Textiles On The Hill

There is a post on The Material Girls blog all about  the weekends event and my images are over there, so please pop over for a look, but don't forget to come back, I'd miss you! Apart from being busy I did manage to buy a few things as usual from that temptress Denise from Craft Arena, and who could resist buying a couple of Helen Wilson's prints from The Material Girls Shop. And then to top it all I just had to buy Lynda Monks book and some of her foils, a weekend of bliss spent with lovely people and it was so nice to meet up with old friends ( I don't mean old, I mean friends I've known for a long time, they could be reading this!) and family especially the young ones..... I managed to get a cuddle while her Mum, Dad, Nan, Auntie and Uncle looked at the exhibits.  There was time to speak to a lot of new people some who said they read my blog so hello there, hope you enjoyed the day.

Ella with her Uncle James

Two Prints by Helen Wilson

Lots of Inspiration in Lynda's book!

Today has been a chill out day, a visit to the shops a bit of ironing, writing the blogs. Also I find it hard to believe that today is the second anniversary of my Mum's death, sometimes it feels as though it was yesterday and sometimes it feels as though she's been gone for ever, especially when something happens that I would love to have told her. For instance she would have been there this weekend and enjoyed it all and I know she would have helped in the kitchen making tea.  Then last week my daughter got a new job, the job she should have tried for when she graduated from university. Mum would have loved it all!

I should say thanks for all you good luck posts and those of you that were working or also exhibiting at the weekend I hope you enjoyed yourselves as much as I did!

Where has it gone?

Time just flies by and I'm struggling to get everything done especially keeping my blog up to date. In the previous post  I said I was going to get a gallery set up of the quilts I've made, nothing yet, I still plan to do that! The trip to London and the British Museum was a success, I had already decided on my theme for the next Material Girl project but it was an enjoyable day. Oh yes, thanks for the 'sympathy' I seemed to give you a laugh about the VERY felted bag. Never defeated I made another bag this time it turned out OK ( I cant find the image at the moment) and the first lump of felt has been used to great advantage, watch this space! So nothing lost only time.....

Despite the bad weather we've been experiencing here, I've had a lovely week.  Here's why Julie at THIMBLE FINGERS awarded me a blog award, I've been following Julie for long time she just celebrated finishing a distance learning C&G course. I'm full of admiration for anyone that completes a distance learning course, it takes a lot of dedication, please pop over to her blog and have a look at her wonderful images not only of her work but also places she visits in her home country Australia! I was also really flattered not only for the award but to be on the same list as Louise Gardiner, I was lucky enough to attend one of Louise's classes at the Jersey Textile in Focus two years ago, you can see the results of that here

The Liebster Award is a blog award, which apparently originated in Germany, to showcase bloggers with fewer than 200 followers.  Upon accepting the award the recipient must then pass it on to five more blogs of note, which is a wonderful way of introducing bloggers to your own favourite blogs.

The Liebster Convention says you must:-

1. Thank your award presenter on your blog and link back to him/her;

2. Copy and paste the award to your blog;

3. Present the Liebster Award to 5 blogs (with less than 200 followers) that you love;

4. Leave a comment on their blog to let them know;

5. Have faith that those award winners will spread the blog love.

I now get to pass this award onto five other blogs that I read and enjoy, easy I thought, but I discovered it's not as easy as you might think. The problems I found are not all bloggers publish their followers and a rule of this award is the blog has to have under 200 followers. I wish I could give all the blogs I read an award you all deserve one but here are my five;

Lyn at stitch&bake 
Su at Living On The Edge
Jacqueline at Super Gran
Anna at inky fingers
Chris at chrissythreads

Please pop over to these blogs and have a look, I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.
I was over the moon to have a piece of my work mentioned on Lynda Monk's blog this week, Lynda will be doing a demonstration at The Material Girls- Textile on the Hill event towards the end of this month, take a look here for more details of the event.

These are images of Water Water, that Rachel took at the Brentwood Road Gallery,  it was so difficult to photograph I keep meaning to try again but..........
To top off last week on Sunday I went to see the Lucian Freud exhibition at the Portrait Gallery, I'm not a big fan of his later work and I must admit I came away from the exhibition feeling the same!! Why go you may be thinking, well Rachel had booked the tickets then realised she had something else on and couldn't get a refund. She offered the tickets to us, as Dave and I are all for broadening our minds we decided to go. The best bit of the day was afternoon tea at The Langham, we came away totally full and as a picture is worth a thousand words, ( I did forget to take a photo of the six scones, yes six and no we didn't eat them all).

