It has been SO good to get back to some basic sewing, I hadn't realised just how much I missed it til I started gathering all my fabrics together. I made 3 more cushions yesterday. I love random log cabin, as you can imagine I am not one to measure and be neat unnecessarily so this technique is perfect for me. The blue cushion is a combination of various lurex fabrics and Thai silk. I made these 2 when I got back from 3 Private Views last night. Image transfer onto white linen. The 4 images on the left are from a range of French windows I use for my greetings cards. I hope to take some more when I visit Sue at La Verdrie next week. The image on the right is of ferns deep in the woods. I think I will continue making these image transfer/linen cushions, they will be a good way to promote my photographs. I will be updating my personal website next month and will be selling my cards and bits and bobs from there. I must dash off and steward at the Open House now, its all very ex

Pink Birdhouse 29 Southdown Avenue Brighton, BN1 6EH      the weekends of ~ 7/8, 14/15, 21/22 28/29 11am - 6pm   The Brighton Open Houses start this week end and I am making some cushions to go into my friends Clare Rose's house. If anyone wants to pop in and say Hello! I will be stewarding tomorrow from 11 - 6, Sunday 15th 11 - 2.30 and the weekend of 28th & 29th 11 - 6. I am no longer opening my own house as I just don't have time to get it all sorted, it is such a mammoth task which is just as well with the website crashing last week. I have been having great fun working with all my scraps and oddments of fabrics making cushions. It is such a treat to give myself time to play with fabrics and see what happens. My floor is a sea of colour, I have been wading through silks, denims and cottons and it has been wonderful. It makes such a change to be working with natural fabrics and my trusty old Bernina 707. I have had particular fun combining image transfer with

  layers of Tyvek and polyester organza machine stitched together and zapped back to reveal different layers with a heat gun When you teach at Art Van Go there is no shortage of supplies, there is a vast range of paints and dyes and products - everything is on hand. Viv and Kevin and their glamorous assistants are always lurking somewhere nearby if there is anything you have forgotten, and I usually have! The main objective of this workshop was the safe use of heat tools and identifying and using appropriate materials and products. Most the first morning was spent painting up the products, learning how thick to apply the paints. This may sound incredibly basic but it is the most important part of the process. If you paint your products with very thick paint the products won’t react to heat. The paint will create a barrier. It is important to use water based paints as oil based paints and media will give off fumes The only product where it doesn’t really matter how thick the paint is

students painting up products I always enjoy teaching at Art Van Go , www.artvango.co.uk we are all SO well looked after. Fresh coffee and tea on tap with biscuits in the morning and chocolates in the afternoon. But I suppose you will want to know about the work! Hot Textiles 2 is the follow on workshop from Hot Textiles - funnily enough! The main idea of these workshops is the safe and creative use of irons, heat guns and soldering irons. Although my book Hot Textiles was published back in 2007 these workshops are still my most popular.  We were working with Vilene Spunbond, Tyvek, pelmet (craft) Vilene, Bondaweb, painted and plain and polyester organza, all the usual suspects. I also included Hot Stuff Sheets and Lamifix. As followers of this blog will already know, I have a passion for old painted and dyed newspaper. The faux chenille technique with newspaper was also tried out in this workshop to great success. It is featured in my new book and judging by the reactions from m

this is how my head feels after the tears and the panic!!!! I got back from a a brilliant 2 days at Art Van Go to find that my mail order company website nid-noi.com was down. Not only down but annihilated - there has been a fire where the server is housed and I have lost all the information about orders and subscribers after 11th February this year. This is a nightmare as I have just had my busiest 2 months ever. All changes made to the site since then have also been lost. It will take a couple of weeks to get the site up to speed. The company that look after the site are working virtually 24 hours to get all their customers back up and running. If you ordered from me after 11th February and wish to order again you will need to re enter your details for which I apologise, similarly if you subscribed to the newsletter after that date you will need to re subscribe. I'm sorry to be so down on what was such a lovely day for 'The Wedding' but thought you all ought to kn

layers of painted Bondaweb on black cotton, layered with heat transfer foils, gilding flake, glitter and skeleton leaves I'm just sorting out and packing up my kit for my 2 day workshop at Art Van Go. It's my new Hot Textiles 2 and I'm really looking forward to see what we achieve. As many of you will know I don't teach finished projects - just processes. It should be a great 2 days of experiments, colour and fun. After such a glorious weekend it is going to be hard to leave the garden looking so beautiful . Hopefully it wont dry out before I get back on Friday - we could do with some rain. I will report back over the weekend, enjoy your 3 day week.  x

  the last evening, the courses are finished and we are having our last drinks on the terrace The last day was a gentle dash to get samples finished and try anything anyone thought they had missed. It is always difficult to stop the day running away with you when you are finishing a course.     Jane Sadgrove had been working in the upstairs studio all week and had had difficulty getting Marion and Lee down for meals, they were totally hooked on what they were doing. They were learning special stitches and starting to make beautiful bags. They have the patience of a saint.     We all gathered together for a 'show and tell' at 5 o'clock and Jane Bolsover arrived with some fizz to finish the courses off with a bit of sparkle. Everyone seemed to be pleased with what they achieved during the week. Pauline taking a rest from entertaining us with great jokes all week The 2 Jills,  I am so cross this image is slightly out of focus, I was laughing when I took the shot So that