Two on Tuesday x

Good day and welcome to another Two on Tuesday.

When I started this blogpost idea, I thought it would just be a lovely way of sharing things I enjoyed or found on the Internet, but today I want to share something a little more deeply.

One of the reasons I became a scrapbooker was to recover from the nervous breakdown I had back over 14 years ago now. My friend Teresa has been introduced to scrapbooking via Creative Memories and she invited me one Sunday afternoon to play in her house with a few pictures. I became hooked and it really helped me to rediscover my creativity. I know that like me many people came back to crafting from illness, loneliness, life changing events e.g. weddings and births. Creativity for me has been a real anchor, even when I'm unwell I can really appreciate the importance of making something for my personal well being to improve.

So today's Two on Tuesday are a little more central to what I have just briefly explored.


My first link is to the incredibly talented Heidi Swapp. Two weeks ago, this loving wife and mother, and truly gifted crafter faced one of the worst experiences anyone can go through. One of her sons died very suddenly. He was 16. For anyone to face bereavement is a truly tough process but Heidi being the incredible individual she is chose to share just a little of her personal grief on her blog yesterday. This is an incredibly personal post as I am sure you can imagine but it says some amazingly well thought out issues for us as memory keepers.

Heidi stresses the importance of photos. How she wishes she had taken so many more. People laugh at me for taking so many but I always say "I'm a memory keeper and that is how I save my memories and use them to remind me of my life". It is such an important part of life these days, photography and we are so lucky to be able to take pictures and see them instantaneously. To alter then to make them more beautiful. We can store them online and share them in so many ways which weren't available to our families in days gone by. I truly treasure my photographs and would be so sad to lose them.

When I was staff nurse on Neonatal Intensive Care, we always took Polaroids of the babies for parents because we knew that often parents would be unable to visit their baby for several hours. I constantly said to them to make sure they had pictures copied so they would have a negative to keep because over time these Polaroids can fade. We were also advised to get parents who's baby had died, to store the photographs which were taken on their behalf by the hospital in a safe storage box away from fire and flood because they were just so precious. On one occasion, a mum phoned me to ask if I could check if the photos taken of her baby were still in the file. At the time of her baby's death, she hadn't wanted them but it was hospital policy to take the pictures and retain them in the baby's file. That mother was able to received pictures of her baby who would had died over ten years previously.

What I am trying to say is to keep your photographs safely and to take so many that you never run out.

If you would like to read Heidi's post, and I advise everyone to do so, you can find it here. She has shared a number of very personal photographs from her sons funeral and so just for clarity, be aware that some of the photographs show Cory's open coffin.

My second link is to my amazing friend Abi. She blogged over the weekend about her latest quilt. She explained how it had taken 2 years to complete and shared her final masterpeice, complete with modelling by her very attractive mum.

One of the things which struck me from Abi's piece was the fact that as crafters we don't always complete projects or they just take much longer to finish because life gets in the way. Abi's been completing her degree so she's had rather a lot of course work, but she has got there in the end.

What I shared in my comment to her was that I too have a quilt I'm still working on and it is still in pieces over 30 years since I began. I started it when I was at school and remember cutting out hexagon shapes from old envelopes and hand stitching them together. My family gave me lots of lovely fabrics from their own sewing projects so it truly is a memory project. Some of the materials came from dresses I remember my mum stitching for me and my sister.

For me crafting, and certainly quilt making is about love. Each piece of fabric is lovingly cut, pinned and stitched together. It has a love for sewing stitched into every piece. In my case there is blood in there probably from stabbing my fingers with the needle when I sew the pieces together. There are memories of summer dresses, learning to sew, listening to my family chatter as I stitched and also my own personal love for stitching. One day I will finish that project and I will feel pride and joy in it's completion. To me it matters not if I finish it when I'm 80 because the end is that it tell my story.

If you want to see what I mean, then watch the film "How to make an American Quilt" which weaves the story of several women quilters together through their quilt making for one of the women's granddaughter's wedding quilt.

I would love to know your feelings on my little post.

Team Teal Quilting Bee.

Hello everyone and a happy Sunday to you all. I hope you are keeping well. So last night I couldn't sleep, night duty seems to have messed up my circadian rhythms. Anyway I have been wracking my brains trying to come up with an idea for something to celebrate Marti's life and to support Deb and her whole family. If you haven't read my ten on the tenth here is the link. So here is my idea.

A Team Teal Quilting Bee.

One of my favourite films is called ''How to make an American Quilt'' and charts the story of a group of women of varying ages who have come together to make a Wedding quilt for the central character played by Winona Ryder. As they make this quilt, they share stories of their lives and make a personal story from their own square of fabric. It is wonderful story and I think a wonderful idea. As a group of women across the world, Team Teal have worked to support Marti, Deb and their family. What better way to celebrate a life than to make something which I hope will celebrate what Deb set out to achieve but also to raise awareness of Ovarian cancer.

''Quilting was often a communal activity, involving women and girls in a family, or in a larger community. The tops were prepared in advance, and a "quilting bee" was arranged, during which the actual quilting was completed by multiple people''

So these are the details.................

• You do not have to be a member of Team Teal to take part. I think this important as we are a smallish team and it would be wonderful to have as many people as possible taking part.
• Each participant will make one square. Size of the square to be 6 inches square.
• The square can be of any quilting design you like. The beauty of a quilt is it's diversity.
• Each square can be a combination of colours, however I will provide some Teal material to each participant which needs to be used in the square to remind us of why we are making the quilt.
• You can be as inventive with your square as you like. Use embroidery, applique or just keep it simple and sign your name on the front of the square either by stitching it or with an indelible pen.
• I will be coordinating all the squares and will have the task of putting all the squares together to make the final quilt.

If you would like to take part, then please contact me at josowerby{at]yahoo{dot]co[dot]uk and leave me your name and address.



 The second part involves raising money for charity. I have chosen the UK charity Ovarian Cancer Action.

The charity started life as the Helene Harris Memorial Trust almost 20 years ago.  It was instigated by John Harris CBE in dedication to his wife who died from the disease.  John Harris established the Trust in order to forge collaboration between international scientists to further understanding of the disease.   Ovarian Cancer Action evolved from the Helene Harris Memorial Trust in 2006 with Helene Harris’ daughter Allyson Kaye at the helm.   Ovarian Cancer Action was born in recognition of the urgent need to fund research in the UK that was focused on bringing better treatment options to women.

I believe that if we can come together and support this charity in Marti's name we will keeping her legacy alive. I have set up a Just Giving page which anyone can donate to and this money goes directly to the charity not me so is completely safe. Please don't feel any pressure to donate, but if you that would be fabulous.


I would love to hear from you, whether you wish to be part of my quilting bee or make a donation or simply give me some friendly support. I will keep you all up to date on how I get on as this project progresses. Thank you all in advance for your support.