tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23409421134331387922012-02-02T13:38:36.234ZPathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.comBlogger4821100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-7212990068619437022012-02-02T13:38:00.000Z2012-02-02T13:38:36.240Z

This is my latest effort on the theme of 'Words and Images'. It is a calico shopper with letters in words and the other side - - - -  - has the word Images - but written in fabric with images. A bit jokey but good fun. Probably more important (to me anyway) is that I had another onslaught on documents.  And I have started on the sectional warp on the Megado. It should be finished

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-848433292342632012012-02-01T20:16:00.000Z2012-02-01T20:16:51.435Z

Yesterday I went to Birmingham with an indigo vat in the boot - plus all the bowls, buckets and tools needed. The meeting was organised for the Midlands Textile Group but various other people came too. The primary purpose was for Sarah Cage, the hostess, to show people how to do natural dyeing. We worked in her conservatory  and everyone did lots of 'stuff'. The photo on the right is a piece I

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-71127226329493285912012-01-31T06:18:00.000Z2012-01-31T06:18:12.029Z

The 12 shaft loom has gone on its rounds and the 4 shaft Dryad has found a loving home. The last I saw of it was Roy Young (the Guild's man about looms) and the new owner peering at it  in the boot of her car and discussing which of them should take it home. One shaft needs some repair. I am in 'Finishing-Projects' mood at the moment. I finished off a batik shirt of Michael's which I remade for

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-79691357367350057572012-01-27T20:47:00.000Z2012-01-27T20:47:50.562Z

I have finished all the samples on the 12 shaft loom - all 12 of them with the first sample being repeated in 2/6 cotton, doubled 2/6 cotton and doubled 2/10 cotton. The last looks best but the pattern is too unbalanced. As it is, I could have done with resleying at 8 to the inch (but I have had enough of this project!!).  Some of the drafts are very attractive - the ones at the top which are

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-47386969123898644842012-01-25T07:43:00.000Z2012-01-25T07:43:44.677Z

Yesterday I went to London with Rosie Price and we went two exhibitions. The first was at the British Library and was the Royal mediaeval manuscripts. Exquisite and we could have spent twice as long there but we had timed tickets for the Hockney Exhibition at the Royal Academy. Exquisite is not the word for that. But spectacular - yes.  I had been told that all tickets for the whole time (until

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-49904553886358274212012-01-23T09:28:00.000Z2012-01-23T09:28:47.905Z

Yesterday three friends came round and we had a wonderful time with an Indigo Vat. It was half of one 5-gallon container left over from the Newbury Coat. I realised that they might be bringing a lot to wrok on so I did my own before they turned up! about 800 gms of wool and 500 gms of silk. The various shades of blue are deliberate. I was dyeing some yarn for other weavers and the colours had

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-35339008234761460812012-01-22T07:34:00.001Z2012-01-22T07:36:45.133Z

The Guild Spring Weaving Course started yesterday. There are six 'improvers' doing 'patterning' and five total beginners. I was too busy to say much to the beginners. The improvers are doing things like Summer and Winter and Diversified Plain Weave. So there will be leaves and flowers and trees! One is working in silk noil and one in cottolin but the others in cotton.  Yesterday was spent warping

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-88998762715900106982012-01-19T14:44:00.003Z2012-01-19T22:40:47.619Z

I drove down from Dundee on Tuesday. It was not my lucky day as I started out at 0615 and 30 minutes later had a serious puncture. The AA turned up quite quickly and put on the spare tyre which turned out to be a temporary measure and the AA man was adamant that I could not drive 400 miles to Malvern on that tyre even at 45 mph. So I ended up in Stirling buying a new tyre. Got home at 1515

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-79529969748174063882012-01-16T09:58:00.000Z2012-01-16T09:58:53.634Z

They have weather in Dundee. One side of the house looks out over the Firth of Tay and the storms clouds coming roiling in blackly. But it is often the case that, if you look out of the other side of the house over the moorland, you see a pale blue sky with mackerel clouds. The sunrises and sunsets are great - this is a sunset. This is lichen on a fallen tree, taken with a macro setting.

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-56319433908885964022012-01-11T10:29:00.002Z2012-01-11T11:03:02.886Z

Last week at the Museum in Stirling, there were some Trades banners hung up. I returned plus camera to photo them yesterday only to find that they had been put into storage. The curator managed to find photos of them which she emailed to me. This one is part of the Wool Trades banner. A pity it is only a part but better than nothing. The banners were made by Glasgow School of Art in the 1970s.

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-45644947523180424772012-01-03T09:35:00.006Z2012-01-03T09:47:43.163Z

The family have all gone home/back to work around the globe and I am staying on in Dundee with my sister, Dorothy, for a fortnight more. I spent yesterday changing heddles around on the 12 shaft loom . Very nervously done as it is a Leclerc with a tendency to deposit all the heddles on the floor. So each shaft's contents was carefully tied up before removal - and I did not have a single accident.

