Anne Quinn
Parchment and Calligraphy Tutor

October 2009

Had a quick week across in Southern Ireland, a place we love, having been asked to teach my group of parchment crafters from Rush, north of Dublin for three days in October. Paddy and I (well Paddy!) drove across to Holyhead and thankfully the Irish Sea was calm for the end of October…….

Taught for three days in Rush to my group of 13 ladies run by Rosemary, whom I have been teaching for about 6-7 years, and then moved south for the fourth day to teach the Ladies from Portmarnock organised by Brigid, where I have been three times now. It was lovely to see them all again. My one day off in the week was the day after the four days teaching, and guess what, it rained all day!! We spent a happy couple of hours reading the paper and doing the crosswords in the Grand Hotel In Malahide, as you do, watching the rotten weather outside!

Paddy managed to visit the family in Dublin on his five days off (lucky him!) and we had a great week staying with Mary and Bill again, (thank you both!) in Sutton.

Came home the following day, with glorious weather across the sea; the sun shines on the righteous they say (the following day was gales and rain here, so we were pleased we were not crossing the sea that day!).

Its only about 22 weeks to go, to cross the Irish Sea again teaching at the college in April. Time flies when you are having fun, so they say! When we win the lottery, our first spend will be on the house in Malahide or perhaps our five girlies (4 daughters and 1 grand-daughter) will think they should come first - and then the cottage………………!

The picture on the left is the Ladies from Rush with Marie and her huge cake in the centre (calorie free of course)!
The right hand side photo shows the Ladies in Portmarnock.

August 2009

Our13 day cruise to the Baltic……. great!
Setting off from Dover on the Fred Olsen Cruise Lines “Balmoral”, the new ship in their fleet as from last year. 11 decks, the biggest ship to date that we have done a cruise on! Two of our friends Mandy and Doug whom we met on a cruise last year, decided to come on the same cruise this year, which made it extra special for us.

Gorgeous day when we went on the ship, and found our way around before the passengers got on. We found out that we only had three sessions on this cruise, as there were about 70 children on board, plus a whole Welsh Male Voice choir! Dash it! However, we managed to squeeze in an extra class, plus a demonstration of stencils and peel-offs on parchment on the last day before arriving back in Dover. The classes were a bit quieter than normal, with having the choir and the children on this one, as there were so many activities that you could do, lots of things clashed. However, the ladies who came (and one man!) seemed to enjoy the sessions, and came to most of them throughout the two weeks. Again, we met some lovely ladies, as usual, and we managed to pass on the basics of parchment craft to them, spreading the word yet again! Sally, Michelle, Jean and Jean, Mary and Petra to name a few people that I got to know the names of! Sally (and hubby John), believe it or not, lives about 10 miles from us at home, and I had taught her calligraphy about 20 years ago! I saw her pass me one day, and thought
“I know that face”! We put the world to rights and had a long catch-up chat later on that day!

After the last session, when I sold a few bits of the tools that we had been using on board, Michelle said it was either “a manicure or the set of tools” - of course the parchment pack won! No contest really!

Anyway, back to the cruise, we firstly had a gorgeous day in Copenhagen (yes of course, we went to see the Little Mermaid - again!), then onto our five-consecutive-days-in-port and on to Stockholm, which was wonderful. We had a week in Stockholm area with friends three years ago, and loved it then, still the same! Then on down toTallinn in Estonia which was wonderful again, really hot and sunny. Next, onto St Petersburg for two days, where we had a good nights sleep with the ship being docked overnight, and again the weather was great. We have done St Petersburg twice before so stayed on the ship for two days and really chilled out. The fifth day was back over to Helsinki in Finland, again, a fabulous day. Just ended up walking round the huge harbour and picking out a fabulous yacht to take home with us!

Then, for a change, a day at sea, and the last port day to Travemunde in Germany, just before we travelled through the Kiel canal. Travemunde was a fantastic place, we got the shuttle bus onto the harbourside, which had a longgggggggg street full of little shops and cafes. Being another really hot day, everyone was outside! Then down to the end to the marina area, which was super, kept on walking another mile and came across this beautiful huge beach. This was definitely a place to look out for a holiday week. You wouldn’t need to leave the town at all……….. it was fabulous.

