KTAA first meeting

We finally got the 2007/08 season underway with our first meeting on Tuesday night. It was held at Sadu House, and we had about 50-60 people turn up, plus another 45 or so from another group who were meeting on the same night and came along to see what we were all about. Once I had stopped feeling ill with worry, I really enjoyed myself.

We had plenty of time first for people to look around Sadu house, and for some it was their first visit, and to renew their membership, and then I had to do my bit and welcome everyone. I don't think I managed to insult anyone - haven't been told of any complete cock ups anyway, so fingers crossed I got away with it! Sheika Altaf then did a small talk about how she came to be involved with the start of the KTAA in 1994, when just 6 people got together because they were interested in weaving..... something about little acorns springs to mind here. Once we had got all that out of the way, we got onto the interesting stuff and had a show and tell. I started the ball rolling by showing the little beaded doll brooches I'd got at the quilt festival in Birmingham made by the South African children whose parent(s) had died from Aids. We had jackets from south China, a throw from Peru, a hand embroidered table cloth, a mirror cover from Uzbekistan, a drape to cover bed linen also from Uzbekistan, both very old pieces, a rug from Morocco, a couple of quilts, and a painted wall hanging from India. I'm sure there were more, but my mind has gone blank - I don't think there were any cuddly toys or microwaves! And crawling all over the place, were the ubiquitous press photographers that come to all manner of events in kuwait. every time I looked up there was another telephoto lense up my left nostril! So no surprises for guessing that a couple of days later we were in the paper. And again today. Hey ho, no peace for the wicked!!
Just in case Sian is reading this, I have been slowly progressing with some course work, doing some weaving samples, and rubbings from them, and about to start playing with colour studies. that should get me off the hook for a couple of minutes anyway! I actually spent this afternoon making a couple of pieces of quilting. Our quilt group here has gone back to basics as we have a lot of new members, and we have been given a Kaleidoscope pattern to make up.

I also had a go at the disappearing nine patch as demonstrated by Helen on her blog a couple of months ago.
It is so much fun to do, and looks far more complicated than it is, which is always good value.

tomorrow is our Monday equivalent, so back to work, and for me that is a trip to the fabric souk with some new members tomorrow morning, and then out to the British Business Forum introduction to Kuwait evening at the Hilton resort. should be fun.

summer holidays part two....

So having taken on the floods, the traffic and the emergency services, got to my friends wedding, and out again, I collected my daughter, and battled my way out to Birmingham airport, from where we flew to Scotland to join my dh and stepson. We had a fantastic week on the west coast, not far from Tarbert. Glorious sunshine, lots of playing about in the water, barbecues and chilling with friends. It is a beautiful place to visit.
My thoughts and prayers though remain with the thousands of people who were affected by the floods, not only in this area, but in the north west as well. their lives have been devastated, and it will be many months before they experience something like normality again.
From Scotland, we flew to spain, and spent 2 more fantatic weeks relaxing in the sunshine, and playing in the pool. We visited the aquarium at Valencia one day, and drove miles around some pretty precarious hilly tracks (roads is too dignified) on another, seeing some fantastic scenery on the way, ate some great tapas, drank lots of tinto verrano, (my spanish drink) and read the entire library of books in the villa. 6 if you're interested.
When we came back from Spain, we dropped my daughter back with her father, my stepson back with his mother, and then dh and I departed next day for Budapest. This city comes highly recommended. easy to get around, with buses, trams, metro and trolleybuses. plenty to see and do, some great restaurants, and shamefully, they speak pretty immaculate english. to be fair though, Hungarian is one of the most impenetrable languages in the world. We had 4 wonderful days there, filled with wonderful things to do, including the ethnography museum filled with beautiful folk costumes from the different regions and classes of the country from 100 years ago. sorry, no photos, my camera battery died. Dh then returned to Kuwait, and I headed to Birmingham for the last 2 days of IFQ at the NEC.

What a treat the IFQ was. I know that many of you visited for at least one day, and like me were absolutely blown away by it all. I caught up with Maggie Grey on the WOW stand, and with Angie Hughes of Ledbury Art Place, and met Ruth Isset at long last. I was there with the Faces of Arabia stand from Kuwait. You will have seen some of the quilts previously on this blog, but this one was new. and he would have pretty much stopped you in your tracks as you walked past our stand.
He is by Jenny Bowker, Australian quilter, and the lady who came to judge our show in May. We invited her to submit a quilt to show with ours at Birmingham.


