I have so much art racing around in my head.   It can all get a bit giddy. My hard drive needs an upgrade.  Plug me in someone!

First of all there is the next phase of Horizons - nothing more to report since I painted the text, but I have an idea how I will progress that and in particular how I will attached the painted words.


Secondly I have to crack on with the journal quilts - I have got four to do for the next part of the challenge.

Thirdly I have set myself the task to finish at least one book wrap.  There will be a tombola at this years Festival of Quilts and the Contemporary Quilt group are organising it and looking for book wraps.    I feel I should be able to get at least one completed.


So I assembled my tools - some dyed fabric (I think it was a shibori experiment gone wrong) an old print block  I made a couple of years ago ( craft foam mounted on card - above) and a new print block, a present from my daughter, below.

The pattern from the new print block.

The print from the home made print block.

Then I used placed organza over the printed surface and, using acrylic felt as a wadding, got quilting.



I have nearly finished the quilting.  Then I might just take the hot gun to it and do a bit of burning. I'll see how I feel tomorrow.

Then there is a present for a friend getting married in July.  I am give a reading and I think the poem I am reading would be a lovely present. But I need to 'mount' it in some way. Mixed media could be the answer.



So I have started to prepare the background paper.

So much to do and so little time! (bother this day job mularky - I think I may have said that before!)

Do you remember the Horizon?



I told you all about it here.

These designs got some very supportive comments, but despite considerable effort on my part I could not fine anyone who could scan the size that I had created (foolscap X 2).

So, I've given up!

Not with Horizon altogether - no, just with this technique (I was going to scan it and have it digitally printed onto fabric).

I have been working on Horizons re-worked.

And here we are so far.


Now, as you can see, the scale has changed. I'm not sure if it quite works but it is 1.5m X 0.5m.

And this is tissue paper 'backed' onto calico with pva glue and coloured with brusho inks.

The bottom section is printed.


This is using acrylic paint and a trusty print block (made with foam sheet glued onto card) which I have used time and again.  Plus a new print block with which I added gold ink (made with the same foam sheet).

The front arches are cut from this.


This is inked rag paper, scrunched and ironed to 'age' it and then rubbed with a brown ink pad.

And I'm playing with the following text:-

Madinat Al-Zahra - The "Shining City"

Abd ar-Rhaman III surveyed the rich, fertile land of the Guadalquivir valley.  He had just left the Great Mosque founded by his ancestor, Abd ar-Rahman I, having given thanks to God for blessing him and his subjects with this land and what they had achieved here.  Here, they had founded the Mosque, which he was even now extending further, they had established the University - a seat of great learning - and built beautiful houses and palaces with shady patios against the summer heat.Even so, he was not satisfied.  This is a great city, he thought, and it suited my ancestors well as Emirs of al-Andalus but now I have made myself Caliph of all Islam I need something finer still.  As he gazed across the valley, his eyes strayed to the hills opposite. There would be the place, in the foothills, protected from the north by the hills and giving fine views over the river and valley back towards Córdoba, which would give an early warning of any enemy attack.

Golly, but I've been getting a heinous amount of spam and a lot of it has not been caught by the filter!  Seems my post on an Alternative Tour of London has attracted all sorts of dodgy interest.  Anonymous of Thailand, USA, Malaysia etc.  You know who you are!  Now go away!

Meanwhile, back to Bayeux.

No more on the Tapestry but instead a quick mention of the town museum and the other textile link - lace (or  dentelle in French).

I feel a bit of a connection with 19th Century Lace, simply because my 'home from home' is in the heart of a lace making centre focused around Olney (which itself has a lovely lace museum.)  And I re-discovered that lace makers from Normandy settled in Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire around 1685 following religious persecution.

The MAHB museum in Bayeux is worth a visit if you are in the town.  It is housed in the former Dean's House near the cathedral (everything is very centrally located - you can do it all on foot!)

There is a lot covered in the museum (pre-roman, Roman, medieval etc.) but there are also a couple of lovely galleries dedicated to lace.


There is a fine selection of lace ribbon or edging.


Some amazing larger shawls - this is one.  In fact it would have been made in strips which experts then joined together, but you cannot see the join.

And collars.  The one at the back looking turquoise in the photo is actually still mounted on it's pattern paper.

And there are cabinets stacked full of the pattern papers.  I am no lace maker, but I understand that the papers were put over the cushion to mark out where the pins would go to create the pattern.  The process is a wonder.

And finally, the museum also has a collection of pictures.  Most were typical oils of notable local dignitaries through the ages but I also found this.


This is a three dimensional mixed media piece showing 2 fishwives having a bit of a blarney.  The background was painted on card and the bodies and faces made with scaps of textiles.  I love it!  No mention of who did it and I think it is just over 100 years old, but fabulous.

