There is a myth among many people that know me that I don’t like Christmas and I possibly do give this impression!!! I don’t put up a tree or buy into the big hype of Christmas, there is so much media about the perfect presents, food, decorations and big family Christmases, it creates worry and anxiety. It’s not really that I don’t like Christmas, well its more that I don’t enjoy Christmas Day, this isn’t something that has happened as I have grown up, I can’t ever remember really liking or enjoying Christmas, it is linked to unhappiness and stress and other peoples expectations.

Let’s go back, my earlier memories of Christmas are of a huge real Christmas tree covered in fragile beautiful glass ornaments and lights that would always be a problem of a blown bulb taking them out!!! And being told not to go near the tree because I would break the ornaments, or the needles would fall off, the ceiling would be covered with gold and red concertina chain decoration things, looping from one corner to another and from the ceiling lights!!! Christmas day seemed to be about elderly family and friends…. By the time I can remember Christmas both my sisters where teenagers as well, and so grown up! Remember this was the early 1970’s!

Then by the time I was a teenager, my sisters had children of their own, Christmas had become, maybe it always had been but I had not been aware when younger, a huge military operation……vast amounts of food would be bought. Tins of Quality Street, jellied orange and lemon slices and dates (not that anyone ever eat them, but they were bought!!!) were scattered around all the occasional tables in the sitting room and there was a lot of them – both tables and sweets but not to be eaten to Christmas day, that’s the food not the tables!!! There was always a basket of apples, satsumas and grapes which I ate but I don’t think anyone else ever did….Christmas eve was this huge operation of preparing masses of vegetables, mounds of Brussel sprouts to have the outer leaves removed and then the crosses cut into the bases, to be cooked to a soggy mess on the day and Mum insisting that you eat them – to this day I don’t like cooked sprouts and I have tried them steamed and roasted, they are fine raw and shredded in a vegetable salad.

There would be a huge turkey to cook and then days of eating it afterwards…cold, minced, bones to soup and onwards. Four or so rich desserts to be created including the trifle all loaded with cream. Christmas meal would be starter, main, desserts, followed by Christmas pudding with huge amounts of brandy poured on and set alight and brandy butter to accompany – not that I remember anyone eating it as they were so stuffed - coffee, cheese and biscuits, After 8 mints and liqueurs. It would go on and on and I have never liked big amounts of food, seeing lots of food just puts me off it – so no I have no idea how I ended up in catering, other than apparently, I was good at cooking and organising!!!

From four weeks before Christmas, the house would be covered with decorations, Mum had gone over to a massive white Christmas tree covered in German bought ornaments, from the specialist Christmas shops, there would be a snowy village scene to be built, moving carolling Father Christmas displayed. The big dining room table would be laid days before with the best cutlery, china and crystal glasses. Drinks and more glasses would be pulled out of the cupboard, some to go on the top of the ‘bar’ in the sitting room and others to be put on a folding card table – I don’t know why Mum had a folding card table, the only time it came out was Christmas to be covered in a cloth and filled with odd bottles of liqueurs, including a bright green ‘witches potion’ (crème de menthe!!!) and a horrible thick gloppy yellow one, most of which had come out year after year and never been drunk, then there was the tiny liqueur glasses!!!

Even though my nieces were young, Christmas were very structured, there was a timetable, everyone had to be dressed in their finest, all bright colours and sparkly, full makeup and hair perfect, all the best jewellery came out for the women, I loved plain black clothing (still do have a lot of black in my wardrobe!!) which wasn’t considered Christmassy!!! It was a full military operation, champagne, presents opened and then put away, lunch which lasted hours…..and you had to wear your paper hat!!! Then clearing up and loads of games, that you HAD to join in and enjoy!!!! I have never been a person that enjoys parties, dressing up and playing games, I always wanted to sit quietly and look at my presents – I usually had a couple of books I just wanted to curl up and read…. but if I sneaked off to my room to read, then Mum would yell!!! I would often be told I was miserable or ruining Christmas!!!! I ended up dreading Christmas Day.

That’s fine but it’s not the Christmas that I want or like, not does Tony or Laura, we are not extroverts. Christmas has and continues to change for us. When Laura was little, we had Christmas Day at home, so she could open her presents and play with her toys. As she grew older and books became her thing, then she could read. We had a few years where someone would have a really bad cold or man flu or migraine and I would stress about what would go wrong for weeks before!! Now, with Laura all grown up and Tony’s parents being elderly, Christmas has changed again, we want different things from the day.

We don’t have a tree, but we do decorate, the mantel shelf changes, as it does every month, to a garland, lights, mini baubles then all the homemade bits – Quilted Postcards, bowl fillers and this year Laura’s crochet creatures (TOFT designs!!), I love decorating the mantel! We have winter themed quilts and cushions, creating a warm and cosy feel – this isn’t just for Christmas, this goes from December through to end of February, my need to create a homey, warm, snugly feel – it fulfils my hibernation need!!! We have lights, round the hall on the picture rail, up the stairs and through the garlands round the bannisters. The wreaths, and yes, we have more than one, are homemade. Christmas for me (and Laura) is a creative time, I love creating the homemade decorations, cards and gifts, its abought putting thought, love and time into them. There is a simple pleasure in creating paper chains to go in the kitchen.

Christmas day dinner is a turkey crown and trimmings, including Yorkshire Puddings!!! But it’s just a main course and desserts, it is a nice simple roast dinner. Our treat is Tony cooks a big brunch, it’s something special, not just a cooked breakfast but also for me, that Tony is cooking it!!! Cooked breakfast and BBQing are Tony’s two areas of cooking!! I just get to clear up afterwards!!!

Christmas, Yule, Noel, Winter Solstice, whatever you celebrate or don’t as the case may be, if you want to stay in your pj’s all day and watch TV, go for a huge long country walk or have a BBQ for your meal, go all out and cover the house with Christmas decorations or have none at all, that is a personal choice, it is about doing what is right for you and those that are important to you. Some love the big family experience, others like it quiet and simple.

So, to answer the original thing – it isn’t I don’t like Christmas, it’s I don’t like all the hype and pressure that society and sometimes family put on us. I don’t like fuss, parties – not just Christmas ones but all parties! I don’t feel comfortable all dressed up and being with lots of people, I am not keen on huge piles of food, basically I am an introvert and in winter I just want to curl up in my home!!! But I do love creating winter themed bits for my mantel piece, table or stair garland. We, as our little family of three, for this time in our lives, have found a balance and type of celebration that suits us, but it could be totally different next year….

And so, on that note I will wish you all Yuletide greetings…..

It’s been a while since I last wrote a Ramble, a month!!! – I have had a couple of ideas, but they just haven’t found their way into type!!! They haven’t been interesting enough or hold my interest long enough to actually sit down and type something, amongst all the other stuff I have been doing.

Minutes, hours and days have been ticking away, the weeks and months have just gone, I hadn’t realised it had been so long. But we are now well into autumn and hurrying on towards Christmas.

In September we went to Sheffield Park (NT) and wandered around, taking loads of photos of the trees and the vistas, especially of them reflected in the water, at the time we commented on how a number of the trees, especially the silver birches and some of the maples had already got tinges of autumn colour. We both thought it would be an early autumn.

And yet here we are in, in mid-November and around here, in suburbia, many of the trees still have their leaves and some are only just beginning to get that blaze of autumn colour. Don’t get me wrong it is definitely autumn!!! Look at my garden and the summer plants are long gone – a pot of geraniums, half tucked under the bench are still flowering. But the dahlias have got battered by the rain and wind at the beginning of the month, we picked all the flowers and had them in a vase indoors, but the plants were just looking miserable, and I have stored the tubers for the winter. As for the rest of the summer plants, the hostas only have a couple of yellow leaves and I have cut back the ferns to the ground, the roses have been pruned and everything just looks soggy – but saying that autumn feels late this year!

The winter plants haven’t come into their own yet!!! I have lots of ideas (which scares Tony and Laura!!!) of what I would like to get next year to create more autumn/winter colour in the garden…..it’s Tony’s fault he shouldn’t have got me subscriptions to the Gardeners World and Modern Garden magazine!!! They have lots of ideas.

Things don’t stand still, the garden constantly changes with the turning of the seasons, nature doesn’t stand still, it is a constant cycle of life. And this year I have noticed the turning of time and season more than I have in the past. Possibly it is because we go out for a walk every day, and even here in suburbia where the front gardens are mostly paved and there are not many gardens, just the trees along the roads and also in the local park, you can see nature. Or maybe it’s because I am spending more time out in the garden, growing more plants. Or maybe it’s the age I have reached that I am feeling the turning of the seasons and the cycle of life. But whatever the reason, I am more aware of the season and years turning.

It’s not many weeks to the Winter Solstice and Christmas, it seems to be rushing towards us with speed!!! I jumped from creating autumn themed bits, straight into creating Christmas quilted postcards and other bits. As we head to the end of the year, I am already thinking of what I will be creating in January and February and what I will be growing for Spring interest in the garden.

I have grown to accept that everything changes, not just with the Season’s but just life in general. It is a lesson the last few years have taught me – that nothing stays the same! And I wouldn’t want it to stay the same, my creativity is constantly changing and growing in new areas, this in turn has changed how and what I am teaching. My garden is constantly changing and there are new things to give me that moment of beauty and peace. The dynamics of my family are changing as we all grow older, and we want different things from our relationships.

And yet, I know a number of people, mostly older that won’t accept that the world has changed, they want to live back 2 or 10 years ago or even further. They are being left behind, missing out because they won’t accept the changes, especially in the children and grandchildren’s lives.

It’s not called the Cycle of Life for no reason!!!

It’s been a long time since we had a family day out, not just because of the pandemic but also because Laura has grown up and been working. But on Friday 15th we went out for the day, all three of us.

We walked up to the station just after nine and got the District Line heading into London, the London Underground is a wonderful thing (when it is running smoothly!!). You can travel all over London on its amazing network, following all the different lines – and isn’t the Tube map so interesting, its really a work of art!!! Off down a rabbit hole – it was Harry Beck who designed it, originally in 1933.

