Another 21 words!

Do you remember the 21 word challenge back in March?  The writing group I facilitate had 21 days of words to use in a sentence or sentences for each word.  We enjoyed it but the daily nature of it was a pressure we didn't need.

We're going to have another 21 word challenge but this time there will be 3 words each week for 7 weeks.  The group will have them sent to them each Monday, Wednesday and Friday in our WhatsApp group.

But here on my blog I am going to release the same 3 words on Tuesday each week.  It's up to you whether you use them all at once or whether you work on them on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

If you do join in, share your sentences in the comments on later posts.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

4 days this summer

During the past few weeks I have been watching lots of sport on the television.  The Commonwealth Games and then the European Championships!  I've also read lots of books on my Kindle and played Solitaire - especially when it was too hot to do anything else.

But there's been a flurry of activity over the past few days, starting with my birthday last Wednesday.  Actually when I think about it I spent the day doing much of what I've described above - watching sport, playing Solitaire and reading.  However the flurry started with going out to dinner to celebrate.  I had the most enormous fish platter at a local Portuguese restaurant.

 

After eating all that lot, it was just as well that the next 4 days included a lot of walking.  I had volunteered to help at the Festival of Quilts at the NEC.

I stewarded in the Celebrating the Creative Textiles Studio on Thursday morning and Friday morning.  On Thursday, Saturday and Sunday afternoons I demonstrated how to make stitched books.

Photo by Lesley J Darnell

On Saturday and Sunday I went to the Show an hour or so before my demo time so I could walk round the show.

I'm not a fan of traditional patchwork quilts but I do like some of the quilts in the modern, contemporary and art categories.  I used to take lots of photos of the work that appealed to me but this year only 3 pieces stood out to me.

Modern: Streets where we lived by Megan Arnold

Contemporary: Fracture lines by Kathy Collins

Art: Desolation by Anna Woodhead

 

Now I need to get back to the ideas that are germinating from the four days at Summer School.

 

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

Summer School continued

In my last post I showed the fabrics I had printed.  Here's what they looked liked together.

Photo by Liske Johnson

I had a Thermofax screen made of the poem I wrote and using fabric paint printed onto some of the fabrics.  Then I started tearing them up and collaging them.  This is now tacked ready to sew, probably on the sewing machine.

These were random pieces left over which looked good together.  They are lightly bonded to a piece of calico.  I haven't decided what to do with this.

I tore up the fabrics into 6x4" pieces and put them together to make a hanging book.  This can either hang on the wall or fold up.  It's double sided.  This is one side.

And this is the other.  It's all tacked together ready to stitch.

Then with a large piece of fabric I made a book.  I ironed bondaweb on the back of the fabric and then folded it in 4 one way and 4 the other.  I cut it like this

Cut along the red lines

I removed the backing paper carefully and ironed the pages together.

I made a cover with one of the other fabrics

With some of the leftovers I started making small collages.  Some of these will probably go on the pages of the hanging book.

I still have lots of the printed fabrics left, but it might be better to finish all these before I start something else.  Or not!

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice