Back home

I arrived back home today after spending three days in Southport, teaching at the Quilters Guild AGM and conference. Unfortunately the camera usb cable has vanished and I am too tired to search properly. I stayed at the Prince of Wales Hotel and well, it is not somewhere I would want to go and stay again. They had a "function" on last night meaning loud, and I mean loud music until about 1.30am. The clocks changed which actually meant it was 2.30am. I was grateful though that I had a clean room as many others didn't. The reviews that are found on the internet are sadly true. The rest of Southport though was great, but more about that later.

Stitching superwoman

Well, its been quite a week which has left me feeling sorry for myself as I have succumbed to a heavy cold. A friend likened me to superwomen but I replied by saying,

"I've lost my halo and my wonderwomen knickers are in the wash. I've run out of batteries for my bionic arm and my cat woman whiskers are bent. I'm too fat for my pink PVC power ranger costume so I'm in a very bad way"

On a positive note (I'm not feeling sorry for myself really), I enjoyed the V&A museum and I have finished a mixed media sample for my C&G module based on bussell sprouts.




I'm not sure why the picture quality is so poor. DS has been messing about with the settings so I need to go hunt down the manual to sort it out. I am teaching at the Quilters Guild conference and AGM this weekend so need the camera to behave.

New phone

I can now blog using my phone. I'm not really that excited - honestly

Cabbages and Sprouts

Well the new mobile phone has finally decided to communicate with me but let's say that I'm a girl who likes to press buttons!!!

On a creative front I have finished the embellished sample above. When I put a lot of hand stitch onto pieces it some how feels like going back to my routes as I did lots of embroidery first before becoming a quilter. I hand dyed buttons and the three large do-nut shapes came from a charity shop belt which I also hand dyed. There are beads from broken necklaces, washers of varying sizes and some green net from a shower wash thing. I also used a broken zip. Here is more detail -

I used a hand dyed cotton base which was crinkled first to create more texture. I'll put my hand up though and admit that the crinkle fabric was for an Expedition Quilt Art Challenge, all embellishments for my Diploma

Contact Me

I think I posted that my mobile phone stopped working last week. My new one arrived today and I thought all my phone numbers would be on my sim card. Once the sim card was in the new phone I realised that I have lost all the numbers. The old phone is heading off to Nokia as it is still under warrenty.

So, if you know me please can you text me to give me you home/work/mobile numbers. My mobile number has not changed.

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