We changed at West Ham for the Jubilee Line, this has a different feel to the District line (and very hard seats!!!) and travelled round to Waterloo station. Here we changed to Southwestern Railway line trains going to Windsor & Eton Riverside, passing through Vauxhall – between the railway line and the Thames, stretching round Battersea Power station is just a huge area of apartment blocks, square towers after tower, some finished and being lived in but many more being built! It’s so built up and the only view is the next block! And then it’s out into the countryside of Berkshire – we were heading to Windsor Castle!!!

The Castle dominates Windsor, it is ancient, solid, its roots deep into English soil – actually its conception is Norman French! Good old William the Conqueror!!!! I am informed that the Norman French of William of Normandy actually are descended from the Vikings!!!! But, all that aside, it stands for England like Tower of London. Their stones speak of age and history.
This is a place that should be teaming with tourist, Japanese, Chinese and American, but it is quiet. For us, this affect of the pandemic is lovely, no queues and we can wander quietly around.

We decide to head for the Lower Ward and St George’s Chapel first, everybody else heads to the Upper Ward and the State Rooms first. But not us!!!

The outside of the Chapel starts the journey for me, the beauty and lines of the buildings, the curves of the windows and the creatures carved to decorate the outside. Step into the building and there is a sense of peace, serenity, timelessness, ancient roots, this building has seen happiness and sadness and has absorbed it all into its fabric. It has the same feel as York Minster – it speaks of age.

Within all the buildings of the castle there is no photography, which is a real shame, I am not talking about taking shots that are normal, but there is so much design inspiration in the carvings, the ceiling, the play of light across the floors, from wood to stone to the ironwork and the Banners of the Knights of the Garter. I could have laid down on the floor (except it would have been very cold laying on the stone) and stared at the ceiling for hours taking in the details of the carvings and the corbels and bosses. At every turn there was something for my designer’s heart to sing about and be inspired – I have fallen in love with quatrefoils!!! I fell down another rabbit hole, learning to draw them, I am sure they will be quilted into a quilt very shortly.

Laura’s medievalist heart sings with the history here of the Yorks and Lancastrians and the full weight of history.
We head up to the Upper Ward and the State Apartments, wandering through each room taking in the portraits and details, the gilding and colours, the way the chandeliers catch and throw the light. But these don’t hold the same fascination as the Chapel, these areas have been changed and reworked through history, you can feel the Georgian and Victorian influence – this is solid ostentation, power and showcasing, pompousness and importance and money. This can be seen in so many big historic houses from Chatsworth, Kedleston and many many others, this is old English Wealth and power on display, it is a way of the Royals and Aristocracy to tell each other who they are and about their power, influence and wealth. Laura likes to swear and blame George IV for all the gold so she was doing that a lot.

It is St George’s Hall that is the most interesting, an old space, destroyed by fire in 1992, to be reborn, it holds all the coats of arms of all the Knights of the Garter since its foundation in 1348. Laura wrote an essay on the Order of the Garter for her BA, these coats of arms, especially the early ones hold a fascination, and she was pointing out who was who and why there are blank ones – these are the knights that were expelled (many executed!!!!) mainly during the Tudor period.
Once we had finished at the Castle we wandered through the town to the River, here the Thames runs wide and smooth, with pleasure boats and swans, so different from the Thames in the heart of London.

Back on the train to Waterloo and we decide to walk through the South Bank and up and over The Golden Jubilee foot bridge, next to the railway lines and the station where the platforms are actually on the bridge!!! And down into Embankment station to catch the District Line Eastbound and home. A very busy Underground train, we just managed to get seats, Laura and I together and Tony some way along. There was a constant ebb and flow of people, builders from the many sites, in hi-vis, with their tool cases, reading the free papers and then throwing them on the floor or sticking them down the sides of seats. Office workers and just lots of people all mixed together and as the train heads into the open, multiple conversations on phones – huge cacophony of noise and humanity, which I find overwhelming. It was nice to escape and quietly walk home…..

It was lovely having a family day out – but next time I might avoid the trains!!!

I know that I am very lucky to be able to have the choice to do what I do – the creativity and that is down to Tony supporting me, I don’t have to make a living from my work, I do however have to make money to continue to do what I do, it has to pay for itself and give me pin money.

I have friends and family who don’t have the choices that I do, and they get up five days a week and have to ‘go’ to work, no matter what they feel like or whether they enjoy it, as the bills need paying.

I have said in the past that I run the house, that is my part time job, a role that I really like, well most of it – I tend to get bored with cooking dinners, but I love baking!!! But you can’t live on cake….. well, I guess you can but it’s not really very healthy!!!

My life is about being creative, I couldn’t imagine not being able to just create things, it is just so much of who and what I am, my being, my life and my therapy. It is something that is there, and I am thinking about or doing it all the time, even when I am doing housework my brain is whirring with ideas. When we go out for a walk I will be thinking about shapes, colours and inspirations. When we go out for days, or when we are on holiday and visiting places, then I am always looking at things for inspiration – for Quilted Postcards, quilts, stitcheries, knitting, crochet and also for the garden. I am looking at the landscape and sky, absorbing the shapes and colours…feeding my soul.

I am hugely luckily, not only that I can stay home and do what I do, but also that I choose what to work on. If I am having one of those foggy brain days, that ladies of a certain age get, then I will work on something that doesn’t need the concentration – hand quilting is good for these days, or paper piecing, my hands are busy to the rhythm of stitching, but my mind can just lump a long where it wants. I also find that working to a half hour system is good for me, I stick the half hour timer on my phone, and I do something for that time, usually when I need to do a project and also for cross stitch projects. At the end of half an hour I do something else!!! It makes me focus.

Garter stitch knitting, like the blanket I am doing, and my big Granny square crochet are also brilliant on those days or for the evenings where I am tired, they are both soothing.

If my mind is fully engaged, then I will do something complicated and needing focusing. I have projects for every mood and feeling and I hop from one to another and then occasionally I will just do something different – go and bake a cake or wander round my garden, deadheading, weeding, hunting the snails and this year the big fat slugs – seriously where do they all come from?!!!

I am hugely thankful that I can live as I do, I am probably a nicer, easier person to live with since I haven’t been doing a normal 9 to 5 job! I am also hugely thankful to Tony for supporting me, encouraging (& nagging, as he is usually right!!!) me, working with me and being my rock.

Well, it’s almost here – Autumn.

As I turned the page over on my planner into September, I could already feel that it we were slowly creeping into autumn and the final quarter of the year. The sun coming up was later and the light was soft first thing. There was also that hint of morning dampness, and in the evening, I had begun to turn my work light on earlier.

In the second week of September, we had a break in Kent, like so often the weather as the children returned to school was better than August!!! We spent days going to National Trust Gardens and Estates and walking the Downs.

But even here you could feel and see the changing of the seasons. Sissinghurst Castle Garden, the white garden was faded, just the odd little touch of white and many plants past their best, but in the Cottage Garden (also called the Sunset Garden) with its fiery glow of reds, oranges and yellows it was magnificent. But the colours echo the flaming colours of soon to be here autumn.

We also went to Sheffield Park and Garden, a stunning landscape of lakes and trees, which from mid-September through to the end of October you have to book to visit, for its famed autumn colours. There was already many of the trees showing the first colours of autumn, the silver birches had a very yellow look and many of the maples were showing tinges of reds, burgundies, and gold.

Back home, and the feeling of the season turning has speed up, the mornings are certainly darker. In the garden, first thing the grass is positively wet and suddenly there are spiders and their stunning creations of their webs everywhere – they are beautiful – the webs not the spiders!!! The quality of the light is changing, the sharp blues of mid-day have gone. The evenings are drawing in and by the time we go for our walk after dinner it is dusk and the last few days a huge golden moon has been up.

The schools have returned, the Universities are gearing up and I am beginning to work on this term’s items, fingers crossed we will return to the physical classroom at the end of the month. My creative focus has turned towards quilts and ideas for Christmas gifts.

I am starting to change quilts, cushions, and stuff, turning our home into the autumn and winter snuggly place, deeper, darker richer colours, layers of quilts, candles and reed diffusers in apple & cinnamon, warm smells. The meals I am planning are more warming, cooked in the oven, back to apple crumbles and apple, raisin and cinnamon cake!!! Food that feels like the time of the year.

In the garden, the softer colours have faded, and the richer darker colours of the dahlias are dominant. I am starting to clear plants for the winter, as they fade, and ready pots for the Spring with bulbs and wallflowers. I have one eye on the weather forecast so that I can tuck some plants away under the tortoise table to protect them and, I can bring my scented pelargoniums in to the porch (which I have cleaned and tidied ready for them!). And the tortoises are slowing, they naturally sense the turning of the season and soon they be readying themselves for winter and hibernation…..

I have never found my creative Tribe, I don’t seem to fit into any one tribe, I am the square peg in a round hole!!!! This is nothing new, I have always felt that I don’t quite fit into any mould, tribe, preconceived notion, peer group etc.

Don’t get me wrong – it doesn’t bother me, I am happy being a tortoise, the odd one out, walking my own path but just occasionally I look at things and think where do I fit?

September seems to be the month of prompts on Instagram – there are numerous month long and week long prompts on different groups going on, from crocheters to embroidery and fabric art ones and quilting ones. They are all along similar lines, introduction, what you are working on, inspiration, and things like that.

But, here is the problem, where do I creatively fit?

If you had asked me in 2019 about what I was creatively then I would have said I was a patchwork quilt, designer, maker and teacher. Yes, I did other bits, mostly the Quilted Postcards, but predominately I spent my time on patchwork and so it was easy to define myself as that.

Ask me it now and I really am not sure that I can be defined any longer by that description. I am far more than a patchwork quilter. Throughout 2020, I redefined what I created, I stepped away from the patchwork quilting. The Quilted Postcards stepped forward; I became a published author. But the Quilted Postcards aren’t just mini patchwork, they use all the skills of my years of creating patchwork quilts, but they are so much more – they have hand embroidery on many of them, are small scale art but are also postcards. Again, it is very difficult to define or place in a box what Quilted Postcards are.

And for all people can be a little bit snobby about it, cross stitch is hand embroidery and I have been doing a lot of it over the last 18 months. So, does that make me an embroiderer?

