Chocolate wrappers free machine stitches with the help of Solufix and Solufleece. Oh how I suffer for my art!!! I love the bright, shiny colours of chocolate wrappers and enjoy using them as flashes of colour in my work. When ironed lightly between baking parchment they texture like Tyvek but remain soft enough to stitch into. They do ping about a bit if you try to free machine them but with the new Solufix I have no more trouble with them. Solufix is a self adhesive water soluble fabric on a strong backing paper that is removed to reveal the sticky side of the Solufix. Because the backing paper is so firm it means you can run it through an ink jet printer, print your design, remove the backing paper and then lay threads around your design and free machine to your hearts content. You may need to cover your threads with a layer of Solufleece if any of the glue is exposed. The glue will not affect your machine needle.    I stuck all my chocolate wrapper strips to the...

Even my fish sculpture is covered in snow. It started snowing last Friday at about 8am, by 9am I was in my local Asda supermarket, not so much panic buying as 'I'm going to be stuck in the house for a while' buying. I have lived in Brighton for thirty odd years now, and only in the last three winters have we had so much snow. It was unusual as we are close to the sea and apparently the salt in the air stops the snow - not any more . We had about five inches the first day and then three more inches the next day . Living on top of hill I get trapped as soon as the buses stop running up our road .  Having been caught out with very little food last year, as soon as it started to snow, I was off to do 'the big shop'. I was not alone - by 9.30am the queues were six people deep. It was like Christmas all over again. Everyone else obviously got stuck in their houses as well last year. We still have loads of snow but most of us in Brighton can get out and abou...