However, the star of the show as far as we were concerned was our own Paramjeet Bawa. she took up quilting 5 years ago, and was persuaded to enter one of her quilts, called 'Duststorm', into the pictorial competition. She was placed second, won the amateur award, the best use of colour award, and the judges award. We later found out that she had also won the viewers choice award. the quilt then went to Houston, and today, Paramjeet has found out that it received an honourable mention there. Are we proud bunnies or what?!!! For those of you who didn't make it to the show, or didn't see it, here it is:

















There followed a week of visiting friends, travelling the length and breadth of the country, before returning to Ledbury, and a 21/2 day workshop with Angie Hughes. Now that is the way to finish a holiday, well nearly. there were 4 of us, in the heat of a proper summers weekend playing, sorry, working with mixed media, and having so much fun. I will add photos to this when I get my work back from the art teacher I have lent it to. The Ledbury Art place offers all sorts of wonderful workshops throughout the year, but this was the first time I have been able to fit one in.

My last textile trip of the holidays was to the Forge Mill Needle museum in Redditch to see the finalists in the Charles Henry Foyle Trust competition. The winner Karin Millson, lives in the Middle East, and has just finished a C&G level 3 Diploma in design and stitched textiles with Sian Martin and Distant Stitch. (the same course I am on). The pieces was a hanging, and was a very clear winner. Congratulations to Karin.

So anyway, that is why I have been out of contact for so long, promise not to let it be so long til the next post. Now I am concentrating on the first meeting of the KTAA, but more of that next post.

Distant Stitch Summer school at Urchfont

In which I met a wonderful group of new friends, learnt some fabulous new techniques and ate more delicious food than is good for one person.

I arrived at Urchfont in not quite sunshine on Sunday afternoon to find the exhibition of students' work and the textiles masterclass in full swing. For those like me who have / had never been to Urchfont, it is a beautiful old Queen Anne style ? house set in some lovely grounds which has been turned (very successfully) into a residential centre by Wiltshire council. I had time to wander around and view all the exhibits, chat to a few of the makers, meet my Distant Stitch tutor, Sian Martin, spend another small fortune with Art Van Go - (see previous post to find out how much I didn't need to do that!) and Winifred Cottage, get a cuppa and then check in! By then I needed a lie down to recover.

The summer school started in the cellar bar before dinner, where we all introduced ourselves over a glass of wine. There were several summer school stalwarts, as well as a good sprinkling of new bods like me, but everyone, without exception, was so friendly. Just goes to show what a great bunch we textile peeps are. At 7 they rang a gong for dinner and we all trooped upstairs to the lovely old dining room, with views over the croquet lawn, and sat down for the first of the most delicious meals. 3 courses of it, plus cheese and fruit if you could manage it!!! fantastic!!! After dinner it was over to our classrooms in the converted stable block, where Sian kicked us off with some "easy" drawing exercises. ha ha! we all did have great fun, and what was even better was that there genuinely was no sense of competition. Obviously there will always be a few who can draw anything standing on their head, blindfold, and whistling dixie. I'm pleased to say Sian didn't quite put us through that much, but she certainly kept us up to the mark!

the following day we started a two day Metal Magic course with Maggie Grey. It was both huge fun and just so brilliant to meet and work with her. She is so full of energy and enthusiasm, generous with her time and knowledge, and hugely encouraging, whatever your ability level. We did of course do far more than work with metal;we played with paper pulp, tissue paper backgrounds, velvet backgounds, wrapping, expandaprint, spirit dyes, walnut ink moonshadow paints, and so much more. Oh, and we got to use an embellisher. (Now that was fatal. We all want one now.) We all even managed to create at least one resolved piece from all the disparate bits we had made, which is really impressive given none of us planned anything terribly carefully and had odd pieces in different colours. But it worked.

