Being present in the moment is another of those words/phrases, along with Mindfulness, Active Engagement and Emotional Awareness that is something that you constantly hear and are encouraged to do for our mental health. They are all linked and in their simplest terms, can be called focus.

To Focus on what we are doing in that moment of time, and on nothing else.

Tony had a training course, both online and in person for two days a month, spread over three months, over the end of last year into January. I don’t know what the actual course title was as Tony called it ‘working with other departments’. One of the key areas was about Focus and Active Engagement on meetings, especially online ones. That you should be ‘present’ in the meetings and focused on that – apparently typing Teams messages and answering the never-ending stream of emails at the same time is not being focused?!!!! And you should be actively engaging with the other people on the meeting. Can I say here, that hearing many of the meetings while working at my sewing machine, that a lot of the meetings aren’t needed and half the time they seem to be going over and over the same thing, week after week, even month after month and some for years!!! If Tony didn’t multitask then he wouldn’t get half of what he does done and there would still be tons of emails to deal with at the end of the day! Don’t get me wrong, there are times that Tony does need to focus and be very present in the meetings especially with technical meetings with Europe, and at those times I disappear downstairs and work in the kitchen, so my sewing machine noise doesn’t distract him. But if Tony Focused as the trainer said he should in meetings – nothing would get done…sometimes you need to focus and be present, other times you have to multitask to get work done.

Focusing, is something that I try to practice, not just with my stitching, those small moments of enjoying pulling the thread through my fabric, the feel of the cotton fabric, especially a well laundered quilt – the softness and smoothness that just makes me want to wrap it around me and snuggle, especially in winter.… part of my love of stitching and creating is the feel of fabric, thread and yarn, there are certain yarns like mohair I really don’t like the feel of, it puts my teeth on edge! And colour, colour fascinates me, the tremendous range of shades and how they work together and how they affect us! Creating is multi sensual.

Creating is where I probably really focus the most, single mindbbedly, sometimes. But I try to focus in other areas of everyday life, and I have been trying to more this year. I am trying to be in the moment to take time to notice the natural world and quiet moments – to stop & smell the roses, as they say…. to Breathe…..

Let’s start at the beginning of the day. I do a series of gentle exercises and stretches in the morning and I have to focus, not just to do them correctly, and to notice how my joints and muscles are feeling but to count the number of repetitions – I easily forget/get confused with the number I have done, so when doing them I have to definitely focus and be in the moment, not think about the list of tasks I need to do during the day.

Half an Hour of Mindfulness….. or nearly there but actually miles away from finishing….

I have been working on a quilt, well I have been working on lots of quilts but the one that I am rambling about today is the one I have been calling Laura’s Roses for the last six years!!!!

I am not about to go into the whole back story here, that will be for a Quilt Story when I actually finish it. And that is the thing, getting it finished. It has been low priority for much of the time, but I did start to make an effort to really finish it last year.

This is not a quick quilt!!! As you might have gathered!!! Not because I haven’t been doing bits but because it is hand quilted and that takes time and it is a project that often doesn’t get the time it needs because of other things, it has been on the ‘work in progress’ pile.

Let me just say I have different piles for things

1. Must do or possibly better called urgent!!! These are teaching pieces & presents that need making.
2. Working on - patterns and designs for selling, for the book or website. Things that have I want to do but actually are not immediate. The deadlines are fluid!!!
3. Work in progress. Bits I am working on when I find the time.
4. Shelved projects, all those UFOs, that I have put away till I have the time or desire to do so. Hidden from view!!!

We are over half way through February and heading towards the end and usually I have posted a ramble by now. Last year I had the aim to write and publish one Ramble a month, and I carried this aim over to 2026.

But this month, I just haven’t a clue, no inspiration for a theme to write anything. So…. I am just going to Ramble and see where it takes me (& you).

I think the main reason I haven’t found a theme, is my brain is all over the place at the moment – its as mad as box of frogs!!

There has and still is a lot on our plate, we as a family are trying to deal with lots. Since early summer 2025 my elderly father-in-law has been getting more confused and forgetful and we, Tony and I, have had to do more and more for him. Since just before Christmas, he has got even worse especially in the afternoon and evenings. Long story short we have finally got a formal diagnosis of Dementia, and we are arranging for carer to come in two days a week, to start with, to give Tony & I a break. The thing is there is only Tony and by extension, me to carry the burden of caring & making decisions for Maurice. Tony has no siblings, nor cousins – both his parents were also only children. Everything falls on Tony and its tough, very tough.

