This is...Monet's Waterlilies.

Well what a fab day all round for 'ethel and edna'. Everyone is getting their updates at last and a new banner/header which has received so many fab comments. This is the panel that the embroidery fragment is cropped from. It's based on Monet's Waterlilies - 10 out of 10 Kayla Coo. I made this a good few years ago now when doing Machine Embroidery C&G.


Can't remember what the ground fabric is but basically it is layers of organza and other sheers and some satiny bits too. I then blitzed it with free machining - both straight stitch and zigzag.

I loved it when I was working on it and when it was finished. The thing that lets it down (in my opinion) is the finish. The framing. The embroidered piece is stretched around a piece of mount board then attached (glued) onto the blue piece and put in a black frame. Very poor but done in a rush for the assessment date.
As with most of my C&G projects, once finished and assessed they never see the light of day again. This one could be revived though... I may have a little play and post the results in a day or two.

I've been a bit lax on the "This is..." front recently. I keep forgetting to check the new theme and then to actually do a post about it. Well the latest one (set by CurlyPops) is brilliant so I couldn't pass it up, (even if I am a bit late).




This is... my favourite band of all time. Well I say it's a brilliant theme, but actually it's really hard to narrow it down to just one. There are so many to choose from. You see music is as important to me, if not more so, than stitching and being creative. I was surrounded by music from birth. Dad had a HUGE collection of vinyl (remember we're back in the 1970s here) with so many different styles of music. There was always a record or Radio 1 (in the good old days) playing. Some of my faves are some of his too - Stevie Wonder, America, Colin Blunstone, Gordon Lightfoot, and on and on and on...



But then as I got older I obviously discovered bands that were 'my own'. I quickly got bored of chart music and I was a Janice Long and John Peel fan. If it was 'Indie' I loved it. That was around the same time that my hair got taller and make-up got paler. I loved Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Cure, Echo and the Bunnymen and The Smiths.

I loved the theatricality of the Banshees. Going to one of their concerts involved loads of cheap hairspray, black eyeliner and fishnet (worn on the arms!). I wish I still had photos but a penfriend lost them a long time ago. Rather than freak out, mum and dad just used to laugh at us and say we'd grown out of it. If you check out my Facebook photos and earlier posts of OH's 40th Party you'll know that's not exactly true :o).

The Bunnymen are one of the strongest contenders for my fave band ever. I first heard them when 'Porcupine' came out and kind of liked them but mostly to get in with the cool older kids in the village. But as I listened, their stuff grew on me. The on older lad became my boyfriend and I can still remember him meeting me off the school bus with a tranny radio in his pocket so we ould listen to their new single getting it's first airing.

When I saw them live for the first time I developed my first crush on a famous(ish) person. Ian McCulloch had huge hair, huge lips, a huge ego and he was so sexy on stage. Ooh!! As you can see I managed to see them 4 times. They were fab.

It seemed to be the rule in Smash Hits, if you liked the Bunnymen then you hated U2. Not so in my case. I loved them both and also went to see U2 4 times. On one tour I actually went down to Wembley on consecutive days, the first day involved bunking off work, catching a coach and travelling down all on my own. I was a very green 17 year old and it was a huge, if rather scary, adventure.

My love of U2 lead to my love of Irish music. Enter contender number 2 - The Waterboys. They just have it all!! They can be rocky. They can be folky. They can be anthemic. They can be poetic. As you all know by now I was actually going to see them next weekend but the glorious English summer has put paid to that. So instead I have been playing their albums non-stop. Well the first four anyway. "This is the Sea" would probably be top of the list of my desert island discs. I just never tire of it. I think it's the memories it triggers. That time in my life was so great. Late teens. Going on holiday with friends for the first time rather than family. I can remember vividly walking through the centre of Newquay on my own and hearing "The Pan Within" blasting out of the door of a club. It was such an obscure track to hear in that situation. I could have understood if it had been "The Whole of the Moon"... It gave me such a strange feeling and I still get echoes of it every time I play the song.

OK I'm starting to go on a bit now. Sorry but I've really enjoyed wallowing like this.

In conclusion: I don't have one complete favourite as I go through phases of who I'm listening to. At the moment if I had to choose it would be Mr Scott and Co. Let's just hope that the rescheduled concert goes ahead in the Spring. Until then it's back to the CD. I've done a new playlist so you can have a listen to some of the also-rans and the short-listed finalists. It's at the foot of the blog and it DOESN'T come on automatically. You have to click to switch it on, select tracks and so on.

ttfn and thanks for listening

xx