Bits and Bobs

 

This year is shaping up to be a busy one for me! I've just been looking at my calendar and I seem to have something going on almost every weekend for the next three months and those after that are filling up too! I've just agreed to participate in the Artists Open Houses in May at Pretty Neat Gallery opening in Brighton soon, and I've also been asked to considering attending Fibre Fest - all things textile at the Enterprise Centre in Eastbourne on the 17th May. Plus there are so many workshops to organise and get ready for, as well as my own organised exhibition, Common Threads in Uckfield on the 15th & 16th March (more about that below, keep reading). 

Kit making is a priority for me at the moment, especially as stocks had run really low following Christmas. I am now back in stock of Woolydale II and Mini Woollydale kits which is great. Bluebell Garden kits are my next problem because one of the tree fabrics has run out and I've been trying to find an alternative. A new fabric suggestion arrived last week so I just need to see if I can make it work. Luckily the stitching wasn't linked too much to the pattern of the original fabric so I don't need to change the instructions or anything which is great. 

My current battle to get things done is now with the cat who seems to think that he needs to be on hand for every single job, and not just on hand, but on top of! All I need to do is turn my back and he's sitting on the cutting mat or the computer typing his own emails to people. He's actually not that good at giving creative advice either, just stares at me if I ask him a question, or attacks my threads. Worst assistant ever!

I had a great meeting a couple of weekends ago with some of the artists who are participating in the Common Threads exhibition which is sort of being curated by myself and Isobel Moore, with a lot of help from Helen who is the arts director of Victoria Pavilion Arts. We had both enquired about hiring Victoria Pavilion in Uckfield for an exhibition and Helen suggested we might like to get together for a joint exhibition, which has then turned into a much bigger event with 8 textile artists in total, a meet-the-artist evening on Saturday 15th March from 6pm-8pm with nibbles and wine and two workshops a day; Stitch Journals by Melissa Kosar Saturday morning, Sashiko by Marilyn Willis on Saturday afternoon (fully booked!), Intuitive Stitching by Isobel on Sunday morning and Stitchscaping on Sunday afternoon with me. 

The other artists are Katharine Rabson Stark, Jennifer Grant, Dawn Johnson and Ana Kirby. We are all very different, but joined together with our love of textiles, threads, materials and processes!

The exhibition is open 10am - 4pm and is free to enter (workshops are pre-bookable and have a charge), there is lots of parking and the Pavilion has a little café with coffee and cakes available. It's very exciting!

We had half term for East Sussex schools last week so Baby F was off on holiday and nothing much got done. I did have one morning where we decided to let him sleep in as he'd been a bit poorly and he slept until about 8.15am!! I took full advantage and stayed sitting in bed, having opened the curtains to let the morning light in. Stitching in bed with coffee is a real luxury these days and rarely ever happens so it definitely felt like a holiday day to me. 

I've been really enjoying working on my fox. It's only a little Stitchscape (10cm) but the fabrics came from the Ardingly quilt show, mostly from the same stall whose name I now can't remember, sorry(!), and I was really inspired to use them. He's been a welcome companion on my bus journeys for the last couple of weeks.