painted Bondaweb ironed onto black CS500 Spunbond decorated with strips of blue CS500, glitter and sequins Just a quick post to say I have just had confirmation that I have an extra show next year, I will be at Creative Stitches SECC Glasgow 8th - 11th March. It is a great show in a stunning venue and I am so excited to be going. If any of the Guilds that have been wanting me to deliver workshops and lectures in Scotland want to come and see me at the show I will be taking email addresses to plan a 2 week 'tour' of Scotland in 2013, probably September ish!!! I am still wading through the orders that are coming in thick and fast but I should get up to date today. . . . . . .   . . . altogether now - "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas - la, la la, la la!!!"   x

 Hurrah! and lashings of ginger beer! My first course in Australia 2012 is full - there are still places left on other courses so if you are one of my Aus followers - check out the website fibrearts.jigsy.com/fibre-arts-at-ballarat-2012. I am so excited, particularly as this will be a new workshop combining newspaper with Vilene Spunbond and painted Bondaweb . . ooohhhHH!!!! It's going to be GORGEOUS.   old dyed newspapers layered with painted Bondaweb and gilding flake with STITCH, don't die of shock, I do get round to stitching sometimes . . . .   old dyed newspaper decorated with foiled Hot Spots!and Yes! more stitch  There are still places left on my workshop for ContextArt Forum in Katoomba in the Blue Mountains 4-DAY Workshop: HOT TEXTILES – NEW SURFACES FOR STITCH ( from Mon afternoon April 16 th to Friday noon, April 20 th 2012). Come and discover what Kim has been experimenting with in the past 2 years since she first graced Australia shores in 2010 to work

 Vilene  Spunbond CS700 backed with Bondaweb, cut with a soldering iron and applied onto CS800 Did you all enjoy the lovely weather we had on Friday? NOT!!!! I needed to drive to Stroud to deliver a lecture Friday night and a Scrumptious Spunbond workshop on Saturday. I was due to arrive at 7pm to start speaking at 8pm. As it was raining very hard and it was a Friday afternoon I had to decide if I was going to dice with the M25 or drive along the coast and up the M3. The coast road would add 30 minutes to my journey but I thought it would be a better route as it would keep moving!!!! HAH!!!! I have never had such a terrible journey in all my time driving to workshops. I left Brighton at 2.30pm thinking I would have plenty of time to stop and eat on the way. Silly girl!!! I actually arrived at my destination at 8.40 pm - it took me SIX hours in stead of three. I could have flown to Spain or driven down to my friend Sue in France in that time. It was unbelievable.  I have never seen so

One full body massage and a long sleep later . . . Oh I am getting too old to do these shows for much longer! One of the wonderful things about Fashion, Embroidery & Stitch is that further education and higher education colleges are invited to have stands to show off the students fascinating work across the field of textiles. In these days of swingeing cuts and uncertainty in education it was good to see such positive energy, technical skill and fantastic ideas. The colleges also have the opportunity to show work in the amazing fashion shows put on by the indefatigable Brenda Killigrew of Inkberrow Design Centre. www.inkberrowdesigncentre.co.uk There were so many remarkable outfits to show this year that Brenda had to put on 2 different fashion shows which were rotated throughout the day. This was an amazing feat as Brenda and all the models and helpers had only hours to prepare.   the garments from Longslade on the cat walk As some of you may know I occasionally work with Fr

one of my groups of keen students trying some new techniques Well here we are, another week on and I am sitting in my room in the Travelodge after a hearty breakfast about to pack up the car and start the long drive home back to Brighton. I have had a great if very busy and tiring time in Glasgow. The show was very busy and it was great to catch up with friends and customers up here.  Wendy and Rob Dolan were also with the show and we went out on the town on Friday night. We went to Ashton Lane in Glasgow - first of all we saw The Kings Speech at The Grosvenor Cinema, this is a refurbished Victorian cinema furnished with large leather seats with places to hold your drinks and food. You can buy a bottle of wine to take in with and a plate of Italian meats and olives if you fancy, or fresh popcorn or . . . .  you get the idea. After the film we manged to stagger 3 doors along to The Ubiquitous Chip, an amazing restaurant serving traditional Scottish fayre with a very modern twist. We a

  Various  weights of Vilene Spunbond cut with a soldering iron and bonded onto CS800  Glasgow here I come!!! I will be leaving tomorrow to start the long drive up to Creative Stitches at the SECC in Glasgow. www.ichf.co.uk It is a 4 day show from the 3rd - 6th March. I will be on stand no ZG01 and will be running 4 x 30 minute workshops a day on the stand. Tickets are on a first come, first served basis. The workshops are for 6 people at a time. Scrumptious Spunbond  30 minute Workshops Everyday - Book places with Kim 10.30, 11.30, 12.30 & 2.30    Come and discover the versatility of Vilene Spunbond CS 500, CS800 and Bondaweb, learn how to colour and distress these wonderful products. Experiment with different weights of Vilene Spunbond and heat tools to layer up a fascinating sample to take with you.  Layers of CS500 colours zapped with a heat gun to create a fantastic texture to stitch I love the journey up North and look forward to the views through Dumfries and Gallow

 The Textile Studio at Denman I love teaching at Denman College - the home of the W.I.   The teaching studios are well equipped, the food is great and I always have fab students in my group. The workshop ran from the 25th - 27th and a good time was had by all. The word had got round that I like to do stretching exercises to music with my students after lunch every day to help every one stay awake and feel refreshed. I was going to leave this as after all; I was teaching at the W.I. but no, my ladies were expecting it to be part of the course. Oh we did have a laugh! The students were - Jane Bothwell, Helen Dickinson, Sheilah Edgson, Jean Harnaman, Carole Jethwa, Jeanette Lamb, Patricia Richards, Margaret Sargeant, Pauline Walker and Jill Wilson.  The workshop was fast paced to cover all the products everyone wanted to try. The students painted and dyed Tyvek, Bondaweb, Vilene Spunbond and various weights of sew-in and iron-on interfacings. These were then layered up and zapped bac

Well we had a very full on week. My girls worked hard and produced some great samples - at least one of which will be in my next book . Here is a selection - Liz Smith 1 - Layers of Vilene Spunbond CS 500 Tyvek and polyester organza, machine stitched onto dyed craft Vilene in a flower pattern. The layers were then zapped away with a heat gun and the rest taken away with a soldering iron. The beads for the stamen were added later to create a more three dimensional sample. Craft Vilene is an excellent background for zapping onto as it doesn't distress with heat. Liz Smith 2 -  Strips of painted Vilene Spunbond CS 800 and 700 have been cut into wavy edges with a soldering iron and ironed on to painted Bondaweb. Liz wasn't keen on the colour combinations she ended up with but I think they work well together. Marilyn 1 - Layers of painted Bondaweb layered with Vilene Spunbond CS 800 and 700 that has been cut with a soldering iron have been ironed a piece of han