holiday in Cornwall

Have tried to post a photo but blogger doesn't seem to want me to. Really annoyong as I have only just got back onto the blog. Found that they were using the wrong e mail addressto let me log on. Anyway we had a lovely week in the West country both in Devon and Cornwall.

problems

Still wont let me post a photo

recovery

Think I have recovered my blog but not sure. If this posts then I might be half way there.

changes

It is ages since I blogged but that is because Google seem to change things everytime I try to add a new post. I suppose it is for security but it doesn't make things easy.
We had a really busy end to 2013 with the World premier in Swindon of Atlantic Odyssey then helping our youngest Daughter move into her new house so Christmas was a quiet affair.
We are now busy planning our trip to Australia and New Zealand in April/May. Watch this space for details.

Atlantic Odyssey Exhibition

Pictures from our exhibition. Top shows Michael Librettist, me, The Mayor, Suzanne and Robin composer.
The two hangings are Sedna and Yemeya sea goddesses and the bottom photo is a general view of the Exhibition. It was officially opened by the Mayor of Swindon on Wednesday and the Exhibition runs until 4th October at the Link Centre Library in Swindon.

Atlantic Odyssey update plus mums death and weddings!!!!

Three pictures today. The first shows the selection of bags that I shall be giving to the Indian ladies at our sons'wedding next week when he marries Deepti. The pink bag is for the bride and the emerald green one is for her mum. Not sure who will be getting the others. they have taken a few weeks to make . The design was taken from a stone carving at the Red Fort in Agra. They are made from layered polyester organza fabrics, free motion machine embroidery with some layers cut back, then hand embellished with beads and sequins.
We had a brilliant launch for the Atlantic Odyssey on 19th July. Graham Appleton from the BTO gave us a really interesting and inspiring talk about the Arctic Tern and how they are learning more about it all the time and it's migration habbits. The third photo is of the poster and you can order tickets for the event from our website at www.swindonchoral.org.uk .We got home after the evening and just after midnight the phone rang and it was the news that my mother had passed away 20 minutes before. She had been failing for some time and we had seen her just a couple of weeks before so I wasn't upset that I hadn't been there. She was surrounded by people who loved her and she went peacefully. She was a celebrity where she lived on Canvey Island having got the MBE in 1993 for her work in the Community. There is a lovely piece about her on the website
www.canveyisland.org
The photo shows her at her 90th birthday dinner surrounded by her grandchildren and Fraser her adored great grandson. 
Her funeral is next week and it is going to be quite a send off. The vicar has made sure of that.

Here is our wonderful logo for Atlantic Odyssey designed by one of the members of sSwindon Choral Society. It shows an Arctic tern in flight having scooped up a fish. We got the score for the piece last week and sung through the first section. As usual Robin Nelson has excelled himself with his composition. I have started work on the fourth wall hanging and hope to have six done by the Concert. There will be an exhibition about the work throughout the whole of September in the Link Centre Library. West Swindon when they will  be on show along with photographs and details of the project.
Geoff and I have just spent a few days in York. we heard on the news about the gathering of the Mallard and the remaining trains of it's class and just had to go there to see them. I booked an hotel on the internet which when we got to it we found a complimentary box of Thorntons Chocolates on the four poster bed and also a complimentary mini bar that was re stocked every day. As well as seeing the trains I went to the National Quilt Museum and also an exhibition by the Diverse Threads group a real bonus.

Atlantic Odyssey Project

Here are the first of the wall hangings that I am working on to go with a Choral Work entitled Atlantic Odyssey, a journey through music which Swindon Choral Society will be performing on 20th October at St Peters Church , West Swindon. The music is composed by our musical director Robin Nelson with words by Michael Polack and is inspired by the migration of the Arctic terns who do the longest migration  of any bird. They fly round the Atlantic Ocean from pole to pole, a truely epic journey.
The sunset hanging has a background of hand dyed silk which I have quilted. The birds are cut from pelmet vylene and I hope that they will be suspended in front as a mobile with a filmy piece of fabric over the top, the idea being that their shadow will fall on the background and they move in a slight breeze.
The same goes for the attacking terns.
to find out more about the project go to the Choral Society website at
www.swindonchoral.org.uk

latest news!

