The day the boats came in

I struggled to start with and nothing seem to fit or inspire, then I remembered the day Rosie, Dianne and I watched the fishing boats return to Guilvinec (Brittany, France) and we bought live langoustines that had just been landed.  The poissonnerie where we bought them had a steamer and you could have them cooked on the spot!  What a feast that was back at the Manoir Hilguy with a bottle of wine - fine living indeed.

The picture is a composite of a photo of the manoir, which was given the pencil crayon on Burlap filter treatment in Photoshop, and images of a bowl, red table cloth, langoustines and the wine bottles and glass.  Having created the image I then realised that I didn't have an fabric printing sheets.  Panic - quick online order (after asking what brand friends preferred).  Order takes until Tuesday this week to arrive and I found them late afternoon when I returned from stewarding duty at our Dorset Arts Week.  First print-outs were a disaster as for some reason the printer/computer were determined to enlarge the image no matter that it was a 12" image and the printer was supposed to be printing actual size. I went to bed frustrated and irritated.  Yesterday morning I determined to beat the technology and created my own cropped sections of the image which would allow me the opportunity to choose where to fussy cut the joins.  Bingo!  Then I discovered I didn't have any fusible - mad dash to local Hobbycraft.  I am now more than a little stressed and panicky as I am out all afternoon at another job.  First I manage to stick the fusible to the right side of one section - quick reprint - then I cut another section wrong (no overlap) - another reprint.  Last night I eventually get the' jigsaw' together and fused to the felt batting and I actually make a start on the stitching.  This morning I have managed to complete it and it is just about lunch time.  Hurray, I haven't let you down!

Hilary

PS  The fabric sheets are by Jacquard and I am really pleased with them - the fabric is quite fine and the paper peels off easily.  Tip learnt from Michael James - up the saturation level in the printer properties by at least 20% - this compensates for the amount of ink that is absorbed by the fabric.