Then there is the designing I do with Laura for the Blackwork stitcheries, I do the designing, Laura takes my designs and interprets and stitches them. We work together, Laura doesn’t have any want to design but loves to stitch, I love the designing but don’t have the time to stitch or chart up. So, am I a designer?

Then there is the knitting and crochet I do, so am I either of those things or both?

And I do weaving and the odd bit of dressmaking, but I wouldn’t say I was a weaver or dressmaker!!!

So, I am a patchwork quilter, hand embroiderer, crocheter, knitter, weaver, dressmaker - I play with different yarns, threads and fabrics. I design, create, teach, and publish, across different disciplines, I am not one thing but how do I define/explain what I am?

Textile artist?
Artisan?
Craft practitioner?
Creative?
Author?

I really don’t know, none of them really fit, not what I do but as much as anything how I feel and view myself creatively. So, I don’t join any of the groups or do the daily promotes as I really not sure how I fit.
PS. Tony says I am over thinking it all – he would describe me as a Needleworker!!!!

Laura gets what I am trying to say!!! Her suggestion would be to call myself an "Interdisciplinary Creative".

Or looking forward…..

Since March 2020, I haven’t been forward looking. I am not talking about looking backwards and thinking about the past, which I have done to a certain amount as certain things have made me look backwards and think, but I haven’t been forward looking or thinking – planning on anything actually happening, not teaching, socially or holidays.

There are things that I have planned a head – deadlines in my planner for making things, dates I wanted certain things for the books being done by, so that we could move forward onto the next stage – publication dates pencilled in. All those things that I have to plan round Tony’s work life, his free weekends and when he can take holiday to work on stuff.

I plan when I need Quilted Postcards made to send as cards. There is also the monthly Porch & Door series of Quilted Postcards, one postcard a month with a theme that matches that month – to be stitched in that month!!! Sometimes, well fairly often, it gets finished on the last day of the month!!!

But I haven’t looked forward and planned anything – especially not when I will return to teaching – going back to physically being in a classroom teaching patchwork.

The last time I actually taught in a classroom was March 2020. There was talk of returning in late September 2020, then after half term, January 2021, then after Easter. The talk is, again, that we will return to the classroom in late September.

For years, by this time in August, I would have written a plan of what I aimed to teach for the first term. I would have five lesson plans, for the first half of the term – plans of the quilt I would teach, each square, skills, instruction sheets written and ready to handout. I would like to say my plan is a detailed lesson plan but no, I’m not that good and organised – that’s not how I work!!! My plan, is ‘I hope’ to teach this, for each week I will list what I want to teach and what I have ready. But it could and often did change. The next five weeks would be even more loosely planned, as I would see how everybody was finding the next quilt design, more time might be needed. I would also have, suggestions and ideas for the rest of the year, the Spring and Summer terms, listed.

But I haven’t looked that far forward, I know that many want to return and I also have a couple of new people interested in joining. I have a very rough idea of the quilt I will be teaching for the whole year, I have the fabrics, but I haven’t actually sat down and drawn up the patterns, I can see what I want to teach in my mind’s eye!!!! Not just the quilt but a lot of smaller items, using parts of the quilt design.

But I don’t seem to be able to forward look and say yes this is happening. I take each day, week as it comes, and I intellectually know that I need to start making the quilt up, as end of September isn’t actually that far away – just counted!!! At best six weeks away!!!......

Well, I work better to a tight deadline!!!!

I have shrunk further into my tortoise shell/home, I don’t forward look, as things just might not happen but at some point, I am going to have to!!! Just not this week or month…

We, Tony and I have had time away, a holiday……. The first proper break for ages and ages. Yes, we had a few days up in Derbyshire, visiting family and getting my ‘fix’ of the Peak District in June, and we had a long weekend away on Mersea Island in August 2020!!! This holiday was seriously needed…..time away from work, laptops and life ….time to walk and relax!!!

Tony had booked us a place in North Norfolk, out in the countryside, just a few houses, we stayed in a converted woodworker’s studio, it was a lovely place for the two of us, with its own private garden, so peaceful. Just what we needed.

It was only just over four miles from Holt, near enough to drive in for fish & chips a couple of times and on the way back from our day out to stop for an ice cream at Harris & James. Boy, what ice creams!!!! They were delicious and huge – the cones where lovely and crisp then a monstrously huge amount of ice cream on top.

The first time we went Tony went for the double scoop one, two favours, it was piled about 5” high and overflowing, you couldn’t lick it without getting it everywhere, nose, chin….down the front of your t-shirt! Even with a wooden little spoon it was hard to eat. I had just the single one but struggled to eat it all, delicious but soo much. After that Tony went for a single one and eat about half of mine!!! Which was a lot better, suited us both!!!

It was lovely not to have an alarm, and just wake up slowly and have no rush to get up. We would have breakfast sitting on the bench in the garden, soaking up the sun. In the morning the bench was in the sun by the afternoon it was in the shade and by the evening the sun was in the other corner on the metal bistro table and chairs – so we could sit there for dinner.

We went out each day, doing different things, going for long walks, soaking up the sun, fresh air and taking loads and loads of photos. Photography is something that we really enjoy and days out and holidays are about photos for us, not just of the landscape, but everything. Tony looks for interesting details and I am looking for inspiration….  And North Norfolk definitely fulfilled both Tony and my photo expectations.

Tony loves the beaches and harbours, I can find interest in both especially the working harbours with the fishing boats. But they don’t inspire me … make my fingers itch to create. Possibly as when I have created water, rivers, lakes or the sea, I am not really happy with the results, I have never managed to get it ‘right’ – I can’t create that living rolling force of the waves on a beach, or the movement of the water on a lake. It always feels too flat.

Give me a landscape or a garden – especially walled ones and long herbaceous borders!!! Blickling Estate had lots of inspiration, but the real gem of the holiday for me was Felbrigg Estate.

Felbrigg has a fantastic walled garden (although I wasn’t too keen on the chickens and the cockerel that started to follow me around the orchard! I can fully understand why Laura doesn’t like them!!), it has beautiful planting both decorative and also with edibles, the colours and shapes were great, then there were the old walls, weathered bricks with plants growing up it and in it!!! Plus, it had gates and doors!!!! The wider estate was both wooded and fields, and there was an old church, slightly overgrown, with the gravestones weathered and breaking through the grasses and wildflowers.

Every garden we went to, has given me something to inspire me to create either a Quilted Postcard or a A4 Journal quilt – from Oxburgh Hall with its wheelbarrow full of plants and the light hanging on the old Tudor brick wall with plants twining round it. To the door into the potting shed at Blickling and just loads at Felbrigg. I have decided this year that I am going to plan a day to just sit and go through the hundreds of photos we took, drawing up lots of idea for Quilted Postcards and then spend the next months creating them!!! I have never done this before – usually when I want inspiration or remember something we have taken a photo off, I have to try to remember when and where we took it, which is never easy!!! The photos are all in different folder but there are literally thousands of photos going back almost twenty years!!! And we have visited so many places in that time.

After our days out and taking lots of photos, then stopping off for our ice creams we would head back, usually by four. Then we would relax, Tony would spread the picnic blanket and lay and doze in the sun. I would settle myself in the shade on the bench and crochet and knit, I finished the scarf I have been slowly working on and I got loads of my big Granny Square blanket done!!! I had taken a couple of postcards to embroider but they didn’t get done … can’t stitch them outside and by the time we had dinner, gone for a walk across a couple of fields and back along the road – past all the amazing Hollyhocks, and finally settled down with a lovely chilled glass or two of rose, I didn’t feel like doing embroidery and the light wasn’t good enough!!!

We have come home refreshed and in my case full of ideas……but before I can start on them, there is the house and garden to get all back up to my standard and then book no.3 to finish……..

I have been thinking and working on Christmas based designs for almost a year!!!!

Yes, that’s a long time and very worrying, especially as I would never ever say I am one of those big lovers of Christmas – well not this media based idea of huge Christmas tree, big family parties, dressing up, lots of food and drink and spending horrendous amounts on presents and hours and hours of shopping!!! That is certainly not my idea of fun, actually it’s enough to make me want to find a dark room and lay down….

So, I can hear you saying, why has she spent a year on Christmas? Well, it started in September (2020) thinking about making stuff for Christmas and I actually made the ‘Winter Love’ wallhanging then…I spent a month just thinking about what I am going to make, as I was working on a lot of designs for Book no.2 – The Flower Edition. Before diving into actually making ten Quilted Postcards and a number of Christmas gifts in November and making the final few in December.

In January I always make my paper Christmas cards about twenty-five of them – I have learnt that if I don’t make them in January, I just don’t have time later in the year – well September onwards - to do them! I like to have all the cards, written and sent by the first week of December, after that and I start to get jittery!!

I was working on book no.2 but my brain was already running on the idea of book no.3 – The Christmas Edition, so I was making lists, and it was also running on ideas for Christmas Blackwork Embroidery designs….. I sketched out a number of ideas, but Laura refused to think or do any Christmas themed stitching in January!!! I really don’t know why? She eventually started them, but constantly saying that it was wrong to be stitching Christmas stuff in Spring and early summer!!! We will be releasing a number of patterns very soon.

As we were working on putting everything together for book no. 2 and waiting on the proof copies, I was already starting to work on book no.3. Christmas, Christmas and more Christmas designs….I have been drawing up and stitching Christmas themed Quilted Postcards, bowl fillers, hanging decorations, coaster and mug rugs since February. On my work desk are bowls filled with reels of red, green and iridescent white ribbon, red, green and silver sewing thread and the same in embroidery cotton. Then there is another bowl with mini buttons – red and green hearts, star sequins, red beads, sequins.

There’s also a project bag with fabric, hanging on the door. Reds – holly, Christmas and cranberry, lots of greens – holly, grass, Christmas, Ivy, juniper and forest, dark blue, ice blue, lots of bits of white on whites and then a few greys, plus a few bits of Christmas themed fabric.

