Textile Kaleidoscope

Things have been a bit hectic over the last few days so I haven't had time to add any updates. The end of last week was taken up by the Textile Kaleidoscope exhibition. I was stewarding on Friday morning and then helping to pack the exhibition away on Saturday. Sunday was spent recovering. Although my knee is getting better I still find standing for too long very painful. I have taken the decision not to use my stick anymore and I seem to be walking better. Hopefully this means I am well and truly on the road to recovery. Here is a selection of the work on display last weekend.

Summer at last

I am progressing with my beaded bag. I have decided to take some elements of the passion flower and play with the shapes. It will be a pyramid in shape and very heavily influenced by Art Deco. I plan to line it with coffee coloured silk dupion.

My OH has also been very creative recently. One of his work colleagues is leaving to return to her native Australia. He came up with the idea of making her a cake in the shape of the Australian flag. Although he hasn't done much cake decorating before but it turned out really well. I am very proud of him and I know that everyone in the office enjoyed it very much.

On Friday evening I took a walk down to the beach. I am very lucky in that I only live a short walk from the sea. The route is through a wooded valley, locally know as a Chine, which is actually a dry ravine. It is only a ten minute walk but it was a positive step forward for me (no pun intended) as my knee is still quite painful. It was really nice to sit on the sea front and watch everyone playing on the sand and walking their dogs. My next goal is to start going to the gym, I have asked one of the staff to devise a programme which will allow me to ease back into exercise.

Sunshine and thunderstorms

I was woken at 1:30 this morning by a loud clap of thunder. Summer has finally come to the South of England and after several hot, humid days we were treated to a spectacular storm. Realising that I would find it hard to go back to sleep, I got out of bed and padded to the living room and watched out of the window for a while. There were some amazing forks of lightning, I only wish that I had been able to take some photos. My OH of course slept through the whole thing!

At one time I was a bit scared of thunder storms. Silly I know, but I think it probably stems from an experience in my childhood. Whilst staying with my grandparents on the Kent coast, the house next door was hit by lightening during a particularly violent storm. It shook the whole house and scared me out of my wits. For quite a long time after that storms made me nervous. Now I don't mind them so much and even find them quite exhilarating.

Summer (and the hard work of my OH) has brought its rewards. Last night we sat down to a meal of salad, including the first of our potatoes from the allotment, followed by fruit pie, containing homegrown blackcurrants. I can claim absolutely no credit for them, especially at the moment with my limited mobility. I really do appreciate his hard work as you really cannot beat homegrown fruit and vegetables.

Yesterday was a sad day for me, it was the last day of my City & Guilds Beadweaving course. To mark the occasion we all went to a local pub for lunch. We sat in the garden, enjoying the sunshine, chatting away and it struck me how lucky I am to have met these women. They are all ages and from many walks of life with one thing in common - their creative spirit.

I will see some of them at our annual exhibition - Textile Kaleidoscope - which showcases the work of City & Guilds beadwork and embroidery students, in three weeks time. I am working away on my Art Deco bag , which will be one of the exhibits. So the weekend ahead will be full of beading and writing up my design journal.

Reasons to be cheerful...

This week has been hard. My leg has been hurting and I have found the normal routine of work and everyday life quite difficult. To make me feel better I have recently got into the habit of counting my blessings. I know, it makes me sound a bit like Pollyanna! But it really can help, so here are a few things which bring me joy -

1. Strawberries from the allotment, still warm from the sun.
2. Beading with friends.
3. Feeling the sun on my face and the warm breeze in my hair.
4. Summer evening walks along the beach listening to the waves crashing on the shore.
5. The soothing rhythm of my knitting needles as the yarn slips through my fingers.
6. Three wonderful women who are happy to spend time with me no matter what my mood.
7. Fresh asparagus from the allotment.
8. Sitting quietly reading with my OH.
9. Sharing a meal with good friends.
10.Wearing hand knitted socks.

I could probably go on and on. I feel better just writing this list!

Some more good news this week, my team at work has won a national award - a Times Higher Education Leadership and Management Award. So now I am part of two award winning teams at work and out of it, that can't be bad. Another reason to be thankful!

Congratulations

I attended one of my City & Guilds beading days yesterday and discovered that not only have the Priory Beaders won the Beadworkers Guild Group Challenge but one of our members, Val Robertson, has won the Intermediate Category for individual beaders. Congratulations Val! Both entries can now be seen on the Beadworkers' Guild website.

