I know......

I've not been blogging for a while but busy with lots of other things, a husband that has semi retired and a new puppy. She's another Miniature Schnauzer  we have named her Maisie.

We have named her Maisie, so apart from walking and enjoying having her and Betsy there has been a lot of holidaying and working on my textile projects for The Material Girls, so you can always keep up with whats happening over on their sites which I update on a regular basis (well I try)!

The Material Girls have an exhibition at a new venue for us, really looking forward to showing our work there.

Another chance to see this exhibition

There will be work here that wasn't shown in the previous exhibition.....

Hi - Anyone there?

 Not sure there is but here goes anyway......

The next Material Girls exhibition is over the May Day weekend a little disappointing that its only three days, the venue Essex Wildlife Trust Ingrebourne Valley has a huge foot fall so fingers crossed if we have good weather it should be a good exhibition. I don't usually show my work in full before the exhibition but on this occasion I thought I'd treat you!

Nest

Can you guess the bird?

Well?

Bird House

The Baby quilts I mentioned in the previous post are finished and labeled amazingly the two babies did arrive on the same day. A couple of days late Austin arrived on the morning of 2nd April and Imogen in the evening. I'm looking forward to seeing Imogen and having a cuddle on Saturday!

Easter Monday we were treated by my nephew David and his wife to afternoon tea, it was our Christmas present it took us a while to use the voucher. It was well worth the wait, we really enjoyed a lovely relaxing afternoon.

The second Friday of every month one of the Material Girls is artist in residence at National Trust Rainham Hall April was my first time, I took along the group project we are working on. A few members of the public sat down and joined me in stitching a hexagon, I enjoyed chatting with the visitors and talking about our work exhibited in the rest of the house.

Taking a bit of a break from stitching I'm trying to make a whole in my yarn stash by crocheting a blanket, the basket of yarn doesn't seem to be getting any smaller though.... oh well back to hooking!

At Long Last

There has been quite a wait not only since my last post here, but also for the complete body of work that The Material Girls completed last year for the exhibition at National Trust Rainham Hall to be shown. At long last it has been decided that as the exhibition space in  the BREW HOUSE still isn't ready our exhibition will be in THE HAYLOFT instead. But as they say all good things are worth waiting for (well I say that)....... every day the exhibition is open there will be a Material Girl working in the space so this makes it quite a different experience for me at least.

Apart from exhibitions being sorted and arranged for this year, I turned 60 on New Years Eve, what a few days we had as a family, I've mentioned before December is the Month of Birthdays in this family. The day before my birthday Rachel turned 30, so it was up to town (London) for lunch with the family, then all back to ours for lunch on my Birthday, we had planned to go out for lunch but we sprung a leak so needed to wait in for a plumber.

Seeing in the New Year was done at the 'local' where Dave and I used to go most evenings when we were courting (we spent so many evenings in there with 1/2 a lager each that the bar staff actually bought us a wedding present).

Unfortunately Rachel and I both managed to pick up a nasty bug probably on her birthday lunch, when it came to the Saturday and her birthday party at a pub in Hackney, well I don't know how we actually got through it, I was almost rattling with the pills I'd taken. Boy did I pay for it for almost a week after I was lets just say 'out of it'.

Just when it looked like 2016 was shaping up to be a completely S**t year for many more reasons than I can put on my blog, James and his beautiful girlfriend Annabell have got Engaged. We are so happy and pleased for them I can't tell you.

So fingers and everything crossed 2016 will be kind and everything will work its self out.

September into Autumn

September was an ideal month to spend a week in the Lake district, the end of summer thankfully weather was perfect.

Lake

Views

The views of the lakes and mountains were breath taking!

Dessert

Amazing Food

The food was more than tasty!

Cockerel

Being woken every morning by the handsome chap above not so great, but that's what happens when you stay on a farm!

Bobbins

Places to visit Stott Park Bobbin Mill.
Then we spent a few days in Malham,Yorkshire and a visit to Yarndale, plenty of lovely wool and lots of projects to keep me occupied over the cold winter months.

October National Trust Rainham Hall opened and the Material Girls exhibition was launched, not quite how we planned in the Brew House. The work is in the main house, mine is in the fireplace in one of the rooms on the first floor.

