A tip..and a trip.

When I make a piece of felt I want to stitch on, I am always dubious about starting something in case it goes wrong. I do a bit that I really like...like this leaf. I love it.

Then this seaweedy looking leaf pleased me

 but then I went a bit mad and overdid it. Not so sure I like the black stitching. I showed it to my husband and said 'I like that bit and I like that bit but...' and he said 'Well I like it all'.

 Maybe. 

I particularly like this edge.

 Here's the whole piece so far. I will add hand stitches and see what happens.

 I have another 5 pieces which I cut from the same piece of felt. I didn't want to mess them up 

 so here's what I did. I thought I'd share. 

You need some plastic pockets

 and a permanent all surface marker.

Just slip the felt into the plastic pocket and try a few designs.

 You can see what works with the shapes available.

 These two are different versions of the same piece.

I wish I'd thought of doing this before with these pieces. I abandoned the whole idea with one stitched and one not. Now I can play about with ideas on the non stitched one.

I'm a bit stuck with the same colour schemes but I think the grey and green are very appropriate to go with the record breaking wet weather we've had.

You know its a bad summer when the fact that the weather forecast might improve is a major news item! 

Still, you can't let it ruin your life . On Saturday I felt the need for a change of scene so went went off for a few hours to Glasson Dock. 

Its a sort of canal-cum-River basin  near to Lancaster and we used to go there sometimes as children when there was a lot more going on than there is now. 

 However we enjoyed a stroll along the mooring path looking at the boats. This one was in need of some TLC. 

We walked along the towpath for a while, please note that weed across the other side. 

There was a patch of it in another place where I had let Hetty off the lead. 

She looked at it and decided it was solid, so leapt off the path and disappeared with a loud plop under the water and the weed. 

She surfaced and began to swim away from us. We called, she swam back towards us and my husband leaned over and dragged her out, all covered in green slime which she shook all over us. 

What a shock.

 We passed this lovely church ..imagine coming out on a Sunday onto such a lovely canal bank.

Lovely weeds too!

 Look at this massive brood of 9 cygnets..we were being eyed very carefully by the mum and dad..cob and pen?

Add to this a deeeelicious Cartmel sticky toffee pudding ice cream and a rest on a seat overlooking the Lune estuary ...a perfect afternoon out.

Influences

A long long time ago I walked into the library and searched for something new.

I'd read my way through The Chronicles of Narnia over and over again. 

I'd read almost all of the Patricia Lynch books I loved so much. I'd devoured all the 'Fairy Tales' books..the big thick serious fairy tales from China, or Russia or wherever the book took me.

I pulled out a narrow navy blue book I hadn't noticed before, and opened it.

 I was intrigued straight away. I loved that I was being addressed by the author. I'd never heard of him ..or her...I didn't know. It was someone called 'Tove' so it could have been either. On the next page was a map of Moomin Valley. 

It was the beginning of a lifelong love of the Moomin Stories by Tove Janssen. 

No one else I knew had read them. 

They were mysterious, fascinating, sad, and sweet. The creatures who appeared in them had names like 'Too Ticky' ''Snufkin, 'Sniff' and the 'Snork Maiden'.

 They lived in a beautiful place and were very influenced by the weather and the seasons.

My favourite characters were The Hattifattners. Silent enigmatic and still. They met in the night forest and bowed to a barometer on a pole.

Later, as a Primary School teacher I introduced my classes to them and then my own children, and then the Moomins became TV stars and were no longer my own discovery.

I believe there is now a Moomin theme park.

To my mind, the line drawings of the author are far superior to any multicoloured models.

 When I was making these I was strangely reminded of the Hattifattners.

 I made one, two, three, more.

Then there were six. 

 Six in a square set, then six in a row

 Then there were eight

 Nine

 and now....ten.

Not brooches.

Gathered on my sewing table, no doubt swaying and dancing while I'm asleep.

Hmm....

What next?