I Just can not believe that it has been four months since I have blogged. That's facebook for you. So much has happened. Mum is nicely settled into her new home and we are now thinking about clearing her old home and getting it on the market. The photo is of a piece of felt I have just made and turned into a book wrap. I am giving up felt making as it is getting to hurtful on my neck. My most exciting piece of news is that I shall be teaching again in Australia next year and am busy working out a schedual and workshops. I shall be starting off in the Blue Mountains teaching for TAFTA the travelling round.
  This year I have plenty of talks and workshops booked starting off in Cambridge in March and also have to look forward to our son's wedding in August. After years of performing with the Gilbert and Sullivan Society I have dropped out this year.

Rainbow squares and MUM

Well since coming back from Australia my feet have hardly touched the ground and we are beginning to wonder what our house looks like. Mum celebrated her 92nd birthday on 27th August and two weeks later had a fall and decided that she no longer wanted to live on her own. She is now in a really lovely residential home and seems really happy there. Considering she was always insistant that she wasn't going to go into a home it was a great relief to us that she decided herself that was what she wanted.
The photos are of my contribution to our Branch of the Embroiderers Guild Rainbow Squares. I managed to get our members to produce enough for two strips of 12 but I got rather carried away with mine.

 Two days on the trot blogging. Got a real buzz when I saw this sign at the end of the road for my workshop. Didn't use the facilities though. I can not help thinking of that famous aussie song 'there's a redback on the loo seat'
Mind you we have only ever seen one that a cousin retrieved from under a stone for our daughter Clare to see back in 1997.

Just four photos from my Australia trip. The one at the top shows some of the ladies of the New South Wales Embroiderers Guild HQ who I had the privilage to meet. Those of you who are artists will appreciate why I chose the next two photos and the last one is of the bowls produced by the group of textile artists who took my class in Moruya. In spite of the cold we had a wonderful time, meeting relatives who had only been names to us before and meeting like minded textile people. One of the highlights of the trip was the kamakazi Kookabura who used to fly into our cousins window then fly back to its tree laughing and waiting to be fed. We never did manage to get a photo of it actually crashing into the window, it was just too quick.
I also picked up a guitar and played it after not playing for fifteen years. In Junee I played a couple of songs with the Tin Shack Rattlers!!!!
We became the vertical bowling champions in the Junee licorice factory beating the Aussies!!!
I visited an Embroiderers Guild branch at Mount Eliza on the Mornington Penninsula. it was lovely to see that they do much the same kind of embroidery as we do in the UK although they possibly don't have quite as easy access to supplies as we do.
We did a lot of travelling and it now seems a lifetime ago.

Beetle, tree trunks and holidays!!!!

I have spent the last two days photographing some of my work so that I can show them to my friends in Australia. After a year of planing we are finally ready to head off next Tuesday for five weeks in Australia. We start in Sydney then go to Batemans Bay, Junee, along the route of the Murray River to Bendigo.
Then spending a week on the Mornigton Peninsula in a place called Rosebud before heading to Melbourne for the last three days. Most exciting is that I have been invited to visit the HQ of the NSW Embroiderers Guild while we are in Sydney to meet some of the members and be shown around. What and honour. I am really looking forward to that.

Here is a photo of the results from theWarrington branch of the Embroiderers Guild Venetian Purse workshop that I taught last Saturday. Most of them had nearly finished but the two who actually finished had never done any free machine embroidery before. I was delighted with them all and hope that I shall be able to post some pictures of the finished pieces before too long if they send me their photos. I started off the few days in Chester giving a talk about my Venetian work to the Chester EG. Geoff and I thought that it would be fun in the afternoon to walk the city walls. Well we got soaked as the heavens opened right at a part where there was no shelter.
Luckily I had dried off by the evening. We then stayed with Brian at Newcastle under Lyme where it was too wet the next day for him to get outside painting as he had wanted his dad to hold the ladder for him.
We spent friday in Liverpool where I was able to relive my misspent youth going around the Beatles experience.It brought back some really happy memories. I was also fortunite to catch a wonderful embroidery exhibition in Liverpool Cathedral.
As Liverpool was mainly shrouded in fine rain I want to go back and see more of it as it looks a wonderful city and well worth exploring.
A lot has been happening in the last few weeks. Clare eventually has moved out having found a really nice house to share with a friend. She is not too far away but at least she has her independance.
 Not long now until we head off to Australia. I have got one class to teach out there which I am really looking forward to and hope to meet some textile people.

