This is 'Myra', a needle felted monkey by Lady Lazarus aka Jayne Routley, one of  the first acquisitions of the day. We had a FAB week-end at the Open House with lots of friends and new faces arriving to have a look at our latest gorgeous display of wonderful work and buy their Christmas presents. Although I don't know just how many of the lovely things that were bought this week-end will actually be given away in the end . . . .  I suspect that many of the scarves, brooches and bowls will be kept by my visitors. Don't you find that? You go out looking for presents for other people and end up buying for yourself - OOhhh!!! We are SO bad! Some of Ember's beautiful Raku vases These hand knitted hats and scarves were flying out Mary Moox's 'Bonkers Boxes' full of her recycled crazy creatures have caused much hilarity The collection of brooches and earrings that I had made has almost sold out. I thought there would be p

Hurrah! and lashings of ginger beer! I've finished the book. The first draft has gone winging its way to my editor. Oh the relief!!!!                           The book is about layering textiles and here are three of the images that have inspired me in the past months. I am hoping the book will be published ready for The Festival of Quilts next August, but it will be a tight schedule, so fingers crossed. I have had to remove the heat gun from the nid-noi.com website as it has been discontinued, I am hoping to find a replacement at the trade show in February. I will let you all know when I have found one. A 300 watt versions will work - but they take time, and if you are like me with the attention span of a goldfish, you want your heat gun to work fast! I can now get on with putting my house back together after our best ever Open House. I am looking forward to a weekend off  . . . . . and away . . . . Ho! Ho! Ho!!!  x

  do you dunk yours? The snow was washed away on Friday night by very heavy rain, it was a miracle. We went to bed with thick snow on the ground and woke up on Saturday morning to virtually no snow at all. We now have freezing fog, which is very beautiful in the garden decorating all the different textures with white lace - but deadly on the roads. The change in the weather was very timely for a busy Open House weekend. I was particularly pleased this weekend as I sold a large piece of work of my own for a change. It always does my confidence a power of good to sell something - it also helps my groaning bank balance!  . . of land, sea and sky '. . . of land, sea and sky' was created on two 'L' shaped canvases by layering hand dyed silk tops onto similarly dyed heavy pelmet Vilene plus and 'knocked back' with toning painted Bondaweb. The whole piece was then painted with acrylic wax to seal the surface. The piece can be hung as one solid work or slightly sepa

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