RHS Hyde Hall - Last Day in May

After a busy  and sad week. Yesterday Rachel came over for lunch, James and Becky visited in the afternoon for coffee and cake, the weather was really lovely and we sat in the garden. Today with Diane and Jacqueline, I went to RHS garden Hyde Hall, we visit this garden on a regular basis. Good company and lovely gardens, a jacket potato and Ginger Beer for lunch what more could you want. The weather forecast of thunder storms and rain, kept away until I was on the drive home!

1. RHS Hyde Hall, 2. RHS Hyde Hall, 3. RHS Hyde Hall, 4. RHS Hyde Hall, 5. RHS Hyde Hall, 6. RHS Hyde Hall, 7. RHS Hyde Hall, 8. RHS Hyde Hall, 9. RHS Hyde Hall

Some of My Favourite Places

1. Arizona, 2. Gull on Skye, 3. Skye, 4. Brecons, 5. Llangranog, 6. Rose Hip Hyde Hall, 7. Fall in Maine, 8. Nelson's Dockyard- Antigua, 9. Thames Walk Limehouse

I've been trying to work out how to make a Mosaic using my flickr images for ages, mucking about on the laptop tonight, I've come up with this! Not quite right yet but I'll get there,

Out for Lunch!

It's been a really busy week lots of stitching trying to get the second baby quilt finished, photos when both are completed. Thursday evening I met Dave and Rachel in London and we went to Chris Spencer's Graduation show at a gallery in Shoreditch, a 'trendy' part of East London. The gallery was packed it was so hot, I didn't worry too much about looking at the work, I knew I'd be back the following day! The three of us then went to S&M (Spitalfield's) for dinner, it was lovely to see Rachel as I've not had a chance to catch up with her since Dave and I came back from our holiday.

By Christine Spencer

Friday it was back on the train to London, (I don't know how I did that every day) I met with the rest of the Material Girls and had a good look at all of  the work. Chris's work is lovely, but the light in the gallery didn't do it justice 'in my opinion'. As for the rest of the work, some I loved some, some I liked and one ? But that's what 'ART' is all about isn't it? Then it was out for lunch, back again to Spitalfield's with the Material Girls, Janette Bright, Lesley Turner (there are images of the show on Lesley's blog), Ingrid Lincoln the later two are from Articulation and two of Chris's co-graduates. We had a long and leisurely lunch, nice food and lots of chat. It was really lovely to meet Lesley as I've read her blog but it's nice to meet in person. Ingrid and Lesley will be graduating next year so I'm looking forward to visiting their show. The Material Girls and Articulation are joining together for an Exhibition 'Bridging Waters' in 2012 in London, the work will be traveling to Canada in 2013, really exciting!

Jill Material Girl-Janette, Lesley

Yesterday I attended a workshop in Chelmsford run by Lynda Monk, it's the second workshop of Lynda's I've attended. If I get a chance I'd attend a third, fourth........ 

Images of my work above, I have a book that's in the process of being finished too!
For more images see Sharne's blog . 

Did I get a chance to put my feet up today no! Out shopping, well a girl can never have enough shoes, lets hope these don't cause blisters!!!!!! I hope they don't I've two trips into London planned for this week!
 Oh yes! My back is so much better, going back for another session tomorrow. And the work still hasn't appeared and no reply. Thank you for your comments on that, it does help. I'll wait for the Karma!

Kiss it Goodbye?

The watering system for the garden seems to have worked well while we were away, a cucumber plant has suffered,but that's all.It's probably because they were put out a bit early.This weekend we had a salad that included lettuce and radishes from the garden. Some of the flowers suffered a bit but a few evenings of watering and they have recovered.

Wisteria

Princess Diana Rose

In March I  was really pleased to have two pieces of work in the Jersey Textile Showcase, one in an exhibit with The Textile Group that I belong to Material Girls and one with a group of Textile Artist from various parts of the country. The work was returned from the Material Girls and we'll be using it in another exhibition later in the year. I was hoping that I'd also be able to make use of the other piece of work, BUT I've emailed, spoken to the person that organised the exhibit face to face at a textile conference, she assured me it would be posted to me, another member of her group has my piece, after a few weeks STILL nothing! I emailed still nothing then sent a text message so now after two weeks no reply to that either! Is it me am I too trusting, this is a person that I thought I new. I think I'll have to mark it down to experience and this piece of work is lost, I'll never trust this person again. I feel completely let down and betrayed, if she would just reply to my emails or text, in my opinion it's bad manners not to let me know whats happened to MY work! This is the work that I've kissed goodbye!

