One should always be appropriately dressed when teaching! It's New Years Eve, how did that happen?  It is a great time to look back over the past year and think of friends you have met, places you have been and the wonderful things you have seen. 2015 was a busy year with 2 trip to the Antipodes, 3 trips to Ireland - 2016 will be even more bonkers . . . A sign on the wall of the World of Wearable Art exhibition in Auckland. I have met a lot of you at the various shows that I do throughout the year, both for myself and for Vilene. We have wonderful chats and discussions about all manner of things as well as textiles, and of course, chocolate!  One of the main topics seems to be how lucky I am. Until the middle of this year, I had never really though about it - I always say Yes! I am. A good friend of mine who also works on the stand with me, pointed out with great emphasis, that I am not 'lucky'. I have made the decisions and choices that have brough...

2 rather splendid corsages. My last workshop for 2015 was at Art Van Go, an excellent way to end the year. Viv and Kevin and the team look after everyone so well. They run a very comprehensive workshop timetable. Here are the workshops for 2016 -  bit.ly/1IjvI4U    I have a new one in August, Sticky and Shiny. Learning how to use all the glues and fusible webs with transfer foil. I think this is a long overdue workshop. Anyway - back to Making a Tyvek Box. As many of you will know, I rarely teach a workshop where students leave with something finished. teaching process is my passion. However, I thought it might be time to show how adaptable Tyvek can be and that students don't need to leave with just a bag of colourful, textured samples.   My Tyvek box sample.                   I took along the book Embroidered Boxes by Janet Edmonds. It has beautiful ideas for making...

Pieces of rust dyed fabrics painted with bees wax. Am playing catch up again. Am nearly there . . .  I had wonderful weekend with my ExTeXtra group. This group of 8 girls were on Experimental Textiles last year and we negotiated 5 weekends for me to mentor them. This was the 4th weekend - we have one more in February - then they will be gone . .  I will miss them terribly - they are a fabulous group of girls. I am tearing up now just thinking about it!!! The group have now started exhibiting as 'Out of Line', and they had their first exhibition at The West Country Quilt and Textile Show in Bristol in November. They showed a combination of their work from Experimental Textiles and work they have done since then - it was amazing to see all the photos. I was doing the show in Dublin so I couldn't get there. They had 2 x 8m x 3m stands to hang - a huge task. They coped magnificently. Out of Line will be exhibiting on the Inkberrow Design Centre stand at Fashion, ...