Return to Ballyvaughan

A week ago we went back to the West Coast of Clare, Ireland. You may remember my posts about last years trip, where I experienced wonderful weather and an inspirational week on the shores of Galway Bay.

Going back to somewhere in the expectation of a similar experience can often result in disappointment, but Ireland worked its magic and I came back with a head full of beauty and a heart full of peace. Perhaps I could share some of the beauty with you by posting lots of pictures?

The Burren above Fanore beach.

A ruined tower near Kinvarra.

The wild sea on a very windy beach, also near Kinvarra. Can you see the kitesurfer?

I went for two long walks with my friend who came with us for half the time, as my husband was busy at his concertina class...thats why we went. At the end of this road there is a tower.

This the Burren Art School. What a place to study. 

Now, shortly after this we met two students on the road, who were looking for a dead fox they had heard about. They asked if we'd seen it, they wanted to take it back to the studio and draw it.

Well, later, we found it. I don't know how it died, but it was in superb condition, and very beautiful.

So we drove back to the college to tell them about it. They weren't there, but their friend kindly collected it for them and we took her back to the college with it.

We met them in the Whisky bar that night and they thanked us and the girl said 'I dabble in taxidermy too', so the beauty of the fox will be preserved if she's a good dabbler.

We had a bit of a close shave with the very sweet girl in the picture, who got out of the car without looking, on a quiet but nevertheless main road.(..it doesn't bear thinking about what might have happened if the driver of the car overtaking us at the time had blinked, or looked away.) 

Last year we saw a dead badger on our walk. What next year? Deer, elephant?

In the woods we saw this footprint. I'm sure its a badger, very much alive.

I've seen black ivy berries before but never yellow.

The flora was a little more advanced than last year so the wood had a few new shoots.

The hazel catkins in the many hazel coppices were longer and fuller.

And things have started to shoot in the gaps in the limestone.

While I was there I bought a beautiful book of photographs of natural surfaces of Clare. (There will be a picture tomorrow) and I took quite a few of my own close ups of limestone and lichen.

Yu can see the tiny fossils of the creatures that formed the stone.

They are considerably larger in this Liscannor Stone.

Lovely spotty lichen below.

Tiny underwater beauty here.

As we travelled around the little roads on a small peninsula we came across this

I can really understand that sentiment.

I am inspired again.

Yorkshire Relish and a Blog Tour

Good morning to the 'blog tourists' from Quilting Arts. For those not on 'the tour' I'll explain later.

This little hand sized silk purse is one of many I have been making for about 13 years.
 I was invited, all that long time ago, to exhibit in the showcases of The Pendle Art Gallery when the main event was an Exhibition by the renowned photographer Fay Godwin. I had to devise some small embroidered items that would fit in some glass showcases so that's where these purses, and other things, were born. Since then I've had them in Galleries and shops in Lancashire and Yorkshire and even Cumbria, but have stopped making them to sell now and started teaching people how to make them.

UPDATE: There is now a tutorial available in my etsy shop.

So last week I had great fun making more of them as samples for a workshop I had been invited to teach a long long way from home, over the border in Yorkshire.

They are made from silk dupion with the grain going 'the wrong way' so that they fall nicely.

There are several different styles and there's scope for beading fun, as well as cord and tassel making.

Here are some I made earlier which have appeared here before.

So last Saturday with my car boot stuffed, I made an uncharacteristically early start and set off towards the East. It was cloudy at first so I couldn't watch the sunrise (but I'd probably missed it anyway..it wasn't that early) and two hours later ended up in the beautiful Yorkshire Dales and approached the village of Snape.

This is the beautiful lane down to the Village, lined with tall trees growing from banks of snowdrops and aconite, with daffodils starting to appear.

Past the castle

and the raised beds

and strange things

Do you know what this is?

Its a rhubarb forcer. Yorkshire is famous for rhubarb and under this cloche there will soon be delicate palest pink stems with yellow leaves.

The welcome I received at The Snape Textile Group was as good as last time. They are very organised and extremely talented. I was more interested in some of their own work than what I was supposed to be teaching. 

I remembered from my last visit that they provide lunch.

What a lunch. Last time it was vegetable korma with rice, nan bread and chutneys. This time it was vegetable pasta bake, salad, garlic bread, followed by apple and ginger trifle. But it didn't stop there! At four o'clock out came the home made blueberry muffins and tea. 

Then we had a look at the work the group had done. 

They had all made good progress and they promised they would finish them at home!

One of the members even had an outing planned for hers.

If any of the Snape textile group are reading, thank you so much for a really superb day.

Now back to the blog tour.

You remember in the last post I told you I had been featured in the Quilting Arts e mag? 

