Polyester organza decorated with painted and printed fusible web then decorated with hand stitch The NW Region Embroiderers Guild summer school was held on 2nd - 4th June at Waddow Hall, Lancashire. http://www.waddow.org.uk/home.aspx   A stunning view and great workshop rooms along with really good food made a fabulous start to the residential workshops. I highly recommend this venue if you are looking for rooms to hire. The staff can't do enough to help, brilliant. This combined with a group of very keen guild members made sure I had one of the best experiences teaching a summer school.    My group was in a large airy room on the ground floor with plenty of tables and power sockets. The workshop was based on working with painted and printed fusible web. This was torn and ironed down to create a back ground for stitch. These backgrounds were decorated with combinations of Xpanadaprint, embossing powders,painted newspaper, gilding flake, mica flake or transfer foi

 Beautiful inspiration for design . . and colour. This is a quick post to keep you all up to date with what is happening teaching wise.  I have now finished teaching Experimental Textiles at IDC and will be offering modules from it online from January 2018. They are likely to be 6 week modules, but I will see how everything goes this year. I am going to start online teaching at the end of May this year, but they will short courses. More technique based. As my first book Hot Textiles had been withdrawn from print - I thought I might start with that!  I have so enjoyed teaching my course Experimental Textiles in various forms over the past twenty years or so, and of course, there is also the book of the same name. It is time for me to cut down on my teaching and get on with my own work. All the time I am teaching, I can't concentrate on my own work. And it is time . . . *** It was the last weekend of ExTex as it is called in short form. It was odd - seeing the group wh

  A close detail of Barbara's pebble pool. It is wonderful when a plan comes together - especially if you never quite know how things will end. With the benefit of experience you know things SHOULD work out how you wish - but you can never guarantee an outcome. I can't tell you how delighted I am with the work the ExTex 2 girls have produced. Experimental Textiles is non accredited course - there is no certificate at the end of it - just an amazing body of work and more confidence in yourself and your work. Because we don't need to tick boxes to please examination boards, I am able to work individually with each student. This is very rewarding and crucial for their personal development. I will continue to teach the course at the IDC studios at The Old Needle Works in Redditch. It is right next to the railway and bus station and has easy access to the local motorways and airports. I already have students enrolled for June that are flying from Scotland and dr