Harrogate, Knitting and Stitching Show

As usual there was so much to see....but the crowds....we were packed in like sardines ....it was so hot.... I have never before heard so many complaints of  the over crowding from the other people trying to move through the halls and comments of What if there was a fire? was heard several times...I spent more time trying to get somewhere than I did actually seeing the exhibits and finding the stalls I wanted...
I managed to get pictures of one stand that I was interested in....Between the Lines by the East Anglian Stitch Textiles.... In response to it being 100yrs since the start of WW1. Check out www.easttextile.co.uk for more info on pieces....
I was interested in the use of metal within a piece of work  in particular but the whole exhibition was well put together with an array of techniques....my sort of thing ! I should have taken notes to attribute the work but I was later for meeting up for lunch...which also meant braving the crush of people.. You should be able to enlarge the pictures....

Santa on the buses

I was greeted by Santa on the Stagecoach bus this morning....the bus was all trimmed up with tinsel.....and the driver had a festive jumper on over his uniform....and I was given a bauble with a number on for a prize draw... Christmas carols were playing.... my number was called out and I won a Mega-rider voucher valid up to March....(free weeks worth of travel).....as I have my over 60s card I didn't need it....so I offered it to a young woman with a child in a buggy sat  across the bus to me......Next time they pulled a number out.....SHE had the bauble with the right number on it ! Christmas had come early for that young woman !! £25 shopping voucher !!
Santa was at the front window of the bus waving to all and sundry.....he got smiles and waves and mouthed "Merry Christmases"  He got off before the passengers and talked to the people at the bus stop.....cracking jokes....lots of good natured banter....

So "thank you" to the Stagecoach team on the bus doing the prize draw...the Driver and Santa....for an entertaining bus ride into town centre today..... It was lovely seeing the response to Santa waving to people....a simple little action....but spreading much joy .....

latest EYES talk...degree course at Hull School of Art

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Ok... computer is in a world of its own....doing what it wants to...gerr !
Annemarie the 2nd year tutor and I think the weave tutor and ? an ex student ? now teaching ?  came with a wonderful display of work of all levels from the textile degree course run at Hull School of Art. They delivered a power point presentation between them and gave a good description of the course now in its ?fourth year....with an amazing array of successes in competitions for a course so young. What was interesting was the links to industry...usually we have talks where we ooh and ahh over the stitches or the skills of patchwork or whatever their skill is in...etc..or someones life's story in textiles. This talk was different... I thourouly enjoyed it.
These are just a few pics...click on pics to enlarge....
I haven't seen Annemarie for about 10yrs since I stopped wandering around the campus looking at students work and chatting to staff....Security has changed a lot since then ! I did a HND there and topped it up to a Degree in Fine Art....using lots of textile based techniques.... lol.

Had the workmen in and out and nothing finished.....thats another story !!!

bit of stitching in Italy...

I raided Joanne's material box as I was getting withdrawal symptoms .....

and twiddled away with a simple running stitch---------

OK ....so I've forgotten how to rotate...

I used the threads from the base material to stitch the dots into squares...and finished off the nest at home with some brown yarn and chiffon blouse material...just want to find a "nest"dictionary definition to go one the blue square....

ok so I have photographed it upside down and it came out the right way....I think rotate is locked or something.....b....y technology.......... having no end of trouble with the new hassle free (huh) boiler as well.....

Italian holiday

Had a lovely time with eldest son Andy and his wife Joanne at their home in Italy..Lovely food and company...They were hand rearing a kitten which had been abandoned by its young mum...beautiful grey markings on its fur...it was re homed whilst we were there.

 Our holiday was not marred by the loss of baggage on day one....My younger son Mark continued on to Rome to deliver a training session.  The only change of clothes he had with him and his other things he left in the hotel room... as he was sleeping one more night ....was THROWN out by the maid....who thought he had left...On the way back he hired a car and was routinely pulled over by the police to check his driving license and hire papers !..... My bag didn't turn up for four days so had to try and get my prescription heart tablets in the meantime... Marks bag turned up ten days late... he had it day before we left to come home...and when we retrieved our baggage at the UK airport... the large suitcase I had borrowed had a wheel snapped off..... so... unusual holiday events...I had borrowed a large suitcase because ours had had its side bashed in somewhere between USA and UK ...I do hope there's not a pattern forming.....

Every morning we were greeted by this view ..the valleys and Andy's garden obscured by cloud.....and gradually it clears and reveals multiple valleys.....

We met up with Jo's relatives and enjoyed a coffee .....this place had unusual seating !! £200 each on Not On The Highstreet......They had straight corks as well and can you see the champagne wire with table top?

