Printers!!!

My general A4 printer refused to cooperate last week. It printed out one piece then when I asked it to do a head clean, I got a couple of flashing lights and messages telling me it needed service and there was a communication problem. I have done everything I know to fix it but no go so I think I will have to get a new one. So.. I have spent the last few days sourcing, comparing and pricing printers until my head spun. i think I have finally made a decision and will get it next week. Decided to change make this time. Grrrr.

We had a nice day last week and we went out to the town's park to do some photography. It received grants and has gone through a big regeneration - not before time. It had been allowed to deteriorate and was well vandalised. It is looking good now so hopefully they can prevent those vandals spoiling it and to leave it alone.

We took a number of photos and here is the first one which shows just how the trees are turning.

There was a Mahonia bush which had beautiful autumn colours on it which was rather surprising as I have a mahonia and they are evergreen and mine stays the same dark green all year round. I have never seen one with these colours.

They have built new play and adventure play areas for young children and a separate one for teenagers - a good idea. There were some strong colours and shapes in the teenage area which was empty so we felt OK to do photography in there. We didn't take any in the young children's playground as it can be dodgy now to take photos with young children around.

This climbing panel was taken on its side to give a diagonal pattern.

Now onto some textile work.

I forgot to post one of the art quilts I finished a couple of weeks ago so I will post it now. It is a representation af a well known painting of a Geisha with a Fan. I printed it on silk , added embellishment and stitching to some surface areas before I quilted the whole piece.

This is the original picture of the Geisha with a Fan and this is how my quilt looks.

The hair and hair decoration were stitched first as you can see in this close up.

I also embroidered the design on the fan.

It turned out much nicer than I expected it to.

As I mentioned in my last post, I am creating another Art Nouveau piece. I said I had decided on the technique for the peacock feather and it took a couple of days to work it. I couldn't stitch it on an evening as the flare back from the metallic surface made it too difficult to see and was very tiring so I had to wait for daylight. I am now working on the lady and the background. here is the finished feather. Apologies for the poor quality of the photo. I took it in a hurry and bad light but it still shows the effect.

I gave a talk about my Egyptian project yesterday to a local embroidery group. I think I talked too much and some of the ladies missed their cup of tea as they had to rush off. Apologies to any that may read this blog.

Waiting in anticipation for the first draft of my book to arrive from the publisher. It is due in the next few days. I was told Monday 13th but.... post being post.

I will get back to the AN lady now - so cheers everyone until my next post.