Thank You

Thank you for your comments, it does help to know that people are thinking of you.
I also wanted to give a bit of publicity to a young upcoming very talented artist (he's also my daughters boyfriend). Alec has just started to sell his work at art and craft markets around London and has just opened an etsy shop www.etsy.com/shop/MyBananabread

Break

Things are really not very good with my Mum,she's in hospital at the moment but will be coming home in the next few days. Things are quite hectic, so instead of just disappearing I thought I would officially say I'm taking a blogging break. I'll still read but probably wont comment.

Good And Not So Good

The news wasn't good when we took Mum to get the results of her CT scan, a mass on her pelvic bone and liver. We are waiting for a biopsy on the bone. She is in hospital and on a drip to sort out the high calcium levels, on the positive side she is very cheerful! She always had a good sense of humour and for quite a while that's not been there, its back and she's sitting up in bed and holding court. Before being admitted to hospital she spent a lot of time sleeping, now she's awake and taking in all that's going on around her. She is very weak and cant walk on her own, shes using a walking aid and has to have someone with her. Yesterday when I went to visit she was being taken for an x-ray, she had tried to get out of bed on her own and fallen, no serious damage has been done! A couple of bruises and she managed to pull the cannula out. We have to wait and see what happens next, I think from now on it will be one day at a time!
On a more cheerful note tomorrow I'm going to a workshop with the Chelmsford embroiderers guild, I'm really looking forward to that. I went to drop off some pieces of work at Chrissythreads sadly our talk last weekend was cancelled as Chris was really unwell, thankfully shes recovered! I had a nice surprise when she gave me the money that I'd made from the sales at the Material Girls exhibition. It's a shame I cant get to Cottenham to see Sharne, Nickie, and ERTF and spend my money on the sales tables, but I have asked Chris to get me a sketch book. I'll just have to make do by reading everyone elses blogs to see what I've missed!

Exhibition

As promised I took some photo's while I was stewarding today at the exhibition! I've sold 4 brooches a few cards and 2 bags, not too bad, they were in the shop, nothing from the exhibition, I'm just not on anyone else's wavelength, never mind. I'll never make my living at this, it's just as well I live with a patron of the arts, hahaha!
My two hangings above, below Margaret Lacey's Dandelion's.
Grace Talbot's woven piece 'Global Warming'
Julie Chellingsworth's flower, no you cant buy it, it's sold!
The exhibition is coming down just after lunch on Friday, we've had lots of nice comments in the visitors book. Looking forward to the next Material Girls Exhibition, probably in 2012. I don't think it will have anything to do with the Olympics,it will probably be the only thing in London in 2012 that wont have!

OH NO SNOW!

The image is a piece of my work in The Material Girls Exhibition.
It's snowing here, large flakes are falling, I only hope they don't settle. Nothing has changed much on the condition of my Mum, she had a CT scan on Thursday and we have just over a week to wait for the results, it's such a long time. She is having good and bad days, I did call out her GP for a home visit on Friday as that was a really bad day, she was very dehydrated, it's not easy to keep a check on how much she's drinking when your not with her all the time, also she's not a child so it's not easy to make her drink. I took a day off on Saturday and did a bit of retail therapy..... my brother and his wife did shopping for Mum and spent time with her. Yesterday we went to see her in the morning and there was an improvement from Friday, I've spoken to her today and she's not so good, my brother is with her for part of the day today, I'm going tomorrow. It's good that we can look after her this way and support each other, the trouble is at the moment she's not actually getting any treatment as they really don't know what to treat her for! It's not easy being patient.
Last night after dinner Dave and I watched the first series of Gavin and Stacey, the whole 6 episodes, we didn't start watching the show until the 2nd series so now it all makes more sense. It's such a shame that there are no more being made, I can see why they stopped while they were at their peak, personally I hate shows that run and run like Last of the Summer Wine, but then I never found it funny when it first started, it's well past its sell by date!
Tomorrow I've got a meeting with Chrissythreads , The Material Girls are giving a talk to the Enfield branch of the Embroiderers Guild and we need to have a run through. Then I'm off to steward at the Exhibition, I'm hoping to get some photographs which I'll put up here. It will be good to go and have a look at the show again, apparently lots of bits have been sold which is really lovely.
I did have my assessment at the gym last week and it seems to be working, I didn't have a weight loss, but my overall body measurements have gone down by 7.1 inches, my blood pressure and heart rate have reduced too, just need to eat less and I'm on to a winner! The trouble is when I'm stressed not only do I knit socks I eat too. Speaking of food it's lunch time........

Meet the Maker

I didn't take more photographs of the work today lots of chatting. When I arrived at the gallery there was a class from a local school, they were doing the worksheets that Chrissythreads had devised and later they asked questions about our work. They all loved Jill's skeleton series, she even had one boy offering to buy a piece, he is going back with his parents! With permission from the teacher I took a photo of the class asking their questions, maybe a few budding textile artists amongst them who knows? It's such a shame that I cant show a picture of their faces and how bright and excited they were, but then I didn't take a picture of their faces! This gallery is a wonderful resource for the local schools, the children get lots of opportunities to see all sorts of exhibitions, I wish that it had been around when I was a child.

Meet the maker could have had more visitors but it gave us more time to chat to the people that did come.
I would like to say thanks to everyone that did come along last night and today your support is very much appreciated. I'd also like to say thanks for your comments on my blog, I'd better finish now before this turns into an Oscar speech......

Private View

I think yesterday can be declared a success!

Firstly I went to the gym,not sure I'll call that a success, I'll know what to call it after my first assessment tomorrow!!!!!Then it was off to set up The Material Girls exhibition, it's the third one that I've taken part in, the work is lovely even though I say so myself. When I was there I had to make numerous phone calls to find out when my Mum is to have her CT scan, finally I got to speak to someone. It's good I phoned as her appointment is on Thursday and no letter has arrived, I'm calling that a success(I'm being positive about all of this).Our visit to the consultant last week showed that her ovaries are clear but there is something on the liver, this has to be investigated?

Last night it was the private view of the exhibition 'UNSEEN', lots of lovely people came, fiends, relations, blogging friends and other textile people. A few pieces were sold from the exhibition. This year was the first time we had a sales table of cards and the usual sorts of things that you get at these events, I sold a brooch,success? Lots of nice comments about the work, success!!!

Today it's back to the exhibition again as we have a 'Meet the Maker' event, more of a chat and networking thing really. Then it's lunch with the Aqua-8 group and then a visit with my Mum as I didn't get to see her yesterday.

I hope to get better pictures of the exhibition today but these are the two pieces that were sold.



I must eat my breakfast, drink my coffee and go and pick up supplies for the event, all that chat will make us thirsty and biscuits would be nice!