Two Little Jaunts

I've had a couple of little jaunts this week. Sunday morning saw me tootling off through the Norfolk lanes to the village of Castle Acre, where, with Stitch and Bitch chum Yvonne, I visited the Castle Acre Village Hall Craft Fair. Organised by mosaic artist Carolyn Ash, the fairs run four times a year, and Yvonne and I were keen to check them out, and to introduce ourselves to Carolyn with a view to discussing possibly taking part in one or two events next year. (You can see some of Carolyn's work above.)

And here is Carolyn herself. Right at the bottom of the hall, wearing a blue top, you can see my friend Bev (ex-nursing colleague, and musical mate) attending to her own stand of beautiful glass jewellery. In the confusion of meeting up with another textile chum - Magie Relph, of the African Fabric Shop - I forgot to take a photo of Bev's stand, but I shall do next time.

Providing the incidental music to the event, was another old musical pal, Pete Alison, joined by Moto for part of the day on piano accordion, whistle, and harmonica! Pete did ask whether I might have my fiddle in my car boot...alas no, but maybe next time I go I will do a little busking with him. Why not?

       Beverages, savouries and cakes were provided by the team from the Deerly Beloved Bakery.

And, amongst the other stands I discovered Debbie Osborn - new to me, but an old friend of Yvonne's!

Debbie works with screen and block printing onto textiles and paper, creating wonderful patterns to which I was instantly attracted as they are very reminiscent of the folk art designs I love and work with myself.

    And yes, I did buy FOR MYSELF the colouring book! And some lovely packs of printed cards.

Debbie and I had a lovely long chat about design and textiles, and I am going to have a couple of hours drawing tuition with her (when we can both find the time).

Another purchase I made came from a stand outside the hall, a lovely guy who wove birds out of willow. I bought one for our garden, hoping it might scare away the rooks. To no avail - but it does look lovely!

By the time we left, the sun was shining and it had turned into a really nice day; even better, when I got home, Jim had prepared a slow pot-roasted chicken and all the veg so it was a guilt-free trip out! Lucky me.

This morning I was out again, this time up to the north Norfolk coast, and a little village where Madeleine Spencer lives. I met Madeleine at the Craft Fair at Letheringsett last month, and fell in love with a silver and turquoise pendant she had made. Unfortunately it had sold, but Madeleine promised to make me a similar one, as she just has three tiny turquoise beads left from an old Victorian brooch she was in the process of cannibalising.

Here's Maddy at the threshold of her garden studio - the rain had JUST stopped for me to take a photo!

Inside was a lovely mix of working tools and eclectic "mess" which every good workshop/studio should present. We had a long chat about textiles, silver, design, craft fairs and pricing...and somehow wandered into the realms of health visiting, politics, Wales and the Welsh language..... I had a grand time!

    And here is my beautiful pendant, which I love so much. A birthday present to myself! Precious!!

And lest you think I have been doing nothing but gadding about round the countryside, let me tell you I have spent most of the rest of the time stitching away furiously, when I haven't been sorting felts and threads, and drawing designs. Here you see some of the fruits of my labours, a cushion cover, and the beginning of a folk art panel.

Well this has been a bit of a marathon of a post, I hope you are all still with me! I hope you all enjoy the fruits of YOUR labours this week.

Swanton Novers

This morning was so dreary - a typical November day you might say - so I was so pleased to have something nice to look forward to. A month of facial swelling, pain, and dental/ hospital visits has been a bit of a strain, you just never know with facial 'things' and it has been preying on my mind a bit. Still waiting for yet another hospital appointment, but at least we know it is a sinus problem and nothing more sinister. So I was well in the market for a bit of cheering up. And when I got to Yvonne's, it was clear she was feeling in need of a bit of happy therapy; sadly, last week dear Arfa - known to you from my posts about Stitch and Bitch - really could not manage to totter on any longer and passed away. He couldn't have been rescued by a more devoted owner, and without Yvonnes's love and care Arfa would not have lived so long or so happily. Both of us were in the market for a Good Time. (ahem)

So through the damp and muddy lanes we trundled to Swanton Novers for the village craft fair. We got there at a minute to 10 and pinched the very last parking space , and just in time as a whole stream of cars queued up behind us! The hall isn't very large and was packed with stalls selling really excellent crafts. No crinoline lady toilet-roll covers to be found here, let me tell you! And on our way in we clocked the tea-room, already doing a roaring trade, and agreed to pop in when we'd finished inside.

Making our way straight to the back of the hall we found Jane-Ann with her stall Piece Works.

              Lovely up-cycled textile pieces inspired by the garden, and beautifully presented.

Next door we found Nadine with her bright and cheerful rag rugs.

                     Nadine works traditionally, using recycled fabric on a hessian backing.

Auriel Mims's stall was packed with wonderful carved wooden dolls and sculptures. She also makes traditional jig-dolls, which I have seen used at the East Anglian Traditional Music Day so we had a chat about folky stuff while I snapped away with my camera.

Then I came upon a new friend from Jane-Ann's group, Jackie Grimble, who was there with her incredible hooked dog portrait cushions. Jackie uses the softest merino wool for these faces and they are wonderfully life-like.

Kate Brouwer, makes thrown and hand-built porcelain items, and I had to treat myself to the prettiest pair of blue and white earrings! Like I need more earrings!

                  Her stall was almost Japanese- like in its simplicity. Lovely delicate colours.

How could you resist these wonderful textile animals? Helen Akers uses recycled fabrics for her creations.

These lovely garments and accessories for children were made by Auriel's daughter who works as "Mim's Heritage". Each item is made from restructured boiled wool, and individually hand-made and finished. I thought these little tunics were adorable.

I was very taken with Madeleine Spencer's hand-made silver and beaded jewellery, and very tempted too!

Unfortunately my camera battery died on me - yes I know I should have checked it last night, but I didn't. So there are some stalls which I have had to miss out, sadly. But I did manage to include this stall, and I would have been spitting feathers had I not!

Meg Foster's stall "The Yarn Gardener" could have been laid out with Yvonne in mind - look at this colour scheme!

That ball of wool above has my name on it - and into my bag it did go!!  Meg, it turns out, actually did a rag-rug course with Yvonne some years ago, and now writes and produces beautiful knitting patterns and kits, using the most mouth watering wools you could imagine.

And speaking of mouth watering - we did go and have a cuppa and a piece of cake - you should have seen the size of the meringues! All baked beautifully by Back To The Garden, a farm shop, cafe and restaurant in Letheringsett.

So I hope you've enjoyed your virtual tour round the craft fair, it certainly cheered us up. Wrap up warm in the days to come, the weather report doesn't sound too good - and I m off up to Harrogate on Friday - no snow yet, please!!