BLOG 10

LBQ

Student life was really enjoyable at Anstey PE College (1967-70). In Year 1, I lived in one of the student houses with 7 other first year students and 4 responsible (!) third year students. In Year 2, I was allocated lodgings at Sutton Coldfield and Year 3 saw me ensconced in the college building itself. Life was a whirl of physical activity in some form or other, interspersed at regular intervals with lectures and food high in carbohydrates. I have never been so fit in my life and I swear I had pains in muscles hitherto unknown to man!

Part of our regulation uniform was a pair of grey, tailored and pleated PE shorts which had to measure 4” from the knee. Underneath were our ample grey knickers, affectionately called ‘harvester’ because all was safely gathered in! Black hooded cloaks were part of our uniform too and these were worn when cycling to and from games fields and swimming pools. We must have looked like demented bats streaming en masse out of the college gates.

MY QUILTING JOURNEY

Another enquiry on moving to Sychdyn, North Wales, took me to the local library to find where the quilt-making classes were being held. There was nothing in the my area in 1984, so with a teaching certificate and three quilts to my name, I felt that I was more than qualified to start one. Fliers were sent home with 100+ school children and eye-catching posters were displayed wherever space allowed. But, when enrolment night came, all the ladies who walked through the school door signed on with the dressmaker who was also offering classes. One lady, however, was kind enough to come over to say that they thought that they had all done patchwork, and they hated the hexagons they had sewn!! I obviously needed to put my quilts on display to convince people that there was more to quilts than the dreaded hexagons!

English Patchwork: Hexagon Flower

QUILTING 2010

I mentioned in an earlier blog that I was teaching a group of friends at Alston Hall and this is the sample I was working on as a demonstration piece whilst I was there. It is a fused background waiting for some flowers to be prepared and stuck in place, just like the Poppies and Sunflowers samples I have shown previously. What will it be this time, perhaps Irises or Hollyhocks, I don’t know yet!

Alston Teaching Sample

Notice the sweetie jars filled with fabric scraps. Whilst looking cheerful and decorative, they may even get used sometime in the future! And just to prove that I too work in chaos here’s my work surfaces at the moment whilst I am in creative mode, working on a galloping horse!

Creative Clutter

Everything to hand!

I have just had my 94-year-old mother staying for 3 weeks and it is always a relief to get her back to her bungalow and the support of the carers and my sister in one piece! I took her to the Welsh town that bears the longest name in Britain, to visit her sister.

Here it is: Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch

And this is what it means: Saint Mary's Church in the hollow of the white hazel near a rapid whirlpool and the Church of St. Tysilio of the red cave.And yes I CAN pronounce it!