http://www.berninablog.com/2012/02/februar-2012-im-bernina-kalender-2/

I’ve also been collecting the black and white drawings of the maps and they are soon available in a little ring bound little book:  TextileARTistS can do MAPS…..

Gill has been taking a different view and with the help of dip pens and a selection of nibs, drawing with transferpaints on A4 paper then ironing the drawings onto a poly satin produced some gorgeous little gems – what to do with them next??

this last piece was made by Sophie Banner, she’s working on her A level art and is really enjoying the Saturday at the studio!

There is only place left on the denim bag workshop on the 27th January – brilliant day, brilliant result!!

If you fancy exploring and improving your sketchbook skills – then 9th and 10th of March is a perfect opportunity and combine this with making a couple of journal quilts too!!

I’ve changed the format for the Landscape from Above workshop, depending on demand it can be a 3-day or 4 day workshop; see the page for more details and they are now followed by the Festival of Quilts – photographs of some of my students work will follow soon…..

All these include delicious lunches lovingly prepared by John and some still have B&B available too.

My ‘Landscape’ book was their inspiration and they invited me to come and see it hanging up and meeting the head mistress Sarah together with the head boy and girl pictured above.

Before that I was in Germany in Aschaffenburg at Machemer where we did Sketchbooks and Journal Quilts – the ladies there worked very hard and above is a selection of what was produced.

At the end of November we did a Print and Stitch workshop in Holland – above you see some of the fabrics that were produced on the first day and below is the quilt Marjolijn van Wijk made using the printed materials.

The ‘Landscape from above’  course has produced some fabulous results – starting with painting a map on fabric, then colouring it in with procion dye, applying lines with soya wax then painting over that with thickened procion.  Cant wait to see the results when washed and dried in January. Pictures below

And to finish: we went to see Seth Lakeman in Bilston – haunting and mesmerising music, good looking guy as well…..

Come and have a look at our lovely new studio barn, with the added bonus of some lovely gift ideas for Christmas.

We’re open Friday evening from 6 – 10 for a glass of wine and nibbles and Saturday from 10 – 5 for a cup of tea or coffee and cakes.

our address is Littleheath Barn, Littleheath Lane, Bromsgrove, B60 1HU

This week we’re back from France, did quite a bit of travelling but finished up in the Alsace for a couple of days teaching at the Carrefour Patchwork in St. Marie aux Mines. Its a long way all the way diagonally across to the Alsace, but its soooo pretty, too perfect.  The villages are straight out of Hansel and Gretl,  competing who can have the most geraniums.  Every other house was a winery busy with their harvest, you just had to have a taste in most of them on the evening walk with the dog.  And the food, all yummy home cooked stuff in heaps!

We even caught the harvest fete, complete with folkore music and dancing, flammenkuche and wine of course.

visited quite a few of the shows in St. Marie and these were my favourites

and to finish  a gorgeous sunset on the beach at Les Rocher, near Jard….

summerschool

finally got round to putting some pictures up from the august summerschools at the barn, this is the work from Lya from the Netherlands

judith

this is judith, who arrived with a plough dyed piece of fabric and then made it even better.

the studio all dressed up ready for the party …..

on Monday I finally had time to do some printing and stitching and created a new ‘holiday bag’ out of an old pair of jeans.  Today we had 9 guys working hard on installing the pv panels and we’re creating power now,  the bio mass boiler is working and the ventilation system almost finished.  Appaarently we’re the first carbon neutral house in Bromsgrove! Icing on the cake..

Its looking good.

I’ve also finished the third week of teaching in the barn, its all gone very well, very relaxed and extremely creative.  The room has proved very easy to work in and the lunches have helped too. Already there has been interest in the course next year and I’ve organised a weekend printing and stitching 2-day course for the 24 and 25 September.  Details will be posted on this site next week.

If you are interested; drop me an email or pop in to see me in at the Festival.

gorgeous sample, would make a lovely card

and to finish off – here’s the front cover of my new book. I’ve looked through the proofs and its ready to print now, ready for the Festival in August and available from my website as soon as I’ve taken delivery. Will keep in touch.

Lovely inspiration for some printing I think…

Finished a two day class today making landscapes and these are the results with their makers

and the teacher – also did a talk at lunchtime with powerpoint totally out of order, more practice needed – but having some real quilts to show made up for it.

Just another two more days before I fly back and onto the boat to France – hope its warm there. The ghost walk last night was soooo cold even the ghost stayed in.

and a lot of happy quilters after the first day of the sheer landscapes.

Today I also had a look around the quiltshow, the theme is alive with colour and it certainly is – these are some of my favourites.
Chessboard to freedom by Roy Starke

This was a group quilts – quite stunning in ‘the flesh’

Integration by Susan Wessels

Will try and keep you updated a bit every day. Tomorrow I’ve got a day off and have been invited for a ‘braai’ – nice to have abreak.

At home things are going sort of well.  JB’s still trying to empty the old house, struggling with BT and all hands on deck to get the barn finished. Kitchen is coming in on Monday.  Missing it all very much and feel I really should be there….

My mum was over for the occasion as were the rest of my family and even friends all the way from Australia made the trip especially to see the happy couple get married at Tardebigge Church near Bromsgrove with a marquee in the church grounds.The barn in the meantime is being plaster boarded – ready for plastering this weekend and onwards.It looks so much better with a white coat.  In the meantime we’ve chosen floor tiles and bathroom tiles, but we’re still waiting for electricity!!! This is the corridor that leads from our living into the studio – that’s still waiting for its inner coat of pinboard and plasterboard.  We’re also close to signing and exchanging contracts so might have to move in and camp out.  Hopefully the combination of a long light summer evenings, a gas barby, a gym membership for showers and our kind neighbours electric cable will make it bearable.  Can’t wait……

I finally got round to making a bag and use the beautiful leather handles from Jutta in Germany, they are now available to buy from my website. I used some of my vintage monogrammed French linen and rollered, printed and overprinted this to make the art cloth, then quilted it and hey presto. This is the other side.

Tempted? You can make your own either at the summerschool ‘Creating Art Cloth’ on the 15th, 16th and 17th of August or join the course starting in October.  It will also be made into a new one day workshop where you print plain fabric in the morning and make the bag in the afternoon. I’ve also been busy printing pashmina – they turned out gorgeous!

And to finish a photo taken in Cornwall last weekend, again full of sunshine and everything Cornish! Makes a change from barn pictures; it keeps progressing well, but the boys are having some time off this weekend.  They’ve gone to Amsterdam to celebrate Piet’s stag weekend. Sunshine, beer and other ‘things’ no doubt.

it’s made all the difference. Inside the walls have gone up with ceiling joists on top and it’s beginning to look like a house.

I’ve also been to Germany and did a show and workshop at Aschaffenburg:

and there was the landscape inspired workshop as well, with some gorgeous pieces being created from art cloth etc.

this just  shows what can be done with a starting point, turning it into a nice abstract wallhanging  and a little bag made with the leftovers.

another piece of artcloth was cut up and made into a wallhanging, just the quilting to do…

Last weekend we went to Beer in Devon where we celebrated Gem’s hendo.  Beer has some fabulous galleries and the weather was glorious  

and we also had some fun