Guest Blogger - Mary Anne Richardson

I honestly can't remember when or how I met today's guest blogger.  I feel like I've know her all my life!  She was so very kind to me when I had my breakdown.  She sent me so much love & encouragement and so much comfort.  I've admired her work for quite some time now.   She has much to share in today's post so I will stop rambling here.  Please welcome my dear friend and today's Guest Blogger, Mary Anne Richardson of Magpie's Mumblings blog.

Pam has asked me to tell you a little about how I made my own walnut ink and to show you a little of the work I do. Thank you for having me Pam!


Walnut ink is really simple to make. All you need is to fend off squirrels while you collect about 20 black walnuts! It doesn’t matter if they are damaged in their fall from the tree, because they will look a whole lot worse when you’re finished with them! I put mine into a plastic bag and then used a hammer to crack them a bit. Place the walnuts (including the shells) in either an old slow cooker or a large pot that you don’t plan to use for food later on. I don’t know if black walnuts are toxic, but it’s better to be safe. Cover the walnuts with water and simmer for approximately eight hours (keep an eye on it to be sure the liquid doesn’t evaporate too much). The walnuts will turn black and your liquid will become a rich dark brown. I strained the liquid off, saved it, and the next day I added fresh water and re-cooked the same walnuts (only because I was curious to see what would happen – you don’t have to repeat the process if you’re happy with the amount you made the first time). I then re-heated the liquid and poured it into hot canning jars. I made sure the lids were hot in order to have a good seal on my jars. I’m not sure that all the care with the sealing of the jars was necessary but I wanted to be sure my ink didn’t have a chance to spoil. Now I will use it to either dye fabric or paper. I ended up with five jars of walnut ink with very little effort. It’s perhaps not quite as saturated with colour as the walnut ink you can buy commercially, but certainly the price is right!!

Now I will tell you a little bit about me and my creative life. I really don’t know when I haven’t been doing something creative, but my earliest memory of my first project was years ago when the huge granny square afghans were ‘in’. My aunt made several and showed me how to start off. The pattern was simple – one gigantic granny square which you went round and round until you were heartily sick of the process! I hated that afghan, however I did love crocheting and still do.


From there I progressed into macramé and, I think, horrified every person on my gift list that Christmas by giving them horrible jute plant hangers – complete with ceramic pots (another phase I went through). Looking back I realize just how horrible they were! A few people were brave enough to hang them up but most of them I never saw again. Needless to say, macramé was not my forte.


Over the years I think I probably have tried pretty much every craft going – leatherwork, tatting, knitting, beadwork – you name it, I’ve tried it. I decided a number of years ago that knitting would be my ‘thing’ and, being a generous soul, I undertook to knit a pair of socks for my husband. The nice lady at the yarn shop assured me that the pattern was quite easy and if I started them right then (it was October) I would definitely have them done for Christmas. Well, I knitted. And I knitted. And I knitted some more. I knitted on those socks every spare second I had for weeks. Christmas came and I presented my husband with ONE complete sock and the ball of wool for the second one. After Christmas, I knitted and (well, you get the picture). There endeth my knitting career – or so I thought. Fast forward twenty years, and guess what I like doing now? I’m not good at it, but I do enjoy it. My best effort so far has been to make at least a dozen pairs of felted slippers. As for socks? Nope – not going there!!


I was bitten by the crazy quilting ‘bug’ in the early 90’s and it is now my first love. It combines so many techniques, all wrapped up in one beautiful package. I stumbled across a book by Judith Baker Montano and my obsession began. I rapidly discovered the cheapest place to get fabrics for use in crazy quilts was the thrift store. At that time I could pick up beautiful silk blouses for about two dollars which was w-a-y cheaper than buying yardage. Vests, skirts, blouses – all became fodder for my projects. Then came trading bits of fabrics with people I met online to expand my collection.


My next discovery was that there were a whole lot of people out there who were anxious to trade their work with me – either an entire block or in the form of a round robin. What a learning experience that was – I rapidly found that in crazy quilting ANYTHING that can be sewn down is fodder for use (broken jewellery, bead necklaces, brooches, buttons, coins – the possibilities are endless). It’s possible to glue things onto a piece too, but I don’t generally do that mainly because I don’t trust glue to hold over the years.

Art Dolls are another love and last year I took part in an exciting project – the Art Doll Coolaberation 2009. It worked in a similar way to a round robin with each participant creating a basic doll body and the rest of the artists adding to it and also telling a story about the doll along the way. It was great fun and a total learning curve. Being able to see how others work and what they create is so exciting! We had so much fun that we have begun another project this year. Can’t wait!


Here’s a photo of Shudayra, the doll that came home to me from the ’09 Coolaberation...

More of the dolls I’ve made...

My other passion is to make things using recycled denim jeans – mostly bags and jackets. I took a class several years ago about how to make the basic jacket and then I’ve gone on and added my own twist. They are in the crazy quilting style with lots of button clusters, recycled pockets, and labels for decoration. I’ve made over thirty jackets so I guess they must be well-liked!

A couple of years ago I joined in the colour challenge with SharonB and made a block each month using the colours Sharon suggested. Many of them turned out to be so different from the colour combinations I would normally have used, which was good for expanding my confidence. The blocks were eventually turned into three wall hangings and are the ones you see pictured with this article.

Thank you once again to Pam for inviting me to visit with you today. I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing a little bit of my work and would love to have you visit me at my blog (http://magpiesmumblings.blogspot.com). Please say hi when you’re there!

I would like to thank my sweet friend Mary Anne for taking the time to put this post together.  Mary Anne's work is phenomenal and I just knew my blog followers would enjoy her.  Thank you so much Mary Anne!!

I'm going to put my Guest Blogger Feature on hold now until after the holidays.  I know everyone is going to be busy for awhile now.  I'll resume this feature after the New Year.