Textile Jaunts

No, I didn't polish off all of this! Just a 'remains of the day' shot of the detritus of last week's Stitch and Bitch. It was a post-birthday meeting, so there had to be cake...no, honestly, they twisted my arm...... and pressies, it was lovely.

And lots of work was done too, so that was pretty good.This is the beginnings of a wool cushion cover.

Love working with wool/felt/felted blanket, just so soft and NO TURN-UNDERS! Though I do love needle-turn applique, I have to say.

So that was a jaunt to mine, you might say. I took a jaunt out off to Heacham for coffee with S&B Lynne, and before I got to hers I popped into a lovely shop just up the road from her house, called Bradfields, an old fashioned hardware shop circa 1898 which has moved with the times and become a wonderful home furnishings and accessory shop. I was meeting with Pam, the owner to discuss some workshops which I'm putting on later this year. I'll take some photos, as the room we will be using is part of the old house which has been  renovated and decorated and is just gorgeous. I want to move in!
So I shall be doing a mixture of one-day workshops, and some on-going classes. More  anon, but it's quite exciting to be planning workshops again -  I haven't done any for ages, totally went off the idea some years ago.

Another textile jaunt for me happened this weekend, when I took myself over to Norwich, to the Dragon Hall, a wonderful mediaeval building run by a trust, where numerous workshops take place , including several textile related classes. I was doing a class run by lovely Teena Vallerine, whose blog kitschen pink I have read and enjoyed for ages. Teena creates lovely textile pictures using bonded applique and simple embroidery - the whole process is simple but the results are fabulous! And Teena is very laid back and accepting, it's a very unthreatening workshop, we had a great relaxing time and throughly enjoyed ourselves. The earlier classes had been quite large, but we were lucky there were only four of us so we had Teena's undivided attention.  Here are the results of our labours:

This is Pat's picture, she has used that lovely scroll stitch on this flower. We only really got onto the stitching way after lunch, as the preparation and positioning takes a lot of careful thought.

Joy, choosing just the right shade of thread to make her flower 'pop'!

And this is Margaret's. She was a newcomer to bonded applique and boldly set off in a landscape direction. Her choice of fabric for the sky is inspired, I think.

And this is mine, sorry, I am in a tearing hurry and i know I should tip these photos but I haven't the time. Tip your head, instead! I now think I need a flower slap bang in the centre to balance the whole thing, so will titivate things later on. So far my embroidery is very, very basic. But it will develop. I'm really enjoying doing this. Do you like my 'in yer face' colour choices?? A whiff of the Indian sub-continent, I think.

Here are some shots of Teena's work, but you can get a much better idea from her website/blog.

Lovely, isn't it? She really has the 'eye' for placement and design. And was also very generous with her fabric and scrap stash! We'd all taken stuff, in fact one or two of us had been panicking, and worrying about whether we'd packed the right things, having so much to choose from!  However I think we all dived into the scrap pile and and came up with our hearts desires. It was a lovely day, thanks Teena for a great class, and to Joy, Margaret and Pat, lovely meeting you, hope your finished pictures are all you'd hoped they would be.

On my way to Norwich, the sun was shining, and as I drove through the dappled light in the country lanes to reach the A47 (the story of my Norfolk life is writ large on that road!) I was thinking how fortunate I was, a day to myself in congenial complany, stitching, sunshine, and Jim doing the vacuuming at home, bless his cotton socks. Then just as I left to come home, the heavens opened. It was torrential! Only a short sprint to the car. But I don't sprint, so I did get a bit of a soaking. Never mind, soon warmed up with the heater on, it's just that I drove home with the odour akin to damp dog pervading the car. Ah well, you can't have everything!