It's been a sad week.

We had to have one of our cats, Tallisker (Tally for short) put to sleep on Friday, a heartwrenching thing to have to do. She'd stopped eating properly 2 or so weeks ago, then hardly at all a week ago & we took a thin little thing to the vet. She got vitaments & steroid injections but within 5 days she was barely taking water off a teaspoon, couldn't support herself & then became incontinent. It wasn't a difficult decision with all that happening.

She'd been braindamaged from when the cat rescue place found her & a few others stuffed in a bag shoved under a bush & water had got in. I don't think the place knew she was damaged, but when you needed to put her food under her nose for a good few minutes & then she suddenly delightedly found it you knew. She also had a similar thing to an 'intention tremor', as in knowing what she wanted to do but couldn't, rocking back & forth trying, as in getting thru a catflap. Got there eventually, similar to Parkinson's, apparently.

She had the sweetest face, always with a bit of food stuck on the end of her nose, as she didn't constantly lick herself as a normal cat would. Nor did she wind herself round your legs - you had to go & get her to give her a scratch & when you did she practically stood on her head getting into the itch! The moment you went into the room she would purr & she died puring, a tiny little sound by then, but still there. I managed to control myself while waiting - the vet & reception were just great - but the appointment before us was a kitten having jabs, I guess & when she was brought out it really got me. So I thought it would be an apt photo to show of her as a kitten in the arms of my little ones, 16 years ago.

She's the tortoiseshell on the left, this is from one of the photo albums we did in those days. I didn't mean to burble on so much, I know you'll understand how distracting it's been so I haven't done much in the studio. I can't imagine how people cope with their loved humans being ill. What brave people we are. Strangely I thought it would be the black one going first as she got thinner recently, 16 is a good age tho. Sorry to be so sad here, I'll be fine.

So I will have today to catch up on things & start a new piece & these are the flowers to inspire me.

Astrantia

Rambling Rector going over

Yarrow

To cheer us up here's a pic of the sweet card our youngest sent from Mongolia.

The cut out square is only about 2" x 1", you have to hope tweesers were used but I imagine it's more like tiny nimble fingers made this, I hope they enjoyed it. The other good news is the photos that were lost are now found - there are hundreds of pics of kids sleeping on busses & blurred passing on the bus shots but he's going to make a file for showing the grandparents/aunts/uncles so I'll try & grab some of those. This  card shows exactly the gers they were staying in.

I did manage to make myself go to the talk given by Diedre Nelson textile artist on Thursday night - if I live in this stunning place then I must be prepared to travel for 45 mins up the Island to Portree where most events happen - & was gratified when she recognised me from a workshop I'd done with her making wired flowers about 3 yrs ago in Plockton (where I'm having my exhibition in 6 weeks!) We're to make knitted or textile herrings ! & this knitted shoal will greet a small ship that's arriving in Portree in September as its the year of Islands apparently. This ship is totally covered in mirror tiles, called Celeste & is in honor of the pirate radio Caroline.......I remember listening, I'm sure. Anyway, it's all rather involved so the bit I'm concentrating on is that the fish will be auctioned/sold in aid of RNLI, which is good & it/they will be along the lines of my 'white' hanging with added silver bling...Diedre is part of an exhibition at the Dovecote gallery in Edinbro - I may have to ask my dil to be to go take pics! If you go to her blog & go to pages & then fish exchnge  you'll see what a busy woman she is.

Now I'm off to cheer myself up even more by visiting a few blogs before I get busy myself ;)

The best laid plans

Well, I was all set to post early today & have almost a whole day of catching up with all the things I should have done before like finishing off pieces & actually getting them framed & on to the wall. Oh & a bit of weeding... So I got tangled up in stitching on the beads & the hanging cords - well, you wanted a twiggier twig didn't you?!!! ;) Then a phone call, then could you believe too much sunlight outside, too breezy to set the things down in the shade & so I settled on the studio floor but could I see the shadow that the camera picked up? No. I fiddled with brightness & contrast & just made it worse so here they are as all I can manage.

Sample

I decided to do a creamy gold hanging & was amazed by all the white flowers I have & the weeds in the fields around. I took 8 in all I think but that would be another half day gone if I showed you them all - one day ;) So I chose the Shasta daisy, right on the edge of my garden or it would take over

 the common daisy, a blown out pic, sorry, to much sun, see?

& meadowsweet down just above the shore

For the sample & hanging I laid down some undyed wool tops & strips of all my white cream & gold bits  pieces. No blending visible with white wool on white fabric but it feels nice & soft. For the large daisy I suggested the white with squares & strips of a shinyish cotton (?) for the tiny daisys, squares of silk only just needled down which ruched them up nicely & builders scrim for the meadowsweet.

When it came to the metalic gold petal stitching I got into technical difficulties, bending the needle by fme stitching thru my index finger, quite a shock but managed to keep the blood from 2 holes off the pale fabric! I then broke 2 needles, thats 3 in less than half an hour! but they turned out to be 70 (70 whats I don't know!) & found a 90 by scrabbling about thru every basket & box. 70 obviously couldn't cope with the intense amount of stitches in the middle of the flowers. Enjoyed meandering over the piece with hand stitching - it felt like plain sailing after the needle incident...til the beads.

While I was in the white mode I stuck together a couple of cuffs - I recently sold a creamy one, a few colored ones , oh & a couple of the 'After Ruth Rae' collages I did earlier this year so as the white stuff is still out I'll make a couple more for the show...time is passing!

The youngest got back from Mongolia safely having had a fabulous time, loved trekking on the horses, didn't like loosing his pics by formatting by mistake - his leader might have a program that will retrieve them...nor was digging a toilet for the orphanage, part of the project, 2m deep by 1 1/2 wide his favorite thing! preferred teaching English & playing with the kids. Took a pic for me every time he saw felt & lined up the felt hostel slippers to show me, very touching, hope the pics aren't lost. He also brought back a prayer flag so I've tied it in the wind & said 'health & happiness' all over it, so here's hoping!

There's an interesting video on felt & a Mongolian 'fantasy yurt' on Quitlers Cottage Norfolks blog, (on my roll). I'm interested in making a prayer flag or 2 but not a ger (Mongolian for yurt) ;)

 

Right, 7 hrs left til bedtime - I will not be distracted! (she says hopefully)