Splish, splash, splosh

I've been playing with Brusho today, making cards for Open Studio and experimenting with the new shimmer sprays that ColourCraft have produced...and I've been having a lot of fun. I started out doing some shaving foam dyeing, then thickened some Brusho and did some printing, and finally ended up doing a bit of experimental mark making on some Evolon. That, as you can imagine, took up a fair amount of time, probably the most time I've spent in the Little Green Shed for a while, now.

I was particularly interested by the combination of printing and spray shimmer...as you can probably guess from the pictures, above. It's amazing how different the images look, yet they are clearly all based on the same print from a linocut I made some time ago. All that variety, just by carefully spraying. I did discover that it's a good idea to let one layer dry before the next layer gets added; otherwise, you end up with little pools of mica, which is pretty, but not quite the effect I was looking for. Fortunately, none of the pooling was too dramatic, and I'm intending to mount these prints, so some less painterly marks will disappear. I like the way you can vary the intensity of the spray, by moving it different distances away from the surface of the paper. I've never been a fan of glitter (glitz, yes, glitter, no), but this gives a lovely, subtle shine to the piece. I've already tried it on Evolon, and it looks good on that, too.

I was struck by the comment Dave made, about it being interesting that cutting pieces down doesn't change the meaning, for me at least. Thinking about it some more, I realised that for me, it's like a final distillation of the piece... I take out areas which seem in some way superfluous to the needs of the piece. So it says what I want it to say, only more intensely. As the Scots say, 'Guid gear, sma' buk', or good things come in little packages.

Lost In Space?

No, not really... just generally lost... I've been having gall bladder trouble, not the nicest thing in the world, as well as other things, like my friend Judy's wedding (the photos of me in The Hat are on my facebook page here, if you're interested). Now that it's all over (well the wedding, not the gall bladder, but it does seem to have calmed down a bit...famous last words...), I get to go back into the studio, just in time for Open Studios. I spent part of the day with my book designer Terry Symonds, checking the final version of Exquisite Evolon, which goes to print next week. Finally, I hear you holler.... and you would be right. This must be the slowest book in living memory...sigh. I just hope it'll be worth the wait. Lovely Lutradur has been selling well, mostly, I think, due to a positive review in Stitch Magazine, one of the Embroiderers Guild's publications. Now, we'll see how many people want to join me in playing with Evolon.

I spent Tuesday with Jill, of whom more in another post. We are exhibiting together at Open Studios, at The Gallery, Dereham, so whilst she made a couple of landscapes and finished off a commission, I made some little cards, as you can see from the (rather pathetic) photos above. I don't usually make things quite this small, but it was fun to assemble them; the selection in the photos all use Evolon, though you might not be able to recognise it. Two of them feature vintage lace and tatting; the lace was hand knitted, and Jill, an ex museum curator, reckons that it's probably Edwardian. It's very beautiful, like a cobweb. I had difficulty cutting into it, to be honest, but I'd rather it was used than it sit in a drawer for me to admire once every three years or something.

I'm going to sit tonight and make some more, larger cards; it's interesting to take pieces that were intended as journal sized pieces, and cut them into smaller sizes. Often, they look better that way. I've been doing a lot of that recently, cutting things down a bit once they're made, because I can see that they will look better at a smaller size. Interestingly, that rarely affects the meaning I've attributed to them; it's purely a visual decision.

Tomorrow, I'm spending most of the day in the Little Green Shed. Hurrah!!! I'm going to do some marbling with Brusho, as well as some printing. That'll be fun...and yes, there's another book in the offing...but it definitely won't take as long as the Evolon book to finish...I promise!

ps Open Studios runs from 22 May to 6 June 2010; email me for more info, or to request an invite to the Private View on 21 May.

Asking The Right Questions

I visited a blog that's new to me today, and found myself challenged by its writer, Bethany Stephens; visit her blog here . She asked a very astute question, and answered it herself, beautifully, in the post. 'What is your reason for your art of choice?'

