The Guild at 51 - summer delivery.

 It is beetle mania time at the Guild at 51, the gallery in Cheltenham where I sell my work. The exhibition is a collaboration between a jeweler, Elaine Day and a glass worker, Amanda Lawrence It is wonderful and in the window the colours glow and shine just like beetle wing phosphorescence. I took my little beetle in a box in to add to the insect theme.

Also this large framed piece that was inspired by the formal gardens at Hidcote. Just right for this time of year - we are having a heat wave.

A new piece begun - wild grasses.

 We have been out and about at the weekend. This is Symond's Yat - Forest of Dean for a bird's eye view over the Wye valley. Peregrine falcons nest on the cliffs there and we were lucky to see the male perching in a tree. The lovely RSPB volunteers keep watch and have a telescope there so you can see any activity they spot. They still aren't sure if the pair have chicks yet. They are a new young pair of birds so only time will tell.

 While we were looking out we saw a buzzard and a red kite pass by. The wonderful thing about being up so high is that you see the birds below in all their wonderful colours, rather than staring up at their tummies, which is the usual stance.

 We had a walk along the Brecon canal with a friend and she was the one who stopped and pointed out the dappled light on these wonderful grasses. We had been trying to name all the wild flowers and grasses we knew.

 I started a new piece the next day. It is long and thin so same problem (Liz!) with photos. 11x30cm.

Close up of first stitches.

This isn't cow parsley but water dropwort hemlock- which we had to search the books and internet to find. Poisonous and only grows near water or mud. The pom-poms of white flowers and parsley shaped leaves were quite distinctive.

Grasses and hay making.

 The green lanes look at their best now - edged with cow parsley and wild flowers.

 We are lucky to have hay fields nearby to walk through. I adore them each year. This is a before shot

 and here the after ......the hay has been cut and spun out to dry. I hope he ( farmer next door) got it in before this mornings rain!

 So I collected some grasses and laid them out to identify and draw. The sycamore keys were like scattered ys on the path floor. We were shown some at Westonbirt last week which helped with identification but I don't know them all.

Sketchbook drawings. Rye grass, ?, plantain, cocksfoot, oat grass, red clover, buttercup, sorrel.

Birds on Mending the Sky.

 I have finished all the birds. I have chosen a selection, sea birds, waders, swifts and swallows that we see from the garden. Some are endangered. We have to keep the habitats for them all. Sea clean and air unpolluted. It is all about Mo's theme mending this beautiful broken world.

 Lapwing and avocet.

 Barnacle goose.

 The top

The bottom part. Now it is cloud stitching and backing to finish.

Some more birds plus some wild orchids.

 More birds going into the sky.

 The fabric ( piece of a wedding dress) is very fragile but then so is the ecosystem. So I am putting in seeding stitches as stay stitches - hence mending the sky.

 These are our swifts that come and nest in our cottage roof each year.

 This is our new pond area. It was hot at the weekend and the best time was sitting under the new parasol pond watching. We have tadpoles and damselflies.

 Yesterday we went on a wildflower walk at Westonbirt Aboretum- common spotted orchid.

 Butterfly orchid,

Twayblade. Really worth going out with experts- so many names to learn and interesting facts.

More birds for Mending the Sky.

 So I am thinking about mending this world  (so much to do, so little time) and the birds have to endure so much pollution, climate change, plastic waste etc. etc. The migrating birds could really tell us a story. Do they sit on their nests and moan about the weather, poor fish stocks and tummy ache from plastic beads inside them? No they just get on with life. I digress! This is a Bewick swan that migrates from tundra to our WWT Slimbridge ( and other areas)

 Then a gannet, because I love their diving. I am choosing birds that I have a connection with. I only stitch ones that I have seen, although a wandering albatross would be a good one for this project.

There will be about 10 birds in all I think. I am sprinkling some seeding stitches in the sky for supporting the fabric and adding texture to the sky. Then I will back the whole piece and stitch through all the layers and fold back the edging. See other pennants and Mo Crows project on her blog ( see my side bar)
P.S. The summer book sold straight away in Cheltenham! Always a good boost to the ego and encouragement to keep working.