As I needed to drive up to Mostyn in North Wales for Sunday morning I thought I would take it slowly and visit a garden and a friend and colleague on the way up - North Wales is a long way from Brighton!!! I decided to try to find Bryan's Ground after I saw the images on Angie Hughes' blog recently. I wasn't disappointed. Bryan's Ground is the most beautiful and quirky garden I have visited. Absolutely STUNNING!!!!! www.bryansground.co.uk Bryan’s Ground , Stapleton, near Presteigne, Herefordshire LD8 2LP - if you want visit you need to hurry, the garden has very limited opening times and it closes for the year on the 18th July.  It is a very intimate garden, beautifully laid out and everything exquisitely placed. It just falls short of being manicured which makes it even more gorgeous. Everywhere you turn there is a surprise and a lovely vista. There are formal areas and crazy areas, this place has to be seen to be believed. the planting is stunning a surpr...

Well I am home now and exhausted but boy was it worth it. What an amazing show - Fashion, Embroidery and Stitch was even bigger and better than last year with some beautiful exhibitions, great textiles artists and tutors and some amazing work by college students . This will be a 2 part blog. I will cover the college work and fashion show tomorrow - this post is about friends . . .There will be plenty of other blogs giving you a detailed description of the show. Wendy Dolan Wendy's current work involves working with old maps, beautiful, subtle and simple stunning.  Wendy has 2 pieces of her work in my next book.   Wendy Dolan had stand a the show and when she wasn't teaching a workshop in the Bernina Workshop she could be seen working hard on her stand demonstrating her 'architecture' and 'landscape' packs. It is great to be seeing more of Wendy, we were at the Glasgow show together and will be at the Liverpool show in May. I can't wait to show her and he...

Well it's nearly here, the biggest show of the year for me - Fashion, Embroidery & Stitch/Sewing for Pleasure/Hobbycrafts. 3 shows in 1 - you will need 2 days to get around it! I will be part of Fashion, Embroidery & Stitch along with many fantastic textiles artists and tutors and some superb exhibitions. The fashion shows will be even more exciting this year with some stunning work from students across the country - you won't believe your eyes! I will be on stand L18 opposite FibreFusion and hope to be on my stand for most of the day demonstrating and showing you how to heat and colour metal with a heat gun and layer it up with Vilene Spunbond. I am also organising the Vilene Workshop on stand Y02. I am very pleased to have some of the top textile tutors offering free short workshops everyday of the show.   my new heat gun is powerful enough to colour metal- FANTASTIC!    I will have plenty of the 7 colour packs of Vilene Spunbond CS500  last year I r...