A Little Trip

I'm back - sorry to be away from my blogging station for so long, especially as I'd been writing about blogs in various magazines. Not a good time to go absent without leave.

We went on an ancestor-hunting trip to the ex-dockyards of Sunderland - more on that later. Timed it so that we could catch the first day of the Embroidery, Fashion and Stitch at the NEC. What we used to call the 'Madeira' show, now combined with a several others shows covering papercraft, wood etc. So you get a lot of show for your money. It looked pretty good - much better than recent years - and we enjoyed the trip. Good to see Jane Hall - shown below with Neil. Lovely stuff on her stand.

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Part of the Embroiderers' Guild stand was a small display on this chap Roy Allen who designed a lot of dresses for the late Queen Mother. Interesting stuff.
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Some of the traders' stands were works of art in themselves - this one by 21st Century Yarns looked great with all the bright colours againt black background. Needless to say I was tempted and purchased!
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The ancestor-hunting took place on the banks of the river Wear - Monkwearmouth to be precise. This church is where most of the line were baptised. St Peter's is very ancient (est, 647) as a monastery. We had a warm welcome and a tour of the church.

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When the Vikings pillaged, they set fire to the church and the sandstone reacted with intensified colours. Just look at these stones.

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I played with the photos on my iphone and achieved quite a fun design. Lovely to have good apps. I need to give the church outline a little more definition.

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Good to be home, though - more blogging later in the week.

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Comments on comments

First of all – if your name is listed as a winner, make sure I know your smail mail addy – I still have two parcels looking for homes. Email me at maggie@workshopontheweb.com

JP – the layers in this piece are achieved by laminating layers of fine paper onto fabric rather than separated layers – I shall still have to do that by stitching it to a backing but I’m putting that off until next week. I’ll show you the stitched result.

Your grand-puppy sounds lovely, Virginia. I’d love another dog but they are such a tie so perhaps I should encourage the kids to get one.

I’d swap the daffs for some orchids but not sure about the ‘othercritters’.

Carol – glad to be of service.

Artymess – my early collagraphs sure were an arty mess as I got paint everywhere. Have got a feel for it now, though so it is more under control.

I’m glad you liked the favourite things Christine. I saw editor Kathy Troup (below) and we had a giggle about all my kids wanting a copy of Stitch. Not because I’m in it but because it was ‘a lovely photo of Smudge’.

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Thanks for the mention Paige. I’m interested in your PV panels. I wish I knew if we were staying in this house, which gets so much sun. I’d have them fitted like a shot if I thought we were going to be here for ever.

Thanks to everyone who enjoyed their goody bags – my cupboard is much tidier now!

Kim – that ‘Super’ water-soluble stuff is great for jewellery as it dries very hard. I have some samples somewhere and will search for them before the next post.

Giveaways, Mice and Particle Accelerators

Well I've got all the give-aways ready to post but I need some more addresses. Some of you have emailed me in great excitement to have won but without giving a snail mail addy. Do check or you won't get! I shall be posting on Monday.

It's finally a little warmer here and the cold wind has dropped. My daffs are a disaster. I do prefer the miniature ones but these are only one inch high. I think they popped up and then changed their minds.

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Amanda said in a comment a couple of posts ago how fantastic the Twisted Thread courses in Italy are and I'm certainly looking forward to teaching at the Masseria in May. There are some really cheap flights, too, at the moment and you don't need to take much stuff - it's all provided. Click the pic on the left for my pics or go to (http://www.masseriadellazingara.com/pages/Textileholidays.html).

I've been working on some ideas for the course and here is a little piece built up from lots of layers. I love the fragile effect of the layering, showing text and a 'floating' village. It looks fantastic in a window. I have yet to add stitch - this needs thought as it must be very light and ethereal.

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Here is a detail of the background before I added the houses.

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It's been huge fun to do and I have lots of new techniques to show, as I haven't been teaching lately and I really miss it I am so looking forward to it. Very few places left so jump in quickly for an exciting time.

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I haven't had a cat blog for ages so her is a recent excitement. Stevens is quite frail now but somehow she managed to catch a small mouse last night. I think it walked into her mouth. She let it go free in the dining room where it hid behind a bookcase. Enter Smudge - the Gladiator. One wrecked dining room later, he wore it out, caught it and ran out into the garden. I have been trying to get it away from him ever since. An on-going saga but mercifully it has now expired.

A final thought - heard on the news that the Cerne Particle Accelerator is to be rebooted. Just what we bloggers always say - if it doesn't work, turn it off and on again!

