Yep - another week has gone by and suddenly February is just around the corner.

I am feeling a bit of a damp squib on the creative front. I am seeing all these fantastic blogs on my blog roll with lots of lovely work achieved and what have I got to show for January - well just that Bletchley Park is finished!!



But hey, lets look on the bright side.  So what have the highlights been for this week?

• Well - except for my lovely friend Ellen, I have had the house to myself.  No house guests (though they will be back next week, I fear).  I don't exactly run a conventional bed and breakfast establishment - if they want breakfast I point them in the direction of the kettle - but I do provide an evening meal.  These guys take a bit of looking after.  (They are all work colleagues who do not live in MK but come down for 2-3 days per week.  When they are here I do find them a bit inhibiting.)

If, like me, you are a dog lover, don't worry.  Whippet X was finally released, and not at all traumatised by his experience.

Ps.  I wrote this last night.  I got up this morning and thought this is daft.  I shouldn't feel blocked.  So I got out a few bits and pieces and did some work on this page in the sketch book.  Feeling much better.

For the day job I sometimes have to schlep down to London Town.

Lately this schlepping has taken me, not to the realms of Victoria (ok, but nothing really going for it!) but to the delights of Bloomsbury.  Ideal in many ways!  First of all because it is a gentle trot down the road from Euston Station, and second because it is near the British Museum (I am a convert) and there are some fab little shops in the little streets in front of the museum.

Here is just a mini taster.


West and Skye has some lovely modern tartans and tweeds.

Satchels and Co has, well , satchells!  How retro.


 Abbott and Holder is a lovely looking gallery.  It changes it's windows every time I see it, so always dynamic and worth peering in.

And there is also a lovely shop called Edwards & Todd at 25a museum Street.  Lots of prints, papers and cards with a 50's English feel to them.  No photo but this link should give you a taste of the interior.

And last of all I thought I should share a christmas present with you.  A lovely bowl by my good friend Andy Douglas, one half of Rob and Andy.  The glaze is stunning, inside and out (spot the hares)

The background has taken longer than I had hoped.  But now it is done.

I used acrylic felt as the quilting wadding.  I wanted a bit of substance but I did not want the bouncy, 3 dimensional effect you get from some wadding materials.

The freehand quilting is just to provide some texture to the background.  It is acting as a frame only.  I could have used a 'square' shaped doodle, but chose the circles for simple contrast.

Then I stapled the fabric to the canvas (a commercially bought 60x80 canvas - I bought it via Great Art which does do some fantastic deals on art materials) using a staple gun - a bit of kit every quilt artist should possess.

Actually, this was quite tricky and I had to pull it tight and the quilting had distorted the fabric slightly.  At the corners it was very tricky to get a neat finish - so don't look too hard. (If you recall, this background used hand dyed shirts courtesy the charity shop)



This is the first piece I have finished in this way (thanks to Hilary Beattie for the idea) and I like the result.  I will probably use the idea again - certainly not as expensive as getting pieces professionally framed.

At last - I charged up the faithful pfaff for it's first outing of the new year.  We're on the homeward stretch with Bletchley Park - just the background quilting to do.  There will be a few house guests this week and a bit of hairing around the country but I should be able to get a lot done and maybe even finish it off this weekend, well in time!  (But let's not get ahead of ourselves!)

And to prove it:-




 And again, this time the phone boxes.

You find beautiful textile pieces in the most unlikely of places.  As I mentioned in my last post, we had a lovely walk on new years day.  ('We' being Rob and Andy of Rob Turner China and 33a, OH, Whippet X and the love of his life, Molly.)

We had a lovely walk, starting in Yardley Gobion, taking in Pottersbury and going through Furtho, which is not on the map as it is a lost village (great names!)



In the church at Pottersbury we found a beautiful textile work.





And a stunning, modern stained glass window.

Doll wigs.

We are not tidy workers!

• Made blackberry jam!  (yes - in December!  Frozen fruit, lots of added pectin but it didn't set so well!)

Whippet X and his girlfriend, plus Rob and Andy of Rob Turner China and OH

•   My friend Ellen gave me a subscription to MaggieGrey’s Workshop on the Web
• Booked to go and see the Grayson Perry exhibition at the British Museum