Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas

and

a

Happy New Year

2010

Exhibition at Frameworks

Would be lovely to see you there.

2 days left for Chequer Mead exhibition

You have 2 days to get along to this exhibition before it closes. The last day is Wednesday Dec 2nd.click here to find out more .

These are some of my leaves from the Urchfont Art in the Garden, I really think this is a lovely setting for them.

This is part of my Roman series. All made with hand dyed fabrics, and manipulated to create this design. A good view of this work hanging in the gallery on the wall ( 1st photo) , its a wonderful space to exhibit.

Artists Studios - Compton Verney

Can you believe it? After a night of gale force winds and torrential rain, this morning the weather could not have been better for the trip to Compton Verney in the Cotswolds.

What a delight. Arrived at about 10.30am and as you can see the weather was perfect. Met Gill in the CarPark, and we wandered to the house together, as it does not open until 11.00am.

In the disabled parking area by the house we found Dorothy had arrived and it was not long before the doors opened and I think we were first into the cafe for refreshments. the cakes were wonderful.
It was not long before Sue joined us, and so the four dodgers were assembled.

We had decided to visit Compton Verney to see the latest exhibition on Artists Studios click here. We were enthralled by all we saw, and much chatter evolved in response to the exhibits. We had managed to get about half way around the exhibition, and with rumbling stomachs, went in search of lunch in the Cafe. We then resumed our tour, suitably refreshed......... wonderful .. great exhibition, fantastic company and good refreshments too.

In our final part of the tour, we were certainly very impressed by the use of day-glo paints by Sigrid Holmwood.

The exhibition is running until 13th December.... if you can get along there, then do go and see. Compton Verney is just off the old Roman Road called the Fosse Way in the district of Stratford on Avon.

Chequermead 20th November to 2nd December

This is our next exhibition and I have been working frantically for it.

National Needlework Centre

This is the Country wife mural, created for the Festival of Britain 1951 by Constance Howard. Until recently it was housed at Denman College ( the home of the WI), and that is where I was most fortunate to see it.
It has now been given to the National Needlework Archive to be cleaned and conserved. It is a massive mural 4.5 metre by 5 metres.
I went along the the NNA this afternoon to the open day at their new premises in Newbury. They need a lot of volunteers to help them move into the new premises.... so if you live nearby and have some time to spare.... have a look at the website here.. and offer to help..... it is a bit far for me..... but I would like to help. They are planning lots of exciting activities in the new year to, as well as having an on-site cafe.

Barnstable exhibition 12th September to 7th November 2009 and Cirencester

You just have time to catch this exhibition before it closes in 2 days time at Barnstable Musuem

Another exhbition closing on the 7th November is in Cirencester.. go along and have a look if you are in the area, some wonderful thought inspiring work by Laurie Plant... on at the Corinium Museum in Cirencester and entry is now free to the exhibiton area in the musuem... have a look here. Well worth the effort. I met Laurie when I visited the exhibition we had a long interesting chat, a wonderful and enthusiastic artist.

Chilling out

The rain is pelting down today, really dreary.

So no point in doing much, so may as well chill out............

and peruse the wonders of the universe

Autumnal EG meet in the Kennet Vally

(click on the photo for the full effect)

Promised Yvonne I would post this photo.. she caught me taking it in the car park today, before the meeting of the Marlborough Branch of the EG.
Saw some wonderful beaded work and carefully constructed fairies in the talk that Heather gave us,
If you would like to see some of her work.. have a look here under the menu "Garden" . You may also see her at the Harrowgate Knitting and Stitiching show, at the Beadworkers guild stall




Here is one of the other photos I took today, and had a play with it in Paint Shop Pro... also put it through displacement maps... great fun... gives a taste of Halloween!

Autumn in Avebury

Such an inspiring location and it was certainly beautiful and tranquil in the Autumn sunshine. Visited Avebury in the company of a friend and ex colleague, who could not resist buying some divining rods at the local shop. They worked for her too!