Give-away Results

Thank you all so much for those lovely comments, very inspiring. I shall tease you first by showing some more collagraphs.

Here are a few of my prints.


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This one (below) is just put through with hardly any paint. The inpression is very deep and I am going to stroke pastels over it to add colour.

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Pasta machines can be purchased from Amazon for about £15 but possibly better to buy a slightly more expensive one. Hard to send it back if it breaks when it is covered in paint. Top tip: be sure to wipe most of the paint off the plate.

In the pic below, I have collaged my prints together in a deep box frame and used it for a background. I'm building a line of stitched and cast shapes over the top. The 'fossil' shapes in the collagraph are actually lace motifs.

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Here is a detail of the fish. I love the texture from this technique, which is in my next book so I am going to be mean and not tell you until after publication!

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There is always someone to consult with on design matters in this house.

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Haven't been able to reply to everyone but here are some thoughts on your comments.

Kerry - sorry but I'm not not teaching in the UK this year - Italy is my only venue - still a few places left on what looks like an exciting adventure. Details at http://www.masseriadellazingara.com/

Amanda - Italy requirements list coming up soon but I think that, between us, the organisers and I are bringing most things.

I bought my machine to use with polymer clay, too, Elaine and that was good.

Ooh Wabbit - rolling copper shim over a collagraph. Must try that.

Ferinn. Casj, and Linda - a mangle would be great and I'm looking for one. Might also get the woodworking son-in-law on the case - sure he could make one.

liniecat - can quite understand getting fed up with eating out. I am always so glad to get home and cook after a long trip abroad.

Teresa - I'm so glad the firstborn is safe but no plans for Oz this year - maybe next year -Lexa - who knows about Canada but no plans just now.

Erica - great news - keep going with the class.

Lee - give my love to Lynn, you'll havea great time

Ta da!!!

Now to the draw: Fiona selected the winners by pointing at a list during an early morning pop-in.

......and the winner of the quilt below is - just like the oscars, isn't it? France, who is in Quebec, I think?

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Here are winners of the give-away packs. Let me have your snail-mail addresses folks. Maggie@workshopontheweb.com

Kim

Gilby
Stitcher
iam inspired

Ruth

Ferinn

Liniecat

Lindastokes

Cazj

Agnesiley

Don't forget to pop a little bit in a charity box, folks. My donation will take the form of covering the cost of the postage!

Give-away

I promised you a give-away, so here it is. You’ll remember (keep up at the back) that Phillippa Lack gave me a piece, that featured in her Workshop on the Web article, to give away. Well, I have to confess that I got muddled and announced that her article was in the March issue – actually it is in the June one. That will teach me to set articles so far ahead of the date! I shall still do the give-away, though, and will add lots of stuff from me. If you win the Phillippa piece please make a donation to a charity of your choice, as that is her wish.

So, we have the following goodies up for grabs. First the Phillippa piece – it’s a delightful small quilt – about a foot square.



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Here is a detail. It is a lovely piece of work.

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Plus lots of packs of mixed goodies, including useful stuff like water-soluble film, Lutradur, lovely yarns and fabrics, machine threads (including some Madeira metallics). I’ll also add the odd stitched sample to some of the packs. Again, it would be good if you put a few coins in the charity box if you win. I have lots to give away. Here is a small sample of the goodies on offer.

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Leave a comment if you want to take part. We will get Fiona over to draw the winners (there will be lots) one week from today – March 8th.


Had a fantastic few days at Urchfont Manor College last week. I’ve been on a diet, so the wonderful food was hard to resist but I did quite well. Our group meet there regularly and have such fun – one of us does the lesson and this time we were working on collagraphs – the collages that turn into printing blocks. You need a press but Jane Wild showed us how to use a pasta machine (they are really quite cheap to buy) instead. Jane has an article in the new issue of Workshop on the Web on this technique (http://www.workshopontheweb.com/).

This is one of Jane’s prints – her inspiration is often drawn from faces, like this one. I think it is fantastic.
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And a detail. Don't you think it is amazing how well the textures of scrim and lace come through on the paper.

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Here is Sue, inking up her plate - actually we used acrylic paint with an extender mixed in to keep it workable longer.

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Now to wind the plate through the machine. This was a spectator sport - as you can see.

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The results were lovely - see below. The sleketon leaf worked so well.

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I was working on my fossil fish (there’s a surprise) and I'll show you some of them in the next blog - I want to do a little bit of stitching first.

Back to work today, but exciting work as the Sue Rangeley book is about to go to the printers. It’s so beautiful I can’t wait to hold it in my hands as a book. More about it on http://www.d4daisy.com/.