Bournmouth workshop

Here are the results of my bowls workshop last Saturday with the ladies of the Bournmouth Embroiderers Guild and friends.I was really thrilled with them. The lower picture shows what had been achieved by the end of the day and the top one is a completed bowl which I think is really beautiful. We only had two machines that didn't like working on the thick silk and water soluble fabric.
I am now packing for a weeks holiday in Spain with husband and three year old grandson who is beside himself with excitement. He keeps telling everyone that he is going to Spain with his nanny and grandad and mummy and daddy are not coming. he is going to have fun and they are not.

Iolanthes veil

At last Iolanthes' veil is ready for the exhibition at Lydiard House. After the show I just wanted to add a few more details to it like more weeds and the dragon flies.
The opera Iolanthe was written by Gilbert and Sullivan. It tells the story of a Fairy, Iolanthe who has been banished by the Fairy Queen for marrying a mortal. She has gone to live at the bottom of a stream to be near her son Strephon (half mortal half fairy!). The fairies ask the Queen to pardon her and she comes out of the water covered in a veil of weeds. I designed this veil for the swindon Gilbert and Sullivans production. I used scrim which I dyed then embellished fleece and silk onto it using my embellishing machine. I then machine embroidered it  adding the weeds as I went. I used fantasy film for the dragon fly wings.

Dainty little Fairies.

Well it doesn't seem like just over  a week ago that we were performing Iolanthe. The show was brilliant and we all had a great time especially the 'dainty little fairies'. I was over the moon to get my first proper solo role as Celia. As a friend said, 'not bad for someone who is aged 6****' Cheeky of her but true. What next? well Swindon Choral Society will be singing Elijah in Marlborough College Chapel on Saturday and I am really looking forward to it as it has to be an all time favourite of mine. Just hope we get a good audience.
Still waiting for Daughter Sarah to produce  our second grandchild, Due any day now.

Iolanthe!!!

Can not believe that it is show week already. Seems to have come round awefully quickly. At least I have remembered my lines. Always a worry at my age!!! Of course things could all kick off this week if our second grandchild decides to put in a early appearance. we are on red allert ready to go at any time night or day to look after Fraser.
I have been making a veil for Iolanthe when she comes up from the pond. It had to look like weeds and I think that I have succeeded. I will post a picture once the show is over. It will be going into the GWE exhibition at Lydiard House Swindon at the end of the month.
Once the show is over also we will get on with planning our Australian holiday for August.

Spanish Holiday January 2012

Well back to reality and the cold! Geoff and I had a lovely restful two weeks in Spain on the Costa del Sol. Unusual for us as we normally dash here there and everywhere. I read three books a luxuary for me to be able to do. Having seen the film I read the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson, The Man from St Petersburg by Ken Follett and The Last Templar by Raymond Khoury. I had never even heard of the last author but I shall now be looking out for other books by him. We ate in all the local fish restaurants and had some lovely walks along the sea front. Although it was sunny and warm there was a cool breeze and it was cold in the evenings but apparently we were lucky as the last few years the weather there has been aweful in January. We liked the place so much we have boked to go again in April and take our Grandson so he can have a plane ride again. Today I have a lady coming to cliam her birthday present from her sister, a day working with me. I am teaching her how to make my embroidered silk bowls. I shall also make a start on the embroidery on Iolathes veil. Rehearsals are going well for that. I still find it hard to believe that I am a 'principle!' and not a chorus member. Our producer keeps telling me to stay in the middle of the stage and not scuttle back to the chorus when I deliver lines!

Indian Holiday and Christmas eve 2011

For those of you who follow my blog and are artists you will appreciate the few photos that I have shown here. I took many of the wonderful stone carvings seen in the many Indian palaces that we visited during my holiday in November. To see more then visit my Facebook page and look at the Albumn there. I took too many photos to show them all. This last one of the Sunrise was taken this morning Christmas eve 2011 from my kitchen window. I had yet to open the cutains and would have missed it had the cat not been eating her food by the back door. Her white bits looked strangely pink and when I went to the door this was the sight that greeted me. I know they say Red sky in the morning shepherds warning but somehow I can not see the warning here it was magic. Wishing you all a wondeful Christmas Holiday.