I have been thinking, making and writing Christmas themed designs for months and months, I have finally handed everything over to Tony. Stage One of creating a book is complete – the designs are done, the pieces made, all templates are drawn, the first draft of the instructions and all the other bits have been written and the drawings done! Colours decided. That is everything I can do on my own….there is a folder full of stuff, both a physical folder and also a folder on our shared drive on the computer. Onto stage two, this is Tony’s side, all the photography and then putting everything together, we will be working on this for the next few weeks. Editing and editing, till we think we are happy, then Tony will order a proof copy and we will combe our way through this – till we are sure it’s right. Then its stage three – publishing and getting awareness out there……by this time it will be August!!!

For the next few months, I will be doing posts and promoting the book, remember it is Quilted Postcards – The Christmas Edition – you will be hearing more about it when we have published it. But that’s not the end of Christmas as already the fabric shops are promoting all the Christmas fabrics and by September it will be in all the shops – Christmas food and presents!

I will be thinking about, writing lists and starting to make all my quilted postcards and Christmas gifts, at the end of November the cards will be written and then we are zooming into December – I will be putting up the garlands and cosying up the house, lighting my Sparkling Cinnamon candles!

Come January I will make my paper Christmas cards – or maybe for 2022 I will have cards printed with one of my Quilted postcards?!! And finally, I can then stop thinking and working on Christmas themed stuff – so, that means, if I have worked it out right – I have another six months of Christmas!!!!!

And by the time I have finished I will have thought about Christmas for 17 months!!!!

My new creative work planner has arrived!!!!

There are a huge amount of different but similar things out there – diaries, organisers, planners, journals, commonplace books, mix books, trackers….. and the list goes on. But like a purse a planner/organiser – whatever you want to call it, is to me a very personal choice. Only you know what will work for you.

I’m sure I have mentioned before that I am a list maker!!! I only learnt earlier this year that it is an inherited thing as apparently my dad, was a list maker!!! I didn’t know this, as my parents divorced when I was very little, and I didn’t have any contact with my Dad for over 20 years. Apparently, my eldest sister, Karen is also a list maker, we have come to the conclusion it might be because we have the concentration span of a gnat and bounce from one thing to another and by writing lists, we remain more focused and also remember everything that we need or want to do!!!

List making is also for me a way of clearing my mind of all the things that are going on in it – trying to remember so many bits. If stuff gets written down, then I have space to think about designs and ideas. List making is also about knowing what I have achieved and ticked off each day – a satisfaction – that need is possibly a left over from being called ‘lazy’ as a teenager because I would sit and read!!!

So, my diaries/calendars/organisers/planners/notebooks are hugely important for me!!! and yes, I do have a number of them for different things!!! Downstairs in the kitchen is the family calendar for food, lunches and dinners are sorted every week before I do the shopping. Yes, I am one of those people that writes a shopping list, as I use something up it goes on the list on the side of the fridge.

Just wandering off topic, sort off, we don’t actually go out food shopping anymore, we do it online and it gets delivered but I continue to write the list and I write it in sections – dairy, meat, tinned, dried goods, baking, bakery, frozen etc – in the order it was in the supermarket when I went physically shopping. We, Laura and I, tried to just write it, straight down the paper as we used it up but when we came to doing the food order it just didn’t feel right and we found we missed things off the list – so we decided that we would go back to the old way – list by department!!!! So, much simpler for us…
So, I was saying lists, organisers etc……the household organiser is on the side in the kitchen, this is the cleaning schedule and other lists to do with things round the house and garden.

The main family calendar is printed out monthly and put on the fridge – this calendar is kept by Tony, it is also on my phone and laptop but I do not dare to touch it – as when I do, it all goes horribly wrong and things delete or move. So, when something needs adding I either message Tony, or if at home, write a sticky note and stick it on his desk!!! Technology doesn’t really like me…..

Then I have my creative planner on my workspace. This has everything to do with my creative life in it, it is the new one of this that has arrived!!!

I never used to have a creative planner, it was all in my organiser in the kitchen or on bits of paper but in the end, I needed it separate as I started to do more stuff. And in an odd way my creative year, runs not from January to January but I work the academic year – well August is the start for me. August, normally, is when I really think and start working on what I will be teaching from September, then its Christmas, through to Spring and summer, teaching would end at the beginning of July, I would finish off what I had been teaching and then we would have our holiday.

So, my first creative planners where academic ones but they are always a bit of a compromise, not what I wanted completely. I had looked at drawing up my own or doing a journal type one but … not for me. Then four years ago Attic24 blogged about the planner that she used from personalplanner.com. Laura and I both looked at it, as Laura needed something for her uni work and like me, she is better with physically writing things down then doing it electronically – Tony does his organising electronically!!!

We both loved that we could have a planner how we wanted, we could pick and choose from there menu, change things, design it how we want. And they have added more things over the years.

But this year, I decided to review and research to see if this was really the best option still – did I want to combine all my organisers and planners into one? – if I did this, I was going to need to put so much more information into it, it would need to be A4 size and possibly day to a page!!! and would I keep it in the kitchen or workroom or just carry it around?

What did other companies offer, from set ones to companies that let you design your own? I looked at so many options, designs, ideas, from planners, organisers, mix books to journals.

And the answer was, I will stay with multiple organisers, and I like my A5 size creative planner, the layout works but I will just add a couple of different bits to it – a small tracker at the bottom of the page for projects like daily quilting or cross stitch. I chose what suits me, and I am really happy with it.

Now, I can sit down with my coloured pens and put in all the information from the old one, the lists and sections at the back from Quilted Postcards for family and friends, to book lists, to stitching and yarn-based projects. It’s a really nice feeling and rather exciting having a new planner, lots of pages to fill in…..

If you follow me on Facebook, you may have seen that I made Laura a skirt that was inspired by the Edwardian walking skirt a while ago.

Background Information….

Laura has been wanting a Edwardian Style walking skirt for ages, I had a pattern in a historic costume book but it needed to be drawn up and resized….and my maths skills are not up to that!!! If I have a paper pattern then I can play around and alter it but I can’t draw up patterns, I have a couple of books on doing this but they are complicated and don’t make sense to me.

We eventually found a paper pattern from McCall’s historic costume that would work, and I made the skirt with a few alterations, zip fastening, pockets (so, essential, why do so few women’s clothing have pockets?). The original pattern was floor length at the front and had a small train at the back. I took a few inches off so that the skirt was ankle length at the back and calf at the front.

Now, Laura loves this skirt and has been swishing around in it, almost constantly since I made it. I did make a second, not so full version from some blue linen-look fabric we had laying around.

To the point of this Ramble…

We went up to Derbyshire to see my family last week – ahhh, it was lovely to see them after not seeing them since December 2019 and it was great to get our ‘fix’ of the countryside. Long walks in the countryside (fantastic after road walking in suburbia for so long!), sitting in the garden and chatting. We were very lucky with the weather, it has a tendency to rain when we go away!

Knowing we would be walking a lot, I did say to Laura that maybe it would be a good idea to take jeggings, as she is an adult, I didn’t check to see whether she did. I thought they may be more practical than her skirt. (Turns out she did but they just stayed in her bag!!)

We headed out for our first walk and Laura was wearing her skirt – with big boots on the bottom and off she set through grass … over stiles, through wooded paths with flowers either side, across rickety wooden bridges, through fields with sheep and cows (we do not like cows here anymore!!). And this continued through the whole time we were there, to cross the stiles, she would hitch the sides up, tuck them in her waistband and climb over like some Edwardian lady – probably showing a lot more leg than they would. I will say at this point that Laura did have cycling shorts under the skirt!!!

She even played badminton in it!!!

And she swished her way round Chatsworth house and garden…..

Or accepting that I can’t create perfection.

I used to be really hard on my work, very self-critical, never happy with the finish, seeing and pointing out all the faults, always worried that ‘it’, whatever I was working on, wasn’t good enough. Tony would make me stand six foot from my quilts and say can you see the fault now? Of course I couldn’t, at that distance I could see the whole design not the finer details.

And yet, as a teacher of patchwork I would never expect or judge my classes to the same standard. I always ask them how they feel about their quilts, praising and encouraging (well, I hope that’s how it comes across!!) and making suggestions on how to improve, if they point out problems or faults. I want them to love what they are doing.

I think I am naturally self-critical and lacking in confidence or rather I used to be. I have for years, worried that I don’t have the skills or qualifications to do certain things – all the big names, teachers, book writers and quilt and textile artists seemed to have degrees in applied arts or textiles or City & Guilds qualifications.

I don’t, I am basically self-taught, and I find my own way to create things. But this is my strength – I have no formal qualifications, no bits of paper, portfolio, or preconceived ideas on how something should be created (my qualifications are in catering management!!!). Plus, I feel that if I can make it, so can anyone else with a little bit of sewing skill and following my instructions and design, that is my aim to create beautiful things and help people to create beautiful things and love creating them.

Slowly, over the years, I have learnt to have confidence in my abilities, love what I do, find my own niche, stop comparing myself and my skills!!! What I do is liked, ladies come back to my patchwork classes year after year, I have sold designs to Popular Patchwork magazine and online through Etsy. My Quilted Postcards books sell, I get positive comments about my work. And, through social media I have discovered lots of other people, that I admire their work and yet they have no formal qualifications in what they are doing.

I have also embraced that I cannot create perfection, in fact I don’t want to create perfection!!! That is for machines. I create things by hand and with a sewing machine, the materials I use aren’t perfect and the faults are there. However careful I am with measuring, cutting, stitching together and pressing when creating patchwork, something will move, change and not be absolutely perfect. That is life!!! Accept and work round. I have found the level I am content with.

Take my big winter evening project, my aran knitted throw, I unpicked a couple of times when I noticed that I had done the pattern wrong, going back five or so rows at the most, but I was over half way up the throw when I noticed that I had done a cable wrong about 5” up from the bottom, I noticed it as I had laid it out as straight as I could to take a photo for a Post. In the past I would have got all upset, unpicked, got disheartened, possibly thrown the project in the back of a cupboard, and not finished it. But I looked at it, it’s got a fault or rather putting it a different way - an imperfection, its hand knitted!!! It doesn’t detract from the overall throw, it won’t be seen when its folded up or when I have it wrapped round me for warmth and comfort. Basically, I have accepted this imperfection.

And the same is true of my patchwork and quilting, if a point isn’t perfect or my hand quilting isn’t quite all the same length, if I put it five foot away can I see it? Will anyone notice, unless I point it out? Does it affect the overall completed design? Imperfection is part of being hand made.

