The day before the next day

What lovely folk you are - all those comments. I shall pick one of your names out of the hat when I get back from the show and send a thank-you pressie. I'm so glad you like the book, such a relief when it comes from the printer at last, but I'm only really convinced when you lot give it the OK. I took it to Beyond Stitch today and they all liked it too. Spent the day doing my samples for Ally Pally and they were all getting excited and coming up with more ideas. I can't understand tutors who won't share new ideas - I find that for every one you give away, six come back. I once went to a class where a student asked about a piece of work on a board and the tutor said 'That's another class and I can't tell you about it'. Mean.

Here is what the Beyond Stitch girls were doing today.



Books with Glynda Morison, one of our members. We often do workshops within the group as most of us are teachers and it helps to try out new stuff for our classes. This is one of Glynda's books. The cover was a computer design resulting from one of the group sessions we had with Ruth Issett. It was printed on a heavy linen and built up wth stitch. Looks great.

This is by a lady whose name I have forgotten. It might have been Helen Tudor - I shall ask Glynda and report back. It was a travel memory book or Formosa and each page was delightful. This page is a tree made by blowing ink with a straw.



This page has a small envelope containing mini paintings of her daughter in law, who travelled with her.



I promised to show some of Jane Wild's drawings from her painting holiday in Italy. These are both charcoal studies. She did some super paintings too, but the charcoal does it for me every time. This was the face of a sitter that came to the class.



And here's a study of an Olive Tree.



Looks so much like figures, that I turned this detail upside down.



Comments.

Thanks to all of you who pointed out that they'd forgotten my name on the Quilting Arts article. Lots of folk who emailed me added - we knew it was you, as we know how you work. Is it time I changed my style, do you think? I'm sure they will give me a credit in the next issue.

Sara - hope your pain management course works for you. My mother suffered badly with nerve pain, post shingles, and the pain clinic really helped her. Horrifying kitten story, he sounds even worse than Smudge. This morning I was lazily cutting into a huge roll of fabric without putting it on a table. He jumped up after the scissors and caught his paw, luckily they were not very sharp and didn't cut him but he looked very sad for all of five minutes.

Jude - you will have a great time with Sue Rangeley. We very much hope she is going to do a d4d book next year.

Ibby - we can't get the 'old-fashioned pelmet Vilene now and they call the new stuff craft Vilene. They are very similar. I shall do some more work on the glossary after the show - keep 'em coming.

Annette - my elf has been on overtime! She thanks everyone who has commented on the swift delivery. She really does try to send orders out on the day they arrive and hardly ever fails. We are lucky to have her. I can't believe how quickly they've arrived overseas.

Diana - so glad it turned up. I was about to send out another. We will have fun when the classes start. I shall put up requirements in the week after the show. Mostly working with Vilene or felt, gesso and Hearty/Model Magic to start with. I have some new ideas to build upon the ideas in the book.

I love the smell of books, too Lynne. Clive has just had a birthday and got lots of new books so I've been inhaling them. I have borrowed 'The Book Thief' (after he read it, of course) and can see why he was so caught up in it.

I have had such a giggle thinking of you all with the decaying catalogues. Mags R (Digital Gran) has a hilarious post on her discovery. The pic looks just wonderful. We will be spraying them with disinfectant before we do the final dry out and then they will be coated so they shouldn't be too nasty to touch. Gloves are advised until disinfected! Yes, we are mad (there's alot of it about).

Hi Helen - glad you popped up. Do introduce yourself at the K&S.

Well, I'm off to make some more cast paper and then crash with a bit of hand stitching.