Wordless Wednesday

Blue Dot, No 2 & Cive

The second blue circle card finished - they've yet to find a home, perhaps I'll just wait till they are all done!

Nothing much happening, a massive power cut. Again.

Though I did get time to make the first batch of Cive of the year. This needs green tomatoes, which I pester one of the local growers to sell me - it's addictive. I made a double batch and ate it with a thick slice of 'beyaz peynir' - feta, but less creamy somehow. mmmm.

Incoming mail

Finished the ABC cards, well finished the first 4, the others (16) will go out in a 'Landscape' trade and then to the next Art2Mail group - I used Anything But Cotton - colour catchers, linen thread for the seed stitch and french knots, Polyester thread and wool yarn for the edges. They went off in the mail today. I had a pilgrimage to the PTT this lunchtime, en-route to serious grocery shopping. In our nearest 'town' there is a 'hole in the wall' stationary/art supplies store, the guy speaks excellent English, when my Turkish fails me, I do try - but he has 'everything' - really, except Black Setacolour paint..... It's one of those shops where you can not imagine any order - I would love to blog it, it's usually jam-packed with people, though next time I'll take my camera. That shop has elastic walls.

Waiting for me when I got home were these 2 cards, from Angela the cat - instantly claimed by T1, later prised from her mits.

Beth P - Autumn - Artsnthemail - these leaves I figure were 'rescued' from some artificial arrangement, then FME'd onto the ground, I do like this technique.

Cat Cards

The cards some how still look shiny - but they are going on their way tomorrow.

Old cards

A day of children squabbling, rain showers and a trip to the local mall for lunch. I managed some stitching on the ABC cards, but nothing finished to show, so.....

Here are some I did earlier - more than 2 years ago, the theme was leaves. It is all fused in the Melody Johnson method (she can do no wrong IMHO) - basically you fuse miles of wonder-under to miles of fabric, remove the backing then cut directly from the fabric. I like the method a lot, though don't use it too much. All that fusing makes me a bit nutso (OK, a bit more than normal!)
The leaves etc are fused to felt, I wanted a really solid black ground, then some FME and more wonder-under on the back. With a wavy rotary blade cut and then fused onto card - I love the way they look like postage stamps. I fiddled with the composition so that the cards would fit the leaves theme.
Making cards en-mass this way solves a lot of waste and gives you a good run at the whole piece rather than working on tiny bits, but there are design logistics so that all the cards are usable. I do prefer this way. I think.

Friday

A busy day but no sewing, not even time to take the cat card pictures - Sunday I hope..... The seasons are changing here, though it was 14 degrees when I went out this morning, misty and 'god's eyelashes' of light peeping through the trees whilst I was driving through the forest. On my way home a good 3 hours later, it was hot, 26 degrees. Summer again, the day was consumed with appointments, chores, making a massive amount of 'toddler friendly' food - I like to give her what we eat, but often that just isn't possible. She is really toddling now, her initial 4 steps on Tuesday have turned into 6 or 8 with a dive onto the floor to end the run. Very cute, cuter still is the fact that she will walk quite willingly if you don't ask her, but should you want to show off her new skill like a circus trick, she flatly refuses - wonder where that stubborn streak came from!? ha!

I do watch this tree each year, it got snapped in half a couple of years back, but is still huge - the vine grows up it and makes 'nature's fairy lights' when the leaves turn along it's branches, beautiful.

Anything but cotton

For the last 4+ years at least I've been using 'disposable' colour catchers, I use them till they look filthy dirty or yummy bright - then stash them in a shoebox, always hoping that I could use them for something. I've also been getting the RK Alliston Catalogues. So squint your eyes and look at the landscape -


First I tore the 'cloth' into strips, it kind of has a grain, but kind of doesn't and tears along it's own line of weakness, I tried to make a blurry, misty landscapey, RKA inspired card. The theme is 'anything but cotton' so I tacked the strips to some fused fabric that is used for hospital gowns, as a foundation using a glue stick - then seed stitched it in the slubby linen thread - I have 5 colours of thread though 2 blues are very similar - these cops of yarn must be nearly 20 years old.


