I've remembered!!

That lovely brickwork in the Bergerac area that I couldn't remember the name of - I think it's called "colombage" - don't know if that's the correct spelling, but here are some more pictures.

Moving to France 1

This is an exciting day for us. We have taken the first step in our long held plan to move to France. We have been to a French property exhibition in London, and registered with several Immobiliers (French estate agents).

We are hoping to move to the Bergerac area. Bergerac is a beautiful town on the River Dordogne, and the area is lovely - not quite far enough south to be dry and Mediterranean, but with rolling hills, fields of sunflowers and lots of vineyards (and exceedingly cheap wine). There is an airport at Bergerac so we can get back quickly and the kids can get out to us easily.

We need to get a move on as the eldest son and his wife (expecting their first child at the end of June) have announced that they expect to spend their September holiday with us in France - no pressure then.

So while we wait for a selection of properties to view, we need to get the cat, Gus, sorted with a chip, rabies injections and a pet passport.

I shall report progress as it happens, but just to whet your appetite, here are some pictures I took when we were down there last September. Firstly a sunflower field just before it was harvested, followed by two pictures of old buildings, and the wonderful brickwork in the area - it has a lovely name, which I cannot remember!

Sorry I forgot to rotate this picture before I imported it and I can't find a way to do it now!

Sampler quilt

A patchwork class started at my local village hall - too good an oportunity to miss - so I have started going with my friend J who has been doing patchwork for several years. We are doing a nine block sampler quilt, hand pieced and hand quilted, using the 'quilt-as-you-go' method. Here are the first four blocks, sashed and partly quilted.

From top to bottom - Shoo Fly, Dresden Plate, Dutchman's Puzzle and Ohio Star.

Apart from the odd bit of machine patchwork, I have never done patchwork seriously, and I am really enjoying it. I understand why people get completely hooked. I know this is all very basic stuff, but I have to start somewhere!

A bit of dyeing

I've been meaning to try dyeing in a plastic bag for ages, but just never got round to it.

I've been going to a patchwork class for a few months, it's a quilt-as-you-go sampler quilt, which I haven't blogged about yet. I was really reluctant to spend lots of money on the fabric for the backing, so I thought I'd have a go at dyeing in a plastic bag. There's a really good tutorial for graduated dyeing on the Fibre and Stitch website, but I decided not to try graduated dyeing and just used one colour. The one fabric I have in abundance is cotton curtain lining left from when I was a curtain maker, so I had a go, and apart from only using one dye, I did what the tutorial says. It worked really well , except when I washed the pieces in the washing machine after I dyed them, they lost a lot of their texture. But I am pleased with the colour and am using them to back my quilt.

Then I booked to go to a class "Accidental landscapes" at Puddleducks, my local patchwork shop. Because I'm a very new quilter, I don't have a stash (yet) and thought this was the perfect opportunity for a bit of graduated dyeing. Once again it's curtain lining, and this time I didn't wash the pieces in the washing machine after they had been dyed

The first set of bags were blue through to yellow, and here is the result.

Then I did a set black through to orange, but I forgot to take a picture of these. Once they had been rinsed, I tore them in half and then put one half of each into what was left in the blue/yellow bags, and below is the result.

For a first attempt, I was really pleased with these. The class was fun, and although it isn't finished, this is what I did.

I'm not very pleased with the design - I find it very difficult to make a 'real' landscape out of my head, but really enjoyed the technique. I shall carry on with it. The one thing I am pleased with is how well the colours go together.

Welcome to 2008

I'm really glad to see the back of 2007. It was not a good year for me healthwise, but I'm nearly there now and looking forward to 2008. Also not a good year creatively, but I've been going to a few classes in the last few months, and it's given me the kick start I needed to get going again.
Two bright spots in 2007 - a wonderful holiday in New Zealand to mark DH's early retirement, and I've lost nearly 4 stone (just need to loose another 4 now).

2008 has got off to a great start - my middle son and his wife have just had their first child - a girl - our second grandchild. Mother and baby are doing well, father is beside himself with excitement, and we are absolutely delighted.

We took my mother home to Suffolk today and we visited the winter walk at Anglesey Abbey, a National Trust property between Cambridge and Newmarket. Despite the weather - dull, dark, trying to snow - it was absolutely beautiful, especially the birch grove, which was quite magical.

The trunks are white, but where the bark has peeled off, its the most beautiful apricot colour which contrasts with the soft green verdigris.

These are just a few of the photos I took. Can't recommend this place too highly.

A pre Christmas treat

Last week, we went to Cologne to the Christmas markets, of which there are 5. The biggest one is in the square by the Cathedral, which is incredibly tall. One of the towers had scaffolding around part of it, which I thought echoed the gothic tracery. (sorry the picture is a bit blurred.)

The markets are full of wonderful traditional Christmas decorations, presents and food, and there is a little land train that runs between them which you can hop on and off.

This is the Altermarkt - Old Market. The stalls are open from 11am to 9pm, and this was taken just after they opened which is why the market looks so deserted.

There is also a Medieaval market at the Chocolate Museum. The stalls here are tents, and all the stall holders wear medieaval costume. A lot of them are demonstrating their crafts - felt making, blacksmithing, candle making etc.

We didn't go into the Chocolate Museum - too much temptation!!

One of the best things about the Christmas markets is the gluewein - mulled wine which you buy in specially designed pottery mugs. Each market has its own mugs, and they are generally dated, so different designs each year. This is the fifth time we've been, so I have a whole collection of mugs, which I generally use in December. Also did most of my Christmas shopping!

Batik

I first had a go at batik at art school in the 1960s, and have done it occassionaly over the years, but not for ages. The local patchwork shop, Puddleducks in Sevenoaks, does lots of workshops and classes, and I signed up for a one day workshop on batik.

The morning was spent making a sampler, using undressed cotton lawn, and exploring the various ways of mark making with the wax - all sorts of brushes, including a toothbrush, and even a dishwashing brush, as well as tjantings. The second and third squares in the second row were just waxed all over. We then painted the squares with procions dyes , using light colours.

Once it was dry, we rewaxed. The third square in the second row was etched into to create the lines. Then we dyed again, this time using stronger colours.

We then waxed it all over, crumpled it as much or as little as we wanted, to crack the wax. The second square in the second row was crumpled quite heavily. Then the whole thing was put into a dark blue dye bath.

The final process is to iron off the wax, with the batik between several layers of newsprint. Eventually, after several changes of paper, most of the wax comes out.

The second piece is based on a drawing I did in France in September, whilst I was sitting by the pool - well someone has to do it! The view was a series of stripes, 3 or 4 in the pool itself, the fields, the trees and the hills beyond.

This was done very quickly, without a great deal of thought - normally I like to give things a bit of thought. The original drawing was much narrower than this, and I think I might select part of the left side and mount it.

The class has certainly rekindled my interest in batik - I love the immediacy and the simplicity of batik - but I'm struggling to find undressed cotton lawn. Any suggestions would be appreciated.