Odds and ends

A drop of festive drink to warm you up; I've passed this recipe on to several people after serving it at my Christmas Open Studio. With no alcohol it's a good choice for anyone driving and is delicious.

Mulled Fruit Punch

1litre red grape juice

500ml cranberry juice

500ml orange juice

6 heaped tbsp demerara sugar

2 sliced lemons

2 sliced oranges

2 cinnamon sticks

6 cloves

1 heaped tsp garum marsala

Make a bag from a clean cloth and put the spices inside, tie up so that you can hang the bag in the pan. Put the rest of the ingredients in the pan and heat to just under the boil and simmer for 15 minutes, taste and add more sugar if needed. Enjoy!

I've found knitting therapeutic and once I'd worked out how to start this pattern (5 attempts!) I enjoyed the challenge. I bought the wool from baa ram ewe who had a stand at Ally Pally Knit and Stitch show; I really didn't need anything else to do but found myself going back to their stand, I loved the colours and chose these to knit this shawl; the internet proved useful for stitches I didn't know.

I worked out my stripes and it's nearly finished, just a few more ends to weave in and then I need to block the shawl. 

My print group met for our last printing day this year with a few Christmas goodies to help our printing along. I thought how my life has changed since I retired and discovered printmaking; a new creative journey for me and lovely new friends, time to spend with family; especially my two little grandsons which is precious time indeed. 

Both have a great interest in books and of course William likes to copy his big brother. 

I wish you all a brilliant Christmas wherever you are, I will be with my daughter and her family having fun.

Recently I swopped a print for a press, this is a dear little etching press which I will have fun with in the new year. I can use it for drypoint, monoprints and lino prints as well, only small ones but good to have at home to experiment and play with. 

Happy Christmas and let's hope 2015 will be a happy, healthy and creative year.

Busy, busy, busy, long time no posts!

Here we are in mid October and I've not written a post for ages. August was a quieter month with good family times, a time for reflection, thanks for health, family and every day.

Time for big Will to spend time with little William

and Barney 

before flying back to Oz on September 1st.

What a year this has been. Will is now in USA, holding meditation meetings, talks, inspiring people and promoting his book. All going well apart from collapsing and being taken to hospital; all OK now but a reminder that the journey continues.

My September was busy with Herts Open Studios, open for 3 weekends which were good although, as usual, quieter than Cambs open studios; taking work to a gallery in Long Melford - Jessica Muir, a great day at Gransden Show with a stand in the Craft marquee and a lot of preparation for an amazing print show in Cambridge. I was fortunate to take part in the inaugural exhibition of Cambridge Original Printmakers, 40 printmakers showing their work in the wonderful Pitt building right in the centre of Cambridge. The aim was to raise the profile of hand pulled printmaking, which it certainly did. There were talks and demos and a fabulous variety of techniques on show. Heaps and heaps of visitors over the 9 days made it all worthwhile and it was lovely to meet other printmakers new to me. I learnt a lot and made new friends. 

From this to..... 

 

to the private view. 

Friends Kate, Sue and Tracey. It was a great experience for us all. The chelsea buns from Fitzbillies over the road kept us all going!

Great news

My son had a brain scan a couple of weeks ago and this week we had a consultation with his oncologist. Waiting has been difficult but it was brilliant news, all clear with no sign of regrowth of the tumour; so the radiotherapy did it's job, hooray!

The next scan is in February, so he can get on with his life and I can get on with mine! He has recently self published his book 'Blessed with a brain tumour' and will go to Oz and then USA to promote the book.

His positive attitude throughout has been inspiring. He will be holding meetings, talking at conferences, life coaching and continuing to write, which he has always wanted to do. A complete change from his work fund raising for charities. All very exciting.

My Cambridge open studio went very well. This year I opened for 4 weekends and I had a lot of lovely visitors with good sales. 

The only photo I managed to take, my sister!

Another good happening was in the post, the RSPB are using my hare design as a Chr...... card (far too early to use that word). 

 

They are calling it Leaping Hare. They pay me for the licence to use the image. Another charity are also using one of my designs but I haven't seen the finished card yet.

I've only 2 of my Hare at Burrough prints left, it was a variable edition of 35, using different colours for the fields and sky. Sometime ago I handcoloured a woodpecker print and thought I'd do the same with a black and white version of the hare. It was fun getting my water colour paints out. This will be sold as a one-off unique print. 

I really enjoyed a recent 2 day stay in York with 4 college friends, we met at Wall Hall College of Education inSeptember 1966 and in recent times meet up every year. It was my first visit to York, what a lovely place. 

 

Here are Mary, Carol, Miz and Barbara exploring the Shambles area.

We had a fabulous tea in the Earl Grey Tea shop as well as going on a river trip, exploring the Minster of course and the Museum. 

I couldn't resist this roundabout! 

I was lucky to have 2 helpers in the garden the other day, both growing fast, Barney is now 4 and William is 17 months; both great characters. 

When life is difficult

Recently it's been a tough time for me personally and, more importantly, for my family. Afteer afew sleepless nights, talks with good friends and words of wisdom from my lovely son I decided I must channel my sorrow and fears.

So I screen printed some hare backgrounds which went wrong to start with but I perservered, printed some Hare in the snow prints

did some bad knitting (I really like it but can't do it evenly!) and ate jelly babies

started a new book 

looked after little William who spent much of the morning asleep on me - what a comfort.

