Bridget had fun with black Hot Stuff sheet. Decorating it with heat transfer foils and then impressing with wooden printing blocks while hot We had a chance to play with various materials on the course - Hot Stuff sheet was one of them, another was Solufleece . Solufleece is a water soluble machine embroidery product that has another use. You can 'crash' it with steam.       Solufleece is layered with Bondaweb and a top fabric. The sample is then stitched in rows and then steamed - the sample then puckers up. The samples above show the technique using two layers of organza as the top fabric. Do any of you remember those swimming costumes made with shirring elastic we used to wear that used to go all baggy when they got wet - No!!! of course not - you are far too young!!! This technique reminds me of that wet soggy feeling!!!!!   Christine stitching into her decorated newspaper     Bridget had fun layering CS500 Vilene Spunbon...

  the mandarin tree outside the studio There are 2 studios at the Castanea villa one upstairs inside the villa and one out in the garden. My group and I were working in the garden studio, One of the greatest pleasures of the week (and there were many) was picking mandarins from the tree right out side the studio. MMMmmm!  I can taste them now - delicious. The very lovely Claire Muir, who is featured in this months Stitch magazine, was teaching at Castanea last month and her students very kindly left us some fruit in the middle of the tree . . . ! This is just a selection of the work that was produced last week and in no particular order. painted Bondaweb on black cotton with heat transfer foil   painted Bondaweb decorated with with snips of polyester organza and gold flake painted Bondaweb on dyed newspaper . layers of painted 75gm Tyvek and polyester organza machine stitched together and then zapped with a heat gun. The sample above was also attacked with  so...