Threading

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 for mistakes.

On Sunday I took the grandchildren to the Aquarium in the centre of Birmingham. Much enjoyed by all except that my camera batteries ran out after 20 minutes. However here's  a photo. The Bournville Friday class has the theme of The Sea this term and there is a class visit in October when I shall be in Japan. I think the nicest thing is the light. My work, at the moment involves a rendering of coral and I have a piece of cotton which is carefully tied up, shibori-style, ready for dyeing with Procion Mx dyes - which I must do today.

Now I have the camera back I can show what I made over the weekend. This is based on some design work I did in an online class some months ago. I gave up after two lessons because I couldn't see the point. My fault really. However one or two designs were acceptable (to me) and this is one of them. The problem is the addition of the stamens and the flower stem. I can beef up the stamens by oversewing. For the stem, I made some cords using water soluble plastic and sewed them on but they were not visible enough so I unpicked them. I need to look for some bright acid green. A session with the stash is called for.

After comments on my blog on books, I was moved to estimate how many books there are in this house, about 2,500 (+/- 20%). Not as many as Cally's farmer but still a sizeable library. Every few years I think I ought to throw some out and go through few. I have never found more than 5 each time that I am prepared to part with!