let the sunography shine in {17/31}

This post is brought to you through the power of Blogtoberfest 2012

Way back in the days when I seemed to manage catching up on blogs as well as blogging MUCH more frequently and fluidly than I do now, I bookmarked a post of Jessica@HowAboutOrange’s about using photosensitive dye.

Ripple dissolve a gazillion years later to a couple of months ago when I came across some photo sensitive fabric squares in a fab shop in the North Laine (that’s a seriously good link, btw, if you’re planning a shopping day) called Junk Funk and something just went *ping* and curiosity got the better of me so, reader,  I bought a pack …

If I showed you the fabric I’d have to kill you it would expose it to the light and that would be silly, but the weight and feel is reminiscent of Oakshott’s non shots, but a little lighter and looser in weave, if you know what I mean …

 

I got a fab neon perspex silhouette of Brighton Pavilion for Crimbo last year and have been dying to find a use for it other than purely decorative …

Needless to say, it has been raining pretty much ever since I bought the fabric, so experimentation was postponed due to lack of bloomin sunshine …

Until a couple of weekends ago!

I didn’t stick to the recommended exposure time at all, on account of it being bloomin winter and the sun being so much weaker, so I pretty much let it sit out in the sun patch on my front steps for a few hours and then rinsed as per instructions.

I love it. I see a patchwork using a combo of sashiko squares and this photo sensitive fabric. The background colour always turns this denimy blue, but there’s a good selection of different coloured fabrics which provide the ‘ink’ colour.

 

I thoroughly recommend … I’d like to do some larger silhouettes (leaves etc.) to get more of a contrast going …

On a bit of a tangent … here’s Let the Sun Shine In from Hair – as poignant now as it was back in the day.
 

Have you ever used photosensitive fabrics or dyes?

If you could only use one object to represent you, what would it be?

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Remember … you still have until the end of the month to enter the Brighton Sewing Centre giveaway for 12 FQs of Blitzen from Basic Grey.

This giveaway will run for the duration of Blogtoberfest – that is, until midnight 31st October UK time - I’ll announce the winner as close to November 1st as I can, to give you plenty of time to make a little something for Christmas.

International entries welcome!

Brighton Spring 2012 Craftganza Tomorrow!!!!

Oops ... I nearly forgot to tell any of you my lovely local or near local readers, that this weekend sees a lovely event at Fabrica in Brighton ... Craftganza!!!

Zoe has a fantastic blog - there's a muchly useful post today with serious advice re. business plans, intellectual property and copyright for designer makers ...

and in other posts, lovely previews of stuff you can buy tomorrow ....

... like this cherry scented brain soap from oh so smelly.  duh yes please.

I can't wait ... I had hoped to be behind a stall for this one, but work just made that impossible !! I'm really looking forward to seeing what's on offer ....

If the weather's nice, you really should come ... the linen man will be in upper gardner street market too ...

The new shopping …

I wanted to share this fantastic time lapse/tilt shift video made by a 13yr old boy in Brighton - It is a piece of beauty and soul. He's had to disable comments on his vimeo page!  Go yoof! 


Go full screen! and enjoy the 45,000 still shots that created this amazing 'day in Brighton'.

This is Brighton from Caleb Yule on Vimeo.

Sometimes I feel like I'm falling out of love with Brighton and then I actually go and wander around or see something like this and realise how very much I still love it ...

My 365 meme today was 'favourite' so I thought I'd feature the fleamarket I love. which is tucked away in a Upper Gardner Street in Brighton.






I also decided to flesh out the post here at Pings, as it's got gratuitous pictures of thread and fabric in it, and only a few brave people are looking at my 365 project ... not a whinge .. just sayin ... 









I love this place … It is absolutely choccabloc with dusty, touchable stuff.
It smells wonderful!




I buy my bags of 'vintage' {= old} cottons there … On a Saturday, Upper Gardner Street also has a fantastic bric-a-brac, local produce, bits and bobs market …




This is where my wonderful linen man sometimes hangs out … not today though …




His pitch 'neighbour' … is it his brother? I don't know, really not sure, I always mistake one for the other they are so alike but that might just be my fabric association neurons gone wild! … has wonderful vintage French linens, trimmings, ribbons, bolt ends of savile row pinstripes, bakelite stag and boar buttons … oh bsmbh …

… such fun to look (but not buy - photos are the new shopping this year … )




Look at that yummy bishop's-purple grosgrain ribbon … he had wide blanket binding satin in the same colour too … *sigh

What is your favourite thing to do on a Saturday? 

… keep it clean now …

… or not …

sundown & a pencil case - a perfect day

After work today I dumped several kilos of marking and text books on my bed and then turned straight round and headed for the sea.

I just needed an hour of fresh air and contemplation. 

Today was beautiful; the sky was cloudless, the hot sun tempered by a cool autumnal breeze.  As I walked to the beach it was ‘starling’ time.




It was a really low tide, one of the few times of the year when we can see sand and walk far out …



usually this is a good swim out …



I needed a sunset, not that depressingly sudden change from light to dark that so engulfs us in winter.


