snip snip

walnuts just across the road....I heard the crows yesterday, a vocal sign indicating food! So Django and I went for a walk equipped with a bag and collected quite a few; seems early for walnuts, but then again we've had a lot of heavy rain and I imagine the nuts on the ground were pelted by sheer water-force out of the tree

tried to capture the spider clinging onto the flower, neither are sharp, imagine

the water cloth.....growing and then....

...I cut out! the dark pieces in the larger cloth as they had served their purpose and added the smaller water story; now the random cloth piece has a story, of a ship and moonlight and the recent experiment of multi-coloured strip, sewn together on the wrong side has found a place; now I see all of the pieced together bits for what they are: the polder landscape, fields intersected by roads and pathways, dikes edged by rows of trees, the land cut into bite size plots, manicured gardens, wild ones, forgotten strips (not many of those), concrete bunkers, birds of every size, roe deer, hares, humans, insects, frogs and toads, all traipsing the land, the landscape I live in, am surrounded by, one day a cloth to wrap myself in

I'm very happy with the way the colours work together now; still have to figure out how to integrate more, am confident though

even though I live in this water world, I'm very much an earthy person; however, here the ship has entered the cloth and it all suddenly makes sense, how now there is a river and (the possibility of) movement, I have to admit to being excited about this piece 

small results amidst busy schedule

 what happens when you don´t pay proper attention to what you´re doing?
you could end up making a mistake and then deciding to purposely continue thus.
I mindlessly started stitching small pieces together on the 'right' side and felt something was not quite right; after several pieces I sat turning and peering at the pieced-together-strip and realised what was wrong.....I'd been stitching on the right side which was the wrong side and now the right side had a very visible ridge: nice!

 I continued experimenting using only white fabric; this time sewing the pieces together on the 'wrong' side, where I asked myself the following question: how does the running stitch differ from the wrap-stitch I learned from Jude of Spirit Cloth for piecing - I had never actually compared the two; the results can be seen in the following images 

two most important observations for me: the wrap-around stitch provides much more strength, whereas the running stitch offers a graphic quality I like a lot, as I often prefer my pieces to be two-sided; so I will use both depending on what I want to achieve

the hazel curved twig happened to be hanging here, highly suitable for displaying these strips

GhostBird pretending to be uninterested in the experiments

wandering beyond.....

apart from the regular walks in familiar places I do occasionally like to branch out beyond what I know and try something unexpected and different; like yesterday, my parents sent me an app mentioning they were in Zaltbommel for the annual Emmy Verhey festival (famous Dutch violinist, about to retire!)
Zaltbommel being a lovely town ánd only a 30 min. drive away, including a ferry crossing on the river Waal - which makes the entire trip feel like a mini break - why not join them, I said to self, so I apped back: any chance we could have a coffee together?
yes, they did and what's more if I could manage to arrive in time I too would be able to attend the 13:45 performance!

off I went....I am afraid I only have pics of the stage in the Gasthuiskapel without the musicians, this was at their specific request. You do get a sense of the intimate scale of this twelfth century building, renowned for it's acoustics and especially suited to chamber music.

we started off with a jazzy Sonata for violin and piano by Maurice Ravel; followed by a highly amusing concertino for two violins, tenor violin, clarinet, bassoon, horn and piano by Leos Janácek; finally a grande finale as it was a nonet for violin, tenor violin, cello, contrabass, flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon and horn by Bohuslav Martinu.
The fun they all had together, playing music they obviously love, was tangible, a veritable feast! What a lovely surprise for me, as all I had bargained for was a coffee with my old folks......which we did have after all of this 

back home I got stuck in to the old sewing routine: larger cloth hangin'
so many small stitches have been added

I'm surprised at the amount of pleasure the stitching brings, despite the fact of very slow growing

have definitely decided some spots will remain one-layered: the possibility of maybe being able to look through.....of almost being able to see what's beyond, I like the idea of that

how a small square appears as if out of nowhere

on the reverse side we see how it may occur

today I have hand-sewn my first French seam, it is so very neat. I love it, furthermore I was so impressed by what I had achieved I gave the dress yet another rest....I doubt it will be finished soon. I find the pattern-making way of making clothing mind-boggling as there are just so many steps:
 getting book and then fabric, choosing a pattern, getting pattern paper, measuring self for correct pattern-size, tracing pattern (*wondering if there needs to be extra for seams or is that included in the pattern, then wondering if the chosen size is indeed the right one after all, this thought is a recurring one), cutting pattern paper*, pinning tracing paper on cloth, remembering to look for selvedge edge - just in time, rearranging pattern paper on right side of fabric; cutting cloth*, reading instructions in book, re-reading them; looking at cloth with pattern paper still pinned on and then reading instructions once more, looking back at cloth, this is repeated several times; thinking you have at last understood instructions, attempt at following instructions, finally deciding to just get sewing hoping you'll discover what needs to be done once you have done it..... turns out you were in fact actually following instructions, a result: does it look anything like it does in the book? yes, tada! success...feeling both immensly satisfied and tired, sit back and have a cup of tea, contemplate one's innocence at the moment of buying the Merchant & Mill's Workbook back in Edinburgh; decide to continue with next French seam at a later date, realising the dress will  not be finished in time for the Summer of 2015