Tag: blogs

Is this the end of summer?


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The days are getting shorter, and it looks as though Autumn will be here before very long. The berries are ripening on the bushes, and we have been picking blackberries for a few weeks already. I hope you have had a good summer and that you are now ready for the stitching season.

I’m very pleased to be able to tell you about a new Show

Canford Needlework Festival

will, this year, take place on

Sunday 22nd September 2013
from 10-5pm

at

Hamworthy Recreation Club,
Magna Road,
Canford Magna,
Wimborne,
Dorset
BH21 3AP

Admission is £2.50 for all adults and free for children aged 12 and under.

Lots of Free Car Parking
Bookable Coach Parking
Carvery Lunches (can’t be booked in advance),
Tea, Coffee & Bar

It is hopeful that next year the show will be for more days, depending on bookings at the venue

There will be suppliers with a wide variety of supplies for stitching and hobby pastimes including, beadwork, braiding, chain maille, contemporary and traditional hand and machine embroidery, felting, knitting, lacemaking, patchwork, sewing, spinning, tatting, weaving and more….. including publicised demonstrations throughout the day.

I will be demonstrating a really easy but effective technique using fabric crayons. I’m not sure of the time, but it will be announced in good time on the day.

July 2013 003a

We will also have some of our lovely big hanks of threads, but need to announce that these will soon be discontinued. These have been specially prepared for us by a small family firm. Sadly they have decided that now is the time to retire, so we won’t be able to get them any more. There is nothing quite like them anywhere, so this is a big blow to us. Grab what you see while it is there, the choice may not be good – but it’s what there is! No, we won’t be offering them at a discount price – too much work by loving hands has gone into their production.

The banner above is some new work that I have begun. it is based on Alzheimers, and although it is not a happy subject I am enjoying it. This project will take me well into 2014 so you won’t see me travelling very far for teaching. The one public session that I am teaching is in May at Missenden Abbey – it’s a fun introduction to dyeing. I’ll give you more details next time.

Hope to see you all at Canford. Drop me a line if you need more details.

Another busy weekend

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Just a few samples produced during the dyeing day at Busy Bees in Newport yesterday. These were the demonstration samples and all the students produced their own variations of these colours…… and lots more. I’ll be returning there next year to teach another technique. Watch out for their new brochure – this year’s class sold out really quickly.

I teach several different dyeing courses. If you are interested in one for your group just get in touch and we will see if we can arrange something.

Tired, but happy.

I’ve just returned from a lovely weekend in the country.

On Friday we travelled to the depths of the Sussex countryside to take part in the JustHandsOnTV weekend at Dunford House near Midhurst. I joined Jennie Rayment, Wendy Gardiner and Valerie Nesbitt and a number of enthusiastic students. Delicious food, beautiful scenery and lots of cheerful chatting and stitching/embellishing. Yes, you’ve guessed, I was teaching the embellisher.

We began with a sampler:

June 2013 010 a

Here you see part of a work in progress. We covered six different techniques within the sampler, some of which were taken further over the rest of the weekend. Jennie and Val both taught quilting techniques, and it’s fair to say that all students worked hard and went home with some beautiful creations. Incidently, I’ll be writing more about other aspects of the Dunford weekend here over the next few days.

My next Embellisher weekend will be held in the West Country at Mad Hatters Studio, near Plymouth.  Many of you have asked for a workshop in that area, so now is your chance to contact Sheron and book.

I’d also like to share that I’m raising money for the Alzheimers Society during the month of June. It’s a ‘no lose’ situation! I’m making a card a day using some of my special hand dyed paper and you can have one for a donation of £5.00. The link will take you through to the donation page – and all proceeds go to the charity, I’m not even charging postage to send you your card. You can see all the ones made so far linked from here, although I have actually made more than you can see, so you can make a ‘pot luck’ choice too if you wish. Just make sure that I have some contact details so that I can obtain your address. There is a box to tick to allow JustGiving to send me your email address. Thanks so much to those that have already donated, I have reached my initial target, but am continuing to fund raise as it is such a worthwhile cause.

Now I have to begin preparation for the dyeing workshop next Saturday. This will be at Busy Bees in Newport. We always have a good time there, and I’m really looking forward to it. Are you coming? Make sure you bring plenty of gripseal bags – you might get carried away!