I wasn’t disappointed.





Coming home and doing chores feels like a small price to pay … especially if you just happen to have rustled up a new mega skool pencil case to match your upside-downside journal !

See! There has been a teensie bit of sewing going on!

Tomorrow my bloggy friends, your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to take some time out and watch some sky.

I’m living a colo[u]rful life today …

Every day is colourful here at Pings Towers, but today it’s especially true as I’m taking part in Cindy’s fab name game doodah over here …

If you’re over here from over there, welcome!  Do have a good snoop around …



I had a lovely out-and-about-in-Brighton weekend, wandering around making contact with real people!   I sat next to unknown people at cafes and engaged them in conversation.  What’s the betting there’s someone, somewhere, writing on their blog “Some nutter sat next to me while I was trying to have a quiet coffee in the sunshine.”  ??


I went to a couple of small pop up craft fairs and met some really interesting people …


… a fantastic jeweller called Sarah who has a great website over at www.rockcakes.com
She makes beautifully crafted witty, wry, iconic jewellery.









I love this Paper Scissors Rock necklace - silver and rough diamond (4 ct) …









I also had a long chat with a lovely lady called Lindy Wells who sews memory blankets, fab doorstops, cushions using re-cycled fabrics … great stuff.






Online, I’ve got so much to catch up on in my Reader, it’s just silly … but I'm getting through it in little batches ...






...  I was totally speechless at Hadley@Flying Blind on a Rocket Cycle’s beautiful ruby star spring 241 bag … *swoon thwump  … go here now and drool …








and when you've recovered, pop over to Cindy's and see how my blog got its name …

It's a Bank Holiday here in the UK today! (woot!) what are you getting up to this fine Monday?

Those of you who were visited by Irene over the weekend, I hope you are safe and dry and with enough power to crank up the sewing machine for a bit of relief ...

Brighton Mini Maker Faire 2011 - Sat Sept 3rd -

Wow!  This looks interesting: gelatine watches, mechanical hats, fire breathing robot horses? Oh My!

Lots of nerdy mad inventor stuff  ... and crafting too! *swoon

Part of the Brighton Digital Festival, which runs right through September ... man, it's going to be a crazy month!

Brighton Mini Maker Faire runs in the Brighton Dome foyer, all day, Saturday 3rd September - free entry, but I guess making things will cost, natch.

Welcome to Brighton Mini Maker Faire 2011 from BuildBrighton Hackspace on Vimeo.

dear diary, blogger broke again and a seagull fell from the sky

So, thanks for all the brilliant comment action, such fun to read, and there are some cracking questions there … Squee! I’m loving all the button shop & fabric lust out there too!


I’m going to extend the Eternal Maker Giveaway to Midnight Tuesday 31st to make up for any time you may have lost trying to leave a comment over the last couple of Blogger meltdown days … 


 


I’ll announce the Melody Miller winner as soon as I get some time this weekend.  Promise.




Yesterday was a weird day.


I got up at about 6am and pottered around making coffee, grunting, doing a bit of barely-conscious sewing.  At some point I noticed the sky go that lovely yellowy grey dark,  and I could hear a a little rain spattering, so I thought I’d take a picture out of my back window. 

It’s not a great photo, it was only meant as a memory prompt.

 
I thought I’d go out and take a photo of the wet on the stone. 


I like things like that.  I love the lush green and ridiculous size of the fern too …


I pulled on my boots and went out the back door …


and then there was a


THWUMP!


<warning – you did read the title, right?>


>


>


>

How weird is that? 


Obviously it didn’t land neatly at my perfectly centrally positioned feet like that, this is one of those arty blog feet photos … but it was only about six inches away.


It was already dead when it landed.  Not stiff but definitely dead. It had ceased to be.


I still had to do that poke-it-with-the-toe-of-your-boot thing, just to make sure it wouldn’t flap its wings when I picked it up.  Judging by the eye, he’d had a bit of a dogfight in the sky.  He was a young adult. 



Then I picked him up and my whole concept of ‘seagull’ dissolved.



I have lived in Brighton for 16 years.  Seagulls are part of our lives here.  Love them or hate them, we can’t help but study 'em.

I don’t love their bomber command scavenging … I’ve had a sandwich whipped out of my hand on the beach once or twice ... bastards … But I do just love their bird-ness.

They are so stout and bolshy.  I have this thing about wanting to squeeze them, … I always imagined that they were quite bulky. like when you pick up a cat, I mean, they’re huge, they must be quite weighty, right?

Well, wrong apparently.  Of course, if you think about it, which I obviously hadn’t, birds have the finest of porcelain-like bones, and are full of air pockets to keep them buoyant and aerodynamic.  Oh, and covered in feathers … But so floaty light?

It was like picking up a candyfloss seagull.

 


It was profoundly moving.

So this is my shot of the wet on the stone

giveaway here

It’s All About the Cushions

I’m enjoying a little break from quilting angst and indecision …
 

I have two lovely new Brighton cushions to make.