Alba had a truffle event on...and a medieval fayre in a square ...all the balconies were hung with blue and white banners...

the boys were taken by the bottle game

You get a big stick with a large wooden curtain ring on a length of string....like a fishing rod...and a sand timer is set going .... you have to try and stand full wine bottles upright to win..... so when we got back home I cut a ring from a plastic bottle and tied it to a stick..... the boys tried standing water bottles upright and then I cut some cardboard fishes for them.... 

they look like a pair of gnomes !!

Matteo has set me some homework.....so I can learn Italian.... I had to ask him to repeat things quite often....and eventually I said that I have a problem with my hearing...(I wear a hearing aid) he said he had a problem too...with his intelligence !!! he is a bright little boy ! Luca is more passionate...brilliant radiating sunshine smiles that light up the place...and loud angry storms of tears.....he only has one volume....happy or sad....LOUD ! lol

the problems with being thrifty

Have just been reading a thread on thriftiness......a useful idea for those who use a personal shopping trolley/cart to transport their shopping home..... was to use a child sized rucksack strapped to the trolley to hold the purse......other ladies chipped in with they put their purse in their bra like their mother did.....and my eyes were drawn.... to my big fat purse...and I glanced down at my ample bust.....and burst out laughing..... I don't think I could wedge anything in my bra unless it was a twenty pound note or two..... but just for fun in the privacy of my own home I tried to wedge my purse in my bra....helpless with giggling... I couldn't hide it so it wasn't obvious or comfortable.....and it tipped out when I had it behind the strap....so again I collapse in a heap giggling....and read further.....one lady used to keep her purse in her bra but lost weight and her purse and all the other things she kept in her bra kept falling out....by now my mind is in frivolous overdrive.....all the other things?....all the other things ...what were they? my mind flips to the comediennes French and Saunders...(Dawn and Jennifer) and in my minds eye I can see Dawn pulling things out of her bra.....each one getting bigger and bigger like in the Morecambe and Wise sketches..... and as my giggles subside my mind flips again.....there must be a doll waiting to be made.....what  useful items would be stuffed down a bra???? Ideas please and I might just make it !
My thanks to the ladies who posted on that thread....a serious topic but one that flipped my mind ... and gave me a much needed burst of frivolity...

more chair rugs...

These are for my kitchen chairs....pieces of yarn from about 6" long have been crochet in...using up all my bits and pieces....the ends disappear in the crocheting.....for padding I have cut up a new and unused shop bought quilted bed cover with a valance...... from the 1980s.... rescued from my late mother-in-laws airing cupboard. No longer in fashion but have yards of material in them,,, I thought I would stitch a decorative side straight on to the quilted bit (and pull the quilting out after)  then turn them into pads. If I crochet in black around the yarn bum rugs like the top left and blanket stitch around the pads....I should be able to crochet the two together with black yarn....
My first thoughts for the decorative side of the pads were to crazy patchwork all my left over denim pieces .....but I am fancying using up some of my floral small pieces and applique the flowers and leaves on...but then I do have rather a lot of old shirting.....felted wool jumpers and blankets......etc etc
If some one else was doing it and asked my opinion....I would say  "go with your first thought" so why am I dithering......
The big question is.....drum roll....will I crack on and finish them....or pack them away until I decide?

ATCs left on trip of a lifetime to USA

My friends Wayne and Sandi got married in Vegas and have returned to USA on a trip of a lifetime with four friends.....Their friends at home are sharing it by their photos on facebook.
Wayne prepared a pile of ATCs before they went and has left them tucked away in various locations on their travels.
Check out his blog ileftmyartin-sanfrancisco.blogspot.com to see what they got up to.
They are literally having a holiday of a lifetime, cramming in everything they wanted to go, see, do, eat etc....lucky them !!
Hull is famous for still having an independent Telephone system whilst the rest of the Britain was on the GPO system....now of course mobiles have taken over but we still have the land lines...and Hull is still independent. The public telephone boxes in GPO territory are painted red and have a crown near the top and Hull has cream painted ones with no crown. All his ATCs depict aspects of the city of Kingston upon Hull, the landmark Humber Bridge and the cities cream telephone boxes. The other year Wayne produced a large installation of photos of the majority of the remaining telephone boxes of a certain type insitu which is quite impressive....and its fun trying to recognise the locations by the limited surroundings depicted.

Chair rugs...using up small balls of yarn.....

