Another Place - installation by Antony Gormley on Crosby Beach The Liverpool show was great fun and I enjoyed meeting up with those of you who came and said hello! Being in Liverpool was a great opportunity to spend more time at one of my favourite places - Crosby Beach. Wendy Dolan and her husband Rob were at the show as well so we spent a evening on the beach together. It has been wonderful to see Wendy so often this year, we are going to make time to see each other more often rather than just seeing each other a shows. My good friend Brenda Killigrew was also doing the show promoting our courses for Castanea www.castaneacraftcourses.com and she joined us at the beach.   Brenda nearly being blown away (she's only little) - making contact with one of the sculptures amazing jellyfish washed up on the beach When we all arrived on the beach we very soon became aware of hundreds of jellyfish that had been washed up on the beach, I have never seen so many of these creatures...

My wonderful group at Ballarat in 2010 I can now announce my courses in Australia next year. They have been launched in Australia so it is my turn now. You may think it a little odd to be advertising my Australian teaching on my blog but have you ever seen the traffic on my blog via the green Feedjit box on the left hand side of the screen? If you click on the small link at the bottom of the Feedjit box real time view , you will see a lot more information. I find it fascinating. Nearly half my hits come from Australia - So Hello! Australia. Greetings Donnie, Ruth and Dale . . . I will be arriving in Melbourne around the 1st of April having had a week to recover from my busiest show of the year - Fashion, Embroidery and Stitch at the NEC. Fibrearts - Ballarat I am very excited to be teaching for Glenys Mann again for Fibrearts Australia, I had such a fantastic time last year, was so well looked after and met some amazing tutors - two of whom I will be teaching with again next year ...

Well - I was in France for 5 days and put on FIVE POUNDS - so much for me losing weight, I managed to be good for the first 2 days then it all went to pot! I just love the food in France, and of course the wine. That's what did it. We were all having such a good time it would have been very rude of me not to join in . . . I can recommend a chocolate gallette for a slight to medium hangover. Lesley and Sue preferred the ice cream remedy! Sue and John have a beautiful courtyard garden and the fragrance that hits you when you walk in, it is exquisite. There is lavender, honeysuckle and fabulous roses in abundance. You may remember seeing an image of a Buddha head on a telegraph pole in my garden, It was given to me by Sue and John - they also have one (below). When we were sitting out in the evenings we heard cuckoos and a barn owl and loads of crickets, it was bliss. So peaceful  . . . The main idea of the week was for a bit of peace and quiet and to arrange the workshops for n...

  Independent Open House 29   - Pink Birdhouse 29 Southdown Avenue Brighton, BN1 6EH 1273 541589 clarerose.designs@ntlworld.com www.clarerosedesigns.co.uk The house is packed with lovely affordable things.  Clare Rose: Beautiful and sometimes humorous textile and felt pictures  Chrissy Smith: One-off fabric bags made from vintage and recycled materials  Jenny Sutler: Jewellery  Shirley Rose: Plants  Tina Clarke-Sheward: Victorian preserves and magnificent cakes  Colin Rose: Organic honey  Lisa Pilling: Mosaics  Kim Thittichai: Wonderful voluptuous cushions Well the first day was amazingly busy and several large pieces of work were sold as well as many smaller items, what an amazing start. I think people have realised that if they collect someones work they need to arrive early. We opened at 11am and the first rather large sale was at 11.05!!!! Boy were they keen.  The house was open and we were just about ready - Me on ...

It has been SO good to get back to some basic sewing, I hadn't realised just how much I missed it til I started gathering all my fabrics together. I made 3 more cushions yesterday. I love random log cabin, as you can imagine I am not one to measure and be neat unnecessarily so this technique is perfect for me. The blue cushion is a combination of various lurex fabrics and Thai silk. I made these 2 when I got back from 3 Private Views last night. Image transfer onto white linen. The 4 images on the left are from a range of French windows I use for my greetings cards. I hope to take some more when I visit Sue at La Verdrie next week. The image on the right is of ferns deep in the woods. I think I will continue making these image transfer/linen cushions, they will be a good way to promote my photographs. I will be updating my personal website next month and will be selling my cards and bits and bobs from there. I must dash off and steward at the Open House now, its all very ex...

Pink Birdhouse 29 Southdown Avenue Brighton, BN1 6EH      the weekends of ~ 7/8, 14/15, 21/22 28/29 11am - 6pm   The Brighton Open Houses start this week end and I am making some cushions to go into my friends Clare Rose's house. If anyone wants to pop in and say Hello! I will be stewarding tomorrow from 11 - 6, Sunday 15th 11 - 2.30 and the weekend of 28th & 29th 11 - 6. I am no longer opening my own house as I just don't have time to get it all sorted, it is such a mammoth task which is just as well with the website crashing last week. I have been having great fun working with all my scraps and oddments of fabrics making cushions. It is such a treat to give myself time to play with fabrics and see what happens. My floor is a sea of colour, I have been wading through silks, denims and cottons and it has been wonderful. It makes such a change to be working with natural fabrics and my trusty old Bernina 707. I have had particular fun combining ima...

  layers of Tyvek and polyester organza machine stitched together and zapped back to reveal different layers with a heat gun When you teach at Art Van Go there is no shortage of supplies, there is a vast range of paints and dyes and products - everything is on hand. Viv and Kevin and their glamorous assistants are always lurking somewhere nearby if there is anything you have forgotten, and I usually have! The main objective of this workshop was the safe use of heat tools and identifying and using appropriate materials and products. Most the first morning was spent painting up the products, learning how thick to apply the paints. This may sound incredibly basic but it is the most important part of the process. If you paint your products with very thick paint the products won’t react to heat. The paint will create a barrier. It is important to use water based paints as oil based paints and media will give off fumes The only product where it doesn’t really matter how thick the paint...