A genteel adventure and other exploits.

Well its been an interesting week. The school has been on Half Term Holiday, usually a good time to try and catch up with all kinds of things. This last week has been no exception.

Apart from sleeping through Saturday (I was so tired, that was literally all I was fit for!) I went to Quiltfest on Sunday. This is an annual exhibition held in the wonderful town of Llangollen in North Wales. The exhibition was wonderful with some really good pieces of work. Nikki Tinkler was the featured quilter this year. Sadly, I have no photos I can share of the wonderful exhibits.

I went to Quiltfest with my friend Hilary. We visited the Traders Bazaar too. I bought this delightful cat print.

The photo above is the rather wonderful globe that hangs outside the entrance to the exhibition hall.

I had a second, rather genteel adventure on Thursday. This was part of the celebrations for my mother's 80th birthday. Mum is an adventurous and delightfully busy person. So it was rather a privilege to be chosen as mum's companion for this treat.

She had been given a couple of vouchers for afternoon tea at the Midland Hotel. This is a rather wonderful building in the centre of Manchester, down near the Manchester Art Gallery.

We decided to stop and explore the Art Gallery whilst we were in Manchester.

We were so lucky! Ten drawings by Leonardo da Vinci were being shown as a special exhibition. Such a wonderful opportunity, it is so rare to be able to actually see these drawings. They are so beautifully detailed and so small. I hadn't realised that they had been drawn on paper made from rags which has helped preserve them so well to this day.

But, on to the main event. This was such an adventure for both of us. Needless to say we had dressed up for our afternoon tea.

First of all, we were escorted to a table for two in the Octagon. We were the asked if we wanted champagne first or with the cakes. This was a complete surprise to both of us. Tea we had been expecting, but not champagne! Well, we started with sandwiches - rather special sandwiches beautifully presented on a plate. We were given a glass of Madeira each too. Delicious.

When we had settled in to enjoy the sandwiches and the madeira, we were brought a pot of tea and cups. We both felt very spoilt by the gently attentive staff.

When the sandwiches had been finished a cake stand was brought to us. There were two levels. The first held a couple of fruit scones, freshly made. These were presented on a plate with butter or clotted cream (a very thick fresh cream, which is solid rather than soft). There was also a small dish of fruit jam (jelly) and a second dish of a mixed fruit compote. So refreshing adding compote to fresh scones. I think I shall try doing this myself.

The second layer held a collection of small cakes - individual portions of carrot cake, and a number of others.

When we had finished with the scones, our attentive waitress returned with two champagne flutes served with half a strawberry.

A magnificent and extremely special treat. I cannot imagine that this was at all inexpensive. The Hotel and it's staff were genuinely kind and helpful and well worth a visit if you can. Just dress appropriately. A visit there is quite an occasion.

I managed to finish Liz's Christmas jumper this week, adding some clips instead of buttons on the front. This is the same design I made some time ago, it is based on the Open-collared Pullover by Elizabeth Zimmermann from her book "Knitter's Almanac".

A quiet week.

The past week has been rather a quiet one on the creative side of things. There has been little opportunity or inclination to knit or sew.
I have managed to complete some repairs to one of Ian's jackets. I had to rebuild a couple of pockets and make minor repairs to the lining. Then restitching some buttons which had fallen off or loosened. This had languished in my mending pile for some time before I got around to working on it.
Another item is also being worked on - a simple woollen skirt I made for myself some years ago. I have started adding a lining, since this had never hung properly - being rather too prone to clinging due to static.
Speaking of linings, I have also cut out and prepared the lining of a bag belonging to one of my friends. Hopefully, I shall have sufficient time this week to complete both these projects.
I had a piece of luck yesterday, finding a piece of tartan fabric in a local Charity shop. The piece is almost three metres long, a really useful length. I am hoping that I can use this to make a dress like that in the recent Sew Hip magazine.

Annual Fabric Sale! ....and a nice surprise.

Last Sunday afternoon, I went to the annual Nantwich Fabric Sale. This happens every January and is a good opportunity to stock up with fabric, books and general bits and pieces. There is usually a small exhibition of quilts too, with some stalls giving information about local courses.

I went along with my friend Hilary, a fellow quilter.

I bought quite a nice collection of fabrics - some to fill in the browns and yellows of my fabric stash.

Also, some reds and a couple of patterned fat quarters. The first of these is a Japanese print, which will go nicely with the Japanese themed quilt I have languishing in my WISP collection. The second, I really could not resist. It is a black and white Art Nouveau Alphabet. I have no idea when I shall use this, but it really pleads to be put into something.