A final post script - I have never met so many Canadians and Americans before in one place.  Bayeux is a place of pilgrimage I now realise because of the Normandy Beaches which are only a few miles away. Many seem to just do the beaches which have fabulous museums, but I know that a few readers of this blog do live across the Pond, so if you are planning to do the Beaches then I urge you to find time to appreciate the textile treasures as well.

Dear reader - I have been away, to foreign shores!

And I traveled light so I didn't take implements of blogging with me, hence the gap between posts.

But this isn't a travel blog (there are some great ones out there by the way and I highly recommend Flora the Explora with a little touch of pride as I used to babysit her from time to time - she is a star and her writing is wonderful).

No, this little corner of Planet Internet is focused primarily on all things textile, with a bit of life thrown in for good measure, and the object of our excursion was a textile one - the Bayeux Tapestry!

If you haven't been - Go!

The tapestry - which isn't a tapestry at all but an embroidery - is staggering on all sorts of levels.  It's length (it was designed to be rolled out along both sides of Bayeux Cathedral); its colours (a bit faded but all achieved with vegetable dye); it's sheer brilliant, pure and unadulterated propaganda message (complete and one sided justification for the invasion of England by William the Conqueror) and most of all the fact that it is here at all!

I came away thinking 'How did that survive?' - how did it not succumb to attacks by moth or beetle or mould?  How did it escape being cut up or reused? (History is turbulent - poor old William himself did not fare so well!  All that is left in his grave at Caen is one leg bone! And there is even some doubt that it is his!  And he was a king - not an embroidery!)  And how did it not get blown to smithereens when the Allies invaded that part of France on D-Day?

Here are just a selection of images.

 This is the very first tableau and shows Edward the Confessor, who was a cousin of both William and Harold, dispatching Harold to Normandy to tell William that he, Edward (who was childless) had chosen Willian to be his heir.  (You see, I told you it was progaganda!)


I cannot particulary remember the significance of this scene but there is hunting with hawks and dogs going on.  Harold was a guest of Williams in Normandy (and went of a skirmish with him too).


I love this tableau for the detail showing them loading up boats.  The men a clearly paddling bare legged in the water.  This isn't the invasion.  This was preparation for Harolds trip to Normandy.


Now that is William sitting on his throne on the left of this tableau and Harold is swearing on two holy relics of some sort that he agreed to William's claim to the throne and that he won't seize it himself.  More propaganda!

You might have noticed that there are top and bottom borders.  All sorts of animals - and as it happens some rather pornographic acts - are depicted there, including two camels and some characters from Aesops Fables.


Edward is being buried in this scene, and two things leap out - the detail of the architecture in the church and the exquisite hand pointing down from the sky.

And in writing this blog entry I have just found that there is a replica - in Reading Museum.  I didn't know that!

I follow a number of blogs.  Most are by artists who are similar to me, but a couple are by people who are not in the textile world.

This is one of those.  I follow it because Poul gives background information on all sorts of artists, and so far all have been unfamiliar to me.

And he has just posted this one.

ART & ARTISTS: Festival of Britain - part 2: For background information on the Festival of Britain (1951) see part 1 of this post.

Absolutely fascinating - have a look.

By Helen Conway

What a fabulous show.

I have been mulling over this all week - why did I have such a good day out?

Here's my analysis:-

• A great venue - Uttoxeter race course has a lovely quaint feel to it.  I think that is down to the timber buildings surrounding the winners enclosure
• Easy to get to - I won't bore you with the delights of the British motorway network - just take my word for it (from my direction anyway)
• A fabulous size - I found it just right in terms of both the trade stands and the exhibits.  Not too exhausting (you have to get in training for FoQ)
• Hilary Beattie's fabulous quilt won 2 prizes and she is now in possession of 2 new sewing machine

And most importantly of all:-

• It included embroidery as well as just the ubiquitous quilts and, dear reader, on reflection I think I am an embroider rather than a quilter.

Here are some photos to feast your eyes on (though sadly my embroidery section photos are not good enough to share - I'll come back to the lighting!)


This is why I way there.  I was manning the JQ stand with the wonderful Sue Turner.  You could examine these little quilts all day.

Garden of Eden by Judith Gill from Newark

My World in a Spin - Lorraine Ellison

Venice inspired quilt by Frieda Oxenham

Transition - Who do you think I am? - by Helen Conway

My Heart, My Home - Gilli Theokritoff

Metal Facade - Caroline Lindsay

Sorry - I don't know who you are!

The Prize Winner - My Heart My Home by Hilary Beattie

Master Caster - Hilary Beattie

If I have one gripe - and though quite a major one, it still does not stop me recommending this show - then it was the lighting.