But since I arrived back  ….my my left wrist has decided to go on strike! I woke up in the most extraordinary pain …. to a point where i could have well believed it was broken…swollen , exsquitily painful to rotate an move any fingers !  by 8 the decision was to go to casualty because the swelling was quite dramatic…….any way it is a thing rather like a swollen lump at the base of my thumb joint!so I am strapped, up drugged up and  the swelling is receding!

The manic look is down to the pain relief!!  I can appear quite normal at times…..but obviously not today !!

Anyway some more things on the discharge paste. It is a gel type fluid which can be applied to certain dyed fabrics and it ‘discharges ‘ the dye. In essence a special sort of bleach that does not damage the fabric otherwise it would rot away if you used household bleach. The effects are very pleasing. Anyway I have over painted and stenciled the pieces I put on the previous post today .

my work desk

We are on stand E50. It is a different place to where we have been for the last few years. I will be doing my demos all day and hopefully my daughter will be doing some demos as well. If you are at the show pop and say ‘hello’….

so the images are the prep work so far…

Is any one else fed up of the rain!! although it is quite bright this morning…

The black and white pieces are a discharge technique on fabric…a bit like castaway ( which I could not get along with) on paper.During the day I will paint and generally do arty things to the fabric!  So apart from making a lunch for my mum who is a little under the weather I will be brandishing brushes and paint and slogging on the sewing machine and probably all at the same time!

discharge stenciled image

discharge piece.

But to let you know I will be doing a demo day at the Stamp Hut in Bury St Edmunds on Sat 25th Sept. and I will be playing withour spays and stamps ….so pop along and say ‘Hello’
The images is the canvas so far……….I have painted , embossed and dotted with our new ‘Dotties’…they make aver discrete Dot! to embellish just that little bit more!

Any way I am teaching in Denmark next week so ….I will post some images when I get back.

creative canvases... being preped for an event at the weekend.

The canvas panel is something that I am preparing for a training event at the weekend.
I will take a piccy when I finish it.

We are driving to fetch our daughter as she has had her precious purse nicked and she has no money and as you can imagine is really ticked off that this happened to her… to say the least!!

Pictures below give you a flavor of the event..

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Yes as farI as was told to me many years ago, today is the middle day of a normal year .. now I have never done the maths but I think that is is probably right.

Today is also going to be oh so busy……we have decided not to put out big tent up for the open weekend as the weather seems to be rather unpredictable …it was seriously windy yesterday and miserable and threatening today .

and ….later on this morning…I have to have my photo taken by the local press !!

several years ago I helped with a massive community project here in Newark…The Mill gate Map…..A 16 ft hanging (textile) anyway it was hung at the local museum…Over 200 people particpated as well a schools , oap groups and churches …but there was insufficient funding for it to be framed properly..it was designed to have an unconserved lifespan of 100 years and so one thing it needed was special archiaval glass.. anyway …funding has been gained and it will be unveiled in its new framed glory..and there will be a picture in the paper.

so aswell as all that .. we have heaps and heaps to do for the open weekend… but I am going to have a cup of coffee before the day starts!!

It has  taken me all day to upload for WOYWW, but the picture above is my machine poised to sew on some Guilette soluble stabilizer over Dissolve sticky Magic, with lots of juicy hand dyed threads and fibres between. Hopefully I’ll show the progression of this piece, but as it is so hot and sticky here, it might take a day or two!

Beautiful Building in Malmo

Below are some pictures from my recent trip to Sweden.

Princess Victoria, with her father, the King of Sweden

The wedding of Princess Victoria and Danielwas a complete surprise to me. I did know it was taking place and the teaching schedule would probably be adjusted, but what I was not expecting was such a beautiful, emotional and truly magical event. We only sent Price Edward who looked like a fish out of water. The Swedish commentary was asking why we had not sent someone a little more important. Regardless of that, the participants at the quilt event piled into a room top watch the event on a big screen. As the vows were being said, almost everybody, including me was shedding tears and the TV coverage was done so skillfully that we all felt part of the event.And the dress was really lovley and the cake had 11 tiers!!

Having decided to blog something everyday this week I failed to do anything yesterday!!

We have been really busy getting ready for our annual open weekend! here at craftynotions in Newark It is amazing what we have found that I had forgotten about!

We are having loads of lovely people demoing for us ,Leonie, my pal pat who is going to have fun with all the new dies that we have ,Liz Hanbury who is a wizz with sewing machines and me !

As you will know we are not set out like a shop so it is a lot of moving and reorganising to get ready . Many of our customers and crafty friends travel and we have some coming from Birmingham,  Suffolk and even we think Scotland, as the lady is en route south and doing a detour to us!

And it is ssoooo hot!!ice creams all round me thinks !!