The latest fishing game

 

I ended up making a more suitable fishing game for my grandson, complete with magnetic rod, a narwhale and a crab. Thanks to B&Q wallpaper sample pieces .... : ) I was able to cover a show box for him to store his rod and 'catch' in.

 

 

The lad using a reindeer and a little metal santa, decided he needed a sleigh, so a coffin oops, shaped sleigh was made and it flew round the house for the next hour or so ....

 

 

 Ive colour sorted the hexis lol

although Im going to need quite afew more of course...

 

              and these hexi corners were too interesting to throw away...

           but am stalled abit at the moment with conjunctivitus in one  
       eye...I look like I've gone a round with a boxer! I also have mouth
                ulcers and a broken molar.....not bad all that, in 2 days ~
               Between Optrex for infected eyes, Tyrozets and    
                    paracetomol.....I could really do with vodka!
                And I'm still grieving over what happened in Downton Abbey!
                Shame on you Julian Fellows!.................sigh......

Merry Christmas to You and Yours : )

Well what luck, we have survived the Mayan forecast of the end of the world ~ that is assuming it was meant literally of course!
 When you look at the sadness worldwide, perhaps they had meant it metaphorically - maybe we should each use their pessimism, to revalue our worlds and humanities importance.
Any which ways..........on a more positive note!
I hope you all have a great festive family time and next year brings you health and happiness along the way.

My banners are up ...

the new bottle of gin is in the fridge... 

                               it's just a little tree this year tucked into a corner ...

and a little holly from the tree that grows in the village graveyard where my mum, dad and several aunts, uncles, grand parents and great grandparents lay...
                              with a couple of twiggy reindeer ...

and as you can see Fergus isn't keen on me ignoring him lol
So one way to avoid that, is by laying tween me and the laptop on my lap.

He's an old, skinny boy, so he's indulged as reward for living with me all these years. He was born feral, Very difficult to trap and resistant for so many months to being remotely domesticated, that by the time he trusted me........I couldn't bear to home him elsewhere.
He's on borrowed time so deserving of indulgence I reckon.

I made my last Amazon purchase a week ago...my last until they fess up and pay some blessed tax! I have to pay it so think they should too!
I bought this interesting book...
Victoria Findlay Wolfe http://www.15minutesplay.com/

I love Victoria's Free-Pieced Made-Fabrics, which are basically a scrappy mele of fabrics, from which you cut shapes, be they hexis, strips, diamonds or whatever. The idea that you can achieve wonders by spending only 15 minutes a day has some credit but factor in my lack of discipline and how can I stop at only 15 minutes lol

Victoria has posted out small pieces of a supposedly ugly fabric and has challenged several of her blog readers to make a small quilty item with it, adding other fabrics to it of course. Mine has arrived so I'm taking a hexi making break to think on what to do with it. You can see some of whats been made so far on her blog if you chase over there.


Id acquired a Waterstones gift card for my birthday so finally took a trip to the store today and of course, bought books............
Well, I almost bought  the boxed game Shades of Grey for a great nieces 40th bday which is in January, but chickened out of taking it to the cashiers desk lol
(tho I haven't read the books and don't fancy them anyway, Ive picked up on feedback about them lol )
Instead I bought these... well I had to, Waterstones ONLY sell books!!

Oh yes, and Workbox have brought out a new magazine which I found in WH Smiths today!
Be Inspired..........Volume 1 is out now £6.95 and appears to be an annual.
It's beautifully designed I must admit, but seems to include a resume of the recent revamped Workbox editions along with afew new articles. 
Its a solid 127 page magazine and I'm wondering if EYES members will have the opportunity to buy this at a reduction, like we do the Workbox mags.
Okay folks........hope your all 'shopped' and over the shock of Kat having having been er..dallying with Derek in Eastenders! 
Arrgghhhh YUK!
That's quite put me off my food...........
although......to be truly fair............this is me at a recent fancy dress, the witchy mum in law............
so who am I to talk!! 
And where the hell did that double chin come from................sheesh.

da Vinci

I forgot mention ........ 10 rarely seen Leonardo Da Vinci drawings are touring the UK and they are here in Hull at our Ferens Art Gallery 
until mid January.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-16243603

And they are so............tiny!!! 
Almost like miniature drawings, with such intricate details that you have to wonder how the hell he managed to draw them at all!

