.

Next time I might keep my mouth shut though!

Comments

Part of the appeal of blogging is the feedback from fellow bloggers in the form of comments. After hitting the "Publish Post" button I have to resist the urge to keep checking whether anyone has commented yet... I'm not the only one am I? The excitment of getting comments, of seeing what people have to say is all part of the pleasure of blogging. And I firmly believe that if we are putting ourselves and our work out there to be viewed by the public then we have to be prepared for all sorts of reactions... good or bad, positive or negative. Of course we all love to be told what we've done is wonderful but it can be quite refreshing to have a different opinion too. After my last post the feedback was very positive and encouraging... and fortunately for me my tutor's reaction was much the same. But there was one commenter who didn't like what I had done. I replied to her and she came back worried she had upset me... but nothing could be further from the truth. She made me laugh and made me realise how important it is to keep my feet firmly on the ground.... and let's face it... she had a point!

So, GreedyNan... please don't stop commenting. And those of you who tell me everything's wonderful... you can carry on too, because without you all I'd just be talking to myself!!!

If it wasn't for meeting fellow bloggers through comments there wouldn't be lovely surprises in the post like these latest batch of wiggly bags from Andrea. Once again Andrea got her year 10 textile group to make me wiggly bags. Thank you so much... it was very thoughtful of you and I know they will be much appreciated.

The Execution of a Proposal

I have stitched almost continuously since Saturday...

The first portrait was completed while I waited for the visitors who didn't come!

Another two were finished on Sunday.


And the final one finished yesterday...
the five o'clock shadow on this is a little disturbing!

Yesterday I had a "well, what was the point of all that" moment but overall I think I'm pleased.

My tutorial is this evening at 5.30!