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-7563325801768336002011-12-31T09:36:00.000Z2011-12-31T09:36:28.117Z

Yes, I know that it is some days past Christmas but I have been busy celebrating with the family. Firstly with Anne  and her family at Leamintgton Spa. Ruth and Robin andChris from Kuala Lumpur were there. Then some of us moved back to Malvern for 2 days then Ruth and Robin and myself drove north to Dundee while Ruth's children all flew up from Birmingham. The flyers had the better journey. It

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-34089611859535055582011-12-23T11:15:00.000Z2011-12-23T11:15:48.986Z

One very odd thing in life this year is hearing strange stories, unknown to me till recently,  about Michael.  One concerns computers. There were 14 in the house when he died along with as many ,if not more, keyboards and mice, many still in their original boxes. We are now down to 5 plus a laptop which is a great improvement and I hope to get down to three shortly. Anyway, the more important

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-57432812702530077462011-12-22T16:49:00.001Z2011-12-22T16:53:00.429Z

Here is the finished T-shirt. I did as I said, unpicked the machine stitching for stamens on one flower. Then auditioned lots of different fabrics for application, thought black and white looked best, bondawebbed on circles of the chosen fabric and then stitched them down. I also outlined the faded flowers. I am reasonably pleased. At least I will wear it.   I made up a lot of acid dye solution

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-88404812008226569662011-12-21T07:20:00.001Z2011-12-21T21:10:46.629Z

I started warping up the Megado on Sunday or rather I went back and checked all the numbers. This is a double weave blanket and the wool is Borg's from William Hall. Unfortunately about a third of the yellow is a  slightly different shade and I had to work out what to do about this. I managed to do 6 sections on Sunday out of the 50 needed. I should be finished today and on to the threading.  At

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-10545748738827447652011-12-18T08:11:00.001Z2011-12-18T08:16:01.166Z

In the last few days, I have concentrated on finishing a few jobs. Like creating liftplans for Diversified Plain Weave to send round to the spring weaving class. I am in Dundee for three weeks immediately after Christmas and so anything for the end of January has to be done now. I am taking a 12 shaft loom with me to warp up in DPW. I shall put on a long warp, probably 10 yards so that the

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-37848064667006143262011-12-16T07:28:00.000Z2011-12-16T07:28:24.056Z

On Wednesday I went to Birmingham and to a meeting of the Midlands Textile Forum, which is held in the Birmingham Art Gallery Tearooms. Another exhibition has been organised which has intrigued me - it is entitled 'Legacy'. You can read all sorts of meanings into this and my mind is busy imagining and rejecting! After the meeting, I went to see the Exhibition 'Lost in Lace'. I have read two

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-72101408475996571262011-12-13T18:03:00.001Z2011-12-13T18:08:52.639Z

This piece started life as an exercise in drawing and then cutting up the drawing and rearranging the pieces. Eventually I did a colour value exercise and decided that inverting the original (dark on light background) looked better and ended up by making it. Then added leaves cut from the leftovers of the back door curtains. It has also been quilted.  Not sure about this. Makes a good table mat.

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-35110355462870830922011-12-13T07:10:00.000Z2011-12-13T07:10:14.072Z

I have driven to Dundee and back over the last three or four days. Not a good idea. I started out at 3 pm on Friday and should have reached Dundee at about 10 pm. Instead of which I was tucked up in bed at Tebay at that hour. There were 2 serious accidents on teh West Midlands motorways. In one I just sat stationary for 40 minutes and ditto for the other one only for more than 70 minutes. Add to

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-4249267078844615212011-12-08T06:51:00.000Z2011-12-08T06:51:48.515Z

Dorothy's ExtravOrganza works well and so does her JetFX paper but it is no good to me. While the JetFX takes well on calico shoppers, it does not take neatly onto my weaving because the fabric is not smooth enough. I tried applying the JetFX to the backing canvas and had one or two successes but two disastrous failures which left black smears on the canvas. So the canvas has had two coats of

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-190966215748522742011-12-06T21:32:00.002Z2011-12-08T06:40:21.754Z

This is a Coptic binding book which was mostly made at the last bookbinding class. I finished it off at home. The covers are cotton printed by me. The cotton was spaced dyed = shoved in a yoghurt pot with some Procion MX dye.  The binding is yet another variant from Keith Smith's book. The sewing lines across the spine are in pairs and each pair is done with a single thread  of silk from Oliver

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-22571798309162137612011-12-05T16:05:00.000Z2011-12-05T16:05:27.884Z

This week's funny story:- On Saturday at the Guild meeting, I tool possession of a 5 gallon drum of indigo vat left over from the Newbury Coat. I am arranging to hold an indigo day in January. When I got it home, I put the drum in the garage. The roofers had been in on Friday and put the new roof on the kitchen. It is all waterproofed but they need to return to finish off a few things. On Monday,

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-44164700966703431482011-12-05T08:39:00.000Z2011-12-05T08:39:41.425Z

This is a scan of the curtain fabric. I worked hard on Friday evening and got the curtain for the back door, sewn and hung. A photo of teh curtain in place is pretty well impossible so a scan of a bit of leftover fabric is  shown on the left. The colour is quite accurate. The pale thread is silver in appearance - certainly metallic. The material is noticeably scratchy. I would not want to wear it

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-61775175508664817362011-11-30T18:05:00.001Z2011-11-30T18:07:17.269Z

 One of the two scarves I have been furiously weaving on the  Voyager. You can see from the fringes how lurid the warp was before being toned down by the indigo dyed Cheviot singles. And here is the red and grey scarf done in 3:1 twill squares - except at one end where I got bored and let the squares dribble away. I have got rid of vast amounts of wood and tools to a violin maker

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-84763593829269422282011-11-29T17:38:00.003Z2011-11-30T10:15:51.566Z

Some months ago my daughter, Anne, gave me a book on chutneys with a request to mend it. It is a glued paperback and was in three separate sections with one loose single sheet and the covers were in an awful state. So I considered for several months and, in the end, went to Angela Sutton, a local bookbinder, for a day's tuition, today, and repaired it under her supervision. It is now a hardback

