Taciturn 29 and Tempestuous 30

Okay, I'll admit I have now looked at a dictionary to carry on with the T alliterations for the title of the posts.  Anything to save me from using tap dancing or torrid as the title!

Tactile 27 and tempting 28

I've now almost caught up on my initial plan of making a piece a day for 37 days.  I obviously need blocks of time to make then rather than trying to fit one a day in.  I seem to get into a bit of a rhythm. 

27 was made using fabric patterned by rubbing a paving slab.  The marks on the green were made by rubbing directly onto the fabric, where as I used transfer crayons on the yellow-y felt.  The marbled black was shop bought. 

The fabric on the left hand side of no.28 was also patterned by rubbing and the right hand side is made of lots of little off-cuts of earlier pieces, which I then stitched over with grey to pull it together.  It isn't exactly clear from the initial photo what this surface is - I think it was a crumbling wall as it had lots of different shades of grey and lines on it.

Tired 26

The 'tired' refers to me rather than the work, I hope!  Richard has kindly taken the little monsters to his parents for the weekend so I can get as much work done as possible.  This is fabulous for my work, but the house seems incredibly quiet.  I am used to being here on my own during the day, but I don't think I've ever spent a night here without at least a child asleep upstairs.  It is rather strange.  However, I am enjoying the space to make the work without interruptions for two whole days.  Suddenly reaching 37 seems tantalisingly close, even with dealing with the laundry and other work too.  I even managed to do some exercise today!

Tarmac-ed 24 and top 25

Yes, I'm already beginning to struggle to find suitable adjectives starting with T, but I haven't given up yet, nor have I consulted the dictionary.  Maybe if I had, these would be less lame!  Anyway no.24 is a bit of a landmark as it is the first of the series made entirely without using any stitch.  Bizarrely I often find works look better photographed than they do in real life.  However, this is definitely not the case with this one.  It is more subtle and the tarmac T is acceptable because it is based on a photo of the road surface.

For no.25, it was back to stitch and trying to recreate the patterns in different ways.  I used programmed stitches on my Pfaff again, but this time I played with the settings, making them totally different from the picture on the machine to get the effect I wanted.

Tremendous 23

Taxing 21 and terrible 22

At last the rain has stopped for long enough to allow the pavement to dry and so I was able to make a rubbing of the pavement to texture some fabric.  This was used for no.21, then as the base colour wasn't quite right, I used an old toothbrush and some fabric paint to make it a bit greyer. It has started raining again, so no more rubbing today.  I did stock up a bit, using fabric crayons directly onto the fabric.  As well as the paving slabs, I discovered that the window ledge gave quite a good mark too.

The less said about no.22 at the moment the better.  My only redeeming thought is that I can always change it after the exhibition has opened when I have more time!  Of course, it may grow on me...

Terrific 20, thanks to John le Carré

To improve the naming of these posts, I thought I would use alliterations (at least that is what I think it is called - our English lessons at school didn't really go this far). This seemed like a good idea, until I realised that every piece from now on will have a number starting with a T - from 20 to the final one 37!  So let's see how long I can last at this.
As I am trying not to buy anything new to make these pieces (to save money and because I don't have time to get to the shops), I am having to be a little bit inventive.  I ran out of black thread before I started this one and grey fabric is getting limited! The black thread on this one was passed on to me from my cousin's mother-in-law, along with loads more.  They are great, but a little elderly, so the black thread keeps snapping.  I like the effect the breaks give, but it meant the piece took ages to make, especially as I used a fancy stitch on my Pfaff machine rather than a basic satin stitch.  I'm sure no one will notice - but I know!  Hence the bizarre reference to John le Carré.  Radio 4 is dramatising all of his Smiley books at the moment and during this piece I listened to all three hours of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.  Sometimes I really enjoy John le Carré novels and have been reading quite a few recently, but other times I just get bored by the tedium of spying.  I suppose it is more like reality, but I obviously too used to fast paced thrillers and want action, just like our seven year old still wants pictures in books rather than only words, to make life more exciting.

Eighteen and nineteen

This is beginning to remind me of Janet Evanovich's novels where each one has a play on a number as a title.  However she 'cheats' and gets readers to offer suggestions for the name of the next book.  Will try and think of a more imaginative title for number 20!

Sixteen and seventeen

Been on a bit of a roll today.  Here are the next two.  I'm not very happy with the top one, but if I'm making 37 of them, I can't adore all of them equally.  Maybe if I have enough time I will revisit it....!  However, not got time now as I have to get to the nursery to get the monsters before it closes and they call social services.

the next three (13, 14 and 15)

I'm sure you don't need to know the number of these pieces, but this is the only way I am going to be able to keep track of them.  I've had to reassess how to make them, as I wanted to be posting number 24 today.  I was being to panic, behind a calm exterior of course, but yesterday morning in the hairdresser, I worked out my new timetable and so far, I'm back on track.  I've realised that I can't make them in the evening most days as I am too tired and hungry to think after the monsters are put away in their rooms for the night.  Also, the light is just not good enough to select the colours as I am using a rather subtle colour palette.

I've got the next one ready to go, but it was too wet this weekend to go and do a rubbing of the paving slab outside to get some texture other than adding stitch.  The last one here took hours and hours this morning and I will need to find some quicker ways.