the patchwork dress

thanksgiving

I've not posted as much as I'd intended to for the November gratitude month - but I have been thinking about it.  Seeing as it is Thanksgiving (tomorrow I think) - I also want to give thanks for...

The wonderful surroundings where I live!... On a good day (not today as the rain is horizontal and lashing winds!) it looks like this! - a walk through the fields just across from my house.  I can walk all the way to Loch Lomondside across these fields.  The view of the mountains in front that surround the loch.  In winter they are breathtaking with their snowy tops.  I also love when these fields fill with wintering geese.  You can hear them fly over in the morning and back again at night.  Walking through the field, you disturb them - they all begin honking, and then take off to circle round a few times until they find an undisturbed patch of grazing..

Moments of stillness, of doing nothing.  Just being.  As the world goes on around you, you just stop... and observe, connect with where you are now.  This happens a lot when I take photographs, it's a very connective process.

I give thanks for all the crafty connectivity I have come into in the last couple of years.  This weekend visited the Country Living Christmas Fair, which included a large percentage of individual makers - some friends, some faces from last year I could chat with.  I bought myself this Polish pottery mug and spoon, just to make ceremony out of a coffee at home.  A rare treat I only get at weekends now... for a while longer anyway!   I came away with a few pottery treats - it was so nice just to have something tactile and earthy in my hands after lots of cerebral work at computer and drawing board. The spoon has such a nice feeling to it, even though I don't take sugar, I just had to have it for ceremonial stirring!

 

moonchasing

A couple of weeks ago, I was driving home from work when I saw the most incredible full moon rising over the hills behind Balloch.  It was one of those moons that seem larger than usual, and appearing just before twilight, it had the most amazing radiance.

I'd just read on someone's blog (was it here?) about just doing one thing out of your daily routine can bring something  to your life, so decided to drive home an alternate route along the back roads, where I could pull over easily and take a photo of the moon rising over the Campsies.  Unfortunately the image doesn't really capture what I was seeing, but as I perched the camera on a fencepost a passing cyclist, who was sharing the special atmosphere of that night shouted out "You're Moonchasing!".

I was quite surprised by his observation, but also relished this term - as that was exactly what I was doing. I felt entranced by the moon, that I had to pull off my main route and focus on its emergence into our evening sky. 

This week heralds a new moon on Thursday, the clocks go forward next weekend... a time for new beginnings and light nights.  Feels as if I could do with some 'new beginnings'.  I spring cleaned and saged the house in preparation yesterday.  I've been through all my photographs and thinking of making some new cards.  What will you focus on?

Speaking of bloggy influences and connections - thank you to everyone who has left great comments in recent weeks, and for continuing to read my blog (despite the slow posting of entries!).  

A week or so ago I got a call from my cousin who is a production buyer for film & tv.  She was keen to get her hands on some soft toys, like a doll, that she could use in a commercial asap.  Having done allnighters of this sort in the past, I immediately felt stressed about taking this on, then the penny dropped - I know a wealth of bloggers and creative sites like Folksy where she may be able to get something that she wanted.  In the end I put her in touch with Ginny ("She's my blogfriend" I explained.  "I'm not even sure I know what a blogfriend is!" replied my cousin.)  

Well, a blogfriend, I've decided, is just that.  Someone who serendipitously recommends, gives a hint, supports your blog even when you don't post for days, or comes up with the goods... just in the nick of time.

birds, patterns and patchwork

I can hardly believe more than a week has gone past since my last post.  We had really heavy snow here on Monday and then again a little more midweek, and there seems to be a little patchwork of distractions and busyness which meant I totally forgot to blog!  These should probably have formed little daily blogs, rather than this unfocussed rambling report.

It has been a week of patterned gifts... last weekend I did a little shopping on folksy for some belated birthday gifts, which I'll reveal once they have reached their recipients.  I bought this space invaders scarf for myself, done by Catriona at Wildcat Designs, who turns out to be in Edinburgh.  I had been oggling it for ages and decided to take the plunge - made from merino and felted - I love it!  It came with a lovely note and a packet of retro sweet space dust!

Last time I was in Paperchase, I came home raving about the new stationary range which features multicoloured patchwork owls.  N took my hints, and when I pulled the curtains this morning, I found this owl bag hiding there - which I am going to use for work - thanks St Valentine!

You can't go wrong with a funky patchwork owl!  So cheery.

