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.

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.