The move to North Devon

I’m back with my website after it being down for three years.

In my defence we have moved into a converted barn, built a log cabin as a Bowen Therapy Studio, planted a brand new garden, installed my first ever greenhouse, helped start a market garden for my son and daughter-in-law, started growing cut flowers for the general public and holiday homes, and added a Cockapoo called Arthur to our family. Last but not least, I’ve also been making memory quilts and cushions and other one off items for sale in my Etsy shop. Nearly forgot, erecting a Memory Christmas tree outside the barn every year to raise money for The Devon Air Ambulance.

Ray my husband has been teaching guitar, learning violin, learning sign language, singiing in a singing group, playing guitar in a different singing group in Bude, and of course doing all the cooking and making delicious bread.

But now it feels right to bring my website back to life so I can meet new clients and share the Memory quilt experience whilst showcasing my Etsy shop. Looking forward to meeting old and new clients alike.

You might like to look at www.neetfield.co.uk and www.raybarclaybowen.com both mentioned in this blog

Three weeks, three years, or thirty years?

I am often asked what is an acceptable amount of time to wait before making quilts and cushions from my deceased loved ones clothes. The answer is when ever the time is right for you, I have made quilts three weeks after a death and up to thirty years. They were all very special and all very right for that individual person.

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I can only say that everyone who has gone ahead with the decision has never regretted it, as it brings a sense of positive achievement when positive times are sadly lacking.

I have been told it provides a sense of closure for some people and that when the quilts and cushions are displayed around the home it gives relatives and friends an easy way to start to remember and chat about good times as in “I remember when he wore this shirt to our party where we had great fun” this won’t happen when the shirt is stored away, or hanging in a cupboard.

Below is Jackie’s four quilts and two cushions that have been made thirty years after her husbands passing. There is a quilt for each of her adult children and two cushions for herself.

Jackie received her commissioned items quite recently, the text that first came through on my phone read, “Karen the parcel has arrived, I have seen the cushions which are fantastic, I cannot open the quilts until I recover. Shortly followed by the second text, Karen the quilts are really beautiful, a true memory quilt for each of my children to keep and pass on. I have been looking at the individual pieces and remembering what they were and when used or worn. The tears have subsided now. I will be taking many photographs before I part with them. Thank you is not enough for the treasures you have created for us.”.

So you see Three weeks, Three months, or Thirty years is all the right thing to do.

Here are Jackies quilts and cushions full of memories for all four children, clothes from their dad’s RAF life and home life with a few of their own memories added.



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The Wedding Quilt

On Saturday 24th March 2018 my youngest son Tom Barclay married his girlfriend of ten years Rosie Ansell. 

The wedding was organised in three months, a simple but beautiful wedding in Winchester with lots of laughter and meaning.

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A beautiful bride, a handsome and proud groom, a beautiful classic mini loaned and chauffeured by a friend of mine and two gorgeous cakes made by another lovely friend, just perfect, with 60 special family and friend guests.

I wanted to mark the occasion with a quilt, so e-mailed all the guests and asked them to send me a short wedding greeting like you would put in a card. I then set to work to pull some of their favourite things together.

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The borders contained the messages, the four panels depicted the seasons. Horizontally underneath the seasons I wrote where the couple had lived so far, including a bright yellow tent which they spent two months in whilst walking the Devon and Cornwall Coastal Path! It also has a picture of them and their tent they slept in whilst walking the path, which I managed to do in free arm sewing style on my machine. I'm new to this so it took some attempts, they at one point looked like a Rastafarian and Shrek!

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The quilt was hung on the reception room wall for all to see during the wedding dinner and party. It will follow the bride and groom wherever their lives take them for many years to come and hopefully passed down through the generations to remember a really happy day.

The Shed

I have recently invested in a new workspace of which I shall blog about in more detail later. I built it with a friend of mine and am very proud of the finished shed. It took planning, time and a great deal of effort and has been a part of my garden for almost six months now. It is the perfect workplace, meeting place, bird watching viewing place, and generally somewhere to get away from the distractions of the house.

A long time ago I worked for a school and shared my days with a man called Kim, the job was not much fun really for one reason or another but Kim made it bearable and we had a good laugh most days. Sadly Kim left for ventures new which made the job a lot less bearable but that's a whole other story! Kim, like myself, is an artistic person who has great talent. We kept in touch mainly through Facebook and I watched all his drawing and writing skills flourish. A few weeks ago something special caught my eye, so I commissioned Kim to draw my new shed for me in his quirky style.

The Shed

Kim has perfectly captured all the things I wanted included, my cat sadly not with us anymore but buried in front of the shed, a dog resembling my friends dog Oliver and my husband in dog form! My crow called Cheryl, Lance the perfect Knight, a few favourite garden items were also included and also myself entering the door off to sew more memory quilts. I'm sure you will agree that the result is totally amazing and just perfect for what I was after. I'm sure the picture will appear on quite a few things in the not too distant future.