Good News

I received an email from the organiser of Priory Beaders telling me that we have won the group entry of the Beadworker's Guild Challenge. Great news I am so thrilled. We are a very new group having only been formed in September 2008 so it is a great achievement. I don't have any pictures of the finished piece at the moment but will post some as soon as I can. This cheered me up immensely as the saga of my injured knee continues. I have had the results of my MRI scan and there is good and bad news. The good news is that I have not torn the cartilage and so don't need an operation. The bad news is that I have extensive bone bruising. This means that I have lots of little cracks on the head of my femur and tibia. It will take a long time to heal, possible up to Christmas and beyond. So far I have been trying to carry on as normally as I can but it is very painful and I will have to continue to walk with a stick for quite a while. At least I haven't done any permanent damage!

On a brighter note I have been working on my next beading project - a beaded bag. It is once again inspired by the shapes and colours of passion flowers. The whole thing will have an Art Deco feel and will be pyramid shaped. I am aiming to make it up from beaded shapes and line it with silk in a contrasting colour. I am going to incorporate lots of Swarovski crystals and fresh water pearls.

Some beaded elements for my Art Deco Bag

And I am continuing my adventures in sock knitting. Spurred on by the success of my Salvation Socks I bought a copy of 'Cool Socks Warm Feet' by Lucy Neatby and I am now knitting some toe up socks with a Turkish Heel. Great fun!

My finished 'Salvation Socks'

Fun days out and not so fun days in!

I had the week leading up to Easter off. It was much anticipated as work has been very hectic recently. It gave me an opportunity to unwind, do some beading and generally take it easy. My OH and I went up to London on one day. We both love gardens and are interested in their history so we planned two visits - one to the Garden Museum and a second to the Chelsea Physic Garden. I would thoroughly recommend both.

The Garden Museum (formerly know as The Garden History Museum) has recently been given a face lift so I was looking forward to visiting it. The museum is based in a converted church in Lambeth, right next to Lambeth Palace, where the plant hunters John Tradescant Senior and his son, also called John, are buried. The garden itself is quite small but beautifully planted with box topiary and many fascinating plants. When we visited there was a exhibition about the gardener Beth Chatto which proved very interesting.

After a delicious vegetarian lunch at the Garden Museum we then went to the Chelsea Physic Garden. This is a beautiful walled garden situated right next to the Royal Chelsea Hospital. All of the plants are well labelled and regular guided tours enable you to get the most out of one of the oldest medicinal plant gardens in England. Then after tea and homemade cake it was time to head home.

This photo does not really do this beautiful garden justice.

The rest of my leave was very enjoyable and on Easter Saturday I went to a meeting of the Priory Beaders which meets in Christchurch once a month. We were working on a group entry for the 2009 Beadworkers' Guild Challenge. The theme is 'Celebration' as 2009 marks its 10th Anniversary. I can't give too much away about our entry but we were all given the task of making a beaded representation of ourselves to be incorporated into the piece. The instructions for doing this were devised by one of the organisers of the group, Jane Griffin. We will have to wait several months to find out if we have won. Even if we are not placed we have still enjoyed immensely working on this project together and have some great memories.

Me - represented in beads - blue and green are my favourite colours.


I was enjoying the remainder of my Easter break when, on Easter Sunday, disaster struck. I slipped getting out of the shower and twisted my knee. It soon became apparent that it was fairly serious so I took myself off to Accident & Emergency. Luckily my X-ray showed that I had not broken anything. However I have damaged the ligament on the inside of my knee. The result was one week at home followed by the past 10 days back at work hobbling around on crutches in a fair bit of pain. My physiotherapist is convinced that it will heal fairly quickly, I hope that he is right. I have always been ridiculously healthy and never hurt myself like this before. I can safely say that I never want to use crutches ever again after this and will be extra careful in future.

'Salvation Socks', so named as they saved my sanity during a period of enforced rest.


During the week that I was stuck at home, after being instructed to keep off my leg completely, I turned in desperation to knitting to keep me occupied. I read until my head ached and saw enough daytime TV to last me for a very long time. Sock knitting proved my salvation. I have been knitting a fairly complicated pattern called 'Mermaid Socks' by Lucy Neatby (later rechristened 'Salvation Socks'). I absolutely love them, and I think that they will be fun to wear. At least something positive will have come out of this experience!