And on that point, I have discovered that there are many cultures that accept imperfection and make an art of it. A few months ago, while watching something with Laura they mentioned Kintsugi, I had never heard of it, but Laura knew about it. It is a Japanese idea of mending broken pottery with gold, well actually it’s a lot more than just gold, but the breaks are highlighted in gold. It’s amazing and beautiful.

Then I came across Wabi -sabi, which is ancient aesthetic philosophy rooted in Zen Buddhism – the art of imperfection, it’s so much more than that, and much of it I don’t understand. But it’s an acceptance of imperfection in beauty.

This sent me rambling off down different roads, I had heard of the Islamic idea that only God can create perfection so that they, on purpose, put in an ‘error’ in what they are making, so that they aren’t trying to be God. This led to discovering that medieval church and cathedral builders did the same thing. And also, the Navajos, will create things with an imperfection. Many cultures accept the Art of Imperfection, accept that we are human, not machines (or God).

Find your level of acceptance of imperfection and just love what you create, both the making and the finished item. I have…..

PS. because Tony is just as critical with the pictures, we don't have many that are really imperfect!

Something that has been around for a long time but there seems to be even more of them in the past year, or I just happen to have noticed them more, are Stitch or Sew A Longs (SAL’s), Crochet A Longs (CAL’s), Knit A Longs (KAL’s), then there are the Block of the Months (BOM’s) which include mystery quilt ones and then finally there are subscription boxes.

It seems that every craft or wool company is doing some sort of distanced group activity or subscription idea, just look for them on the internet and there is almost something for everyone. If looking for block of the month – type that in, not like I did – which was type BOM’s – which apparently is a Bill of Materials!!!

I can really see why they have become so popular especially in the last year, as a reaction to everything that has been happening. There haven’t been the visits to the craft shops – and I mean the fabric, yarn and just general craft shops – these are very social spaces, most crafters are very social people (there are a few of us, like me, that are happy to craft alone). Go into a good independent craft shop and people will want to chat, talk about what they are making and why, talk about the fabric, yarns or patterns – interact. It’s the same thing with groups, classes, exhibitions and shows – it all fulfils a social need. And none of that has been happening.

Something A Longs, are a social thing, ok most are through social media (and that’s the thing – social media is about being social) being part of a group – even if you don’t know each other, physically, you are connected by all sewing/knitting/crocheting along to the same pattern over a number of weeks – possibly in the same colour and then posting photos on social media of how you are all doing. And it isn’t just confined to a small area, like classes or groups – that all have to be within easy access of a meeting place – Something A Longs are worldwide and far more inclusive than physical groups that meet. Something A Longs can be very inspiring, and I can see why so many craft bloggers, manufacturer, sellers, magazines are creating more of them.

I often see adverts for up and coming A longs, for some reason especially the crochet and knitted throw ones catch my eye, and I think yes, I would like to do that, so far this year Attic24 Meadow blanket CAL at the beginning of the year – in Stylecraft Special DK, then more recently the Black Sheep Wools A Day Out KAL – in Stylecraft Special DK and finally the Sirdar Sweet Blossom Blanket CAL in Hayfield Bonus DK. But then I really look at them and I think I don’t like that colour included or I’m not sure on that part of the design, then sometimes the cost!!! Although a lot are free patterns. And then finally, and the biggest reason is, I look at the big pile of work I have on the go and the list of things I really want to try and I think NO!

No, Sarah, you really can’t start anything else!! On my hooks at the moment, I have a TOFT dragon and also my big Granny Square using up yarn blanket/throw. Is there a difference between a blanket and a throw?.... and on my knit pins I have a scarf. So, yarnie things I think I have enough on the go, and I also have a idea/plan for a knitted throw for my winter project and a couple more scarves I have designed and I would like to weave a panel for a bag…

Then there are all the Blocks of the Month’s and quilt kits on offer – go to any online quilt shop and there are masses to chose from. They really are an online/kit version of going to a quilt class and making a block a week!

And finally, subscription boxes, they come in so many forms, for learning new crafts, extending skills - knitting, cross stitch, embroidery, painting, jewellery making, crochet, yarn and fabric based and even food based – you name it and there is a subscription box for it. Again, I have looked at a few and the Craftpod one interested me, with their quarterly themed boxes, but there are soo many out there. They seem like a lovely idea, a beautiful, packed box of goodies landing on your doorstep and then having everything you need to make in one box, with instructions. But I will resist. Although Laura, now she has got the crocheting creatures bug – especially the TOFT ones, has subscribed to their dye one!!! And I am soo looking forward to seeing what arrives!!!

For me, it really comes down to, I have far too many things on the go or waiting to be finished or even waiting to be designed and started!!! And I tend to design and work my own things – I only occasionally (TOFT animals) work from other peoples’ patterns or designs.

But if you aren’t like me….then there are some brilliant things to join online and extend your social online craft life.

Ps. The difference between a blanket and throw is… a blanket is made to fit on a bed, so is bigger. A throw is smaller, often hand made and is a more decorative item that goes on the backs of sofas and ends of beds and finally there are Afghans – they are handmade either knitted or crocheted!!!! I just had to wander off and find out…….

If you read my Rambles on a regular basis or see my posts on Facebook, you will probably have realised that I have a thing about Tulips!!!!

Ever since I had my own garden and started to take an interest in gardening, I have liked tulips – I have always preferred them to daffodils. Daffodils are just too big and yellow!!! Although in reading garden books this last year I am rather taken by Narcissus Tete a Tete!!! It’s small and elegant – I might grow some for next Spring!

Tulips come in soo many colours and I just like the shapes. I liked them, but they were just another flower that was around. My love of Tulips, that is a more recent thing and can be firmly laid at Tony’s door!!! It’s all his fault!!!

A number of years ago Tony had to go and work in Holland for a week on a project. All he saw was the office and his hotel room. On the way home, in the airport he decided to buy Laura and I some gifts – mugs, one with tulips on and the other in blues with Dutch houses, small wooden tulips and a tulip fridge magnet and keyring clogs. And that sort of started the tulip love!!!

When we stopped in Amsterdam on a cruise, I bought a load of bigger wooden tulips (that are in a Denby jug on the windowsill and make me happy as I walk past) and then when we went to Rotterdam, the following year I bought some more. That made me start to look at real ones to grow, in buckets in the back garden and from there its grown and grown.

I have used tulips a number of times on Quilted postcards but in the last few years I have created even more – plain tulips and also ones coloured in with Crayola Crayons. And from there I have made bowl fillers. And a journal quilt with a single tulip and a Dutch house quilted on the background.

Lewis & Irene bought out Tulip Field fabric – with tulips, windmills and mice (no clogs) on and I just had to have them all and make myself a quilt, (pattern is available in the Your Turn area), which usually sits on the back of my workroom chair but does go on our bed when the tulips are in flower, so part of April and May. And this year I made Tulip Mania wall hanging – using up some of the leftovers from the quilt.

This year I asked Laura to stitch for my Mother’s Day present a Blackwork tulip, just a single tulip in a hoop, but this led us to creating a Triple Tulip coloured blackwork picture (pattern is available from our Etsy store). And Laura also cross stitched me a tulip!!! And Tony gave me Lego tulips to build!!!

And Tony has given me the Grow Your Own Tulip kit from TOFT – it may be a while till it ‘flowers’!!!

So, you can see that tulips have sort of become a ‘thing’, I have bought a couple of books on tulips and started to research different ones so that I can have tulips flowers for even longer!!! Next year I want more buckets of them, Black Hero, Black Parrot, Amazing Parrot, Foxy Foxtrot, Negrita, Sarah Raven….. the list goes on, how to choose? So sorry, but I will be going on about them even more next Spring! Friends have started to send me links to tulip events or photos!!! We have also had a ‘tulip war’ between Tony and Laura to see who can take the best photos on their phones!!!

My tulips are still flowering and I am still making Laura and Tony come and admire them!!! But I know they are coming to the end but as I really want to keep the Tulip love for a while longer I am gathering lots of my tulip themed creations and my mantel display for May is …..tulips!!!

PS. I think I would like to do a trip, sometime in the future, maybe in a year or two, to the Dutch tulip fields and tulip festivals in Amsterdam…..

I have been aware for years that we all learn in a different way, I was taught at college about learning methods and how to write training manuals (a long with lots of other things, including wines but only old-world ones!!!), I have taught patchwork & quilting for years and run craft demonstrations. And I have helped teach Laura to speak and read and then through out her school taken an interest and encouraged her, where I am able. We had a division of knowledge – Tony did mathematics, chemistry and physics, and I would be the History, geography and English literature!! The languages and music side she just got on with it!! Even when she was doing her BA, we would discuss things and I was her sounding board – and I am still doing it with her MA – I know things about some weird stuff!!! The black death, silk routes, treason….

I know that Laura absorbs information and especially dates after just reading it once, I also was very aware that she reads huge amounts and reads very quickly, devouring words, in half the time of most of us. But the thing I hadn’t realised, until last week was how she learns!

At Christmas we both, Laura and I, got TOFT crochet kits. Laura had seen mine and wanted to learn to crochet. After Christmas she tried, with my help and also watching the very good TOFT videos, to learn to crochet, but it just didn’t click!!! She just couldn’t understand how to do it and she couldn’t get the hang of holding the hook and yarn – I did think it wasn’t helped by the fact that she was learning to crochet right handed when she is completely and utterly left handed!!!

She gave up but has been saying that she wanted to try again.

Last week Tony bought me another crochet kit – Cro your own Tulip from TOFT, he thought I would love it as I do have just a little thing about tulips!!!!!!!!! He also got me the new book Ocean by them.

Laura began to look at the book, she disappeared into the sitting room and quietly read it and pulled out the kit for crocheting a turtle in chunky yarn and crocheted away. Laura learnt to crochet through reading, for her the best way to learn is the written word!!! It’s not being shown or looking at videos – it’s from a written explanation!!!