This one I managed to stitch and finish off, using my favourite edging, a Rowan wool and 100% polyester thread in the sewing machine - quite pleased with it to say the least, misty, autumnal and atmospheric. Mmmm....
I got a real buzz earlier to see that JCP had commented on my cat cards..... whoohoo! I check her blog with a bizarre frequency that it's almost a religion, but to think she read my post is a real kick. I need to photograph the cat cards in natural light - not possible today, will try again tomorrow. There will be pilgrimage to the PTT early next week with all these cards...

Wordless Wednesday

Cat Cards

Rather than finish my BQL bag 0r any of the gazillion other bits that are lurking on the ironing board - I got a guilt trip and started one of the sets of cards I am 'slightly' late with - nothing sinister about being late, plain old forgot when they were due.

So these are Cats - surprise! 4 to send and one to keep. I used some 'new' paints and followed Judy Coates Perez's instructions - she is the veritable mistress of this technique IMHO. The paint I used was gloppy - almost like painting with peanut butter and I just wonder where my 'good' paintbrushes have all disappeared to. The paint seems to have dried, yet has some wet looking patches. I had hoped to do a little stitching on them - but I doubt the needle would pass through the fabric, it's so crunchy dense. They turned out well visually though - will finish them off soon. Very soon. I also started the ABC cards - will blog them Thursday I hope when there is more to show. Finally I have found a use for 'colour catchers' - the cards are turning out lovely. Lots of hand stitching.

Crocs

In the spring, we caused a minor sales increase here with 4 pairs of Crocs between 2 littles. They love them, I am ambivalent - they are easier to get on than sneakers. What makes them happy makes me happy. Until now.....
A couple of weekend back I was in a high-end shopping mall with T1 and T2, yellow boy got his foot caught in the escalator, T1 got off OK whilst I lifted him and released his foot from the shoe. The escalator didn't stop Mr Otis. I saw no blood on his foot, he didn't seem to be in pain, just surprised. I managed to hit the emergency stop button, a security type ambled over and handed me the mangled shoe and ambled off. T2's nail was a bit gnarled - though it could have been like that before - he thought it was great fun walking through the shopping centre with no shoes - T1 decided to join him, he kept repeating the story. Anyone spot us? yabanci with 2 shoeless kids? We were the cause of great consternation.

Slowly my relaxed attitude changed - Do escalators have an 'emergency stop feature' or would it have kept on grinding till something really got mangled?

I know where the management office so I went and asked them - also why no one asked to check out T2's foot (they do have a 'triage' room there) The guys I spoke to were sympathetic, offering to replace the shoes - yes they did - and offering us dinner in one of the restaurants - we don't like that restaurant so we didn't.

When I went to claim the cash Tolga Bey told me we were the 3rd such incident in this mall since it opened just a year ago - nearly to the day. I don't know the details of the others - but beware - folks in Crocs - folks on escalators - folks visiting crocs...

Ikea Tray

I got this tray a couple of weeks back, but it's been a devil to photograph. Though I've been busy today - nothing much to show. I have been working on the cat cards, paining them...... more to show tomorrow.

BQL Bag Challenge - October in progress

I've been trying to quilt the bag - as per Kandy's instructions, though the 'humps' where the squares join are huge - I didn't baste it as well as I should have either..... there has been lots of 'frog stitch' happening, not that I want it perfect, but I'm not having it look shoddy. It's not even half way through the month and it's a good way there. Perhaps, perhaps it'll be done early this month.... ha!

I found this in the street outside our house, I figure the repairmen who fixed the electricity cable left it behind (along with the rubble, hole and road digger debris) It looks like it's aluminum and is moderately fragile, 10cm wide..... will be thinking of how to use it.

Incoming mail

After a mail drought - I got these this week - from Jenny, for the ABC trade - this is lovely hand felted with sparkly angelina and space died thread - very tactile......


