A lovely sample using torn strips of paper serviette along with the newspaper, painted Bondaweb and sparkle. I have spread this trip over 3 posts as the ladies produced some fabulous samples on both workshops. A New Starting Point is my newspaper based workshop that also combines printing onto the backgrounds with printing blocks.  The Northern Ireland Embroidery Guild is a thriving group of all ages but as with all groups they can always do with more members. If you live anywhere near Belfast and fancy joining in the fun - go to - www.nieg.org.uk they can also be found on Facebook - https:/www.facebook.com/pages/Northern-Ireland-Embroidery-Guilds You have already seen the build up to these samples in the previous post - here are what was produced by the end of the day -  Painted and dyed newspaper decorated with painted Bondaweb, gilding flake, heat transfer foils, glitter and anything else to hand.         Then the printing blocks came out - the idea

 It was worth having a little hint in the last post - Janet sent me 2 images of how she is beginning to stitch in to her samples.    Starting to look good . . .   The one day workshop on Sunday was A New Starting Point - the day started well with Noel cooking me an 'Ulster fry' - How could I refuse???    A girl needs a good start to the day . . . I must say that the ladies of The Northern Ireland Embroidery Guild  www.nieg.org.uk are very good fun - and also VERY talented. I had the best weekend teaching this fabulous group of women.  The ladies working hard.    Just look at that bottom lip . . . !!!! Joanne/Joanna was particularly good fun.    Lots of layering of papers, painted Bondaweb and of course - sparkles.             The papers were then printed onto - preferably with a colour that is already in the works so the print isn't tooooo 'in your face'!!        I will show you the finished samples in

Layered newspaper decorated with painted Bondaweb and then printed onto. I can finally let you all know that I will be teaching for Fibrearts Australia at Ballarat again next year. I had to wait until it was announced this week. The website is now live and enrolments have started - so for those of you who are interested - fibrearts.jigsy.com/fibre-arts-at-ballarat-2014 This five day workshop will combine all that I love - basic design, creating your own printing blocks and making gorgeous newspaper surfaces to print and stitch onto. It will be the last time I teach at Ballarat for a while as I will running the Vilene Workshop at Excel in London as part of Fashion, Embroidery and Stitch at that time of year in future. A journey of inspiration with Kim Thittichai A workshop of two halves – Suitable for any level of experience. The first half will involve creating your own inspirational journey. Painting an imaginary journey with various width paintbrushes,

  The Freudenberg Vilene stand at the NEC. Whew!! Well that was a weekend! The show was on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. It was VERY busy on Sunday and then less so as the show went on. I enjoy working at the trade show. It is less frantic than the usual consumer shows that I do. There is an air of calm as all the visitors wander about the show meeting their contacts on different stands and doing deals. Everyone is very smart and tidy. My job was to demonstrate the more unusual techniques that you are all familiar with using Vilene products on the stand and also running the retailer workshops for Vilene. This involves teaching a forty five minute workshop every day for twenty retailers. The workshops were a bit manic - I think I tried to do too much . . . We were foiling on to my new loves Decovil 1 and Decovil light. We then printed onto the Decovil light with acrylics and the excellent Colourful Thoughts multi surface paints from Craftynotions. www.craftynotions.com These su