Saturday 1 September 2012

A restful week

So I've had a restful week, one less shift in the 'proper job' a couple of nights no B&B - things are naturally quieting down & on this September 1st no sign of the Blue Moon as winter has closed in! The moon was fabulous on Thursday evening tho, coming back from yoga I had a stunning view - we'd just done Salute to the Moon, of course. Can't complain we've had a fabulous summer, the best up here in 13 years. Even the midges only came out early August instead of May.


A couple of months ago I bought 2 single bed covers at the local Blythswood charity shop for £3 each. I had the idea to make them into one double cover & dye them forest green - good old Dylon.



The above was cream the other an interesting pink.
The label said dry clean only & I had a feeling it wouldn't really work...






Only the nice gold bits went green the rest is a rather lovely silver color ;)  If you can imaging a single cover in the middle of the bed, hanging over the sides a bit, I just cut the two sides off the other cover & added them to the sides of the one on the bed.... The top green line above is the whole cover then the added bit resting on the back of the dyed cover, a lovely smokey green. Of course the flash has turned it monochrome but you get the idea. I had no idea til I took this pic that the trimmings were different, call me a soft furnishings expert!





I had a cushion pad laying around the studio - different to the clean new ones I was using before - so I made one cushion. I'll look out for a couple of ready made second hand small forest green ones to sit either side. It'll be enjoyed by the next B&B guest & will make the  room more finished looking to finally have a cover.

So nothing creative in the studio this week, not even a card, which has been refreshing, relaxing & what I needed, no pressure. We did have a guest who wanted to visit the studio 'after breakfast the next day' so I spent a happy time sorting out the piles of work we'd just unloaded from the car & dumped. The 'gallery' end is looking lovely now but my working bit of the studio will take more than a happy time!

I've been very slowly getting back to my buddies & catching up on their blogs. I enjoyed Jill at Third Age Musings post on the Festival of Quilts &  I've seen there are more people's posts on the FoQ to go & visit. I really appreciate you all giving those of us up here a looksee ;) I was interested in her link to Stephanie Redfern's work  & was blown away by her work on her blog. I'd come across her before but obviously hadn't had much time to trawl thu all her wonderful detailed pieces - she also has a different, to me, clean simple way of working but give me messy detail any time! It reminded me of a visitor to the exhibition saying, when looking thru my workbooks on the table 'you must have a lot going on in your head'  I told her it helped to get some of it out onto paper.

 The printmaking course that I thought was returning is a 34 week Art & Design course - I want 10 week just printmaking - I can't commit to a college year at the moment. Maybe I'll buy a printmaking book or do an online w/s! A less frenetic autumn/wintertime is coming, more for my time.

Our guest just came back, 10.30pm & said the moon is out.  It's been raging all day! Standing with the dog seeing the brightness of the moon, the stars & the silver lining of the remaining clouds gives  a lovely hopeful feeling, I'd rather watch that than listen to the news.

10 comments:

maryom said...

Saw the Blue Moon here earlier. Clear and cold with a real feel of Autumn creeping in. Our best bit of Summer was a fortnight spent touring Scotland - when we only had 10 minutes of daytime rain!

Anonymous said...

Gorgeous fabric! Glad you've had a better summer than the rest of us!

Anonymous said...

Nice to take a break and not do too much. The green pillow looks good, like how the dye took. Enjoy next week...xox

Carole Reid said...

Your restful week sounds lovely, Emma. I hope you enjoy the month of September. May you get sunshine and kisses galore!

Su said...

sounds a lovely week - the cushion is lovely. BTW the midges arrived here in June, maybe they came south from you? I have never been bitten as badly as I was this year!

MulticoloredPieces said...

Hi, Emma. Gee, you didn't get much done but a bed cover and pillow (very pretty)? You wore me out just reading your last post (loved the pillow and idea for piping--very cool), so if things slow down a bit, it's ok. Beautiful photos of your corner of the world in your last post.
best, nadia

Jill said...

Glad your bed covers worked out well, even if it wasn't what you first had in mind. Hopefully there is still a bit of summer to come - the low sunlight this morning was wonderful even on my urban lawn.

Maggi said...

They did dye well didn't they? We had cloud on Friday too but the previous nights had a brilliant moon.

Robin Mac said...

I tried unsuccessfully to comment a couple of days ago - I hope you are still having what you call a restful time. Seems to me you have still been very active. I like the bed covers, even if they are not what you originally intended - that always makes life interesting doesn't it. We had a beautiful clear sky for the blue moon the other night, just magic. cheers

Linda’s Textiles said...

Your restful week sounds quite productive - anyway, well deserved after your successful exhibtion - congratulations.
We're having some nice warm spring weather here at last.