Block print flooded with a colour wash by Janet who is on The Journey workshop. Happy New Year!!!  Yes - I know its the end of March!! It's been a while. Most of you will know the feeling, when you are undecided - you do nothing!! Sometimes inspiration or a direction presents itself - sometimes you just have to wait . . .  I have been getting used to living in a remote area. It has been over 3 years now. Mostly it is wonderful, just occasionally when we are in the middle of a big storm, I lie in bed wondering if the roof is going to come off and question did I do the right thing? The resounding reply is always - Yes!  Any of you who follow me on social media will know how much I love living on the edge of the world. The West Coast of County Clare, and particularly Loop Head, has an 'other worldliness' about it. It is hard to explain, but hopefully is comes through when I post on Instagram and Facebook. This is the website for our little piece of wonderful...

A splendid sample. It is amazing to think that last weekend I was teaching this workshop in Christchurch, New Zealand. I am now snuggled in at home, in front of the fire, with my dogs. Isn't life amazing? A New Starting Point is my favourite workshop. By layering up old newspapers, maps and book pages with painted and unpainted Bondaweb, you can create some fabulous effects. If you add a little gilding flake and transfer foil, you can create something rather special. Christchurch Quilters are a great grouo to work with, such fun. They are very experienced which made things very easy for me. We had 2 days of play with all manner of papers and sparkle. First we painted the Bondaweb, or Vliesofix as it is known in NZ and Australia.   Nicky and Catherine painting Bondaweb. Then we began the 'backgrounds and prettys'. This technique involves layering paper with Bondaweb and building, tearing and building new layers. It's great fun and you never quite know ...

 5 layers of heavy paper Tyvek, layered with polyester organza, machine stitched together and then zapped with a heat gun. The Auckland Quilt Symposium 2019 was a fabulous affair. 30 tutors from near and far taught, I don't know how many, students over 5 days. A remarkable feat of organisation and great fun to be part of. I taught 3 workshops. A New Starting Point, Tinkering with Tyvek and Look, Draw, Print, Stitch. The Symposium was held in a girls school with great facilities. I was given a room in the science block. It was fabulous, my friends Alysn Midgelow Marsden and Jane Callender were teaching in the same block. I had stayed with Alysn for a few days before the Symposium and I hadn't seen Jane since we did the ICHF craft shows in the UK about 7 years ago. It was so good to catch up with her. The rooms were were perfect as they had electric sockets in the floor under the tables and they also had sinks- what more could a girl ask?? The first workshop was a 2 da...