Rachel's beautiful little felt pot - with stitch!!!  Yes! I know it has been a while - I am struggling to keep up with everything at the moment - things should calm down a bit after next week. Paperwork and admin - aarrgHHH!!! Last weekend was the eighth for my ExTex 2 group, just one more weekend to go then it is final show time. The last two weekends of the course are for catching up and working on the final projects or samples. As the course is not accredited we don't have to jump through hoops to tick boxes, this gives me more freedom to work with each student individually. Rachel joined the course with no textiles or stitch experience and felt very much at a loss to start with. Her main hang up was the lack of knowledge about stitch - well just look at this . . . . .  This is Rachel's little felt bowl from the constructed textiles weekend, and she has stitched into it - gorgeous hey!!! I think she has proved to herself that she can stitch - with littl

  Just a little glitter . . . I hope you are sitting comfortably, this is going to be a long post - On Saturday I taught a one day version of 'A new starting point' my new(ish) workshop based on using newspaper creatively, to a fab group called Genesis Textiles Workshops. This is a very active and organised group based in Solihul.     You always know that a workshop is going to go well when the biscuits and coffee come out first thing. . . . You will be getting used to seeing (hopefully not bored with) images of my passion for newspaper, I hope that you will notice that no piece of work or sample is the same. The following images are created using my 'pretties and backgrounds' technique - which basically uses painted Bondaweb and torn newspaper with all kinds of gorgeous glittery bits and pieces. Gilding flake, glitter, sequins . . . .                      Then of course we have to have lunch- I know it is sometimes a

As we were using newspaper we also created faux chenille. The course title was Print, Paint, Stitch and Play! It is a new course and the group at Bobby's were wonderful guinea pigs!  I drove up to Shropshire on Monday and on the way stopped off in Ledbury to see Angie Hughes for lunch in her new flat. Angie is a great mate of mine but because we live so far apart we only really see other at shows. It was great to have the chance of a couple of hours together - we had a lovely lunch and had good old catch up. We are hoping to have a 'play' weekend in Brighton in the not too distant future. Angie's website is angiehughes.com Then it was on to Bettws-y-Crwyn and Bobby's studio at Moor Hall - it gets very twisty and turny and then the roads narrow - ooohhh!!!! Don't like it! But it is worth it when you arrive - it is SO beautiful. The views are remarkable and the farmhouse is old and surrounded by a lovely cottage garden. The studio is light and bright