The Shed

 

If you would like something similar of your house or maybe your favourite outbuilding or your special thing, whatever that might be, Kim can work from photographs and will take on board any special items you want included. Prices start from £40 and are done using an ink and pen technique. contact https://www.instagram.com/kpm.illustration/?hl=en

Bowen has been a life saver

It's been 10 months since I last wrote a blog for my website, lots of things have contributed to this. I think you burn yourself out with the internet and it's trappings. My Mum died last March and although there wasn't much to sort out I guess things just seemed different after five years visiting a care home, and lastly but more importantly I had changed physically. I'm not sure if this was due to overworking myself physically, the menopause, or both.

For the last three years I have suffered with chronic aching that stopped me from doing simple things that I loved like gardening. Just thirty minutes in the garden really hurt. I had ripped the tendons in my arm some years back and this was also giving me grief. To be honest I wasn't good mentally either.

Numerous doctors appointments culminated in quite a few blood tests which told me I was fit and healthy, Naproxen by the bucket load was prescribed for everything else.

I got to the stage where I really didn't want tablets I just wanted the root of my problems sorted.

My low point was saying to my husband that I would have to stop doing anything remotely physical as it was all too depressing. I tried to find someone professional to talk to about menopause but that was sadly lacking. I waited twelve weeks to see a physio for which I had high hopes. I was given a few exercises to do on a sheet of A4 paper and told I would be fine. I felt so let down that I had waited 12 weeks for that.

Chiropractor appointments were kept and that did help with my aching for a short while but didn't address much else. I loathed the getting undressed part, and hated the cracking noises even more.

The next words I am going to tell you are REALLY important, I read an article about a practice called Bowen Therapy which seemed to have good results. It seemed a little odd but what did I have to loose. For me it was sort of the LAST RESORT.

I found a local practitioner who I called and sounded confident, relaxed and friendly, she didn't make any promises but said come along and see how it goes. I decide to go with the flow and was pleasantly surprised. Yes it was a bit odd but so very very relaxing. I had three sessions and saw a huge improvement in mind and body, I kept having treatments once a month for a while and everything fell back into place. I wondered how on earth such a gentle practice could make such a huge change to my body.

A year or so after I decided that I would train to become a Bowen Therapist, a few weeks before I started the courses my husband said that he wanted to learn to, so off we both went. 

The first course was three days long, after the first day I new that sadly this wasn't for me, I couldn't take in all the vast information. This was certainly a massive amount of training for something I perceived to be fairly simple, how wrong could I be. My husband however was the star of the show, a natural from the start and loved every minute of the training. It was clear to everyone on the course that he was very much supposed to be a Bowen Therapist.

A long year saw lots of training and practice along side my husbands full time job, every evening he practiced Bowen on volunteers and read up on the theory in any other spare time to prepare for exams. 

He is now a qualified Bowen Therapist and has an ever growing very grateful client list including myself.

So instead of thinking like myself, and so many other's, 'I'll give this a go as a last resort', think about giving it a go before anything else and save yourself some time.

Remember I said I couldn't do anything physical anymore, which really upset me? Well last September I built this shed for me to work in and didn't suffer at all, yes I had a friend who lead the build but every day I was his apprentice and every evening I carried on to push the build on a notch.

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My husband Ray Barclay will leave his day job in two weeks time to practice Bowen full time and can be contacted by visiting www.raybarclaybowen.com if you are suffering with any physical or mental problem it's worth giving Bowen a try in my view.  Please don't wait as I did for it to be the LAST RESORT.

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As for me well it's back to normal life and possibly a few more blogs!

 

Happy Mothers Day Mum

My mum passed away on Monday March 20th 2017 in the care home where she had lived for the past four years and four months.

She was born on the 26th December 1921 weighing 2lbs, She had four children me being the last. She had pneumonia whilst having me and she remembers two doctors standing by her oxygen tent saying "We can save the baby but not the mother" her thoughts were "I'm not dying I have four children to look after and lots more things I want to achieve".

She continued to have numerous jobs and loved working, she was head cook at a primary school and a bra making factory, bought two shops and worked seven days a week from 6am to 6pm until she sold them and bought her first home at the age of 57. When she didn't work she did all the fund raising for her doctors surgery and organised parties for old people older than herself!

My mum loved sewing and made all her own clothes such as tailored suits, she told me that her mum used to make quilts, something I didn't know.

My mum was fiercely independent, rubbish at buying presents, and in later years said exactly what she thought, the last two made for entertaining times.

Not long after my dad died she sold her bungalow and moved into a private apartment where she felt safe. At age 90 she had a stroke that wiped everything from her mind (mostly). As a result she was unable to look after herself, so we moved her to a care home where they looked after her well.