My answer, to my surprise, was very short. I wrote:

"My blog is called 'artmixter', and I work in a number of different
media, often together. Why? Because I want to break down barriers,
challenge perceptions and create change. Thanks for asking, it has just
made me very clear about what I do and who I am... Oh, and did I mention
joy? The creation of joy. "

You know, for years, I have wondered why I don't fit into quilt groups, no matter how art focussed (and there aren't many of those around...if you know better, please let me know). Now, I know. People who do what I say I want to do, aren't always easy to get on with. They challenge things, people, ideas, concepts. They argue. They don't accept the easy answers, and they ask difficult questions, like, 'why?' The upside, is that they're genuinely interested in the answers, and may well make you see things differently just by being around and asking odd questions. I'd like to thank those of you who are regular blog readers; you stick around where others would give up in disgust... or annoyance... or something. I hope we can learn lots of new things together; it's such an exciting journey.

Happy as I am to be here, now, in Spring, the quilt image I've shown you here is Summer Garden. The colours in the original are even stronger than those in the photograph, and if you look closely, there are lots of roses quilted into the piece. But I mentioned joy, and for me, this piece is truly joyful.

Froggius Interruptus

I've been darting between the Little Green Shed and the house today, working on a new book. Every time I've passed the pond, there has been much splashing and sploshing as the frogs take fright. They're not usually quite this shy, but clearly Spring has Sprung, and procreation is a private process... I did notice Molliecat paying particular attention to the pond this morning, so I think they must be less concerned about other animals spying on them... but who knows.

I thought I'd prove I'm not just working with Bertha. This is a landscape, of sorts, one of a series. As well as stitching into the transfer dyed cloth (evolon), I've used the embellisher to add extra colour and texture using both silk and wool tops. I think it's fairly successful. I've written about making a series in the new Evolon book, and these are some of the results. I'm quite pleased with the overall effect. I'm going to mount them, and frame a couple, too, for Open Studios.

Bertha's Big Day

I'm thoroughly enjoying using Bertha... for those of you wondering who or what Bertha is, she is a wide scale printer, which allows me to print cloth up to 24" wide, and as long as I like... I'm still at the experimental stage, but I hope to offer other textile artists the opportunity to send images to us at the Gallery, so that we can print cloth for them, too. Meanwhile, this is one of the images I'm working on currently. This was printed on Evolon and stitched into. It's part of the 'Cracking Up' series I've been thinking about and working on for a while. Not sure if it's finished yet, I may add something else to it, possibly using the embellisher. I've included a small close up, to let you see the detail in both the stitch and the print itself; remember you can click on the images to enlarge them.

The original image was a photograph of cracks in the floor of an outbuilding at the Gressenhall Museum. It's amazing how quickly and easily a photograph can be manipulated on computer. The challenge, I'm finding, is working out how to combine photographs as abstracts with stitch. I've always said that it's important to leave space for stitch in any design we make; I'm finding that if I work the image too hard, it's difficult to work out quite how and where to stitch...and to justify the stitch at all. That hadn't really occurred to me. I don't see myself as a photographer, but in some ways, that's what I am, or what I have become. It's not a turn in my creative journey that I was expecting, but that's okay. I love the unexpected.

Out To Play...

with Big Bertha today, as well as working on a number of small pieces for Open Studios in May. If anyone's in the Dereham area today, you're welcome to drop into the gallery and see me at work. I'm planning a lot of free motion work today, as well as printing off some images that I worked on yesterday. Meanwhile, though, have a look at this piece, rust dyed silk, one of the pieces I finished on Wednesday. I rarely hand stitch, or rather, I used to rarely hand stitch, but somehow this kind of cloth needs it. That led to a bit of hand stitching on Evolon, which is so textured that it somehow also called for it... and here I am, now doing both and enjoying it, to my intense surprise.

