Emmaline and Rose The Crafty Cafe is one of the businesses at The Old Needle Works in Redditch. It is a great place to meet friends and when I am teaching Experimental Textiles we always have our lunch in there. Joan and Sharon are very funny and fabulous hosts - they make wonderful cakes and sandwiches and you can choose your own tea pot and cup and saucer from a display on the dresser. It really is all very civilised. When I was there last weekend Michelle Edinburgh was running a sock monkey class in the cafe.  A happy group creating gorgeous monkeys. Michelle is an art therapist and uses the making of sock monkeys as part of the therapy - however the class in the cafe was purely for the joy of making monkeys. Any kind of sock can used. The decoration is always the fun part, deciding what kind of hair and eyes. Do you use buttons or beads? Decsions, Descions . . . . I love the spots and stripes that are being used. The creature on the left i

My wonderful group at Ballarat in 2010 I can now announce my courses in Australia next year. They have been launched in Australia so it is my turn now. You may think it a little odd to be advertising my Australian teaching on my blog but have you ever seen the traffic on my blog via the green Feedjit box on the left hand side of the screen? If you click on the small link at the bottom of the Feedjit box real time view , you will see a lot more information. I find it fascinating. Nearly half my hits come from Australia - So Hello! Australia. Greetings Donnie, Ruth and Dale . . . I will be arriving in Melbourne around the 1st of April having had a week to recover from my busiest show of the year - Fashion, Embroidery and Stitch at the NEC. Fibrearts - Ballarat I am very excited to be teaching for Glenys Mann again for Fibrearts Australia, I had such a fantastic time last year, was so well looked after and met some amazing tutors - two of whom I will be teaching with again next year

Anyone who is self employed, particularly in my line of work knows we have to book our work quite far ahead. Whilst it can seem you are wishing your life away, it can also be good to have something exciting to look forward to. I have just signed the contracts for Fibrearts Ballarat Australia and the Creative Fibre Festival in Blenheim New Zealand in April/May 2012. I have also had confirmation for the Fibre Festival in Anchorage, Alaska for March 2012.  my gorgeous girls at Fibrearts Ballarat April 2010 I am SO excited about going back to teach at Ballarat - watch out Donnie and Ruth - Yeehhaa!!!! This time I will be concentrating on 3D structures using all the Hot Textiles techniques. It should be great fun and by then we should have some new products to play with. What will make my happiness complete is that Mary Hettmansperger will also be teaching that week. We met this year when we taught together at Ballarat and Orange. She is FANTASTIC, it will be wonderful to see her again. G