The post

I have been very busy recently with non creative work and I don't have any work of my own to show just now apart from the work that is going to be in the SerenTex exhibition showing in the Rhuddlan Library Gallery from November the 8th until December the 20th. This a map to help you find Rhuddlan Library
9 Vicarage Lane,
Rhuddlan,
Rhyl,
Clwyd, LL18 2UE


The postman brought me all these goodies this week.
The arch on the left was from Hannah in Australia who has just had a holiday in the UK. It's lovely. This is her blog Textile Artist at Work She also has a website hannahkatarski

The arch on the right is another fantastic arch sent by Kate North Kate's Quilting (& other fibre arts) Blog
from London. Thanks you both.
The beautiful postcard in the front came from the the USA. Nadine is a Canadian from Montreal who is just settling down after her move to San Fransisco. Nadine Fenton is a jewellery maker who also loves knitting. This is her blog Knitting with a Poodle

Ruthin Craft Centre

Yesterday I visited the new Canolfan Grefft Rhuthun - Ruthin Crafft Centre. It was a very short visit and I was unlucky enough to choose a day when they were changing the exhibitions in the galleries. I was still able to see the work and books in the shop and I was also able to peep into Cefyn Burgess' workshop at the centre. I was rather unlucky here too as Cefyn was busy with a class of students in the little workshop.
Instead I went outside and picked up loads of beautiful coloured leaves just blown off the trees.



I just love these colours.


And the shape of this dry leaf!


Then of course I could not resist playing with the photos in PaintShopPro9. I do have the latest PSP but still prefer using PSP9.

Stevie Walker

Last weekend I was fortunate enough to go on a course with Stevie Walker who is a wonderful textile artist and tutor. This is my unfinished piece of work above, there is more stitching to do and then I will wash the Romeo cold water soluble stabilizer out of it and hopefully it will look better. I had taken a photo of the castle on a misty day and the foreground stood out clearly. I think I might have another go as I quite like the effect.


This is work done by the class and there were some wonderful samples.


Here is Sue of Golden Hinde - Threads of Inspiration & Imagination having a well desrved rest with a cup of tea. The website is worth a visit.


What a busy class!

I had a very busy and creative week last week and this week is going the same way. Above is a painting I made at the SerenTex meeting a week on Tuesday after watching Miriam demonstrate an exercise from the book Celebrate Your Creative Self: More Than 25 Exercises to Unleash the Artist within, Mary Todd Beam. I am pleased with it as I can see it in fabric with all the folds and pleats. It should be fun trying to create a textile piece from the inspiration. I shall post the rest of the work on SerenTex when I have some time to spare. It was great meeting.


The North Wales Branch Embroiderers' Guild is a very active group and once a month we have a Members Day, which I call a Playday. Last Thursday Moya our Chairman demonstrated some Flower brooches she’d seen, using organza, an embellisher and a heat gun. Then we all had a great time creating our own, but unfortunately I didn’t have my camera with me, so you will have to make do with the one I made (above)
I wrote one of my longest posts in a long while, which took me about an hour only to lose it all when trying to save it as Blogger was having a Scheduled Outage at 8 pm and I hadn’t noticed and it only lasted for 10 minutes, but that must have been when I decided to save. Drat, I lost it all. This post is shorter and I will post the rest tomorrow instead.

A busy week

Saturday and Sunday I joined Stevie Walker's course called Patterns of the Earth. She is a great tutor and we had a most enjoyable couple of day, learnt a lot and the work we made turned out well.


As you can see, everyone is engrosed in what Stevie is showing us.


Sue is having the cup of tea she really deserved as she was well ahead with her work. Have a look at The Golden Hind

Wet and damp

Today has been wet and damp, but with loads of photo opportunities.

I love to see the pigeons on the roof opposite and today there were more there than usual.


The camera always comes out when I see the trees on the shore opposite look like this.


