Exploring the making of a runner...

A while back at a vintage market a runner caught my eye... it was not for sale, only decorative... but I liked it so much that it ended up inspiring me to try and make one!
I do not have any sewing skills, except for believing I can sew in a straight line :)
So I wanted to try and see what happened...

...once the material was cut to size (which took quite some time!), I laid it out...

I decided to zig-zag the little triangles... thus adding a little texture to the runner... actually I could not work out another way for sewing this ;)

...then it was time to sew the backing material - right sides facing - to the front of the runner...

... I did this project with a friend in mind... it becoming a birthday present...

I finished it just in time - a few hours before the party was to start!

That which fills the heart...

Yesterday morning we drove to Stellenbosch for the usual Saturday talk at the Protea bookshop.  An artist, Evette Weyers was talking about her newly published book "Wat die hart van vol is" ("That which fills the heart")...

Evette reading from her book...

Feet are one of the symbols in her work.  Some other symbols she explore are trees, the wind and water.  Water she says, speaks in her blood...which transforms her human shape to fade. She loves to work metaphorically... thus covering many of her sculptures with metaphoric words relating to the theme of the sculpture.  She has a passion for language and its origin.  The writing on her sculptures is mainly in Afrikaans (her home language).

Behind yet another of her 'feet-sculptures' (resembles the Afrikaans metaphor "Trek die stoute skoene aan) is an image of her newly published book...

This sculpture of Evette is a Spanish gypsy dancing...

(image from her book)

"Mary's angel, Beloved..."
(image from her book)

It was very inspiring listening to Evette as she is so amazingly good with expressing herself in language...
(I will write more about this beautiful way she has with words in my Afrikaans blog, woorddromer.blogspot.com)