An evening of Christmas Angels

On Monday evening Jill www.blobglass.co.uk  and I held a Christmas Angel Making Workshop in our lightbox at the Colour Factory, complete with mince pies and mulled cider the evening was a great success. The lovely ladies who attended the workshop each made a beautiful unique Angel and we were all thrilled with the results. the workshop was planned a while ago and  Jill crafted the angels heads, arms and legs from porcelain and I with a lot help from my friend Graham's  www.grahamhollick.com Mum - a very clever stitching lady Joy, made the bodies and dress,  then using paint, new and antique fabrics, buttons beads and hand sewing the angels came to life and were carefully carried home. Well done everyone and thanks for a great evening.

 

 

 

It's been a long time I know since I blogged, and my excuse is.................I've been everywhere but in the world of blogging! I have travelled the almost lenght and width of the country traveling with my embroideries and exhibiting them at fairs and events around this beautiful Isle, I have loved meeting all the wonderful stitch enthuiasts and textile makers as well as of course of all the delightful supporters of my work. My last two fairs are this weekend - Saturday in Dulwich at the Workshop Sale www.theworkshopsale.co.uk  and Saturday and Sunday in Winchester at the Handmade Fair ukhandmade.co.uk (the lovely Rosie with be maning my stand on the Saturday) I hope that you are able if you are in one of the areas to come along and say hello!

 

 

 

It's a whole week now since I returned from exhibiting at the Great Northern Craft Fair in Manchester,

a whole week!! I honestly don't know where the time has gone. I had planned on my return to make loads more pieces as my head was full of ideas and where are these pieces? still in my head! it always amazes me that on return from shows and exhibitions all my ideas and schemes for new work simply just disappear as I have been purely exhausted. Today, however I am thrilled that  I have finished a piece which I have called "An Eight Inch Square" The lovely ladies of the Milton Kenyes Embroiderers Guild have asked me to exhibit a piece of work alongside their exhibition "Tyranny of the Eight Inch Square" I was delighted to be asked and so hence have made this lady with a patched coat. www.mkgallery.org/education/projectspace/  December 6th - 30th

 

Now I am getting ready and  preparing  for MADE London A new and exciting Craft Fair, 26th-28th October to be held at One Marylebone NW1 4AQ. www.madelondon.org

I hope you will be able to come along and say hello and see my machine embroideries.

 

 



A selection of little pieces I have been working on this week.

Ummmh, I wonder if those robins are really standing on those cats heads, or are those cats just dreaming?

I am getting ready for the Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair in Manchester.  4th -7th October. www.greatnorthernevents.co.uk/ 

Blowy Leaves

 

Although it has been a little breezy today it has been nothing like the image in this embroidery.
The sunny warm weather has been glorious and I am loving it, however I am not being entirely fooled by this sunshine as I have spied the trees and seen the leaves on the turn, they don't look as ragged in previous early autumn years but the tell tale signs of the season a-changing is there, so I am smugly ahead of the game as I start to make autumn themed pieces.

Chichester Embroiderers Guild

 

I spent a lovely day with some of the delightful, friendly and wonderfully talented stitchers of the Chichester Embroiderers Guild, and this is what every one made, in one day!! well done everyone.
We had a great day, lots of laughter and lots of delicious ginger cake to keep all our energy levels high.
Keep up all the good work, and I look forward to the next time we meet.
Thank you Hilary for your photographs.
happy stitching x



I'm off to the Cornwall Design Fair 17th-19th August, Trereife House, Newlyn, Penzance, Cornwall, TR20 8TJ www.trereifepark.co.uk  and accompanying me will be this piece "Windy Beach" 13.5x13cm which I finished this week, I hope very much that's its not windy when I get there but glorious sunshine!

I have been away from the studio so much recently with holidays, days out and teaching. All of it has been truly lovely, and as always those experiences are very very rewarding but, and I am so glad to have experienced them, they all add to the person that you are, but, and here is the but, how lovely it is to be back in my studio and making again, such a simple pleasure that brings me such joy.
Here are two oystercatchers, the result of my toils of the latter part of this week. I am off to the coast this weekend and I hope very much to see lots of these shoreline birds.

Oxford Summer School 2012

Happy stitchers on the last day of our four day course of Pictorial Machine Embroidery at Oxford Summer School showing their truly fantastic pictures of stitches off, what talent you all have!

Our class was much bigger than the students depicted here in the photograph, but for various reasons some students had to leave earlier in the day, I think it can be said that the smiles you see here can be a representation for the whole of our class. 

A very big thank you to you all for making the summer school so special.

Happy stitching everyone and keep up the good work!



Summer Rain

The Bovey Tracey Craft Fair Festival was great, despite the torrential rain and very blowy gales the fair was packed and if you came along I hope you enjoyed the fair as much as I did and did not mind being a bit damp about the edges!
As usual the work on display was very beautiful, inspirational and truly desirable, a very lovely mix of craft disciplines.

All my post fair sorting out is almost completed and I am putting my studio space in order for my absence as my holiday approaches and I hope very much that the sun will shine and all this horrid rain will stop, just for three weeks anyway.
I will blog on my return, so until then have a sunny couple of weeks and happy stitching.

Cowslip Workshops

This time last week I was at the wonderful Cowslip Workshops with a delightful group of talented stitchers, here is every body on the last day with all their beautiful piece of Machine Embroidery. Well done everyone and keep up the good work!
A big thank you to Jo, Andrew and everyone on the team making our workshop such a delight. Looking forward to seeing you all again.

