fabfabrications

Just back from Florence

2008-03-09T07:50:00.009Z

This view is the reward you get for climbing the 463 steps to the top of the Duomo!

Food market - full of wonderful, delicious sights and smells. I wanted to stay by the fresh vegetables and salad stall just to inhale the wonderful freshness of it all but was dragged away by my companion who said that she wasn't sure about Italian laws on loitering with intent - even if the intent were to enjoy!

This photo illustrates one of the things I love so much about Florence...small corners like this which reveal tranquil, magical scenes......

.....glorious incongruity....

.....the characters....

.....the glamour...

...the magic. Can't wait to return!

God is in.....

2008-02-18T07:49:00.011Z

Have just discovered Beth Nielsen Chapman's beautiful CD 'Prism'. The first track is a called 'God Is In' (Goddess In)......which is really a sung list of all the things that the writers believe God is in.....here is a short photographic list based on 'God is in'....

So fed up with January

2008-01-23T17:37:00.000Z

Fed up with the weather, the constant rain, the dark mornings and dark afternoons - but just look at the sky....I think it comes in the category '...every cloud has a silver lining...' or in this case 'golden!'

just messing about.....

2008-01-08T05:55:00.000Z

Can't resist playing with images.....
The first image is of a derelict building in the Potteries. I think that it has a wonderful atmospheric quality about it. I want to create a fabric panel basd on this sometime.

The second image is a beautiful dry stone wall in Derbyshire captured at sunset.

The last image was taken on a walk in the hills in Cheshire on the borders of Derbyshire.

The ink is black, the page is white...........

2008-01-07T16:49:00.000Z

What a fabulous image....a road inviting us to walk round the next corner and what will we find?

Somewhere to rest and enjoy the view....

Faces of Grief

2008-01-02T07:57:00.000Z

Faces of Grief

unable to sleep

2008-01-02T07:48:00.000Z

I woke in the early hours of this morning and, unable to get back to sleep, I switched on the radio and listened to the World Service. There happened to be a programme about the blogs of soldiers serving in Iraq. The presenter urged listeners to click onto these blogs....I did so and came accross 'faces of grief'. As I write this my face is still wet with the tears which I shed whilst reluctantly scrolling down the blog. The images are shocking. I feel entirely helpless. I know that the answer to this hell on earth is not as simple as 'please put a stop to it all now'. If you happen to read my blog I urge you to look at 'faces of grief'.

Skating on thin ice.....

2007-12-19T10:43:00.000Z

Yesterday I saw the ducks and gulls skidding about on the icy pond in the park. I wanted to rush home and knit socks for them but decided against it for fear of being cautioned by those very nice community police who cycle round our park to protect the locals from women who want to force the feet of unsuspecting wildlife into warm footwear!

Sunset....

2007-12-18T09:29:00.001Z

Winter Landscape

2007-12-18T09:19:00.001Z

The setting sun touches the top of the mossy walls turning the landscape into an enchanting place where magical things happen.

SKIRMISH

2007-11-09T08:18:00.000Z

a piece of irregular or unpremeditated fighting....a slight engagenent!!!

Many angles

2007-10-31T07:45:00.000Z

Movement, objects, speech, and words :
We communicate through gross symbols.
We call them "objective,"
But we cannot escape our point of view.

Delicious Autumn

2007-10-22T09:56:00.000+01:00

Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns. ~George Eliot

England in Autumn

2007-10-20T13:40:00.001+01:00

As days grow shorter, and nights grow longer and cooler, biochemical processes in the leaf begin to paint the landscape with Nature's autumn palette.

Needles and leaves that fall are not wasted. They decompose and restock the soil with nutrients and make up part of the spongy humus layer of the forest floor that absorbs and holds rainfall. Fallen leaves also become food for numerous soil organisms vital to the forest ecosystem.

It is quite easy to see the benefit to the tree of its annual leaf fall, but the advantage to the entire forest is more subtle. It could well be that the forest could no more survive without its annual replenishment from leaves than the individual tree could survive without shedding these leaves.

Do look at the following site for scientific stuff about Autumn.
http://www.na.fs.fed.us/spfo/pubs/misc/leaves/leaves.htm

Scene in the park this morning....

2007-10-16T16:42:00.000+01:00

I could not believe my eyes when I spotted this heron in the park....I am so cross that the pic is blurred - I hope to see him (her?) again and take a better pic soon.

Silent, soft and slow.....

2007-10-15T07:39:00.000+01:00

One of the memories from my childhood is of waking up on a winter’s morning and knowing that something had changed since I went to sleep. The bedroom was lighter and the world quieter – much quieter. The snow had fallen – silent, soft and slow. If I could make an appeal to those who have it within their power to change something in our environment it would be for a quieter world....a world in which noise pollution becomes a serious offence...a world in which motorists do not play their car sound systems at ‘ballistic’.....a world in which the sound system in the cinema is not so loud that you cannot hear the dialogue.....a world in which....I had better stop at this point for fear of turning this blog into a rant.
This entry was written to support blog action day.

