I have been away exhibiting my embroideries at fairs- the Great Northern Craft Fair in Manchester, Festival of Crafts at Farnham Maltings and MADE London, all of the events were great, each one unique and dynamic in its very own individual way, my work was very well received. A big  thank you to all of you that came by and said hello, its always lovely to see a friendly face.
I now have a short lull before the next three events, Lustre in Nottingham, Hereford Craft Fair and MADE Brighton. I have been ensconced in making tiny framed pieces and I am loving working in miniature and here is a selection of tiny faces!!

 

A lady and her dogs being blown along home for tea.

Lovely talented West Dean students on the last day of our workshop. Machine embroidery pieces to be proud of, well done everyone!

We all had a wonderful time, a beautiful location, fabulous food, great company, an inspiring a creative group of lovely ladies, thank you everyone and keep up the good work. happy stitching. X

www.westdean.org.uk

New little pieces which are hot off the sewing machine!

I've been away from the studio for the last week and have been very lucky in spending my time with like minded stitching enthusiasts, two groups of the most lovely ladies and I have been stitching to our hearts content and making even lovelier pictorial machine embroidery pieces, and oh, what talent they all have!
I want to thank each and every one of them for a truly fabulous time and for making me so welcome.
Keep up the good work and happy stitching!

 

 

 

 

A selection of some of the things I have been doing and loving doing in the last couple of weeks, holidaying away and here and working with lovely textile and stitch enthusiasts at the wonderful Cowslip Workshops in Launceston, oh, and what a great time we all had, a big thank you to all at cowslip and to all the very clever and talented stitchers that came on the 3D workshop and the Pictorial Machine Embroidery Workshop. Well done everyone and carry on all the good work.

Isn't this sun fabulous, someone said to me "aren't we lucky" we're more than lucky, we jolly well deserve it after the dreadful wash out summers we've  had in the last few year, another cracker of a weekend of sunshine ahead. Enjoy it everyone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lovely talented and inspiring members of the Winchester Embroiderers Guild showing their 3D machine embroidery pieces off. We stitched onto a soluble fabric, dipped the fabric in warm water and watched the fabric disappear leaving behind our 3D machine embroidery! Fabulous!! Thankyou everyone for a lovely day, keep up the good work and happy stitching.  

My newest piece, "Mermaids" all ready for the Contemporary Craft Festival in Bovey Tracey, Mill Marsh Park, Bovey Tracey, Devon. Friday 7th to Sunday 9th June.  wwwcraftsatboveytracey.co.uk 
If your in the area I hope you will be able to come along, its a wonderful event, lots of wonderful works to see and lots of lovely crafts people to meet.

 

 

 

 

 

Phoenix Stitchers and all their hard work after a lovely day last Wednesday at our Pictorial Machine Embroidery Workshop in Petersfield .
What a inspiring, talented and  modest group of stitchers they were, everyone worked so hard and created beautiful pictures and pieces that I hope very much will be used with pride and hung upon  each and everyones walls.
Well done everyone, and thank you for making me so welcome.
Happy stitching and keep up the good work!

In celebration of spring finally arriving I have made this little piece of dogs leaping and chasing spring blossom.
What joy it is to see the tress in bright green leaf and with blossom on them, what a long time we have had to wait!

Gathering lavender

This piece is called "Gathering Lavender" It is part of the collection I am taking it to the British Craft Trade Fair in Harrogate next week, my first big fair of 2013. A rather optomistic piece for this very cold start to the spring in anticipation to the arrival of summer.

 

 



 

Hele Hub CIC

These are the clever stitchers at the end of a productive day who did a Machine Embroidery Workshop with me as part of the  Hele Hub CIC in pretty but windy Teignmouth in South Devon.

Well done everybody and  happy stitching!

West Dean March 2013

 

Lovely students, lovely work, lovely West Dean!

well done everyone, a truly lively and talented group of inspirational stitchers, a great workshop.

keep up all the good work and happy sewing to each and every one of you!

www.westdean.org.uk

 

What a wonderful day I had yesterday with the lovely members of the Solent Embroiderers Guild at our one day's pictorial machine embroidery workshop. A lively, friendly, inspiring and very talented group of delightful stitchers, here in the photo all showing off their hard work.
Thank you everyone for a great day! Happy stitching!

Crochet and Foxes

I had three and a half weeks out and away from the studio for Christmas. It was a difficult present to give myself, but the overwhelming feeling of guilt at taking so much time off payed out big time in feeling refreshed, revitalised,  and full of new ideas and projects for the new year ahead back in the studio.
I had a lovely time meeting up with family and friends and just being with lovely people eating and drinking and enjoying the feeling of being full up and happy. Projects were accomplished in the holiday time too, one of them being a crocheted blanket for my niece which I started in September - on a glorious  sunny weekend sitting in my parents garden with a bag of new wool and new to me scraps, the deadline date being Christmas and my kind Mum helped me with the start of it as we crocheted as quick as we could my lovely Dad talked us through the newspaper and his take on the world today as the garden blackbirds serenaded us through the afternoon.
The other project which has been in my head a long time is Foxy. I've had a gentle fascination of foxes for a long time now, since childhood when I met a big dog fox on a path, we looked at each other and he skipped away back to his work and me to mine. For the last four years I've been saving Maurice and Big Ones discarded whiskers which they have both kindly left at their feeding station and on their blanket for me, I put my idea of Foxy and the whiskers together and this is what I've made, and I'm very pleased. At the studio almost all of my work is flat, pictures and I love so much what I make, but sometimes I have an overwhelming desire to make in 3D, hence my blankets, Angels and now Foxy.