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-10020334131226759352011-11-27T07:00:00.002Z2011-11-30T10:17:23.584Z

 At the Bournville class on Friday, we practiced a new technique, that of flower trapping. You put down a piece of fabric, then some stuff called FuseFX, then flower (petals) leaves, et cetera then more FuseFX, then silk chiffon. The sandwich is ironed at a high heat between sheets of parchment. The final piece has the silk chiffon partially fused as well. Sarah Cage, who taught us how to do

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-37984165296701353002011-11-25T18:16:00.000Z2011-11-25T18:16:54.236Z

I spaced dyed a lambs wool warp in red and dark grey ( see a photo here) knotting the warp tightly in 5 or 6 places, painting the knots dark grey and painting the bits in between red. When it came to weaving it up, I wanted to show off the colours and came up with this design which is just a twill.  20 threads on Shafts 1 to 4 and the next 20 on Shafts 5 to 8, then weave in 1:3 and 3:1 twill,

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-28493315347127841822011-11-23T09:59:00.000Z2011-11-23T09:59:14.961Z

A grandfather clock has been handed down the family. It was made by a 19th century clockmaker in Whitby, Yorkshire where Michael's family has lived since the 1820s.  It is currently owned by Ruth, my eldest daughter, but she decided that taking it to Malaysia was not feasible and it has been staying with us for 5 or so years. However it has not worked in that time and also was damaged in the move

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-55976613620388210362011-11-21T12:34:00.001Z2011-11-21T12:37:18.772Z

You may recall this dyed warp  from a week ago  which I said was too bright. I warped up yesterday and yes it is too bright. So I thought I would inspect my fine wool stash just in case. And I  found four large spools of fine Cheviot Handspun which I had dyed darkish blue with indigo. I have no memory of this but my records show that I got it from Rosie Price in 2008. And this is what the fabric

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-89384542379029894702011-11-20T14:18:00.000Z2011-11-20T14:18:07.924Z

This is a handpainted noren (door curtain) from a stall in Kyoto market . We were wandering through it looking at the fish, the mushrooms and the pickled vegetables when we came across a stall selling nothing but noren. We went in, not that there was much room and he more or less ignored us (European tourists after all) until Ruth took one out of the rack and got me to hold it up. At which point,

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-48716902469899951522011-11-19T16:58:00.001Z2011-11-19T17:06:29.497Z

I have been cleaning the house up as I had visitors for lunch today. If family, I would have left the place in its state of chaos but thought I had better make the effort as I have not put things away since I got back from Japan. So I have - made blackcurrant icecream - very important as it was for lunch today. It worked. - written up all the textiles I brought back from Japan and tidied them

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-54681106167484919182011-11-15T08:05:00.001Z2011-11-15T18:39:30.272Z

I have had a sore throat and a sniffle for more than  a week and it decided to punish on Sunday night. I spent the night eating strepsils and decaquane but felt so bad in the morning that I stayed in night until 1130. Ate breakfast, emptied the car, cancelled two appointments for Tuesday and went back to bed.  Eventually I crawled out at 4 o'clock but did very little. I watched Murder on the Nile

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-66391264633456852662011-11-13T05:52:00.000Z2011-11-13T05:52:02.283Z

This week has been busy and I see I last blogged on Tuesday. I prepared another Coptic binding book at the bookbinding. Very nice too but I can't show it as I left it in one of the class presses. On Thursday, I went off to Greenham to do a day's demo at the Weaving Exhibition. Lots of people turned up from Wiltshire Guild and a couple from Berkshire Guild as well. The exhibition was stripped down

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-75917122398812624012011-11-08T12:17:00.000Z2011-11-08T12:17:44.462Z

I am waiting for the repair man. My dish washer is on strike. Or maybe it is just feeling under the weather like me. I felt uncheerful on Sunday and had to attend a work meeting two hours drive away yesterday. When I got home, it took me some time to realise that I was feeling very cold and miserable and would rather go to bed. I feel better today but definitely not 100%. The weather is foggy and

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-31317315173120878742011-11-07T06:55:00.000Z2011-11-07T06:55:54.510Z

The Midlands Textile Forum is having an exhibition next January in Newcastle-under-Lyme Art Gallery. The idea is that pieces are based on the Betty Smithers collection of artefacts, which includes a lot of clothes and accessories from the 60s and 70s. I still have a lot of warp on the Megado in Diversified Plain Weave and decided that I would do 'shoes' which you see here. The colours  are wrong.

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-75549148191552337692011-11-03T16:53:00.000Z2011-11-03T16:53:40.854Z

Yesterday was back to  the bookbinding class. I am doing the next Coptic Binding (No 2) in Keith Smith's Volume 3 (ISBN 0-9637682-4-7). The cover (back and front) is cut from a heavy-duty paper shopper from a  Department Store in Kyoto. The end papers, which match the covers are from thinner paper which was used to wrap each purchase at the same Department Store. The paper

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-33504461773214727442011-11-01T20:32:00.002Z2011-11-01T20:56:13.678Z

 Yesterday (Monday) Rosie Price and I had a gallery-seeing visit to London. We did the Degas exhibition at the Royal Academy which was great, the Japanese Embassy to look at a small but beautiful exhibition in their foyer and the Gerhard Richter Exhibition in Tate Modern. The Japanese embassy exhibition was two or three Japanese and British craftspeople in each of several disciplines. Exquisite

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-41356054353625711262011-10-30T22:44:00.002Z2011-11-01T20:57:11.908Z

I have been away from home for 8 days and this is the sight that greeted me at home this afternoon. The maples strutting their stuff. The whole garden is incandescent - and gorgeous. Why does yarn not come this colour? From Monday to Thursday I was on a course 'Beyond Background' with Leslie Morgan of 'Committed to Cloth'. They have a wonderful purpose built studio formed from an old barn.