There are several rust dyed pieces in the Evolon book, and full instructions on how to rust dye. I know that rust dyeing gets a bad press in terms of durability, but so far, I've had no problems with any of my cloth, some of which is now about eight or nine years old. These pieces feel organic, somehow, and to me, if they change over time, it's simply a reflection of that organic nature.

Back To Work...

...and my, it feels good. No, not the HR stuff, I was made redundant in December and haven't found anything suitable yet. Back to the creative stuff, instead. I've been in bed for most of the last four weeks, if not longer, and I was beginning to think I'd never get back to making things, though I have been working on the Evolon book in snatches (it should be with the printer in the next week or so, hurrah!!!). No, I'm talking about Working With Cloth.

I ran the regular workshop on Tuesday night, and we're working with cloth for the foreseeable future. So far, we've been working with small scraps of cloth, often cloth we wouldn't give house room to, and making small art pieces. I had planned a particular path for this Tuesday, but as it turned out, the class had other ideas. And since I was clearly surplus to requirements (other than advice and guidance now and again), I wondered what I was actually going to do... So I put three pieces of hand dye together, and began to stitch. Yesterday, I went back to the Gallery, and finished the piece. Not only that, but I also finished three other small pieces that had been awaiting trimming and embellishing. So I feel I'm Back With A Bang!

The first new piece is pictured above, and is nameless, as yet. Echoes, possibly. See what you think. I'm going to have it framed, along with most if not all of my new output, this one, I think, in a box frame. I've tried and tried to be a Proper Quilter...even a Proper Art Quilter... but it doesn't seem to fit with what I am and what I do. So I give up. I'm just going to be me, the artist, and do what seems right. I'm teaching at Festival of Quilts this year, right enough, but I think nobody will mind !!

Surface Design...

is great fun, but I don't see myself getting out to the shed today. There's still lots of snow in the garden, and I doubt if the Berco Boiler has defrosted itself yet... so I'm staying put and playing with the cloth that I've already made. Like this sample, Lutradur 100 coloured with Brusho. All the colour was added using these flexible little watercolour inks. I'm really quite pleased with the outcome, a sample for a class I hope to be teaching soon, smaller than A4. As you can see, I've added a couple of small pieces of felt, and embellished them with some free flying fleece. I was contemplating adding some stitch, but I'm not so sure now. Small and uncomplicated seems to suit my mood. See what you think. I have to say, it looks better in the flesh... but that's the way of these things.

...And Brightening Up.

It's remarkable how much better a tidy workspace is for one's morale. I've unearthed a few medium sized pieces that need to be worked on, like the one above, which is layers of both Lutradur and Evolon, with red wool tops felted into them, as well as throwing out quite a few small pieces that just didn't work and really aren't worth working on any more. And if you marry that up with a long conversation about The Work, and what I'm intending to do, then you have a process that takes you not just out of the blues, but into the Zone. Thanks, Sally, for listening while I droned on about what was going on in my head, and for giving me your opinions, gently but firmly. And having the patience to let me sort things out in my own head.

In many ways, that's the real trick, when you're talking to someone about their work. Let them talk. Someone much smarter than me said 'I know what I think when I hear what I say'; Sally listened to me talking about how dark the earlier work had been, and how dark this new stuff also seemed. We worked out why that was, and what it meant, and then, at the end of the conversation, there was room for a small but definite brainwave unrelated to the work we were talking about, but a definite possibility for a series of work with BB. Watch this space!

Friends, what would we do without them?

Oh, and the other thing I've stopped doing is the procrastination around the images for the book. My lovely designer should get the whole thing tomorrow. The thing about procrastination is that it's SO good when you stop! Why not try it with whatever you have been avoiding, lately? You know you want to...and I bet that whatever it is is not as difficult as you think it is going to be. Trust me, I'm a quilter.

