GIFTS

Over the past couple of weeks I have been so very fortunate to receive fabulous gifts from my students.  Thank you all for the cards & gifts, it has been a real pleasure teaching & cajoling (!?) you this past year.  I am indeed a very fortunate teacher to have such wonderful students, the work produced has been  'amazing' in the true sense of this overworked word.  I teach such a wide variety of classes from hand embroidery & patchwork through machine piecing & quilting to creative embroidery & needle felting, along the way comes art & design with the elements & principles, sometimes appearing so difficult but so rewarding to see the exiting portfolios produced.  Some of my students are completing a two year course, some a one year & some a term.  To all of you a huge THANK YOU for making my 'job' seem so worthwhile & exciting (and tiring lol)
Here are a few images of some of the lovely gifts
Flowers:

ORCHID

I was waffling on one day about never having received an Orchid & how wonderful they are & Fran remembered & bought me this beautiful two stemmed wonder flower with purple spots (the purple zoom car)  It is so beautiful & has a really good spot right in the sitting room window out of the direct sun.  Every day I look at it when I open & close the curtains & I can see it where I sit in the evenings to watch TV or to sew.  Simply beautiful. x

BOUQUET

A delightful bouquet of roses, carnations, iris & lots of other flowers, beautiful colours & these are in my Mums cut glass vase, kept for special flowers as its 65 years old.  These are from my Wednesday teachers group, who take on board everything that I throw at them with such good heart & excellent results.  They have all become Grandmothers for the first time this term, all with Grandsons - I am very envious.  We decided that it was OK as I am a little bit younger so have to wait longer.  Thank you ladies for such lovely Wednesday mornings full of laughter x

POT PLANT

Ohhhh look at this, look at the colour combinations of violet blue & lime green.  This is a fabulous exuberant plant full of flowers.  I have never had one this colour before.  I have a pinky - orange one that was a gift last year & we are going to buy 2 matching pots to put them alongside the steps leading from the patio to the lawn.  This is a gift from my Floribundi group.  We have had such a lovely year.  Wow the quilts produced from my original blocks are just simply stunning.  All the blocks have centres - hence Floribundi & all have flower names.  This group is now at an end & will become a projects class.  A truly lovely group who all get on so well together.  The plant is in a purple & cream hessian pot & when I do put it outside I shall use the pot for the Orchid to stand in.  It is atop my wooden sewing basket made by my husbands Grandfather for our wedding present, so it is a very special box, it is  placed on top of this:

TABLE RUNNER

Hand stitched from Uzbekistan  & a gift from Ruth, who has recently visited there.  She says that they use a special tool to stitch it & watched them doing the work.  Fabulous, gobsmacking gift, the colours match my sitting room, look at the pommegrante and the fish.  There will be designs from this arriving this summer, it is stitched on a base of heavy cream cotton with a lovely border & looks fabulous on top of the sewing box, out of direct sunlight, the colours work so well together, they are balanced & totally in proportion x

Not finished yet!

If you follow my blog you will know that Dale has just been to Broome in Western Australia & we have been talking about the Frangipani flowers.  I guess that I shall never smell them. well I did but shall not tell you how & was telling my Monday group about this longing to go to Broome - mad isnt it why some names & places hit the soul - Eileen remembered this & bought me this

Frangrant Oil

In a beautifully shaped bottle & stopper.  It says Frangipani Orchid!  I didnt know that they were Orchids, seems a full circle.

There are reeds to put in the oil & the frangrance is purely lovely.  In my hall it wafts through the house & I dream of the tropics

I must confess that I keep spying the reeds to stitch over but am resisting at the moment but I cant promise not to nick a couple as they bend beautifully x

Finally a totally unique present

Ornament

Milton Keynes concrete cow - look at his saddle!

Katy's son owns MK COWS.com

Milton Keynes is famous for its life sized croncrete cows, put in a field near the M1 many years ago.  Not by Kays son!

He runs the company making lots of things but especially these cows, in different sizes, they make wonderful gifts.  There are baby ones & THE QUEEN has one - though not with City & Guild on the side - this is a one off especially for me.  Each cow has a certificate - like a birth certificate & comes in a lovely box which is extremely well padded so would be fantastic for a gift anywhere in the world.  Please do look at his site.  I have wanted one of these for two years

Katy this is why!!

His new friends!  These were a gift from my daughter many years ago.  I love them & now this fantastic MK cow has joined them & the other funky animal ornaments that I have

In addition to these presents I have received a lovely card & postcard from Pat a previous student who has been to the Joan Miro exhibition in the Tate Modern in London & whilst walking around remembered me and the Mark making classes & has sent me one of his postcards & an article from the Observer newspaper which was facinating to read.  I cant wait to go now & when I do I will report back.  I have wanted to see a body of his painting since going to Barcelona & arriving too late to view the incredible exhibitio that they have there

I hope you have enjoyed seeing a part of my life, these thank yous make all the hard work seem to drift away

To all of you XX thanks