This is a sort of publicity tour I am delighted to take part in. Each day one of the people featured in the magazine writes a post and links to the next person who is taking part. So if you want to join in the tour, or if you are already on it, your next port of call , Tomorrow, 3rd March, will be the blog of Deb Bates.

If you want to go back to the start of the tour, then visit the tour guide and editor of QA, Pokey Bolton. A most delightful and encouraging person!

Here's the full list

Sunday (Feb 27): Pokey launches the tour!: http://www.quiltingdaily.com

Monday (Feb 28): Jane Davila: http://janedavila.blogspot.com

Tuesday: Lynn Krawczyk( March 1): http://www.fibraartysta.blogspot.com

Wednesday: Jackie Cardy(March 2): http://dogdaisychains.blogspot.com

Thursday: Deb Bates (March 3): http://stitchtress.wordpress.com

Friday: Deborah Boschert (March 4): http://deborahsjournal.blogspot.com

Saturday: Michelle Allen (March 5): http://allendesigns.typepad.com

Sunday: Liz Kettle (March 6): http://textileevolution.com/?option=com_wordpress&Itemid=203

Monday: Lyric Kinard (March 7): http://lyrickinard.blogspot.com  

Tuesday (March 8): A surprise guest on Lindsey’s blog will be the final stop of this tour http://www.quiltingdaily.com

If you pop in on the blog tour please leave a calling card so I know you were here.

EDIT:I have had so many requests for a tutorial for these little purses that I have decided to make one and have it available in my ETSY shop. Please give me about two weeks as I am having a little break and will do it as soon as I get back. I'll blog about it when its ready.

Thank you so much for the compliment.

Published

You know when you've had a glass or two of wine and you love everyone?
And you want to hug everyone and tell them you love them?*
(*I have to add here that when I wrote this I HADN'T HAD A GLASS OF WINE..I just felt the same warm feelings...)
Well...perhaps you don't but I do, and  blogging makes me feel like this.
There are people who comment without fail on my blog and to whom I can't reply with email, notably Heather and Connie and many others, and I would love to give you all a virtual hug. It so lovely to have you take the time to comment.
Not just you, but others.
 Thank you.
Now, I just thought I'd pop in with a creation I did a while ago but which is just about to appear in Quilting Arts emag. I'm sorry I can't link to it. I don't quite know if its available yet.
So:

 here it is in all its pinkness

 Available now ssshhhh you know where.

 In lovely silk and velvet and of course its in the worst colour to photograph. There's a matching heart which can be a pendant or a brooch. Also available.

The silk is shot lilac and orange which gives a luscious pink.
Or should I say raspberry?

Can't even think of a title for this post.

What a long time its been since I blogged.
The main reason is that I couldn't get a decent photograph of the piece I wanted to show.
Here it is now..the best I can do in more ways than one.

Its about 10 inches high.

I've had it out ready to photograph for days now and every time the cat got near it I moved it, until this morning when I found him perched precariously on the back of a chair fast asleep..on top if it. So that big crease down the centre is a result of his 'ironing ' it with his one-stone bulk.

Now the history of this piece is this: I HAD to make myself do some sewing so I got a piece of my felt from a previous post and stitched some motifs onto it, using the different coloured shapes as a guide. It was a battle I can tell you.

But the final piece was far too busy and confusing . The background colours were too busy, and you couldn't see the stitched parts.

So after a discussion at the felt group (I do love them all) I had a go at using the embellisher to force the white felt on the back through to the front to soften the spaces between, but it didn't work.

( I didn't take any pictures of it at this stage.)

I had made some felt at the felt group meeting using some softly space dyed wool tops given to me by Lesley, and I rather liked the result so I cut the motifs out of the patterned felt, and stitched them onto the softer allover  coloured felt.

I prefer this background, but the effect of cutting thick felt is a little unsatisfactory in this instance. The wispiness of the edges disappear, but other things appear I suppose. Its a bit lumpy.

I did a bit of hand stitching inspired by Jude. I like that.

 This exercise poses a few questions.

Gives me  a few headaches. I need to be more in control of the shapes I lay down on a plainer background so that they will show up when I've stitched on them. So I need to have a clearer picture of the finished piece even while I'm making the felt.

Must try harder.

I'm still reluctant to commit myself to sewing which is tough because I am supposed to be exhibiting with a group in May.

Lost my way.

Thanks for all the wonderful comments since the last post. I feel so grateful and sad I can't answer some because I can't find you . The latest of these is 'bea'. Thank you bea.

In other news: it was my husbands Birthday over a week ago on a saturday . We were going out with family on Sunday so on his birthday we just had a little trip to Staveley near Kendal, Cumbria, where we had a walk by the river in lovely frosty sunshine,

Along the way we saw a beautiful house almost all one end is glass..what a spot to live.

