Cornish Ice Cream

Greetings from Cornwall. Its a beautiful sunny October week as I finally get my summer holiday (and the weather is almost making us believe that it is August)

The last few weeks have been manic as usual. Apart from the usual working, college has started back up again. That's a funny one, feeling like your 16 again as your back in college and surrounded by pimply faced teenagers but studying on a PGCE course designed for adults, so feeling like a kid and teaching adults - no wonder we need lots of tea breaks.

I also taught a lovely Introduction to Embroidery class at the lovely Creative Quilting in East Molesey:

http://www.creativequilting.co.uk/

I had a lovely group of ladies in a wonderfully relaxed setting. It is so nice to have a change of pace and teach a smaller class like this one, allowing me to spend more time with people. It was also a nice back to basics for me. I've  been teaching so many in-depth classes on specific techniques that I've not had the chance to do a back to basics class in quite a while, and this is something I always love doing - showing people something new they can do, or add to their other favorite crafting techniques, and simply re-introduce them to the beauty of embroidery (especially after often disastrous experiances at school!) The ladies sped through the various stitches, showed us examples of things they had done at home, planned future projects for embroidering on their quilts (and even some redwork) and then finally, exhausted but, hopefully, re-invigorated, went home.

This is what we stitched: (Sorry, no full computer of pictures to use when in Cornwall!)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/katiepirson/4288113601/

The end of September saw me pack up the car with all my pictures, kits and tactile goodies and head to Devon to the ICHF Exeter show. The four days were fantastic. Set up day is always a bit nerve wrecking for me, I never know when to stop preening and fiddling with everything so I usually gauge it by when the coffee stand has closed for business!

I have done show's with ICHF before in Birmingham, Brighton, Liverpool and Harrogate but this was the a first at Exeter and a first in the 'Quick and Handy' demo's section. This meant that for one hour of every day I took fabric, needles, threads and designs down to the communal class area and taught a hugely diverse group to 'stitch'. Some of course were expert stitchers, some had never sewn a button on, and some thought I was there to teach them to Crochet (if only I knew how!) I was lucky to have an hour, the usual order of events is 15 minute sessions, but luckily ICHF had the foresight to see that 15 minutes may mean only a few threaded needles. The sessions were wonderfully manic to do, and always caused much giggling and gossiping - which of course just goes hand in hand with stitching.

Overall the show was a success for me, I meant some wonderful people (and a few slightly crazy ones - one lady thought I was Japanese!) and have made some great contacts, including meeting my wonderful show neighbour Rachel Powell:

http://www.rachel-powell.com/

Her beautiful textiles are quite the opposite of mine and I love that. Her style is fresh and tactile, and she dyes her yarns the most beautiful colours. I admire the unplanned nature of some of her work - never knowing how something will work until its dyed or spun or woven. When I have a smidgen of free time she's promised to help my dye my own natural embroidery threads so watch this space and check out her work.

So here are a few pictures of the stand before the hordes appeared and surrounded it:



That's ME that is!



The rouge's gallery.

The Tactile Table - the sign peeking from the corner reads 'Please feel free to touch' and always gets a few giggles and encourages people to get their hands on the fabrics.

 So Exeter over, and time for holiday and relaxing time......

a hint of things to come: the Eden project and photography mania, local cider, Tintagel and Boscastle, the new holiday read which is almost finished and quilting and countryside heaven.....

(now to get ready for tomorrow - I'm off to catch me some Mackerel!)

Long awaited, and very belated!

Such a long awaited post I know. I have been working away like a Hobbit in his Garden (not too sure where that analogy came from, I must need a holiday!) So what has this busy bee been up to? Well the Festival of Quilts at the NEC was a fab few hectic days, the Creative Quilting stand was heaving and lovely people and beautiful fabrics were in abundance. I even had a bit of time to run around and buy the fabrics I needed to start my log cabin quilt (and managed to get them in under budget!) The first few blocks have been worked but when I have a few more I'll take a photo for you to see - but be warned, its no traditional peaceful log cabin with a red centre.

The Festival of Quilts had an overwhelming exhibition of Quilts of all styles, with far to many to mention. I took far too many photos and will get around to uploading them to Flikr but have posted here some of my favorites for you all to see. 

 

So, after breakdown on Sunday night, I was straight back to stitching and preparations for Stirling. A stitch, stitch and a stitch later, the sample was mounted and framed (beautifully by my lovely framer) instructions were written, kits were made, threads were measured out and suitcase's were packed and I was whisked off to the airport. (all in a bit of a whirlwind)

The Stirling Summer School was so well run I really didn't have to worry about a thing. Picked up from the airport, I was driven to the beautiful Stirling University. A huge campus based university with its own cinema and theatre, and Loch (it was all rather Hogwarts esque) the scenery was gorgeous, the students were welcoming and so hard working, and the days were fantastic (even with a nasty cold and a strange 'fire' alarm incident.)

I don't think I have ever taught such a hard working group, working from 9 in the morning and not finishing until 9 in the evening (obviously with breaks) on fine whitework with thread counting, straight grains and net darning - they were champions! It truly was a wonderful first summer school experiance so thank you Scottish Embroiderer's Guild!

Here's my motley crew:

I had a rather long journey home, being at the airport 4 hours early, and with a flight delayed I had a lot of time to waste. So I happily sat my self down in the airport lounge and knitted, and actually managed to knit about 2 feet of the giant scarf - its almost finished and i'll post a pic when its off the needles.

So, NEC Birmingham, then Stirling Scotland, and finally home and back to my duvet. Back to normal life and a bit of a paperwork catch up (boring but had to be done) But then last week I was off to my next wonderful location - Luton Hoo hotel and spa. A fantastic group of Australians were over on a needlework tour with the lovely Maureen of Australian Needlework Tours:
http://www.needleworktours.com.au/about-us.htm
They were over to stitch and visit stately homes and historic landmarks, and I was able to spend the day teaching them in the beautiful surroundings of Luton Hoo. Such a fun group of embroiderer's, who were amongst the best 'chat and stitchers' I'd ever met - thank you for an entertaining day working! (Maybe one day I'll go back there and spend time in the spa!)

 

So one more task for September - the ICHF creative stitches show in Exeter. A fab four day show where I am currently demonstrating and teaching one hour hand embroidery classes.I have lots of photos for you and lots of lovely info but I may leave that for tomorrow (or the next day, depending on when I can get an internet signal again in the beautiful Devon countryside.)

Phew, that was mammoth, thanks for sticking with it. Here's a glimpse of what I have been working on for the last two days: