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.