Pieces of rust dyed fabrics painted with bees wax. Am playing catch up again. Am nearly there . . .  I had wonderful weekend with my ExTeXtra group. This group of 8 girls were on Experimental Textiles last year and we negotiated 5 weekends for me to mentor them. This was the 4th weekend - we have one more in February - then they will be gone . .  I will miss them terribly - they are a fabulous group of girls. I am tearing up now just thinking about it!!! The group have now started exhibiting as 'Out of Line', and they had their first exhibition at The West Country Quilt and Textile Show in Bristol in November. They showed a combination of their work from Experimental Textiles and work they have done since then - it was amazing to see all the photos. I was doing the show in Dublin so I couldn't get there. They had 2 x 8m x 3m stands to hang - a huge task. They coped magnificently. Out of Line will be exhibiting on the Inkberrow Design Centre stand at Fashion, ...

Mary Smith's interpretation of her journey in colour and in fabric. So - here we are the NEC for Fashion, Embroidery & Stitch. It is my biggest show of the year. It is a very exciting show, so much to see and do. This is a quick post just to talk about my Experimental Textiles students end of year show. There are 2 stands at the show. Having sorted most of the work on the students last session in the IDC studios at The Old Needleworks, I knew roughly what I wanted to hang on each stand. Arriving and seeing an empty stand can be daunting, you just have to keep going till you finish.  Starting to set up the stand.  Starting to realise just how much work we have to choose from.  . . . And then, as if by magic (several hours later) - you have a finished stand.    A selection of the work created on the course including some crazy 3D pieces and all the workbooks.  The workbooks are always the most popular part of the st...

 One of the lovely models showing off my gecko t. shirts. Craft, Hobby and Stitch International is a trade show. As I work with Vilene as a consultant, I work at this show and run their retailer workshops. This is a very sedate style of show compared to the consumer shows that I do.  Vilene have decided to bring Hot Spots into their main retailer range - as you may know, I have been selling Hot Spots on  www.nid-noi.com for several years. I sell them by the metre, Vilene will be selling them in pack of 5 x A4 sheets. Hot Spots are a bit like a spotty Bondaweb but with a heavier backing paper. Because the backing paper is heavier, the Hot Spots can be cut with hole punches, die cutting machines and laser cutters . .  as well as scissors! I was asked to decorate T.shirts for everyone on the trade stand this year, so I asked my friend Claire from lasercutsussex.co.uk to help. Claire's knowledge of laser cutting is amazing. You may remember that she cuts my j...