91Čȱ¬

In my February 2006 journal quilt I used the same image as for but this time I wanted to create it with real layers, I had been given some Lutradur and wanted to use it, it is a semi transparent polyester, I mono printed a piece 12ā€ x 10ā€ the finished journal quilt has to be 11ā€ x 8.5ā€ I then cut a piece of net 12ā€ x 4ā€ layered this with Lutradur and a small piece of white cotton fabric and then printed the image in reverse onto a transparency sheet and ā€˜transferredā€™ it using matt medium to the layered Lutradur, I wanted to keep the long look so stitched vertical lines then blanket stitched the edge with ribbon yarn, it was the first time I had used Lutradur and I was not impressed, it keeps colour well but I like texture.



Interesting the Jura Koncius article about donated quilts, the quilt list I am on is in the USA and most of the quilters are in the USA or USA citizens overseas, many are participating in a project to make for wounded soldiers and they will be delivered to the Walter Reed hospital on Valentines day, the back of a textile postcard is the same as a paper postcard unless the artist decorates it, some people use stiff card for the backs but most keep the postcard textile and use a plain light coloured fabric for the back which is how I do mine.

Itā€™s cold, just the weather for curling up by the fire doing some hand stitching and beading,


Grandmother's Fan block


Crazy Patch block

a rainbow on Harris, I went from ness to leverburg and back again Tuesday, as the ness bus went over Barvas moor and I saw the snow I wondered if I had chosen the right day, the day was calm, the sun came out, it was a beautiful day to visit harris and I was pleased I had my camera with me, except for the leverburgh photos they were taken on a moving bus through a dirty window,


cloud over the clisham,


sun, sea and sand on the west side of south harris,


leverburg,


leverburg,


the rainbow, as the road was about to take the bus in another direction this was taken in a hurry and shows the dirty window,


the north harris hills from south harris,

Wednesday was the February meeting of the Lewis Quilt group, lots going on as members discuss projects for the coming months, sounds as if it is going to be a busy year.

Thursday evening I attended my first ever meeting of ā€“ Women Networking in Lewis and Harris, a friend invited me to go with her and I am so pleased she did as I enjoyed it very much.
It was an evening of complementary therapies, Reiki, Indian head massage, Shiatsu and Reflexology, 4 practitioners of these therapies gave a short opening talk about the methods then offered ā€˜tasterā€™ sessions, I had an Indian head massage which was both stimulating and relaxing, I donā€™t know if it was the massage or just coincidence but I slept much later than usual this morning.

Woman 3, I went to a silk paper making workshop at the Blue Pig studio run by which I loved and so decided to make a piece of silk paper for my March journal, I have a lot of lace and love incorporating it into hand made paper so thought it would work equally well with the silk paper and was pleased with the results.
I was originally only going to use the Woman sketch on just the first two journals but when I was creating the March journal I started to think about Women and how much Lace has been apart of a Womanā€™s life this was how I came to embellish with Lace Bobbins.
Silk paper inlaid with antique lace, inkjet print on silk organza overlaid as centre panel, machine quilted and embellished with wood lace bobbins, I really enjoyed making this little quilt and it was one of the five I chose to send to Houston for the Quilt Festival last November.

There were two items on that said BT are going to start charging people who pay their bill with cash or cheques, so BT are going to charge senior citizens like my 88 year old mother because they do not have bank accounts and would have problems learning how to use a bank account, the amount of this charge is I think to be ƂĀ£4.00 a quarter, this totally disgusts me.

I started to pay my BT bill by direct debit over a decade ago but after BT took too much money from my account I stopped the direct debit, not only was there the hustle of having to reclaim MY money but I had to PROVE BT had taken too much surely BT should have had to prove they had not! eventually BT agreed they had over charged and credited the money back BUT NOT to my bank account BT credited my BT phone account to be taken off the NEXT quarters bill, so BT had MY money in THEIR bank account and paid NO interest to me.

With all the current discussions in the media about bank fraud, internet fraud and identity theft surely FORCING people to pay by direct debit will increase this as direct debit is GIVING someone else PERMISSION to help themselves to the money in YOUR bank account, yes, yes I know there is the direct debit guarantee but as I said above the bank and BT implied I was in the wrong and I had to prove BT was, surely MY bank should believe ME.