Delft Tiles

Georgian Coffee

Georgian coffee in the Lloyds Coffee house, I'm sticking to Latté in the cafe!

Conkers

Conkers to collect one of the lovely things about Autumn!

Cushion

It's not been all holidays and food I also managed some patchwork.

Putting on The Ritz!

Hello there, this is a very busy time for everyone. To be honest December is a bit of a nightmare for this family with all four of us having Birthdays in the same month, even though there aren't the children's parties to arrange anymore it seems harder.  It's difficult to get to see the two children (not really children any longer 33 and 29 this year) on their birthdays as they are out with friends and so we grab any opportunity we can and either see them before or after their day.  This year on Dave's birthday the four of us went for Afternoon Tea at the Ritz, nice it was too, very festive with the lavish decorations and the Carolers! With time to kill before our reservation at the Ritz we took a look in Fortnum and Mason, Rachel and James couldn't believe that I'd never been in there before. A few purchases were made so Christmas morning we'll be drinking posh (or expensive)  tea and coffee with our breakfast!

Fortnum and Mason

Cake and Sandwiches

Festive

Today I went along with the Material Girls to NT Rainham Hall for an update meeting with the Team at the Hall, take a look at the MG Blog for updates.

The Material Girls

Last week Chris and I went to talk to the 'People' at the National Trust to keep ourselves updated on the progress of the restoration work going on at Rainham Hall, this is the venue of the groups next major exhibition. There are lots of research trips being organised and meetings with historians and experts in all sorts of related fields. What with that and other things going on I have even managed to update The Material Girls website click here and have a look, theres still a bit to add so keep checking in.

Last week at class we started making a box, my least favourite thing but I have finished it, no photos until I show it to my tutor. Today the groups were visiting Art Van Go and I was really looking forward to it, I'd arranged for Betsy to be looked after for the day, so no need to rush back. Money to spend and a list of wants, then yesterday afternoon I felt my throat tickling, I had an early night and dosed myself up, but no at 4am I woke up with a sore throat running nose and a thumping headache....... I'm p'd off! I think that's an understatement to be honest. Really needed something to take my mind off things today, but never mind we cope don't we? Tomorrows another day and maybe I'll feel like getting on with some textile things and if I feel better by Thursday I can go to Excel and meet up with friends for a coffee and have a bit of retail therapy.

As I don't like a post without a photo, here's one from last week Betsy with all her walking friends, she's sitting waiting for her turn to get a treat. Mary is the dog whisperer as soon as she walks on the field all the dog flock to her as they know she'll have something special for everyone of them! This is only half the group, the others had taken their reward off to eat away from the gang.

Betsy sitting on the left her sticking up ears give her away!

Textiles in Focus

Yesterday I drove up to Cottenham with a car loaded up with half The Material Girls work for the 'Tales and Textiles' Exhibition. Chris, Julie and myself set up the exhibition with the help of Chris and Julie's husbands. It went up really well, it is all Chris's work, she knows how she wants it staged and we just have to carry it out, that works well for us. When we do  an exhibition we do have a rough idea of how it's going to look before we get to the venue, all the work is taken to Chris's and so we know what work is going to be exhibited and the size etc.

I can show you what I've been spending a lot of my time working on…. my work is focused on Japan. I dyed the fabric for the quilt at a Janice Gunner summer school and I've used Sashiko threads for the hand stitching and I also used machine quilting to give the quilt texture.

I made an altered book, I've never been a big fan of altered books but sometimes it's good to break out of your comfort zone and try something different. To keep in the Japanese style I had a go at writing Haiku, you won't find much but I gave it a try and the Haiku is written on the Origami butterflies.

On Sunday I'll be back at the exhibition to steward and at the end of the show to take it down and bring it home with other Material Girls. Then it'll be all over until the next exhibition, but lots of things coming up, I'm working on my City and Guilds and always playing catch up. And the Material Girls will be starting research for the next exhibition so it'll be all go again soon.

TO DO

Recently I have found my life to be a  TO DO LIST which gradually I'm ticking off, I think that's why I'm not motivated to blog at the moment. We bloggers know that it's not a thing that can be done in just a few minutes, we think about what we want to write. Then we write and probably if your like me edit and then write a bit more and edit again. It is then onto adding images, I'm not happy if my posts don't have at least one image (hopefully more), they have to be edited and with luck they appear in the right place, if not it can take an age to get them positioned in the right place. Oh! there is spell check, and why does blog spell check want to change 'bloggers' to loggers and 'blog'  to bog, log or blag ????