Those last four plus years was not the mum I knew, she had lost her spirit and was content to sit with people her own age and smiled and mainly said the word 'lovely', a blessing for those that looked after her but for me, not so good. She did briefly come back as the old mum on the odd occasion and I'm sure would have caused havoc if it had lasted, she would have escaped out of the building somehow and been off looking for the nearest travel agent!

So It's my turn to make a quilt for me and my sister, it will be a challenge for all sorts of reasons and I'm not sure where pink, mauve, blue and lavender will fit into my home! 

I will now have more understanding of all my clients that send me their clothes and will look at the quilt and remember all sorts of times good and bad.

Happy Mothers Day Mum, I hope you are on your first holiday in your new life somewhere by the sea with lots of flowers, a cup of tea and a pink wafer biscuit.

Mavis

Mavis was one of my best friends mum, she spent her last months in the care home that my mum is in, so I saw quite a bit of her in her last few months.

I've had Mavis's clothes for a while now as her daughter was in no rush for a cushion to be made, and as with all friends/relatives they sometimes get put in a never ending queue!

However I think the cushion was worth the wait.

Mavis's cushion made from two skirts, a suit, a pair of trousers and a scarf.

Mavis's cushion made from two skirts, a suit, a pair of trousers and a scarf.

 I must have got it right as the one cushion is now turning into four, along with a quilt. The quilt has yet to be decided on but I will post it when its finished.

I think Mavis would have approved.

For all the Mums

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This weekend brings us Mother's Day and a chance to show all hard working Mums how much they are appreciated.

This can be done with beautiful flowers.

By baking a beautiful cake to share.

 

Making a lovely coffee, or tea.

 

But the best thing of all we can give our Mum's is time. It costs nothing but it can mean the world.

Have a lovely weekend everyone.

Karen and Julie

karenbarclay.com

Blanket Quilt x 2

Hello everyone!

Karen has been so busy sewing lately and she has now finished this beautiful blanket quilt which is similar in style to the one I showed you last week with the pink blanket backing. However this one has a navy stripe edging which makes the colours pop even more. It can be found in our shop now http://www.karenbarclay.com/shop/wool-blanket-quilt-with-navy-edging

These blanket quilts are a new style for Karen and they give an extra dimension to the feel of the quilt as the blanket lends an extra degree of softness and a heavier weight.

We will have more new quilts appearing in our shop over the next few weeks so please keep checking back and please don't forget to take advantage of our 20% offer and reduced postage which is available until Mother's Day.

Hope you all have a lovely weekend.

Karen and Julie

karenbarclay.com

The Comfort of a Blanket, the Beauty of a Quilt

Karen was inspired by a recent trip to design this beautiful modern interpretation of a quilt using quality linens and cottons backed with a beautiful wool blanket and measuring 97 x 115cm.

The natural tones used in the materials will adapt to any room setting and the softness of the blanket backing will give comfort on a chilly evening.

This beautiful quilt is now available in our shop and we are currently running a 20% discount promotion and reduced postage of £2.95 until Mothers Day. Why not take advantage of this great offer to have this wonderful handcrafted quilt in your home and ensure that you have a unique bespoke item to share with your family. It can be found here in our shop http://www.karenbarclay.com/shop/blanket-quilt-2

Have a lovely weekend

Karen and Julie

www.karenbarclay.com

Lighting Up For Valentines

We thought this was an appropriate photograph to share with you this weekend. It is called light painting and its done with torches and technical wizardry with the camera. You also need a very dark place to do it. This is not always possible as there are too many street lights so this was done at lowermargate in Devon.

Hope you have a lovely weekend whatever you are doing or whoever you are sharing it with.

Karen and Julie

karenbarclay.com

 

Our Blogging Style

Hello everyone!

We are lucky to have a lot of new people looking at our website and Facebook posts so we thought that we would introduce all you lovely people to our blog. Obviously we write about quilts and cushions as they are the core of our business but we also love to tell you about nice places we visit and the beautiful walks we take.

American quilt challenge

In October 2015 I was lucky enough to visit New England for three weeks. In New Hampshire I like to visit a store called www.keepsakequilting.com. It is filled with thousands of bolts of material all set out beautifully and interspersed with quilts and other lovely things to inspire you to make something lovely. To be honest it's mind blowing and way too much to take in on one visit! Luckily we don't stay far away so at least three or four visits are made on each trip I take to New England, which is such a chore!!!! 

Nkuku explained

We have searched long and hard for some items to go in our shop alongside our quilts and cushions. Our criteria was a company that wouldn't let us down and liked small business's, the items had to be of good quality, handmade, ethical and eco friendly, and, here is the biggy, something we would love in our own homes (we are a bit on the fussy side!)

All In A Name

Good Morning everyone! You may or may not have noticed that we have changed our name to karenbarclay.com. The reasons for this are that primarily Karen was never particularly convinced about alittlebitofnice feeling that it was too long and tricky to type into a search engine.