...time for some serious textile fun!!

The final magazine article for 2013 went off in the post Monday...

...and... after another delightful falala Tuesday choir session....

....this Wednesday morning finds me in a state of eager anticipation...

...and enthusiasm for things-to-come!!

I can now get stuck in to my "Magic" work, and I'm REALLY excited about it all.

Quite a few pieces have been thoroughly worked out on the page (a couple more will be shown on Saturday)...

...and the embellisher has been pressed into action already.

One of the first set of three is ready for hand-stitching to begin (so that's me sorted for the rest of the day then :-)...

...and pieces of felt have been dyed and prepared for the other two.

There is a real buzz in the air around here!!

(...and it's NOT that GIANT bee that was trying to head-butt it's way in through my patio doors yesterday either :-)))

Postie brought some more exciting deliciousness the other day too...

...in the form of a big parcel from Colourcraft.

Lots and lots of goodies to play with!

Lovely metallic acrylics...

several tubs of a new material (being affectionately referred to as "jollop" between Laura and myself) that's being launched sometime soon...

A thick, heavy paste medium that you can mold and build-up into whatever you can think of....

Some watercolour crayons..

...some soft wax crayons....

..and a selection of Procion MX dyes to use with this lot...

...of silky smooth Egyptian Cotton from Empress Mills.

Oooooooooooooo...

...what a LUCKY girl am I!!

Recovery....and a reccy....

At last I've managed to sit down and do a blog post....

...after being completely wiped-out for most of the week since returning from Lancashire.

The Empress Stitch Show was absolutely BRILLIANT!!!

New and relatively small by show standards, but the whole experience was wonderful. As Richard Box commented, "Everyone was INTERESTED!". ...and he was right. The visitors were delightful....asking questions...making lovely comments....listening to learn about techniques....AND coming in rather large numbers too.

Both Saturday and Sunday were very busy days, and everyone involved enjoyed the weekend immensely. We have all said to Charles and Christine to "DO IT AGAIN" next year!! :-)

The journey back was a bit of a trial though...

...very windy (headwind this time), and with a caravan on the back, it was like dragging a large brick through a wind-tunnel...

...with the frequent tug sideways from all the passing lorries!

My arms, neck and shoulders have ached all week and I've been SO tired I haven't even sorted out the show boxes yet.

So, when I had to go out and do a reccy yesterday, it was the first time out of the house since coming back from up north.

The reccy concerned was at the very lovely Tretower Court & Castle, just off the A40 between Crickhowell and Bwlch. A REALLY lovely spot, especially on a day when the sun was shining and temperatures more like they should be at this time of year :-)

When I was at Wonderwool a few weeks ago, I was asked by a lady from CADW if I would do a workshop stint at the Tretower Festival on 24th July this year .

She particularly liked my little houses and wants "something" done around the , theme of "Tudor buildings", thus the photo-shoot yesterday.

The plan is to do some stitched/collaged pieces for the day along with some small projects that can be done by visitors to the event.

Just have a look at this doorway.....

...now WHAT could I do with THAT one!!??

I'm going to enjoy this.....

Have a good Sunday.

x C


(ps   Sorry for not popping around the blog trail much lately....I seem to have been half-asleep :-o)

A bit of a challenge...

Back in March...

...at Fashion, Embroidery & Stitch...

...the lovely Laura from Colourcraft challenged me to "do something" with a piece of lokta tissue that she had coloured with Brusho paints and then printed with Markal Paintstiks on a rubbing plate.

So, I brought it home in a plastic bag (because the wax/oil hadn't dried enough)...

...and then pinned it up in the workroom to "let it speak" as it were.

Well, seeing as we'll be meeting up again at the Empress Stitch Show this weekend I thought I'd better get a move on!!

Here are a couple of piccies of the lokta tissue along with some Brusho-dyed kitchen paper....

...and here's what the tissue is like after machine stitching with metallic threads.

I bonded and stitched squares of the kitchen paper onto a panel of printed Egyptian cotton (Empress Mills)....

...wrapped some pieces of kebab sticks with hand-dyed threads...

..and, finally, stitched them onto the paper squares with some running stitch to complete the effect.

Finished and mounted....ready to go :-))

(Anyone coming to the show can get a close-up of the mounted panel :-)

Have a good rest-of-the-week and weekend.....

...I'll be back next week after the show.

x C

...some wrinkles really ARE good!!

I really must apologise for being rather tardy with my blog-posts lately...

...but with Wonderwool just done...

...and the Empress Stitch Show coming up ...

..time has veritably flown!!


Today has been  one of "boring chores" mostly....

...like ironing two weeks' worth of school shirts before I go...

..and finally getting the website fully up-to-date...

...including all the current workshops.

YEY!!!!!

Now with all of THAT stuff out of the way, I can take a couple of days to do some NICE things...

...like some Lavender & Lace Art Journal pages.

I'll be working on these over the two days at Empress, so if anyone is coming, pop over to my stand and have a looky.

I'm hoping to add this to my other two workshops within the theme, but it'll have to be a two-day jobby as one will simply not be long enough. Oh Dear! Oh Dear! Oh Dear! .....

While the iron was out this morning, I took some of my dyed tissue and made some wrinkled papers to use on some journal pages...

See....

..as I said...


...some wrinkles really ARE good! :-)

..almost there...

I haven't been around the lappy much these last couple of weeks due to a stack-and-a-half things to be gotten done for Wonderwool this weekend.

Boxes are now sorted...

...bags packed...

...clothes ironed...

...and...

...well...

...just and!

I have managed to get SOME hand stitching done though...

(Sorry...can't show any more than that!!)

I've also done a few more sketchbook pages, and will be taking it to Builth Wells with me to doodle into during the evenings in the caravan.

Stitching will begin in earnest after the Empress Stitch Show in May.

I've got all the materials lined up ready to go. :-)

I sat down on the weekend putting what seems like rubbish into the computer in order to get some workshop pages up on the website.Two are now done, but the rest will have to wait until next week I'm afraid - they take me sooooooo long!

(Just how he can sit doing this stuff for hours and hours and hours I REALLY don't know!!)

Today I'm going to relax a bit and play around with some book pages....

I'm on Stand U7 at Wonderwool....

...if you're around come by and say "Hello" :-)

See the rest of you next week.

x C

......winding, winding,winding......

"Wonderwool" is almost upon us...

...and I needed to get a few more skeins wound to put on my stand.

So...

...adventures in the dyepot have resulted in these little darlings!

Mostly turned into skeins...

...but some little bobbins too.

Just like sweeties in a jar!!

:-)

...indulgences....

As always...

...whenever I get across to ARTIQUE...

...I indulge my passion for tribal textiles.

Not a huge blanket this time ...

...rather some delicious small pieces...

...little gems every one of them!

First up .... a couple of Banjara stitched bracelets.

...with lots of bobbly tassels on them....

This one is looking very much like a snake...

...with it's lozenge patterns in red, yellow, green and white.

A gorgeous little stitched amulet (only 4 inches across)...

...with lovely dangly corner thingys.



But the most beautiful is this Turkomen child's hat.

Just look at the stitching and embellishment on it!!

Cowries and King George V  coins ...

Exquisite stitching...

...with long dangles....

...and topped-off with a beaded diamond.

Take a look at the inside to get an idea of the density of stitching on this piece. :-o

(I'm STILL looking for a little bit of SOMETHING from Kohistan though....

......just have to keep my fingers crossed I guess!)