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-71125351444450319292011-10-22T17:36:00.000+01:002011-10-22T17:36:00.365+01:00

I have spent the last week mending computers or, in one case, paying to have it mended. If that was not enough, the dishwasher is on strike and I haven't the time to chase a repair man so that will have to wait a week or two. In the meantime, I am washing up by hand. I know that does not sound logical but I am off on Sunday to a course at Committed to Cloth and then hanging the Guild Weaving

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-61296322374868506002011-10-20T08:01:00.001+01:002011-10-20T08:26:49.086+01:00

In addition to textiles, there is, of course, paper. Apart from buying some (too much), everything you buy is wrapped up in wonderful paper. I brought everything I could home including the paper shoppers which came with my carefully wrapped  up purchases inside. I have just cut the bags apart and ironed them. On the left are shown a lfew of them. To give you an idea of scale, the piece on the top

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-89177650483212701592011-10-17T19:55:00.000+01:002011-10-17T19:55:11.230+01:00

These are four samples of patterned silk from Kyoto. The two left hand ones are Yuzen. The top right hand one is woven roses - and does not show up well. Not sure about the fourth one.  Two examples of kasuri  (warp and weft ikat) from Kyoto. Both are silk. Hana-ori from Okinawa. You can clearly see the flowers in this large sample which

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-19049990170805293802011-10-17T06:24:00.000+01:002011-10-17T06:24:59.260+01:00

On Saturday 15th we had to catch a plane back to Tokyo. But we realised that we had not been to the Praefectural Museum in Naha, the capital. So we left Emerald Beach smartly at 9 and got to the Museum at 1030 to find their was a special exhibition of Okinawan Arts and crafts on.  This was in honour  of the emigrants. Things were so bad in Okinawa in the late 1940s that huge numbers left. The

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-54549925739653308252011-10-14T11:21:00.000+01:002011-10-14T11:21:16.837+01:00

This is a tablecloth done in shibori. Last night we ate in a local restaurant which had only five tables (Okinawan style - sit on the floor)  in an old Okinawan house. The food was delicious but the tablecloths were stunning.  Every table had a different pattern of cloth. When I say local, I mean three minutes away, done an unlit muddy lane, using a flash-light to guide us. As we returned to our

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-77809274165142997682011-10-13T10:27:00.000+01:002011-10-13T10:27:15.454+01:00

On Wednesday we took the 9 o'clock fast ferry to the island of Tomashiki. Then we caught a bus across the island to this beach (in foreground) and the small island as the view. The beaches are white sand (coral) and there are coral reefs starting about 10 yards from the water's edge. Ruth, who is an expert, says she has never seen good coral reefs. There ared lots of different sorts of fish

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-87931557493928805942011-10-11T23:00:00.000+01:002011-10-11T23:00:34.680+01:00

Yesterday we drove north on the island to a theme park - not the roller-coaster sort but a place where they have moved old Okinawan houses to form a sort of village. This has lots of artisans working in it. The photo is of one of the terracotta guard  dogs at the entrance. He is about two foot high. Most Okinawan places have a pair at the door. Even our hotel which is very new has two!  There

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-58490993355077357542011-10-11T00:14:00.000+01:002011-10-11T00:14:17.068+01:00

We visited a specialist bingata establishment yesterday. Bingata is a traditional stencilling method used in Okinawa. This studio, Ryusen, uses the original method (described below) but has also introduced stencilling with blocks of coral. They cut a block of coral in half and some blocks are shown on the left. Smallest one is about three inches across. One or two are 18 inches across. Here

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-49489744261053256262011-10-09T12:56:00.000+01:002011-10-09T12:56:23.911+01:00

I have not blogged for several days because we werer staying at a Kyoto Ryukan which is a traditional Japanese inn. Tatami mats on the floor, take your shoes off at the door - and no internet access! The beds are made up on the floor with tiny pillows. We slept reasonably but I would not want to stay there for more than two nights. Sitting was very uncomfortable. The place is built for

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-48653366414838072011-10-06T23:33:00.000+01:002011-10-06T23:33:15.995+01:00

Thursday was a clear sunny day and we started at the Museum of Modern Art where there was a big exhibition of the weaving of Kitamura Takeshi - the 'ra' man. Rosie Price and I saw his work at the British Museum a few years ago. This exhibition was to celebrate 60 years of weaving - he is a Kyoto man and they are proud of him. They must have borrowed from everyone because there was a great deal to

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-41645053465738258462011-10-06T01:36:00.000+01:002011-10-06T01:36:31.700+01:00

By lunchtime, it was pouring with rain so I borrowed an umbrella from the hotel and we went by bus to Nishijin Textile Center which was definietly disappointing. It is really a large shop with some demonstrations going on. There was no exhibition of textiles. No  The photo shows a very small display of fine silk (at least 100/2) which had been dyed with natural dyes. Someone was tying up

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-40111035509982184842011-10-06T00:20:00.000+01:002011-10-06T00:20:45.377+01:00

Yesterday we spent the morning having a lesson in Ikebana. We were collected by a lady in a kimono and driven to the outskirts of Kyoto, up in the hills. We werer a bit puzzled by her presence but, when we arrived, it became clear that Fumiko Morikawa, the teacher, did not speak any English. She (Fumiko) provided lots of diagrams and, at the end, several pages in English of explanation. It all