Leaving Travemunde, we started on the way home - sadly! We actually went through the Kiel Canal from midnight to 8am, so missed most of it, apart from Sally who sat up all night to watch it apparently! A final day at sea with the last class and the demonstration in the afternoon, and then the packing to do, ughhhhh! Arrived in Dover after a slightly rocky sea for just a few hours overnight on the North Sea, to sunny Dover. Another great cruise, lots of happy memories.

Some of the ladies from the classes are pictured below!

April - May 2009

Set off for a mammoth two and a half weeks teaching in Southern Ireland. Only having had a blow-up boot taken off my foot two days before we set off after suffering a badly broken foot 12 weeks before, I was hobbling rather badly on my first few days!

Ferry from Holyhead - good crossing, thank goodness, and set off down to Kilkenny, two hours south west of Dublin. Stayed with Kathleen and Eamonn at their lovely home for two nights and did a day for Kathleen and Rita’s little parchment group in Kilkenny. Had a great day with 11 ladies (including one daughter!) and they enjoyed themselves immensely.

Back to Dublin the following day, to stay with friends Mary and Bill in Sutton, just north of Dublin, we had Sunday lunch out on my day off! Our favourite pastime in the evenings with Mary and Bill is playing “Rummikub” except for the fact that Paddy nearly always wins! (He definitely has the luck of the Irish!). Anyway, off to the college near Drogheda the next day, for my first of two weeks teaching a residential course for the ICA, (Southern Ireland’s equivalent of the WI) as usual every April. This was my 9th course there, and I had 15 ladies the first week. No beginners, just intermediate and advanced ones from several years now.

As usual, the diet went to pot, with fabulous meals served up in the Dining Hall! The college gives a three course lunch, followed by a two course tea, plus the optional-but-usually-taken coffee and biscuits in the Library at 8-30pm! The ladies enjoyed gridwork, whitework, and pencil work during the three full days of projects. Great time. Rosemary and her ladies there from Rush, the three Galway girls, plus a few extras from here and there! Carol - (one English voice amongst many Irish ones!) was there, originally from Devon, who now lives near Wexford - her first course - which was much enjoyed.

Left college Friday morning after breakfast, back to Sutton, and another day workshop the following day at Portmarnock Ladies Group, whom I had the pleasure of teaching last year. Four ladies returned from last year with 5 more beginners. Another great fun day, over all too quickly. The beginners made three small cards and a gift envelope so were quite pleased with their first projects in parchment! The ladies from last year tackled a larger card - either weddings, births or flowery cards and seemed well chuffed with their projects!

Day off on Sunday - phew ……… after a very hectic first week. Managed to have Sunday lunch out again at The Grand Hotel in Malahide (where Ronan Keating lives, just to name-drop!) with Mary and Bill, which was lovely. I live in hope of meeting him one day maybe ……. we obviously don’t eat in his favourite restaurant!

Back to the college next day for the second week, my tenth course there. Had 13 ladies this time, a mixture of beginners, intermediate and advanced. Mary from Sligo was back again with her 94 year old Mum, (Mum enjoying the college holiday!), also Mary and Helga from a few previous courses, and other newer ladies, plus meeting the new President-Elect of the ICA in Ireland - Ann Marie Dennison, shortly to take office, who came in to meet me and the ladies in the classroom. All very exciting!

On the Friday, after two weeks teaching, Paddy and I set off for four days break up in Carlingford, a quaint little village on the coast just south of the border with Northern Ireland. Weather was sunny and great, had a superb B and B “Grove House” just on the outskirts of the village and had a restful weekend. Even managed to walk round the village quite a lot, getting some exercise for the old foot!

