A lack of concentration yesterday and today.

I have enjoyed myself making lots of squares and using different stitches on top of each strip. I couched a cord I had added some different coloured threads and beads to and hand stitched that on. Then I realised I had quite a pile of squares ,I'd thought of cutting them in half and using them as edging but changed my mind. I liked one square better than the others and decided I could make a bag using it. So I suddenly found myself making the insects, I made them separately as I  realised the square would be too thick to embroider them straight onto it .
Why I choose such similar colours I've no idea so to morrow I shall sew some more and hope I will make one that stands out more.I have written in my journal,once I began it was difficult to stop, but reading about one of the first and probably the most painful events in my life I was able to see it differently.I feel certain it will do me so much good to carry on.
Tony and I went to the Village New Years do on Saturday, and the mayor mentioned in his speech that we will start the group again.

We meet in the school hall again this thursday,there will be more people than before Christmas so I have had to organise myself.Several people want to make cloth dolls but I am going to begin with faces as for me  the face has to be right the rest will follow. Some would like to do patchwork and others make fabric cards !!!!!!!!!!!It will be fun.

The cover for my latest journal

I have just finished this cover and am pleased to have done so. I long to take online classes but the internet connection here is extremly slow when I can connect to it. Most of all I would have liked to take these two, Madness and mess and Nellie Wortman's at creativeworkshops.I have tried downloads and can bare the stop start if they are short but otherwise it's hopeless. So I made myself sit down and and work out how to do it. I made endless mistakes but think I am getting there.
I am very glad to have a blog and to look at all the other brilliant blogs. Last year I nearly stopped mine ,I had months of awful depression at about this time of year and it paralized me in many ways. The one thing I did do was, I suppose ,hide in my workroom and continue making things. I eventually had to see a doctor and take lots of pills ,I still take some but was told as it has been a reoccuring theme in my life its about unresolved grief and I have to try and comes to terms with some of it. I had at first no idea how to do this but it suddenly came to me I will do a journal of the worst things that have happened. It will be just for me,so I will be able to write completly freely and maybe I will get to understand more and go from there. I have made myself be more sociable even though it was so hard sometimes but it has made a difference.I just hope hope hope it won't be as bad again.

A cold frosty sunday

I have worked this morning to try and understand my new sewing machine,all the instructions came in every language except english! I have a Brother already and I am happy with it but wanted another to keep set up for free machining as my old 40 years old Toyota and given up. I knew it well and was sad when it stopped working but excited by the thought of a new one. Its a Brother but quite a simple one(or so I expected). Its proved the most difficult machine I have ever used. I have persevered but I,m not quite there yet.So I found a piece of linen and drew several insects on it with my new pens for drawing on fabric, then started sewing on and round the images. There was alot of muttering under my breath as threads caught and broke time and time again. I kept going, changing settings each time and its getting better.I will fill the whole square adding more insects and flowers and leaves as I go and hope I will improve . Then I thought I may use the squares I've made cut up somehow to go around the edges.
I made the squares after reading Emma's blog at a little bit of everything .blogspot.com. She had a book by Maggie Grey and had made some wonderful samples in colours I love myself,so I immeadiatly sent off for the book and then while waiting for it to arrive made these.These are very straight forward stripes ,Emma's are much more interesting,I,m hoping when the book arrives I shall learn exciting techniques as I don't have many in my head.

Second thoughts

After looking again at the page with the drawn woman and green background I have decided I will redo it . Some how she doesn't suit the colours I've used.
I am quite pleased with the two I worked on yesterday, the page with the young girl is me when I was student,aged about 17 at Ealing Art School. I was very thin then ,had long long legs, long very blond hair and extremly shy. I was forever being asked to be a model or pose for fashion photo's by the photographic department. I had and still have a big capacity for day dreaming and was good at keeping a pose. I always felt I was quite a plain person and yet when I look at some of the photos taken then it seems I might not have been. But then in photographs we can appear very different with good lighting etc. I love the girl daydreaning in the green page,so far my favourite.

I am beginning to get organised with the help of a friend Isabel for the workshop in the school hall, We sorted out some materials and I made a list of the things they will need to bring as well.
Today I am going to get out my rose quilt and make a big effort to make progress with it,I hope I don't get distracted like I so often do.

Two more journal pages and the cat

This Morning I overslept and when I came down stairs I saw thay Tony had been long gone off to a Flea Market. I then rushed around hoping not to be caught out in my dressing gown and an unmade bed. I went to sort the bed out but our big male cat had taken up residence and I hadn't the heart to move him as he was soundly asleep. Perhaps its this grey weather?
Tony came home with a pain au chocolate and a warm crispy croissant for me,I had just managed to fling on some clothes, I didn't really need to as he is always pleased to see me whatever state I am in.
He had found some wonderful things and was very pleased with it all.I pleaded to keep just one thing a beautiful blue glass chemists jar complete with its copper lid,the rest will probably go on his auction site.

I have made two more journal pages ,while making them I thought about how they were all pictures of real people with each one having a different life. I wondered what each one was actually thinking when the portrait was made. Some of the originals have their names and some not,so I am going to try and look the names up and see what I might find out. If I was a writer I should love to weave stories around each one.

Sorting out my workroom when an idea came.

I have been trying to get some sort of order in my workroom as well as think about what I would do next. I came across these pages from an old book I have had for years. I have collected pictures paintings and postcards of women for as long as I can remember so I do have many of them. I stopped the sorting then and just looked for more pictures I liked ,I also pulled out boxes of lace and choose some I thought looked pretty and sat down to make the first page to a new journal.
I often look at other peoples journals and love the way people can arrange lace etc on their pages it all looks so free. I realised years ago I find it very hard to move away from straight lines but accept now that's the way I do it.This time I have used the actuall page but think I will print some of the others onto fabric.

Christmas party and carols

We invited 25 friends to come to an evening party here at home on friday evening. We had already arranged that our friend Mark would accompany us singing some french and English carols,I made copies of several well known english and a couple of french carols. Amongst us we had one friend who sang beautifully and was to guide us in the right direction. On seeing Mark take out his violin a french friend decided to rush home and bring back his trumpet!!The room is not very big and a trumpet is quite loud and the mix was hilarious. We all laughed and laughed ,as quite a few times we got in muddles with the tunes as the french versions of the english songs were often different.
The food went down very well and then we played an excentric raffle which again caused gales of laughter.The 2nd photo shows our village mayor enjoying himself and the first, the two musicans.The rest guests.The pictures don' t seem to be in the order I expected,, the mayor and neighbours are in the third photo.