I really find this hard to understand and I am sure a lot of other people would as well, I haven’t come across anyone learning a practical craft like that before. Yes, I can and do learn through reading but for something practical craft based like crocheting, then I find that the written explanation on its own wouldn’t be enough, I learn by pictures/photos or seeing it done in videos. I have also learnt by people showing me, but often I am better sitting quietly and just doing something by looking at pictures. Often with dressmaking I don’t read the instructions – I just look at the pictures!!!

Having this lightbulb moment of how Laura learns, suddenly explains her thinking and why she does so well in certain things – how she got an A* in GCSE Physics, when she didn’t have a proper teacher for most of the course and the one that they ended up with couldn’t speak English (she wouldn’t talk to us parents at Parents evening as her understanding of English was soo limited – apparently she was the best of the applicants for the post!!!). Laura read all the Physics books for the course and even borrowed the teacher’s version, she learnt it through reading it, not being shown or taught.

How Laura learns is probably very unusual, most of us learn through visually and physically seeing and aural explanations. It is one of the reasons that people go to classes – especially for patchwork and quilting, or any craft, the other big reason is social.

The way I learn has very much shaped the way that I teach and demonstrate, and also write patterns. How I write instructions and patterns has changed over the years, with new technologies and as I have got more assured in how I want to write them. Today’s instructions are a far cry from when I started teaching and even very different from 12 years ago. They still are short (hopefully) clear points, detailing each stage, I have been criticised by a couple people for making the instruction too simple and too many points. I add in my personal tips and lots of photos (rather than the hand drawn diagrams), like my books they are how I really wish all patterns and instructions were written!!!

It is Spring!!! And I think it is possibly the Season I like most! It’s the time of the natural world re-awaking, longer hours of sunlight, plants starting to come up. Every time I walk round the garden, I see something new shooting up, from the bulbs in the pots – just tiny little green shoots, to the new rose bushes I planted a few weeks ago, to the ferns by the water feature and of course all the hostas!!! And then there are the tulips!! I think you have probably realised by now (if you have reading my Rambles) that I love tulips, and I so enjoy watching them peek above the soil in the steel buckets in the back garden and then grow tall and form bubs and waiting to see them burst into flower.

It just feels more positive and brighter. My creativity levels seem to rise, ideas are running round my mind – too many, I am just plucking the odd one out and running with it. Others get sketched into my book – ahh!!  Could ramble off in that direction but no I will continue on with the Seasons theme and come back to creative books, ideas sketching, journals, planners and the Commonplace book!!!

I think we have been lucky this year, yes, it is still chilly, but it has been sunny, lovely bright days with a soft blue sky first thing in the morning and beautiful coloured sunsets – not the strong colours of mid-summer but more softer baby pink and blues with apricots and delicate peaches.

So, far we haven’t had many rainy days, or even too many showers here on the outskirts/borders of London. I know this isn’t the same for all of the country, here we seem to have very different weather from a lot of the country or even London or Essex, it never seems to be as wet, cold or snowy here!!

As I have got older I have began to ‘see’ the seasons more, understand the natural rhythm of the world – the circle of life!! And appreciate it and be inspired by it.

Spring – March, April and May, the time of rebirth and new growth, the soft greens, white of snowdrops, yellow of narcissus from the creamy yellow to strong egg yolk yellow, the blue/purple of grape hyacinths and the pinks of the blossom trees. Finally, to the burst of colours of tulips. The brighter, longer days but still with the chill of winter, so I can still wrap up in my scarves, sheepskin boots and throws and quilts.

Summer – June, July and August, I am not so much of a summer person, I am not a person that likes the heat of the sun. The early mornings when the world is cooler and quiet are my favourite time of day, time to sit and have my morning coffee and just see the beauty in the world, how things are growing and look at the colours, and there are a lot more colours with all the plants and flowers (and if everything I have planted this Spring grow and flower my garden will have a lot!!!). Creatively the summer, June and early July are about finishing off bigger projects and working on smaller pieces.

Autumn – September, October and November, as I have written in a Ramble last year, I have a love/hate relationship with autumn, I love the colours – the world explodes with oranges/golds/reds (not ones I use in quilts or my home, but I still find them beautiful) and I can get back to cosy jumpers, sheepskin boots, scarves and throws – layers!!! It is a very creative time with the new term and then Christmas, always lots to do…

Then we come to Winter – December, January and February, I have always found these months ‘harder’ creatively but also just getting through the darker, colder days – I want to hibernate. I can understand why we have Christmas/winter celebration in the darkest month of the year. Nature does ‘sleep’ through these months to reawaken in the Spring with new a burst of energy and I guess that is in a way what I do, I have learnt to allow my mind time to relax, work on a project that keeps my hands busy, from knitting or crochet to a hand stitched quilt or embroidering but doesn’t need to much thinking!!!

Then with Spring….. ideas come thick and fast, so which idea do I work on next?!!!

Happy Easter!!!

Easter means different things to different people. We aren’t formally religious, none of us go to church or follow any set religion and yet Easter coming after March equinox, the first day of Spring and the clocks going forward feels like a time to mark Spring and the natural world ‘rebirth’ after winter dominancy.

Everyone and every culture have their Easter traditions, I think many have been lost in the commercialisation that has happened to all occasions. I am not anti-commercialisation or consumerism, but I do feel that many of our ‘holidays’ have been taken over and the meaning and really the sentiment behind them have been lost in the need to spend lots of money and create fabulous Instagram worthy photos of the ‘perfect’ life, which only adds to the stress for some people.

For me, Easter is my second most make heavy time, after Christmas. What I mean by that is Easter is when I make ten Quilted Postcards to send out and I also tend to make something small to add to my Easter display. I constantly, throughout the year, make Quilted Postcards and bowl fillers and small pieces of fabric/embroidery art for our mantel shelf display and/or presents/cards for birthdays, anniversaries or just to say hello to special people. This is nothing new, ever since Laura was little and we had craft afternoons we have created bits for different occasions.

At Easter, over the years, we, Laura and I have decorated eggs, drawn pictures, made shaped and iced biscuits and then as Laura grew older and moved away from creating. I have transitioned into stitched Easter and Spring creating as stitching is more my thing and now Laura has discovered her love of embroidery and the house is filling up with even more stitched bits!

So, I have sent out my Easter Cards, the mantel shelf display has an Easter theme with Quilted Postcards, hoop art and bowl fillers, all with eggs and bunny themes, it even has some fabric carrots!!! And an Easter rag and ribbon wreath is hanging in the porch!!

And we are set for our only Easter weekend tradition – Laura’s sweet and present hunt on Sunday!!!

Laura, when a child, didn’t like chocolate!!! And so, we started hiding plastic eggs filled with sweets, in recent years Haribo’s, round the house with clues for her to find her Easter present!!! Otherwise, we have no traditions and even that has changed over the years as she has grown up.

Whatever you do this Easter weekend, following old traditions or creating new ones, I hope that you have an enjoyable time.

As you may have realised flowers, as the new book is Quilted Postcards The Flower Edition, are a big source of inspiration. Flowers, plants, landscapes all figure a lot in everything I create from postcards, to quilts and embroideries.

I love wandering around gardens, big gardens and certain ones stand out in my mind as great inspiration, the ones that we have lots of photos from… Anglesey Abbey – ahh! The Himalayan birches (they are very strokable!!)  and the dahlia border…., Hidcote and Sissinghurst of course, but also Hinton Amper and I love Scotney Castle – it’s not just the garden but the old castle is just magical. And then there is Calke – possibly because this is a place we have been to a few times each year, that the gardens are somewhere I know.

I used to think it would be lovely to have a big garden, but in reality big gardens need a lot of love and attention and I am sure that I wouldn’t have time to do a big garden and also needlework – it would have to be one or the other, or have a team of gardeners!!!!

In summer I potter out in our garden for a few minutes each day, I walk the garden, taking in the beauty, seeing what is growing, deadheading and weeding as I go. I will often just sit, first thing in the morning before most of the world has started, drinking my breakfast coffee taking in the calm and peace.

Our garden, is a bit of a garden of two halves – the left where it is shaded and damp and I have it planted with climbing hydrangea, a laurel, a couple of euonymus and ferns, all plants that can take the shade, we also have a couple of water features on this side.  The left hand corner by the back doors never gets the sun, this is where my pots of hostas give me lots of shades of green (and is snail paradise!!!), my chair is in this oasis of cool green.

The right hand side, gets sun, well in the summer months. In winter nowhere in the garden gets any sun, when we have it! In the Spring the sun just reaches the top of the fence on the right hand side and as we head for the summer it comes further into the garden. This side has a ribbon of gravel by the fence and this is home of loads and loads of pots and containers.

Up to a few years ago the predominate colour in the garden was green, I would add a few pots of summer bedding for colour. A lot of the green and interest was from the pots of box bushes, we had over ten of them, just in the back garden and then more in the front garden.  They were in different sizes and shapes. A few had been growing for over 25 years and many of the others were cuttings from the original two I bought. But the box moth found them and I battled for three years to stop the infestation but in the end after a lot of time and frustration I lost the battle and all of the boxes except for three tiny cuttings had to be destroyed, they had been eaten to pieces….

Over the last couple of years I have gone with sempervivums (houseleeks) and sedums. I started with one plant that I pulled out of my aunt’s garden years ago – it grows in the gravel, which didn’t have as many pots on it, till one day I realised I didn’t have as many – in fact I only had a couple of them left, I then discovered the one huge one in the mouth of our big old tortoise!!!! Hence why I grow them all in containers – mostly steel buckets as the tortoise can’t knock them over and I like the look of them.

But sedums and houseleeks are low growing and I realised in the autumn that I was missing my green evergreen shrubs and bushes and I had already decided that I wanted more colour and monthly interest, I was missing my ‘fix’ of flowers and plants and their scents – ahhh to walk through a rose garden, looking at each flower and sniffing their lovely smell, or rubbing past a plant and releasing their scent. I was missing visiting big gardens and also I was working on all the flower postcards…

Being me, I don’t just jump into buying stuff, I slowly work round to it, I research and read, bought a few books, trawled through websites, made lists, crossed off plants – many don’t like shade, others won’t grow in containers. Till I have a list of plants and flowers I would like.