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-45824236277487507212011-10-05T00:10:00.000+01:002011-10-05T00:10:31.055+01:00

Yesterday the travel company organised a guide just  for us for the  whole day. We started with a tour (in English) of the Imperial Palace. They gave up using this in 1869 but still use it when the Emperor comes to Kyoto or when George Bush comes to stay!! This is an entrance. We only got to walk round the outside although sliding screens had been left open so that we could see inside. All very

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-46008011766422145152011-10-03T13:50:00.001+01:002011-10-03T14:04:01.475+01:00

The bullet train on the right is stationary. The one on the left is coming into Tokyo station to carry us to Kyoto. It is the Nozumi SuperExpress. And this is a pink lady waiting for our train, one to every carriage. You can see other pink ladies further down the platform. They changed the head cloths at every seat, tidied up and hoovered the carpet. She has the hoover in her blue bag. 

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-3907631694015020692011-10-03T11:02:00.000+01:002011-10-03T11:02:04.397+01:00

On Sunday we went to Meiji shrine which is the premier Shinto shrine in Tokyo. There was an extraordinary ceremony going on. People were bringing dolls, little dolls, huge dolls, dressed in traditional costume and handing them over to the priests who wrere organising a display of them. It was labelled 'THANKS DOLLS'. One priest is shown working his way through a pile of bags but there were six

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-43077600892495679132011-10-02T02:27:00.000+01:002011-10-02T02:27:32.777+01:00

Saturday we started by going to a park very near our hotel, just by the river. This is the view with my back to the river. Surrounded by skyscrapers! This is the business district. The park was very busy. There were a lot of people out painting views, I am guessing 30 or 40. And many more people just walking and taking photos. Ueno Park of Friday was brown and dusty. This one is green, full of

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-82882212578956836752011-10-01T14:33:00.000+01:002011-10-01T14:33:06.799+01:00

I am  a very happy bunny. All sorts of lovely things have happened. I will pass over the air trip and just say I arrived at 9 am, was in the hotel by midday and out again, after a rest, at 2 pm. And then the fun started.  We went to Ueno Gardens and passed by a grove of cherry trees, okay in spring time, but in late September just dusty. But the manhole covers are reminders of cherry blossom!!

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-28076646593295162452011-09-27T21:56:00.000+01:002011-09-27T21:56:37.542+01:00

I spent yesterday (Monday) at Grove with two Kennet Valley Guild members, Chris Fletcher and Jean McVeigh. The idea was to make some of my DPW weavings into cards. I knew Chris and Jean were real afficionados of card making. butI was astonished at the way they approached doing the cards and the equipment they had. They spent 2 or 3 hours discussing what to do with each motif and then in the

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-17856509659374301182011-09-26T07:50:00.000+01:002011-09-26T07:50:48.772+01:00

I have spent the last few days weaving. I did it in 2 hour sessions with 1 or 2 hours break between sessions, ending up with weaving three napkins yesterday (Sunday). I finished at 10pm, applied Fraystop to the end and went to bed. This morning it was cut from the loom, zigzag stitched at the ends of the six napkins section and cut into two.  The photo shows some of the card motifs. There is also

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-10975829128207330342011-09-23T06:52:00.000+01:002011-09-23T06:52:14.555+01:00

Yesterday was spent getting the draft for the napkins right. I had to re-do the draft to start with to fit onto the threading that I now have. I did not like the first two drafts as the lines in the leaf section were too spindly so revamped the whole thing removing one of the three leaves and making the other two bigger as well as thickening up  the twining shoot. The photo shows two repeats

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-2339015347376536332011-09-22T07:50:00.001+01:002011-09-22T15:58:27.248+01:00

Here are two more motifs for cards in Diversified Plain Weave. The stars are woven with 2 metallic threads in the weft and produce a nice glittery effect which does not show up in the photo. I have now done enough to keep us happy on Monday when I go to watch Chris Fletcher turn them into cards!! Depending on what she says, I may weave some more motifs after the napkins are finished. I am using

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-11221352954395938872011-09-21T10:23:00.000+01:002011-09-21T10:23:40.023+01:00

Here are a few rows of motifs to be made into cards. Each row will provide 10 motifs and I have six rows completed so far. I decided to do these first which was a better idea than I imagined because it enabled me to find and repair about seven errors, crossed threads and the like. And of course such correction does not wreck the whole row just one or two motifs.  These are about 2.5 inches square

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-58100591859233298002011-09-20T05:39:00.001+01:002011-09-20T05:49:10.496+01:00

Each section of the threading is taking me about 40 minutes and I have 10 sections to do. Yesterday I managed 8 sections!! This was done by deliberately pacing myself. Threading up 7 to 9 (am), do something else 9 to 11, thread up 11 to 1, fetch Japanese money from bank, thread up 4 to 6, supper, thread up 7 to 0930 pm. So I have only a little to do today. Then it is sleying, tying on and looking

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-56771369772703384832011-09-17T12:52:00.000+01:002011-09-17T12:52:51.905+01:00

I have always been keen on libraries - and books, of course. I am currently in Leamington Spa looking after two of my grandchildren while their parents examine the Book of Kells and the Guinness factory in Dublin. Last night I searched their bookshelves and found `The Anglo-Saxon Library'by M Lapidge. It dealswith what books were and might have been in the libraries of Lindisfarne and York and

