Posts

Bryan's Ground - 11th June

Image
As I needed to drive up to Mostyn in North Wales for Sunday morning I thought I would take it slowly and visit a garden and a friend and colleague on the way up - North Wales is a long way from Brighton!!! I decided to try to find Bryan's Ground after I saw the images on Angie Hughes' blog recently. I wasn't disappointed. Bryan's Ground is the most beautiful and quirky garden I have visited. Absolutely STUNNING!!!!! www.bryansground.co.uk Bryan’s Ground , Stapleton, near Presteigne, Herefordshire LD8 2LP - if you want visit you need to hurry, the garden has very limited opening times and it closes for the year on the 18th July.  It is a very intimate garden, beautifully laid out and everything exquisitely placed. It just falls short of being manicured which makes it even more gorgeous. Everywhere you turn there is a surprise and a lovely vista. There are formal areas and crazy areas, this place has to be seen to be believed. the planting is stunning a surpr

The LBD - Hot Stuff . . . !

Image
  one of the original 10 black dresses made form black bin liners  I received an email this week from Sarah Patterson saying how useful she had found my book Hot Textiles.  When you write a book you never know how it will be received or if anyone will even read it, so it is always very satisfying when you hear your book has been useful. Sarah teaches A/S A/2 and GCSE Textiles at Portsmouth College , she likes to teach students a range of techniques such as Photoshop, printing, embroidery etc. This year her A/2 group were inspired for the final exam by the little black dress and this coincided with a local exhibition at Portsmouth Museum based on the LBD. The task Sarah had set her students was to create a dress using non conventional materials such as bin liners, condoms (not used!) tampons (again not used!) in fact anything that could be coloured or turned black. The students went to the exhibition and collected great ideas and inspiration for shapes and cuts. When the students r

Delightful Denman!

Image
The Tulip Tree ( Liriodendron tulipifera ) in full flower - quite stunning, just one of the many specimen trees in the grounds One more post about Denman College. www.denmancollege.org.uk It is a very beautiful place to work, learn and play! Denman has it's own new website which will be continually updated over the next month or so. Although the college is the home of the W.I. all the courses are open to the public - MEN and women. You don't have to be a member to enrol on the courses and enjoy the whole Denman experience. The grounds are stunning and well kept with plenty of areas to explore in any spare time you have. They look good throughout the year. Amongst many attractions I love the long flower border and the lake. looking across the grounds to a beautiful group of trees one of the gorgeous flower borders one aspect of the lake with its well established trees and surrounding planting There are usually several courses running at one time at Denman and on the l

Extreme Surfaces for Stitch at Denman College Part 3

Image
an octopus's garden - painted Bondaweb and Vilene Spunbond CS800 cut with a soldering iron Wow!!! What a Fab last few days at Denman College! www.denmancollege.org.uk My group worked very hard and produced some excellent work, it's a shame I can't fit all the work on here. A few of the group were beginners and the rest were quite experienced so it was an interesting mix to teach. Everyone got on well together and there was lots of sharing, both of ideas and threads and fabrics, this always helps things to run smoothly. flowers cut with a soldering iron from Vilene Spunbond that has been backed with Bondaweb, (apologies for bleaching it out with the flash on the camera) Vilene Spunbond cut with a soldering iron and ironed onto pre dyed pelmet Vilene with painted Bondaweb decorated with machine stitch and gold heat transfer foil layers of Vilene Spunbond and pelmet Vilene backed withBondaweb, cut with a soldering iron and ironed onto pre dyed pelmet Vilene polyester or

New Hot Textiles Courses in Frenchie France for 2012

Image
Lesley on the left and Sue on the right This is just a quick blog to say that Sue and I have sorted out the dates for the workshops in France for 2012. We have also been eating and drinking rather a lot 'Quelle surprise'!!! Sue, Lesley and I lived together at college THIRTY FOUR YEARS ago - which is amazing as we are all only 36 - Ho Ho!!!  Sue is the proprietor of Kanagaroo the mail order company for knitting yarns and accessories. She also offers and teaches Learn to Knit workshops in France in case any of you are interested. see www.kangaroo.uk.com The holiday workshops Sue and I have thrashed out over several glasses of wine are Back To Basics workshops with a little local flavour thrown in. Follow the link at the end of this post to find out more. Because there is only space available for a small number of students I thought it would be a good idea to teach beginners on these workshops as we will all have more time together. A five night holiday in the beautiful Charent

Extreme Surfaces for Stitch at Denman College Part 2 - Puddings and Flowers . . .

Image
. . . we are working really . . This a shot of the Light Craft Room where I am teaching, it is very well equipped and Hope, Technical Support, is always so helpful and makes sure we tutors have everything we could possibly need for our teaching. We are all having a great time and I will post the work the students are developing in the next two days but now to what else is happening at Denman this week.  Apart from my course there are beading, photography and flower arranging classes going on. These are some of the beautiful displays that are being created But onto something closer to my heart . . the PUDDINGS! Teaching residential courses can be quite intense so I only teach at two colleges four to five times a year. One of the bonuses is the food and how well everyone is looked after. No washing up, no phone calls just teaching FAB students, making new friends and catching up with old ones. It' s a tough job . . . Apple Strudel or - chocolate brownies or - chocolate mouss

Back at Denman College 31st May - 3rd June

Image
the fountain in the grounds at Denman It's good to be back teaching at Denman College - the home of the W.I. This week I am teaching my workshop Extreme Surfaces for Stitch. I have 10 very keen ladies in my group, they are great fun and I will update you  all with what we are up to later in the week. At the moment we are painting up all the products, Tyvek, Bondaweb, Vilene Spunbond, all the usual suspects. Once we start layerng up I will take some images and post them.  It is very beautiful here, the main house in Georgian and the grounds are just gorgeous, there is texture and colour everywhere. I am so lucky to teach here. I took a few shots on the way to the studio after a hearty breakfast . . . . .  wonderful colours around the pond these wonderful Hostas are sitting just be the front door - not a snail hole in sight!!!!   Back to work now - just going to show the joys of painted Bondaweb - what a great job I have. will report back with more tomorrow . . . . . .  x