off to hopefully Summery climes?

Off on a Viking cruise -Berlin to Prague. All packed but not weighed, so hopefully not over the limit- that would be a first!

I have howcver spent all day trying to do on line check in - very frustrating but had success after about 20 attempts- mind you all best seats had been taken!!!

I will add some photographs when we return- hopefully good ones??? I do know I want to gather some info on Brandenburg Gate & the history of the wall, as our theme for next years exhibition is Freedom-

As well as packing clothes I have included a sketch book, paints etc- so should have time on the boat to admire the views, take some photos & do some sketching- well that is the plan!

Well signing off for now.

'Batik By-Pass'

Hi all after the great workshop 'design to Stitch' I have decided to run a new workshop 'Batik By-Pass' where we will explore the beautiful technique of Batik fabrics, but in an easy way-no messy dye vats. If we have time we will also be able to stitch & embellish our pieces or  just keep them as samples.

This will be held at Avant Garden Centre, Wigan Road, Leyland PR25 5XW on Tuesday 23rd June 10.00am to 4.00pm.

Cost is £40.00 which includes a light lunch in Avant Restaurant & tea/coffee & biscuits during the day- well worth it!!!

Contact Avant on 01772 433777 to book your place & obtain the requirement list. A non returnable deposit of £20.00 will need to be required.

Book cover 'Hints of Barcelona' based on work of Gaudi 

Book cover 'Crazy Batik' based on work of Hale Woodruff

Both the above pieces of work will be exhibited at 'Art & Soul' Samlesbury Hall in July and August.

Trip to Carnforth

Hi, me & my friend Chris decided to go on a train trip to Carnforth Station- the ultimate goal was to view the Arty Bird exhibition which was being held in the station heritage centre.

The weather was slightly iffy, as is British weather, so even though Mid May it felt like Winter, especially on the station platform in Preston, where we had to change trains for Carnforth. Good job I found my gloves in my jacket pocket!

As usual as soon as we arrived at our destination we decided to have lunch- we take 'ladies that lunch' to the extreme. As Carnforth town is very small, we found that Booths did a good warming soup & a sandwich- heaven!!! and for a change we did not have cake (we left that for later!)

I located a very old rambling book shop & as I normally do, bought three textile books for a grand total of £10.00 the lot- I will now have to read them all & find somewhere to put them- I do seem to have more books stashed away than our local library!!

After visiting a couple of charity shops & Chris spotting two new Viking luggage labels ( I am going on a Viking cruise at the end of next week) so very handy!!! We decided to hit the hot spots of Carnforth Station Heritage Centre.

What a treat, the station featured in the film 'Brief Encounter' so there was a room solely based on the film, with mementos & the film running- didn't we speak very beautifully then!!! There were also a few rooms showing the history of trains, WW2 & train posters etc.

After a good while searching we found the exhibition- beautiful felted & embroidered hangings & 3D objects- a real treat- well done ladies. I have included a few photos of the work , which I unfortunately did not note the artist against each piece- so I do apologise.

Sue Tyldesley's work

love this outfit

bag & lampshade

embroidered large piece

Then off to tea in the really atmospheric tea rooms- beautifully served on a tray, loose tea in a pot which obviously you need to pour using a tea strainer, and a large portion of apricot, sultana & ginger cake topped with cream icing. Blow the diet!!!

We then had to get 3 trains home, but had a very late dinner due mainly to the cake!!!
Good times.

Design to Stitch

Hi just back from workshop 'Design to Stitch' -great day & I think the six students that attended (2 were off sick) enjoyed it.

We had fun developing designs using collage, brusho, acrylic paint & inktense pens etc-some ladies finding it difficult to let go & be freer with their art work- but we got there in the end!!!

Then the hard part deciding which techniques would work best with their chosen designs- they all worked a background using different forms of paint & then some used bondaweb to position pieces of fabric to the background.

A few of the ladies used my embellisher & loved the quick & contemporary effects- others used free machine embroidery & some appliqued fabric.

Nobody had time to finish their pieces, but hopefully they will at home. The time just flies by!!!

However, they should all be pleased & proud of the results, producing abstract pieces, which all have the potential of being great art & good design.

So stitch away now!!!

Decisions, decisions???

In the Zone!!!

a bit blurred! I think they were worksing too fast!!!

embellished flowers

Helena's abstract Venice

Mary's Honesty machine embroidered

Ready for embellishing

Margaret's contemporary waterly piece

shapes of arches in a contemporary style

BOB

Hi dropped into Best of Britannia show in Preston on Friday- What talent we have in the North- from beautiful leather cases & bags to chocolate, handmade shoes to jewellery- UCLAN degree students work & promotion of Big Mill, which is a new enterprise which will showcase local artists work with the view for sale via the gallery or Internet.

Of course as I was in town I had to pop into Abacans, primarily to purchase a belt buckle for a bag(as you do!!)- however I came out with said buckle, some beads & two bags of leather, which was possibly in my mind after seeing the leather goods at BOB?

I then popped into M&S clutching a £10.00 voucher, & proceeded to buy 3 items of clothing in the sale!!! Why do I do it?? It is wiser for me to completely avoid any shops at all.

Yesterday after struggling at Patchwork classes with manipulated flowers (too precise for me) John & I went with 2 friends to see the 'Importance of Being Ernest' a classic , very wordy but funny. I do not know how actors can remember all those lines?

