Exhibitions, photos and the rain.

On Saturday I went to Pinfold's Tenth Anniversary Exhibition. Sorry, I couldn't take any photos in the exhibition itself. It was really good with a wide variety of techniques - both embroidery and quilt-based. They are a very talented group, based in the South Cheshire area.

One of the members had put together wonderful inspiration bags - pieces of indigo dyed fabrics with thread , beads and ribbon. I just couldn't resist.

 Then today I went out to take some photos in the village. My friend Hilary and I have challenged each other to take photos on a specific day every month. I'm not sure what we will do with the photos, mine are of a certain field and I take my pictures on the 23rd of each month. We started in January. The following photos are ones I took today. They sky was amazing - really black clouds and full of rain.

This first photo was taken from my back door and shows the top of my garden gate and a neighbour's house. I just loved the colour of the new leaves on the tree against the deep grey of the sky.

The trees around the cenotaph are just coming in to full leaf.

The blossom is so pretty.

 I don't know what type of tree this is. The leaves were such a delicate shade of green. The sky was growing darker all the time.

Turning back to the house, the heavens opened. It was well worth getting wet.

Journal Quilts and sewing.

It has been rather a busy few days here. First, I managed to complete my April Journal Quilt. This shows maps of the village and it's location, close to the River Weaver. The cherry tree and blossom were taken from photos of trees I took very close to my own home in the village. The lamp post is one standing just beside a neighbour's gate. It is almost surrounded by his trees. The light looks wonderful at night, peeping from above the leaves.

The techniques used are - photos printed on Inkjet Printing cotton sheets by Jacquard; applique and free machine embroidery.

I also completed the May page. This one is called "Play Week". Moulton Drama Group celebrated their thirtieth anniversary with the reworking of a play by Robert Meadows. A local playwright, Robert lives, literally, just around the corner. The play is called "The Dawn of the Crows" and relates stories about the village in times past. Amongst the stories is that of the founding of "The Crows", a group which performs at the Crow Fair each year.

I was commissioned to make a second copy of my May Journal Quilt. This was mounted, as you can see. It was presented last night, after the performance had ended, to Robert Meadows as a present from "The Crows".

The techniques used were: painted fabric; applique and free machine embroidery. As always, two buttons were added to the Journal Quilt. These were omitted on Robert's copy.

Oh yes, I must not forget to credit Pat Bennett who took the original photograph I used to create the fabric "Crows". He was very kind in giving his permission for me to use the photograph in this quilt.

I also managed to start my blue blouse this week - I just got to the stage of basting the body together and checking the fit. Amazingly, the blouse fits first time. Such a wonderful surprise.

Flying and a cake-eating cat.

Yes, you heard me right, this week has really been rather crazy.

I had better start with the cake first. This was a bit of a disaster, edible and quite nice, but not good. I tried a recipe from a new book I had been given some months ago. Queen cakes - an old fashioned style of cake I had made many times from a recipe in my old recipe book. (I think the Americans might call these cup cakes, they are basically a small sponge cake made with sultanas, rather than the type covered with sweet icing.) The resulting cakes were good to eat, but rather greasy for my taste. Next time I shall halve the amount of fat used. They really were far too oily.

Well, I left these on my wire rack to cool. There is not usually any danger to cakes left like this. However, when my husband returned he found the unmistakeable signs that the cakes had been lovingly licked by a cat. Felix!

The cakes that had been definitely touched were thrown out for the birds. Well, I should say here that the birds never got to touch these. Felix found them on the lawn and we were treated to the sight of our idiotic cat licking and nibbling the bits. Madness. Needless to say I threw out the remaining cakes since we could not be certain which had been touched and which hadn't............

This morning, by comparison was surreal.

We were out of the house by 5.15 am. Yes, you did read that correctly. We had been given a present months ago - a ride for both my husband and myself in a hot air balloon.

Take off was gentle. We slipped away and up into the air. The burners are switched on every so often to keep a certain height above the ground.

When these are not on, it is so quiet, you can even hear the sound of the ducks on the water.

Its astonishing to think that the basket is only held up by hot air. It is a basket too. Hefty and strong enough to carry the weight of twelve passengers. Can you see the sky through the sides?

I took around ninety photos. I know I shall use these as inspiration over the next few months. I loved the patterns of the hedges, the colours of the fields, those long shadows, the textures, colours...................

The landing was an interesting experience. A couple of bumps and we were down. The basket toppled onto it's side and we were dragged for a few yards.

It was a wonderful experience and one I would urge you to try if you ever get the chance. We had an hour long flight, starting at an interesting place called Dearnford Lake, near to Whitchurch. We travelled for 16 miles due east, landing in a field not far a place called Madeley.

As I started writing this, Felix came to join me. I quote

"ow-oweraw-ohaw-owaw-owow-mmhr-mehrow"

He likes to have the last word, my opinionated cat.