Yesterday's Diary

I wrote this yesterday but didn't get around to publishing!

Here we are, home again at last. Really missing the Italian sunshine - the basking lizards.

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The white mass of the Masseria against the sky.

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The poppies in the fields.

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I’ve been a bit of an absent blogger as my last few days in Italy were rather spoiled by a horrid tummy bug. We went out for a meal on Saturday night and my problems started early Sunday morning. No-one else was affected so maybe it was unrelated. Managed to keep popping in to class on Sunday but felt so bad by late afternoon that I took to my bed. This meant that we didn’t do the class summing up session and I got no photos at all. So disappointing. In fact I am still feeling poorly so I am off right now to the docs.

Home again, armed with antibiotics to zap the Italian bug. Hope it works quickly as I am going to see Mark Knopfler tonight with the wood-working son-in -law. I am determined to go, even if I have to stand by the loo door all the way through. I am impressed by the fact that there is no support act - just him for two hours.

The good thing about being home is that I can start working on some of the photos. This one, a wall fresco, has been printed on ink-jet cotton.

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I am hand sewing to enhance the shapes.

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Plan to use some of this furnishing voile on top - like the look of the words.

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Two more pieces of news: Workshop on the Web has a Facebook page, so do come and be our friend and I am in Groombridge in Kent next Saturday doing demos and a talk. Contact me for more info.

P.S. Mark Knopfler was great and I stayed in my seat all the way through. My head is still buzzing with the music.

Just a quick pic for now

So much for the idea of a blog diary of our Italian course - we are just working too hard. However we had an outing to Alberobello yesterday evening and I arranged a religous parade for the girls. Here you can see the town's patron saint on her way to the church.
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We had a good view point as we were investigating cafe society just then.

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Here's a good view of the little Trulli houses. They were originally made with dry stone walls - as there was a tax on houses this meant that they could be instantly turned back into walls when a inspector called.
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The church was interesting - it had a great door.
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After the walking and the cafe bit, we raised our game and went for cocktails.
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Then we staggered off to our restaurant to have an amazing meal. The antipasto was so huge that only two of us managed a main course.
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Back to work today, slaving in a hot studio.

Frescos and Matera

Today we have been into Matera to see the cave houses and the frescos. This was the highlight of the trip for me and was one of the reasons for coming over early. I wasn’t disappointed and it was wonderful from the moment that the hotel shuttle bus dropped us off. We were the only passengers so the driver kindly dropped us off right amongst the caves.
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It’s an amazing sight – a wide ravine with caves on both sides but on the town side they have been built out or have been fitted with windows and doors. You walk across a garden and find it is also the roof of the dwelling below.

We found that three of the best known cave churches are further down the valley but we saw several and the frescos are lovely. They have been designed to fit the space, which they do really well. Photos are not really allowed but we bought postcards and I managed one or two shots through the door.

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All that walking up and down was exhausted so we’ve been flopping around, just reading and snoozing. Amazingly this hotel has a big, deep bath so that helped the poor legs. I am filled with the need to do some pastel drawings based on the Frescos so it will be a quick meal at the hotel and an evening of art.

Getting lost - raised to an art form

Well here we are in Italy - near to a town called Matera which has amazing frescos in caves - you can see why I am excited. This is the view from my balcony.
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The main thing that we have done is get lost - always our specialist subject. More on that later.
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We are staying a little way out of town so are going to the caves bit on the hotel shuttle bus tomorrow. The reason for this is that we have developed streetophobia - fear of narrow streets that are only one inch bigger than our hired Fiesta. We can see why the locals drive Smart cars.

This is the door of the flat in Lecce where we stayed last night. Right in the heart of the old city with more Cathedrals, basilicas and amazing old walls than you could shake a stick at. It was wonderful being right in the heart of it.

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I love the little glimpses down alleyways that Italy offers. Here is one in Bari.
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Weather great - cooler here than down south but still hot. Here are a few more pics. I am adding stuff one pic at at a time as this connection is poor - like most things at the Hilton Garden Inn - so far we are not impressed.

Here are a few more - this one is the old port of Monopoli. We got lost here in spectacular fashion and I was so glad I wasn't driving.

