bumbling down to Cornwall in our 1971 VW camper

You've been Yarn Bombed!!!

"Yarn bombing, yarnbombing, yarnstorming, guerrilla knitting, or graffiti knitting is a type of graffiti or street art that employs colourful displays of knitted or crocheted cloth rather than paint or chalk." Wikipedia

Whatever you end up calling it, I can guarantee you will have an AmAzIng time!  I have not had such fun in ages, we laughed and flirted and chatted - a wonderful, wonderful day.  Here's to the next event!!!

It just amazes me that despite the internet being worldwide, you can meet someone down the road via blogland.  This is what happened with Fiona and I, and she was more than up for helping me yarn bomb benches outside Waterside Arts Centre in Sale.  Fiona's friend joined us, along with my friend Sarah, who had an impromptu crochet lesson at the same time :)

The bench looked FaB when we'd attached all the pieces of crochet and knitting together, all supplied by friends (and the four of us of course!).  But we didn't stop there!  We added crocheted bunting to another bench, pom poms and crocheted leaves to trees, and my little owl had a sit in a tree for a little while!

All of these images are courtesy of Fiona and you can view more over on Flickr.  If you've never been involved in yarn bombing, I can highly recommend it.  We were still buzzing after working on the bench and it's surroundings so moved onto the Bean and Brush for cake, tea and crochet, and left behind a very warm tree ;)

WOYWW 110 - the clatter of my sewing machine

I really should oil it!!!  It's a good job you can't hear it, but I thought I'd share what I've been up to, seeing as it's Wednesday and that's what Wednesday's are for!!  Miss Julia likes to inspect our workspaces on Wednesdays, which is fine by me, I love to see what everybody's busy doing.

I've been stitching away on my fabulous Bernina, creating a collage for the Bean & Brush.  I thought it would make a nice addition to the history wall.

The postcard is a copy of one from the Birkenhead series.  George Birkenhead ran the post office [the Bean & Brush is located in the old sorting office] and two of his son's ran a florist shop next door, and became world famous for their ferns!

I AdOrE ferns.  I love the magical look of them when they are unfurling, the smell of freshness when you brush past, and the stillness of the woodland that they invoke.  Anyone else a fern lover?

Anyone up for a bit of yarn bombing?

Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to knit or crochet a piece 20cm wide and as long as you'd like it to be!  Use up bits of wool, add texture with different stitches or just keep it plain, you choose! 

The event is happening on Saturday 23rd July at a secret location near me [Sale, Cheshire] but it would be really lovely if any of my blog readers would like to join in.  Just email me for my address, then post me your knitted/crocheted piece with a tag attached with your name and town/city.  I'll blog it all when it happens :)  Sorry it's such short notice, but it makes for a great challenge :) 

the art of tea

After lunch at The Lead Station, Beech Road, Chorlton today, a friend and I headed to The Art of Tea in Didsbury for 'afters' ie coffee and cake :)  Many thanks to Jackie over at Dog Daisy Chains for reminding me about this fab little tea shop on her blog!

A number of hours later, we staggered out with a pile of books each from the second hand bookshop at the back of the cafe :)

I just LoVe the cover of this book/catalogue of Picasso's work :)

And how fabulous is this illustration, just one of many from a Christmas book from the 30s that I just had to have!  An altogether wonderful day :)

summer time

During the months of August and September, The Cubby Hole is holding an exhibition of arts and crafts.  One of the features will be a collection of canvases entitled 'Summer'.  I decided to use fabric, stitching and beading on my piece, oh, and a bit of 'dumphing' too lol :)  

It's not finished yet, but I'm so pleased with how it's coming along.  I'm so looking forward to this exhibition, it should be a fantastic collection of a range of arts and crafts.

a sculptor's home in the beautiful Cheshire countryside

This is just one of the many stunning views from the farm near Tattenhall where the sculptor Stephen Broadbent has his home and studio.  

This was the location for the launch of a new Artist Network event for artists in the Chester Diocese.   Entitled 'Breathing Space' it truly lived up to its name.  Stephen and his wife Lorraine have a wonderful home which contains many of Stephen's sculptures

...stained glass by Lorraine...

...chickens who knock on the office window...

...and fabulous inspiration around every corner...

In the afternoon Stephen asked us all to form something from a piece of packaging material using files and sandpaper.  

We then had to put our piece together with someone else's to create a new 'sculpture'.  I'd created a pebble-like piece, which I then worked into like a bowl.  Unfortunately I went through the bowl's base so decided to add some more holes in the shape.  When I turned it it looked remarkably like a face, a shape Simon, next to me, had created with his packaging.  So we created a totem pole, entitled 'the embodiment of joy' LOL

I say 'we', Simon was happier taking photos ;)

Everyone's pieces were so different, yet fitted wonderfully together.  I didn't get pics of them all, but here are a few!

I thoroughly enjoyed today, for many, many reasons - new experiences are so good :)

EDIT: if you fancy a longer tour of the day, Simon has a great collection of photos here

ready for the kiln...

...is a commission for a 40th wedding anniversary

and a late birthday present for one of my nephews.

Tully was 6 yesterday and I bought him some lego but whilst at work on Sunday it suddenly occurred to me that he'd probably like something with his name on.  I decided on a bowl as the most useful piece of crockery for a six year old ...

... then added some fingerprint monkeys (design courtesy of Usborne Books!!!).

Why is it only now that I'm realising that the tail maybe should have come from the side?!!!

finally entering a challenge!!!

I treated myself to some gorgeous images from the lovely Lily Chivers the other week thinking I'd use them to enter the 'Take a Word' challenge - the theme was 'fantasy'.  Two words later I've missed that one, but reading Sue's blog discovered that Lily has launched her own challenge:

The first challenge is 'Alice in Wonderland' which fits perfectly with these plates I designed recently as samples for our Mad Hatter's tea parties at The Bean & Brush :)

I was thrilled with this before it went in the kiln, and it looks even better now!  How cool would this be as a real clock!!!

The Cheshire Cat came out well too although I'm not sure I'd fancy eating off of this plate LOL.

Over at The Octopode Factory Friday Challenge you can enter anything along the theme of 'Alice in Wonderland', and if you use Lily's images you are entered into the monthly prize draw.  I thought I'd enter my plates so I had at least entered, but I'm now off to play with Lily's images in my journal :)