Nature's art.....

2007-10-12T12:16:00.000+01:00

"The artist is a receptacle for the emotions that come from all over the place: from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spider's web.” Pablo Picasso

Autumn in the park

2007-10-10T18:50:00.001+01:00

Autumn flames

A feast for the birds.

Crab apple weeping - with laughter I hope!

Wandering though Florence we saw......

2007-10-09T17:24:00.000+01:00

Temptation coloured red!

A famous character in disguise

Glorious colours

This little shop tucked away in a square - it could easily have been missed. I'm so glad we found it - it sold the most delicious soaps and handcream.

We saw this bride and her groom - it was lovely to see them walking hand in hand, their future, unknown, stretching before them but for that moment happy and carefree.

I love Florence with a passion - everything about it - even the graffitti. The colours, buildings, narrow streets, fabulous window displays - not to mention the art and architecture and the food and the wine. Hope you enjoy this small taste of my favourite place in the whole world.

Florence in September

2007-09-29T08:34:00.000+01:00

on your doorstep....

2007-09-08T08:28:00.000+01:00

Since the birth of my first grandchild I have become intimately acquainted with the park which, enchantingly, separates my daughter and her partner's house from mine. These are just some of the wonders which I see walking my grandson through the park in his pram....

details from the latest fabrication

2007-07-11T09:13:00.000+01:00

When do I get my own sewing machine?

2007-07-11T09:10:00.000+01:00

a new bag trying to hide in the apple tree

2007-07-11T09:06:00.000+01:00

Too bad about the rain but just look at the sky......

2007-07-11T09:02:00.000+01:00

Chickenfest

2007-06-14T20:25:00.000+01:00

Appliqued wall panel with machine and hand embroidery.....what you might call 'part of my chicken period! Picasso had a blue period - so why not a chicken period?

Someone's on my roof without a permit!

2007-05-28T10:59:00.000+01:00

Change in the weather?

2007-05-26T19:54:00.001+01:00

Classic bank holiday weather.

Grandmother's bonnets, dandelions and a goose called Glenda

2007-05-25T08:09:00.000+01:00

Life is what happens when you are making other plans....

2007-05-25T08:06:00.001+01:00

This bag started life as a wall panel in the shape of a kimono and then suddenly it spoke to me and said: "I think that I would rather be a bag - that way I will see more of the world than I would just hanging about looking at the opposite wall!" Well - how could I resist a plea like that. This bag is lined with dancing monkey fabric - so I hope that the bag and they have lots of adventures together!

Life is what happens when you are making other plans....

2007-05-25T07:49:00.000+01:00

Thought that it was about time....

2007-05-23T07:29:00.000+01:00

that I posted some of my stuff on this blog - or should I say my 'creations'?

The first is a detail of a wall panel using vintage kimono fabric as a background on which I have embroidered fans using threads and yarn scraps to create the shape. The panel is called 'Fantastic' - well what else would it be called?

The second pic is a detail of a crocheted bag which is one of my first pieces. The bag is embellished with buttons and glass beads and embroidery and hand-made beads. The shape of the bag is triangular and is probably more suited to be displayed as an objet d'art rather than a handbag. It is lined with silk.

The third piece is an elaborately decorated handbag, lined in silk style fabric and heavily embellised using the sewing machine in addition to hand embroidery....
and last of all is a small embroidered panel using the same technique of building up a surface with machine couching and embroidery.

2007-05-23T07:13:00.000+01:00

2007-05-23T07:12:00.000+01:00

2007-05-23T07:11:00.000+01:00

2007-05-23T07:09:00.001+01:00

On your doorstep........?

2007-05-21T07:09:00.001+01:00

Monday Morning Menu

2007-05-21T06:59:00.000+01:00

Saw this snail feasting off the bramley apple tree in my garden early this morning

dotted silver threads dropped from heaven....

2007-05-14T06:19:00.000+01:00

It's raining....it's making the roofs shine and sparkle....it is making familiar patterns on the windows keying into memories of watching as it runs down the classroom window trying to blank out the droning voice of a teacher bent on improving young minds with information about logarithms or wheat distribution in far off lands - geography's not like that anymore is it? But back to the rain - it sweetens the earth - even makes the concrete jungle of the town sweeter for a few moments....we should rejoice in the rain. One of my favourite poems is 'Song of the Rain' by Kahlil Gibran......
I am dotted silver threads dropped from heaven by the gods....
I am beautiful pearls, plucked from the Crown of Ishtar by the daughter of Dawn to embellish the gardens....

Look at the rain on the slate roof...
Just look at that droplet on the leaf - how beautiful is that?

The morning after.......

2007-05-09T07:30:00.000+01:00

My cat was found sleeping in this morning. All the evidence points to the fact that she invited a few friends over for a rave in the early hours of this morning - what I want to know is...'Why wasn't I invited?'

