Sun fabric dyeing

 With all this lovely sunshine we have been having I had a go at dyeing fabric using silk paints, you are supposed to use opaque silk paints but is appears to work quite well with normal ones.

 I just wet the cotton fabric which had been washed and layed it out on a flat surface  which was covered in plastic ,I then painted washes of colour over the fabric before laying on leaves and cut out shapes and leaving it to dry.Once dry it should be ironed to set the dye.

I have made some of the fabric into a needle case which I am going to put into my Etsy shop hipposinhats.

Kelmscott Manor

 Kelmscott manor was one of William Morris' homes and he is buried in the churchyard there, the carving above on one of the cottages is by George Jack' of Morris

I thought these slabs of stone made a fantastic fence all covered in lichen

 I thought this was a very pretty shed or summer house it looked very quaint

even the back of it.

 But to my amazement it was a rural 3 holer!

 It is a pretty house and not too large, rather like a rabbit warren inside, one room leading into another.It is a Grade 1 listed Tudor Manor house which was originally owned by a farming family for 300 years. You are not allowed to take photos inside, it is simply furnished the walls hung with original Morris textiles and tapestries by both him and his wife Jane.

 The back courtyard

 A very elderly Mulberry tree

 Just as we were getting back into the car this flew overhead  A US. B-2 stealth bomber on its way to Fairford.

 We stopped at Cirencester on the way home and in Brewery Arts were these great feet they would look good in the garden just right for a chiropodist.

improving on layered felting

We made layered felt at Dagmars class but typically me I got the layout wrong,to get it wavy you need to lay the fibres diagonally, for tassels lay the fibres vertically ,so I wanted to do another one and I am pleased with the mauve and grey one .The grey one above is made by laying down a plastic grid and it worked beautifully I even remembered Dagmars advice to felt it in less of a rush and softer.I am going to add some french knots in red to the top right hand square my husbands suggestion the only one  he has ever made and a great idea. He gets that look of terror like a rabbit caught in the headlights whenever I ask for a critique poor man.

Out of the box exhibition

Went to Ledbury today to set up my piece in the exhibition,note to myself never ever do a hanging piece again it has a mind of its own, I am stewarding tomorrow and will have to try and sort it outThese two are mine,it was based on the fact that the expression is thought to com from a  9 dot puzzle and you had to join up all the dots with 4 straight lines without taking the pen off the paper,so mine consisted of all printed lines and dots with embroidery.

this automaton  below  is by Angie Hughes is based on a John Masefield poem.

 Penny Turnbull has done several pieces in collage and needle felt

 Another interactive piece ,a book made into a box is by Jo Teague

 one of Penny's

 Felting by Sylvia Thistle

 The cushion and quilt  are by Cheryl Kirby

 These two quilts base on tea are by Lesley Brankin

 Mono printing by Sue Sobczak

last piece by Ann Paterson  on the suffragettes.