Tidying Up...

is, I suspect, best done in a bad mood. Failing that, a questioning mood. Why do I keep all this stuff? Why don't I tidy up as I go along? Why do I feel as if I want to work larger than I have been? Do I really need all this fabric? Where can I put all these books? You know the kind of thing, I'm sure. It helps you to throw things away, or give them to others, which makes it easier to find places to put things; and that, in turn, gets things clearer in your mind. I write about it at length in the Creative Focus book. At times like this, I rather think I should be taking a large dose of my own medicine.

And that really is what I intend to do. I spent an hour in one of the fabric studios today, and it still looks like a large bomb hit it. Partly that's because my son has several boxes of his stuff, mainly books (wonder who he gets that from...?), in that particular studio. They're going back up to Scotland just as soon as I can manage it (mwahaha...). But it's also my doing. There is a lovely (or rather, unlovely) guddle in both cloth studios, and I'm sick of it. So the next few days will be partly spent working on putting things to rights, and the rest of the time spent telling the cats that I didn't order the snow up just to spite them, and that there's plenty of food in their bowls...in between cuddles, of course.

That 'work larger' thing is intriguing, though. Partly it's just Bertha's influence. Partly, though, it's a need to give myself the space to express things, as I do in my paintings. I don't like painting small, and I no longer feel I want to sew small, either. And partly it's the restlessness that you get at the beginning of a new phase of work, as you wonder, is it worth it? Do I really want to do that? Say that? Express that? Will I be able to do the theme justice? I don't know any of that. But I do trust the process, and at the moment, the process seems to be saying, tidy up, get ready to work, get out of your own way, and hurry up about it. So that's what I'm doing. Wish me luck, it's scary.

On A Roll...

carguably, with the odd disaster still creeping in... This is a variation of the original cave painting image, where I've used the software to allow me to draw on top of the manipulated photograph, and then used those additional lines to suggest the stitch lines. What I've produced, is a primitive, semi abstract man shape. If I could only see it as that, I'd be happy.

However, I also see it as a badly drawn man shape. When I was stitching it, I couldn't see the head as I originally envisaged it, which was quite a bit larger than the one in the image, and in a completely different position. I can see it now, of course, in the photograph, but at the time, I couldn't. So I stitched what I saw, and went with the flow, as I always do. The head seems to suggest that the body is facing one way, where the leg in the bottom left corner, suggests that the body is facing in another. Now that I've seen that, I can't unsee it.

At the end of the day, it all comes down to intention. My intention was to create a semi abstract, primitive man shape, and that's what I've produced. What's more, despite my own discomfort, I'm not going to change it to conform to the 'rules' of what a man shape should look like. In fact, the more I look at it, the more I warm to it. This is a 'man' who is ruled by his body, not his head. Who is, perhaps as a result of that, confused and unsure of where he's going. Tentative, hesitant, almost.

Like I said, I can't unsee the 'wrong' bit. But I can accept it for what it is, an expression, resulting from my process, which has taken me a bit of thinking to comprehend. This post is very much for me... but it's also for everyone who has worried that their intention will not be seen by the viewer. My suggestion is that you live with it, just as I'm doing. Ambiguity is good. Risk taking is good. Expression is good. Above all, you have to trust the process... at some level, you really do know what you're doing, and why. It might take a little time for the conscious you to catch up, but that's okay.

ps It's worth looking at the images enlarged, I think...just click on them. The first one is a detail shot, that shows some of the drawing I did, as well as some of the stitch.

Returning From The Brink Of Disaster...

...or how to survive One Of Those Days. I'm definitely having one, and much of it centres round this piece, called 'Cave Drawings I'. It started as an inkjet print on Evolon, as I'm writing a section about doing just that thing at the moment. I then added some net, and some stitch, but felt it needed Something. A gel transfer, I thought. Forgetting, of course, that I hadn't actually set the ink (I use a spray). So, what happens? Ink runs in one section. No problem, I thought, just whip the gel back off again, which I did, and we'll add something to that area. I know, a print done on Bondaweb.

