After the Show -Bridport

Bridport was a very successful exhibition for us and I am so pleased you enjoyed it too Carrie, as you say the town is lovely as well.





Some of the work from the exhibition will be on show a bit closer to home in May, in Wantage Museum, I will let you know more details nearer the date.




I have been a very busy blogger recently. I am working on another large piece at the moment, we also celebrated the Easter break with the grandchildren and I am trying to do a little spring cleaning as well. Must get back to the stitching now.... not much time left before the next deadline..... why do I always leave things to the last minute?

Bridport Arts Centre

We took a trip down to Bridport Arts Centre yesterday. A long car journey from here, as we were beset by roadworks, tractors and "Sunday drivers". The roads are not conducive to overtaking, so patience was a virtue. The reason for the journey was to go and see the Exhibition - poster here. If you want to see it .... be quick you only have tomorrow and then it comes down.


I fell in love with Bridport, its a lovely town. The Arts Centre, gallery upstairs is a lovely space too. I would imagine it was a school room at some stage. The comments book was full of wonderful comments too.

The photo is a view of part of the room, probably about a quarter, it is a large space.

Well, had better get back to the embellisher whilst Mr Siamese finishes his morning nap! Another deadline is looming!

Love is...............

My embellisher machine.

Thank You Gift

These were a gift from my daughter, aren't they lovely?. The other bunch of spring flowers she gave me, are on my photo blog here

Great time and exhibition

I had a great time at the NEC (Sewing for Pleasure show) yesterday. Sorry for the delay in telling you about it, but family crisis delayed me again.
The journey to and from the NEC was terrible, so much traffic and so took us twice as long as usual. Herr Schnauzer was crossed legged by time we got home!! He is always so good though. We arrived a little late to the NEC for my stewarding stint, and a lovely surprise was waiting for me..... Sue --see her blog and purchases--- here it was lovely to meet a fellow blogger, thanks for coming along to say hello. Thanks for getting me some wonderful buttons Sue. Think between us we have enough to start a shirt factory!!



As you can see the bag went on its promised outing! I was very pleased with it, and it was admired by many people.

The highlights of the show, for me, were the Journal Quilts of Contemporary Group( Quilters Guild), the Tudor clothing ( wow) and the Indian beading. I also had a really good look around the Treasures of Textiles of the WI. It was a huge exhibition and so varied. I really enjoyed looking at the work. I also met up with Gill another fellow blogger and Internet chum. She was wearing the most gorgeous embroidered jacket.
We took a photo, but it is on Gill's camera not mine. She is staying at Birmingham until the end of the show..... so it may be a little while until you can see her wonderful jacket.



I was stewarding at the Journal quilts 2007 stand and met a lot of interesting ladies, it is one of the pleasures of stewarding. Here are 5 of my journal quilts.


This challenge, 2007, started as an idea for creating an A4 mini quilt. The format would allow us to experiment with different ideas and techniques. It was great fun. As we finished the challenge at the end of the year, we learned that we received support for exhibiting the JQ's at different show venues around the UK. This venue is the first, and only a selection were on show.... all of them will be on show at Sandown in June. I will let you know nearer the time, if you want to have a look.

I was really restrained in my purchases, if you want to have a look, there is a photo on my 365 photo blog here aren't those fabrics delicious?

GWE Meeting yesterday

Had a wonderful Great Western Embroiderers meeting, we looked at ways of manipulating fabric... such fun. Our session leader was poorly ( hope you are feeling better Sue) and so at the 11th hour I had to step in and lead. I have to publically say a big thank you to Angela for her support in bringing some wonderful books and magazines which give us added inspiration, and the members of the committee who all chipped in as well. We are very lucky in that we also have some very skilled and enthusiastic members, who were happy to share their knowledge with us. Great meeting.

Getting ready for the NEC show in Birmingham tomorrow. I have the bag ready ( the one form yesterdays post), must not forget to take the camera, as I suddenly realised I did not take a photo of my Journal Quilts that are being shown there tomorrow......stand ZK18... ... Hope the lighting is OK so I can get a good photo. Exciting isn't it?

A bag lady

I am starting to feel like a bag lady. Have made another today, bag that is. This is the March bag for the BQL group. I really like this one. I made the handles longer, so I can carry it on my shoulder. The idea is that the fabric stash gets used up....however, as I am not a P & Q er...I do not have a stash of pretty fabrics that I would wear. My fabrics are used in a very different way.

I have therefore had to look at fabrics in shops and had to buy some FQ's. (I am even getting into the language now. Impressed?? In January I did not even know what an FQ was!)

There is so much measuring for P & Q.. and I am a girl that does not do numbers. So a steep learning curve for me.



However here is my offering for March.. made today... nice roomy bag. I am going to take it with me to the NEC on Thursday. Well I have to put my sanwiches somewhere. ( A bag lady what lunches... there's a novel idea)

If you are at NEC Birmingham on Thursday, come and say hello... I will be on the CQBG stand (ZK18) from 12 noon to 2pm. You will know who I am ... I have the bag!

Have a look at the show here: seems to be a lot going on.

March TIF- Start with Printing

It has been a week of getting work to Exhibitions and into the post for exhibitions for me. What a mess the workroom was in by time I had finished. A quick tidy up was very necessary.

However no time to sit back.... there are more exhibitions this year, so had to crack on with the next set of design ideas.

Decided to start working with the March TIF challenge and the concept "pay attention to the tiny details" that really got me going. Am going to combine what I do for the TIF challenge with my exhibiton work. Everyone says women are good at multi-tasking! Think I will give it a go.

I started this time with doing something I really enjoy. Printing. First task was to make some printing blocks. Made these out of pelmet vilene or pressprint and then glued them onto MDF block. I decided to use a restricted pallette of colours, Primary red and blue, as well as gold and copper. I took my source from my sketches at the Steam Museum.

(click to enlarge photo)

So here is stage one, next to decide what sort of stitchery I want to do. The exhibtion for the Museum is this September, but I also have another deadline for the middle of May looming for a different exhibtion. I have an idea that I may be able to use for both exhibitions. That would be good.

I'll let you know how I get on. Back to work.

TIF February Challenge- last posting.

So I did not quite make the end of February for posting.... but I am only 2 days late.

The colours and the subject matter of the February TIF challenge... had both fired my imagination and enthusiasm.

So I made a start with the images and played with a wide variety of media, such as tissue paper, wax resist, wrapped wire and of course some fabrics and threads. See my inspiration post here

Isn't February a short month?

By time I had gathered my sketches and samples together.. it was the end of the month. My main focus was the mosaics and the hypercausts, somehow they started to merge together. So I have taken photos of all my sketches, 3D maquettes, and samples... and created a photo Collage. I suggest you enlarge the photo by clicking on it , if you would like to see more of the details.

This has become a very personal piece of research and I think there is a lot more mileage in the research before I each a final conclusion. I have realy enjoyed this...... thank you Sharon.