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.

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.

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..........

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?

NO2

Just got back from visiting my Mum, it was just me and my nephew David today. It was nice just the three of us chatting she was in really good spirits, she had her radio therapy this morning. The ambulance is booked to take her to the care home tomorrow morning. It will be easier for everyone when she's there, visiting will be unrestricted so we can pop in when we want.

There are four beds in the room she's been in for the last few weeks, it seems as though everyone is moving on this week. They are either going home or into a hospice, it's very humbling to see how these woman are coping with their cancer.



I decided that I needed some cheering up today so treated myself to some Tulip's.




For Mother's day Rachel gave me a Gerber, I've never had much luck with these before but fingers crossed this one seems to be lasting there are even new buds coming up......

Carrying on

Life is still not easy, I'm taking everyday as it comes. My Mum is doing well, as well as can be expected. She has finished taking the first course of Chemo tablets,in a couple of weeks she'll have a scan to see how things are going and then the doctors will decide if she should have another course. Today she is having Radio therapy, she is only having one treatment, this should help with her pain. Non of this is a cure but it is making her feel as though she is fighting! Today or tomorrow Mum is being moved to a Care Home, the home is really nice and isn't far from where I live. At first I was upset when she made the decision to go into a home but I can understand why she's made this choice. The home specialises in palliative care, and no matter how much I wanted to look after her I know I wouldn't be capable of doing it! Mum is making all these decisions herself and they are the right decisions for her.

In the meantime life is carrying on, I'm doing my best to keep things normal. I'm trying hard to finish the quilt that has been going on for ever, every evening I do manage to get a few stitches done! I've knitted a couple of scarves one from red Alpaca wool that I bought in Jersey, it's lovely and if this weather carries on I'll be wearing it soon! This scarf I'm keeping, I gave the previous one to Rachel as she said she liked it and I have knitted quite a few.



I'll have to start on the socks again, although I do have a glove pattern, maybe I'll have a look at. I've also done a bit of work on my Aqua project, I've finished a lino print block and hopefully over the Easter holidays there will be time to play, printing on paper and fabrics.

Time For A Catch Up

Things are not great with my Mum,she came out of hospital, but rapidly deteriorated and was re-admitted last Thursday. So much has happened in the last few weeks I cant post about it. Any way Mum is being very strong about everything, a remarkable lady, she knows that she has cancer in her liver and her bones. Today she told me that she has been offered Chemo therapy and the oncologist has told her this is not a cure, Mum is worried that she might loose her hair! I really don't know where she is getting all her strength from.

While she was being re-admitted to hospital I was in Jersey at the Textile show case with ERTF. My family were looking after Mum and persuaded me that I should attend as it had been booked a long time ago. Whether I would have gone had I known what would happen at home I don't know, Mum had said that I should go so I did! Up until Thursday I had a fantastic time, even then I had a good time as I did know that everything was being done that could be done by my brother, sister in law and my husband.

We all made our own way to Jersey, I flew from Gatwick, a good flight, it was my first visit to Jersey, it wont be my last. Every morning we met for breakfast, then we split to go to our workshops, then met again in the evening for dinner.
Sometimes there were a couple of ERTF on the same workshop, I really enjoyed the variety. The group knew what was going on at home for me and couldn't have been more supportive, without them I don't know how I would have managed!

My first workshop was with Louise Gardiner, this was a very lively workshop. For someone that says she cant draw it was very scary, Louise put on music and we had to close our eyes and draw on a piece of paper that she gave us with a pen to the rhythm of the music! The second exercise was to draw the person opposite without looking at the paper or lifting the pen off the paper My partner was Angela, if you look at her blog you will see her sketch of me!!!!!! I'm worried, I think I need a facial and must get rid of the green hair, it was the first time we had met, on her blog she says I've got a sense of humour, does she know me? I'll wait to see what your comments say......
Angela, she doesn't look like this honest........


I had an enjoyable walk with some members back from the glass church, Lalique I loved it! We took the bus there and walked along the beach back, it was really cold and windy.My next workshop was a whole day with double trouble, I played with the embellisher and have lots of ideas.ERTF had dinner with Jan and Jean it was great to sit and talk with them two very talented and lovely ladies.

We also had a whole day doing design with Gina, I had a really good day and yes Gina I have done more work in my sketch book.There was a Gala dinner, not really my sort of thing but never the less a lovely meal in our hotel.I did a workshop with Jean Moss 'knitting with beads', this workshop whilst very interesting not one I would repeat, I wish I'd done the free form knitting what ever that is? Saturday was a free day until flight time, so it was a wander around a craft market and a relaxing lunch. All in all a lovely week! Would I go again? Yes! A very friendly event, somewhere I would be happy to go on my own. The hotel was very comfortable, the only downside was that it as at the top of a hill, I was exhausted,I need to get back to the gym!

There is a good post about ERTF's Jersey trip on the ERTF Blog