Today I am taking it easy at Johns, no rush!!!! however this afternoon its back to mine to fix a half removed toilet seat- which will possibly result in a Laural & Hardy Moment, as neither of us are very agile & the seat does not want to be removed & is in a very akward spot, No photos will be shown here!!!

Fun packed weekend

Hi on Saturday after a short notice situation I managed to book Katie Duxbury to give a talk at the Embroiderers Guild- what a find!!! She was a very good speaker, had some fantastic samples of her work and we were given a photo show of some of the clothes she had made for theatre, and also her own beautiful creations. These can be found on her website www-duxburydesigns.co.uk. 

Here are a few photos that I took, obviously with Katie's permission.

Dress made with small pieces of leather material 

Extremely heavy ornate necklet

Jaunty hat

Tiara

It seemed strange seeing photos of some of the costumes I had seen previously at the Promenade Plays in Lancaster- which are always fantastic.

On the Sunday, John & I met up with Caroline and Richard to visit Art in the Garden, which was set in a a beautiful garden belonging to Spring Bank House, Cow Ark in the Forest of Bowland, near Preston.
We had a great lunch, loads of laughs and met some artists I knew & some I now know.

I did not spend much -for a change- but bought a lovley carved mushroom (some sort of nut!) -not me I meant the mushroom!!! also bought 5 ceramic buttons- not sure when I will use them -but who cares???

So all in all a great weekend- here are some photos of the 5 acre garden- which is very slightly bigger than my postage stamp back garden.!!!

brooches!!!

Just made 8 more needle felted brooches- I don't seem to be able to work slowly , I seem to work a production line- maybe I should work in a factory??? Nah maybe not.

I did intend to do some gardening, but as usual my textiles came first & then it rained- so no go, unil next week- the poor plants bought in pots ready to put out will die from suffacation in their very small pots- let alone the slugs having a field day.

Anyway I think the brooches look okay- I have added hand stitch, beads & some dimensional paint to them .

Almost forgot I am in the process of setting up a website - hopefully it will be completed in next few weeks, assuming I can understand what i am doing!!! tecky not!

Photos below;

Big Mill

Caroline & I popped into Big Mill, Preston, today to see our work displayed which will hopefully sell via their new website when it is up & running next week.

Mike has certainly progressed with setting this up as an Art gallery & it looks to be a really good venture.

I have also discussed running an Encaustic Wax Jewellery workshop on 3rd October at the Mill, when Natural Progression's textile exhibition is on there 18th September to 17th October.

Before this we had been playing with needle felting some more brooches for future craft fairs & making weird tokens for the Skirmish weekend in August ( more to follow on this)

We also popped in the Mill, St Catherines Hospice for lunch, a bit pricey but helps towards funding the hospice,

Who said retirement was a time to wind down???

Here are some photos of the Big Mill

Art & Craft Fair Museum of Lancashire

Well we did the two day craft fair last weekend- I sold a few items -so not too bad- However, Caroline only having a few pieces in, did not fair so well & sold zilch! It is the first time that Hopeful & Glorious have held a fair at that venue, & business was slow all round. It did not help that our stall was in a small side room, which the public sometimes just walked past!!!! I am not sure whether they felt awkward going through a doorway or felt they were intruding.

However its all good experience & I quite enjoyed it.

Still the packing to put away. but hey ho it will get down eventually.

Here are some photos of the day- Strangly you will note we are both wearing orange tops???

Caroline looking happy-start of day one

Me looking reasonable!

day two- screen rearranged

Additional display-a chair!

Must look forward to the next one day fair at Helmshore Mill on Sat 13th June- whicvh I am doing alone.

Three Stitches Banner

At last I have made a banner that can be displayed on our stall at craft fairs. I found a piece of textured silky beige fabric, which I fringed & applied a silk fabric layered motif to.

I have used three colours of silk, one of which has been hand dyed in mottled purple/pink colours, with the other two being gold & jade silk bought in Varanasi, India.

I have taken a stencil which has been downloaded from Word, cut out & temporarily adhered this to the purple silk, which had been bondawebbed. I then cut around the shapes.

The jade & gold silk where used in the same fashion, but just cut out slightly bigger each time.

I then ironed the layers of the motif together (I removed the bondaweb backing each time), layering the purple ontop of the Jade with the Gold under.

The motif was then ironed onto the base beige silk, which was then free machined with zig zag stitch around the edges, using a random dyed cotton thread. Gold thread was then zig zagged around
the Jade/gold edges.

We will get a chance to use this at tomorrows Art & Craft fair at Museum of Lancashire.

close up

build up to craft fair - Hopeful & Glorious

Hi despite being ill with the 'Putrid Throat' (Poldark term) I have been extremely busy this week organising the work for the Art & Craft Fair at Museum of Lancashire being held this Sunday & Monday.

I managed to make six needle felted brooches, update the list of items to be sold & check through all the goodies, weeding out items I did not think would sell, especially 2014 diaries!

I also bought two display stands on ebay, from which I had to remove copious amonts of sticky residue from tape etc- half an hour later they look reasonable. Why do people sell stuff that needs cleaning???

However I can now display flyers etc in a more professional way, as you can see from the photo below. Pretty good eh??

The photos below have been taken in my Guest room (lets hope I have no unexpected guests!!!) they won't be able to sleep on the bed or the floor.!!!



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new brooches & stands

boxes galore