Sunday 13 April 2014

Hidcote and Kiftsgate

Sometime ago, my daughter, Anne, decided she wanted to look at flowering trees. Eventually we settled on Hidcote and Kiftsgate in the Cotswolds and met up in Hidcote Carpark this morning - on a glorious English spring day. With everyone else thinking the same. Fortunately we had agreed on a 1030 meet. By midday there was an unhappy queue down the access road waiting for some car to leave so that they could get in. We had a picnic lunch then went down the road to Kiftsgate which is built on top of the Cotswold escarpment so the views are terrific.
 What you see in the background is the Vale =Severn Valley or the Vale of Evesham depending on who you are. Since I am local, it is the Vale.


Lots of trilliums, including these lovely red ones. And Magnolia campbellii just going over with later magnolias in full flower. And all the time the sun blazed from a cloudless sky.
This clutch bag was made yesterday for the National Exhibition. The outer material is silk donsu in a pattern of triangles. The clutch strap is made from the lining material and it has a divider inside. BUT - - it will not be sent to the Exhibition because it is full of flaws. They mostly stem from trying to use this pattern. The zip is eight inches long and the bag must not have any dimension greater than 8 inches and it was impossible to sew a decent seam round the ends of the zip and maintain a dimension of 8 inches or less. I do not like is the use of the lining for the strap. It should have been done in the exterior material.  The pattern came from Threads November 2013 issue and there is nothing wrong with it. It is my fault completely for trying to get it into 8 inches. My local shop had six inch zips as well eight but six is too small. A seven inch would have been best.  I would certainly use the pattern again but not with a dimensional limit!! The Threads pattern did suffer from one defect. It did not list all the items you need any where in the instructions. However I did manage the swivel clip fixings without any trouble.

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I am weaver and - -. I dye my yarns with acid dyes, I paint my warps, put fabric collages and stencils on my weaving. I have three looms, a 12 inch wide, 12 shaft Meyer for demos and courses, a 30 inch Louet Kombo which is nominally portable but has a stand, two extra beams and a home-made device containing a fan reed. And last a 32 shaft Louet Megado which is computer controlled, has a sectional warp and a second warp beam and I am the proud owner of an AVL warping wheel which I love to bits and started by drilling holes in. I inserted a device for putting a cross in. I have just acquired an inkle loom and had a lesson from an expert so I can watch TV and weave at the same time. I am interested in weaving with silk mostly 60/2 although I do quite a bit with 90/2 silk. I also count myself as a bookbinder with a special interest in Coptic binding.