So many projects

I really don't know where to begin and as usual I am playing catch-up but I think the overlay crochet mandala is a good place to start.

I knew I wanted to put it on the wall in the dining room, behind the reading chair, so the first thing I did was to make it a bit firmer by painting the back with some PVA, avoiding the outer edge.

I had thought of hanging it just as it is but then decided to use the frame from this old mirror I bought in junk shop several years ago (see, hoarding is good!).

Mike took the mirror out and made a new backing for me as the old one was very flimsy. Then I gave it a good clean with sugar soap and poked a small bottle brush through all the holes to get rid of the accumulated grime.

 

I was going to mount it on some cream linen but that didn't look right with the frame so more rummaging revealed a small piece of heavy-weight lining fabric in this green which is almost the colour of the chair so was perfect.  There was just enough to fit the frame as you can see from my mark of the outline so I had no margin for error.

To attach it to the fabric I put some PVA on the middle section of the mandala and then sewed the outer rim of the mandala to the backing fabric to keep it in shape.

I put PVA all over the backing board and placed the fabric on top, being careful to let it go tacky first so it didn't seep through, and smoothed it down so it was nice a flat.

Then I turned it over and snipped the edges so they could be folded over the board and glued in place. Mike secured it in the frame using a few small pins.

Here it is in-situ where you can see how well the background matches the chair and that the colours in the mandala were taken from the curtains and blind.

More frames

Mike has just finished a painting for the lounge and he'd chosen this highly decorated frame as the surround. Again, it was one that had a mirror in originally so we took that out and then I set to work toning down the gold as it was too bright for where it would hang.

I used an acrylic paint (Jo Sonya's is my favourite brand as the colours last and last because they are 'Artist Quality') to tone down the background and line the inner rim.

Then it was just a case of dry-brushing the raised motifs to dirty them a bit more which gave a it a much more subdued feel. the back echoes the matt finish on the woodburner which is near where it will hang. 

I love playing around with paint effects and was very fortunate to go on several courses with the late Jocasta Innes many years ago when we lived in London. She gave me the confidence to produce some amazing paint effects in our previous home which was a very elegant Edwardian house.

Crochet bits

I've now finished all the elements of the next chairback hanging. The central motif is exactly the same as the previous one but I've changed the 2 side panels.

These are the motifs I'll be using; 2 groups of three triangles, 2 plain with 1 beaded, so now I've just got to work out how to join them together into a rectangle. Stripes are favourite at the moment as I don't want anything overly fancy as there's enough going on already in the granny triangles.

Beads and baubles

I'm doing another course on www.craftsy.com entitled Brilliant Knit Beads with Betsy Hershberg who is an excellent teacher and I'm really enjoying it. These old wooden beads were ideal as a starting point so I just unstrung them and saved all the bits.

I created a little sample piece of knitting as a gauge swatch so I could work out how many stitches I needed to cover my first bead.

Then I used the same weight yarn to cover my first bead. What fun!

I've learnt about beading needles which are really easy to use and I had to knit another swatch for my cover for my first bead with knitted beads (that sounds odd doesn't it but I don't know how else to say it!!!).

Mandala Monday

They're everywhere at the moment aren't they!

This morning I finished off the mandala I started on the train last week and I really love the colours and how it's worked out - much better than the first version I made.

I'm short of time so it's just a few photos rather than a detailed update:

Tilly felt that the cotton was far too dry and so remedied it by pouncing and slobbering all over it!

I'm helping aren't I?

Here it is, all blocked and ready to go. It's going on the wall in the dining room but I'm not sure yet whether to stiffen it and hang it just as it is or perhaps to mount it in a frame.

British Folk Art at Tate Britain

A few days ago we ventured into Londonium again for a visit to Tate Britain to see the exhibition of British Folk Art. It had great reviews and I was really excited to see it.