Anyway back to my 'To Do List'

1. Get up to date with City and Guilds Samples and design work- Getting There.
2. Finish work for Seeking Artemis Exhibition - Another three months should do it. - NO GOOD               ONLY 7 WEEKS BEFORE HANGING !!!!!! HELP
3. Pay for holiday in May - Done can't wait...... (hooray some sunshine at last)
4. Book holiday for later in year and decide where to go - Done booked a week in Southern Ireland***.

The list doesn't actually look so bad now I've written it down, I must have left a few things off!!!

A few things that have been done over the last few weeks. Dave and I went to see 'Les Miserables' the show not the film, we both really enjoyed it. I have the feeling that it's a show that's a bit like Marmite some people have said they loved it whilst others hated it, well I don't like Marmite but I loved the show.

Shaftesbury Avenue, London

While we were in London we  took the opportunity to visit the V&A and then the Brunei Gallery at SOAS to see the exhibition of World Eco Fibre and Textile Art (WEFT)  it was one of the best exhibitions I've ever seen. As we had hours to kill we wandered around the Piccadilly area, had dinner and strolled around China Town always a good place for people watching!

China Town, London

I've continued with the cooking of curries, baking bread and trying out different recipes every week. Last Friday the result wasn't quite so good when I managed to slice through my thumb,  it meant a trip to the emergency room, for over an hour it wouldn't stop bleeding! That evening we had take away fish and chips instead of the Mac and Cheese I'd planned. (How did my hands get so old?) No nasty comments to that question PLEASE.

I've changed my shopping habits too instead of having ALL the groceries delivered by Ocado, I've started going to a Butchers, Green Grocer and Fishmonger. I'm staying with Ocado for the time being  it's convenient, but will probably start shopping at the local Waitrose. Going from shop to shop is not as easy as doing the shopping sitting in the living room on the laptop and browsing, but I fancy a change. It has nothing to do with the recent Horse Meat in food situation, I very rarely buy ready meals and Waitrose has not been involved, (I think) but never the less I feel that the smaller individual shops should be used. I can't say local shops where I live since a large T***o opened the two butchers the bakers and the greengrocers have all closed.  I will travel a little way to do the shopping but I'm going to give it a try!

I've  joined a group of people who walk their dogs every morning in the local park/woods/ponds. Betsy is really enjoying it,  until we started meeting this group  I'd not let her off her lead. When I was on my own I worried that she wouldn't come back, so far it's been ok and she comes back when I call her. I think the fact that I have a pocket full of cheese helps. She is having a great time running around with  various sizes of dogs they range from a very tiny Yorkshire Terrier to a Long Coated German Shepherd and a Pointer and of course her best friend another Miniature Schnauzer Dizzie. It has been really muddy and all the dogs enjoy running through the flooded areas she comes home caked in mud and so do I, she then spends a lot of the day sleeping, but very very happy. It's a shame that I can't meet them every morning but sometimes life gets in the way and Betsy and I cant spend two hours running through the park and have a speed walk around the streets, but at least if we meet up with them three times in the week it's good and my walking boots are proving they were well worth their money. Next winter I'll buy some wellies but my boots are warm and I get to wear my hand knitted socks.

Dizzie wearing his coat, Betsy au natural, well she didn't
 want to get her posh coat muddy!

I'm still taking part in the photo challenge I posted about it in my previous post. I do put some of the images on Face book. It is a challenge too, I don't find it easy to keep to the list every day so I don't think I'll carry on into next month but at least I tried.....

*** We had planned to spend a Holiday this year on the West Coast of USA this year travelling up to Canada from San Francisco then to Seattle and finally Vancouver Island stopping along the way. The plan was to spend a few days on Vancouver island so we could visit the gallery where the Material girls and Articulation  will be exhibiting their Bridging Waters work. However we cant spend as much time away as we hoped and so plans have changed.
Be back soon.....