The sun came out for short periods now and then and showed the patchwork of fields on the hills.


You could almost see the trees changing colour. I hope the wind forecast in the next few days does not blow all the leaves away before they change colour.


More rain on the way!


I did get time to use my embellisher and below is a digital image. Ths is my way of relaxing.

Decaying Catalogue

To avoid confusion about the contents of my last post. Firstly, no, I'm not really mad, just sound a bit mad at times. Maggie Grey has not told us to dry out our catalogues yet, it's just that I felt this one had been weathered a little too much as it was and I decided to dry it out. Wait for the signal from Maggie before bringing all the catalogues in to dry! I think it will be a while yet before she does that. I just read on magstitch that it might be a good idea to spray the catalogue generously with disinfectant and I have just given this one a liberal spray of floral disinfectant!


I also took this photo of "my" castle while I was out yesterday.

The Saga of the Decaying Catalogue

As some of you know I live in a Flat(Apartment) and we moved here because I loved the view. We do have a garden, looked after by a gardener, but when you want to hide a catalogue under a bush, it does create a slight problem. The gardener would probably throw it away and my neighbours would think I was mad if they saw me hiding it there and checking on it every few weeks. Maggie Grey fans will all know what I'm talking about here and for the odd one who doesn't know, take a look here.
Maggie's latest book, Textile Translations - Mixed Media is out and you will be able to order it at D4daisy Books Maggie Grey Textile Explorations page


But the Gods took a hand and as I was out walking this afternoon I came across an old catalogue already decaying nicely! My only worry is that it was already hidden by another Maggie fan. My husband accompanied me and reminded me how many dogs were taken walking along the lane every day, so I came home without it. I e-mailed a few Dodger friends and another Maggie Maggie Harris would you believe, persuaded me to take out my rubber gloves and a plastic bag and go back for it. Which I immediately did, just in case someone else took a fancy to it. I got DH to take a photo of me on the way out. Does that make it Three Mad Maggies do you think?


I went over the style and crossed the railway line, waited until a few of the other walkers had gone by, looking furtively to each side, using my rubber gloves I shook off the insects that lived in it and put it in my plastic bag.



I took a photo of it in situe first though.


Then another after washing it carefully in the sink. It's very fragile.


Now it is drying in the sun in our little sun room, this will take some time I should think though as we don't get many sunny days any more.

Postcard Workshop and Gwenfai's Quilt

I know many of you will be very envious when I tell you where I've been today! You will see from the Title it was a Postcard Workshop, but we had a very special tutor. It was Gwenfai Rees Griffiths, the famous North Wales Quilter who was the Winner of the Large Traditional Patchwork quilt at the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham this year and if I understood correctly she heard today that she's also a winner at Houston. You will find her winning quilt by clicking on the Title of this post or paste this into your browser. http://www.twistedthread.com/uploads/FOQ%202008%20Presentation.pdf on page 29.

We all had a thoroughly enjoyable day. These are some of the poscards we made.




I finished this postcard in class using Gwenfai's design and below is the one I designed myself, which I finished after coming home. This is proof of how much I enjoyed the class, I still have things from the odd class unfinished, but I wanted to complete this one tonight.

A busy week

You don't normally find family photos on my blog, but I thought I'd share this one with you. It's my grandsons in their fancy dress for European day, I made the waistcoat and the white trousers and was very pleased to see they fit so well.


It was the annual concert of the Maelgwn Male Voice choir last Saturday and the guest vocalists were Alfie Boe, the well known tenor and another excellent tenor Richard Allen and the beautiful soprano Elin Manahan Thomas. Above is a photo of my husband and his sister ready to go to the theatre.


This photo shows the sitting room where I normally spend time at the computer, but converted into a bedroom for my sister in law this week.


This is how my shell work is developing slowly. There are more samples of work done by some of the other members of SerenTex on our website here.


I have also been playing with various things on my embellisher as you can see.