Last weekend I completed the patchwork part of this quilt top - I really had to push myself to get it done, but now that it is, I quite like the randomness and colour of it all.  Hoping to get onto quilting it soon.

Last weekend also saw me pulling out the sketchbook and tried a couple of quick sketches of birds in the garden (bluetit above/blackbird below). 

Drawing like this makes you examine the form, as they move so quickly, the sketch becomes an impression of several fragmented observations.  It will take a few more practices before getting these right!

making tracks

Waking yesterday, everything was under a thin layer of snow.  I picked up my camera and decided to go for a walk up the lane.  It was that proper stillness you get after snow, no wind or breeze, and all sound slightly deadened.

I was struck by the number of tracks in the snow, leaving a history of who had been past in the hours before.  A person with their dog, a cat had trotted under that hedgerow.

In the woods, some rabbits had crossed by earlier...

...round the base of this tree...

..and through into next door's field.  They are usually long gone before humans turn up.

Along the path a little, some birds had got together and formed one big bird print - aha! trying to put me off the trail!

Further up the hill I could see where one or two foxes had passed.  One had had a successful kill, the tell-tale drops of fresh blood (a shrew sized amount perhaps) on the snow.  

Another observation was looking across to woodland, normally a dense mass of browns and blacks - now each tree was framed against white where snow lay on the ground behind it.  The monochrome palette of patchwork and landscape makes it all very sketchable.

Up to trix

I'm sure by now you are probably fed up seeing photos from my walk - but the light was so lovely yesterday afternoon.

Autumn browns and golds with strong black shadows. A poem something like this was coming into my head..

mushrooms and leaf mould
shadows long
and autumn gold

I did this walk both days over the weekend. Today my visitor and I were accompanied by the local farm dog, called Trixie... and Tricksy she is too, with a capital T, as she decides to adopt whoever she sees walking past who might entertain her with a walk up the lane, with some stick throwing to boot.

With that determined fascination that only an elderly border collie can maintain.. she looks at the stick no matter where you are until you reach it, but the eyes don't go off.. until it's thrown. The first time she accompanied us, I assumed, being human, that I had the superior brain, and we would entertain her whim until we got to the gate and then we'd 'lose' her. However when we got to the gate and with firm voices said "NO!" (as in 'you can't go up the hill, there's livestock, and we don't own you') she just pushed her head under the fence and with a bit of a belly flop, emerged stick and all, trotting merrily up the path ahead, with us realising we had been duped!

So now we have become accustomed to her company should she feel like a walk. One day I noticed a couple coming up the lane who Trixie had adopted. I smiled at them and asked "Has she followed you?". "Not our dog!" replied the lady, in an attempt to disown the single-minded collie. Trixie had done her trick and gone under the gate again, when she realised that the couple had not intended climbing the path, and had continued up the lane.

Moments later I heard a bark, and she scampered after them, stick in mouth - as if to say "YOU are going the wrong way!"

I sometimes worry when I see other dog walkers that she might embarrass us with some inappropriate doggy behaviour, but she has always been courteous - as long as the visiting dog knows this is her hill. She probably says as she passes "look at these waif humans I have adopted", but as we near home, she trots off - our mutual duties done. Yesterday I saw her sitting under a neighbour's trampoline as the child and ball bounced ontop. Her face was delight, tongue lolling to one side, at the indentations that came and went above her head.

strange beauty

...looking in my compost pail the other day I found strange beauty in the colours and textures.

a hiatus

One of my biggest debates here recently - apart from having time to blog properly - is what to blog about. As often by the time I find a convenient space to sit down and sort through my photos (and thoughts), I often feel the time has passed to share about that, and I'm on to something new.

(handpainted frieze, visitor centre, Rowardennan)

And then there is the matter of identity. Who or what am I portraying or 'subjecting' through my blog. As Jane recently highlighted the question of authenticity is certainly one for consideration. As of course it is natural to want to share the highlights of our days - you won't want to hear about the dreary bits. At the same time, as I feel my mind wander off into this corner of the debating ring... I wonder what is this blog about? And then when I decide it can be whatever I want it to be about, I feel a little dismayed at my own when I see other tightly designed, colourful and creative blogs - that mine isn't like that. But then these are the blogs I like to read - whereas the things I like to blog about are my roamings, observations, some design things, who's been visiting the garden and what I have been creating - the creative process even.