After a wander around the site, we had a cup of tea and some chocolate cake at the barn cafe, and very welcome it was too.
( click on photos to enlarge)

Exhibition has closed

Losing the Thread exhibition at Radley College has now closed. It is a lovely location and gallery and when stewarding we were very well looked after too by the staff.

The exhibition is moving to Chequer mead next, ( 20th November to 2nd December 2009) so if you live in the vicinity of West Sussex, you may like to go and visit. They have a lovely cafe there too. Have a look here

I am also working on some more artwork to display at Chequermead, so if you saw the work at Radley, there will be something different for you to see at CM and I suspect others in the group have also some new artwork to show.

To everyone who visited and wrote wonderful comments in our "book" thank you, it was lovely to see and meet so many fellow stitchers and art enthusiasts.

Regional AGM

It was lovely to meet up with many friends and acquaintances and to undertake some more retail therapy. We were entertained in the afternoon by a lovely talk by Annette Ems.

I even won a raffle prize, most unusual.

Great day out and also caught up with all the latest Embroiderers Guild business.

Stewarding and talk at Radley College

Today was my day to steward the exhibition and to give my talk to the boys ... they were so lovely, about 30 of them..

Whilst I was talking, I asked them to do some stitching for me..... very simple running stitch inot a piece of silk fabric.

They did some wonderful stitching. I shall be dye painting the fabric and then hanging it next to mine in the gallery when I steward again next Thursday. I have invited the boys to come and see their pieces and talk to me again.
I also took my sketchbooks with me, as well as some of my resolved work... I told them to touch the textiles and look properly, and ask questions. Normally in a gallery setting there are lots of notices that say..." Do not touch" - naturally one of the first things I always want to do with textiles is touch! The boys were very polite, and did touch the work , but with respect and I was told none of them had ever done any stitching before.

They could only see photos of my "faces" work like the one above, as this series of work is all at Barnstable museum at the moment. I did invite theboys to look at the many sketchbooks that I have and ask questions about my way of working.
Good fun.
As a thank you they gave me a sea white sketchbook... the one which concertinas out, with the double paper like pockets, and bound in a casing.... I was very chuffed, and they treated me to a lovely lunch as well.
I am such a lucky girl.

Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace

Well suspect you can guess from the photo where this is! Left home at 8am in the morning to catch the coach, and arrived at the K & S 4 hours later, we had to drop some folks off at Heston on the way, hence the delay

I really was not sure about travelling as the day before I had had the yearly flu jab and afterwards and for the rest of the day had 4 of the grandchildren to entertain and feed. So went hoping I would be OK for a day at Ally Pally.

Click on this photo to enlarge it, it is all made with knitted fabric... quite incredible and greeted you as you went into the Foyer.

The Embroiderers Guild exhibition was also in the Foyer, called Art of the Stitch. I was so pleased to see it as I had been unable to get to any of the travelling venues. Coats PLC have done a wonderful job of promoting this bi-annual exhibition, and I received a yellow cotton bag as a freebie as well. No photographs were allowed... sorry!

I had decided to look at all the exhibitions first this year and so pleased I did... saw plenty to inspire me, I loved Susan Jarmains floaty hangings, which no photos can do justice to. I also enjoyed and admired Kerry Mosleys portraits. She knits a loose wire fabric and then machine embroiderers the portraits freely into the " fabric" wonderful. In quite another way I enjoyed Dionne Swifts exhibition, she uses fabric and thread in a very sculptural way, which I found fascinating. All of these exhibitions would not allow photography. so I have linked them to the websites.

I also called in at the CTDG stand, as a founder member of the group, it is wonderful to think how well it is doing. Had to say hello to Dale, but she was too busy to stop for a photo opportunity, Dale had also bought a small exhibition of work with her of " Connections" which she has been showing around the show in Australia. I also visited my mates Maggie and Clive and bought Jae Maries latest book. At Jan Beaney and Jean Littlejohns stand I also bought their latest 2 booklets.