We have made a start on buying some, I have started with a few, two scented roses, suitable for containers, a hebe, a couple of bay bushes, scented pelargoniums, and a buddleia. My best friend for my birthday bought me a set of dahlia tubers all suitable for container growing!! I have also got some sweetpeas to grow!!!

So, my project of revitalising and adding monthly interest has started….. pots to plant, containers to move around, interest and ‘tableaux’ to create…….so much possible inspiration ……

As I have said in a previous Ramble, I worked as a bookseller, this was before Laura was born and so a long time ago… well over 22 years ago!!!

I worked in a local family-owned department store which was quaint, idiosyncratic, and very old fashioned, some days it did feel like we were on the set of ‘Are you being served’!!  Buyers were the demi-gods, they had their own dining area and had to be addressed by their titles – so mine was Miss Smith and she was the buyer of books and toys.

We ordered books two ways, from publishers direct or through a wholesaler. With the wholesaler they were for the fiction titles, both paperback and hardback. They sent a big catalogue of all the titles that they held, and we would make up an order and send it through to them – we would have to go to the office and ask them to fax it through. Every month we would get a small catalogue/booklet through with the new releases for the next month and we would go through, tick what we wanted and how many.

The other way we ordered books was with rep’s from publishers, we didn’t see many rep’s but there were a few, some you looked forward to coming – David & Charles and also the Usborne one!!! Others were not so much!!!

The David & Charles rep was just a nice man, that we, Miss Smith and the three of us, that worked on the department just enjoyed seeing, it was an added bonus that he had such lovely books. David & Charles were based in Newton Abbot in Devon and had originally started out publishing transport books and then had gone into other areas.

One of their big authors was the British artist David Sheppard, he did fantastic wildlife paintings (we have one of his books) but he also did paintings of steam engines (I’m pretty sure my father-in-law has a few, as he used to make working model steam trains – I’m not talking little Hornby type but sit on size.) David Sheppard’s paintings are extraordinary, they make you feel like you are really there. I think they were the first real paintings/art I can remember looking at and properly seeing. From then on, I started being interested in art.

The other thing that David & Charles did was craft books. At the time cross stitch was having a big revival and the British ‘name’ at the time was Jo Verso, she did lots of books, with lots of patterns. Looking at the books now, they feel very much of their time but for many of us they were our road into the world of cross stitch and other forms of embroidery.

The other big book was Lynne Edwards The Sampler Quilt, this was a British quilter writing a book!!! A lot of the books, quilting and other crafts were American imports, they were very ‘American’ – homesteads and plains American – fly the stars and stripes!!! Apple pie and baseball!!! But Lynne Edwards wrote as a teacher with a book that was really good to follow, the instructions were clear and there were lots of photos of finished quilts.

As a teacher myself, The Sampler Quilt book was one book I always recommended to my class to buy, if they wanted a good starter book, again it was a book of its time, the techniques in it seem a little ‘old fashioned’ now, with the hand applique and quilting. But at the time it was how we worked. The blocks used are still really good for learning and building patchwork skills, it’s a book that is still relevant for today’s beginners. From my point of view the photos of finished quilts were brilliant. The same patterns had been used, but Lynne Edwards pupils had chosen their own fabric and also were the blocks would go in the quilt, this made every quilt look different and these quilts were very real, made by normal quilters and so they weren’t perfect, and beginners could relate to them.

At a time when we didn’t have all the social media and technology like EQ (Electric Quilt design software), the inspiration and pictures of quilts came from magazines (mostly American) or books and The Sampler book was brilliant!!! It allowed you to see how different colours and fabrics can make one quilt look so totally different.

Looking at the book and the updated expanded version The Essential Sampler Book, it makes me want to teach a sampler quilt, I really enjoy working on them, I guess because each square is different, and I don’t get bored!!!

The other rep and company that was good was Usborne, I don’t know if you know the company, but they did really good children’s book – Farmyard Tales were a favourite in this house and helped Laura learn to speak and read and where the ’thing’ about yellow ducks comes from!!!! And both of those are completely different ‘rambles’ and at the moment I am not going down those paths…..

Back to Usborne, they had books that were easy to sell, on huge number of topics and they also did really good learn to knit book. When someone asked for a recommendation or a book for a child, there was usually something in the Usborne range that would fit the bill.

There are so many books in this house that were bought when I was a bookseller and there are loads of books that I have bought since…..

As I am sure I have mentioned we have a lot of books in our house, on shelves, in boxes and in piles…. And as I am sure you are all aware, we published a book in 2020 – Quilted Postcards – ‘Little Quilts of Creativity’. This fulfilled a long held dream for me – to publish a book!!!

I have no idea why I had the dream to publish a book and originally the dream wasn’t a craft book, I wanted to write fiction but….it morphed into wanting to write a craft book.

For someone that struggled to learn to read and can’t spell (and please don’t ever ask me to read something out aloud from book, paper or anything like that!!! Totally can’t do it…. I stopped reading to Laura when she was about five, when she started to correct me!!!) I love books, I would read most things including cereal packets…

When I was at school, I wanted to work in a library, but it was at the time of cut backs and closures and you needed a degree to be a librarian and I was told I wouldn’t get into university and so I was directed towards catering as I was really good at cooking!!! So, that is where I headed and ended up hating food.

Then I ended up working in a book department of a local department store. And I loved it, books, books and more books…. The whole craft book market was totally different from today’s market, this was the early 1990’s, and there just wasn’t the craft books around. The main publisher for craft books, mainly cross stitch and also Lynne Edwards Sampler Quilt book was David & Charles, I still have a lot of these books on my shelf – along with their art ones!!! (I almost rambled off in the direction of David & Charles, their history is interesting! But back on track…) Search Press also did art and a few embroidery book – these were slim books on specialist subjects – How to draw Trees! Slowly other companies began to publish craft books and books began to be imported from America. The whole book selling world had begun to change, supermarkets sold paperbacks and cookery books and big chains like Waterstones arrived. It was around this time, 1999/2000 that I left bookselling for haberdashery and yarn selling!!!

A constant throughout the years has always been my quilt making and other crafting, whether that was teaching or demonstrating, I have always designed and passed on my knowledge. And with Tony’s pushing I eventually sold designs to Popular Patchwork magazine. This was really hard work for me, trying to write the instructions within the parameters that they wanted. I know when I write instructions for my teaching that I put a lot of information into them. I use short sentences and lots of illustrations – originally drawings, now photos (how technology has changed the way we work!!!). I write my instructions how I really want them to be in books and magazines, with all the information, with the hints and tips, clear and concise!!! But writing for a magazine you have to leave so much out, condense down and assume that people have a certain amount of knowledge. Back when I was sending work to the magazines, Laura was too young to have the role she does know – of taking my words, making sense of them, editing and correcting them!!!

Quilted Postcards – ‘Little Quilts of Creativity’ was born out of wanting to write a book, the type of book that I wanted from other craft books, full clear instructions, lots of hints, tips and knowledge and lots of photos. One of my pet hates with craft books is the patterns when it says enlarge by 200% - what and how do you do this?!!! I wait for Tony to be free and ask the former photocopier Engineer and technical person to do it!!!

Our book is also a product of the era, where technology allows us to self publish without all the big thing of actually finding a physical publisher, paying out huge sums to physically print it and then either market it ourselves or pay to have to have it marketed.

The world of Amazon, print on demand and technology, websites and social media have revolutionised the publishing world. For me the new world is brilliant – I have fulfilled my dream, published a book and it’s selling!!! (OK not in massive amounts, but it is selling)

It may be hard work, designing and creating the postcards, doing the instructions, photographing them, working on layout, colours, editing, pricing and the million and one other things that have to be done. There is so much to do and think about…. we have done it!!! Once….

And we, Tony, Laura and I are going to be publishing Book No. 2 very, very soon. Yes, we are mad!!! But we have the bug…

(PS, I have never formally been diagnosed with dyslexia, (that is an impossible word to spell, it’s like lingerie and fatigue!!) but I have read different things, tried the online tests and yes, I am probably dyslexic and also dyscalculic (that’s even worse to spell and I have no idea how you say it!!!)!!! But that’s a whole new Ramble….)

According to my husband I don’t have a romantic bone in my body!!!

Ok, I don’t like or go in for the big traditional romantic gesture – a dozen red roses are just creepy to me – even one red rose is creepy, there is nothing romantic or love related with a red rose. They are death and blood and I really don’t like them, as you might of gathered. I also can’t see the point of paying out a huge amount of money on February 14^th on a bunch of overpriced, short lived, out of season flowers!!! And why should you only be romantic on St Valentine’s day?

Nor do I like going out for a posh, expensive meal, or like champagne (or prosecco) or want a long weekend in Paris. Been there and although it was a nice city, I can’t in any way understand why it is considered the city of love or lovers!!! I much prefer London or York and if I am going to have a long weekend in a city then there are other places I would like to see – like Edinburgh. And don’t even suggest a spa day…..

If all of that makes me unromantic, fine, I’m unromantic!!! But for me being romantic isn’t about one over commercialised day, it’s about everyday – showing by everyday small gestures that I love him, cooking him dinners he likes (and I don’t!!!) is just one thing – doing things for him, letting him know he is very important to me.

Creating bits to give to him, made with love, from a quilt with hexagon hearts for our 25^th wedding anniversary to Quilted Postcards on special days or just because I want to……

Love is the small everyday acts

Love is a handmade quilt to hug you in love and comfort

Love is a hand knitted scarf

Love is knowing when to give someone their space

Love is small and everyday, all year.

Romance is for books……

PS I also haven’t got the shopping gene, which is probably a relief to him!!! – I really can’t stand shopping!!!

It has been ages since I started on a new quilt – the last quilt I designed, stitched and finished was the duck quilt for Laura’s 21^st birthday in August last year!!!

There are lots of quilts or rather bits, parts or tops of quilts in my workspace, waiting for me to finally get round to finishing them. I have a couple that I have looked at and thought yes, this is the next one to finish when I have time, but I haven’t found (or made!) the time, I have been working on other things. I will finish them!!! Really!!!

But I have started a new quilt!!!