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-61794758639758461802011-09-12T08:07:00.001+01:002011-09-12T08:08:07.294+01:00

Lots of small jobs were completed this weekend because my grandson and his girl friend were here. A new curtain rail to keep out the draughts from the back door, a new front door bell, a new smoke alarm in the kitchen, light bulbs replaced. You might think I could do some of these  myself but the problem is the high ceiling in this house and I do not like standing on the top step of a step ladder

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-49110737456713858092011-09-08T08:22:00.000+01:002011-09-08T08:22:40.957+01:00

The cushions for Ros Wilson (Guild Natural Dyeing Guru) with dark indigo warp and madder weft. Two drafts on the same threading developed from a draft in Strickler's book. Someone has just given me a copy of an article in an old Handwoven by her. It is on 'Blended Drafts' and is fascinating. All obvious but I had never thought it through. I must give it more

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-73993828903868472572011-09-07T23:10:00.000+01:002011-09-07T23:10:52.228+01:00

Today I went North to Leek to help hang the MTF's (Midland Textile Forum) exhibition in the Nicholson Institute. It is home to a lot of William Morris stuff and the Institute specified that our Exhibition should be 'Inspired by Flora'. And it was too - all 80 works of it. What interested me, in view of the Guild Weaving Exhibition in October/November, was how MTF went about the hanging. The first

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-979991427602515542011-09-06T06:37:00.000+01:002011-09-06T06:37:40.636+01:00

The Voyager has been warped up with 2ply lambswool and the weaving started. The weft is space dyed Leicester Longwool which I bought at the Sheep Show two years ago. Very straightforward and, in many ways, much more suitable for demos to the public. So it is all ready for next week's outing to Leek. Warping up and weaving this is like comfort food after an exotic and inedible

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-5857511524416864122011-09-05T06:33:00.000+01:002011-09-05T06:33:30.266+01:00

I gave up on the black and white warp of high twist yarn. When I came to wind it on to the warp beam, I suddenly remembered what it was like - the singles warp for the Newbury Coat. It may have been a mistake to warp it up front to back  but I think the trouble would just have been moved downstream to the weaving if I had done it back to front. So there we are. One experiment not done but it is

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-67786894052568091622011-09-04T06:19:00.000+01:002011-09-04T06:19:43.805+01:00

I have been tinkering with this draft again and this is the (current) final version. The 2/30s has arrived from Halls and so I will start warping up tomorrow. I will use both beams on the Megado, putting the 2/30 on the sectional warp beam and the 2/6s on the second beam. Can't start today as my daughter, Anne, is back from their holiday in Spain and I am going over to Leamington Spa to have

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-52848646906055907922011-09-02T21:26:00.001+01:002011-09-02T21:49:58.030+01:00

On Wednesday, I took a train to Oxford and met up with two friends, Mary Jarvis and Rosie Price, to visit the Ashmolean Museum. We were interested in organising an outing for the Guild weavers and Mary was anxious to try out one of the one-hour lectures which the Museum gives. It was very good, a conducted tour of one of the galleries with explanations by a very knowledgable lady. Mary has in

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-30156910432494977522011-08-31T08:28:00.000+01:002011-08-31T08:28:31.700+01:00

The yardage is off the loom. It is not yet washed and felted. The section on the left of the photo shows the reverse of the fabric. There is quite a lot of it and I will have to lay out a pattern to see whether I can get a coat out of it. Yesterday I was exhausted at the end of the day. 1) I completed the special issue of the Shuttle and emailed it to the printer. He raised two queries and I

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-6495880753051295082011-08-29T15:33:00.002+01:002011-08-29T15:35:57.074+01:00

I used to think of natural dyed yarn as being sludge green, sludge brown. sludge yellow. Not in the hands of the Guild's resident guru, Ros Wilson. When I had finished weaving all the cushions, I looked at what was left and decided I had to use it now. Otherwise it would disappear upstairs in the stash and never be seen again. I had a ghost warp on  the Megado for the cushions and used that and

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-19153560069676956072011-08-28T12:30:00.000+01:002011-08-28T12:30:09.670+01:00

This is Compton Verney, where the Capability Brown exhibition is currently on  and this is a Capability Brown landscape, park land with old and large conifers, winding lake, bridges. Perfect of its kind. So why was I disappointed in the exhibition? I ruminated about this all the way home (80 minutes) and decided it was because I had

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-12488220944780077812011-08-27T08:05:00.000+01:002011-08-27T08:05:50.508+01:00

The Newbury Coat issue was finished and despatched to Linda Scurr for checking. So that was done last night and I spent the next couple of hours, changing things and filling in the gaps. I got it all done and emailed it out to someone who is going to proof read it (he used to be a proof reader). So today will be my own and I think I will go and see the Capability Brown exhibition as the weather

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-3263121349218352052011-08-26T12:13:00.000+01:002011-08-26T12:13:26.549+01:00

I have spent a lot of this week putting together a copy of the Shuttle which is a special issue devoted to the Newbury Coat. Yesterday the text was declared (by me) to be finished and I started on the photos. This morning I got up at 5 am and finished at 10 am without a break of any sort. The photos had to be selected, cropped, adjusted, have the image  resized. In some cases, I did a Photoshop

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-68742768401141310702011-08-25T06:11:00.000+01:002011-08-25T06:11:37.540+01:00

I have tied on the dark indigo warp to the ghost warp and woven two cushion fronts for Ros Wilson, our esteemed natural dyer who dyed all 33 cushion wefts to order. She choose to have a dark indigo warp and a madder weft and I was very dubious about the colour choice . It seemed like a very dark combination. I take it back. It has ended very classy. The above  photo shows it unwashed but that

