This and that

I haven't done much blogging over the past two weeks but lots of creative sewing for my C&G diploma has been done. I am now working with designs taken from sprout stalks growing in the fields around my house. Life has not been very good this week, culminating in my mobile phone stopping working. Of course this had to happen when DS2 was late home from school, and DH had a piano lesson! Anyway after a long phone call to T-mobile an upgrade was agreed with lots of extra goodies including unlimited Internet access for the same price. I must say that T-mobile were really helpful, I know they probably need the business but they answered the phone straight away, no waiting and were very polite and helpful. The new phone will be delivery on Tuesday and then I can play. I hope though that the diary entries are saved onto my sim card as I know I have two workshops booked for 2011 that I had not transferred to my diary.

Yesterday I taught a Shibori class to an enthusiastic, wonderful group of ladies. I did take my camera along but often forget to take photos. There is a lot of hand stitching in this class and they all rose to the challenge. One lady had already done this class with me and she came with a wholecloth design on some cotton fabric. She spent the day sewing this but wasn't quite ready to start pulling up.

I always get a sense of concern at the end of this class as the fabric goes home in dye and the final result is out of my hands. I have asked for photos to be sent to me so I will post when I get some.

When life gets you down..

Drink coffee (decaffeinated, skinny latte) and read inspirational magazines.
Take photos of sprouts growing in a field.

And make chocolate cheesecake.
P.S Happy Valentines Day

Blog Award

Thank you Indigo Blue for giving me this sunshine award. It's my first blog award so I'm really pleased to have this colourful one to cheer me up.

I have the honour to pass this on so I have the pleasure of nominating -

Julie at Mixedmedia
Tina at Sweetypie50
Trudi at Quiltprolifically
Mark at A Smallholder's Diary

I hope you all enjoy it and pass on this little ray of sunshine.

Completed Miniature Quilt

Well, finally I have totally completed the miniature quilt for my C&G diploma including paperwork. It's taken a while with lots of understanding from my wonderful tutor, but here it is complete with hanging system and a few pages from my sketch book.

I rarely work in miniature and probably won't again (never say never though!) The extra good news is that I have also passed onto my next module which is all full of things I enjoy such as various different types of applique, tessellation, embellishments and mixed media. I will share progress with you.

Quilters Guild Day

Today I went to a Quilters Guild Region Ten area day. It was nearly a two hour drive through fog and icy roads and I had a back seat full of enthusiastic young quilters. I really enjoy these days as I see friends whom I have know for ten years but only see two or three times a year. Today was no exception and plans were also made to catch up with people at the Quilters Guild Conference next month where I will be teaching. I was determine however to take some stitching with me so I started machine quilting this last night and did manage to sew in some ends today.

The speaker today was Louise Presley from Hope and Elvis. She describes herself (quite rightly) as an artist and gave a really good talk which raised some interesting questions. One side of her business is connected with vintage textiles and things she makes from them, the other is more contemporary work much of which is Louise's response to things reported in the media. Perhaps the most important thing that I took away from her talk was that when I make my quilts I need to stay true to myself and let my creativity led me forwards and not other people's expectations.

My band of Younq Quilters had a great time as well, under the careful supervision of the YQ rep they made these chickens. Sue did not know when she planned this that all these YQ's own their very own chickens! This chick and rabbit were hand sewn by my son.