Neat dye video to watch..dyeing with yarn

http://ilovetocreateblog.blogspot.co.uk/

You might like the short dyeing with yarn video clip on the above ( interesting) blog.
Although they use a tie n dye kit, the same effects would occur using various fabric dyes.
I got side tracked and watched some of the other dyeing videos too .......... there's always something new to learn!

Here in Uk there's a countdown taking place to mondays Jubilee celebrations to commemorate and celebrate the Queen's 60 years of reign.
The flotilla and the open air concert outside Buckingham Palace am sure would be amazing to experience and see........why didnt I think to go down to London for the weekend?....duhhhh!
Though having said that, I dare say I will see more, watching it on tv ~
For more info see this link below ....

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Nl1/Newsroom/Features/DG_WP200687

Even if you aren't a Royal fan, I'm sure there'll be all the grand pomp that British Royalty do so well lol and that's worth a look at............and there's bound to be some creative inspiration somewhere amongst it all!

I think the flotilla will be well worth watching, there are some amazing boats going to be travelling along the Thames, not least the Queens' own gilded barge/boat that has been especially made for the event.
Charmingly there will be a group of the Dunkirk boats attending too, little and large boats that brought servicemen home from Dunkirk, all those years ago.
It has only occured to me this past few days, my Dad was a Dunkirk Veteran and I have no idea at all, how he got back to Britain!
He must have travelled by boat too and yet I don't recall him ever mentioning it and I never had the sense to ask him.
I wonder if there is some way of my finding out? I must trry and find out.

Did I mention that I have bought a dress form?
No dont think I did......
Well the idea is that I will finally make up some of the patterns that Ive had for ...everso long.... and theoretically, they may fit!
As a woman who has laid on afeeeew pounds as she has aged.......
okay, quite afew pounds ....
have you any idea how much of an insult it is, to see your shape, stood standing beside you as a dress form?!

For afew minutes I was desolate......having twiddled rings and got it all to measure the same as I do....I/it, looked so BIG!
But then realised I needed to lengthen the waist area lol
This WONDerful adjustment lengthened my shape and made me/it LOOK slimmer lol YEAH!!
On the strength of which - I had a glass of G&T !

Been knitting and Amy Johnson

Been knitting abit, head huggers for snuggly ears in winter....

Last saturday, had a trip to Sewerby Hall at Bridlington where there is a display of items that belonged to Amy Johnson, our famous local female pilot.

Amy Johnson CBE, (1 July 1903 – 5 January 1941) was a pioneering English aviatrix. Flying solo or with her husband, Jim Mollison, Johnson set numerous long-distance records during the 1930s. Johnson flew in the Second World War as a part of the Air Transport Auxiliary where she died during a ferry flight.^[1]
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amy_Johnson

'Aviatrix' how about that! what a fabulous word!

I have always loved this picture of her, its an iconic pose..

And this delightful cream enamel thing, was her classy little compact.

Amy was born in 1903 very near to my house, which was built that same year.

I guess its because I used to fly for a living, but Amy Johnson, Karen Blixen, Beryl Markham and Amelia Earhart have long been my heroines.
They were fiesty females who lived their lives and took on jobs in a male environment and did exceptionally well.
Beryl Markham and the fascinating Karen Blixen both lived in Kenya, a place that I really like...although Karen was not a pilot, she was emotionally involved in that early, flying by the seat of your pants, era.

A curriculumplant growth resource and a question please

By the way the teddy in the piccy, top right, below, is my work

pin cushion.

I made a dress with a padded out skirt, for a small teddy bear and I stick the pins in her apron.

I wanted to include something about vegetables and counting,

in a Topic Box centred around plant growth.

I had already made up the tactile version of Jasper's Beanstalk, also how to grow runner beans and cress then came up with this activity,

which is a folding up, vegetable 'garden'.

It opens out flat and has horizontal and vertical rows on it.

I stitched velcro accepting fabric in strips to represent the rows for planting, so a blind child could orient where to place the veggies.

Then made 10 x each vegetables, so a child could count and work out, how many would fit in a row.

I made up a 'key' to help identify what the veg were and made up brailled number cards too.

It allows counting up to 10, the identification of and speech about vegetables at the least.

The mushrooms are white smoothe fun foam, the pea pods a textured fabric with beads within, the carrots a textured foam, the spuds are cut from window blind samples, the cabbages are layered green crepe paper, the onions are layered brown flimsy wrapping paper and the broccolli...for now, is zig zaggy corrugated card.

Obviously the veggies arent to scale but since its an activity to cultivate discussion around the growth of plants, that shouldn't matter too much.

Okay, now I wonder if I can ask advice from you?
Ive had an email which seems bonefide from the 'Best of the Web', which does appear to have a regular link on google and a list of blogs on it.
http://pocketchange.become.com/2012/01/best-of-the-web-no-49.html

They have requested that I sign up to their RSS feed and be listed with them.
They probably approach all blogs from time to time, so Im not supposing that I have such an interesting blog lol
And being cynical and mistrusting, Im assuming this may be a scam of some kind!

First...does anyone know about them and are members themselves of this group?

Second.... what does having an RSS feed bring to your account....like, Im SO clever at computer wizardry you'll notice lol

I have to assume that this group will get paid in some way if i sign up?..........I really dont understand the whole admail thing and dont particuarly want to have ads on my blog, so worry that this group would involve my blog being stuck with ads for this, that and the other?

Anyone got any ideas please?

A Vintage Fair

A Vintage Fair in Hull today, in the Guildhall........


The front...........and the back below..


It was an interesting venue for a Vintage Fair....

Some of the clothes were wonderful.......so many patchwork fabrics that I lusted a little after lol
But I bought nothing I confess............none were my size anyway!!