His eye sight must have been very good and he must have drawn them in daylight surely? 
The ink used is a delightful warm sepia shade and its incredible that they have survived all these years..............now here I am assuming they really ARE the Queens originals right..........no conspiracy theories!

They are remarkable it has to be said but the war machinery and 'end of the world' themes were to me, unnerving somehow.
As if there was some madness in him, the heavy hand on the design maybe.  
But then maybe its because they are so incredibly small and finely detailed ........I must read up on him and see what has been said about him.

The fascinating thing on some of them, is that you can see his sketch lines, especially on the magnificent horse drawing, you see the sketch lines he did first, then see how he progressed onto the finished lines. 



This below was for me the most interesting and again far smaller than Id imagined it would be. (about 17 x 17 cm)
The incredible detail in Leda's central hair parting is utterly exquisite.

The above pic doesnt show it in full and this one below is quite different!

See this link for the one I saw

http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/collection/912518/the-head-of-leda

http://www.drawingsofleonardo.org/images/leda.jpg

Well worth seeing a piece of history and there was a replica 'ornithopta'

hung from the ceiling too. 

In so many ways, the man was far ahead of his time!

Knitted noggin covers

Having unearthed a 2007 Knitsimple magazine (and am still trying to think where I got it, was it from you Mary Anne? lol) I found a little pattern of sorts for knitting a snail hat 

" neither in the round nor back and forth, this fun project spirals off your needles..."

Well it took a while to work out what the few instructions really meant and I'm not convinced the instructions meant, what I ended up doing but whatever.....

 it was a really satisfying method of knitting!

And the most amazing thing of all is that you start off with an I-cord and knit the whirly round shape with only 4 stitches on at all times!

Mind you the hat in the magazine is a beanie shape and mine ended up a beret shape and I had to wing the edging below but it 

seems to have worked out fine!

Then I took a fancy to combining some yarns together to make a hood like hat...........am sure its easier using a pattern, but I grabbed what was on top of the basket.
I started off with 2 needles and then switched further on to knitting in the round and felted the finished item. I also braided some straggly bits of yarn and pushed them through the back and they felted up like dreadlocks nicely.

A week or so back I popped into our local dolls house club to wish them a merry christmas and they were showing their challenges, which had been to make a bed.
I thought this put-u-up bed was a clever idea, spot the foot!

                                and this death bed was a bit different too !!

I lied........then there's this clever lass!

http://taniasneesby.blogspot.co.uk/

Now you know how hooked I am on textile illustrations, well this lass makes such wonderful nursery rhyme pictures, you must take a look.
I've seen her at Harrogate before and just adore her Red Riding Hood piccy most of all.
It's scary in the nicest possible way lol

I have lifted this cheekily off her blog so please do go and have a browse, her work is delightful.
She has had cards made of her textile work, so I bought afew of those this time though I was sorely tempted again, to buy a print of this picture.

Oh yes, there's more Harrogate goodies....lol

Richard Box is a magnificent collage and machine stitcher....
this hare was nothing short of stunning.
Sadly you cant see the subtle sparkly effects he achieved here with his mix of threads, fabrics and stitching.
there is something iconic about hares..........

Quite an interesting You Tube link here by him that you might care to watch somewhen ..........
http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=GB&hl=en-GB&v=8JWRtsyoLhQ

Above, Samantha Wilson who is from the Hull School of Art & Design, upcycled these stools had been inspired by the hungry caterpillar story.

Above were only some of the LOTS of stitched postcards, representing countries from the 2012 Olympics!
Lifted this below from online....link below..