In previous posts I've mentioned how my back has been giving me a lot of pain for 10 weeks! The day before we went away it started to really hurt again and I went to the workshop in awful pain, but thought if I couldn't attend that how could I fly on a plane for 4 hours. When I got up the next day it was so much better, during the holiday it seemed to improve, but since I've been home it has been getting worse. Today I bit the bullet and phoned for an appointment at a Physiotherapist, I went this afternoon and apparently it's nothing serious but does need sorting out. At the moment it feels quite painful which is normal..... he thinks I'll need about 3 or 4 sessions, it would have been better if the GP had referred me 8 weeks ago when I asked if I needed a Physio, I even said that I would pay! Oh well, things are looking up, apparently I should go back to the gym, so next week....

If you happened to be in Topman Oxford Circus, London on Saturday you would have heard my son and band member Andrew, they were guest DJ's for the afternoon, just thought I'd share that bit of information. Their band has released it's second album and they are played on BBC radio and even were played on Radio 2!

Holiday Holiday Part2

I've been away....... but the day before I left I attended a workshop at Lady Bugs it was Trapunto, Italian corded work, French cording and English Quilting with Sylvia Critcher. I made a Spring Flowers pin cushion it was almost completed by the time I left the class. It needed to be quilted the back sewn on and stuffed which I did today. I can never resist, I had the idea of taking a cushion to stitch on holiday so bought two kits, then the thought of the cream fabric, suntan lotion mix didn't seem such a good idea, so the kits stayed at home!

Now the holiday.... Dave and I have been to  Lanzarote for 7 days of laying by the pool of the villa we'd rented. This year we decided that we'd see a bit of the island unlike last year when we only left the villa  in the evening for a walk to the harbour for dinner. So we visited Timanfaya National Park a volcanic mountain, some wonderful formations made by the lava flow, we ate lunch in a restaurant where they cook on the heat provided by the volcano! On the way to the park there were camels giving rides to the tourists, no we didn't.... what with my back?

Volcanic Crater

Lava Flow

Lava Flow

On another day we took a ride out for lunch and sat at a beach side cafe and had Limpets (not something I'll eat again) I've told Dave that he's become very clingy ever since he ate them! The jokes wearing a bit thin now so that's the last time I'll use it. The baby sardines, canarian potatoes and mixed salad were much more to my taste.

Limpets with Green Mojo

Apart from that we sat by the pool reading books and soaking up the sun, a really relaxing holiday. We are going back again in a few weeks, next time we'll have our family with us so not so quiet I expect!

Holiday -> Holiday

It's one holiday after another, Easter was spent doing the garden and spending time with family. Diane, I did succumb to the chocolate but not lots, I was very restrained. I did buy an ice cream maker, there's been experimenting with frozen yogurts and next I'm going to try sorbets. No images the frozen delights don't  last long enough!

Friday I spent much of the day watching THE WEDDING on the tv, there's nothing about the occasion that wasn't perfect. The dress was beautiful, the lace on the dress was beautiful, the music, the service I loved it all. The Duke of Cambridge doesn't scrub up bad either does he? I'm glad they stuck to the tradition started by his parents with the kiss on the balcony. LONDON did it's self proud and shone, Dave said that a week or so ago the streets around St James' were being steam cleaned. I think we all hope that they will have a long happy marriage.

The vegetable garden is coming along, the seeds I put in are coming up after a bit of a hiccup, the first lot of seeds were eaten or thrown all over the plot by the two wood pigeons that like our garden! But you learn by your mistakes and this time I covered the seeds with a net until they started to come up!

Some plants cleared, but before raised beds moved

Raised beds in position and planted

Now just water and wait

I've persuaded Dave to invest in a watering system, last year he tried running a system from the water butts but it drained the system so quickly that it was next to useless. Water is precious so we'll use the rain water for watering by watering can, hopefully this system will use less water. Here are some images of established plants in the garden that are growing well, despite the slugs eating the pink lily of valley's leaves!

As for my creative work, I've sewn together the baby quilts that I think I've mentioned before, I've almost finished hand quilting one of them, images when it's completed. I've also decided a few things over the last couple of weeks,  I'm not going to continue going to the  quilting group that I returned to last September. The group meets in the evening, it's the group that I used to attend before I did my City and Guilds, although they are a lovely group of ladies and I'll miss them, the evening they meet on is always difficult for me, so it's time to leave. Work for the ERTF Concepts and Meanings should be put in for selection in the next few months, I've decided not to put anything forward. The reason for this is, if we are getting a puppy in September, it coincideds with the Exhibition and it wouldn't be fair to leave  a young dog alone. If I was lucky enough to get my work accepted I would need to steward the exhibition and this would involve staying away for one or two nights, Dave would be at work all day,  sometimes things have to give. This means I'll have more time to concentrate on other projects that are being planned.

This Air Ship has been flying over our house for the last month, it is flying from a small airstrip about 1 mile from here. Apparently there have been photographs taken from it in the national newspapers, views of London. Becky says she's seen it as far down the River Thames as Tilbury. Personally I think it's checking on the changes being made on my 'estate', so look out in the gardening magazines and publications for updates on my gardens progress! It does fly quite low, and it's not a quiet as you might think.