(carved stone panel, visitor centre, Rowardennan)

And in that way I eventually come back to the Patchwork Dress - that life is made up of little things all stitched together. So now, that I have had a hiatus in my work for one week I have a garbled list of things I want to share.. Wondering if these would be better structured as individual posts, or being authentic and streaming them as they happened. All muddled together and patchworky in style.

(monument, Ben Lomond Memorial Park, Rowardennan)

So firstly, after trying to arrange this all summer, my mum came to visit for a couple of days.

(beach at Rowardennan, Loch Lomond)

We had a couple of outings to lovely places driving through the local countryside, lunching at Doyles in Balfron before going up to Rowardennan and Balmaha. But my most enduring memory of her trip will be us both sitting at the worktop infront of my kitchen window, perched on wooden stools, watching the birdlife as we ate our breakfast.

(Falls of Dochart, Killin)

Other highlights were my thoughts about crows and corvids...triggered by reading this book (another thank you to Jane!). As both lunches we had out in villages coincided with the local schools emptying onto the pavements, and for a moment challenging the ruralness of it all with spikey hair and emo attitude. Once the kids had headed back to the school, a clear up team of corvids came in - perched on lamp posts and roofs to swoop down on leftover baguettes (Balfron) or chips (Aberfeldy). My excitement in noticing this arrangement caused the chip I was eating in the window of a nearby cafe to fly out of my hand and into my drink. Not only will we not be eating there again (Suz, you will know the cafe I mean, with the grumpy cafe woman "there is not an egg on the premises" - when I enquired if they had any eggs) - but I probably wouldn't be allowed back.

(looking out to the lovely 'Homer' interiors shop, Aberfeldy - from the Watermill bookshop/café - we loved this begonnia, and how it matches the red of the sign!)

Anyway, back to the book - I was also excited to read that corvids, as well as some other birds, including tits, have a 'cache' behaviour of hiding their food. I had noticed several months ago that the coaltits in the garden were taking seed from the feeders and flying directly to the border of the garden and pushing the seed into the grass or flowerbed. This happened again recently, and I really wanted to get a better look. I was sure they weren't eating it, as they literally flew back and forth doing this, without the time it would normally take to eat the seed. So I was really pleased to read about this and that I hadn't imagined the phenomena. It got me thinking about birds and how one of their jobs (if you excuse the pun) are as major seed dispersers. That somewhere in their makeup this behaviour is related to their relationship to the seeds - by cache-ing, they are infact planting. This may not be uncommon knowledge to those in the know, but I was really pleased to have observed and learned this first hand from my (now favourite) little bird with its everton mint striped head.

In between our sojourns into the countryside I also had to squeeze in some work which was leftover from my last contract. Making up German Codebooks which had been used before and then later during the first world war. I had done some research and managed to track down a codebook from 1910 in the National Archive. For a small fee they will digitally scan and email you images. I then 'mocked' up the stickers based on the front cover which we added to some second hand books.

I also made up some individual books based on the code pages. I really enjoyed doing this, printing onto cream Conqueror paper and then binding them by hand. A technique I'd practiced a bit doing the little books in this post. So now I can see that those skills I gain in either camp of making for myself, or my job, can cross pollinate - or using the coaltit analogy - cacheing the seeds in this blog. There is something quite pleasing and fascinating about the bookmaking process, and I'm inspired by the idea of doing more pieces like this, - I'm not sure what yet.

The strangest thing however was, after telling mum that I'd maybe have to spend an evening while she was here doing these, I switched on radio 4 and there was a comedy drama being aired where the first item was all about German codebooks. We both stood there with our eyes widening. Ah, coincidence, that warm feeling that perhaps I am, after all, doing the 'right' thing.

(more time spent like this, please!)

tenements

Lunchtimes are a bit limited when it comes to Maryhill in Glasgow. There's only so many times you can visit the huge Mausoleum they call Tescos, so one day last week, as it was dry for once, I decided to go for a walk and take my camera.

It's amazing what you notice when you set out to observe. Just beside the Tescos, a man was selling fresh fish from the back of his van, a small queue of people had gathered. Ivy trailed out from beneath ornate railings. A street announced that it was named after Shakespeare, and poor Anne Hathaway titles another - it's striking tenement frontage, covered in satellite dishes looking onto a speed-bumped wasteground.