In the last few months there has been a number of medical things with Maurice, and I accompany him to them, from Ophthalmology to Cardiology and multiple Maxillo-Facial appointments. Hospital appointments are time consuming, appointments never run to time and often we are there at least three hours!!! With my own ophthalmology appointment, we were there almost four – the afternoon appointments were arriving as we finally saw the consultant!!! And then there are the Memory Clinic assessment and appointments that both Tony & I take him to.

Each week there is something to deal with, go to, sort…… add in losing my best friend of forty years to a very aggressive cancer in the middle of January & her funeral this month. And the horrible wet, grey, miserable weather of both January and February. I have been tracking the sunrise and sunset times since the beginning of the year, over the course of January we gained 1 hour and 10 minutes more daylight and on average in February we are gaining to two minutes extra at sunrise and sunset, that’s about 4 more minutes each day, not that most of the time you would notice! Its been soooo grey and rainy. The rare bright days are a balm & hope……

I have found that the most I can do creatively is the quiet, calming slow hand stitching projects, I stop and can pick these up easily, interruptions don’t matter as much. Luckily, I have had a lot of hand quilting, embroidery and stitching projects that I can do. But I know have a long list of pieces that need to be finished, work on the sewing machine & instructions and patterns to write up. Fingers crossed that my brain will have more space and I will have more uninterrupted time to focus on getting it all done, soon.

Throughout 2025 each month I had created a pair of pages for a textile scrapbook, the two pages were pieced, appliqued and hand stitched, usually with simple running stitch. They used up sample pieces or odd pieces of textile, including cross stitch cards, lawn hankies, & the embroidery thread used to surface stitch was leftover from cross stitch kits. It was a nice quiet mindful project, finishing off over the year, one of my Unfinished Objects. If you would like to see the finished book, there is a video on my YouTube channel about it.

The cover and a set of pages I had originally taught in early 2024, I had made a couple of smaller textile books before, and this was a larger project. The whole intention was to use up pieces, that otherwise would sit in a box or bag and not be seen. But once I made the cover and one set of pages, they then sat with lots of bits that I had sorted out to use on the pages in a project bag and just got left. I decided at the end of 2024 this would be one of the projects I would finish/complete in 2025. By working one pair of pages a month, I had six sets plus the first one I had made, to be stitched into the cover, which I did just before Christmas.
This was only meant to be a project for the year to complete an unfinished project, but I really enjoyed it. In the autumn as I was stitching the pages I began to think of creating another textile scrapbook, stitching a page a month in 2026…..

When my dad’s younger sister, Auntie Kath died I inherited a box full of embroidery transfers, these have sat in the bottom of a cupboard, not forgotten but I hadn’t a project for them. But now I have, my textile scrapbook for 2026!!!

Auntie Kath also had two wooden sewing boxes/tables, one made by her Dad, my Grandfather for her 18th birthday and another Victorian one. Auntie Kath wanted Jenny, my younger sister and I to have one each, we could decide. I let Jenny choose, but I secretly really wanted the one made by our Grandfather……Jenny choose the Victorian one and I have the one our Grandfather made!!!! It has a history, the outside is a lovely thin wood veneer but inside you can see it is made with wood from packing cases, Auntie Kath was 18 in 1950, things were still in short supply – rationed. The four legs are turned, barley twists and it has four bars joining them, one has split and wire has been attached and twisted round to hold it together. I like the history, this was a box made by our Grandfather for his daughter, he got the wood, worked it and made a lovely thing, a special gift. It has been used and loved and continues to be. The Victorian one is slightly bigger and sits in Jenny’s front room and is used as a side table, but it still holds all the stuff for sewing!

Right, back to the Textile book, each month I am going through the box of transfers, which are mainly floral based, and I have loads to choose from and pulling out the ones that catch my eye. I will then decide which one I want to do. I am cutting a 5½” square of fabric, I have lots of smaller pieces as well as yardage, of white on white patterned cotton fabrics like Makower Essentials. I am then adding borders, cut to 2”, of different fabrics, I am thinking mostly small ditzy florals. Because I prefer to embroider on a firmer fabric, I am pressing a lightweight interfacing onto the back.

I am tracing the embroidery design onto the centre using a lightbox and erasable pen, I am using a Frixion pen, I don’t often like using them, I certainly won’t use them on coloured or even cream fabric as they often leave a mark. And I don’t often use them on white anymore as I have found that with time they reappear and have to press the item again to remove them. But with this piece, I am working on white and stitching over the lines and so I am happy to use the Frixion pen as it does show well and I will be stitching over the pen, so even if it does reappear it won’t show!