At this point I was ready for lunch! After lunch I had a few unwell moments and had to sit down for quite a while, and drank a lot of water, which I had bought with me as a precaution. When I went to continue I had another funny spell, and the ladies on the Ario stand were very kind and looked after me. So I had a dose of fresh air and a cup of tea.... and that revived me. I had a look at the " shopping " stands and as usual a lovely chat with Julie on the Bernina stand. Before I knew it .. it was 5pm and time to leave...

The view across London was fantastic, this photo is worth clicking on to enlarge.... it was so clear. The journey home took a long time, the Motorway was jammed, so we had to travel home along the A and B roads.... so I arrived home at 9pm... a long day.. but well worth it.

Radley College Hanging Day

Busy time today with the hanging of the work at Radley College. It was very difficult to photograph, it looks much better than my photo. Have a look at some of the work here

Marlborough Branch of the Embroiderers Guild

Today was the AGM, which can be a dreary event.. but not today, Ros Liddington of Wilton House gave us a talk called “Aspects of Costume".... and I cannot remember the last time I laughed so much..

Ros is a very entertaining speaker, and nobody minded that she over ran her talk, we enjoyed it so much. Do attend one of her talks if you can.... In the photo, Ros is on the left, dressing one of our members with the contents of her suitcase..... wonderful.

Radley College Exhibition 10th to 22nd October 2009

Click on image to enlarge. The Private view is Friday 9th October from 6 to 8 pm ..... would be lovely to see you there.

Urchfont weekend

Had a lovely stitchy weekend at Urchfont, and actually managed to get a lot of work completed in preparation for the forthcoming exhibition at Radley College. Will post details shortly.

Salisbury Talk

Met some really wonderful members of the evening group of the Salisbury branch of the Embroiderers Guild. They had invited me to give them my talk on "Stitch and Distort".

Barnstable exhibition 12th September to 7th November 2009

I am a member of the Urchfont Embroiderers and we have an exhibition at the Barnstable Museum at the moment. Many of my " Faces " series are being shown. Click here for details of the Musuem at Barnstable.

Banbury

Strange emotions today, very sad attendance at Auntie's funeral and pleasure to see members of the family.

Swindon Open Studios

Click on the banner to take you to the website and you will find the map and featured artists there

Had an interesting afternoon in Town today, which is quite an unusual event these days.... but if you are around I think you might like to go and visit the Open studios. They were taking photos for the blog as I was going around yesterday. have a look here . The event finishes tomorrow as sadly it only runs for the weekend.

Working

My "faces" work has been delivered to Barnstable Museum for the Exhibition, which is running until November 7th 2009. So if you happen to be passing do go in and have a look. Let me know what you think too please. The art has been created over a period of time, as it seems that however hard I might try to change the focus away from faces.... they keep coming back. I have sold many of these in the past.... but thesein the exhibition are the latest pieces.

I am now in the process of working towards the next exhibition starting in October, which is at Radley College Abingdon. The work is well under way as you can see, but I really do not need all the help being offered by Mr Siamese - who does like to sit on the work whilst I am trying to stitch. Wish me luck!

Art in The Garden at Urchfont.

Starts on the 5th September 2009, have also found this blog ( click on highlight)showing some alternative art taking place at Urchfont..... if you manage to go , see if you can spot these. They are good fun.

Day Trip to Bath

Took the Grandchildren to Bath for the day. Nothing particularly special about that, other than we travelled by train. Such excitement, they had never been on a train before, so a very special experience for them.

After arriving at Bath station we walked to the River Avon and made our way to Poulteney Bridge and Weir. The children were very impressed by the canal boats and really wanted to go and look inside, and were amazed that people lived on them.

We then walked to Henrietta Street Park.... really wonderful and quite peaceful. We had an early picnic lunch there. Unfortunately the garden for the blind was temporarily closed as the gardeners were working in there. I had wanted the children to immerse their noses in the flower smells.

So we walked back to Pulteney Bridge, and they dragged me past the Victoria Art Gallery, with "not today Nanny"! Then Sauntered to the Cathedral to see the entertainments. I say sauntered as when a 2 year old insists on walking , the pace is quite slow.