On the coach trip to Warwick and Chatsworth I took some small balls of yarn and a hook to keep me occupied on the coach....so I began the squares...got them all to the same size at home...when I can get at the balls of grey and black I will "frame" them firstly with the pale grey, then the mid grey if I still have it and not given it away...then the black....I think I can see in minds eye what it will look like....

 all the small ends of yarn were crocheted into chair rugs....

 they add to the hooked chair rugs

road closed for Vista festival

Princes Avenue is closed to traffic once a year for the Vista Festival organised by the local traders. There were tents and gazebos with singers, comedians, magicians and story tellers in. Lots of food stalls outside their own restaurants. Beauticians and hair stylists demonstrating outside of their shops. Scrap store was there and the resident arts worker Liz showed her "gowns"...many people had their photos taken with their heads popping out of the neckline..a bit like the seaside comedy bathers where you can pop your head through the hole and have your photo taken....the black and white one is made of aerosol lids and the blue and white angel  outfit is made of latex gloves....

found Waynes tent where some of his youth club were helping him with his elephant camera

I have removed the  original picture as I didn't ask the young lads permission....so took a photo of my screen... you can see the reflection of my top......I don't know how to edit.......crop...whatever...

Its a homemade old fashioned type of box camera....I dare say it has a type name.....it has a cloth hood at the rear where they make sure that you are in the frame....the book raises and lowers the box for focus.......on the left side is a leg off a pair of jeans.... this is to block the light whilst inserting the arm in it to manipulate the prepared photo paper into the right position ready for the front cap to come off and count one elephant two elephants three elephants ......up to thirty elephants....the equivalent of 30 seconds...

this produces the equivalent of a negative which is dunked in a developing solution and then into a stop bath. the results are then photographed and changed to a print and printed off...

There were lots of artists stalls with paintings and photographs and a tent where you could pose as a model or try your hand at drawing....

A super patchwork stall....and many more ......all of which I forgot to photograph..........

there was quite a lot of people around but because of the threat of rain...forecast for the whole afternoon the bands were moved into the church halls etc....so the sounds were missing and empty spaces where they should have been....There was an area roped off for dancing and a older generation couple lindy hopping in 1930/40s style clothing were giving a great show. At Artlink there was an opportunity for the children to  decorate a white baseball cap.....and inside a vintage fair..      Lots of charity stalls too. The shop that belonged to Ronald Gifts mother was open too. The pub car park had a BBQ and a band in a lockup at the back....so there was plenty going on but with the threat of rain and the sensible moving of the bands inside ....the atmosphere had changed

I met lots of people I hadn't seen in a long time and got plenty of hugs.......

Warwick and Chatsworth House weekend

I got a last minute ticket to join Lyn on the coach trip to Warwick Castle and Chatsworth House. My mobile phone died late afternoon the day before we went...I use it to take photos with.... I had the phone looked at...no good...didn't want to get another phone yet...waiting for new i phone coming out in September.....So last minute dash to buy a cover for my ipad so I could take that with me to take photos on.....With it being school holidays both venues were packed with people. Warwick Castle was over run with families.....the children enjoying Horrible Histories in the grounds of the castle....and there was even a medieval style tent to housed the baby buggies whilst the families went on the castle tour. On the whole the children were very well behaved in the castle.....no fraught parents constantly telling their children off... which was refreshing.
I think the first fortified dwelling on the site was 840 ish and by 1066 it was a wooden Mott and Bailey structure. To be able to gently touch something that was touched by human beings hundreds of years ago....and look out of the windows on the same (ish) views.....always gets to me. I didn't attempt to take any photos as my ipad was too big in the cramped conditions...Lyn had to wait for a gap to get hers !!! So to see some of the things we saw....go to Liniecat@Large or liniecat.blogspot.co.uk.
I want to go back to both venues to take photos....At Chatsworth inspiration for patchwork and applique was everywhere.
The hotel.....I won't name it....staff were lovely, food was lovely, rooms were lovely.....but....you knew there would be a BUT didn't you...lol....yet another trip where the hotel has a wedding party booked in the function rooms.......not just a wedding party but...............................................................................another
Indian wedding party with the throbbing music blasting out....bass on full.....everything vibrating and pulsating....the drivers room was directly above the function room and had to be moved.....we were told  the music would be turned down at 8pm............11pm...
fortunately I was in the roof and with my hearing aid out....bliss.....
apparently it was a proper wedding...complete with a big noisy argument at 2am !!!or so I was told.
I really must record.....the size of the sheets of toilet paper.....9cm square !!!....I brought one home to put in my diary ! Go on get the ruler out....!

