At The Weekend....

A couple of years ago I had a book that I nicknamed my show book, in it I stuck photos and leaflets from shows and exhibitions that I visited with The Other Half. But life got busy and I wasn't always able to keep it up, in the end I just shoved the leaflets into the book with no comments and no photos, it became a dumping ground! So this weekend I thought maybe I should use my blog more to document what I see. So here I begin.....

On Saturday The Other Half took me to see flooring that he had designed a while back for the Chemotherapy Department at University College Hospital in London. Out of respect to the patients and families that were present, I did not take any photos. The floor looked great in red and white linoleum using one of his bell themed designs. I'm mighty proud of his work (as always) and hope that this work will offer a moment of thought to all who see it at what must be an incredibly harrowing time.

Also on Saturday we visited the Wellcome Collection to see the 'Souzou' exhibition of outsider art. The works in this show were created by people with behavioural/developmental/mental illnesses who attend specialist care centres in Japan. I'd only heard good things about this show so was looking forward to our trip. It was amazing and definitely well worth the visit. Heres a link that will tell you more.............

Knitting Woes!

Having spent days making plain jumpers and dresses for the bears, I thought making a multi coloured bear dress would be a nice change. 

Ha! How wrong I was!

From the start I was faced with tangles and pulls that would've challenged a saint! There was a moment when I was ready to pack away my knitting machine for good! And then as if the knitting wasn't enough, the making up nearly had me going loopy too! So much so that I abandoned sewing back the knot of yarns that you can see in the top picture. The back looks pretty bonkers 'n all! Ah well, you can't win them all!

Birthday Patchwork

Over 21 years ago I gave birth to our second daughter Barbara.

To celebrate I secretly made a patchwork quilt using scraps of old fabrics from her childhood, pieces from her sisters scrap box and from mine, together with new fabrics ......

 I used a mixture of alternate 'nine square' and 'plain' blocks.

 For the quilting I succumbed to my usual choice of a circle design.

I made a continuous strip of bias binding for the edging....

And as a final salute to Barbara's childhood, I collected together ribbon roses and bows similar to the ones that I used to decorate the bags and clothes of the dolls and teddies that she and her sister played with. I wasn't sure how to use them at first, I had thought of spacing them throughout the quilt, but that could've ended looking a bit twee. In the end I decided on placing them all in one area for a burst of nostalgia, also giving B the option of tucking them out of sight if she didn't want them on public display!

 Happy Birthday Barbara!