SECC & Clyde Auditorium aka The Armadillo

2007-05-07T08:42:00.000+01:00

getting mixed up on the bus........

2007-05-07T08:40:00.000+01:00

Through the long narrow window

2007-05-07T08:39:00.000+01:00

What do you think this is?

2007-05-07T08:36:00.000+01:00

I think the mundanity would spoil the magic - just let your imagination fly.....

Wild garlic in Burrell Collection gardens...

2007-05-07T08:34:00.000+01:00

Wouldn't it be great if this were chocolate.............?

2007-05-07T08:28:00.000+01:00

......but it's not - it's the facade of a building in Glasgow - Sorry I can't say which building and where - but that's the kind of photographer I am....just enjoy.

Station for the Burrell Collection

2007-05-07T08:25:00.000+01:00

2007-05-07T08:18:00.000+01:00

Taken on the first day of our visit on our walk from the hotel into the city

Blossom in the park

2007-05-04T08:24:00.000+01:00

Pictures from the park

2007-05-04T08:16:00.000+01:00

The world is so full of a number of things.....

2007-05-03T07:06:00.000+01:00

....not sure that I like the remainder of that quote but certainly believe in the sentiment behind it. We need to stop and stare more often and appreciate what is around us - under our very noses so to speak....and that applies to people as well as to things and nature and gorgeous mountains and sunsets and rainstorms and things.

If you ever find yourself in Derbyshire - just look at the walls!

The friendliest people

2007-04-30T13:41:00.000+01:00

I had heard that Glasgow is known as the friendly city. I can confirm that, having just spent a really happy weekend there.
Visited the Burrell Collection which has some really exquisite samplers made by children in the 16th and 17th centuries - it made me wonder what our children would create if they were to be deprived of television and computers for a few months!! No apologies for sounding like a grumpy oldie! Also the Mal Maison Hotel bar staff know how to mix a fab Kia Royale - and the breakfast kippers were to die for. But - to go back to the Burrell Collection I found the building just as wonderful as its contents (see pics). Would love to go back as the city has more to offer than can be seen in a weekend.

Round the gasworks to get to the river......

2007-04-26T16:56:00.000+01:00

All you millions of people out there who are reading this blog - have you heard of or ever seen altered books. I saw one for the first time last week when I went to an Embroiderers' Guild meeting as the guest of a friend. I think that once you get over the horror of dismembering books it looks like a wonderfully new way to be creative. I am going round the gasworks to get to the river, as my Mother used to say, cos really this blog is about my 'altered mountains' pics which I took from the aeroplane en-route to Italy - hope you like them.

Round and round the garden....

2007-04-25T18:49:00.000+01:00

Cupboard Love & Facts In Rows

2007-04-25T18:15:00.000+01:00

I do now! Love my cupboards that is - well to be precise - my bookshelves. I have had such a marvelous clear out and have discovered that libraries will take second hand books - how fab is that? I hate the thought of throwing books away although I have managed to justify 'throwing' just as long as the books are recycled so that more books can be printed!! So now I have nearly tidy shelves.....with the stationery stacked neatly together and the books standing side by side like soldiers ready to take on empty minds and fill them with lots of wonderful facts and information. "Now, what I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts'. Well, that's what Mr Gradgrind believed.

Family Outing

2007-04-24T18:48:00.000+01:00

Seeing Red

2007-04-24T18:45:00.000+01:00

clouds of wonder

2007-04-24T18:42:00.000+01:00

Oh dear......

2007-04-24T17:02:00.000+01:00

Oh dear - have got the hang of this thing now - must also apologise for typing errors in last posts - too keen to get going that's the prob - will try to do better. Lots of pics I want to share.....how about this for loveliness..... the rain making fairy mirrors in geranium (?) leaves. I'm not very good at the names of flowers but I know what I love to look at.

Worrying ~ Fretting ~ Thinking ~ Wishing

2007-04-24T16:41:00.000+01:00

Sometimes the night can be a safe and comforting refuge – sometimes it can be a lonely place to be. This poem reflects the latter but the picture – Florence at night – shows the night as a place of beauty.

It’s a long night when you can’t sleep
The minutes creep by so slowly
There must be other souls out there awake.
Worrying,
Fretting,
Thinking......
Wishing
that sleep would come.
Imagining
the rest of the world deep asleep.

Wondering
how to still the chattering mind.
Hearing
The dry drone of a distant aeroplane
Trying
To make up a story about the people up there seemingly in the stars
Hoping
that it will destract and lead to rest.
Remembering
other nights like this
Knowing
that this night will pass.
Understanding
That this worrying is human nature
Testing
The spirit’s fortitude
Then
Feeling
A sudden calm
Recalling that
‘this too will pass.’

Another View

2007-04-23T23:51:00.000+01:00

This is a view of my favourite place in the whole world - the view is from the top of the Duomo - over 400 steps up to the top and - of course - 400 to get back down again...but it's worth it to see this beuatiful city stretching out before you.