Saturday, July 26, 2014

New Treasures

Hello everyone:  Lots of newness around here. For starters, last night I went to a wonderful show celebrating a new book by local artist Corless Smith.  She wrote the book and then made exquisite fabric pieces to illustrate the text.  Applique, embroidery, some painting...all tastefully applied to get the point of the words across.  Each piece was small, but with so much beautiful handwork in it.  I wish I had taken pictures, but I did buy the reasonably priced book and photographed the cover (my photo doesn't convey the beauty of the work). I look forward to the reading.



Next up is a kitchen towel I bought from Susan Harvey of Thrums.  I bought 2 others as gifts and had to have one for myself.  It is the best and loveliest kitchen towel I have ever used.  So absorbent. The pattern is exquisite, and because the towel has selvedge on the sides, it doesn't get all crumpled up in the wash like one with a hemmed edge will do.  It's very sturdy too.



And now we come to the Great Tapestry of Scotland, which I learned about from here. (Kate Davies Designs blog)  This is a gigantic country-wide community project of the entire history of Scotland, conceived of by Alistair McCall Smith, one of my favorite authors...I bought both books mentioned in the several blog posts, and actually, if you want to look closely at the stitches, the blog pictures provide better close-ups than in the book, but the books are very very worth reading.  Sorry there is no picture to accompany this enthusiasm, but check out the link above.

Following is a quick look at a portion of a project I've been working on...more embroidery on eco-dyed wool.  I watched George Harrison's In the Material World and was moved again by this
 


Gilly has another new haircut, for summer. She looks completely different to me.  We have been having some issues and so are consulting a Whisperer.  Truth to tell, the issues began dissolving just after I made the appointment, but I'm very curious to see what will be learned.  Stay tuned...

And all the very best to you as this year of changes grows into August...

8 comments:

  1. a FULL post!!!
    i love the new cloth you work on...please continue
    to update so can watch the progress and i think
    maybe your stove is a cousin to my new one????
    xoxo

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    1. Hi Grace! I will give updates...I think I'm getting closer to what Story means to me...and I think our stoves are related too. Right now mine is having oven difficulties, so I'm trying to figure out how to make a stove-top crust for a savory dish. It's a little iffy. Every now and then I drift into the appliance store and look at new stoves. Yours is quite handsome, I think I have stove envy.

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  2. Dear Susanna - I seems impossible to believe that almost a year has gone by since our journey to Lopez together. So glad we can keep in touch through Blogland postings. Fun to see what is exciting and new with you. Tell Gilly Flossy thinks her hair cut is quite summery and becoming. Good luck with the Whisperer - how fascinating!
    xxoo, sus and flossy

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  3. Hi Sus, I'm so glad you're back in blogland...Gilly sends greetings to Flossy! Our next adventure is going to be a skype session to learn about Tellington Touch, a way of putting animals at ease...she seems to enjoy what I've learned so far, and it will be interesting to go further with it. She isn't overly anxious but sometimes we get out of sync and it will be helpful.

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  4. Oh I love your stitching on wool. Hope things are going well with Tilly. It seems like one problem can resolved and then something more comes up... :)

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    1. That is true...every now and then we reach an oasis of calm, and then soon are having to whittle away at the trouble spots...all quite worthwhile though!

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  5. love your current project and concur with Grace: updates please! Gilly looks great. That Great Tapestry of Scotland is something else, wow, reminding me of the Bayeux tapestry (being my only reference of anything similar in scale) Imagine all working together on such a cloth, wouldn't that be nice, wonderful in fact (as I suppose in a very small way we have contributed to Jude's cloth)
    and finally thanks for the link to George, have been listening to the music whilst typing and re-reading your post

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    1. Hi Saskia,

      You're right about Jude's cloth...making those little stones and feathers really had a feeling of community about it, and now watching her pull it all together, and knowing we're all in there...what a good feeling...a giant team!

      My guitar teacher is making an arrangement of George Harrison's song for us to play as ensemble...

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