Sabbatical

I made the heady decision that I would take a sabbatical for a month from blogging... and so here I am exactly a month later and back again. I have missed you all very much......





Its has been an exciting and enjoyable month of activities with lots of stitching and artwork. My original thinking for the sabbatical was not to mention what I had been doing over the last month on the blog, but I have found that difficult as I treat this blog like a diary for my own information. So I am just creating an update of the past month. A couple of birthdays needed to be celebrated, the first one was a five year olds and the other was a celebration of four cousins all born in the same year. We were last photographed together in our mothers arms as babies... I will look for that photo and try and add it in to the blog.... but here is the up to date photo.






We met over a weekend here in Swindon, and had a great time and lots of reminiscences.... we visited Steam for the BBC's Remembrance event and also went for a visit to Faringdon where our shared Grandmothers parents' lived for a while. Now to get back to stitching done this month.. and quite a lot of playing has gone on too.



The meeting of the GWE this month was really good fun and we stitched all day and we intend to do the same next month. We had the opportunity to report back about the West Country Embroiderers AGM in Exeter that took place just before. A lovely day and we were so impressed by the friendly and welcoming atmosphere. We treated ourselves to travelling by train... .. so relaxing.



Back in Swindon the week later I had a most enjoyable talk about peg looming at the AGM of the Swindon Branch of the EG



and at Marlborough Sian Martin gave a talk and workshop with Shibori.



It is ages since I worked with Sian and also ages since I played with Shibori. Needless to say I had a really good time and enjoyed myself immensely as you can see by my samples.



The masterclass weekend at Urchfont was tinged with sadness, as Julia Capara our mentor had died on the 24th October, we all missed her enthusiastic support for our work and her inspirational advice. The view from my room over the parklands of Urchfont Manor seem an appropriate image, however I suspect it is not colourful enough for Julia.



I was pleasantly surprised to see that my "Art in the Garden" contribution is featured in the new prospectus.. ... gave me that lovely warm fuzzy feeling. Julia was so supportive about us taking part in this outside exhibition. She had hoped to exhibit with us and you may recall the private view was in May 08, unfortunately she was too ill to finish her piece of work. So it was with some sadness we took our work down and away on this weekend at the end of October. I have to say considering my work had been outside on a sunny wall for one of the worst summers for years... the work looks the same as the day I hung it for the exhibtion. Amazing.



We focused on Drapery over the Urchfont weekend, artfully draping some white silk in preparation for some observation drawing. I decided to create a homage to Julia and recorded my drapery in a spectrum of colour rather than white..



Now this would not be a proper UK blog without mentioning the weather would it??
We have had some wonderful sunsets and some quite warm spells... but generally a very mixed bag of tricks. Today it has been sunshine and hail and a very cold and biting wind, not a day to venture out.




Back to the stitching. More recently, I had a last minute call from Gill....... could I please give a talk to her WI group for her , as she had forgotten she had to go to Paris? What a wonderful group of ladies they turned out to be at Avening WI. I had a wonderful time... we stitched by hand with lots of attitude!!! What fun, and very much a hands on practical type talk. I understand I am visiting them again next May and we are going to do some crochet. Really looking forward to it.



Last Sunday I visited Lydiard House which is only a few miles away, they had a small exhibition of the clothes from the family who owned the house. Most interesting, but could not resist taking some photos of the grounds. Here is the view over Swindon, I had not seen Swindon from this angle before.



However some of the trees in the parkland were beautiful.



So in true Disney fashion
That's all folks!!
Well for today anyway.