After leaving Carlingford on a dull, cloudy day, back to Sutton and the ferry home to the UK the next day. I have never known 18 days go so fast! Hopefully taught a lot of new techniques to about 50 students in Southern Ireland. Ireland is a wonderful place…….. lovely people, superb craic and being with so many good friends again that we have met over the last 6 years (as well as Paddy seeing some of his Irish family!). Can’t wait to return …………

March 2009

A lovely morning teaching some ladies at a U3A group doing parchment in Bottesford, near Grantham, Lincolnshire. I met Miranda on our last cruise, who actually belongs to this group and I went to do a class doing whitework for two and a half hours in March. The ladies really enjoyed it, and we managed to do two patterns in whitework, hoping that they would be able to finish them off at home! Will be returning next year for another session. Kept in touch with Miranda and she and her husband are joining us on our next cruise this August.

October 2008

A quick flying visit across to Ireland for a teaching course for Rosemary’s Ladies Group at Rush, near Skerries, north of Dublin. We flew over for five days, and had two days teaching with the ladies that I have been teaching for five years. We mainly did advanced gridwork and 3D butterflies, plus as is usual in October - a few Christmas cards! Getting in the mood! One night we had a beading class with Marie in Sutton, one of my students who teaches beading. I managed to make a quick necklace with Swarovski crystals, which was very pretty. I had to be quiet too, counting etc, not like when teaching! They said it was a change to have me sit there quietly and get on with something! Mind you I had lost my voice with a virus for most of the week in Ireland so I was quiet for most of the time anyway! We stayed with one of my ladies, Mary and husband Bill, in Sutton, just ten minutes from the airport, so that was very handy. Had a fantastic week - all over too quickly.

September 2008

Just had the second cruise this year, our seventh teaching cruise now, to the Mediterranean and Italy. It was two and a half weeks on the Fred Olsen ship “Boudicca”.

We started off from Southampton and had three days at sea (across the Bay of Biscay which was no problem at all - thank goodness!) with the first of my three teaching sessions. We had again about 30-40 ladies and one man in most of the sessions! We actually had about four people this time who do parchment, which was especially nice, and two of them had heard of me through the magazine. That was a first! After the first three fun sessions, making simple cards, a bookmark and a gift envelope, I did a demonstration on the first day in port in Cartagena in Southern Spain. We left the port in the afternoon, so the demo was good fun. I just demonstrated how to use stencils and peel-offs on parchment. Most of the students came to the demo, but I also caught a few new faces too!

Next port of call was across to Mahon on the island of Menorca. I always thought that Menorca would be like Majorca, but it wasn’t at all like that. It was very quiet, and we did a tour round four little fishing villages which were very quaint with lovely scenery and glorious weather. The next stop was Nice on the French Riviera where we have been to before. It was raining when we got there but soon cleared up to about 70 degrees in old money!

Next port was Italy - the northern port of Livorno, the port for Florence. We didn’t do a tour there as we were having a long day in Rome the following day! So next day - Rome! This was the highlight of the cruise and our first taste of Italy. Had a nine hour day bussed into the city and about 6 hours on our own. Lovely weather, very hot, at least we had no coats to carry! Great day, went to all the sights that you have to se on your first visit to Rome, the Colliseum, the Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, the Parthenon and the Piazza Nervona ,and finally into the Vatican City with St Peters Square etc. It was a super day. Final port in Italy was Naples, but we spent the day in Herculaneum (like Pompeii), the ruins from when Vesuvius erupted, goodness knows when it was! Fantastic day, and got lots of lovely photos of the ruins, being excavated still today.

Two more ports of call after Italy, we went across to Cagliari, the capital of Sardinia and then the last stop was Tangier on the North African coast of Morocco. Sardinia was a beautiful island and we did another tour, a lovely day, and Tangier was very hot but windy. I did very well in Tangier - I bought four handbags, four postcards and a camel for £25! Bargain! (the camel was a fridge magnet!).

After leaving Tangier, we started on our three days at sea home to Southampton, with another three sessions tucked in there! The ladies had missed doing the classes, as we had only one session in amongst the eight ports. A lot of very happy parchment crafters left the ship with their goodies made on board!

July 2008

Did a demonstration for Janet and her 40 ladies from Stoke on Trent at the weekend at Centagraph, in Harrogate. The ladies were very keen on whitework, gridwork, pencil work and any work basically! I also showed them peel-offs and stencils on parchment, which make a change for a quicker card than tracing and colouring etc. Most of them have stencils and had never thought of using them on parchment, so another thing learnt! We had a great day and they enjoyed seeing my samples. There will no doubt be another one next year!

