The Turning of the Year

Its that time of year again.

The time when I wish I had been driven to stitch other things than felt brooches a bit earlier in the year.
The time when I work to get a delivery for a local Gallery Christmas show.
But my 'silk muscle' has withered. Its taken me a while to get back into shape and some of these pieces, cuffs and brooches, are my limbering up exercises and not quite up to performance standard.


We have been under stress lately and its hard to be creative when you have a worry.
I go through well tried motions and the results are ..well.....neither here nor there.

While probably quite acceptable
I feel they lack the verve and spontaneity of earlier pieces .

It was very difficult to take decent photographs this week with such dull conditions and low sun.


There was one little strange I-don't-know-where-this-came-from piece.



I had just seen a TV programme about Madonna.


I would have made more things today, but I had to make three trips to the Hospital .
One to take an elderly neighbour, with his wife, for an appointment.
He had to be admitted so the second was to take his wife back with his necessary belongings and for a visit in the afternoon.
The third was because when I got home from the second I couldn't find my purse.
I drove back 5 miles to search the car park.
There was no sign of it.
I went inside and on my way to the main reception I just happened to pop into Outpatients where two receptionists were huddled over the computer screen trying to get in touch with me.
They had my purse.
I wish I could thank the man who had found it on the car park and handed it in.



There are good people out there.


(I do love our newly painted garage.
Ball Green and Clunch.
With red leaves.
Occasionally.)

Influences

These felt brooches, as well as just the shapes without backs, have been in great demand.
Worldwide !
I love making them..I think I've told you that before, but its true.
My house is in a dreadful state and I'm building up to a mammoth clean but I keep sloping off into my sewing room to play with felt and velvet.

Duck egg and teal, orange and lime, are among my current favourite colours .

As I'm stitching one I'm thinking ahead to the next, so that some of the variations get skipped in the turmoil that is my mental design process.

'This one in orange, ooh what would it look like in green? with a black edge, skip the green,, just black...no.... orange spikes..dots..no I'll do both..' ,
but if I try to draw first it just doesn't work.

Anyway I was wondering where the shapes come from.

I've got a bit of a cold virus at the moment......really...


..maybe this is it?

Or this?


Autumn is coming along with some nice mellow sunshine, and the front door has at last been united with the rest of the woodwork by colour..a beautiful colour called 'Ball Green'.
The silver birch tree in the garden is turning lime and gold..so ..voila!
(Not silver birch but oak-ish)

Very fiddly to make.


Really much nicer than in the photograph and very much a prototype.

But what on earth influenced me to make this?

Was it my husbands recent project?


I really hadn't connected them until I glanced at his report again, which I helped him with last week.

Piles of inspiration!



If you are in the Uk have you been enjoying the Harris Tweed programmes?
I have a cupboard full of beautiful patterns and designs and I am totally committed to it for little purses bags and brooches ..coming soon!

Does anyone have any thoughts on Folksy?
My shop seems to be dying..hardly any views since a flurry of sales earlier..well.. 7!
I used to enjoy being part of a UK venture but I think I prefer Etsy .
Any thoughts?
By the way my toes in the previous post were in my walking boots and thats where they'll stay for photography purposes anyway.

Playing Hookey

Its such a lovely day so I took a break and had a walk in the woods with Willow and saw willow leaves like these.

I didn't take my camera but these are old photos taken about the same time of year.

As I was walking I started saying something I remember my Dad taught me when I was little

'Come little leaves said the wind one day

Over the meadows with me to play

Put on your dresses of scarlet and gold

For the summer has gone and the days have grown cold'

I might have remembered it wrong but I do love poetry and have all sorts of snippets stuck in my brain from the past.

'The woods are lonely dark and deep and I have promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep'

...and miles to SEW before I sleep!

Thanks you to those people who have put a link on their blog to my survey. I am going to thank you by giving you two 'tickets' in the draw.

As far as I can tell they are Robin, Jennyflower,Tricks, Julie of Mixed Media.

If I've missed anyone please let me know. Its a big blog world out there.

Only 25 wrists to go, and only three days. Its the draw on Friday.