Above is Leah's August mingle - this one has been a victim of the slow mail service - 6 weeks - though that's not too unusual for the US for some reason. The card below is from Sarah, for the cats trade - which I WILL be working on this weekend, having realised I'm way behind on that one - how did that happen??

hydranger

Back in June the hydrangeas that run the length of the house were crisp clean colours - it's coming to the end of the season and they are merging into a muddiness of reddish greens. Though some stay white. There are a couple of plants that are massive - more than 1.8m - I took a flower off the bottom of one of these to get past, it's over 12 inches across (30cm) the littles had fun with it as it was 'bigger than their heads' quite true. I'll leave these on all winter, when they get scruffy I'll trim them off but wait till the early spring to do the formal pruning, my way, not the Turkish way. I'll get to see spiders' webs draped with diamonds of dew in the coming months.

Wordless Wednesday

Incoming mail - Bag WIP

It's been a busy, but quiet day with no littles home - 'housework', Turkish class, some good news and a bit of sewing. I managed to get the front and back of the bag pieced, they need to be joined together then quilted, etc...
I also got mail for the first time in 10 days, with the holiday and my postie's schedul. Packets, envelopes, cards and bills.... first card today - from Deb P for the Artsnthemail Anything But Cotton trade. I think this is 'fabric-paper' or another 'monster-mess'.

BQL Bag Challenge - October

It's just the 6th of the month and I figure I'm about half way with the piecing of about a gazillion little blocks. This quarter-square method was new to me, I normally avoid anything like this or foundation piece it, but I am impressed. I also followed the instructions to starch the fabric, and though the red is a Bali Batik and quite crisp, the tea-dyed poplin has a soft hand. I like the crispness of the starch, but am not sure if I will starch more of my fabric for some odd reason.

Yeah for school for the littles tomorrow - after 10 days of holiday - I just need to figure what my Turkish homework was before tomorrow's lesson.

Kılıç Ali Paşa Medrese??

For the last 3 or so weeks I've been trying to find out what this mosque is, I think it's part of the
Kılıç Ali Paşa Mosque complex - it's decaying, out of use, but by looking over the wall into the court yard, looks like it's being excavated. Very intriguing. The building that really piqued my interest however was behind this one.


I think this building is the Medrese that would belong to the mosque, it's decrepit from the outside but remarkably well looked after on the inside - it had central heating radiators, is clean and swept inside.

The Zoo - again

We went to the Zoo, again, on Wednesday - the littles have been asking to see the monkeys and tigers again - so off we went. Being a national holiday, it was heaving, when we left there was a serious line. We are used to going mid-week and to a very empty zoo, having the luxury of almost exclusive access. The upside of the 'crowds' was that they had kept the animals hungry so that they would be awake. The first time I've heard the tigers, or actually seen them move, we were privileged to see feeding time - quite stunning having owned a cat to see how similar they all are. The lion was awake, and interested in the people interested in him. The leopard who was so gracious last time was sound asleep (perhaps he got fed Tuesday!) but there is a second leopard now which is exciting.
We stroked the camels, fed all the bread and carrots to the monkeys, zebra, bears and birds. Few photos, it was just too busy. We found a way to get very close to our itchy pongy bear - he could nearly touch us, T1 was slightly mesmerised, I on the other hand noted how sharp his claws looked - he could get his whole 'arm' through the grille. He liked the bread more than carrots.

The crocodiles had definitely moved - this one was awake and breathing in a menacing way. The red crocs are T2's and teal ones T1's - close. No nanny European safety directives - fantastic - to be 30cm away from a crocodile and not be running scared - though these guys always seem so sleepy, it's hard to imagine them being more than statues.


These seed heads were on what I think is bamboo -
I have started the bag too....

Quince

Way back in April I posted pictures of quince blossoms - the quinces are ready for 'harvest'. I took most of them off earlier in the season as we sit under the tree and would occasionally fall - too dangerous.

September challenge

This was my September challenge card for Artsnthemail - the challenge was 'Take 5' so 5 pieces of fabric, right to left - 5 x 5 french knots, 5x5 different beads, 5 sequins, 5 bunches of 5 beads, 5 flower sequins. Both the sets of sequins have been stitched on with 5 stitches, and down each side of each piece of fabric are 5 stitches - these small details are not obvious - but to their new owner will be. This challenge is voted on by the group.
In an extraordinary move I pulled the BQL October bag fabric, tea-dyed the contrast/lining fabric, pre-washed the main batik fabric and am waiting for it to dry before I starch it. I may get it finished before the last day of October.

A year of trees

Wordless Wednesday