If this comes up again in your reader scroll to the bottom to read a couple of P.S's.


I write this blog with a heavy heart!
I cannot believe that Austin Healey has been knocked out of ‘Strictly’. Saturday/Sunday evenings will never be the same again. :)
My hopes are for Vincent now (Sorry Pat).

I’ve been busy lately creating my piece(s) for the Cyber Fyber exhibition organised by Susan Lenz which takes place in January – read all about it here.
This piece is also intended for my secret swap partner (who I can now reveal is Kate North) for the ALQS. Mind you, I think I have broken every rule for this swap. Its a series of three hangings, each one measuring 30” x 24”. I’m just adding the finishing touches and they will be posted off to Susan shortly along with a photograph to Kate as it will be way, way past the deadline before she actually receives them.
I wasted an awful lot of time on my first attempt, my original idea. I wanted to create something on similar lines to the CG postcard and the book cover shown here.
But what worked on a small scale just would not work on a larger piece.
I soldered, zapped, emulsioned and inked the background (Note for Kim – 4 bottles of Quink!) but I just couldn’t get the varying shades of blue I was after. It didn’t matter how much I inked in one spot, once dry it turned out the same colour as the rest. I rubbed the surface with a white Markal Paintstik hoping for a ‘dusty’ look but ended up with ‘icing sugar’ in some places.
This is it along with some close ups, unfinished, I finally decided to let it rest.My very late November CG postcard is on similar lines. The original inspiration is from decorative mouldings on cupboards and doors where they have aged and cracked and the gilding has rubbed off in places. Really bad photo but you can just about see the flower shape which I took from the November calendar page.A couple of lovely suprises in the post recently.
The first is the ALQS from my secret partner – Annette Jeavons.Once again, I have struck lucky in this swap. Annette has used some great techniques and the quilt itself is very well made. I am very pleased with it. Thanks Annette.
I also received a parcel from Glenys in New Zealand who has been a student on the Fibre in-Form Textured Surfaces workshop. (I don't think Glenys has a blog)
Glenys tried one of the techniques in the workshop and was very pleased with the outcome and said she would send them to me to look at. I thought she meant a few samples so imagine how surprised I was when this big bundle arrived!There are some really love colours in here, on fabrics and papers and I look forward to using them at some stage. Thanks Glenys.

The Textured Surfaces workshop has now finished. The students were all a really wonderful bunch, very friendly and eager to both learn and share. Carol and I were blown away with the samples that were produced. I’m sure that everyone reading this has come across a blog with some of these samples on. I’m in the middle of putting at least one photo of each persons samples up on the Fibre in-Form website – a massive task as everyone did so many really good ones its hard to choose just one.

We were going to repeat this workshop some time in ’09 but have had so many requests to do it again soon that the first lesson will start again on January 9th. Take a look here if you are interested.

We are also working on another workshop planned for early next year, more details on that soon plus a couple of other exciting developments, still in the early stages.

Regular readers of Maggie Greys blog will see that Carol and I had a secret assignation with Maggie a couple of weeks ago – in a Service Station on the M4 motorway at Reading. (The Eastbound services wasn’t it Carol? Or was it Westbound? *LOL*)
And the result of that meeting is a book to be published by d4Daisy early in the Spring.
I’m just so excited, nervous, worried, anxious, happy etc. etc. about this that I really don’t know what else to say. :)
No doubt I will keep you updated about the book too.

And I’ll leave you with this, from 5.30 a.m. this morning – couldn’t resist it.




PS. The hanging above is NOT one of the Cyber Fyber pieces, it was my original idea which wouldn't work so I ditched it and started over. Won't be showing the finished ones until they appear in the exhibition :)

PPS. In case there is any confusion, the book Carol and I are writing for d4Daisy is NOT the same as the Textured Surfaces workshop or the new workshop we have planned. Some of the products used regularly by us will obviously be the same but there will be new ideas, new techniques and different finishes.