Our second evening found us turning our drawing exercises into a line drawing and then into Kantha. Again great fun, and just right for pace to sit and sew quietly as I'm not sure how much more we could have absorbed at that stage. The last evening we watched a film, which had won an award at last year's Cannes film festival, and which was about 2 women, in various stages of muddle in their individual lives, brought together by embroidery. Very gentle in the way only the French can manage, but rather lovely.

In between all this ferocious activity, Sian managed to pull us out at intervals for group tutorials. We were there after all because we are going through one or other C&G course! We are on different courses, at different stages of those courses, but the whole thing seemed to be remarkably calm and well organised. And goodness, there is some stunning work evolving.

And did I mention the food? A full cooked breakfast as well as cereal, fruit and toast every morning, home made biscuits at coffee time, a cooked meat and vegetarian option, jacket potatoes and salads, plus pudding at lunch time, home made cake at tea time and then the 4 course dinner. Just as well we didn't have far to waddle between our accommodation and the class room - although maybe it would have done us good if it was a bit further! We did manage a stroll down to the village duck pond, and had time to make a small piece for one lady who had been unable to come at the last minute. But when I finally left, and drove to my friend's house, I was pleasantly exhausted. It was a great feeling. I do so hope that I will be able to go again next year. here are a few pictures. sorry some of them are a little dark, but hopefully they will give you a taste of it.

a talk and an election

As I mentioned in an earlier entry, I did a talk to the KTAA quilting group about my C&G embroidery course a few weeks ago. this went down so well, that they asked if I would do it again only more for the main KTAA meeting on April 28th. in the first flush of relief and exhilaration at getting through it, I said yes. what came across from the feedback after the first talk was that they would all have like to have seen more of my design work, and something of the design process. the first part of that was slightly problematic, I have not got my design boards any more, BUT...one of my partners in crime at college took some photos of them during our year end exhibition. I sent her an email, asking if by any chance she still had them, and whether she could send them to me. and I waited, and I waited, and then finally, 3 days before the talk they arrived. she had been away and not picked up her messages! the relief at seeing them was huge. I took them on a memory stick to the local printers who made them poster size.



















so here they are, and full credit to Sue Jewkes, who took the pictures and got them to me in time. the first one above shows all six boards, from the top left, living forms, based on seahorses - particularly their tails, below that is a photo montage of a bluebell wood for the landscape/geological features board, and below that in a book, is the man made items and structures board, based on the cast iron decorations at Great Malvern Station. sorry you can't see that one so well. back to the top right, the water and sky board, based on an Escher print. we had to do one board in only black and white, so this was it. below that is the folk culture, history and religion board, which I based on the legend of the phoenix, and finally below that is my media board, based on my daughter's drawings. they were very popular, and actually quite good for me to see them again, you forget so quickly what you were doing/thinking and where you were going at the time. I then mocked up some design work process pieces, starting with that old chestnut weaving 2 pages from a magazine and isolating areas of interest. honestly, you would have thought I had invented the wheel, they had never seen anything like it. so then of course I had to agree to running a design workshop in the autumn.
the first half of the evening was taken up with the KTAA agm. as a result of which, I am now the new President. Pleased to say they elected me before my talk, but I think it would have been ok either way round! My first job is running, in tandem with my predecessor, the annual exhibition of work, some of which will be going to the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham in August. Photos to follow. So wish me luck, and if any of you have any brilliant ideas for talks for our monthly meetings, let me know. the KTAA stands for kuwait textile arts association by the way, so any textile related subject is allowed, and it can be macro or micro focused.

