Anticipation of the solstice

When the amount of daylight is so meagre, it is good to brighten up the everyday in anticipation of the light to come after the solstice.

Superb laces in lots of colours from here.

Fungal foray

Incredible inspiration of form and colour from fungi during a walk this weekend

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Hidden inside the middle of a rotting fence post, waiting to be discovered, 

 

Snow and ice in London

No dye to hand, so I couldn’t try snow-dyeing.

Frosty

Hope you are keeping warm this week.

Kew Gardens inspiration

Do go and see Life in Death by Rebecca Louise Law, a mesmersing installation at Kew Gardens, on until March 2018.

In, and out of the greenhouses, the light was wonderful

Snow - such an event

Yew tree channelling its inner palm tree

Grey, but rainbows to follow

So the day I decide to take my camera out is the one where the fog doesn’t lift

but there are great textures to be seen up close

Luckily the sun was shining when I took these photos of the back the heart quilt

Reflection 2

A weekend near willows and water.  Gloomy light, but perfect for capturing reflections.

Seven year stitch?

UFO clearing is a good thing to do when creative energy is in short supply, but is going back to a project that was started 7 years ago a good idea in this situation?  The answer was yes, when it is this swan, started 7 years ago, in a workshop with Ferret.

I got stuck on this as I was going to appliqué some leaves into the corner, but couldn’t get the scale of the leaves to my liking.

A cycle along the river ( the only benefit of visiting my relative with the stroke) gave inspiration of just stitching on lines of stitch to suggest the winter threads of willow branches.

A greenish, variegated thread from the stand looked like a good mix of colours.

Trying to apply some of my new knowledge about tone, I also added some darker stitch down one side of the variegated thread and some lighter stitch down the other side. The Bernina edge-stitch foot is a great tool for precision stitching.

  

I need to stitch more lines and to decide whether to stitch in the thread ends or sew them in.

 

Glad to be outside

Horrendous chest infection recently left me panting for breath at the slightest exertion, ( this was really the week to buy my own set of yoga blocks!)  so I missed some glorious sunrises on frosty mornings.  I did however manage to get to see some of these.