Where to start?

You probably havn't noticed much difference as the gaps are pulling out between my postings here, but we have been away on the first of this year's holidays.  (Oops, that's a lie, we went to Cardiff, didn't we?).  

We've just got back from our favourite place, St Ives, and as usual had a fabulous time, meeting up with old and new friends, visiting gardens and galleries and getting slightly crafty.  So, where to begin?  Since this is supposed to be a creative blog I think I'll start there first.

Last year, as you may remember, I did a day's workshop with Dionne Swift at the Festival of Quilts on Developping Sketchbooks.  Dionne also offers this workshop online with the ability to have access to the videos and Facebook group for 2 weeks so I decided to 'repeat' the experience but with much more time to devote to it.  I started watching the videos before we went away and carried on with the course while we were in St Ives.

You can probably guess the theme of the sketchbook but I have to say that it was a really good decision to work the course again.  Dionne's videos are always concise and encouraging and there is a clear path moving through the procedures for building the sketchbook which can be used with any future theme you may care to choose.  My head is still full of ideas and possibilities for future work with circles and I have enough pages to make two sketchbooks and probably more on this theme.  It was lovely to have the extra time to play and the more I played the more ideas came to me.  Equally the Facebook page set up for all the participants to interact if they wished was invaluable.  It was great to see some of the work others were doing and to get feedback both from Dionne, who was tireless in her support, and from the group.  

I've made a start on a new book on a new theme and I'm hopeful that this time I will keep up the good work.

The crafting theme continued while I was away with a fused glass taster session with Terri Bunn in St Ives.  It was lovely to share this with my very dear friend Carolyn Saxby and a new friend, Margaret Garrood.

Margaret and Carolyn in Terri's studio.
 

This is the lovely Terri  showing us some of her work.

 I think you could say it was a bit of a breezy day.

This is Carolyn and I with the finished product.
 

And the lovely Margaret with her fabulous knobbly coaster.  The knobbly blobs were accidental but Carolyn and I loved them, very tactile!

Above, my coaster with spirals which are just visible.

Margaret gave me this lovely gift of fabrics (dyed by her), sari silk, buttons and a card holder.

As you might expect DH and I took many, many photographs while we were away, despite having taken 1000's already so there'll be more to come in a future post.   I will leave you with one or two to whet your appetite.

The intrepid photographer!
 

The view from our rental.

St Ives in a foggy mood.
 

And finally, an exceptionally low tide.