exciting day

I had a really great day yesterday, with one minor exception, visiting the dentist, but we won't dwell on that. It started with a Kuwait Textile Arts Association quilting group meeting. I am not a quilter, but it seemed like a good group to join and a great opportunity to find out more about quilting. good decision. I've been going now for 6 months, and have picked up so many little tips and ideas along the way.
Yesterdays meeting was my moment. I was asked to do a talk and show and tell about my C&G Certificate course in Embroidery, to give all the quilters a different slant on things. I am not a teacher or a public speaker, so I found it quite daunting, but once I got going I really enjoyed myself. Afterwards, one lady came and said I should have had the whole morning, not just half and hour, another said I should do a presentation to the main KTAA group at their monthly evening meeting, and a third asked if I would do a workshop on design techniques. Flattered? Swollen head?? Floating 3 feet off the ground??? All of those and more. I was just glad that folks seemed to like the presentation, and that I got through it ok, but then to have all that come at me was just amazing. I have also received a couple of emails from people saying how much they enjoyed it, and one lady asking about the distance learning courses so that she could explore the possibility of having a go herself. Result, wouldn't you say?
I also made the decision to buy a new sewing machine. One of the KTAA members won a machine at last years show, which she has not even taken out of the box. She decided to sell it and give the money to the Indian government Tsunami fund, which is still helping families rebuild their lives. So any way, now its mine, yey!! Its a Bernina Aurora 430. Any tips and advice gratefully received. I had a little play yesterday afternoon, and I think I am going to like this very much. My old machine, a 25+ year old New Home, (now Janome) has been fabulous, but doesn't seem to like doing the free machine stuff anymore, and always seems to have to think about dropping the feed or raising them again, which in not much good if you are in mid work. I will be getting the embellisher foot for it which is great as I couldn't justify buying the embellisher machine. One of the best parts of this for me though is that I paid for it with my earnings from my own business which I set up in December. I am a holistic massage therapist, and have been slowly building the business since Christmas. It gave me a lot of pleasure to realise that I had earnt enough to pay for the machine outright, without having to raid the joint bank account. Before getting remarried and moving out here last summer, I was a single mum/full time student for 3 years, and money was very tight. I guess this is my first reward/payback for all that hard work. And now to go and have another play.........happy dancing and big smiles all round!

At last...loud fanfare.... I've started

I have actually made a proper start on my C&G work; written and created the spider diagram, statement and visual sheet, AND submitted them. A day later, (a whole day, what was she doing?!!), Sian had sent me back some incredibly helpful suggestions and feedback. My dh, friends and I could not believe how fast she turned it round.

For any other 'just starting C&G diploma bod', this is the visual sheet I sent:

I was not at all sure that this is what Sian actually wanted, but it seems I got it right after all. Note to self, 'just do it'.

I've been and got a couple of note/sketch books, and now have to start putting together a back up of design sources and ideas, little thumbnail sketches of bits of buildings that could be worked up into design ideas.

dh has got into the mood beautifully and has started taking photos of 'interesting' looking houses and buildings as he goes around. There is a slight p.o.v. gap though, as I also like ruined buildings, and so far he's just photographing immaculate buildings. but its early days yet.

I am planning a trip to a couple of kuwaits only historic buildings - most got bulldozed in the 60s when they realised they had lots of money and could build tower blocks. what they have left is good though, so I am looking forward to it. will post stuff when I've done it.

I am a member of FiberArt for a Cause, and their next fundraiser for the American Cancer Society is an online reverse auction. Virginia Spiegel has put this flyer out for members to include on their blogs and websites, follow the link and take a look at the sight. here goes...

Fiberart For A Cause, fundraising for the American Cancer Society, is back
in action with the 2007 Invitational Reverse Auction.

http://www.virginia spiegel.com/ NewFiles/ ACS/ReverseAucti on2007.html

Featuring fiber art donated by Jane Davila, Jamie Fingal, Mary Beth Frezon,
Lynn Krawczyk, Heidi Miracle-McMahill, Carol Moore, Scott Murkin,
Cynthia St. Charles, Sarah Ann Smith and Elin Waterston, the Reverse Auction
runs March 12-16.

Artwork begins at a fixed price and is reduced by a fixed percentage each
day. Wait too long and the artwork you want will be gone. 100% of the
proceeds are donated to the American Cancer Society.

finding the focus

First of all, I'd like to say thank you to everyone who has posted comments so far. It's really great to know that a) people are reading it, and b) they like my work. I have still been finding it really difficult to get my head around starting properly on my C&G work. Its not like I can't do a spider diagram and write an introduction, which has got to be the easiest get you in exercise known to man. Pleased to say I have now made a small start and done them in rough, and now just have to make the visual, rather than verbal, brainstorming sheet. It will be good to be able to get them to Sian at last.
In my defence, I have been busy building my business, and I've taken on running the membership for the British ladies society here in Kuwait, which are both ongoing works in progress. I have also been teaching a group of friends to make fairy shoes. I posted a picture of a pair I made on a day with Annette Emms, a lovely and talented lady. They all decided they wanted to have a go when they saw mine in the flesh.
I have made a pair for a friend to say well done for doing a presentation she is dreading doing. I made a mini patchwork fabric first, so that they are multi coloured, so I have done some textile related work.


