Cathy Miller - The Singing Quilter

Last evening at the Quilting Group we had a visit from the Singing Quilter, Cathy Miller. We had a fun time with Cathy singing some rather apt songs regarding the life of a Quilter, Her Husband even joined in with a ditty about "Quilting Widowers"!

Catch a snippet of Cathy's style of songs on You Tube.

Shopping, Maggie Grey and Some London Sites

Daughter and I had a great day out at Alexander Palace, spending the usual too much on lots of goodies. I definitely know I will use them as I gave myself the rule of "IT CAN ONLY BE BOUGHT IF IT HAS USE IN THE MODULE". But I did break the rule by buying Maggie Grey's new book, then again it will contain ideas with could be incorporated in the coursework!

While at Maggie's stall I showed her photographs of the catalogues disintregrating in my garden, I'm sure I wasn't the first and not the last to do this over the week-end!

Clive said we will need to leave them out until November and then they will be used in the online course connected with the new book. Something to look forward to...

At Ario I purchased some Moon Shadow walnut ink sprays something Maggie suggested was a good idea to have when she taught at the Summer School in 2007, luckally this pack contains the colours being used in my module (remember the rule?) so I can spray the wet paper pulp to give it an interesting tint. Whilst checking through the workroom drawers last week I rediscovered some luster powders which suggested on the packaging that usuing Arabic gum would be a good way to use the luster powders - so I got some, again another way to make the handmade paper interesting. The third item is 3D medium - the stuff that expands when heated with a heat gun - more texture to the handmade paper.

These interesting goodies were found on Craftynotions stall. The moulding mesh with do what it says on the packaging! Thought this would be good for the grids I need to make, add pulp and stitching then carefully heat and see what happens - I have great hopes for this. Wiggle Mesh is a similar product with heat it - mold it - distress it - stitch it on the lable so that is what I'll do! The other package is grunge board, I'm intending to pop all the circles out and weave into it, add pulp and see what happens...

I saw this lovely silk thread and had to limit myself to the module colours - blue, yellow and brown - and that was difficult as they came in a miriad of shades!

Bobbins!

More bobins for my machines - I never seem to have an empty one when I need one!

The other bobbins are for my Lucet, I don't want to take off the thread that are on the two bobins that came with it, so got three more to put on the module 4 colours to make cord to weave into the grids.

Now when I said that I had set myself rules regarding the shopping list...well I broke them!

Shock, horror!

I saw some thread nets - the net covers that hold the threads on the bobbin to stop them tangling and some gold Maderia thread for a sample I am hoping to make.

I would like to do more goldwork since completing the banner so I bought a kit which I thought was a suitable subject to begin with.

With the Church Bazaar in November I bought this ribbon to make Christmas ornaments with. There will be a stall having a "bauble raffle"

And finally I had to buy something quilty, so bought this Japanese preprinted block which I will work in red thread and edge with the patterned and little rabbit print fabric to make a cushion cover for my lounge.

Shopping over by 4.50pm -this was a first as we are usually kicked out on the 5.30pm closing call! We left to have a closer look around the foyer.

At the entrance Tetley Tea were celebrating their anniversary with a huge tea bag.

And this "Coral Reef" was being added to by the visitors

Have a close look at the photos to see if you can find Nemo!

We headed by tube to the Sushi restaurant by St. Paul's Cathedral, only to find at Chancery Lane an announcement saying St. Paul's tube station was shut for maintenance so we jumped off the tube and walked!

And we discovered this charming sculpture on Shoe Lane

Walking up Fleet Street St. Paul's glowed in the evening sun

Once we had finished our lovely meal at Yo!Sushi we found St. Paul's glowing in lamp light!

We crossed the Millennium Bridge and sauntered down the South Bank on the way to Waterloo.

Lasers were being projected cross the river where a bridge once stood, it was very effective and had gathered a crowd! We carried on in the fresh Autumn air...and captured the London Eye.

This could be inspiration for a project!

At Waterloo whilst waiting for the train, we people watched and were impressed with this jacket!

Not a great photograph, but you get the feel of it!

Then it was home to bed and dreams of what to do with the goodies...

Knitting and Stitch Show - Alexander Palace

Just putting the final touches to the Ally Pally shopping list. Daughter and I will be having our annual jaunt, watching the Ice Skaters whilst we eat our lunch and having a thoroughly good time incorporating two of the best things to do on a Saturday - Crafts and Shopping!

I'm so ready for this that I have already cooked the stew for DH and Son's Saturday evening meal so all they have to do is buy some crusty bread tomorrow and heat up the stew. Daughter and I will probably be found somewhere in London eating Sushi, or break our journey home and call in at Richmond for our favourite Pizza Express. Either way it's nice to have a special time together and at 14 yrs old I very much doubt she will be joining me for much longer.

Is anyone else venturing to Ally Pally tomorrow?

If there are any Distant Stitchers going, would you like to meet up for a coffee?

I shall definitely be calling in on Maggie Grey for her new book and to show her the photos of my sodden catalogues!!!!

Back on track

So for the last two days I have been re reading and going over what I have done for Module 4 so far. It was pleasing to see that there was more work completed than I had thought. So I have made more notes - very good at this! - and begun at the beginning by playing with envelopes and stamps. I have three sketchbooks on the go with Media Research, Lettering Research and Grid Research all are in the process of being filled and the results will be posted on the Module 4 blog very, very soon.

After a busy September of organising the Children back into school routine, Church Flower rota - will have to tell the Lady who organises this that September is not a good month for me - and the renovating of the Banner. I was hoping for the first Thursday of October to be the first whole day I could devote to Coursework BUT OH NO... School decided that today would be an INSET day as the Children had been busy helping at the Open Evening until 8.30pm last night and they needed a rest day. Inbetween helping Daughter to pack her rucksack for her Duke of Edinburgh experdition this weekend - she goes tomorrow after school - and helping Son with homework I just managed some time this afternoon to play with the Photoshop Pro. I am a complete novice and should have some lessons, but I did get some interesting images for the sketchbook.

Blue Stamps with topography and eroded Edges

Orange/Gold Stamps with Contour

I like the Contour effect and I hope this piece will be inspire some interesting paper designs. The ideas are busy running through my mind with awhole lot of other personal stuff at the moment, but that's another blog for another day...