Textiles On The Hill

There is a post on The Material Girls blog all about  the weekends event and my images are over there, so please pop over for a look, but don't forget to come back, I'd miss you! Apart from being busy I did manage to buy a few things as usual from that temptress Denise from Craft Arena, and who could resist buying a couple of Helen Wilson's prints from The Material Girls Shop. And then to top it all I just had to buy Lynda Monks book and some of her foils, a weekend of bliss spent with lovely people and it was so nice to meet up with old friends ( I don't mean old, I mean friends I've known for a long time, they could be reading this!) and family especially the young ones..... I managed to get a cuddle while her Mum, Dad, Nan, Auntie and Uncle looked at the exhibits.  There was time to speak to a lot of new people some who said they read my blog so hello there, hope you enjoyed the day.

Ella with her Uncle James

Two Prints by Helen Wilson

Lots of Inspiration in Lynda's book!

Today has been a chill out day, a visit to the shops a bit of ironing, writing the blogs. Also I find it hard to believe that today is the second anniversary of my Mum's death, sometimes it feels as though it was yesterday and sometimes it feels as though she's been gone for ever, especially when something happens that I would love to have told her. For instance she would have been there this weekend and enjoyed it all and I know she would have helped in the kitchen making tea.  Then last week my daughter got a new job, the job she should have tried for when she graduated from university. Mum would have loved it all!

I should say thanks for all you good luck posts and those of you that were working or also exhibiting at the weekend I hope you enjoyed yourselves as much as I did!

You Know Where You Should Be.........

This weekend, No not laying on the beach drinking a cocktail or catching up on your gardening but here

And just so you don't miss anything

Textiles on the Hill Demonstrations


Saturday 26th May 2012

11.00 - 12.00 Beverley Folkard

12.30 - 1.30 Helen Wilson

2.00 – 3.00 Sara Impey

3.30 – 4.30 Chris Spencer

Sunday 27th May 2012

11.00 -12.00 Margaret Lacy

12.15 - 1.15 Lynda Monk

1.30 – 2.30 Janette Bright

2.45 – 3.45 Juliet Bryson

Hope to see you there!

A lot of Firsts

Last week we were on holiday, it was Betsy's first time away, in fact there were a lot of firsts. The first time she'd been into a pub, the first time she'd spent so long in the car and the first time she'd seen the sea. Everything was a great success apart from the sea, she wasn't at all impressed, mind you even though other dogs were going in for a swim I wouldn't have gone in either far to cold! We stayed in a cottage in Edingthorpe Green, Norfolk, the cottage was a  stable conversion attached to the owners cottage a former Forge, it  was beautiful. There were lovely walks through dedicated 'Quiet Lanes' not something we had ever come across before. There was a foot path to the coast, something we would have probably used if the weather had been a little better as it was a couple of miles. Instead we had a few lovely walks through Bacton Woods and visited a few other places that were dog friendly, I have to say we were really surprised how easy it was to find places that welcomed Betsy. She didn't let us down at all, we even sat in a pub restaurant and everyone said  how well behaved she was.  The only problem we had and it wasn't really a problem at all , the owners of the cottage have two elderly Jack Russell's and every time they left their cottage to go for a walk they barked, as dogs do Betsy needed to bark back! Our biggest problem was Betsy was woken up every morning at either 4.30 or 5.00 AM and I mean every morning, the sun shone straight through the skylight in room where she slept, after the first morning we brought her bed into our room once she was awake, she went back to sleep until 8. Thankfully now she's home she's back into her routine of waking up at 6, we've not started letting her into our room although I must say I'm tempted but Dave isn't, he thinks its the thin end of the wedge and once we start she'll be sleeping on the bed! Anyway that's enough of our week away apart from a few images......

North Sea a bit rough!

Norfolk is feeling yellow!

Holkham Beach 'You get your feet wet if you want to I'm not getting any closer'

All this walking and fresh air is very tiring!

Sandringham ' Is that a corgi heading my way?'

Crab salad

A very quick walk through a field of cattle at Blickling

Robin shares our afternoon coffee and cake at Blickling

View from window at cottage

Another view from cottage window into the garden

This week will be taken up with a few family things and baking cakes for next weekend.... yes it's 'The Material Girls - Textiles on the Hill'. A lot of hard work has been put into the event so I hope to see you there!