This row of tenements on Maryhill High Street fascinates me with the repetitive pattern of the flat frontages above. If you don't know Glasgow, it is famous (at times notorious!) for it's tenement buildings which are everywhere - and were a very socially inclusive system for housing people in the city's centre. I spent several months of my life intimately recreating these frontages for this show - which is Scotland's very own soap, threatening your screens nationally next year.

Occasionally, such as this row, the flats are located above a ground floor of shops. But in other developments, and especially in the West End of Glasgow where architectural budgets were higher, they were purely residential and the opportunity for lovely architectural details such as bow fronted windows, stained glass and huge storm doors which protected more etched glass doors and encaustic tiled hallways. These flats were just a short walk away through the back streets, and you can see the level of detailing for a different 'class' of residents.

Further round the corner, the frontages had become plainer,

decorated with these bands of carved stonework - notably the Greek 'key' pattern above. One architect who is almost as well known here, but not as internationally popular as Charles Rennie MacIntosh, is Alexander 'Greek' Thomson - and I wondered if these references were inspired by his architectural style. The bay windows are a feature of most tenements, allowing in more light, but also the opportunity to look out into the street and see what's going on.

This pink door was cheering, and I like the little attention to detail at the top of the pillasters on either side - maybe egyptian (or tuscan) influences? One thing I notice about walking is the time to look up and around, away from concentrating on the road or driving. Another row of tenements I noticed recently were on the return walk, via the North Star café for a cappucino.

Again, I love the structure, and the way these buildings 'climb' the hill on a curve. They remind me very much of the work of Avril Paton, her images of the tenement buildings are like scenes from a film - each window displaying a character or scene. They are also beautifully painted - you get the impression it's been a well loved view.

up on the roof...

I could hear them, but I just couldn't see them.

I sat for some time, with my camera pointing up at the sky. The swallows were swooping low overhead, but just kept evading my shot. Then I turned round...

and there were a family of sparrows all laughing at me from the ridge!

- thank you also for the comments left on the last few posts - much appreciated!

cradle to cradle

Hiya!

Having read Suzanne's blog (who has also just celebrated a birthday - Happy Birthday, Suzanne!) recently, I realised I missed a significant anniversary of starting my blog - wheesh, that went by quick. So Happy Birthday Patchworkdress and Happy Birthday Fieldy! We then had our birthday last weekend (N and I share the same day!) - and I was significantly lazy at taking any photos of the now departed chocolate cake, the lovely flowers from my work, or my birthday treat of Nigella Lawson cake dome which is something I have looked for a while, and in the meantime she designed just what I was looking for! I look forward to baking something and having friends round to view and partake the goods on offer!

As a birthday treat we went to see Wall-e at the cinema this weekend. The trailer doesn't do it justice, and also luckily doesn't give it all away. The film is far more intelligent, charming and delightful than even this short excerpt can show. If you are at all concerned by the subject of our throwaway society you may find parts of this movie very moving!

As a follow on from this previous post, and themes of consumption addressed in Wall-e - I was amazed to come home one day to find these guys munching in the garden. Initially we excitedly thought they may be caterpillars which would perhaps promise a host of butterflies later on... but with a bit of research we discovered they were in fact sawfly, as mentioned by Vanessa and others in the comments of that post.

If you are at all squeamish look away now!

but this was the state of the 'golden seal' a few days later - you can see they have totally stripped the leaves and were working their way back down the plant!

This got me marvelling at nature, and its ingenuity - that there is an insect who will search out this plant, and at the end of the plants growing cycle, will devour all that it can - there is a resourceful relationship between these specific plants and insects - what William Mcdonough would describe as cradle to cradle.

This is a way of thinking that we will have to take on, unless we want to see a world stripped and depleted of resources and full of our castaway junk. But this has to start with our consciousness of our own needs and desire. It was quite a surreal experience to go shopping after watching Wall-e. There really are so many items which are produced purely for a moment of gratification, which will lie around afterwards until eventually discarded. I am trying to be more aware of what I buy, how long I can see it lasting, do I need it and what is it made from. The high street stores seem to turn me off for impulse buying as I can't bring myself to buy clothes which may just be a whim and whose source is dubious (even if the workers are treated fairly, is the local environment where they live?). I loved the message of Wall-e where people eventually woke to see the beauty around them and the value and reuse of unseen things.