The Crafty Mugwump

I am sorry to inform you all that my mother, The Crafty Mugwump, passed away peacefully in her sleep early this morning at home, fifteen short months after being diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease.

I hope this post will be in keeping with the style of her blog.

Once the formalities had been taken care of this morning I ventured out into mum's beloved garden, I think I was looking for some of the peace and happiness she always found there. Unfortunately given the time of year and my lack of green fingered appreciation all I could see were rather sad looking plants that had been cut back for the winter.

Finally I spotted one type of plant in bloom and it seemed particularly appropriate given its form...

After admiring the simple beauty and stark contrast to its surroundings (and taking several poor photos) I found some inspiration for what the family should do next.

We had spent many happy times at the bottom of the garden with all the family gathered round the fire pit. My mum enjoyed nothing more than watching the movement of the flames and the change of shape and colours that occur in a bonfire, a love that was passed down from her father and then on to me. So we spent the next few hours warming ourselves, crying and talking about happier times.

My mum loved the art & craft world that she brought all around her, this blog in particular provided her with great joy.

She is loved and desperately missed by all her family and friends.

Some of you may want to send flowers to her funeral, we're planning a simple funeral with flowers from family only, so I would ask that instead you donate to the MND Association who have provided us with excellent care and support throughout.

http://www.mndassociation.org/get-involved/donations

Thank you

The Son of Crafty Mugwump

Made With Love

   

Look at what stitching friends have made me, its glorious and in my favourite colours. It covers me for my daytime naps. I have a new favourite square every time I look at it. Extra thanks to Bev for pulling it all together, and a big thanks to Fran for thinking of the idea. Finally thanks to all who stitched a square, you know who you are, it's made me very happy.

A Blast From My Past

A couple of weeks ago I got a phone call from my art tutor from ten years ago. This is Peterborough Regional College where I did myA level Textiles and my Foundation Art and Design, this is way back when I didn't really understand what Textile Art  was.  The message said would I like to be reunited with some A level work. I was intrigued, I could remember this piece because it was framed and put up on the corridor wall, the tutors always found it amusing.

I couldn't remember doing  this piece although I was going through a phase of setting things ablaze at that time. I can still see my colour palette that I use to this day.

This was obviously some neutral studies that I could have done so much better now but we all have a starting point and I have enjoyed the journey so much.

On the gardening front it has been wonderful year  for flowering plants. I've never had Nicotiana Sylvestris grow this big in the thirty odd years I've been growing it. I persuaded John to stand in the background to give it a bit of scale.

My teasels in the wild meadow area topped fifteen foot.

What an extraordinary year. I have been picking the hugest blackberries I've ever seen, but look at what's growing at the base of the plant and flowering.

Would you believe a primrose in full flower.  In Autumn!

A Little Bit of Stitch

                

I'm still getting to grips with posting on my iPad it just doesn't look right but here goes anyway. I'm not going to say how long these beads took me to sew, its irrelevant. The pleasure of stitching is still there.

I use the iPad to speak now, I type what I want to say and press speak and a voice says my words. The grandsons soon learnt to exploit this programme. They found a really posh voice and made it say 

'Naughty' words. The first time I heard it I nearly lost my breath with laughter.

That's John trying to look serious. 

Still Crafting

It has to be admitted my creative drive has left me, however Father's Day was spent with the grandsons supervising them with the Cricut dye cutting machine. They made some beautiful collages and the younger one drew all over the top.Very Dionne Swift ha ha. I soon ran out of painted papers and this is what has bought me back to crafting. With the help of very patient husband/carer I  enjoyed a morning painting, printing and stamping.It felt good to have paint all over my hands again.

I have tried to use colours that will appeal to my grandsons, lots of red (Arsenal) lots of blue and  patterns like tyre prints and lots of zigzag designs.

Tomorrow, energy allowing, I will cut as many shapes using the Cricut as I can for them to use in future craft sessions.

It's difficult using a camera through a glass window, the difficulty being that you are shooting into daylight from a dark backdrop but with a little careful cropping this little fledgling posed for me.

We have a gang of goldfinches and their brood visit us most days they are so beautiful but very nervous about any movement . This is the only one that stayed still long enough for me to photo.

Sketchbooks are still being worked on all be it very slowly I made these squares last year with a view to producing a large piece of pixelated work. When I'm really tired its easy to glue these shapes down and then draw over them.

Birds seem to be creeping into my design repertoire.

Garden Time

This is the bed I removed the alliums from last year, I'm kind of glad that these survived my scorched earth policy, but they have taken over again. 

This is definitely the year for aquilegeas they have been quietly hybridising over the years and there are at least a dozen different ones now.

I love the pin points of orange from the Welsh poppies in this border.

Early morning sun as the poppies burst from the calyx.

I'm very fond of poppies.

It's just as well for there are hundreds of them this year.

What a wonderful spring we have had!

Better Late Than Never

I have finally got round to deciding which bits of stitch will make good post cards to send to blogging buddies and friends. Its going to be a long process as I can only work 10 minutes at a time, the next part of the process will be to bondaweb these to pelmet vylene. Then I can raid my stash of hand made beads, crocheted flowers, paper embellishments and general trimmings to finish them off.

I have been busy with domestic sewing - five Roman blinds for our daughter who has moved back to the 'boro' from London. We have up cycled a massive pair of curtains and I say we because the truth is my husband did all the hard work on them but an achievement none the less.

This is my grand daughter who visited me at the weekend after running two marathons and raising nearly three thousand pounds for MND and MS research. I'm very proud of her.

I also met a great nephew over the Easter week for the first time. What a dear little boy.

And finally my son who never minds a silly photo.

 

So a big Easter egg hunt for the Grandsons A huge roast cooked by their parents (I have finally had to give up cooking for guests) surrounded by family and friends. The perfect Easter!