Catching Up Again

The last few weeks have been a mixed bag of busyness and a grotty cold.  We won't dwell on the cold which knocked me for six as I'm much better now, but I will share with you some of the busyness.

Last weekend I recovered enough to go on a coach trip to the Fashion Embroidery and Stitch Show at the NEC.  When I first arrived in the Halls I was delighted to see the guitarist that we had met at the Malvern Show.  David Jaggs played his delightful guitar music of all styles throughout the day and it felt very restful to enjoy a break from the hurly burly having a cup of tea and listening to his guitar drifting in the air.

If you go to David's site you can download sample tracks of his music which is very varied from classical through Spanish to versions of pop classics.  I treated myself to his Recitals CD.

I have to admit that Ididn't take many photos at the show but I will share what I did take.

 On the Madeira stand Michala who blogs as KaylaCoo was demonstrating her beautiful combination of felting and machine embroidery.  When I arrived at the stand she was wrestling a large blanket through the machine in order to add elaborate stitching.  It was interesting to see the amount of effort that was required to achieve a tension under the needle.  Michala's work has a wonderful painterly quality, inherited no doubt from the amount of preparation she undertakes with her paintings and drawings.  It was lovely to meet up with a fellow blogger.

An exhibit that caught my eye was the work of Susan Chapman.

I was particularly attracted to the flowing, drifting nature of her work.  You can read more about her work in the Gallery section of her website and she has some close up views of the work on the stand above on her Flickr pages shown in her sidebar.

Sadly Blogger is now refusing to post any more photos so I will cut short this post and try and continue tomorrow.  I still have to show you work by Christine Hudson, postcards by the West Country Embroiderers and some of the dresses from the series Downton Abbey (I need to write this here or I will forget what else I was going to say).  See you soon.

How Long?

Two weeks since I blogged?  Can't be!  Actually it is and it's not as if I havn't had things to blog about as I've been busy but I've also been exhausted and a bit bleugh about making the effort so I apologise for being a lazy Blogger.

First of all, I should say that with all the stuff flying about on the net about Pinterest, I have decided to leave until it all gets sorted out.  I have finally read the Terms and I feel it is a copyright minefield and I don't want to be the one who may get sued, and I also object to the fact that they can apparently sell your boards.  So, goodbye Pinterest!  Oops!  Should have bookmarked my favourites first!

So what's been happening in my neck of the woods?  Last week saw DH and I on a coach trip to the Creative Crafts Show at Malvern.  I've not been to this Show before and although it was a small affair we did enjoy our day.  It was a real mix of papercrafts, stitch, knitting and strangely people selling knife sharpeners!  What was that all about?  

 I did succumb to a little shopping.  The LOVE symbol is so Mum and I can hopefully indulge in a little collaging.  I won't call it decopatch as I didn't buy the papers but I'm hoping to interest Mum in sticking some St Ives-y coloured papers onto it.  And what about that fabulous yarn?!  It is the most sumptuous of sea colours and it just leapt into my hands!  What can I say?  The yarn came from the stall of ehdknits run by the very friendly Erica and if you visit the site prepare to be very tempted.  So many gorgeous yarns and threads, especially the sequined silk yarn!

Food played a lively part in the day and you can see DH enjoyed the Danish we shared. (Well I have to get my own back for a pic of me he's put on his blog!)

The Show didn't keep us busy all day so we set off for a walk round the grounds looking for inspiration.  The photos above, showing a very misty day, were taken through a metal gate and while they're not wonderfully inspiring and not the best photos they have a certain something.  Walking a bit further we found textures to inspire us.

An old notice board should give lots of opportunites to play and I couldn't resist the oak leaf in the tarmac below.

Mossy paving could be useful

and I love Silver Birch trees.

So what else?  Remember my excursion into Roman Stripes?  Well, I put the squares I had made in a safe place and, you've guessed it, they disappeared on a block vacation.  Having turned out every drawer and fabiric box over the last couple of weeks I finally decided I would have to bottom my sewing room if I was ever to find them.  Long story short, I started to straighten up my bookshelves and peeking out from under some sketchbooks, the blocks popped out.  Shrieking didn't come into it! lol  I am now busy making up the throw in a completely different arrangement from the ones I was considering before and I'll show you it when I've got it together.

I don't usually like to make any comment on current affairs in this blog but I feel I have to express my terrible sadness at the loss of six young lives in Afghanistan this week. R.I.P