The 'before' photo . .  The lovely Laura Strutt who works with me on Vilene stands at all the shows. I couldn't do the shows with out her, her energy and humour keep me going. Well, that's that for another year. The Festival of Quilts was even bigger than last year, with fabulous quilt displays from all over the world. There were thousands of visitors every day, many from all points of the globe, including Australia and New Zealand. Working on the shows is a great way to keep in touch with friends, and of course, make new ones. The finished stand - in action. The lovely Laura showing off her fabulous samples.   The not so lovely and very hot Kim demonstrating her samples.   I made a new friend at the show - the very beautiful Laura from the Italian Vilene office. As you can see we got on well right from the start. We had great fun together and will no doubt be seeing each other again. One of the many great things a

  My dear friend Brenda and I at the Mexican party on Saturday night -  (They are stick on moustaches - not our own!!!) After a wonderful week being a student at the TSG (Textile Study Group textilestudygroup.co.uk) summer school in Newport, Shropshire - I drove down to Redditch ready to for the weekend.  It was the third weekend of my Experimental Textiles course at The Old Needle Works. The plan was to look at positive and negative space and to paint colour wheels.  After having a look at all the homework the girls had done in the previous month we got straight into decorating white cartridge with wax crayons. This is a wonderful 'play school' type of activity where you don't have to think too much. It is a great way to ease into the weekend.     We were going to colour wash these masterpieces with procion dye powder and water on Sunday. The wax resists the dye. Then it was onto the main event of the weekend - Colour Theory!!!! In particular pai

The Craftynotions stand I am off to the NEC this morning with all my books to sell and all my demonstrating kit . . . .  I hope my poor old Volvo will move - the boxes of books are VERY heavy!! Sarah Lawrence of Craftynotions has very kindly extended her stand so I can sell my books and have a presence at the show. I couldn't afford my own stand this year. In return for this very generous gesture I will be demonstrating some of the techniques in my new book, including layering newspaper with painted Bondaweb, decorating boxes made from heavy iron-on interfacing and distressing Vilene Spunbond. (poor Vilene Spunbond).  painted Bondaweb decorated with heat transfer foil, skeleton leaves and glitter Signed copies book will be £18 (RRP 19.99) So - if you are coming to the show do come and say Hello!!!! It's always good to meet my readers and customers, email is a wonderful way of communication, but no substitute for the real thing!!!!! I am looking forward to seeing Viv and Ke

Hurrah! and lashings of ginger beer . . !  The books have just arrived - too late for today's post though .  All orders will be dispatched tomorrow, I have so many parcels to post I will have to make 3 trips to the Post Office, or there will be a riot!   AAHHH!!!! that is a sigh of relief! It is great to have all the boxes of books stacked safely by my front door ready to go to The Festival of Quilts next week.  I shall now go and continue packing up and labelling parcels - Yeehhaaaa!!!!!!! X

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