Back again

Here I am with some time to fill so I thought I'd catch up. Oh, how we wished 2015 would be a good year for us, but it is March already and things are still difficult. Mr T has been back into hospital twice. Once for surgery to correct the problem that made him so ill in October and then again to open up the infection in his wound which set in after he had been home for a few days. He is susceptible to infections and this has happened before, last time we had months of nurses' visits to change his dressing, and in looks like this will be the same. Mr T is an inspiration and his despondent moments are brief despite discomfort, pain and people regularly pulling him about.  Last year I was determined to get him to go out and about more,  as I was going a bit stir crazy. I get out on my own, but getting my husband out is difficult, but this looks as if this plan will have to wait. Once again we are chasing prescriptions and appointments, juggling medical supplies, trying to guess when orders will arrive, trying not to waste resources, waiting for people to ring us back when we can't get through. This will be familiar to any of you who are home carers. My husband can look after himself physically, but cannot cope with the management side. However for the time being I don't like to go too far from home. My heart goes out to those carers who have to cope with physical care too.

 How lucky I am that I am a creative person, always fiddling about with paints or fabric, dyes or threads, photographs or the computer. And how lucky I am that I can afford to indulge myself in new materials to play with.  I've been making good use of those resources and filled up a lot more pages in my Gothic note book.  While Mr T was in hospital I took a trip to St Albans Cathedral which has architecture dated from Saxon to the modern. Plenty of examples of Gothic architecture from medieval to Victorian revival.

When you are going out with your camera with a design brief, you look at your subject in a different way,  and on this occasion I wanted to capture pattern and texture as well as examples of the architecture. On my iPad I have an app that will make your photographs look like watercolour paintings. These two turned out particularly well.

I have also stitched a little sampler based on trefoils and  collage a page quatrefoils motifs that are always featured.

Next I've made a little book. Taking inspiration form Maggie Grey from Magstitch blog and the Workshop On the Web know as WoW.  I made a little Gothic inspired book, which looks a bit like a Bishops mitre. It's about 7 inches tall.

I'm particularly pleased with the back. It is a stencil of a church window with transfoil applied to the 'glass' areas which seem to glow.

Another page in my book has been devoted to Grotesques and Gargoyles, another fascinating subject.

Meanwhile the new conservatory has been finished, decorated and fitted with a new floor.

We just have furnishing to choose now. We don't like to rush things round here!

Well that's all from me for now, it's taken me at least two hours to get this blog done. I've got a bit of sticking to do. I will try and catch up on your posts too. 

Jill