Happy News and Sad News

Last week, Valentines Day to be exact and romantic, Anthony and Nicki got engaged. They plan to get married in 2015, they are both very happy and so are we. This is the icing on the cake for them they are enjoying being parents to Ellie, and are making a very good job of it; she is such a happy contented baby.

The sad news is that on Monday evening we had to have Sparky put to rest. It was such an awful decision to make but he had a flare up of the hepatitis that he went down with at Christmas but unfortunately this time he just couldn't recover. He is greatly missed. Steph is devasted, to try and cheer her up we took her to Easton Walled Gardens to see the snowdrops. They were beautiful in their hundreds.

 

Life has been very hectic the past few weeks and last weekend was no exception. Dawn, Neil and I took the shop to Cottenham  for Textiles In Focus. It was very busy and we had a great time, we caught up with lots of people and the exhibitions were inspiring. Tomorrow Neil and I are off to London for the launch of a new Patchwork and Quilting magazine. Hopefully next week I will have some time to do some sewing.

It's A Start

I'm trying to be good and I've made a start on my homework for Spectrum. I have transferred some sections from my journey painting to my sketchbook. I'm hoping I will have time today to start making patterns with some of these images and then think about making stitched samples. This is taking me right out of my comfort zone but teacher says it has to be done.

At last I've finished a cushion cover for the tombola. I've made lots of cushion covers over the years and never had a problem but for some unknown reason these two just wouldn't go right and that's why there's only one. The other one is going to be made into a wall hanging. 

Spectrum Or Playschool?

Yesterday I went to a Spectrum meeting, the last one before our exhibition. Some details were finalised and then Gina let us have it.........mmm. She unveiled her plan of action for the rest of the year and it involves drawing ggrrr.
The first step was to paint a journey which could be imaginary onto lining paper using just black paint and different widths of paint brushes. My journey was from home to work but I got a bit lost on the way, never mind. (What's new!NLW)

Then we had to fill in all the spaces with other marks or patterns.

On this picture if you look closely at the bottom you can see where Ann and I played noughts and crosses.

We have got to continue working on this at home. The next step is to isolate areas, transfer them to our sketch books and then play with them. Next we need to  make stitched samples using any technique we like but still only in black and white. At this point I may have screwed my nose up just slightly but Gill saw me and she suddenly turned into the class snitch  and got me into trouble. All I was doing was imagining my sampler with a bit of red. I'd better do my homework if I want to stay out of trouble.

At least my cards are colourful, these are some more that I've made for our sales table at the exhibition. We are going to have a great sales table looking at all the things we have made.