Spools

Reading Valentina's tale of her cruise holiday reminded me of the mini cruise that my husband and I took last year. Daughter no.1 is a travel agent and is always asking us if we would like to book a holiday!!! It would be cheaper to just give her some commission and not go on the holidays. Well, we decided to go on a mini cruise for 5 days to Cork,Ireland. Not one of our better ideas. It was the largest ship by Royal Caribbean at the time. Large ship - lots of people - big noise!! As we were checking in I didn't want to go. It was the height of the flu epidemic and I caught a horrible cold on board and didn't want to get out of bed, the weather was wet and dreary. The ship itsself was fantastic and the company at the dinner table in the evening a real pleasure. There is lots to do if you are so minded or you can just relax if you wish.



The highlight for me was finding this work of art on deck 10. I had to look twice because I couldn't believe my eyes and I so wished that I had thought of this idea. I apologise once again for the photo's but you will understand that These are taken from the brochure which I stole from our cabin!! Guess who didn't take her camera away on holiday?



This was by Devorah Sperber and inspired by the still life surreal paintings by Magritte. It consists of a staggering 20,800 spools of thread suspended on 148 1/8" stainless steel cables. The cables were staggered behind each other. Ladies (and Gents) you would be amazed at all the different shades in this piece of art work. It was fantastic. I cannot give you a guide to the size of this except to say that it was HUGE and hanging in the stairwell. As I sat with my sewing in the library (nice quiet place), thinking that I didn't have the right shade of green for my applique....... wondering....... knowing where the right shade would be....... Lucky there was a big gap between us.



This is one of my favourite books at the minute. It is sheer pleasure to pick this up and just ogle unashamedly. It is Japanese and no, I cannot read it but the pictures and diagrams are excellent. So much inspiration. This one has lots of quilting ideas too.



My eyes were drawn to this pretty little bag and so ages ago I cut out all the freezer paper shapes and the other day got round to cutting out all the fabric in soft greens. Like the clamshells it is not an easy shape to stitch down. If you didn't get those shapes in exactly the right spot then off they went at a tangent. I solved the problem by using Roxanne's glue baste and stuck them in place. It has worked a treat. Now all I have to do is sew them down. I realised mind you that I have mirror imaged the piece of sewing compared to the diagram. I don't expect it will spoil the bag. I shall make the flowers in pinks. What else!!! I am a big convert to the use of glue, not that I will use it for every occasion, but on this one it worked a treat and saved a lot of frustration.





Progress on the hexagons is coming along nicely.


I am not tacking the fabric over the papers but making the tacking stitches on the back and backstitching the corners. It holds in place really well and the papers just flip out when you are ready. I love doing hexagons this way. I find it really relaxing. I am easy to please too.



Hopefully the next time you see this it will have all its background filled in. Haven't decided on the borders yet, but it may have a little bit of red in it.

Klosjes this week 3, total 118.

Happy stitching.

Love Shirley.xx