Focusing on moons

After a couple of computer-free days, strips of moons are emerging - an alchemy of dyed domette, polyester sheers, and a rainbow range of threads.

More moons

Freshly dyed domette (curtain interlining) and velvet, backgrounds for more "phases of the moon". Next phase, overlayer the separate bits with various sheers. The lurid colours will disappear (somewhat).The moons come from magazines. I work from the back to the front (more magical).
Look what happens as you turn the pages.

Temptation

Sometimes you suddenly want to buy something life-enhancing. And suddenly there are some handbags around that look not too ostentaciously overdone.But which one... red is almost irresistible
and black is so practical
orange so unexpected
and grey could be useful too... no, not the grey, even though it's one of this season's colours.

And I have so many bags! I'm especially fond of these, made from a pattern that Gabrielle posted to the UKSewing list. So, no leather bag at the moment -- resisting the temptation liberates £100, for ... shoes? fabric? books?

In Russell Square

It's all happening in Russell Square. Not just the lunchtime loungers, but horses (mounted police)and in the far corner, people flying
on "Europe's only portable skydiving simulator" (very noisy!).

Sure as eggs is eggs

Suddenly we in the UK have a choice in the colour of our eggshells. All eggs used to be brown -- a shock when I first arrived -- in Canada most eggs were white. But now you can get eggs from named breeds -- the greenish ones on the left are from Old Cotswold Legbars, the multi-sized brown ones also from the Clarence Court range (note the green stamp of authenticity and the red date stamp). If you're prepared to shell out, a remarkable range of eggs is available now (said an article in the Independent). Do they taste different, better?

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness

During the heady days of Indian Summer, Kew Gardens had various autumnal events. A display of about 150 varieties of apples, arranged from A to Z -a 20-foot high Pumpkin Person -
variety upon variety of pumpkin, squash, and gourd in the water lily house -
and 5,218,000 cranberries floating on the lake -

Stay of execution

The UFO blogged here in July finally got as far as the wastebin -- but as I was emptying the bin, a needle stabbed me, and it turned out the needle had been left in this piece. So I saved it, but resolved to do something with it immediately. I slapped on some emulsion paint (leftover magnolia) - and a little more handstitch, just to check that it's not too difficult to stitch through the paint - then stopped stitching upon realising that I don't know where it's actually going... perhaps it needs cutting up and recombining - or it might go back to the bin, without needles this time. We'll see.

Thorns & roses

Here are the thorns -- but where are the roses?
The strips were left over from cutting out the leaves for this small quilt (detail shown here), which uses the rose hips made earlier.Both quilts are A3 sized (about 11"x16"). That size is so quick to make!

On yer bike

You'd almost think you were in China --but all these bikes belong to students at SOAS (part of the University of London), being sensible about getting around this city. It's quicker to cycle than to take a bus, usually, even with the increase in bus lanes -- there's also been an upsurge in cycle routes.

Judging a book by its cover?

Love those 1920s-30s covers -- but I didn't splash out £6 on the book. No room on the shelves!

In town

In these last days of Indian Summer you have to take every opportunity to get out - so we stopped in Highgate, parking near these 18th century houses (now a posh girls' school) -
and across the road is Lauderdale House, said to have been the home of Nell Gwynn, one of the first English actresses and the mistress of King Charles II. Now it has exhibitions, concerts, and a thriving cafe out back -
Beyond the house, Waterlow Park goes downhill to ponds
Keep walking and you'll find Highgate Cemetery, where Karl Marx and many of the great and good, and the interesting, lie buried.

Another thing we did this weekend was to see the Twilight exhibition of modern photography at the V&A. Each of the 8 photographers had a separate "room", lit atmospherically, and the corridor had draperies and purplish lighting to evoke the mood of twilight. Tony pointed out the subtle shadows cast onto the draperies by the picture frames --

My favourites - the panoramic forests by Chrystel Lebas, evoking scary fairy tales.

Out of town

Southwards, over the South Downs, to the charming town of Lewes
with its hodgepodge of architecture
to the opening of an exhibition of paintings by Jean Davey Winter. These two landscapes were perfectly placed in the stairwellOn the way home, old houses in Ditchlingand the lovely Sussex landscape in the fading light

Aftermath of K&S show

End of the day; a lovely sky and view from Alexandra Palace, south to the city -
Not too many purchases - oops, forgot to photograph the 10 spools of thread and the Nancy Crow book! The felted wrist warmer, with bobbles, was irresistible.
Tony got the job of organising some of my thread in the new box -The reds had to stay in the old box - no room for them all -

Temptations

At the Knitting & Stitching Show: buttons -Beads -
bits of dyed, felted blanket -
and these gorgeous bags woven with various recycled materials (paper, plastic) from Massey & Rogers

Whole lot of knitting going on

A knitted Ferrari in the entrance -Knit your own beach (or even, knit yourself a boyfriend, why not) -
Hands on -
Or take home -

Origin

Successor to the Chelsea Craft Fair, Origin was held in a temporary pavilion in the courtyard of Somerset House. It was a day of intermittent monsoons.

No photos inside, but lots of gorgeous stuff to look at. Quite a lot of scarves.Zoe Miller showed interesting structural knitted containers -
the acrylic jewellery by Nuala Jamison was tempting --and Carole Waller had a deconstructed jacket with strips of her painted fabric, which I took home -

While waiting

Yesterday provided several chances to have a good look around, while waiting. First, while standing outside my door, waiting for the torrential rain to let upThe stairs fit right in to my ideas for the Quilters Guild Staircase House challenge --Later (much later) I waited (and waited) at Ladbroke Grove stationThis is an open station and obviously gets its share of pigeons - netting and spikes everywhere, and photogenic shadows