more coat for a boat/follow the herring

Harry made this barrel specially for the project, it names all the places Follow the Herring is going to.

inside and on top are some of the pieces we made on Harry's workshop.

a small display of childrens work on the project in Central Library.
I went to see the play, Get up and tie your fingers at Hull Truck, it had three main characters, all female struggling to come to terms with the aftermath of the Eyemouth disaster of 1881 and a large female choir dressed as herring girls. It wasn't quite a musical as such, as the choir provided background sounds as well as the songs....more of a kind of sung narrative. It invoked a vast array of emotions in the audience and the comments book had many "moved to tears" "sobbing" messages in it.
The knitted picture looked great on the wall there, even better than I remembered...see it on Lyns blog..Linniecat at large blogspot.... she did the faces...making them look like real characterful individuals.

All the yarn bombing is down now...the square looks drab and bare...
It's all washed and repaired until we can use it somewhere else......my washing line looks drab and bare now too !!

Coat for a Boat, Holy Trinity

Finally got back to Holy Trinity to take pictures of the boat and the rest of the display...I was there when they were putting it together AND went back the next day.....AND went for the Opening but there were far too many people about to get clear pictures.......Been back today and still there are so many people....I guess its been a bit of a success !! The Church people very happy too. Ken, the man who was demonstrating net making asked what would happen to the Yarn Bombing when I took it down....and could we put it back for Heritage Day ? He cut a hole in his net to demonstrate how to mend it....see if you can spot the mend when you enlarge the picture....

 At this end of the Church...the Memorials to the Armed forces and the Maritime Memorials, commemorating the men of Hulls biggest fishing disasters. I had to wait ages to get a clear view !!

It is a fitting place to house the exhibition of A Coat for a Boat, a part of the touring Follow the Herring.

Now for the boat.....

It is two thirds of full size fishing boat so it can be taken apart and bolted back together and fit in a truck to transport it from place to place. A full sized one would have fitted in the space easily.

the boat is surrounded by foaming sea and sea creatures.

and sandy beaches.

A board is added for each place it visited.

Where there's fish...there are stray cats....

Will do the rest later..having trouble with blogger.....

Vintage sewing collection and Jackies journey

Two members of EYES stepped in when a speaker couldn't come.... Brenda Stapleton who is well known in the Patchwork circles and Jackie Ward-Lomax a relatively newcomer but prolific convert !
Brenda shared some of her of vintage collection with us.....Samplers of all shapes, sizes and age...other textiles, and other bits and pieces...

The whole cloth quilt was marked by a professional who's name escapes me...which would have been costly....but on closer inspection has a patched blanket inside ! 

 we were shown various textiles, samplers, embroideries and velvet painted and decorated with sealing wax roses

 Silks, pre war as they stopped producing for the war effort ? from Kensitas ciggys

 Queen Victoria surrounded by her Prime Ministers pin cushion

 Shop counter drawers which would have contained needles

 now holds knitting needle gauges

This is a clever vintage little work bag which I will do a post on when I have made one...

Jackie retired from teaching and took up wood carving...!! not twiddly little bits but tree trunks !! She then moved on to textiles...in various forms but mainly patchwork and embroidery. She brought many examples of her work....she explained her inspiration behind the works...

she started with a hanging inspired by the Indian window hangings which let air into the room and stops people from looking in....She started it when she had a broken arm and wanted to occupy herself as well as chart her healing process...the little squares were perfect to hold and sew .....and on closer inspection the squares do indeed tell the tale.

This one is a lovely family tree...the view I could get of it as it was closely inspected all the time !! There was a lovely cloth book were she had reproduced drawings by the grandchildren in stitch. and many other pieces.

Last fishy fridays

more sea knitted on large needles by Maria and donations of fishes,,,and floats I knitted for the herring net
We had a go at moulding mesh around marine shapes ....I was so engrosed I forgot to take photos...

This the pattern we used for the shells...a strong grip was needed to hold the curling end whilst sewing it tight.

 The Artlink Galley Installation with a selection of Fishy Fridays work...

The first fish on the second row is my old fashioned  grannie fish...chinz, pearls, cotton net curtain and a gathered voile tail....

 at the bottom is the willow baskets made willows from a Scottish Island...the paper mache crabs and the shells, the patchwork Mantra Rays and herrings..and decorated with stitch and beads seahorses. and below the jelly fish and herring made from recycled envelopes from bank statement and bills...

there were two of these installations hanging from tanalised wood mimicing the bottom of a boat..

yarn bombing

I have tied to put these up before but the  lappy has a mind of its own and wouldn't let me. The place that stores the pictures wouldn't let get at them and boxes kept popping up saying I had used all the space but I also got little boxes saying more pictures has been added but were blued out etc etc etc

OK don't know what is happening .....tried to insert a picture here and I get a silly little box with a much bigger one around it ! 

On the Saturday when it poured down with rain and the yarn bombers that stayed to the end with Sue Mcbride who organised it got soaked to the skin.....we decorated Holy Trinity Square seat arm rests and lamposts and the tree railings....The Church office has a window with little panes of glass...each one filled with a herring. 

Thats as many pictures as I have the patience to try and put up as the machine I am working on has a ****** life of its own !!!!

On the Sunday in Queen Victoria Square we covered 4 benches like this

  and 2 canons. We attracted a lot of attention from children and adults, lots of smiles and          encouragement.
                                                       

By Monday one bench cover had been stolen so on the Tuesday I fashioned another out of a ladies jumper I had bought to unravel for the wool and a bit of fun knitting...stitched on a fishes I hadn't finished and a few felt ones.and fitted it with extra tie wraps top and bottom !! It lasted a few days before being seen on the Saturday ripped in half....but still attached firmly to the bench...the remaining one was also hanging off its bench....today I removed it and all the tie wraps...

I give up on this one.....this lappy is draining all the fun we had doing the yarn bombing.....its worse than the vandals.....geRRRR

updating...£1 shop find....

Had Mathew aged 7 and Ellen aged 9 in to "make something"...Mathew as usual knew exactly what he wanted to make down to the last detail....you can't see it on here but there is a rowing boat on the back of the pirate ship so the pirates can row to an island for the treasure !

see all the black cannons down the ships side?

Ellen wanted to make a Herring Girl like I had done...

heres an Oreo herring....The shapes are from Oreo lunch pack of two ...also a paper mache shell for follow the herring project.

My £1 shop find...a wire garden ornament...I had several ideas for the wire frames...this being the first one....outer frame wrapped with a strip of material, inner frame done the same way but raised by bending slightly, and the beaded stamens wrapped in sparkly black eyelash yarn. Just need a contrasting centre now....

Other ideas were covering the petals rather than the frame....

breaking the inner petals and stamens off and just decorating the outer ones

Making hearts out of the broken off petals....