Hares, ballerinas and a cat called Tango - WOYWW

Postman Sid brought me a mystery parcel this week

It was a box full of fabulous things from friend Tina in Montgomery,

Wales. 

I don’t know what I swooned over most, the paper hares made by Tina.

The beautiful books or the stunning piece of textile art she has handstitched.

Everything is enchanting and I can’t stop looking and appreciating it all.

What a very heartfelt, thoughtful thing to do

There’s been zoom meetings with my textile group the

No Rules Textile Society, where we meet once a week, talk

about the latest prompt and look at what members have been doing.

On the home front after 15 years my sister is returning home from Oxford.

She’s bought a house and this is the style she is hoping to replicate 

in her front room.  She is even adopting a cat like the one in this

picture. She’s seen one at the local animal rescue centre. It’s called

Tango and is a three year old house cat.

Telly wise we are enjoying the three part series on BBC 2

about the life of Mexican artist, Frida Kahlo. I’ll admit I’ve

being a fan for the past 25 years since doing my HND in

Textile Design at college and studying her work.

Sara Cox BBC 2 programme Between The Covers book programme

has returned for another series and is another favourite in our house,

even though the wandering welder never reads anything other than

the Saturday paper and the covers on his cd’s.

I’ve just finished reading this book I picked at random off the shelf

in my local library.  It was a really good read and I can recommend it.

We had a trip out to Manchester with my goddaughter Amy,

who gave us tickets for the Nutcracker Suite by candle light,

accompanied by a string quartet. 

I’ll never bother taking the car into Manchester again, we were there in

12 minutes by train and it cost us just over £5 each return on the train.

As March draws to a close we will be spending the last

week with friends holidaying in and around Stratford upon Avon.

There’s a trip to a butterfly farm and Blenheim Palace planned, as

well as Burford and Warwick Castle.

See you on the other side.

Take care

Lynn

xxx

Linking in with

WHAT’S ON YOUR WORKDESK WEDNESDAY

In and out of the garden - WOYWW

There’s snowdrops in the garden 

daffodils on the table

and pancakes for tea

I’ll have to do two rounds of the reservoir to get rid of this sugar laden load of calories.

Craft wise I’ve watched a fabulous zoom talk by Ceramic Patchwork artist Zoe Hillyard

Link to Zoe Hillyard

Zoe takes charity shop find vases and pots, smashes them into pieces then rebuilds them by wrapping the pieces in fabric with stitch, no glue. Then she stitches the pieces back together into the original shape.

She was commissioned to do this series using these images from a fashion shoot.

I’m having a little go but it’s proving a lot harder than it looks.

It’s been a busy start to the year getting Mum’s finances sorted, along with the completion of the sale of her house. Add to that I’ve been house hunting for my sister who is coming back up north after 15 years in Oxford.

In the meantime I’m going to straighten out my fabric stash ready for the new prompt with the No Rules Textile Society. Hope everyone is well and still busily engrossed in their chosen creative craft.

Take care, catch you again soon

Lynn

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Here’s a bit of trivia before I go. On my birthday in 1994 the largest pancake ever made was in Rochdale near to where we live.

LINKING to WHATS ON YOUR WORKDESK WEDNESDAY

Movies, celebrations and collage

Up north in Lancashire, UK,  it feels like it’s never stopped raining

since the new year kicked in.

It’s been perfect weather though for staying in and getting on

with course work and a new prompt with the No Rules Textile Society.

Saying that I’ve been wrapped up warm to avoid putting the heating on.

I’ve a new notebook for our zoom meetings and had the new

Celia Pym book bought me for Christmas. It’s a history of 

damaged and repaired garments, who owns them and what

happened to them.

CELIA PYM TEXTILES

This is a fascinating project.

One dress, stitched by 370 embroiderers, in 50 countries

over 13 years and now on exhibition around the UK

THE RED DRESS EMBROIDERY PROJECT 

After a great zoom meeting on Saturday with my textile friends

all around the world, I got stuck into the new prompt COLLAGE.

The stash of magazines I keep came in very handy for the

first task, creating flat lay paper collages.

Next up I’ll be moving onto creating fabric collages,

possibly working with old samples from last year.

Saturday night was the start of our friend’s Trish & Lee’s

60th birthday celebrations.  If they are anything like me it

will be never ending haha.

After I posted last weeks blog post we went to see the new

Whitney Houston film.  I know a few of you mentioned you had seen

it. Well it was amazing.  It is so sad that her life ended as it did though.

Today we are off to see the latest Tom Hanks movie

A Man Called Otto.

Let’s hope the rain holds off.

See you soon

Lynn 

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WHATS ON YOUR WORKDESK WEDNESDAY LINK

Hello 2023, let’s be having ya !

Happy new year from the hills of Whitworth 

I always thought I’d get through life without making a Christmas

dinner, but at 67 I’ve been caught out.  Mum is 90 now and decided

she didn’t want to do it anymore.  I’ve told my sister it’s her turn

next year or we are going out.

I had a lovely gift from goddaughter Amy, she is taking me 

to Manchester Cathedral to see Swan Lake by candlelight.

Back in the studio I’m all tidied and ready for 2023 projects.

I’ll finish off stripping the cork wall in preparation this week.

A friend bought me a bag of assorted wool off cuts and a

metal frame to make a rag wreath

There’s new pens and a notebook for a Masterclass I’m

doing called Essence Of Identity.

One of the modules asked us to do a self portrait. I nearly

had kittens thinking I’d have to paint a picture of myself

On closer inspection, it actually meant to put together

images or objects that showed who I am.

So here’s my little vintage writing case filled with things

that represent what I’m drawn to creatively.

Hope everyone is well over at

What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday

It’s nice to be back.  We’ve lots of plans for this year.

There’s a trip to the cinema to see the Whitney Houston story

this afternoon and a meal out with friends on Saturday.

Have a good week and thanks for visiting

Lynn

xx

What’s on your work desk Wednesday - I’m still here

A friend said why aren’t you blogging, we miss hearing your news.

Truth be told even though there’s been things to blog about I just haven’t had the heart for it.  I’ve lost my sparkle.  Health problems have drained my energy, as has the events of the past year.

Anyway no one wants to listen to all that so let’s have a little look at a couple of events from November and early December.

Our Queen, my Mum,  celebrated her 90th birthday with a surprise party. She was over the moon to see friends and family, some who she hadn’t seen for a long time.



At the start of this month we took another trip on the Northern Belle train.  It was as fabulous as when we went on it in 2021.

This year we went with our friend of 40 years, Sue and we had a lovely day travelling from Leeds to Hull and back via York.  We boarded the train and were greeted with champagne then served a seven course meal during the journey.

We were entertained along the way by musicians and a magician.  

This past week we’ve had heavy snow that’s still hanging around so I’ve not ventured far, choosing instead to stay in and doing a bit of clearing out, crafting this winter wreath and dragging out the Christmas decorations.  

I hope everyone at WOYWW is well and I’m sorry for being absent for so long.  I wish you all a happy Christmas and a healthy and happy 2023.   Ps.  Thank you for your card Annie xx

Take care 

Lynn

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