Thursday 29 April 2010

Finished

I said yesterday that I'd be finishing the bag and dah, dah! here it is.


The colours are a lot better in the flesh, the lining is make from cotton that I dyed last summer using dyrect dyes in the microwave.

For a good discription of the weekend at Belstead see dianehobbit

Wednesday 28 April 2010

This Week

The weekend was lovely, good weather, good food, good company and most of all a good tutor.

We spent the weekend with Yvonne Brown she was really very generous with her knowledge and I for one came away very happy,above two images of the pieces I did. I've stitched my bag together and plan to get the lining sewn in this afternoon, image to follow. I have lots of ideas for new projects, heat gun and soldering iron will be in there somewhere! The other group where making Maio books, everyone had a lovely time, the problem is how to follow this weekend and getting someone else to organise it next time, I've organised this event twice and it's time for a break!

Yesterday I went to the Art Quilt Group I belong to T2T, we are working on a challenge.

I received my membership to the V&A today, I'm planning on a visit very soon.



Thursday 22 April 2010

Belstead Weekend

It's ages since my last post,The Material Girls had a meeting last week. I was really pleased when Chris and Grace announced that we have been offered the chance to exhibit next year in the Harbour Gallery, during the Jersey Textile Showcase, BRILLIANT!!!!! What a good excuse to go back again.
I've started working on my samples, we need to get the work more or less completed by this summer. Not sure about this one(see picture), I need to try something else. This was a lot of work, maybe I'll forget the hand stitching and see how I get on with machine embroidery. I do like to do machine embroidery but always steer towards hand stitching, why?


I visit Mum every day, she's getting tired very quickly. Last week her arm was very swollen and after a visit to the hospital it was discovered that she has a blood clot in her arm, this is being treated, but remains very swollen. She is always in very good spirits, we are really lucky to have such a large supportive family and very good friends. Some days Mum has 10 visitors, not all at the same time but spread out through the day. This I think makes her tired, but she says 'they only sit and chat', who am I to say that they shouldn't visit, when she wants to see them all.
At the weekend I'm off with a group of ladies from Romford Embroiderers Guild, we also have two members from Basildon branch and I've got some of my friends from Chelmsford branch joining us. One of my friends lives in Spain she emailed at the beginning of the week, it was doubtful she would be able to get here. Yesterday she managed to get a flight and is here, hooray! Sadly one of the members Mum lives in San Fransisco and always flys over to join us, she hasn't managed to get here. All these problems caused by the volcanic eruption in Iceland. I'm looking forward to the weekend, I'm booked into a class with Yvonne Brown. The other tutor is Ruth Smith and she will be doing folded books with stitched covers. Belstead is a great place for a weekend of good food and stitching from morning till night, hopefully I'll come back rested.
It is unbelievable to think that so much disruption has been caused by the volcanic dust. We have reconsidered our holiday plans and have today cancelled our holiday in Lanzarote. We will now have a few days away in this country. I'm thinking maybe the Gower Peninsula, Lanzarote will be there another time. There is no way I would have relaxed, the thought that I couldn't just jump in the car and get home in a few hours was just not on.
If the situation with my Mum was different we would have gone, but as things are I think we've made the right decision.

Saturday 10 April 2010

A Promising Start

I woke up this morning the sun was shining and I was looking forward to a lovely day. Dave put the coffee pot on and as I'd done the house work yesterday we could have a relaxing morning. I finished a scarf that I have been knitting with wool I purchased when I was on my Jersey break. This one is Manos Silk Blend, yesterday I remembered a set of handmade buttons that I bought about 10 years ago and came across recently, they would look lovely with the colours in the scarf, I went into my work room and opened draws, looked in boxes and bags, can I find the buttons? No I cant! Any way I'd already decided that I wanted to put button holes on the scarf and I did buy a pack of buttons on Jersey and I think they look OK, so now this is my 'Jersey Button Scarf'.





After lunch I went to Romford Embroiderers Guild today Gina Ferrari gave a talk about her work, everyone enjoyed it and not one fell asleep and I have to be honest that is rare, so well done Gina!!!

Dave came to pick me up so we could pop in to see Mum, she was asleep when we arrived. This often happens, I hate to wake her but don't want to leave without her knowing that we've been. I did wake her and we had a chat, her neighbour's visited this morning with their children. She is so amazed that people come to visit!

After such a promising start things then went downhill Dave said he had a head ache and had already taken some pills. We were due to go out for dinner this evening, instead poor Dave is tucked up in bed with a migraine, the table cancelled and I had cheese on toast for dinner. And no his migraine isn't caused because he's married to me..........

Friday 9 April 2010

Easter Bunny, going, going, gone!!!!!!


Things have settled into a sort of routine here, my Mum moved into a nursing home the Thursday before Easter and is very happy. The nurses are very kind to her, the food is good and she is getting lots of visitors. So it seems as though she made the right decision for her.

Easter was fairly quiet Rachel came home for the weekend, and we had a couple of family meals. On Saturday we went to Barleylands and craft arena, I got some of the things I need for a weekend workshop I'm doing with Yvonne Brown, I'm really looking forward to that.

Tuesday there was an Aqua-8 meeting, I think I know where my work is going and I'm going to do more samples.

James and Becky gave Dave and I a mug each, full of Lindt chocolate bunnies, still lots left! I can get a whole one in my mouth in one go, is that wicked, or is it better to bite the head off first?