Sunday 20 July 2014

Whispers 2 - Judith's Stream Complete

In the last year to 18 months, I have shown shown some of the work that I have done as part of the Chinese Whispers group. In this 'round' we each created a piece of work which would be used to inspire the others in the group. Any source of inspiration could be used and any technique . The other 4 members of the group would use this to inspire a piece 1/4 of the size of the original piece. 

Below is a stream of work Judith started with her Seattle skyline inspired piece. At the time, I was walking along the south bank of the river Thames on my way to work and really enjoyed seeing St Paul's. So my piece was inspired by a city landscape closer to home.




I think they work well together and I hope you agree. We have no plans to exhibit them publicly but we do plan to show them to our local branch of the Embroiderers' Guild later in the year.  I'll show you some of the other streams as I process the photographs.

Sunday 13 July 2014

New Inspiration: Close to home and in Italy

I seem to have been busy busy busy, recently and not enough stitching has been going on but I have been enjoying myself! I need to get on and finish my current work because I have been collecting new inspirations. Last week we had a long weekend in the Italian Lakes, which had previously inspired my Lake Maggiore piece and I think it's the sunset pictures that I will turn to again for inspiration.


In February, I had a new camera for my birthday but it only came with very brief printed instructions and it wasn't until I was on the plane to Italy that I got to read the electronic manual that I had downloaded.  The next two photographs used two of the settings I discovered.


I like the effects they created but unfortunately I can't remember which ones I used!



Back in England, we had friends staying with us this weekend and yesterday we enjoyed a very warm trip to the Hampton Court Palace Flower show. Philip is the gardener of the household but I couldn't resist buying this plant. I thought it looked like a living pin cushion.


Today we walked through the fields at Hitchin Lavender and now my trousers smell nicely of lavender - I should be very nicely relaxed by bed time!



Although the lavender fields have been opened since 2000 and I live quite close, I didn't even know they existed. The entrance price entitles you to pick a bag of lavender, so looks like I could be relaxed for some time to come! Although it is very nice to come back with some lavender, it was the seeing the purple fields that I enjoyed the most.



Hopefully, I will be able to get some stitching done this week.....deadlines are looming....