Problem was, the Bondaweb wasn't sticking well to the backing sheet, so I covered it with greaseproof paper and ironed it. So well, in fact, that it stuck to the greaseproof paper. No, that has never happened to me before, and to be honest, I didn't believe it. So I ran it through the printer, fusible side up. Nifty print of a fossil. Try to iron it onto the piece. It did. Trouble was, the paper didn't want to come off again. Stood for half an hour peeling it off laboriously. Some of the Bondaweb stayed on the piece, some of it didn't. In the meantime, I'd forgotten where exactly the original problem area was. Ahem. And I left a few pieces of the paper on the cloth, as they looked interesting.

Meanwhile, ran two other pieces of Bondaweb through the printer. One was successful; the other was eaten by the printer, and disgorged itself slowly in shreds. That kind of a day? Oh, yes. Still, I'm quite pleased by the work. Wait til you see the next one in the series...if I get that far...

New Directions...

and who knows where they will lead. This is the inaugural piece from Big Bertha (BB), my lovely printer, and it's called, 'Are We Dancers?'. It is made from Lutradur 100, silk and wool fibres, and measures 17.5" by 24"; it's great to be able to work on a larger scale than A4 with a photographic image! Although the piecemade in layers, I don't think it really qualifies as a quilt (of which more another time). The image is manipulated; the original was a picture of a crack in the floor of one of the buildings at the museum at Gressenhall, just up the road from here. I did contemplate beading this piece, but thought better of it. I think it's complicated enough without it. There's always the risk that you add too much to a piece, and distract from the original intention. Sadly, the main picture doesn't do the colour justice; the colours are very subtle in places. I hope to get a better photograph of it when the snow disappears and I can get to the gallery, where the lighting is good. The close up does a much better job of rendering the colours of the original.

As you can tell from the image, I've given my embellisher a bit of an outing, and intend to work much more with it in the next few months. I've rearranged my work space so that it has a table to itself, and I've already used it more in a week than I did in the whole of last year, just about. Which is sad, really. I didn't buy it as a toy, but other than buying rather a lot of things to use with it, I didn't make time to work with it. Now, I have a clear plan about using it, and a clear purpose, and I do feel better about it. And I'm wondering what other bits and pieces of things I'll work with next... other than BB, of course, she's an essential part of my new directions. Hope you like what you see...

Playing With The Inner Child

I've always had a thing about crayons. Chubbi's in particular, the kind they have in nursery schools, the big thick ones. Only thing about them was, they sometimes didn't make all that great a mark...there was something hard about them, and they sort of squeaked on the table sometimes... I've often felt the same about textile crayons; the idea is great, but they always seem so hard... and then I went to demo for ColourCraft at Harrogate last year. Oooh, crayons, I said. Yes, they said. They're just for kids. But when I pouted, they said, go on then, you can play with them too.

So me and my inner child played with the crayons for a bit, and they were Good; very satisfyingly chunky, not unlike Chubbies were. As you can see from the illustration, the colour is bright, and they work nicely on Evolon that had been transfer dyed in places. What you can't see from the illustration is how nicely they work on cloth; they feel really soft and smooth, and I loved them! But they're just for kids, they kept saying. I'm of the view that I don't care who they're for; if they work, they work! And they certainly do. (The flower tops are made with copper Gutta, by the way...).

So now I'm having a conversation with my inner child. We're thinking... resists under Procion... detail over Procion... drawings just for fun... tshirts.... all we have to do now is wait until the Little Green Shed defrosts a bit (the water for dyeing has frozen), and go Try It Out! In the meantime, my inner child and I are going to prepare some Evolon for blasting with heat... and colouring a little doll, too. We like colour. We like easy. We like fun. Hurrah!!!

What Do You Do...

when the BBC is showing a feature length episode of Casualty? Well, I don't know what you do, but I sit and stitch by hand. This piece has been hanging around for a while, only a third done. I used to take it to the Gallery to do on open days, but that stopped when I got the Paid Job. Last night seemed like a good moment to resume work on it, and despite a little jockeying for postion amongst the cats, and Merlin deciding that the thread was To Be Played With, I got quite a lot done. I'll be doing Open Studio in May this year, and I'd like to have some new pieces to show, other than the work I'm doing with BB. Besides, hand stitching is possible in lunch hours and the like, when I do go back to work.