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-8697945559319300672011-08-23T14:36:00.000+01:002011-08-23T14:36:29.916+01:00

Some weeks ago I showed a piece of batik which I had done under my sister's supervision. It has been pinned up on the board waiting for mbe to think of something to do with it. I thought the white lines where the soy wax had been washed out needed something doing to them. So this morning, I quilted it!! A first for me. I quilted through the sandwich of backing/wadding/cottonbatik  with green and

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-75710539438998303472011-08-22T20:11:00.000+01:002011-08-22T20:11:14.879+01:00

Today has been devoted to preparing the next issue of  the Shuttle, the quarterly Newsletter of Kennet Valley Guild. It is an issue with a  single topic, the Newbury Coat weekend.  So there was much revamping of formats, re-ordering of material and finding out that, while I have a lot of material, there are obvious lacunae. Much telephoning and fawning emails. Especially since I have to have the

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-58572366126488724792011-08-21T15:31:00.000+01:002011-08-21T15:31:27.778+01:00

No textile work at all today. Instead a massive tidy up in the Megado room where it is now possible to do some work since there are now a few cleared surfaces!**** The problem is that I have been away or had visitors for 6 weeks and it is telling on the house. The other thing I did was catch up with the post which took much longer than I thought. Including an incomprehensible letter from the bank

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-42065376008010032172011-08-20T19:37:00.000+01:002011-08-20T19:37:21.538+01:00

In keeping with my current ambition to complete a few projects (heard that before?), I have completed a bag which I started on my last day at the Bourneville class before going on holiday. Annette wanted us all to take a botanical theme and make something. She brought in a  load of books and photos and I found a nice Lalique piece of jewelry which has been translated. The bag is a bit strange

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-76856808723535885762011-08-19T18:17:00.001+01:002011-08-19T18:18:46.478+01:00

I have been thinking about 'Longitude' which is the yardage exhibition for Convergence 2012. One possibility is to use the fan reed on the Kombo. I would definitely do this in as thick a cotton as I could get away with because weaving with a fan reed is SOOOO  SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW.  I am currently thinking over how I could replicate my ideas before setting out to weave. I might take a photo of a

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-5573814377311291822011-08-18T05:18:00.000+01:002011-08-18T05:18:49.599+01:00

The family have all gone away and I am back to dealing with a very large pile of partially finished projects. I like the term UFOs which quilters use. It means UnFinished Objects. I have updated my weaving records and finished off ends on the five cushions. It is now waiting to be washed. I have prepared two more warps to be wound and will do that tonight when I go to meet up with a group of

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-85776853666732496722011-08-15T08:31:00.000+01:002011-08-15T08:31:32.609+01:00

I have finished five cushions from yarn, indigo dyed warp (mid-blue) and natural dyed weft. I have created two patterns on the same warp. I prefer this one. The other is shown below.  The backs will be cotton - purchased from Doughtys of Hereford last Monday. I have to warp up with dark blue indigo now and weave another 2 or 3 cushions.  I am going to use the mid-blue warp as a ghost warp. I

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-32213277201127492952011-08-14T17:47:00.000+01:002011-08-14T17:47:00.731+01:00

The Festival of Quilts held a fashion show last Thursday evening. I try to keep hostility out of this blog but have decided that the occasion deserves flak. It was organised with 4 Irish, 4 Russian and 4 UK designers who each produced an item of daywear, evening wear and 'wearable art'. And the clothes were worn by the designers. To summarise, the Irish clothes were best, the Russians had more

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-378006546993092302011-08-13T23:41:00.001+01:002011-08-13T23:45:50.902+01:00

A lot has happened this week. I took my sister to Hey-on-Wye to see the bookshops and she was bowled over. There was a moment when we came out of Richard Booth's shop (my favorite) and I was carrying all our purchases. I was about to say 'We have got to go back to the car - I can't carry this lot for any distance' when Dorothy said 'I think we should go home now. I can't afford to buy any more

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-8550552926431343212011-08-07T08:49:00.000+01:002011-08-07T08:49:24.528+01:00

On Friday Rosie Price and I took the train to London and 'did' three exhibitions - Miro in Tate Modern. I had always thought of Miro as 'decorative'. Not any more. When you see wworks from the whole of his life, you realise that his work is mostly a scream of rage at the treatment of his beloved Catalan countryside.  Not to mention General Franco - then by river boat on beautiful sunny day to

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-42901112998581782352011-08-04T11:48:00.001+01:002011-08-04T11:51:44.250+01:00

My grand-daughter, Madi, has been here for two days and one thing she has done for me is to turn a large number of skeins of wool into balls. These are the weft yarns for seven cushions, one ball will do each cushion. All  are natural dyed by our dyeing guru, Ros Wilson. Madi also did the same for a lot of yellow Borg wool I have - I intend to weave a double width blanket on the Megado as soon as

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-18094220534700719542011-08-03T06:10:00.000+01:002011-08-03T06:10:12.567+01:00

I have been checking on the Common since I returned from the Far East These are just a few of the flowers. When I was there on Monday, I came across a lot of campanulas. Yesterday I found none, walking a different way. They have been cutting paths through the foliage which I rather like. You walk on a 6 foot wide track cut through the waist-high grass, bracken, everything. They don't collect the

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-59571109620252000492011-08-01T06:24:00.001+01:002011-08-01T06:29:43.260+01:00