Then there was the book stall. This was wonderful. I bought four books.

All of these were amongst the many second-hand books there. The Samplers book has such a wonderful cover with some really inspirational Blackwork designs. The second book will go into my small collection of old DMC books. It also has some wonderful designs there which I can see myself adapting.

Then I found these two books. I love the idea of making boxes, but have not made many so far. The first book, by Jackie Woolsey is one of those wonderful books which records the techniques ready to be used in whichever way you choose. Perfect. The second may seem a strange choice, but look at the following page from inside.

I just love the swirling design of paisley, having played about with this in the past. These drawings - it is a book of drawings of different paisley designs, just tempting me to start exploring possibilities again. The book is by Gregory Mirow and is one of the Dover Design Library publications.

This week I have been busily knitting Liz's jumper. I gave her the yarn for Christmas with the promise of completing it sometime. Luckily, I didn't make any promises about exactly when it would be complete and she understands my workload..............

This is the design on the front. Plain up until the chest area, it has this design up to the armholes. Then I intend to continue in the darker shade of blue, joining in the sleeves. So far I have got to the halfway stage with the first of the sleeves. Its definitely coming on now. I had been getting so very bored with the plain blue.

This weekend has been very pleasant. We had a visitor staying with us - a friend of my younger daughter. She and I had a lovely chat about various crafts - she is a knitter, sewer and felter! Imagine my surprise when she and Rosie came into my workroom as I started writing this to give me this delightful little present.

As the fabric label states "A very handy little tape measure". I just love the tab with the fish on it! It sits proudly on my shelves, just within reach whenever I need it. How very thoughtful.

Bits and pieces.

I had a lot of fun during the Christmas break trying out different techniques of printing. You may have seen the Cat bag in my last post. This used some of the results of my printing experiments.

The first of these was lino printing. Can you see the daft mistake I made first? Yes, the resulting print will be back to front!



I tried again. This time getting the design right.



I tried printing these with fabric paints, but these were not thick enough. The lino print paint is fine, but since I really would like to print on fabric it really will not do. Back to the drawing board on this one. I shall find a thickener for my fabric paints, or a thicker type. I did not throw out the first lino board that I cut. I decided that, in a pale colour, it would actually be a good foil to the real design.



The other form of printing I played with was potato printing. Such a lot of fun this was. I printed cats paw prints, stars and just a flat potato edge using four colours.
I printed on the unprinted side of a fabric bag I have had for some time. It was one with an advertisement for some kind of alcohol on the other side. Now that the printing of this side is complete, I intend to add a false front to the other side. This will cover the original design and make the bag more useful to me.





Joy of joys, I now have a new tenor recorder! This is the bag it came in. It is a beauty and sounds wonderful. At present I am just playing this in. The recorder is wooden and needs to be played for just ten minutes a day for the first week. The next week it can be fifteen minutes, gradually lengthening playing duration each week until I can play it for forty minutes.



My gorgeous new friend. A Mollenhauer Denner.



This is Salts Mill, Saltaire. The Early Music Shop, where I bought my new recorder is to be found on the ground floor. Its a wonderful place to visit, if you ever have the chance. There is a gallery holding a marvellous David Hockney exhibition.

Band-Robin.

For some months I have been working on a piece of embroidery for the Stitching Sisters group.

It is part of the Band-Robin we have been working on for some time. This particular sampler belongs to Jenny. She did the wonderful Hardanger work you can see. This is now just waiting until I know who will be the next person to work on it.

For further details, please see my post on the Stitching Sisters Blog.
http://www.sistersstitching.blogspot.com/

I have started Liz's new pullover, the second to be knitted to the Elizabeth Zimmermann "Open-collar design"

Apart from this, I have completed a Christmas Challenge. This was set by the Knots and Needles Group. A stitchers group, we were challenged at the Christmas meeting to decorate a bag each. These were supplied by the committee. The bags were basic shopping bags from Hobby craft. This is how mine looks now it is completed.

This is the side I think of as the front. The applique cats picture is also a pocket. This design was originally used for my cat quilt - sadly still languishing in my WISPs pile. It only needs quilting, but I still can't think how to quilt it.......... I must finish it this year.

This is the back. Ooops! I've just remembered that I forgot to blog about the bits and pieces I did over Christmas. The paw prints above were an experiment in printing. More in my next post.

