I can't believe my luck!!!

I have not been in school today as I have been on a first aid course in Brentwood, lovely tutors and feel that I learnt a lot. I decided to check my blog before getting ready to go out for a meal with Springfield Quilters, and I have won MAGGIE GREY'S scroll!!!!!!!!!! I have never ever won anything in any of the blog draws before and to win a piece of Maggie's work is like winning the lottery to me!

This 'n' that

I have not achieved much today, I think it could be due to the lack of sleep from Kezzy's sleepover, but I have had a tidy up in my play room. I bought this belt from Primark for £2.50 just for the lovely wooden beads.
So today I cut it up and sorted them to colour.

The felt beads I made yesterday at our Schoolhouse Arts Dabble Day were put out to dry in the sunshine and are now ready for me to embellish.


Kezzy took Muppety exploring in our garden, and then she had to do some homework.

Over the Easter holiday we had to save Capri drinks pouches for textiles. On Kezzy's last lesson, she was given double-sided tape instead of masking tape as an aide for holding them in place when stitching. The double-sided tape wouldn't peel off, so the sides, back and front had to be remade. We have been saving the pouches again, ( I have got everyone at school saving them too!) and this afternoon, we had enough to complete the main components. The base and handles have to be made, which is the next lesson.

I am now going to do some work on my bag, I haven't posted any photo's of it yet, as I wasn't sure that it was going to work. I am using a pot scourer as part of the decoration, so I will let you know later in the week when I have done more stitching. This is the week when I should get a half hour of stitching in my break, yahoo!!!!!!!!!!

Felt Dabble Day at Schoolhouse Arts

All four of us, Margaret, Debbie, Nickie and myself, were involved in the workshop today at Schoolhouse Arts.

The day started off with making wet felted beads. To help get them dry, we started to dry them in the oven on a very low heat,before moving them outside to dry in the sunshine. The group was then divided into two and it was then onto either dry felting, making a stone or a fruit or using the embellisher.The weather was so good, that we ate our lunch outside in the garden

It's hard to think, looking at the photo, that two hours later we had a terrific storm! The groups swapped activities after lunch. The last hour was spent doing more playing on the embellisher or decorating the felt beads.

When I got home, it was a bit of a rush to get ready for Kezzys birthday bar-b-q. As Alan started to cook, so the storm started! The rain did not stop the fun, and the meal was finished off with a white chocolate fondue.

Regional Day 2011

Wednesday evening, and it was back to school (So still no stitching!) in the evening for the school production of Killer Queen. It bought tears to my eyes watching it, as one of the boys who had a big part, had been in my class when he was three. He was so shy and timid then, that he was frightened of his own shadow.
I had a committee meeting on Thursday, and it has been agreed that we use Writtle Agricultural College for our Regional Day, July 2nd 2011. They were so helpful when we went to view the venue and it has such wonderful grounds, I just hope that the sun shines on that day, so that we can picnic outside in the gardens.

A new addition to the family.

Monday was Kezzy's 14th birthday, and Alan and I decided to get her a rabbit. As the breeder was away on holiday, we couldn't collect it until Tuesday. Monday night was spent preparing the hutch. Let me introduce you to 'Muppety'. One very loved bunny!

Kezzy finished her sock monkey that she was making for her cousin's birthday. She needed a little bit of help with the muzzle, as the fabric was fairly hard for a novice to stitch.

Sutton Hoo

Nickie and I were stewarding on the penultimate day of our Sutton Hoo exhibition, and Alan and Kezzy came to view it, as did Nickie's parents. Kezzy is going to be doing GCSE Art next year, so I lent her my sketch book so that she could try her hand at drawing details and patterns of items that she liked.

In between visitors, Nickie and I stitched.We have had some lovely comments in our visitors book, it is so nice that people took time to write in it.

Update.

I have been unable to keep my blog up to date due to a major problem with our computer. It developed the 'blue death screen' as my son calls it. So a brief resume of whats been happening in sunny Ramsden Heath.
In between writing my school reports, I managed to finish this fabric cuff,(at last) for one of the ladies at work. She was very happy with it.

almost done!

My reports are almost finished, thank goodness, They are taking me longer to do than usual, as it is only a few school weeks since I wrote the last ones. I am itching to get back to my sewing room and do some experimenting on my embellisher, ready for our Schoolhouse Arts workshop the weekend after next.

The Embroiderer's Kitchen

This was the title for our talk tonight from Myfanwy Hart who came to Chelmsford Embroiderer's Guild. It really opened our eyes to what could be used in our textile art with products from the kitchen. I now need to buy some food products that would normally be missing from my shopping list to try out some of the experiments.

This piece of work was stitched onto a floor cloth.Myfanwy spent time answering our questions.

And of course we had Jock manning the shop, such wonderful threads and fabrics. I can't wait for the dyeing workshop I am doing with her next month. She has also told us about a new television program that is due to be filmed soon. Myfanwy, Kim Thittichai, Angie Hughes are just some of the textile artists who will be appearing in the series.

I let Kezzy loose on my Bernina to stitch her sock monkey last night. He is now stuffed and and arms attached. Tomorrow she will be stitching his muzzle. (Her schools closed because of all the storms we have had. I have to go to work!!!!)