 Further on we saw signs saying 'Save(whatever it was) weir.'.this one. I don't know any details, but I can only imagine the floods if this wasn't here.

Then we finished our outing with a coffee at Wilfs, a cafe in Mill Yard . We read papers and patted dogs..so civilised , they allow dogs and walking boots in.

Then we had a look round Mill Yard and saw one of our favourite kinds of building!

Patchwork corrugated iron.

Wonderful.

Knitting and stitching and healing

Thank you for all the very comforting and revealing comments on my last post. 

Now I want to draw a line under that part of my life..lets call it a blip and hope thats what it is. We'll see.

Unfortunately I am still unable to get on with any meaningful sewing which as I said is rather worrying because this is the year  that the group I belong to are supposed to be exhibiting. I was full of inspiration for this poetry themed work when I returned from Ireland last Spring, but my ideas have fizzled away. They had to be put on hold so I could get on with brooches and tweed things to sell, and now I can't even sit and stitch a little heart or flower.

So I am finding life a bit boring. Thats a terrible admission. Wondering what to do with myself and longing for the urgency of being too busy and gripped by inspiration. 

I managed to kill half of Saturday getting a worm pill down the cats throat. I have played far too much facebook scrabble. I know how to spell words, the meanings of which are a mystery.

This is what I have been doing during my 'dark' time. Just for the sake of something mechanical and repetitive to concentrate on, I took two of my motifs and some felt and some hand threads and this is what I came up with.

I do like the felt with the addition of hand stitch, its quite soothing, but  I don't know what to make of this as a 'piece'.

Its about 10 inches by 6.

The colours are lovely on a small scale.

I like the combination of machine and hand sewn 'spots'.

 And dashes

 But does it have a presence in its own right? Is it worth continuing or is it merely a doodle?

My lovely friend Margaret traipsed into town and then to my house with wool and needles for me to have a bit of knitting on the go. Its been a life saver.
I'm not such a great knitter but I think I can manage 7 stitches a row. This is fun to do and apparently I can get two scarves from one ball. Its called 'rico can-can'. Google it if you want to know more.
Goodness....I'll be signing up for Ravelry next and I don't even know how to count rows.

De Profundis

The title of this post is from a prayer I learnt at school. It is translated as 'Out of the depths'.
That is where I have been ..in the depths.
I had toyed with the idea of doing a follow up to the post called 'Pumped' with one called 'Slumped' but to be truthful, at the time I didn't even want look at my screen, or read anything on it.

Now I am  recovered but I feel that to remain honest in my blog I must tell the story.

Since the end of November until about two weeks ago I was in a black hole. I have just read the wikipedia definition  of A Black Hole and it works perfectly as a metaphor .

Medication initially made me feel so ill I thought I would never return, but  thankfully is now replacing whatever is missing chemically and making me feel better, positive, optimistic. I have even made an appointment to be referred to have my cataract fixed.

From inside the black hole, as black holes do, I absorbed the care and love of my family, my husband who must be the most patient man on the planet. He brought me small amounts of food and kept me going when I could eat next to nothing. He did the Christmas shopping. Cleaned the house while I opted out. Walked me slowly in the snow to get me out. Protected and cared for me. My Mother, 83,  came and ironed for me(..not that I cared about creases,) while I lay on the sofa.

My friends phoned and visited and watched me doing nothing. Supported me.  Felt group and Embroidery group friends e mailed, wrote and sent me cheery news. Told me not to worry. Sat and knitted while I sat and did nothing.

Church friends visited, prayed for me, the priest was amazing. When I went to Christmas Eve mass I was welcomed back warmly, lovingly.

My wider very far apart friends  spread the word amongst themselves, my college friends of 40 years . They supported me with emails, texts and phone calls.

And of course, my blog friends. Helen and her delightful daughter Polly drove 60 miles to visit me at home and brought me encouraging gifts as well as their loving support.
I had  many e mails from individuals enquiring where I was
 When I spilled the beans, you would be amazed at the number of fellow sufferers there are out there in blogland.

And that is why I am writing this.
Not to be dramatic, or to gain sympathy, but to show that when you think everyone else's lives are perfect, its only part of the story.

I don't even know what brought 'it' on . Nothing in particular but a series of minor negatives triggered a state of mind I hope I don't have again.

I am so thankful for my ordinary life at the moment.

Now I await the return of my desire to sew.
I have none at all at the moment and that is a worry.

A Moment....

.......of tranquility

Not the Harris Tweet I promised a month ago.
(Creativity eludes me for the moment, chased away by the black dog )

But a heron caught motionless on a therapeutic walk.