I tidied my study -gosh, I can see the carpet!, framed myself a hare print -just for ME (part of looking after myself) 

I made my first cup of tea in my 1st mug design (selling well) 

All these simple pleasures over a few days helped me, as did Barney, grandson number 1 bringing me flowers he'd chosen himself 'to cheer Gaga up'. Wow, you had to smile at his wacky choice! 

How fortunate I am to have wonderful family and friends around me, including my dear son Will back safely in the UK, more of him next time.

Bits and pieces

Pepper the cat is making himself completely at home, he kept trying to catch my pencil as I tried to do some sketching - unsuccessfully (the sketching that is)!

I'm really a dog person although until 10 years ago I'd always had both, but Pepper has such a personality I find him endearing. My previous cats were called Theobalds 1, 2, 3 and 4 (pronounced Tibbles) and I find myself calling Pepper Tibbles or Mr. Tibbs which reminds me that he IS a he! I know now for certain I won't have another dog; a cat is so much easier and as my life is now I don't need the responsibility of a dog.

Some work in progress, I'm enjoying making this wall hanging using screen printed fabrics, some I printed last year. I'm considering some more machining maybe, which you can't really see in this photo!.

I'm part of a mini print exchange that Lesley http://printedmaterial.blogspot.co.uk/ has organised and have enjoyed planning a small piece of work; of course I'm not going to show what I'm up to!!

The grandchildren continue to delight. We took Barney to Standalone Farm in Letchworth, he's not usually shy in front of the camera!

Having fun with water, making tea I think!

Brother William is growing fast, now 9 weeks old and weighing quite a bit more than Barney did at 4 months; being full term makes life much easier.

Last week a friend and I went to The Bramble Patch in Weedon to join a Stephanie Redfern 2 day course. We had a lovely time and my next post will be all about it; I've not had time to finish my piece yet. Day 1 was printing/ painting fabrics and papers, great fun.

New baby!!

The last couple of weeks I've been feeling a mixture of excitement, anxiety and anticipation, as the due date for the birth of my daughter's 2nd baby approached. This is the hat I knitted for the baby (unknown gender), the pattern was from Gina.

 Barney was born by emergency C section at 33 weeks but to our great relief this baby stayed in!! He was born in a great rush on Feb 18th at 3 minutes before midnight, just 3 minutes before the due date.

After a few days in hospital, his first minutes at home and first cuddle with his big brother.

Barney is so excited about his baby brother, William Henry, and is so sweet with him. A few ups and downs but both proud parents and baby doing well. As for Granny, or Gaga as I'm known, I'm excited and very tired!! An emotional and busy time.

Deadline met.....

Yesterday I completed my major on-going project - hooray. I'm not sure when I started this quilt, probably about 8 or 9 years ago. It is based on an old family strippy quilt from Cumberland that I have on my table in my studio. I just love this old quilt and think of my Granny and her sisters sewing by oil lamp in their farmhouse at Stanger, just south of Cockermouth. I think it was made in the 1870/80's.

Most of the blocks are 'designed' in some way,



a few are more random. It's a great example of the fabrics my family were wearing and using.

 While I was teaching full time I had little time to be creative, it took me a long time to put this blue quilt together and then it would come out in the winter sometimes to do some quilting. Goodness knows why I decided to quilt it by hand.....oak leaves and acorns echo my love of the countryside and it has been good to keep my legs warm in the winter when I remembered to get it out!! (I do know that acorns don't grow on stalks, it's artistic licence!)

 Discovering it again in November I counted that I only had 20 big triangles left to quilt, out of a total of 60 large and 20 small triangles, so I set myself a target of finishing it by the end of the year.

After all the hand quilting I felt that the panels needed some machine quilting; the zig zags echo the 16 block and I also zig zagged above the border. It was obviously meant to be, I've just looked at the old quilt and it is hand quilted all over in a zig zag pattern, I'd not noticed before!

This is a border that I will NEVER do again. A double quilt makes a big 'sandwich' to handle and zig zagging accurately all round the edge on the machine, turning it the  right way out and clipping to make the zig zag edge look good took AGES, but I'm glad I persevered.

At some stage I got bored with oak leaves and quilted 4 hearts on a block in the corner, so of course I needed to quilt 4 hearts on the other 3 corner  blocks, then the blocks in the middle of each side... and last of all the block right in the middle of the quilt, plus my initials and the date. The hearts symbolise all the love and work that's gone into it, and the love of my family.

 Pulling out all the tacking was great!!

FINISHED
 all I have to do is think of a name.

On a similiar subject, my beautiful daughter Louise is 32 weeks pregnant; there have been a few ups and downs and recent trips to the Rosie, but all seems well now; I am crossing my fingers for a February birth.
 I also have my wonderful son visiting from Oz for 3 weeks via north and south America; part of his healing journey following diagnosis of a brain tumour on February 26th 2011. It has been a bit of a roller coaster for us, especially with Will so far away but has brought much love and healing to our family in other ways. He is deeply spiritual and philosophical (as well as loving wine, women and song!) and decided to heal the tumour through natural methods rather than have the operation. He is wonderfully well, scans last summer showed no further growth and he views it as a gift, which has shown him how to lead his life, sharing his experiences and helping others.
 He is writing a book and has a website  http://www.blessedwithabraintumor.com This all sits well with his work in recent years, fund raising for charities.

 

I leave you with 2 pictures of Barney, knitting!! and wanting more Christmas pudding and rum butter (another Cumberland influence, delicious; I've inherited the rum butter bowl that was used at Christenings, filled with rum butter and served with oat cakes).

 I feel very blessed to have my family around me.

 I wish you all a wonderful, creative, healthy and happy 2013.