The piece is provisionally entitled Strata, reflecting the way that the stitches increase in size in some places, as well as the markings of the rust, which seem stratified, somehow. The cloth is rust dyed silk habotai, stitched with cotton hand dyed threads by Myfanwy Hart. I very rarely dye my own threads, too fiddly for my liking, but I like Myfanwy's. I've got some rust dyed Evolon still to play with; there's instructions for that in the upcoming book, two different methods. I love the effect that rust dyeing gives; must do more of it. In the meantime, though, I'm happy to work on the first of BB's pieces; pictures of that tomorrow.

It's lovely to be back on the blog. Thank you to everyone who has been patiently waiting for me to come back...and a particular thank you to everyone who comments. I read every one, and appreciate them greatly.

Tidying Up...

mainly, today, in the Gallery. We're going to use the smaller of the two spaces as dedicated workshop space, that can be used on a drop in space, rented out by groups or artists for small workshops, or in which we'll conduct our own workshops, as usual. The adult group I run on a Tuesday is not meeting until the first Tuesday in March, and we'll be kicking off with a fabric swap. In my case, that'll be a fabric getting rid of, I hope... too much fabric, not enough time. I'm certainly going to start selling my hand dyes in the gallery, soon, so that will take some of the pressure off, at least. Phew.

Tomorrow, I start to tidy up the Evolon book, adding the chapters I talked about yesterday, and getting it to the designer, so that it will be printed (at last, I hear you holler...). And I definitely need to tidy up the threads I have in my possession, as I started using one in particular on the piece I've made on BB, and I can't find any more of it, though I know there is some somewhere...

In the meantime, though, I'm going to finish off this particular day of tidying with a quick dash through the kitchen, where too much of the shed's stuff is lurking. Back it goes tomorrow, but meantime, I hear the allure of the empty dishwasher, and the rumble of my tum. Off to clear the decks, and cook the tea!

A Leap Of Faith

Last year was the year when I made my first true leap of faith. When we realised that the future of my husband's employers was a little...well...shaky, I decided to go back into HR. For me, that was a leap of faith. I didn't know if I could cope or not with the demands of paid employment, which was the reason I got (really) ill in the first place, last time round. But needs must when the devil drives, and I spent a joyful five months working in a great place, which is now, sadly, closed. You would have noticed the quiet blog, here, which was a direct result of the Paid Job, and for that, I'm sorry. I missed talking with you all. Now, though, I'm about to take another leap of faith, which is to continue to look for paid employment (anyone looking for a proactive HR Manager?), but to combine it with a simplification of my creative life. I'm coming back to textiles in a focussed way, with a bit of mixed media on the side.

You see, I've got a new toy. She's called Big Bertha, and she's a printer. She's not any old printer, though; she's an Epson 7880 (check her out here). I'm going to be working almost exclusively with images that are derived from photographs, just like the image at the top of the blog, one of the illustrations for the new Evolon book (more of that in a minute). She's too big for my studio, so she lives in the gallery in Dereham, where we'll be offering a range of services for artists and photographers based on BB. Watch this space for more details... but first, I need to master using her on cloth. That starts next week... the gallery may not know what hit them .

And the Evolon book. Yes, I know, I promised it for last year. I failed...but for a good reason (for once). I'm adding two new chapters, one on using evolon and the printer, another on distressing with heat. It will be ready in March; I hope you'll think it's worth the wait.

Oh, it's good to be back. I spent part of this afternoon in the studio...would still be there, but himself has a migraine, and the embellisher makes a lot of noise... I'm half way through working with my first large scale image on Lutradur. It's really exciting!

Finally, I wish you all a Guid New Year... one that is joyful, exciting and creative, just like mine!