Winging its way towards me as I write are a couple of packages of synthetic felt, which I cannot get in Kuwait. Proper wool felt by the mile, but no synthetic, which is strange as they want to sell me so many other synthetic fabrics you'd think they'd have the felt. I'm looking forward to this arriving so I can have a play for the Jan/Feb challenge in the Textile Challenges group. One of the packages will have some colours appropriate to my research project, so may be able to use it for samples. See, I am thinking about the course, even if not actually doing very much of it.

Kuwait is having its Spring at the moment. The temperature is now getting to a lovely 20 degrees or so, there are plants everywhere, and when you are surrounded by sand and sand coloured buildings all the time, the colour is great. I could not believe how cold it got over November, December and January, so this is really welcome. I don't do cold. Am I too hopeful that the Spring will get me going again? Hope not, but any suggestions for breaking the deadlock on starting and really getting going would be gratefully received.

I hate to admit that I still haven't started my C&G coursework, but I have been working on some trading cards I need to get out, and finishing up some fibre postcards ditto. I have also been leading a textile group here in kuwait.
I did tidy my studio space, which was the first thing on my to do list, ready to start coursework. Now if they could just offer a course in displacement activities, I would be a straight A honour student!!!
dh has kindly taken some piccies of the studio, although he said they are cheating because it is NEVER normally this tidy, and I'm giving you all a completely false impression of how I work - or not, as the case may be! anyway, here's a couple for you. Its down in the basement, with a door out to a patio where my daughter has a mini pool in the summer. big windows so plenty of natural light, and water outside not in, which is usually ok.














the pin boards in the background are fibre postcards from art2mail and fiberartists international the cupboards underneath are full of fabric scrap bags, the dresser on the right has boxes of threads, books, stash, and assorted stuff.
and this last one is, of course, the artist at work.
Out this evening to a KTAA meeting, a talk on the textiles and costumes of Oman, which should be really good, if others I have been to are anything to go by.
Tomorrow, I start C&G, promise....

c&g certificate work

I think that I have finally figured out how to post photos onto this blog, and have now got the ones of my c&g certificate projects to show you.
First up is the three dimensional piece. Based on Faberge eggs and my Phoenix design board. I made the phoenix feather on water soluble, which was really easy and great fun. the egg was a made fabric from scraps, threads, angelina, in flame colours, dark red at the bottom going up to orangey yellow at the top with fine wires stitched in on the top, stitched and stitched til it was firm enough to do something with. then joined to make the shape, and lined with some black sparkly fabric the same weight as fine interlining, ie light, that I got from a florist. the stand is not too successful as its just twisted wires, but not really strong enough to take the very little weight of the egg.

Whoops, this is completely out of order and should have come at the end. Its a pair of fairy shoes I made on a fabulous one day course with Annette Emms. We had to make them for a particular fairy and as you can plainly see they are for the sunflower fairy. My daughter had grown a sunflower from seed and brought it home from school, and these were for its fairy. No, she wasn't convinced either, but the lads at the pub humoured me! I have since made another pair of 'leopard skin' fairy shoes for a wild child fairy I know. They are great fun to make and everyone loves them.

Ok, back on track again. This one is my panel which was inspired by an amazing trip to Egypt. The whole thing is hand stitched on linen, with most of the stitching being couched, or made to look as though it was couched. The middle panel is 'or nue', a gold work technique, which I loved, but probably couldn't do now without a mega magnifier. I framed it in a black hinged tryptich type frame, which I had made at the local joiners and painted with blackboard paint. I wanted to have the effect of opening something completely plain and dark and finding this amazing brightly coloured panel. the duck and the sun near the bottom are my autograph, the duck being sa and the sun ra, and you read it left to right cos thats the direction the duck is facing. honest!
When the doors are closed, they are 'sealed' with this. Its a copy of the centre panel, made on coffee died pelmet vilene machine stitched, then backed with a second piece of dyed vilene, zigzagged round the edge and foiled with an old used piece of foil so that it looks worn and old. the thread is bundles of black and gold machine thread, chosen to look as though it had been gold thread that got old/tarnished/worn. the black bit in the bottom left corner is just where the stitching was too close together and the vilene fell out, so I coloured it black and hope/think it adds to the aged look.