Bovey Tracey Craft Fair

Here are some little pieces that I am finishing off all ready to take to The Bovey Tracey Craft Fair. 15th - 17th June
Hope you can come by and say hello.
www.craftsatboveytracey.co.uk

Lovely little plovers on a sunny beach.

I know that you have seen many of these little pieces before, but just look at this little dog's  gate and his full of cheekiness look of "that gull will be mine"

I have just finished a collection of small framed pieces which I am sending to Ruthin Craft Centre next week www.ruthincraftcentre.org.uk and here is a very happy cat! Now today I start a very big commission piece, a lovely garden scene, however I am not letting any of the rain that is pouring down outside into the new piece, although I am going to have lots of fresh sumptuous spring greens in it, I may even slip a little swift in it as ours have just arrived, oh true joy, the real start of summer!

It's now May and it has'nt stopped raining for days and all I long for is the sunshine, I want to do what these birds are doing look at the sea on a beautiful sandy beach in the sunshine.

The clever and talented stitchers at the end of the workshop in Bexhill all showing their beautiful pieces of machine embroidery. Thank you everyone for a lovely day. keep up the good work and happy stitching!

A very blowy day on the beach

Its been a very productive week so far and I'm really pleased with what  have made, here is "A very Blowy Day on the Beach"

A very blowy blossom day

Hot of the machine today!

"A very blowy blossom day"- very apt I think for the time of year!

A wonderful weekend

The Super Stitchers of the Belfast Embroiderers' Guild on our last day of the machine embroidery workshop last weekend.
Your wealth of talent and generosity was overwhelming and very much appreciated. Thank you everyone for making me so welcome and very good luck with all your work for all the exhibitions .
Happy Stitching!

happy stitching day

A big thank you to all the  members of the Winchester Embroiderers Guild who came to the workshop today and made me so welcome and made the workshop so special. It was a wonderfully creative day and everyone made such beautiful work. There is surely nothing nicer than being surrounded by such inspiring and talented stitchers. A very happy stitching day.

Rain Wanted

Hot off the machine!
With all this news talk of drought and water shortages I thought I would try and drum up some rain with this rainy happy couple, but what happened? the sun came out and made the afternoon a glorious one! Oops, I must try harder.

Evening Class

The evening class in Machine Embroidery that I have been running for the last 6 weeks has finished. 

A very big thank you to my wonderfully clever, talented, inspirational and truly delightful students that I have had the pleasure of working with throughout the course.

Well done everybody and happy stitching, keep up the good work!



Silkie Red Swim Suit

Just finished and ready to be framed - "Silkie Red Swim Suit" my last piece for the collection of pieces that I have made for The Ropewalk Gallery.
Denise Brown and Linda Miller. Box Gallery17th March 2012 - 15th April 2012 .

The Ropewalk, Maltkiln Road, Barton upon Humber,North Lincolnshire, DN18 5JT
http://www.the-ropewalk.co.uk 

 

West Dean Weekend

This time last week the wonderful students who came on the Machine Embroidery Making Pictures weekend at West Dean were busy showing off their fantastic pictures to the camera and to each other, and I hope very much every one else who they met last week too!
It was a  fabulous weekend, 
happy stitching and thank you everybody!

Lovely clever stitchers at the end of the Cowslip Workshops with all their beautiful machine embroideries, ooh, what a wonderful weekend. Well done everyone and happy stitching!

Strip pieces idea

I have been preparing for a children's fabric applique workshop that I am holding later on in the month, and needed to rummage in my fabric stash for suitable fabrics for the workshop, (I like to be prepared early in advance) of course I came across long lost friends in my hoardings and couldn't help myself but assemble some of them together and have started to create a little bit of piecing together. The sheer joy of laying down fabric scraps and sewing them together has really lifted my spirits in this rather drab drizzly Saturday afternoon, I hope very much that my little charges in a few weeks time will feel the same too, I hope also that the drizzle has been swapped for the sunshine by then.

Repeats

Kirstie's Handmade Britain Television programme is currently being repeated again on Saturday evenings,  at 7.10pm on More Four channel,  the episode with Jo Colwill and myself is going to be aired this Saturday, coincidental I am teaching at Jo's wonderfully inspiring Cowslip Workshops this Saturday and Sunday and I shall be showing my workshop students how to work with the exciting Soluble Fabric and what you can make with it, watch this space!

In the last eighteen months on my daily train journey to the studio I've been crocheting hexagons as seen and inspired from the lovely attic 24 blog site, and here finally is my finished blanket! It is truly a riot of colour. My criteria was that I was only going to use yarn I had already (I had been very luck and been given lots independently from two Friends who were both moving houses) of course as soon as I starting my hooky heaven pilgrimage I broke my criteria instantly, how can one resist going into any yarn shop on ones travels and not seeing the perfect coloured yarn for ones blanket!

A Seaside Hideaway

My  Seaside Hideaway is hot off the machine, accompanied by the pouring rain outside, not a drop of sunshine to be seen!
My heart has been lifted though as I watched from the studio window the little robins feeding along with a tiny little wren hopping about beneath the bird feeder oblivious to the cold and just busy being about their everyday business. Oh, lovely little garden birds.

My idea of making a couple more pieces in lovely spring and summer themes about the sea for the forthcoming exhibition at  The Ropewalk Gallery has gone right out of the window since this onset of very cold weather, my people by the sea are well wrapped up in "A rainy walk by the sea" I am now going to try very hard and make a lady and her cat lying on a rug but the waters edge, Owwh, I can just feel the icy waves nibbling at my toes, oh, roll on summer!

Girl in a Yellow Swimsuit