Catching up - as ever

The Fen Edge Textile group exhibition at Wisbech Fenland Museum is going extremely well.

We have appeared in two of the local newspapers and on Radio Cambridge. I shall be there on Saturday 12th May along with Ann so if you haven’t had a chance to visit yet it will be great to see you.

I have been really busy since I last posted with workshops in Solihull for the Genesis Textile Workshop, Cardiff for Not Necessarily Sew, ArtVanGo, 4S and a talk at Canterbury, which didn’t go too bad at all. Although I love talking about the things I do it is a bit scary standing up in front of such a large gathering. Hopefully the more you do it the easier it becomes. Thanks to Helen from the South & East Essex Embroiderers Guild for all her very helpful advice.

I think I must be really lucky. The ladies on all my workshops without exception have been wonderful. Such a lovely friendly lot. Have so many lovely stories I could share but I really must mention the group in Cardiff. They talked non-stop for most of the day, some more than others – and yet they all managed to finish everything we set out to do, and more, and all to a very high standard too. They were absolutely brilliant. And I actually remembered to not only take the camera but also to take a few photos.

Have got another couple of workshops coming up in the next couple of weeks. One for the Sindano group at Fornham St Martin and one for Ipswich Embroiderers Guild.

I will also be demonstrating at the Material Girls ‘Textiles on the Hill’ event on Sunday 27th May. Full details can be found here. If you missed the Bridging Waters exhibition at the end of Feb then you’ll have another chance to see the amazing work that was on show. Look out for Miriam Weavers jug with glass of water – proper title escapes me at the moment – very innovative.

I will also be ‘In Residence’ at ArtVanGo on Tuesday 8th May. 10.30 – 3.30. There is no charge for these sessions and no booking necessary. Come along and have a chat and see what I am up to.  Also a good chance to stock up on all those supplies from AVG that you know you can’t live without!

There is just one place left on the Missenden Abbey Summer School from 5th – 10th August ‘Creative Surfaces using mixed media’. Not a very exciting title I know but I’m useless at thinking up catchy titles – usually until its too late to change. But it will be an interesting and fun packed week.

So the reason  I’ve told you all this is because I am loving the new look Blogger with the tabs at the top. Have named one tab ‘Diary’ just in case anyone is interested in where I am. All of them just link to my website at the moment until I get around to sorting them properly – which of course may take a while, you know me, but I’m half way there.

A couple of other events I attended. The first was ‘Textiles in Focus’ at Cottenham in February. This was my stand.

 A really good show. Put this one in your diary for next year, especially if like me you haven’t been before. You’ll have a great time.

And then there was the Fashion, Embroidery & Stitch show at the NEC in March where once again I was giving workshops on the Freudenberg Vilene stand. Had such a good time, talked to so many lovely people – takes a few days to come back down again. This was how I filled, maybe overfilled?, my stand.



And these are what I have been working on at the moment.

Shrines. All part of an on-going theme I have for two exhibitions next year. Originally inspired by Grayson Perry's ‘Our Father’ and ‘Our Mother’ and his shrines. But am also encompassing gravestones, memorials, crypts, tombs, skulls etc. and that all goes back some time.

In the case of the skulls, several years ago when we visited the Kostnice (Church of Bones), Kutna Hora, Sedlec Ossuary, Prague which I blogged about some time back.

And then in 2010 when I had read Audrey Niffeneggars second book ‘Her Fearful Symmetry’. Brilliant book. Centres around Highgate Cemetery. Mentions Postmans Park – which I must admit I thought was author invented but googled anyway and was amazed to find it just across the street from the London Museum in Little Britain of all places! Fascinating. Some really sad stories of heroic people losing their lives while trying to save others.

Am in danger of becoming a graveyard junkie now. Went to St Marys in Redgrave, Suffolk recently to look for this gravestone.

Several there like this one. Some not instantly recognisable because of lichen. The sun was shining until I got there. Then the wind began to blow up a storm followed by hailstones. Spooky. And really cold so it was a quick whizz around the tombs clicking away like David Bailey only to realise later that in my haste I had the camera set on ‘macro’ so some of the photos aren’t quite as good as they could have been. Am I the only person who doesn’t feel entirely comfortable walking around a deserted churchyard?

Off up to Borough/Southwark soon. Firstly to visit the Cross Bones Graveyard. Hoping to get some good photos as the blurb says: There's a big rusty iron gate adorned with ivy, ribbons, flowers, feathers, jewellery and other curious totems. This graveyard is where the ‘Winchester Geese’ or ‘Single Women’ were unceremoniously dumped. Winchester Geese meaning women of ill repute who were forbidden a Christian burial if they were not reconciled before their death. Again, this makes really fascinating reading.

Second reason is a trip to Borough Market, a renowned food market. Haven’t been for a few years. I recall the first time we went when middle daughter and husband lived in Westminster. There was a delicious looking cake for sale, already cut into 6 slices and it was £4. Reasonably expensive back then compared with your average supermarket type fancy sponge cake – we must be talking at least ten years ago now, but it looked like a good buy. So she said she would take it. Guy on the counter boxed it up in a really smart box, ribbon around the outside then in a fancy carrier bag and asked her for £24. It was actually £4 PER SLICE!!! After all the trouble he had gone to she didn’t like to say she didn’t want it after all. Still laugh about it now. It did taste nice though – but she only let us have one piece each!