Creating...

but not exactly what I expected. I'm spending today in the gallery, and now that I've got the exhibit how I want it, complete with labels, I'm working on... well...not what I intended to work on. I intended to work on the image above, a piece of Evolon that has been transfer dyed in four layers (or was it five...I forget). But somehow the little box with the correct foot for my old Bernina (which lives here part time) has disappeared in the chaos which is the Gallery's art supplies, so instead, I'm writing some instructions for a pattern. I rarely make pieces that lend themselves to patterns, or instructions, and in truth, this will be a pattern with a difference. It will tell you how to make a particular wall hanging...but it will also give you lots of control over the size and look of the piece, too. Mind you, I've never actually used a pattern, so maybe that's what all patterns do? If so, better tell me now before I make an idiot of myself...

The piece I'm writing the pattern for is called 'Autumn Rain'. I originally made it with hand dyes, but I am writing the pattern for commercial fabrics as well as hand dyes...so we'll see how that works today. I'll pop a picture of it up on the next blog, along with some images of the show.

Workshop Wonders

Just in case you were wondering what it was we get up to on a Tuesday night at the Gallery, here are some images of a recent show of student work. So far this year, we've tried a wide variety of things, from paste papers and nature printing through to altered books. We've even moved into basic 3D, as you can see from the Funky Chicken plaque (isn't it fab?). And that's just with the grown ups! The kids made the wonderful altered shoes you can see in one of the images; the adults haven't quite picked up the courage to do that yet, but I suspect it's only a matter of time!

At the moment, we're working with photographs, using a favourite photo as inspiration to produce different kinds of work. I don't know about you, but I take huge amounts of images, but often they are left on the disc to moulder as I collect even more... So we're working this month on just how to use those images. I'll share some images at the end of the exercise...though that might be some time in the future; we're finding more and more inspiration in the smallest of details.

Next week at the Gallery, my friend Jill and I are hanging a textile exhibition, entitled 'Textile Alternatives'. As well as our own work, we'll be showing a wide range of work, some of which stretches the boundaries of our understanding of what 'textile' means. I hope we'll see some of you there... it opens on Saturday 24 October, and runs til the following Saturday. Open 9.30am to5pm Monday to Saturday, closed on Sundays. Check out the Gallery web page for location and more details.

And talking about Alternatives, as we were... I've given up the ownership of the Alternative Quilt List on Yahoogroups, and delivered it into the competent and caring hands of my friend and fellow artist Dijanne Cevaal. I hope it continues to grow and change. I have been very busy of late (you may have noticed a greater paucity of posts than usual around here), and feel that it's time for me to hand over the reins. Good luck, Dij!

ps There are a number of the snow leopard t shirts left over; if you would like to buy one, drop me an email. They are very low cost, and all proceeds go the the Snow Leopard Trust.

Plus Ca Change...

...plus c'est la meme chose... I don't quite think this was the intention behind the quotation, but in a way, it's very fitting. Voici the French version of Lovely Lutradur, 'Ravissant Lutradur'. Doesn't it look great? It is, of course, the same book, just translated and presented slightly differently, but it does the same thing as the old one, honest!! I hope our Francophone readers really enjoy it.

I'm working today on the final draft of Exquisite Evolon, before sending it to the designer. It seems to have taken forever, but I do hope the wait will have been worth it for everyone who has expressed an interest in this new book. I'm hoping it will be ready to take with me to Harrogate, so fingers crossed!

I've really been busy, recently, much of it the admin work behind the business; putting together a quote for the school which is interested in a textile project next year, for instance. That involves a six foot long Evolon snake... watch this space! I've also been saving the Snow Leopard, one tshirt at a time... when I find my camera I'll upload a shot or two of the tshirts we are selling at the gallery; every single penny goes to the charity. They are for sale during the exhibition of students work at the gallery this week; work from adults and kids, from altered shoes through paintings to collage and altered books. Everyone has been having fun, and it took the show for some of us to realise just how good the work is. Congratulations to everyone on their success and their hard work!