Summer 2012

Busy summer, and we haven’t even been away anywhere.  When you live in beautiful Mid Wales, every day is like being on holiday!!

In brief, Mum had to move from a small care home that was very nice, but not able to deal with her, to a large home, nevertheless equally warm in atmosphere, but very much more organised and professional in managing her rapidly declining mental state.  She has regressed and often asks where her mummy and daddy are – but she is fairly happy and safe and well cared for.

I joined in Herefordshire art week aka H:Art, by putting the previously posted Woman on a Turtle quilt plus various handbags into a textile exhibition organised by the brilliant Drusilla Cole, for Aardvark books.  Met some fabulous artists and can’t wait for the first meet of the Marches Book Art group for inspiration and fellowship in what is becoming a growing interest of mine.

Now that Mum is cared for by others, I have a job – I am now Education Project Officer for The Quilt Association.  It is a brilliant local charity who collect and conserve Welsh quilts and other quilts, has an amazing exhibition every year that displays both antique and contemporary quilts in delightful contrast, and is now extending its brief into education.  We run our first introduction to patchwork and quilting next month and hope to progress to offering City and Guilds level courses.

I have been having a year of not buying fabric – I am not keen on building great stashes of unused anything and piles of fabric induce guilt rather than pleasure, so I feel more than happy in using up leftovers, or lengths that I have had too long and, quite often, no longer like anymore.  It is a strange thing that at one time you can love a fabric so much that you don’t use it because you are afraid that the project is not ‘good enough’ for your best beloved – and then next time you look, it fails to please – good job I don’t feel like that towards my husband!

Anyway, at the beginning of the summer I decided to do a user-upper.  It’s done and I am very happy with the way that a little bit of lots of different fabrics makes each one work with the others and even fabrics I actively dislike become a shimmering part of a greater whole.  Trouble is, my scrap box doesn’t seem any emptier.

The scariest bit was the layering as I had decided to make a pieced back and I thought it would be really really hard to line up back and front.  It went together strangely easily…

Knitting wise, I have just been to the DD base in Liverpool where I can use her proper ginormous dye vat to play and have now to finish off before I post, two jumpers knitted from undyed yarn.  Not undyed anymore – but more of that in the future!

I made another shawl using Posh yarn – Catherine in Summer’s lease

The pattern is an entrelac variation called Dianna, and a jolly good knit with stitch interest and speed!  Just finished the knitting of a Paper Moon hat in anticipation of the winter  – will post when stitched and buttoned.