Rachel's torn, printed and stitched papers I had a great weekend with my ExTex group. I had missed them. I am very much enjoying teaching an ongoing course again. To see the progression of each student is very exciting and rewarding. It reminds me why I trained to be a teacher. The fifth weekend of the course is a mixture of weave, knit and felt. It is always great fun teaching basic processes. When you work with basic, simple processes, your brain has a chance to get involved and excited -  making it's own connections between materials and techniques.  We started the weekend with looking at homework - the group had been asked to stitch into their torn and printed papers. There was some fabulous work.   A detail of Rachel's piece showing her beautiful stitch.       Val's collage . . .    . . . and a detail of some of her very sensitive stitch. Once we had discussed the homework we got on with feltmaking. We started with basic hand

 New samples by Margaret Beal. Well we have had two great days so far at the SECC in Glasgow and we expect to be even busier tomorrow. It is great catching up with friends and meeting all the interested visitors.  I haven't seen Margaret Beal for a while so it is good to catch up with her and hear about her new book that is out this year, which I totally forgot to ask the title of - Duh! Margaret on her stand. Helen McKenna has a very colourful stand full of recycled delights. Helen's new recycled felted dress full of strange and unusual delights . . . Pat Archibald had a beautiful stand full of beautiful quilts and sparkly delights. Caroline Earl is local girl and it is so good to her again. Val Hughes is here with her beautiful felted pieces and an amazing felted dress.   Wendy and Rob  Dolan are here too, I seem to Wendy at more shows around the country than at home and we live in the same town! We are both always travelling. W

One of Sarah's layered samples to show the students the kind of thing she was after! You may remember a post from the 8th of June last year where I told you about the amazing work that Sarah Patterson and her students were doing at Portsmouth College. They had created a range of fabulous dresses out of bin liners based on 'The Little Black Dress' or 'LBD' here is the link if you missed it - LBD - Hot Stuff Sarah and her students have exhibited the collection several times and have now created something new - and they will be exhibiting it all on stand no N16 at Fashion. Embroidery and Stitch next week. The work is based around Brighton .  Little felt maps of areas of Brighton a detail  experiments with synthetic fabrics, stitch and a soldering iron  a beautifully observed stitched sketch of the Royal Pavilion on layers of net and felt a simple experiment with layers and stitch - FAB!   These stunning headpieces will also

 Hayley Watson While I was writing Layered Textiles I met Hayley Watson at The Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace , London . I had a stand at the show and Hayley walked past. I was so taken with what she was wearing and how she was wearing it, that I dashed up to her and asked If I could take a photograph of her. She was very surprised but said Yes! I explained I was working on a book and why I would like to include her in it. I had wanted to include Hayley in the 'Inspiration' chapter but this was vetoed by my editor - ggggGRRR!!! So to make up for not being able to include her in my book I said I would write about Hayley on my blog - so one of Hayley's fashion illustrations using ink, bleach and white paint for the background, she then   made pages of a mixture of meduims and paper and cut them up to make garment shapes Hayley is twenty one years old and is currently studying BA (hons) Textiles for Fashion at Basingstoke College of Technology. She is ins