This one is an extended sample. I got the idea when one dear friend, (male) after asking me after I had explained the course whether I meant 'like knitting', then told me about his mum's old pincusion - one of the old chinese ones with little china men with pigtails around the edge. Don't worry if you are all too young to know what the heck I am talking about, just ignore that bit. Anyway, I decided that if all else failed, I could always make a pincushion, and after a couple of glasses of wine that turned into a cushion made of pins, then into this. Alas dear reader, I confess, this was made in a state of mild inebriation. Its all metal;, metal mesh fabric, pins, washers and silver pan scourers unravelled.


This is my accessory, a muff to be used by the bride at a winter wedding instead of her having a bouquet of flowers. I saw the hedges full of old mans beard on the way to school with my sons one morning, and loved the way it was all intertwined, and that the leaves were almost heart shaped. Its velvet, with machine and hand couched threads, the leaves are black net, made on water soluble so that the residue when I rinsed them meant I could shape them before they dried. there is a machine wrapped twisted cord at either end, and a hand made tassel which you can only see the beaded head of in the bottom right of the picture.

And finally, this is my hanging. Its based on my daughter Mary's drawings which I had saved from when she was drawing tadpole people aged1 1/2 or so until she was in reception class at school, and the nursery rhyme Mary Mary quite contrary. This one I absolutely loved doing, sorry its not such a brilliant picture, but the close up at the bottom will give you a better idea. A mixture of machine and hand stitch, all from her drawings and doodling, on individual pieces of cloth, pieced together. The borders are quilted, and have a brilliant story. We had a stand in tutor for a day at college, who suggested that a quilted border could represent the loving relationship between her and me. All I had to do was find some motifs to quilt. When I picked her up from school that day, she had drawn a picture with a painted border onto which she had drawn hearts and stars and spirals. It was a real twilight zone moment, but they were perfect.


This is the centre part close up to give you a better idea of it all.

A start

Well, I've finally taken the plunge and started a blog to help record my progress, or lack of, through my C&G diploma course. I've never done a distance learning course before, so not sure how I will cope with the lack of classroom contact. I have found a wonderful yahoo group of like minded souls, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/City_and_Guilds_Textiles/ and I really think that they might provide the regular kicks up the backside I will need, as well as all the good stuff, cos they seem a great group of people.
Sian Martin, my tutor for the course has already proved to be wonderfully efficient at helping me get sorted out, and very supportive.
support at home here in kuwait is good. dh has absolutely no idea what I will be doing, bless him. When we moved out here I said I would want to bring all my sewing stuff, he imagined a work box, and visibly paled when he saw my workroom and the amount of stuff there was! But he is all for me doing the course, even though he doesn't get it. my darling daughter, 8 going on 18, just wants to join in all the time, which is great but.... hugely distracting, and she usually cuts a bit of fabric out of the middle rather than the edge, and uses the yarns I had put aside for a specific project, and, well, you know what I mean I am sure. I love it when she wants to have a go, but know that I may as well put my work away for the duration!
shopping here is also good, in parts. Fabrics and threads and notions in the souks are amazing and very cheap, which is fantastic, but you have to buy when you see (shame!) or you will forget which shop you saw something in, or it will be gone when you go back. Sometimes though, there is too much choice, so you have to be quite specific about what you are looking for, as it would be sooo easy to be sidetracked by all the other lovely things. I am not sure yet about mixed media type stuff, gels and powders and the like, as that has by and large not get here yet. Dyes may be alright, but not necessarily ones that I recognise the name of, and usually with instructions in a foreign language! Hmm! Watch this space, as they say!
That's it for today, I shall try and get some photos loaded in the next few days of my sudio and my C&G certificate work, and whatever else I can find so that you can see what sort of work I have done previously, and probably how totally disorganised I am.