I forgot to take a photo of the stand before I left - so here is one I prepared earlier - at Bluewater in February. Well I'm here in Glasgow and not tooooo worse for wear! I drove up as far as Carlisle yesterday and then onto Glasgow this morning. I had the stand more or less set up by 3pm so came back to my Travelodge for a snooze. It was great to see so many friends at the show. Wendy and Rob Dolan are here, we are off to see 'The Artist' tomorrow night. We are staying in the same Travelodge so Wendy can look after me - bless her, she is such a good friend. Isobel Hall, Jenni Rayment, Val Hughes are also here, amongst others. Cardonald College has the stand next to mine and it is looking good. The college are hosting the fashion shows over the next 4 days and they promise to be brilliant. I love coming up here - we always have a great time, everyone is so friendly. It will also be good to catch up Kathy Troup on The Embroiderers Guild stand, we don't of

Another Place - installation by Antony Gormley on Crosby Beach The Liverpool show was great fun and I enjoyed meeting up with those of you who came and said hello! Being in Liverpool was a great opportunity to spend more time at one of my favourite places - Crosby Beach. Wendy Dolan and her husband Rob were at the show as well so we spent a evening on the beach together. It has been wonderful to see Wendy so often this year, we are going to make time to see each other more often rather than just seeing each other a shows. My good friend Brenda Killigrew was also doing the show promoting our courses for Castanea www.castaneacraftcourses.com and she joined us at the beach.   Brenda nearly being blown away (she's only little) - making contact with one of the sculptures amazing jellyfish washed up on the beach When we all arrived on the beach we very soon became aware of hundreds of jellyfish that had been washed up on the beach, I have never seen so many of these creatures

Well I am home now and exhausted but boy was it worth it. What an amazing show - Fashion, Embroidery and Stitch was even bigger and better than last year with some beautiful exhibitions, great textiles artists and tutors and some amazing work by college students . This will be a 2 part blog. I will cover the college work and fashion show tomorrow - this post is about friends . . .There will be plenty of other blogs giving you a detailed description of the show. Wendy Dolan Wendy's current work involves working with old maps, beautiful, subtle and simple stunning.  Wendy has 2 pieces of her work in my next book.   Wendy Dolan had stand a the show and when she wasn't teaching a workshop in the Bernina Workshop she could be seen working hard on her stand demonstrating her 'architecture' and 'landscape' packs. It is great to be seeing more of Wendy, we were at the Glasgow show together and will be at the Liverpool show in May. I can't wait to show her and he