They are going to be 22” x 22” versions of the skinny Rainy Saturday in Brighton giveaway cushion I made back in October last year - my first ever giveaway! - which Emma from It’s all about the fabric won.

Yay!  These will be going to her too …

…  So far, so good … Coming on a treat  ...

(plenty of time to muck up though! LOL)

Lazy Hazy Afternoon

west pier

Taking a brief indoor breather from the first Great British Bank Holiday Weekend of the year - this finds us with the extremely illogical urge to spend the maximum possible time twigging about in the sun (after only getting out of longjohns and slippersox a week ago) and reaching critical dehydration and 3rd degree sunburn point within ... what? ... a couple of hours? ...

Never fear ...   Us Brits, we work through the pain ... We've perfected Back to Work Lobster Red.

So, while the calamine lotion dries to a chalky finish, I just wanted to post this pic from yesterday ...

It's possibly the most beautiful photo I've ever taken-by-mistake!

Looks all clever clogs misty & slow shutterspeedy, when in reality it's just an extreme zoom, facing into the hazy sun, guessing a bit what was in frame (too bright to see screen, grrr ...) and trusting to intelligent auto!

I love how this wretched wrecked burnt out old skeleton of a west pier still dominates our horizon so hauntingly.

I think my new camera and I are finally getting to know each other a little better.

FMF Giveaway - A Winner!

So sorry for the delay in drawing a winner, but I forgot to finish the little something extra to go with these

Remember this little tease?

Well, it became this  - my prototype wristwatch pincushion!

I’m just putting together a little tutorial, so stay tuned …





So, without further ado, other than to say thank you to all the people who visited my 365 project and left comments either there or here … the winner is ….



  Dianne from Quiltova in the Czech Republic!

You should check out her blog - Dianne’s got a fantastic sense of colour … you should see her choices for the Lily’s Quilts QAL here

So congratulations Dianne! This little package of goodies will be on its way to you just as soon as I have an address … I’ve emailed you …




Commiserations to everyone else, but I’ll leave you with some seasidey pictures I took of the amazing low tide we had here in Brighton yesterday … it’s very rare to see any sand, ours is an unforgiving, pebbly beach, so this was heaven …

low tide 19.03.11 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Creative Stitches and HobbleCrafts Show

Thought I’d do a bit of a post about the Creative Stitches & Hobblecrafts Hobbycrafts show that visited Brighton Centre this weekend.

I read a really funny post here about how the average age of those attending was about 80, so I thought I’d add my thoughts to the pot. 
Now, please don’t get me wrong: I love little old ladies.  I fully intend on being one quite soon.  

What I can’t cope with is flocks of them, all shuffling very slowly into a bottleneck of indecisive inactivity.  I have the same loss of patience in supermarkets (when I’m not helpfully reaching for stuff on the top shelves) and on busy pavements where I often find myself trapped, at the height of Christmas shopping meltdown, by their stealth-like pincer formations.

But I digress.


About 50% of the stands were devoted to papercraft and scrapbooking, and a lot of it really ghastly.  Sorry.  I like paper more than the next (wo)man, but some of this was super tacky.





But, there were some lovely sights along the way, like these giant knitting needles (they had some glorious shawls and rugs on display) beautiful hand dyed wool (but oh so expensive!) and some creative bundles of Fat Quarters.

There was also this glorious glitter stand - I wanted to scoop up handfuls and throw it into the air, like fairy dust, but they were only selling it in tiny little packets for £1 a pop.  I resisted.  

The high spot was the exhibition area - there were some great examples of embroidery and some quilting here.  

The first section was a “Glimpses From the Sixties” competition

This was absolutely superb!

the petit point stitches were no bigger than a couple of mms!

Liz Taylor in Cleopatra!

There was this lovely piece too:

the detail was simply beautiful!

Beer Today Gone Tomorrow by Maggie Danks

and some really fab dyeing and stitching:

Daisy Chain by Jenny Rolfe

My favourite part was a little mini exhibition of corsetry 
- check out that bunting!  Knickers!?  Genius!

	<---- self portrait with corset made from bras!

So, all in all a fun few hours, but ultimately I don’t think I’d go again unless I needed something like a new ruler … (more of that another day!)

 The problem wasn’t the little old lady brigade at all.  It was the lack of any evidence that ‘modern quilting’ exists in the UK, either on the selling or exhibiting side of things.

The lady at the Quilter’s Guild stand admitted that she had no idea that there was a quilting community on this here interweb.  I was aghast.  She asked me if I wanted to write an article about it for them, but then informed me I’d have to stump up the £37 annual membership first.  No thanks, not just now …

But my ultimate high spot of the day ??



Oh yes!  Impossible to find here in Brighton - and now I’m on an applique melt down … Yay!

I am so so happy to be a part of a wonderful online community - thank you for stopping by and taking the time to leave me comments and support along the way.*  

It means so much more now I know just how difficult it is to find this on my own doorstep!





*Talking of which … make sure you pop over here to Flutter Kat’s and stay in touch with this great week of posts … there’s some great stuff being discussed …