Give-aways

It’s a time of celebration here in the UK and it is hard not to get caught up in it whether you are a royalist or not, especially when asked to dress in red, white and blue for various outings to mark the Queen’s Jubilee.

There will be some giveaways here over June and July. The first one will be a thank you to those of you who read the blog and keep me enthusiastic about creating. The ‘prize’ will be - not a flight in a vintage plane - just a piece of my work. To be in it to win it you need to leave a comment on this post and join the Followers list if you are not already on it. It will be a random draw.

The second draw is for those who have joined ‘Stitched’ and to mark six months of the workshops. I will be giving away the small decorative bag made from the printed and stitched fabric linked to my workshop ‘Let’s Play Noughts and Crosses’. Access to the workshops for the next six months is now only half the original cost.

I will make both draws when I get back from holiday about the 24^th June.

Bandage

I seen to have inherited quite a lot of old bandage. The previous generation were keen on keeping
First Aid boxes which appear to have never been used.

I'm pleased that my Embellisher gives me a use for most of them.

Alma Stoller is celebrating her 40th birthday with a $40 dollar reduction in the registration fee for the next six months of Stitched. See the link in my side bar for more details of the workshops. In June I will be having a give-away linked to my workshop. Alma is also having a draw in which you can win threads over the next few weeks.

Out of interest, I have not used the 'gotcha' code when people post for at least a year and hardly ever get any spam now that Blogger has sorted it out  - I must say I find it increasingly difficult to get the codes right first time.

For those people who wanted to see how I use the bandage, here it is embellished.

Work in progress.

I am currently working on a piece of hand made felt and found my button collection,including some charming old covered shirt buttons. They seem to have been fixed with wire as each had a small piece of wire which I had to remove. I really like the cuts and traces of use on  the big cream button.


Over the next weeks Alma Stoller is featuring interviews she has done on her blog.
Here is a link to the blog interview I had with Alma  and a few pictures of varied work I have done over recent years.

http://www.almastoller.blogspot.co.uk/

'The Sketchbook Challenge'

Sue Bleiweiss' book linked to The Sketchbook Challenge will be published next month.
The publisher in New York had an event recently to promote  their new craft books and I was asked to send my sketchbook and the piece related to it for the event. I thought it quite funny that my book had winged its way to the USA and then made its way back, only to go Fedexing back to New York. You can see some slides of the event here:
http://crafternews.crownpublishing.com/2012/05/15/crafternoon-2012-recap-and-slideshow/

The Sketchbook Challenge started last year and provides a theme each month with the possibility of winning a prize in the monthly draw.There is a link in my side bar and more about Sue's work here:
http://suebleiweiss.com/blog/

Art in the home.

I was very pleased to be asked by Susan Bowers of 'Trace Marks' if a particular piece of my work was available to purchase. On her blog you can see her spacious studio and be even more envious when you see the works of art she has collected to make a calm background for her own creativity.

 My small textile piece 'Snow Writing' is in 'grand' company far away in Queensland.

I have a textile piece by Dionne Swift, a print by Cathy Cullis, and one by Pat Hodson on the wall in front of me as I type. It is really special to have an original piece of an artists' work, it makes a sort of connection with someone who may be working many miles away or with  someone whom one will never meet but already feel an affinity with and it is definitely a spur to ones' own creativity.  We should all do more of the kind of collecting which Susan does.

Exhibition

I was in London today and enjoyed the variety of work in the textile exhibition at the City Lit College in Holborn.The work is in the display cabinets on floors 3 and 4 and in the cabinets in the entrance. I was really pleased that all the work I sent is displayed in the foyer.

I took photos of other people's work and most of it I have the names of the artists for, where I don't I apologise and can only say that I appreciated the work and that is why it is shown  here.
Emma Parker on the Tuesday Evening Textile Course:-

Work by Katrina Parris:-

Work from the Drawing with Stitch course by  Madeleine Famurewa  which looks to be a lively course:

These are the pieces which I most admired:-

If you want to see the work you will have to hurry as there are only a few days left.

Exhibition

Student textile exhibition

Students from various textile courses are displaying their work at City Lit 

Work will be by students from 'The textile course: day and evening', 'Creative stitched textiles', 'Costume Design' and short courses in 'Mixed media textiles' and 'Fashioning fabrics: collars, cuffs and corsages'. 

When: 26 April - 9 May 2012
Where: Third and fourth floors and also in the foyer at City Lit's Keeley Street site