Diverse Threads exhibition....

This chap is rather cleverly made from leather strips and in Beverley Art Gallery, here in East Yorkshire.
As you walk in there's also a very tall ostrich, taller than me and Im 5' 8 and a half!
He was also made of leather but for the life of me, Ive no explanation as to why I didnt take his photo, cos he was amazing!
Niether did I take the name of who had made them both..............
so I'm a double dummy!
But whoever made them, they are truly gifted!

Diverse Threads is displayimg work in the art gallery currently. They are a group of people who meet reguarly in York and here are some of the pieces on display that I thought were striking.

These pieces were AMAZING... made by Sandra Middleton "using bonding, layering,cutting and realigning the fabrics to create a woven looking effect."

Don't know whether you can get a real close view but the pieces, mosaiced together, are WEENY! And the fabrics sparkle because some are laid so the light catches the cut back pile. Incredibly clever!

Cathy Needham's Moon Rising over the Wolds

Stunning............

Thought this was a clever idea.........a table with a basket on, for the kids to explore. There were all sorts in it, a darning mushroom, petersham, a knitting dolly etc. the idea being to stimulate conversation..........what's this for?

Another of the members is Cluny Chapman, who is a very talented young woman, whom I met years ago when she was a member of the same dolls house club.
Cluny showed an interesting mixed media piece and some wonderful couched pieces.

Oh great bloggers playing up..............see the follow on post lol

and more.....

This is Cluny's mixed media piece I mentioned and her couching piece.

Clever this, with drawn, painted and collaged areas.

Oh and I saw the funniest thing today.

Sat in a traffic queue on a stretch of road, quite far away from any houses, there was an elderly woman, looking like a 1950's gran, in a vintage hat, coat, holding an equally vintage shopping bag, on the road side pavement.

She was feeding a HUGE crow bread and cake............she was throwing him good sized chunks and he was stood

catching them!

He was about 3' in front of her and waiting patiently for her to dig in the plastic bag for each morcel.....

It was almost as if they had arranged to meet at that spot, she'd come from one direction and the crow from the other lol

It was priceless and dam it..........the traffic shifted too soon!

Im now wondering if she meets him there each day, at that time!

Little Lumpty- childrens storybook character

I was asked to provide a 'Little Lumpty' to accompany the book of the same name and maybe a box, that could double up as the wall in the story..

The box is the carry all for the book and character.

Little Lumpty lived in a village beneath the wall, that Humpty Dumpty had fallen off years before.

Lumpty was fascinated by the huge, tall wall and despite his mum telling him to keep away, he finds a ladder and climbs up it.

By night time hes pranced along the top, waved at friends, seen the small houses beneath and then he looks down....lol

Then of course he's stuck and cant get down.

Id never heard of this story before but it's lovely, by Miko Iami.

The villagers use a blanket, into which Little Lumpty jumps..and survives lol

So having made the carry box version for the hearing impaired kids, I thought it was such a nice story I'd make another, for the visually impaired kids.

This has braille overlaid on the large print, tactile book adaptation.

I had such fun making the Little Lumpty's....I may have to buy the book and make one for my grandson now!

I will have perfected the design by the third one lol

Found that wedding dress picture!

Oops, abit blurry this one ...... dam it, but you get the idea of the lace patterning.
I have no idea why it hadnt shown itself before, but this time when I downloaded some pics off my camera....there it was! Wierrrrdddd....
And it was a 1935 dress, I got the date wrong too..
The skirt has godets low down so it would have swished beautifully around the calves and Im pretty sure it was some sort of silky crepe like fabric.

I completed one of my felt-a-long birds...........  it is quite different to Laura's and I have no idea what to do with it, now its done!

An interesting fairy tale book too....

I picked up an interesting hardback book in a charity shop today.


(Ive uploaded this piccy from amazon at the following link)
http://www.amazon.com/The-Fabrics-Fairytale-Stories-Spun/dp/1841480614 
But see the second link at the end here too..

'The Fabric of Fairytale' by Tanya Robyn Batt
with fascinating illustrations by Rachel Griffin.
The stories are centred around textiles,
eg. The Cloth of the Serpent Pembe Mirui,
The Silk Brocade
The Feather Cloak
The Patchwork Coat and more.
The illustrations were what caught my eye, all the originals have been made with a mix of paper and fabrics and hand stitching.
It seems so appropriate when the fairy tales are centred around the cultural and hiistorical importance of fabrics in life.

Within the introduction it says...

"The production of cloth is so widespread that most cultures contain written or oral records documenting a deity, usually a goddess, who was associated with fabric production."

This book may well be of interest to some of you, worth seeking out off Amazon or at the library maybe. Not least because the illustrations would be fun for applique!
It's for an older child to read and doubly ideal for a grannie who stitches!

Ive found this link which explains about the stories within, an article from the Embroidery Magazine.

http://embroidery.embroiderersguild.com/2003-2/witt.htm

Now, with glass of wine in hand, I intend to read through the cultural mix of fabric-cy stories...........lol

And then there was the stained glass.....

And the aisle was laid with old slabs in which, were the words commemorating those that had long since died....
this below touched me...just look at the ages of the children.
These deaths occured in the very early 1700's..

there were more wedding dresses but think the best have been posted..
though this neckline on a modern dress was quite pretty..

Wedding Dresses over the years on display

There was a display of wedding dresses in a local church today,
so I popped in to see them.
Sadly the most amazing one that took my breath away, a 1933 one ......... for some wierd reason hasnt come out on my camera....
am so disapointed.
dam it!!
Anyway here's a little feast.......

above, this was a 1945 wedding dress..

Think  I've overloaded blogger...........it wont upload any more lol