car boot, garden centre and Veterans Day in East Park

what a day yesterday....everything aches today....
In the morning Lyn took me to Skirlington Market near Hornsea....neither of us have been for years....it's a mix of market and carboot sales. I had to smile as the last time I was there one could buy hot dogs, burgers, fish and chips and bacon butties....now....moving with the times I spotted at least two Chinese take-aways...a trailer with a super duper coffee making machine....thats all it sold....wonder how long they have been trading.... The latest craze at the moment is the little elastic loops that kids are looping on a loom to make bracelets.....and there were stalls selling nothing but them at a £1 a small package... stalls piled high with the things and people buying 10 and 20 packets at a time....... Even in the carboot there were stalls cashing in on the loopy craze...
At the carboot I practised real restraint.....I could have had some 25g balls of yarn in delightful colours that had been given away with the Joy of Crochet part series.....20p a ball......I have some I bought from a charity shop....previously .... and have not used them......so I walked away.....but they kept tugging me back.....Lyn bought some when we got separated for a while...and again I was tempted.....but I resisted.....

lol.....it was hard....it was h-a-r-d...lol
what I actually bought....a whole £2 worth....

silk and chiffon head squares 50p, 3bottles 50p dress £1...love the fabric so retro....
The book, Great Garter Stitch, (Jean Leinhouser and Rita Weiss £3.99) was from the garden centre where we stopped for lunch on the way back.... I loved the vest of many colours on the front and it would be a great stash buster. When the weather cools down I'll make a start on it.... There are at least 5 more patterns in the book I may attempt too...bargain !
At the garden centre the tempting array of cakes on show made it hard to choose....Lyn had a white chocolate and raspberry roularde and I had an orange pannacotta slab......which were delicious......
After Lyn dropped me back home I rested up for a while before deciding I would like to go to the  Veterans Day in East Park....my legs and back were not happy at all....and the heat....I was hurting and melting....
I have never seen the park so full of people, it was teeming.....
Plenty to see and to do and to top it off the Battle of Britain flypast did three passes over the park. The Spitfire and Hurricane looked so tiny either side of the Lancaster....they almost looked like toys... and on the ground there was a copy of the Spitfire and a Messerschmidt and they looked so tiny and flimsy...how did the flyers manage?
I wanted to take photos but the crowds of people made it almost impossible. I hung around to get a clear shot of these from WW1.

 the wounded at the front line would be transported on one these  or in the horse drawn ambulance.

I have to say that these photos don't really convey the basic-ness  of the transport. The ambulance is so basic inside yet outside it is varnished wood with etched windows....
I tried to get photos of the women dresses as WW1 nurses....but by now the numbers of people seemed to have swelled waiting for the Red Arrows flypast.

The Women's Land Army stand had three remarkable women with a vast array of artifacts.....and a willingness to talk.....so many stories of privations, the spartan life and the rats endured for their country and the enduring friendships formed.
I am proud to present Muriel Berzins who was one of the 60 girls billited at Howden Hostel for 7years,  sleeping on doublebed bunks....up at 6.15 in all weathers.

                                                                                                                                         

Iris Newbould

 Dorothy Taylor whom the other two described as the Lynch pin and organiser of the artifacts on the stand.

The missing one of their quartet is Elsie Sills who can be seen here with the others at "The Women's Land Army Memorial" Clochan, Morayshire.
Sculptor, (a local man, a few miles away in Beverley,) Peter Wallwork Naylor (his photo/ postcard) the same artist who did the 158 Squadron on Liniecat@Large blogspot.
Hats off to the sculptor.... brilliant concept that captures the young spirit inside these lovely ladies.

All around the park were people who collect memorabilia be it British forces, German, Russian, uniform and kit artifacts to huge lorries and tanks.  This year I saw American west represented....complete with a dentist tent ! Tucked away was a stand with some ancient army represented....I was interested but my legs were not willing and in fact I wondered if I had the stamina to get home. Ideally I wanted a taxi but I think even an ambulance or fire engine if needed would have found it difficult to get near...cars were everywhere....the surrounding streets were lined as afar away as my house, both sides of the road was chock a block. Even the playing field car park was used.
I'm guessing .......a successful year....lol

more rust play

its addictive....
found a bungle of cotton covered wire.....been in the garage for well over 20yrs....originally I think it was a nice neat hank. I think it was used to bind bungles of cables together in a telephone exchange or local box......
I thought...its been here all this time...lets spend a few minutes seeing if the cotton string....in orange and cream will come off easily.......
no it didn't... the wire inside was brittle and kept breaking......I noticed little bits of rust staining.....I had out a big roll of embroidery stabiliser / or rip off....or what ever its called...so I rolled the wire in some of that and added water and left it over night......LOVED the result... so did again and again and again... morning...afternoon...evening...next day....lol...the serendipity of the marks... had me hooked...
The first one is on the right...and then they got longer and longer... the two on the left have a bit of a blank space...thats where I folded it to get more marks in one go.....getting carried away now...the last one on the left is four metres long...I folded it into four, put the wire on top of two sections folded the other two sections over the top before rolling up and soaking......

all from this little strawberry punnet....
now what do I with them ?????????????
I certainly feel justified in hoarding the little tangle of wire and string now !!