Making a it more accomplished

I spent a couple of hours on the internet, looking up how to finish the edge of a hooked rug. It was the Northwest Folk Design blog that set me off, with a post about various methods...Karen Kahle's website (?)  blog (?) was also very helpful, showing step-by-step instructions on how to crochet an edge....and it does look immeasurably better than my earlier rugs.

The original of this is a painting by Australian artist Dean Bowen ...

which I saw on Pinterest and sent to my sister, who altered the colours.
Faced with that large, blank corner on the bottom left, I added an element to relieve the monotony...

...using a stretchy velvet/ net combination, with a strip cut from a pair of red and gold tights to outline the edge of the wings...a bit tricky but not boring...

While waiting for parts of the big ship to dry I had a little play...

 Some years ago I made a series of these, which I called  "Over The Edge" ....they were about leaving the known, and stepping off into unknown territory. This one is " the ship of stillborn dreams"...it's made of very thin handmade paper and tissue...the prow is the jawbone of a mouse....the mast is the tip of a goose feather and the base a piece of bone from the beach.


The work on the big piece is unknown territory for me - technically quite tricky - and going back, albeit briefly, to something familiar is reassuring.

And this is another, not yet finished.

There have been many times when I've wished I had three hands, if not four....this afternoon was one of them, as I tried to balance a ship and four sticks.

As you can see, it's all very professional - a cardboard box with holes in it and bits of masking tape..

....looking at the photo, I can see that I've got the angle a bit wrong. Before putting all this together I was thinking that the ship was too clunky and heavy but am very much happier with it now.

The figures are emerging slowly...still looking very patchy and I am still feeling my way because I have no idea what surface finish to use, or how to make the moon shape that's in the original drawing.

Sometimes, (possibly often?) even if I can't see every part of a piece clearly at the start, things work themselves out.

Made by hand

Another trip to England...to mind my grandchildren. We've always made things together - puppets and theatres, cardboard box houses, books, dolls....this time it was small boxes. Well, I made some - my grandson was completely underwhelmed, preferring to play video games...my granddaughter was polite/kind enough to join in. Hers is the rainbow one.

Yes, the eyes are the wrong way up...











She does like sewing, so we also made a quilted pencil case - most of which she did herself...

I wonder if she likes rainbow colours...

A trip to the charity shops brought in a good haul of fabrics for the bird rug.

They're still not quite the dark teal I want, but as close as I could find.
                     The colours of my photos are sometimes nowhere near true to life - as in this one - no matter which setting I use. I think I'll have to bite the bullet and read the manual.

So now I have nine bundles of different strips to work with. I pull out one or two from each bundle and hook them almost at random...

And the good news is .... the patchwork is finally finished, with 28 feet of hand-sewn binding completed.

In 1970 I visited the American Museum at Bath and saw 19th century patchwork quilts for the first time.

They are displayed in these suspended glass cases so you can get right up close, and what I loved most about them was that some of the stitching wasn't that great...and I remember clearly experiencing a deep awareness that these had been made by hand, by real women. I suddenly felt a sense of connection with those unknown women who had cut and sewn the fabrics more than a lifetime ago.
The very first patchwork I made, six years later, was a Log Cabin cot cover for the baby I was expecting and I hand-stitched it all. 
(As I sat sewing by the window to get the most of the winter daylight, I did feel rather like a queen in some fairy tale.)

So maybe it would be faster to finish the binding on the machine, but I much prefer to do it by hand...with stitches that are not perfectly even.

 Front...(the colours are not true in this photo)

...and back... Because I'd sewn the blue binding to the front before working out the back, (plan ahead???)  I had to put some of the blue into the design, but there was only a very small piece of it left. There was a fair bit of redrawing and muttering..."if that one is six inches wide and that one is four, then...."

Not making it...

By the time I realised the foundry wouldn't be able to cast my pieces for the upcoming 'FORM' exhibition it was getting a little late to come up with something else and make it in time...it does take time for ideas to form properly; to get past the 'first thoughts' stage. Plus, I discovered that the old, slightly broken chair I was going to use has a bit of woodworm...and so far no-one I've asked has anything suitable. Work on the ship piece is slow - I'm not seeing it clearly at all yet and don't want to rush it just for the sake of having something even if I'm not happy with it.

It's funny what sometimes makes decisions for us..the size of the ship was in the end determined by the size of the biggest box I had...

I sort of, very vaguely know what I want for the figures...could do with more images but don't remember to whom I lent the book I need...and I guess I haven't found the right key words for an internet search to be all that useful...

This gradually grows into this...and they are making themselves...I'm just listening.

So, I've decided to opt out of this year's exhibition and make these pieces anyway, in my own time, without pressure...and if they end up in next year's show, all well and good but it doesn't matter if they don't.

I was asked to make some aprons for the local shop/gallery that has recently opened a cafe...and those I did make in time for an event they hosted last night.

Yes, it does occur to me that doing these 'little jobs' for people takes away time from other work, but it does feel good to get a few oohs and aahs...and it does also occur to me that it might be good to reflect on what I most want to use my time doing...

Speaking of which, the patchwork is nearly, nearly done.

 It's on the ironing board - when time and inclination coincide I stand there sewing the binding...

About two feet done, only another 26 to go....


And now for something else I did not make...

The hen workshop I was teaching at the Ennis Creative Arts Centre last weekend...

and the finished hens...