Sandwiches!

Cake!

Same Cake but closer!

Out for Lunch!

It's been a really busy week lots of stitching trying to get the second baby quilt finished, photos when both are completed. Thursday evening I met Dave and Rachel in London and we went to Chris Spencer's Graduation show at a gallery in Shoreditch, a 'trendy' part of East London. The gallery was packed it was so hot, I didn't worry too much about looking at the work, I knew I'd be back the following day! The three of us then went to S&M (Spitalfield's) for dinner, it was lovely to see Rachel as I've not had a chance to catch up with her since Dave and I came back from our holiday.

By Christine Spencer

Friday it was back on the train to London, (I don't know how I did that every day) I met with the rest of the Material Girls and had a good look at all of  the work. Chris's work is lovely, but the light in the gallery didn't do it justice 'in my opinion'. As for the rest of the work, some I loved some, some I liked and one ? But that's what 'ART' is all about isn't it? Then it was out for lunch, back again to Spitalfield's with the Material Girls, Janette Bright, Lesley Turner (there are images of the show on Lesley's blog), Ingrid Lincoln the later two are from Articulation and two of Chris's co-graduates. We had a long and leisurely lunch, nice food and lots of chat. It was really lovely to meet Lesley as I've read her blog but it's nice to meet in person. Ingrid and Lesley will be graduating next year so I'm looking forward to visiting their show. The Material Girls and Articulation are joining together for an Exhibition 'Bridging Waters' in 2012 in London, the work will be traveling to Canada in 2013, really exciting!

Jill Material Girl-Janette, Lesley

Yesterday I attended a workshop in Chelmsford run by Lynda Monk, it's the second workshop of Lynda's I've attended. If I get a chance I'd attend a third, fourth........ 

Images of my work above, I have a book that's in the process of being finished too!
For more images see Sharne's blog . 

Did I get a chance to put my feet up today no! Out shopping, well a girl can never have enough shoes, lets hope these don't cause blisters!!!!!! I hope they don't I've two trips into London planned for this week!
 Oh yes! My back is so much better, going back for another session tomorrow. And the work still hasn't appeared and no reply. Thank you for your comments on that, it does help. I'll wait for the Karma!

Vessel

I'm really pleased with how this has worked out, I've lots of ideas of how I can use this in future projects. So thanks again Lynda.

Below a close up.

I was a bit unsure on how to colour the inside, but I think it looks fine. I do need to buy more gesso, I ran out and needed to improvise.

Where has the time gone?

I cant believe that it's been so long since my last blog. During this time I visited the 02 exhibition at Hyde Hall another three times (I'm not a stalker honest), it was just a really good exhibition in a great venue and a good place to meet up with friends for lunch!

My Mum's house has sold and so I've been busy sorting out the final pieces of furniture trying to get them a good home. James and Becky have sold their house and are moving in the next month, Rachel moved into a new rental house with a friend of James' so everything is changing here!

My weight loss seems to have stopped the last two weeks I've stayed the same, not good, I need a bit of a kick. I'm still going to the gym three times a week, and today I enrolled on a Yoga course. This should be interesting............watch this space.

We have also had a few family get togethers, I met up with my cousins for a really nice evening. Then the next day Jacqueline's Mum and Dad celebrated their Diamond Wedding Anniversary,it was a lovely day the weather was kind so we could sit in the garden. My Dad had been Uncle Alf's best man. They received a special delivery of a card from the Queen and the local paper sent a photographer to take pictures. It's good to have something nice happen.This weekend started with an ERTF Tea and Textile this was an Essex event at Julie's in a lovely setting for more information see ERTF blog and Craft Arena. Lorraine and Janette are having a good time! Saturday I went to a fabulous workshop held by Chelmsford EG, it was one of the best I've ever been to Lynda Monk was so generous with her information and instead of taking lots of bits with us Lynda provided a goody bag with everything we needed, right down to labels so we could identify our work and remember what we had used in our samples. Everyone came away with a vessel started. Really I wish we'd had a weekend with her, a really big thank you Lynda . I'm a new member of Chelmsford Guild and they make me feel very welcome. Sharne and Lynda with a few of Lynda's samples that she provided for us to look at.

Well that's about it, except this week I'm going back to the Quilting group that I had to leave when I started doing my City and Guilds because they clashed. It will be nice to meet up with them again after a three year break. My friend Kath that goes to the group is about to become a Grandmother for the first time so I've knitted a little jumper for her new addition, just need to sew on the buttons!