Phew! it's 34 degrees centigrade here in the Charente Maritime - too warm for the this English Rose! I am ensconced in Sue and John's lovely cool house. Teaching here September and October seems to be a very good idea - it should still be warm but not baking!!!  There are fields upon fields of sunflowers and grapevines in this area of France, it is stunning and so peaceful, 3 cars have driven past the house today. There are plenty of places to walk - around the hamlet or out into the fields. The sloes are about to ripen and the walnuts are on their way. There is inspirational colour and texture every where you look from flowers to old distressed doorways and brick work - gorgeous. The light through the grapevines is beautiful the Campsis in Sue's colourful courtyard garden is fabulous this year Hollyhocks self seed every where - it is SO frustrating, when I try to grow them they get rust!!! So to the workshops and the main reason I nipped down here to see Sue. That an

As most of you will have noted - I have a dreadful life travelling miles to teach and torture unsuspecting students the joys of using heat to distress all manner of wonderful materials. Monday night saw me deliver a lecture, on time I am happy to say, for the Bourne Quilters. www.bournequilters.org.uk They are a large group with a dynamic mix of ladies and are very organised. It is always intersting when visiting groups to see how they are run. I was bit concerend that my samples and talk might be a bit 'out there' for quilters - not a bit of it!!!! They were all really interested, asking lots of questions, always a good sign.  I was put up by Lis and Steve Dawson while I teaching the workshops. I do so wish I could have stayed longer, I had such a good time with them, they are great fun - I was very well looked after. my students having to tuck into Magnums so we could melt the wrappers, the things we do for our art!!!!!!   The following two days were spent playing with Tyve

75gm (heavy) Tyvek ironed lightly between baking parchment I am off to Emsworth later today to deliver a lecture this evening and two one day workshops - Tinkering with Tyvek. I had been booked for just one workshop but the waiting list was so long we had enough for another day. I am excited about spending two days playing with Tyvek. I have taught so many 'Hot Textiles' based workshop recently it will be a welcome change.  layered decreasing shapes of 75gm Tyvek (Heavy) stitched in the middle and gentle heated 75 gm Tyvek (heavy) layered with polyester organza, machine stitched together then zapped with a heat gun to reveal different layers of colour I will update the blog with all our exploits at the end of the week, I shall be a bit tight for time as I drive to France the day after I get back from Emsworth to see my friends Sue and John to sort out our teaching programme next year. I'm looking forward to driving down to the Charente Maritime district where they live,

 Hayley Watson While I was writing Layered Textiles I met Hayley Watson at The Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace , London . I had a stand at the show and Hayley walked past. I was so taken with what she was wearing and how she was wearing it, that I dashed up to her and asked If I could take a photograph of her. She was very surprised but said Yes! I explained I was working on a book and why I would like to include her in it. I had wanted to include Hayley in the 'Inspiration' chapter but this was vetoed by my editor - ggggGRRR!!! So to make up for not being able to include her in my book I said I would write about Hayley on my blog - so one of Hayley's fashion illustrations using ink, bleach and white paint for the background, she then   made pages of a mixture of meduims and paper and cut them up to make garment shapes Hayley is twenty one years old and is currently studying BA (hons) Textiles for Fashion at Basingstoke College of Technology. She is ins

 Hurrah! and lashings of ginger beer! My first course in Australia 2012 is full - there are still places left on other courses so if you are one of my Aus followers - check out the website fibrearts.jigsy.com/fibre-arts-at-ballarat-2012. I am so excited, particularly as this will be a new workshop combining newspaper with Vilene Spunbond and painted Bondaweb . . ooohhhHH!!!! It's going to be GORGEOUS.   old dyed newspapers layered with painted Bondaweb and gilding flake with STITCH, don't die of shock, I do get round to stitching sometimes . . . .   old dyed newspaper decorated with foiled Hot Spots!and Yes! more stitch  There are still places left on my workshop for ContextArt Forum in Katoomba in the Blue Mountains 4-DAY Workshop: HOT TEXTILES – NEW SURFACES FOR STITCH ( from Mon afternoon April 16 th to Friday noon, April 20 th 2012). Come and discover what Kim has been experimenting with in the past 2 years since she first graced Australia shores in 2010 to work

 Vilene  Spunbond CS700 backed with Bondaweb, cut with a soldering iron and applied onto CS800 Did you all enjoy the lovely weather we had on Friday? NOT!!!! I needed to drive to Stroud to deliver a lecture Friday night and a Scrumptious Spunbond workshop on Saturday. I was due to arrive at 7pm to start speaking at 8pm. As it was raining very hard and it was a Friday afternoon I had to decide if I was going to dice with the M25 or drive along the coast and up the M3. The coast road would add 30 minutes to my journey but I thought it would be a better route as it would keep moving!!!! HAH!!!! I have never had such a terrible journey in all my time driving to workshops. I left Brighton at 2.30pm thinking I would have plenty of time to stop and eat on the way. Silly girl!!! I actually arrived at my destination at 8.40 pm - it took me SIX hours in stead of three. I could have flown to Spain or driven down to my friend Sue in France in that time. It was unbelievable.  I have never seen so