To quilt it, she sewed round the motif on the backing.
Emily's silk quilt has a velvet border and will be a wedding present.
To help strengthen the joins, she used threads from the fabrics to make these stars, which look gorgeous on the back. The back is black with a central strip of turquoise.
The group project is a Dear Jane quilt, using 4 1/2" blocks.
The South Bank was transformed into a huge street market
with gorgeous food, like this Caribbean stall with fresh fruit salad and coconuts and bbq corn and chicken -- 
Plenty of street theatre - the Bash Street Kids
and Strangelings, who did amazing things with a bicycle, 
an endless supply of bananas,
and a straightjacket -- always wearing those long-toed shoes --
Elsewhere, a sandcastle competition at the riverside
and giant soap bubbles, which every kid and many tall dads wanted to touch
a textile made out of liquour bottle tops by El Anatsui - not exactly a cosy quilt, but a stunning work. We went on to the Percival David Foundation on Gordon Square -- three floors of chinese ceramics, including this ink pot with blossoms on the waves.
Then a spot of lunch and a quick visit to the British Library - but no time to visit any charity shops ... they don't exactly abound in Bloomsbury.
It was pelting down last night, amid thunder and lightning.
Hard to capture in a photo the magic sparkly effect of huge drops on the window.
And useful step-stool from Ikea. I'm SO enjoying the luxurious underfoot feel -- and the "positive emptiness" of the hall, landings, and stairs.
You'll have to go to the site to see a larger image and details (the back is a complete contrast!).
Wandering along Marylebone High Street, I went into the Cath Kidston shop. A feast for the eye, a kind of retro dream of the sunnier days of Victoriana. And everything was so busy being pretty and desirable that nothing could be bothered to shout that it just had to come home with me.
My usual starting point is stripes. By lunchtime, my favourite thing was this collage on the drop cloth, made with a partly spent screen and prints of the peeled-off paper strips --
After lunch we tried using cut shapes. Sandy went gung-ho with the overlaps to develop shapes-within-shapes:
I started this with the yellow square-within-a-square, then changed colour often and worked outward, adding corner squares one by one, then subtracting them again to end up with the turquoise square at the bottom.
This series of "clearing the screen" prints along the side has potential:
The photos were taken while the ink was wet. The colours fade with drying, and might fade a bit more after rinsing and washing. When you use the dyes, it's important to "batch" -- let the damp fabric sit under plastic for a minimum of 4 hours.
Ruth's theme was water - underwater for the dyed, manipulated and embroidered textiles, and reflections for the photographs.
I bought this one and will go pick it up on 28 September when the exhibition (which is at the Barbican Library) ends:
Outside, the sky continued the watery theme by sending down just a few splashy drops.
More apples from Tony's tree, and pears from the tree next door.
The result: chutneys and jam. The picture, by the way, came from a car boot sale and cost 50p -- we thought it was just a print but on closer examination it turns out to be an original painting.
Home decorating continues, and the hall and stair carpet gets done next week. Meanwhile the front steps have been spruced up and look ... um ... imposing. Thomas chipped about a century of paint off the handrail, and I enjoyed repainting it.
Thurberesque, isn't it? But it's from a fairly recent New Yorker. No-one seems to read Thurber these days, but the New Yorker is keeping his spirit alive.
These photos were taken in 1982; the paintings were done in 1914:
Klee translated windows similar to these into his painting "Curtain":
In Crouch End's tempting shops ---
Over the hill towards Finsbury Park, the trendiness of Crouch End is seeping insidiously along Stroud Green Road (though it's an uphill battle) - we have the odd trendy shop too
and even the charity shop is getting its displays together
which, with selective trimming and the addition of vinegar, sugar and other things - mustard powder, onions, sultanas and red peppers, for example
end up as yummy chutney
