Hemingford Abbots, cake and batiks!

It has been the most perfect hot summer weekend here in Cambridge. Yesterday
we went to Hemingford Abbots and strolled around the open gardens drooling
over the manicured acres, many of which went down to the water's edge and
even included a boat mooring. It was blissful
Tony always insists that these outings culminate in tea and cake otherwise
he refuses to come so we chose the most splendid house in the village to
take tea. We chose carrot cake topped with a dreamy Philly topping and a big
slices of walnut cake. It was so hard to choose...and the cupcakes looked
truly divine. It would have been very easy to go back for seconds!
Today was as hot, and this afternoon I chased a bumble bee with my little
Lumix camera as it flitted from spike to spike on an anonymous plant in my
garden. Tony came to my rescue and proceeded to take about 30 pics with his
SLR. Thank you tony :)
Lastly, I wanted to share my batik fabrics again now thay are washed and
dry. I love the reverse side of them as they have become delightfully
mottled and will be great fun to use. PHEW it is SO HOT here tonight. I have
been awake since 5am as I was cooking. I can't bear the window to be open as
the dawn chorus is so deafening around here at 4am.... This is not a good
way to be awakened Tony's sister has been in theatre all day and tonight is in the high
dependency unit. She has a lot of life to catch up on so we're hoping she is
going to make a speedy recovery and can come and lie in our gorgeous garden
to recouperate!

 

Batik Fabrics ....and a little bit of time management

I had a really good morning today at Rikki Outis's class at Cottenham. Today we had a go at batik and I used several of the fabrics I have dyed in the last few weeks. Rikki uses soy wax as it is easier to get it out of the fabric. She had some melting in a large electric frying pan (skillet) and some in a melting pot which is good if you want to use a jantung.
I started off by cutting a stencil and then painting on the wax in a spiral design. (later, I over painted it with blue and red)


The next fabric I simply scrunched up and dabbed the wax onto it to create random texture. (I splodged red and purple dyes onto to this piece later on) There are so many ways to create gorgeous patterns using wax 

 The yellow sample was folded in a concertina fashion and the edges dipped in the hot wax. I opened it, let it cool and then re-folded in the opposite direction and re-dipped it. (It was later painted with teal and blue
The flowery piece was made by brushing on the wax onto pale pink fabric. (It was later painted with yellow and red)
I allowed them all to dry hard and then later, I painted them with soda ash and then with the Procion dyes we have used before. It was so lovely sitting on the grass under the apple tree doing this this evening. It is so warm here in Cambridge right now....I'm making the most of it while it lasts.
 
Time Management......

 I am enjoying Kelly Rae's class and today she talked about time management and asked us for our ideas too so here is what I learnt when I had my machine knitting business, Tiny Tiger, when my own children were small.  I was really keen to be there as a mummy to them and always wanted to be sure to be at the school gate to collect them as I had come home to an empty house as a child after my dad died and my mum had to work. What matters is what matters to you, not what you think other people think you should do, and it mattered to me to be there.


Gareth was two when I started my machine knitting business and Claire was already at school. At first I was making ALL the jumper myself so time was precious...at a premium...so as soon as he was in nursery school I would shoot home straight to my work room (where I had tea and coffee making stuff VITAL...no wasting time going to the kitchen) and spent the morning knitting. I never allowed myself to wash up dishes, tidy the kitchen, iron, clean.....I just got on with making. I love working under a controlled amount of pressure and I was motivated to try and beat my own record of how many jerseys I could make in one session! I also got it down to a fine art when he was in the bath...I could knit a WHOLE age 2 jumper while he was content playing, and turning wrinkly-fingered! Oh it was blissful....he was content and I was productive.


As the children got older, we had a family housework hour on a Sunday afternoon. The radio was turned on full blast and everyone had a job...Claire would sweep and wash the kitchen floor, Gareth would hoover downstaires, I cleaned the lavs and Tony would clean the shower. It worked well and got the job done quickly. Claire also used to do the ironing in return for her pony's keep which seemed a fair exchange. Having our business did mean they both had a good lifestyle.


There were so many other ways I managed my time but right now, it is 9.30pm and a really gorgeous evening and as Tony is hankering for a walk to the nearest pub garden to cool off, I'm going to join him!






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