"To welcome the athletes from around the world the Embroiderers' Guild has produced a spectacular tribute in stitch by creating nearly three thousand embroidered postcard sized images depicting the life and times of over two hundred sporting nations - all members of the Olympic movement.
The project started In April 2010 when members of the Embroiderers' Guild were invited to take part. As some of the sporting nations are rather unfamiliar the fairest way of allocating the countries to the branches was by drawing them at random. Also working on the project was a group of individual members, who do not belong to any branch, and members of Young Embroiderers' Groups.
Each country is represented by a series of textile images opening out like a concertina book of postcards. From the national flag at the top there is a cascade of embroidered images such as national costume, customs, currency, fauna, flora, food, and landmarks. The skills and creativity of the Embroiderers' Guild members shine through with the wide variety of materials and techniques used to develop their design ideas. 
 http://www.embroiderersguild.com/whatson/welcomingathletes/index.php

I picked afew out here.....

 

 

 

cant recall for sure where this above was from, it might have been Portugal.

 

 

 

there are more on this blog too if you want some close ups

http://textilesnippets.blogspot.co.uk/2012_08_01_archive.html

 

I reckon I should make one of these below, to sit beside my armchair, so I could put all the materials Im working with, in!!

 

 

It was tightly rolled up flour, seed and rice bags far as I could see!

But Im appalled to say the pic of the artists name hasnt come out........so I cant credit her.

I believe she may also have made this tea bag container too.

It reminded me very much of sand bags and an ( upside down!)

air raid shelter!

 

This was a clever wall hanging of hers as well.

 

 

And finally..........I loved the hap-hazard effect of this piece

 

 

Again Im unable to give credit to the artist here. There were several photos that spoilt for some reason in the transfer from camera to pc.

So my aplogies and if you do recognise the work,

please let me know who it is will you?

YEAHHHHH!

It was Maragaret Brown!!! Just found the name on here!!

http://mixedmedia-jem.blogspot.co.uk/

Plus way more info on the UFO display too...........go and take a look!!

and then there were these........

There was a striking exhibit of work entitled Jabberwock by Ann Small and Sue Walton.
This was a wonderful interpretation of the tea party that Alice was invited to lol
They are members of the Small Chat group but here they were a two woman exhibit, which was was both fun and innovative.
Just loved the use of felt and cutlery and
you just got to ~ lurve these crowns - fabulous !

 

 

 

 

Here are some great pics here on Face Book I notice so take a peek!

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.360792607343463.88080.181932295229496&type=1

and then pop on to Bredas own work which is also fascinating to see!
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.360792607343463.88080.181932295229496&type=1#!/photo.php?fbid=241555909267134&set=a.241555885933803.54766.181932295229496&type=
1&theater

And then there was this blissfully beautiful bed quilt..........by Deborah Kemball, the winner of the Traditional Quilts. Euphoria. An apt title for so much glorious applique and hand quilting.

 

and how about cross stitch? lol

see this link for info on the work of this Lithuanian artist
 severija-incirauskaite-kriauneviciene

http://www.mrxstitch.com/knitting-stitching-show-2012/artist-profile-severija-incirauskaite-kriauneviciene/

I gave in lol and the Harrogate Show !

 

 

Okay........Ive paid for an upgrade afterall and it seems to have worked cos can now post pics!
I picked up some skew whiff shaped seconds, powder puffs at Scrapstore and so, naturally made dangly snowmen in beanie hats..............as you do.........

The mouths are dried grape 'branches' and the carrot noses are just fun foam. One or two have white felt glued on the back to cover the stitched on eyes.......but on most I simply stitched the beanie lower down at the back to cover the stitches and used invisible thread for the mouth twigs.

The by product of my cutting hexis is this container of fabric corners which has given me an idea or two but I cant start into them yet........I need to finish a couple of other things first.....lol

It was our EYES club, coach trip to the Harrogate Knitting & Stitching show yesterday and it was as usual, well worth going to.
Though I bought much less than previous years.
Mostly cos Ive still not used what Ive bought from the past few years yet - go figure!
It was worth going if only to see up close the mining exhibit pieces that were featured in the Workbox magazine. Stunning some of them.

 

Above 'Life Line' by Heather Waring

 

 

Above 'Not forgotten' Jill Patterson

 

 

 

The above by Victoria Macleod was amazing up close. A golden seam.

and over a coffee I looked up at the roof of the theatre that nestles in the centre of the show halls...

 

At the end of the day I saw this....and thought what a great idea it would be ...... just as soon as I got home!!

Still Life by Audrey Walker...............yeahhhhh !
Bring on the Bombay Gin!