June 2008 

Our first port of call was Bergen which is a super colourful bustling city on the southern end of Norway, and we had a look round the local market near the harbour. I just had to buy a Norwegian “Heidi” hat with plaits! I didn’t mind looking stupid, and I actually lost count of the people on the ship who admired it in the coming days when it was freezing cold and my head and ears were warm as toast! The next day we were in Skjolden, which was at the end of a fjord, and the water was like a mirror. This was only a small village but very beautiful and picturesque. The ship was docked in the fjord at anchor, so we were ferried from the ship to the shore in our little tender boats.

Then we had a day at sea across to the Lofoten Islands, just off the coast of Norway about half way up the country. Another choppy day and yet another class! Oh, joy! Thankfully, another 40 people turned up for the class, which pleased my boss on the ship, the Cruise Director! On this second session, they did a gift voucher envelope. The classes are only 1½ hours, so all the projects have to be quick & easy!

The next day, we were in the islands, at Leknes (pronounced “Leck-Ness”); we were told to go and find the Leckness monster, which we did - a huge Costa ship out in the bay with about 2,000 people on board also being ferried onto the small island! We were able to dock in the harbour, so could just walk off the ship, which was great. We actually found a little beach two minutes from the ship and sat there in the sunshine! On leaving Leknes that evening, we went into a small fjord, called the Trollfjord (obviously where the trolls live!) and the ship turned through 180 degrees at the end of the fjord - and then came out again - absolutely amazing!! The next port of call the following day was across to Tromso back on the mainland. There is a huge, modern church up on the hill, the Arctic Church - which gave fantastic views of Tromso - needless to say, I took loads of photos!

Then up to the northern tip of Norway, the North Cape - Honningsvag - just 1300 miles from the North Pole. It was actually only 5 degrees there, so my hat came in jolly useful! Paddy and I had booked onto a trip around the island which has the North Cape plateau on it, and we were at one point above the snow, there was loads of it - in June too! Saw lots of wild reindeer on the sides of the roads on rough pasture, several little ones too. These are owned and looked after by the Sami people, the Lapps. We visited two small fishing villages which were very quaint. After leaving at 6pm, we sailed around the huge North Cape plateau and saw how wild and misty it looked - quite ethereal really, knowing it is the last stop before Spitzbergen and the polar ice-cap.

Next day at sea again, and we managed a bookmark - which went down very well again - cruising between fjords and the sea was as calm as could be. It is really beautiful scenery; mountains, water, islands, snow and greenery, plus little hamlets along the water’s edge, with a different vista every few minutes. The last three ports of call on consecutive days, were in and out of the fjords; Trondheim, Olden and finally Stavanger. Trondheim was another bustling city where ventured into, seeing an old royal palace built of wood right on the main street; Olden was a small village in a quiet fjord not far from a huge glacier, where we did a trip to a local farm for some local produce tasting; and finally Stavanger, where we docked right on the harbour side in the centre of the city. Sadly, the last two days it rained rather heavily, but we still managed to have a walk off the ship into the ports. Up until then we had had quite good weather, sometimes cold, but sunny almost everywhere. The last sea day for our last class was on the way back across the North Sea - gale force 6 again, until we got half way and then it was calm all the way to Dover thankfully! I also did a quick demonstration on the last day of using stencils and peel-offs on parchment. This gave the students a few variations to use on parchment after only 4 basic lessons when they got home to try out their starter kits which I sold off on the ship after the last class! Good luck everyone!

Anyway, after eating so many meals in one day - time to get on the scales - no, I daren’t! Breakfast, as much as you like; morning coffee and biscuits at 11am; as much buffet lunch at lunchtime (usually 3-4 courses), beautiful afternoon tea and numerous cakes at 4pm, then the evening meal from 6-30pm with up to five courses. Then, not to forget this - midnight snacks from 11pm to 12 midnight, including usually fish and chips, other hot dishes, fruit, cakes, you name it, its there! Two nights on the cruise were designated for an Asian buffet, full five courses of authentic food from Asia; an Indian buffet evening just the same, and this cruise we also had a full Gourmet evening, with really different dishes. One day there was an authentic Norwegian buffet lunch too. The penultimate night of the cruise is Gala night, with plates and plates of beautiful food specially prepared for us to eat at 11-30pm in the main restaurant; you go in first to photograph it all and then - sit down and eat! Needless to say, we didn’t - eat I mean. We did photograph it all though - a real sight to see!