I don't think I shall use it as a shopping bag, but it will come in handy as an additional project bag.

Today, I am working to finish a bag lining. The bag belongs to a friend of mine. She rather liked the lining I had added to my own bags, so I offered to add a lining to her bag. As you can see, the original lining is beginning to fail. There is also another bag here, which started off in a rather worse state.

I was rather lucky in that I went into the local Help the Aged charity shop. They had this gorgeous pair of curtains.

These will make a superb lining, just the right weight of fabric. I do have some other furnishing weight fabric in my stash, but could not find any of it when I first got hold of Sheila's bag. Its in there somewhere.........

Whilst in town, I also picked up the latest copy of Sew Hip.

Inside, it suggests getting fabric from charity shops! There is also a rather good "Vintage Cloth Holdall" which I shall definitely be making. There is a very nice "Joli Cube Bag" pattern too. Then theres Henrietta the Hippo. Now who can resist ! I know I can't She will look wonderful in the curtain fabric. Yes, I know I do not have any young children at home........... She will be a friendly addition to the menagerie in my workroom. I already have a pottery cat, a miniature teddy bear I made some years ago, and my daughter's toy bat.

I was also lucky to find these.

Aren't they fun! They are supposed to be the weights to hold down table cloths when used outside. One of my friends, Hilary, was clever in using this type of weight to hold down the bottom edge of a long hanging she made recently. It looks fantastic. I just couldn't resist these when I saw them.

Well, I am as old as I feel, and that's not as old as my age might lead anyone to suspect! I refuse to grow old gracefully........................ Life is for having fun and making things in any spare moments.

Seasonal walks.

We are so lucky here. There are so many local walks to enjoy.

On Boxing Day, 26th December, we all set out to enjoy one of these. A rare time for the family to be out and about together.

We went to the Anderton Nature Park. This is right next to the famous Anderton Boat Lift. This amazing structure was closed for seasonal repairs, so we went off to explore the woodlands and the walks around the nature park. This is a wonderful place to visit with a number of wooden sculptures marking special sites of interest. We spent a wonderful couple of hours getting ourselves lost and found again wandering the pathways.

This is the beautiful sculpture at one of the ponds and meres. It was placed here to remind visitors to look at the gorgeous dragonflies and damselflies which live here in the Summer and early Autumn months.

Here is the beautifully carved notice which details the types of dragonflies and damselflies which can be seen here.

It was a beautifully sunny and yet very cold wintry day. Wonderful walking weather.

Season's Greetings!

Now where did December go? Its been rather hectic here - a number of concerts in a number of venues.

The first of these was a performance of "Zadoc the Priest" by Georg Handel and Vivaldi's "Gloria". Such wonderful music to sing. These were performed by the Hartford Choral Society on November 28th alongsideside instrumentalists from the Grange School, in the Grange Theatre. This was in aid of Action Aid and their work with African Aids/HIV sufferers.


This was then followed by a short concert performed by my class at the Old Friends Christmas Concert in the village. This is a group of the retired villagers who get toether each Tuesday afternoon. My class have been invited along to sing at their Christmas party for the past few years. The children love getting to meet the elderly at the party. Each year they are enchanted by being fussed over and chatted to. The Old Friends are such a wonderful audience and enjoy the singalong we do after the children have sung their songs. We share christmas carols and fun christmas songs like "Rudolph the Red-nosed reindeer". As we walked along back to school afterwards, one little boy came up to me and said "I didn't think I'd like that. But it was fun wasn't it."


For two successive Saturdays, I joined the Vale Royal Recorder Players to perform in Tatton Hall as part of the Christmas Celebrations there. We performed a number of recorder arrangements of Christmas Carols both old and new. This is the Recorder group I regularly rehearse with. Such a lovely group, so friendl.y. We have a lot of fun together.


Then, last Saturday, the last of the concerts I have been involved with. It was the wedding of one of our past members. She left the Recorder group last year to move away for work. She returned to the church she used to belong to for her wedding. Such a lovely event to be a small part of.


Amidst all this, and teaching too, I managed to complete my aran cardigan.





You'll notice that I have forgotten the buttons on this one. I just did not fancy buttons and buttonholes. It will be interesting to see if I can live with a cardigan fastened by a brooch. The brooch is made up of three different buttons fastened together. I did not make this, but it is an idea I may copy myself at some stage.

A lovely time of year, even when the weather is not so good.


Season's Greetings to you all!