The story of our first getting lost was a bit of an adventure. Arriving late after numerous delays, armed only with a Google map and driving in the dark on the opposite side of the road (in a manual car with gearshift in the wrong place) we drove straight as an arrow to the heart of the red light district. Then we wound up back at the airport. An hour later we were stuck up a one way street, going the wrong way. A lovely young Italian couple knocked on the window and asked if we were Ok. In the end they drove our car to the hotel, the other one following in their car. Wasn't that kind? I love Italians.

It has given up loading pics so I will try again tomorrow.

Up, Up and Away

Thanks so much for all the lovely comments on the Sue Rangeley book. So glad you all love it as much as I do.
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Diane, you are too kind, but I'm glad you find the books useful and for Virginia's book to arrive so quickly is amazing. I liked your comment about our voting system. I think the worst part of it is that, just when we thought the TV news might be about something interesting, we are still seeing our three wise (?) monkeys plastered over the screen!

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Emma - thanks for wanting to put a WoW button on your blog. When we are back from Italy, I will send you one but at the moment I am in a packing panic.

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We go the day after tomorrow, ash cloud permitting, and the panic is entirely my own fault as I can't stop playing with the samples and making more. I loved this angel (from a fresco).

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It went so well on this 'old walls' background.

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I am also doing lots of printing in case the promised equipment in Italy plays up. Luckily my techie will be getting it all going (I hope) while the girls and I are playing. Clive and I are having a couple of days off in Italy before the course starts. This is counted as research, so we can find the best places to go and take photos.

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My house/cat-sitter has arrived and, far from getting a civilised welcome has been sent down to the shops with a list. Good job she is a good friend. Smudge will probably get lots of attention and will be even fatter when we get back. I have discovered that he goes to tea with my neighbour's cats and Janet has to put an extra bowl down!

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So we are off on Wednesday. I am taking my laptop so will try to blog while on the move.

Frost, Flowers and Lutradur

This is a sight I thought that I’d never see - Sue’s book is here, on my coffee table, at last – hooray! It looks fantastic, as you can see. It is 'floating' on my glass coffee table - interesting effect.

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The binders let us down badly. They assured the printers that it would be ready on Friday, but it wasn’t. Kerry from the printers even phoned them on Friday, before she sent the (hired) lorry. So the lorry got there only to be told, ‘Sorry mate – it’s not ready – come back tomorrow’. Some places don’t deserve to be in business and we won’t use that firm of binders again. Our printers are wonderful – they have done full justice to Michael’s amazing pics.

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This is my favourite spread – I just love the delicacy of this cape which incorporates Angelina fibres to convey the theme of ’Frost’. Combined with the embroidered flowers it is just breathtaking.

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I expect that the most thumbed section will be the Stitch Techniques, where Sue shares her secrets.

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I do admire the way she can produce fragile and delicate, like the cape and then switch to the drama of bright colour on black. Here’s an example of a pastel drawing on black paper.

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The website www.d4daisy.com is open for orders and we have some great give-aways for the early birds. Fee and I have made up lots of very special packs with a mix of foils, sequins, water soluble film, silk and organzas. Lots of lovely stuff. We also have some great Simply Sequins packs and some foils to pop in the books. We like giving prezzies.

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I am even giving away some of my precious foil with lettering on it. Interesting effects with reflections in this photo.

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This foil was obviously printed for a book cover and, when letters are foiled, all the rest of the sheet remains. It would be such a waste if the printer threw it away. I was given a small roll, which is much loved. Such a sacrifice! It works really well when ironed onto velvet (fusible web is ironed on first). Does need covering with sheer fabric to knock back the shine, though – see below.
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I had a class in Oxford on Saturday which was great. I don’t teach much at all these days so it was a really special day and the girls were such fun. We were looking at techniques for slips which turned into little books like this.

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It was such a rush that I forgot to take any photos - and there were some great pieces. We were foiling on velvet, as described above, and then placing Lutradur over the top before stitching. The surface was then zapped to reveal the foil and velvet.
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Well, now it’s back to the drawing board for the next book – Isobel Hall and I are working on that and we’re having a really good time. Meanwhile I’m having a day in the workroom. Deep joy. UK folks, have a great May Day Holiday. Back soon.