The Divine Ruth Issett and the very wonderful Susan Chapman larking about on the Art Van Go stand. Ruth was demonstrating on the Art Van Go stand on Saturday and Susan's stand was opposite.  The lovely Mr Mead from Art Van Go  www.artvango.co.uk - we all ate so much ice cream during the show - it was clotted cream ice cream with real fruit and candy floss . . and honeycomb . . and raspberry pavlova . . . . and chocolate . . . and lemon crunch . . .  and toffee fudge and so many more. Over the four days we did our best to get through the flavours by having two scoop cones. The vote down our end of the show was that the lemon crunch and honeycomb were the best. I will be teaching a 3 day workshop - The Journey, inspiration for art and design May 24th - 26th and another 3 day workshop  - A new starting point August 29th - 31st in their lovely studio. I will also be holding a mentoring day on the 1st September for any ex students who wish to spend the day d

Kathleen Laurel Sage's first experiment using a soldering iron with Vilene Spunbond CS500 - she has now developed a very exciting new workshop. This time next week we will be exhausted after the 3rd day of Fashion, Embroidery and Stitch at the NEC. F,E and S as it is known, is one part of a three part show. It is the more creative and mad side of the show with all the college stands, the amazing fashion shows and of course - wonderful textile artists and the best traders. The two other parts of the show are Sewing for Pleasure which includes all the beautiful dressmaking side of textiles and then there is Hobbycrafts - all the traders you could possibly desire to supply your every need. There are free demonstrations and workshops and lectures and some stunning displays. It is going to be an amazing show . To find out more go to - http://www.ichf.co.uk/fashion/ I will be running the free workshops again on the Vilene Workshop stand no Y01. We have an exciting list

A collage of dyed newspaper, painted Bondaweb, transfer foil, net, machine stitch and a fab piece of squashed metal by Carolynn McMillan Christmas is a great time to make and receive cards. I thought I would share two that I received - I just love them. Carlolynn McMillan lives in Canada and we have been emailing for a while trying to sort out which of the Pellon products in Canada and the U.S.A.are similar to the ones I sell. We have swapped parcels of goodies and I think I prefer all the 'pelmet' Vilene interfacings that I sell as they are smooth. The ones that Carolynn sent me are bit rough and pock marked. However I am sure there must be a larger range available so I will investigate. Carolynn also sent me some 'Reemay' which looks very similar to a fine to medium weight Vilene Spunbond. I need a chance to play with it to see if it reacts in the same way. I am waiting to hear back from Carolynn to see what she thinks of all my samples . . . I posted mine a

One of the many great things about doing shows is meeting new people. Chris Gray from Mabon Arts had a stand across the aisle from us at FOQ and her stand was a joy to behold. Beautiful hand dyed silk threads and kits to play with. Chris was fascinated by my painted Bondaweb and asked to have a corner off one of my pre-painted sheets to decorate a sample she was working on. This is it in progress. Chris produces very sensitive work, very delicate - Yes! I CAN appreciate this - don't be shocked. The next day Chris gave me a bag full of divine threads by way of thanks, what a lovely thought. I was very tempted by all kinds of packs of dyed tissue and colour themed threads. Have a look at her blog and see what she has to offer, lovely stuff. Her new website will be 'up' at the end of this month. mabon-arts.blogspot.com x I am off to one of my favourite places to teach today - Art Van Go www.artvango.co.uk I am teaching a 3 day summer school based around my workshop Hot Ne