By time we got to the Cathedral, it was afternoon nap time, so the pushchair and comforter were suddenly required.

We were not disappointed with the entertainment at the Cathedral, a unicycle rider with flaming torches and some wonderful buskers. The stars of the show for us were though were these 2, however. They fascinated the 5 year old and terrified the 10 year old. How strange.

We did look to see how much it would cost to go in the Roman Baths Museum, decided it was too expensive for all of us

So walked on through the centre of Bath towards Victoria Park, and on to the playground... and of course ice cream. The children had a wonderful time, whilst we were able to sit in the shade of the trees.Then a slow walk - 2 year old pace- back along the river bank, back to Green Park, wonderful swings there which were all well and truly tested. There is also a fatastic cafe at the old Green Park station with the best danish and doughnuts we have tasted in a long time.

So suitably re-fuelled, we wander back to the station, watched a few trains come into the station before finally our train came in, and 3 tired and happy children climbed on board. Great day out, no shopping, but Bath certainly has a lot to offer children.

Ruskin Mill, Summer Exhibition

Went along to Ruskin Mill to see the end of Term exhibition, which unfortunately they had taken down the day before, even though it was advertised as being open until September 1st. So was rather disappointed, until we hit the coffee shop and they make the most wonderful Victoria Sandwich with real cream. Instant forgiveness.

Then had a stroll through the site, and was so impressed, it was wonderful. This amazing carved garden bench.

Click on the photo to enlarge and have a look at the ceramic tiles.

The space was tranquil and offered visitors the opportunity for meditative thinking. They had a wonderful kitten roaming the site, who was friendly and playful. We also spoke to a couple of young residents. So inspiring and enthusiastic.

As I had never been to this area before, went into Nailsworth to have a look around and found a fantastic textile shop called [Olivia Dell] - [World Textiles] [ Folk Art] An Aladdin's cave of eye candy. Quite amazing.

Festival of Quilts 2009

Had a great time at the FOQ this year, lots of people to chat too as well and I cannot believe I hardly took any photos. However the Twisted Thread website has plenty. Click here, it worth while looking at their facebook page as well. Lots going on there.

I have 2 favourites of the show and , one was

Chunghie Lee: Pojagi & Beyond - My Cup Overflows

and the other was

Yoshiko Jinzenji: Quilt Creation

My mate Liz was also exhibiting and she has worked so hard to complete all the work for this exhibition. Well done Liz.

My purchases were more refined than most years, yes I bought some more Lutrador from my mate Marion at Artmixer, good to see you again, and I might well take you up on the offer of playing in your shed!

I also perused around the Aurifil stand as I really like the cotton threads, they are matt and stitch well. So I purchased some. I have yet to find a UK stockist. If you know one ... please let me know.

I also had a good look at the new Bernina 830...... yes I had a look.. but no more than that. Did not dare start to play with it. Just know what I am like! The all singing all dancing version cost the same as a small car! Car's are so overpriced don't you think?

Also treated myself to Sandra Meech's new book, and I am really enjoying reading it.

Blog Candy give away

The Stamp Man is doing a give away on the blog, some great stuff.. worth having a look at.

Trip to National Gallery and Tate Britain

This was a day for art appreciation and to feed the inspiration.

Always an exciting moment on the coach, when you know you are getting close to the National Gallery. The Exhibition was Carot to Manet, not an exhibition I would have particularly have chosen to see... but............. I found it really wonderful. Have a look here. Worth seeing, but be quick it finishes soon.

Of course we also had to see what was going on with the 4th Plinth in Trafalgar Square.

Next Stop Tate Britain. Such an inspirational Gallery, lots of Turners (click here) on exhibition and I just love the Colour and line exhibition, which I first saw last year and had to come and have a another look this year. Blow's me away every time. Another painting which really caught my imagination was Sandra Blow - Space and Matter 1959. I could have spent all day staring at it. It totally engulfed me. Loved a lot of the work in this room.

Time seemed to fly and I need to get some air and a quick view of the Thames before the coach came to take us home.

Great view of Channel 4's umbrella sculpture.