Planet Ruby Starrs

Back to the grind... well, in reality back to college, and an exhausting day getting out of bed at 6.00!!!!!! to beat the traffic and be back to school in a timely fashion.  Clutching my summer sketch book which has turned out to be a never ending saga, everytime I look at it I want to do something additional.. not a bad place to be as it is intended to be a design source and inspiration is everywhere....   I forwent 'student' evening preferring to binge on Dexter then spend my student discount on stuff I don't really want - which made me feel quite smug about my first assignment which entails a reflection on Ethical Consumerism, something I feel quite strongly about.  I'm looking forward to exploring how ethical consumerism can be promoted and what is really happening in the world of textiles, it's a massive subject covering all areas from workplace conditions to global poisoning and then of course to the disposable culture in which we live today.  I'd like to ...

Flaming June is proving to be a tad disappointing... we have lit a fire nearly every evening and Dr Fred mooches round the house dressed for winter decked out with fleece and woolly hat... We had one nice day to tease us.  I used it wisely and spent the day in the garden doing much needed weeding and tidying - tedious but essential. The rest of the week has been about exploring a local tradition - 'proggy rugs'.  I inherited two rather sorry specimens when my parents died.. many years ago, and I loved them first because they were allegedly made by my mum but also because they had a certain rustic charm.. they eventually just dropped to bits. My friend had been to a proggy rug workshop and we had an industrious afternoon sharing skills - her showing me proggy rug techniques and me giving her a quick hand piecing patchwork class... now I wonder if she is as taken with patchwork as I am with proggy rugs... I never throw any fabric away - even the tiniest scraps.....