Do you get the impression I am not a happy bunny, if anyone in the western isles has a phone line with one of BTā€™s competitors and is satisfied with the service will you please leave the name of the service in the comments section or e mail privately via my website, thanks in advance.

Woman 4, in April the Lewis quilt group had a workshop with on gilding fabric and thinking about my April Journal I thought of the Woman in the Gilded Cage, very often women have fathers, husband that appear to give them all they want but do they? women very often do not have the freedom men have, Chekhovā€™s The Dolls House comes to mind, painted silk, transfer printed, hand stitched and gilded applied panel, background painted with metallic fabric paints and machine quilted with metal threads, bordered with metallic fabric, key embellishment.

91Čȱ¬ radio 4ā€™s book of the week this week is by Sandy Tolan, it is about 2 people who lived in the same house at different times, the house is in Palestine but since 1948 some people call the land Israel.
As a child in 1950ā€™s Britain I was told that Israel was a country for Jewish people and that Arab people hated Jewish people, my brotherā€™s first wife is Jewish and she told us Arabs were bad people who murdered children (yes she did and as she had been to Israel we thought well she must know).
In the 1980ā€™s I started to hear that Palestinian people were evicted from their homes and the property was given to Jewish families, so I decided to do a bit of research and could hardly believe what I found out about the creation of Israel, I HAD BEEN LIED TO by adults when I was a child, by my sister-in-law and people were still LIEING.
In the 1990ā€™s when I worked as a Maternity Nanny I worked with lots of Jewish families and learnt for the first time that many are anti Israel, anti Zionism and were ashamed and embarrassed at what was being done in their name.
I feel helpless, I have thought about creating Art that is not just pretty or nice but makes a statement and last year when I was working on my journal quilts it happened, I thought about showing one of these journals with this post but decided against it, I will show my journals in sequence and sadly this subject does not look like it is going to cease to exist any time soon.
The Lemon Tree is a view from both sides, thank you radio 4.

I donā€™t understand that if the majority of the residence in the Ness area do not want the wind Factory (letā€™s say it as it is, the use of the word ā€˜farmā€™ is completely misleading and no doubt used to make it sound ā€˜greenā€™ when really it is ā€˜brownā€™) anyway I digressed (reading tws too much) anyway if the Ness community does not want the wind factory and the Galson estate is owned by the Ness community then why donā€™t they just not lease the land, I know it sounds way too simple to be true or possible, but why?

I walked up to the post office at Cross this morning and it was so nice I took the cameraā€¦.


Cross from North Dellā€¦


Cross from North Dell using the zoom,


North Dell from Crossā€¦


North Dell from Cross using the zoom,


North Dell looking towards the Atlantic,


South Dell from North Dell,

the mystique of Ness, The mystical Land Beyond The Fank


Cross from North Dellā€¦


Cross from North Dell using the zoom,


North Dell from Crossā€¦


North Dell from Cross using the zoom,


North Dell looking towards the Atlantic,


South Dell from North Dell,

it's island threads first blog birthday tomorrow Saturday 24th February......not that I have been blogging all year, first I deserted auntie beeb for blogger island threads, then I stop blogging altogether, but I have now deserted blogger for auntie beeb, happy birthday island threads,

Saturday afternoon was the monthly meeting of the Lewis Art club when we sketched or painted natural forms, shells, flowers, veggies and things, I started a sketch of a cyclamen not finished enough for a photo.

Wednesday we went to in Geocrab, Harris and had a wonderful day, an early start from Ness for me meeting up in Stornoway for my lift to Harris, not the weather for photos, rain, rain, wind, wind, you get the idea, so when we arrived the homemade shortbread and a hot drink was very welcome, then Andrew talked about his Art and followed with a demonstration of his method of working, I found it all interesting as I knew nothing about oil painting, Andrews paintings are stunning island land and seascapes, well worth a visit for the Art alone butā€¦ā€¦

There is a treat in store, Emma makes fantastic food, for lunch we had a very tasty soup and bread all homemade followed by homemade scones with raspberry jam and fresh cream, deliciousā€¦..

Now we had to get down to work!! afteral that was why we came to do some oil painting, I didnā€™t create a master piece but did enjoy trying it out, I think textiles is still my medium, a great day out, highly recommended, so if you want a day on Harris please go and see Andrewā€™s paintings and taste Emmaā€™s delicious food.