A cake and flowers for my birthday.   . . . and then another cake . . . !!! We are now over halfway through Experimental Textiles, this session was the sixth of nine. I have only ever taught one group at a time before, this year we are running two groups - a Thursday/Friday and a Saturday/Sunday. We will be doing the same next year. It is very interesting teaching the two groups side by side - they are both strong and are producing some excellent work. One thing that I hadn't considered was the air of competition creeping in between the groups. It is light hearted - but very definitely there!!! One of the benefits of having two groups - when the tutor has a birthday - you get two cakes!!!  When we are all settled with coffee (and cake) first thing on day one of the session - we look at what has been done for home work produced to reinforce what did on the session before. On the previous session we had looked at constructed textiles - felt, knit and weave, and how

Claire's wonderful zingy ginger cookies.  The weekend was fast and furious and started on Friday night with The Old Needle Works Christmas/New Year party. It was great to see everyone again - it had been quite a while since we had all been together. There was lots of excited chat and of course fabulous food created by The Crafty Cafe. Our wonderful leader - my dear friend Brenda Killigrew.     The wonderful Linda Lavin who does her best to keep the office (and Brenda) under control.     The seemingly inexhaustible Sharon of The Crafty Cafe,     . . .  and the lovely Joan who does more than anyone realises for everyone else - she is a STAR!!!  The party finished at a reasonably sensible time as we all had a busy weekend ahead with several classes due in. The Old Needle Works like many thousands of businesses was flooded not once but twice - the second time just after the the floors had been made good from the first flood. This has been

 Christmas street decorations in Granada 2012. Well the rain has stopped in Brighton - for at least an hour now! Blimey it's been wet. My thoughts are with those of you who are still struggling with having been flooded for the second or even third time. The sun is shining as I write this, it is a treat to write this looking out at a bright blue sky - long may it last!  I am off to France later today to stay with good friends and share New Year with them. Like most of you I have been thinking back over the past year and planning for 2013 . . and 2014 Gulp!  x 2012 Started well for me as I was in Spain staying with my dear friend Brenda Killigrew who runs The Old Needle Works in Redditch where I teach my ExTex course. We visited Granada at New Year and visited the Alhambra. It had been long been a resolution/need of mine to visit the Alhambra and thanks to Brenda we spent a wonderful day there. Cordoba is next on the list. Brenda has a house in Spai