Today I tidied up the photos, discarding the useless ones and editting some. Then I stuck lots of receipts, tickets and photos into the journal I kept of the holiday. I have cut out quite a few pages so that the spine of the journal does not bulge too much but the book still bulges!! I am going to some courses at the Festival of Quilts and have decided to do a work on Taiwan. So there has been

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-51249023258172928752011-07-31T06:06:00.004+01:002011-07-31T10:16:35.334+01:00

The island is called Pangkor Laut and the resort owns the whole island although only a fraction of it is used. The rest is beaches, steep hills and jungles, of which more later. The accomodation is out of this world and included a marble bath outside the suite about 7 ft square and 4 foot deep. Only Chris, my grandson,  used it and he turned on the taps  got fed-up waiting, went and had a meal

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-12073168246721875322011-07-29T02:20:00.000+01:002011-07-29T02:20:41.167+01:00

The Textile Museum is housed in a Moorish style building built in 1896 to house the administration of the railways. Rather spectacular and very un-Malaysian or even British Raj. The most important gallery is one called Technology which deals with 15 different types of Textile and displays the creation of these types extremely well. In addition there is an interactive system where the technique

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-37331754484785792642011-07-24T10:52:00.001+01:002011-07-24T11:36:15.406+01:00

On Saturday, Robin and I got up really early and got to the National Palace Museum at 0815!! The objective was a scroll painting which is very famous and is on show there When we were there earlier in the week, it had been a 90 minute wait so we thought we might beat this by an early arrival. There was a large queue but the wait was only 15 minutes. Worth seeing. Then to see the one textile I had

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-57131037711392296292011-07-22T07:40:00.000+01:002011-07-22T07:40:03.527+01:00

On Wednesday, we toured various monuments of Taipei including watching the changing of the guard at Chiang Kai-shek's monument. Much throwing about of rifles and stamping of feet. After which we went to Din Tai Fung' s original shop. This is a chain of dumpling cafes and we patronise one in KL. I have to say the food here was much better although it is good in KL. The place was three floors of

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-40769568065632533792011-07-19T15:18:00.000+01:002011-07-19T15:18:55.035+01:00

So here I am somewhere else in the Far East - Taiwan. We flew here on Monday and I was not impressed at first sight. First of all, it was  a 45 minute taxi ride to the centre of Taipei, secondly they were trying to build a second motorway on top of the one we were stationary on  and thirdly they were trying to build something else on top of that. It turned out to be a high speed link to the

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-3000215380371413772011-07-17T09:40:00.001+01:002011-07-17T09:43:50.802+01:00

This morning was spent in a Japanese bookshop , Kinokinya, in the centre of Kl. It covers the whole floor of a multifloor shopping mall and is very good but not quite as good as its brother in Singapore. Although the KL onedoes have a coffee shop and seats where one can sit and read books.  I had made a list of books in Singapore but decided to buy them if I could in KL. Mostly achieved although

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-63674725863911293412011-07-16T11:06:00.000+01:002011-07-16T11:06:19.276+01:00

We got to the Botanical Gardens at 9 am but it was already busy. It opens at 5am. I think this must be for joggers and Tai Chi classes of which there were many in progress. There were also a number of school groups, either marching about or sitting round a teacher being taught about plants. The Gardens are quite large and we walked around for 2 hours and covered maybe 25% of it. There is a lot of

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-3647634923302069882011-07-16T10:41:00.000+01:002011-07-16T10:41:25.789+01:00

Ruth, Charlotte and I flew to Singapore on Tuesday morning and this was the sight that greeted us in the baggage hall!! Orchids and plants everywhere. And that was true of the roads to the city as well. They had great arching trees on either side of the road which met overhead. The central reservation was clipped bourgainvillas in full bloom, red, white and pink ones. The whole city has every

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-3802198283149911442011-07-11T14:34:00.000+01:002011-07-11T14:34:15.222+01:00

I have managed to download my recent photos. Here is a piece of pua kumbu with people in it. This is a piece of antique songket. The gold thread is inserted as weft by lifting specific weft threads. It is one of the older pieces on show and is for ceremonial use.

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-37260256849669728182011-07-11T11:24:00.001+01:002011-07-11T11:52:53.604+01:00

So here I am in Kuala Lumpur and I think it's Monday. We watched Chris, my grandson, sing under the dome of St Paul's cathedral, starting with Byrd's Ave Verum (Michael would have so approved), then two pieces by Stanford and finally a piece by Biebl. The front rows were occupied exclusively by relatives and hangers-on of Alice Smith School in KL!! We talked to Chris for a bit and then the school

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-31180657526553935842011-07-07T06:05:00.001+01:002011-07-07T06:06:46.492+01:00

Here is the silk wrap - not with any grand clothes on with it. I just wanted Dorothy to photograph it before she left for home. And a side view. It is basically a tube made by sewing two lengths of silk together on both sides and leaving a gap in the centre of one seam. Yesterday in the afternoon Dorothy and I did batik on cotton in the garage. She brought all the

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2340942113433138792.post-39643597785761357802011-07-06T09:02:00.002+01:002011-07-06T11:28:43.128+01:00

The Midlands Textile Forum is having an Exhibition, 'Inspired by FLORA' in Leek Museum starting in September. Ages ago I cheerfully promised five items. I thought, now that the Newbury Coat is behind us', that I had better check the paperwork and  found the closing date is this Friday! This does not mean delivering the items but supplying dimensions, photos and an entry form and fee. I had two

Pathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17011082120422775457noreply@blogger.com0