Quite sad on the last class to say goodbye to all the lovely people we met in the classes - they were great fun and really enjoyed their first taste of parchment craft!
Next cruise - September to the Mediterranean. Need to lose a stone before then……watch this space!

I have just come back from my 7th jaunt to Southern Ireland, where I teach two weeks of courses, annually, to ladies who want a few days away as a short break!! Short break - my foot! We never stopped!

The college is east of Drogheda, north of Dublin, and the ladies come from all over Ireland from Monday evening to Friday morning. The first night is just a welcome really, but the ladies get to work tracing a few patterns ready for the first full day, and then we hit the sack! The next day, the beginners make two or three A6 cards and an envelope - one of my designs, for giving a cash/cheque/voucher for a special occasion. By the end of that day, they are usually begging for more! The last two weeks we ended up going back into the classroom for another quick hour in the evening! (This is after a three-course lunch and a two-course high tea as well - we usually can’t move after lunch!)

The second day is usually spent doing a few more adventurous A5 cards, learning a few more techniques and again we popped back into class in the evening to learn a few tips for using stencils and peel-offs on parchment, which is great fun! The time goes so fast though, especially when you are enjoying yourself!

The last day I usually do a bit of whitework, gridwork or pencil work. Simpler things for the beginners obviously and more advanced work for the ladies who have been before. I took loads of equipment with me for sale, so the ladies have chance to buy without the postage which is great. There is a distinct lack of good craft shops with parchment supplies in Ireland - so I am told, so I’m handy once a year at least!

The first week, we had the usual crowd of ladies from Rush Ladies Parchment group, on the east coast between Dublin and Drogheda, along with two ladies from Longford and one from Sligo. The Rush Ladies have been to me for four years now, and have become firm friends, so were all doing intermediate and advanced gridwork and whitework having done parchment craft for several years. The other three ladies have also been before, so it was super to see them again. One last minute enrolment on the first week, was after I did a one-day course at Portmarnock on the weekend before getting to the college. This one lady was so hooked on parchment after one day, she rang to see if she could get in on the first week at the college, which she did!

The second week, I only knew two ladies who had been to me before, so there was another 11 ladies that I didn’t know, including a group from Monaghan, a group from Kilkenny, a couple from Cork plus a couple of beginners. It only took an hour to get to know them and the class soon gelled! On the second week, I did lots of whitework and gridwork and in general lots of demonstrations of gridwork, pencil work and again using peel-offs and stencils on parchment. We had a ball!

The long weekend in between the two weeks at the college, our two friends from home flew out to join us and we set off for five days down to County Kerry, staying at Killarney to do the ring of Kerry - what a cloudy day that was, ending up raining all the afternoon, but we saw some wonderful sights in this spectacular area. Will definitely do it again! Paddy drove about 700 miles over the five days to enable us to see a bit more of the beautiful country that is Southern Ireland.

Needless to say - next year’s courses are booked already - with possible extra courses in Kilkenny and Monaghan - so watch this space! Must win the lottery and find a suitable property in Ireland - I wish! Mind you, we have been offered free bed and breakfast in three places now, so that’s a start for a month’s break over there (Please Paddy!!??).

Looking forward to our first cruise this year in June - we are going to the Norwegian Fjords - watch this space for further news! So far we have done 5 cruises, two to the Baltic and Lapland, one to Canaries and Madeira, One to Iceland and one to the Eastern Mediterranean, with two booked for this year.
Our second one in September is to the Western Mediterranean with Italy. Teaching on the cruise ships enables me to teach the basics about parchment craft to people from all over the world, so that can only help to promote the craft worldwide, which is good news for us all!