Speechless!!

Had a really busy day, as the weather was so good we have eaten all our meals on the deck, watching the horses grazing in the paddock behind our garden. I even got to do some gardening and write some reports. Kezzy has stitched the components of her sock monkey, so he/she is now waiting to be stuffed.
Also had a phone call tonight that has made me lost for words - can't say anything at the moment as I have got a lot to think about and weigh up some pros and cons.

CHAT and C&G's exhibitions

Thaxted is a very quaint village that I love to visit, a lovely old church, it has lots of different pargetting patterns on the houses,

and a windmill. As Nickie and I arrived before the exhibition was open, I took Nickie to see it. It is open in the afternoons, but we just couldn't resist the chance to take yet more photo's.

This cottage had a real old English garden.-roses and honeysuckle.
Then it was onto the Guildhall to see the exhibition. We were the first ones through the door

Christina ( one of our members from the Guild is part of this group) welcomed us with a glass of wine as it is the opening weekend.

I am so glad that we got to the exhibition, as we missed it last year. I can't post any pictures, as we weren't allowed to take any. I did buy the 2 packs of photos to remind me of the wonderful work though. We might also have found another member for our Guild, one of the visitors was looking for a guild to join and Christina introduced her to us, she hopes to make it to the meeting on Monday-Myfanwy Hart!!!

We then headed for Harlow to see the C&G's work, Denise from Craft Arena ( and another member of our Guild)is doing her part 2 here. I could see the influence of her holiday to Egypt in her work. I forgot to take any photo's, not even sure if it was allowed. We didn't stay here for long as we still had a quilt show to see, but on checking the Sat Nav as we were heading out of Harlow, we realised that it was up near Thaxted and we should have done that show on the way to Harlow. As time was running out we decided to head for home so that Nickie could stay in her families good books.

As you can tell by my posting my blog I am still not doing the dreaded reports- we have had problems with our electricity tonight. We had an electrician in to wire up the shed, and the fuse box kept tripping. By the time hubby sorted it out, it was far too late to write my reports. Thats my excuse and I'm sticking to it! Kezzy has had to postpone making another sock monkey, again, due to the electricity problems, she hopes to start it tomorrow.

A lovely way to start a Friday morning.

The Gunnera is in flower in the bog garden, and the texture had me rushing indoors for the camera I then had to take more photos and I was nearly late for work!

I am supposed to be doing my reports, but.............

Nickie and I had to be at Writtle Agriculture College tonight for a six o' clock appointment. We were viewing the college to suss out its suitability for our Regional Day in 2011. As far as I was concerned it ticked all the right boxes for me. The lecture room with blackouts AND hi-tech equipment.Lovely gardens, it was like walking round 'Gardeners World'. A lovely restaurant at the end of this avenue of trees. Nickie and I were hoping to sample some of the food at the restaurant on July 12th, when they have an Open Day, unfortunately it clashes with F.E.T., we are having a study day at Snape Maltings.A wet studio where the students were hosting their art exhibition. Jo, who was showing us round, was very patient as Nickie and I took photos of their work, some very interesting items of clothing using sweet packets and magazines!

I am now going to be typing up the findings of our visit ready for our committee meeting next week- back to school reports tomorrow night.

Saturday looks as if it could be a verrrry busy day- Nickie and I have three exhibitions we want to visit before 3.30pm.

1. CHAT at The Guildhall, Thaxted.(10.30-5.30)
2. Essex Adult Community Learning Textile Exhibition at Northbrooks House, Harlow. Denise from Craft Arena is studying here(10.00-4.00)

3.Roothing Valley Quilters at High Easter Village Hall. (10.00-5.00)

We are also stopping off in Chelmsford to get some reasonably priced wooden beads that I found last weekend-I hope they are still in stock!

Schoolhouse Arts update.

A meeting at Nickie's to dot the i's and cross the t's ready for our felt dabble day later on this month(27th). The ladies will be making a wet felt bead necklace, a needle felted rock and a broach made on the embellisher.
We have got Pauline Verinder doing a workshop for us in July called 'Boogie with Books' so there was nothing to organise for that.
We have now planned workshops for the rest of the year:-
September-Fantasy Shoes
October -Butterfly mobile with sheers.
November-Vessel
We hope that there will be something to please everyone.
I shall be taking a short blogging break as I have my school reports to write, the sooner I start, the sooner I will finish!

Feeling tired but elated!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nickie and I aqua-planed part of the way today while driving to Sutton Hoo to take our turn at stewarding. The weather was so bad that we thought that nobody would come to the exhibition. We were so wrong!
Pauline and some of the girls put the exhibition up on Friday, so this was our first chance to view it insitu. It looked amazing!
The morning started off quietly, which gave us time to take a good look at every ones work and take photo's as well. We had taken with us plenty of sewing to do, but once the time the rain eased off we had a steady stream of visitor's to talk to and answer their questions.
Nickie and I got some very positive feedback from the public.

Nickie and I are stewarding again on the 20th, when Sutton Hoo are having a Summer Solstice celebration.

Several people have asked for a bigger image of my 'Fallen Warrior'hanging, so here it is.

We drove home tired but very quietly chuffed ( unusual for us to be quiet!!!)