Home made Victoria Sandwich - scrummy! Sometimes it's good to have a couple of hours off - I have had a very busy week packing and posting orders for www.nid-noi.com. I am halfway through a two week sale of Vilene Spunbond/Lutradur and I have almost sold out. I am slowly wading through all the orders and most of them should have been posted by Monday. This afternoon I drove over to the the Sussex Prairies garden just outside Brighton. What an amazing place.  www.sussexprairies.co.uk This is the second time I have visited. I am going once a month to meet my friend Anne Kelly who is artist in residence this year. It's great opportunity for us to have a catch up over a cup of tea and a piece of delicious homemade cake.   Anne sitting amongst the flowers, sketching. Anne has an exhibition of her work there and is also running various workshops. annekellytextiles.com Even on a dull afternoon that was threatening rain, the gardens were wonderful. The lay

  Various weights of Spunbond/Lutradur painted with very dilute acrylic paint. When dry, the Spunbond/Lutradur was ironed onto Bondaweb (leaving the backing paper on the Bondaweb). Shapes were then cut out with a soldering iron, lifted off the backing paper and ironed onto a background of painted Spunbond/Lutradur. I have been stocktaking this week for my end of year accounts and have realised there is no point hanging on to my supplies of the light and medium weight Spunbond/Lutradur till next March to sell at the Fashion, Embroidery and Stitch show. These weights have now been discontinued, which is a great shame. So -   For 2 weeks only - the prices will be reduced from   Light weight - CS500 - £5 - £3.50 Light weight crashed - £6 - £4   Medium weight CS700 - £7 - £4.50   This offer ends at midnight on the 18th July or until my stock runs out.   This is link to the Spunbond/Lutradur page .   http://www.nid-noi.com/product/L

    Vilene Spunbond CS500 and polyester organza decorated with painted Bondaweb then zapped with a heat gun and ripped apart. Hot, New Jewelled Surfaces was the workshop and it was a local group for a change - Context. A great group of ladies - we had 14 for the workshop. The main idea of the workshop is to teach the safe use of heat tools. Irons, heat guns and soldering irons while having a thoroughly good time  The group getting down to work with the painted Bondaweb.     Busy girls and a very busy table . . .      Oh dear - there were some absolutely delicious cakes.MMmmmmm!! We were working with painted Bondaweb and Vilene Spunbond/Lutradur and of course all manner of sparkles. The group really enjoyed cutting out shapes with a soldering iron. This process is basically cutting shapes for bonded applique. In this case, as we are using synthetic fabrics, once the Bondaweb has been applied to the back of the fabric (leaving the backing paper on). shapes can v

Layered Vilene Spunbond applique cut with a soldering iron and ironed onto Pelmet Vilene light (black). This time last week I was being mobbed at the Exeter show - my goodness it was busy - at times it was like being at the NEC. It was great to see many of the ladies I had taught on my 'tour' in June in Devon and Cornwall. I had very little time to play on the stand but I did manage to get these samples done ready for Ally Pally next week. I love working with synthetics and a soldering iron - I love the 'oozzy' melting feeling you get as you cut. I was also visited by this lady who I met when I was teaching in Spain at the Castanea Studios. castanea-craft-courses.com She was doing a beading course with Jane Sadgrove who was teaching in the other studio. I have of course completely forgotten her name - but we all had such good fun at the studios.This lovely lady co-ordinated beautifully with the purple stands and carpet at the show. She always dyes