We had a lovely walk along Whitehall, by the River Thames, past the Houses of Parliament & Westminster Abbey then onto Millbank. It was about 1.5 miles so not too far for a gentle stroll. I snapped happily as we took in the views:

Wonderful winged horses/sea serpents standing guard

The war memorial dedicated to the work women did during World War II

Part of Westminster Abbey - I love turrets!

The Houses of Parliament with beautiful statues and stonework

We arrived at Tate Britain 20 minutes before opening time and so we wandered around the back streets.

A rather impressive Henry Moore sculpture

Along one side of the Tate building we noticed all these craters

It occurred to us that it must be bomb damage and indeed it was

We rounded a corner and came across a little garden so headed off to find some shade. I loved this adult gym equipment and had a go on it even though I was wearing a dress!

Finally it was 10am and so we headed off excitedly to view the exhibition. We weren't allowed to take photos of the exhibits but I asked permission to take this photo of the beautiful railings around the central staircase. Isn't it stunning?! The dark bit are black glass and echo the pattern on the floor.

The first item we saw when we entered was a magnificent quilt which took our breath away. Sadly I can't find any photos of it but there are a few photos of some of the other exhibits here and here.

It was a fabulous mix of unusual artefacts from a wall covered in old 'trade signs' which shopkeepers used to advertise their trade before the general spread of literacy (I loved the giant boot for a cobbler!), a room full of paintings where people and recorded events on whatever came to hand (for example, on cardboard or old bits of floorboard), many items with a nautical theme including several pieces of embroidery stitched by sailors on their long journeys away from home, quilts made of bit of felted wool by Prisoners of War (my favourite was the Crimean quilt which you can see in the links above - the pieces were only about 1" square and the colours were fabulous), enormous figureheads from ships and shipyards, the sheer scale of them took my breath away and some very strange sculptural artefacts and textiles.

Apart from the Crimean quilt my favourite thing was the cockerel you can see on the front of the brochure and in the links above. He was made of mutton bones by French prisoners in the Napoleonic wars and he was stunning.

But as soon as we'd been through the exhibition we were left wanting more. It was over far too soon and we felt it was rather overpriced (at £14 each) for the 35 minutes we took viewing it; and we stopped and studied all the pieces so we didn't rush around. Never mind, we then went on the explore the permanent exhibitions which were free and it was nice to remind ourselves what was there. 

I can still remember my first visit there back in circa 1974 as an art student. I was obsessed with the work of Bridget Riley and there was a major exhibition of her work.

We had an exciting lunch planned for afterwards and so we wended our way through the backstreets of London to our destination 2 miles away. We could have taken the tube for part of the journey but we preferred to just wander and take in the sights in the sunshine (although it did get a but too hot for us eventually and we were ready for a sit down!).

En-route I snapped away at anything that caught my eye:

A former Public Baths now used as a cafe

A different view of Westminster Abbey

The London Eye peeping over the top of the buildings

Finally we arrived at our destination, Benares restaurant in the heart of Mayfair. It is owned by the brilliant Atul Kochhar who is renowned for his fusion of Indian and British cuisine and we had been wanting to go there for ages so were very excited.

It didn't disappoint!  Here's my starter which consisted of so many elements I can't remember them all. The balls are beetroot patties decorated with edible gold and sitting on a paneer something-or-other with a peanut dressing and a tomato-based smear. It was sublime.

We loved everything about the restaurant; the service was exemplary, the food was divine, the atmosphere was perfect. All in all it was perfect.

Then there was more walking back to the station for the train home. We took the back streets when possible to avoid the crowds as it's prime tourist season. As usual my eye was drawn upwards as I love all the stonework.

This concrete panel was at the entrance to a hotel. It reminded me of crazy patchwork and samplers.

That was a most enjoyable day indeed and on the train journey home I started working on another version of my overlay crochet mandala which appeared in Simply Crochet magazine. This time I was using Rowan Cotton Glace but with similar colours to the original.

I reckon that by the end of the day we'd walked about 5.5 miles so we must have burned off at least some of the calories from our lunch!