With the ongoing situation and not being back in the physical classroom, I really felt that I wanted to support and help the members of my classes (those that were in my class when it suddenly shut in March 2020). Since September we have been uploading to the class section of my website back catalogue patterns – and I have a lot of them (over ten years worth!!!) but I wanted to do a bit more and so have started a fortnightly online Microsoft Teams meeting – this is turning into a learning curve and things change each time and we (or rather Tony!) are looking into other ways and methods of doing this.

I am never going to be completely comfortable with being an online teacher and I am really not sure about doing instructional videos, but we are living in different times and so we all need to adapt.

Back to the quilt, I wanted to create a quilt, simple, clean, in the style that I enjoy – that I can teach/explain how to make in the online class. I love Nine Patch blocks, from the simple Nine squares stitched together to the more complicated designs, of squares and triangles and I had a couple of Charm Packs just sitting in a box!!!

Although a simple basic Nine Patch would be lovely, I tend to usually combine them with other blocks, but if I used the method for the Disappearing Nine Patch design ……. 40 charm pack squares would make four blocks, add borders to each block, quilt and put together, to create the centre. And then add more borders and corner squares – from the four left over Charm squares and you have a quilt….

Ok, it’s not really that simple……

I realise that not everybody is like me, that for many it is not simple or easy to design and make a quilt. Long before I actually start to make a quilt, I visualise it, it’s there in my mind – this may not be the finished quilt, the design may change and evolve when I start sewing, as the design, fabric and quilting ‘talk’ to me.

But all the quilts start off being visualised, this may suddenly pop into my mind but other times, it may bubble away, changing and growing over weeks or even months. Eventually when it feels right the design will go down as a rough sketch with notes and sizes on it. I also work through in my mind the steps of how I am going to make the quilt.

Only when everything feels right, do I go and find the fabric and then start the actual quilt making process.

I have found all the fabrics, sorted, stitched, cut and stitched together to create the four Disappearing Nine Patch blocks, put the borders and on and started to quilt. For this quilt I wanted to do ‘slow’ quilting – Big stitch quilting. In the last few years, most of the quilts I have created have been machine quilted using my walking foot but I just felt with this one, whether it is because of all that is going on in the world or the time of year, or not having the pressure to finish the quilt and be on to the next section or design that often comes with teaching, I just wanted a slower hand stitching for this quilt.

And so I am slowly quilting, trying to do big stitches, to quilt with small stitches is so ingrained in me!! It’s actually a bit of a challenge to go bigger!!! But it is lovely just sitting and getting into a rhythm, It’s calming and mediative…. Forget the world, just focus on each stitch.

PS I have another Charm Park in my box and this one is going to be a machine pieced and machine quilted – quicker quilt to make…… more on that at sometime!!!

This is the rewritten, shortened by miles (well by Laura) Ramble!!!

I tend to write my Rambles over a week or so, I keep coming back, rewriting, adding and taking away bits and they Ramble away. The version of this one, Rambled on and on and then I asked Laura to read it, it had morphed into over 1600 words!!! Rather too long…..

So, here goes with a shorter edited version.

We are living through a weird time with lockdowns, restrictions, Brexit and general gloom and doom, time of mass information at our fingertips. We have survived and we will continue to.

Over the years I have read a few things on ‘staying positive’ and coping with life, and now lockdown. I read them, occasionally scoff at them – do these people live in the real world!!! And sometimes take just a small nugget of advice from them, I have found my own form of coping.

There seems to be a basic five things that I have taken out of all these things, exercise and nature, I am grouping this together as they sort of go hand in hand. List the positives and concentrate on them and what you can do. Limit the negative things. Follow a routine and finally be kind to yourself….

I have, for all of my adult life, found exercise, well walking which I never really considered exercise but apparently is, to be beneficial. Walking, and we are talking about a brisk walk, is a time to think and work through things. I have for years, when I have just got stuck in a problem or design, don’t know what to do, felt frustrated – gone for a walk.

We walk in all weathers, wrapped up in the right clothes and just go, we pound the roads. I do miss going out into the countryside and walking but we live in suburbia and so it’s the roads. One day we will go back to the countryside. In winter I have always tried to get out in the day, at least a few days over the week for a walk, to see the daylight, especially on the bright chilly days – it’s good for vitamin D, but it is also good for lifting the spirts.

Nature is part of walking, for looking at all the things that are growing, even the weeds along the pavements. The local park, or the odd hidden green spaces, like the church yard have become even more important over this year. There are trees and nature, you can just escape from the world of houses, pavements and cars!!! For me, my garden is also my green space, to watch things grow (and occasionally die!!), to battle the snails… find peace and space.

List the positives, I don’t physically write down the positives in a journal, I just make a point of mentally looking for the positives, through the day. Take today, a cold very wet grey day, which doesn’t appear to have any positives, after all I am going to get a bit damp when I go for my walk!!! But the positives are I am in the warm, my family are home, safe and well and I have lots of creative projects to work on plus the rain is making pretty patterns on the window!!!

The phrase ‘stop and smell the roses’ is something I keep in mind. I just stop and find something, even something small like a snowdrop or hellebore flower, a beautiful frosted spider’s web, a pretty pattern on the shell of those snails eating through my plants, a lovely square of good quality chocolate to saviour, the pattern in the clouds, to feel, see, taste, each small positive can make a difference.

Part of staying positive is limiting the time spent on the negatives, be that social media, the news, all the things that are showing the doom and gloom and that can make you feel sad, stressed and anxious. It can be also limiting the time spent interacting with people, family and friends that create anxiety or negativity.

Routine, I like my routine and having set time to do things. It certainly helps me to get up in the morning. I could, especially in the winter just curl up and do nothing, sink into a hibernation but with my routine I get through each day. Building an activity into my routine – like doing an hour’s cross stitch or 15 minutes crochet means I actually make the time to do these things, without the routine I would put things off and just wallow. I often hear ‘you get sooo much done’ said to me, it is because I have a routine, getting things done or made gives me a sense of achievement, an uplift of spirit, a sense of purpose. I have learnt not to set too many tasks, to try to be realistic about the amount I can do or to beat myself up if I don’t get everything done in a day, week or month, that just creates negativity!!! But I am not a slave to my routine, I can take a ‘holiday’, it can just be a day to do something different.

Be kind to yourself – this last one has been something that I have taken years to understand and learn to do. I am, probably the harshest judge on myself, be it my weight, fitness, what I have done each day or my creative work.

I was especially hard on my creative work, I would pick out all the faults in my quilts, the small mistakes that no one would see, I would compare what I do to other creators. Tony would make me stand six foot away and say can you see the faults? But it didn’t sink in till about ten years ago, I read an article by a top flight creator/teacher that said she had learnt to accept the faults and also to teach her pupils to stand away and look at their work from a distance, if you can’t see the slight wobble or points not matching and nor can your friends (without you pointing them out), accept them, look at the quilt as a whole, take pleasure in the beauty you have created. It is also learning and accepting your strengths and building a style of creative work that is your own.

Being kind to yourself is accepting who and what you are, not judging yourself against other people and their views, we are all different. Being kind is saying today isn’t a good day, I feel sad or anxious, acknowledging it, saying to those around you that you need space and doing something for yourself, even if that is just having ten minutes to sit in a quiet place and just breathe, doing something that is for you and good for your spirit and soul.

I am an individual, different from other people and I am content to be me, I know my strengths and weaknesses and what I need to do to cope with the world, I have learnt to ask for help, and accept what I can and can’t do. The world is scary, confusing, stressful and worrying, I take one day at a time….

Wishing you a healthy and creative 2021!

2020 was a different year and for many a very difficult year, so many things happening, situations constantly changing, in a way it felt like the year ‘didn’t happen’.

For me, the year was a time to draw into my home, relax, unwind, revaluate what I have been doing and where I want to be going, both personally and also on the creative front. It allowed me to find my creative feet and my passion for designing, to rediscover skills I had forgotten and start new things. I hadn’t realised how much I needed to stop and take the step away from patchwork and quilting, to re-find my enjoyment of designing and making quilts.

I have made a few decisions about what I want to do to re-balance my creativity. I am a patchwork quilter, and this is what I teach, but I also need to have time to do other creative projects, one thing feeds of another and more ideas and designs spin around my mind!!!

I had been struggling with my teaching and quilts, it had been taking a huge amount of my time, I didn’t know where I was going or what I should be teaching, I was trying to please everyone. I have had time to think and work out what I really love and really enjoy with quilts and from this I have decided that I will stick to teaching those areas. Laura and I took part in an Instagram prompt posting over a week and one of the prompts was ‘Top Tip’, there was loads of things we could have said, from measure twice, cut once, buy the best you can afford in equipment but the thing we went with was ‘Love what you do’. and this sums up how I feel about not just my teaching but all my creativity. By loving what I do, I have far greater enjoyment in making it and I give more to the project and I am better at it.

I guess you could say my style of quilts are based on the traditional quilts and textiles, either pieced or applique but I tend to blend/mix both styles but using modern methods of making. I love using different techniques, machine applique, hand embroidery, piecing, hand and machine quilting, all mixed together. I enjoy creating by the quilting-as-you-go method, in sections and easy to handle pieces, that you can make into other bits like cushions, runners or bags or you can substitute other designs to change the look or use. And with machine quilting, although I can do free-motion I far prefer and enjoy walking foot quilting.

So, going forward into the new calendar year 2021, I am going to stick to these types of quilts, be they big or small. I am going to embrace and work on the styles I like best and not try to please everybody I teach. I hope that all those coming to my classes, when we eventually return to the classroom will, enjoy creating quilts of this style.

I am going to balance my time, so that I have days to work on my Quilted Postcards and projects related to them, and there are two that I am working on!! more on them later in the year.

I also am going to set time to design more embroidery projects with Laura, to stitch up and sell the patterns. And also, to create Laura some skirts in the style of those from the late-Victorian/Edwardian walking skirt and also the 1930’s and 40’s. We have a whole pattern library of books that I inherited from my Grandmother to adjust and work from and as Laura can’t find what she wants, and I can make them (if I make the time!!) then that is another project for us.

I also want to complete other craft projects and try new things…. there is a whole world of things creatively I haven’t even touched yet!!!

Time to put into action all those classes and courses at college and work that I did on, efficiency and time and motion, to allow me to allocate my time to all I want to do in the right way and keep the balance between all the elements of my creative life……