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.

KTAA annual exhibition

well it's taken me ages to find the time to sit down and write about the show, but being president has meant that I've been just a little busy. And of course I've been back to England in the meantime. I have also had a new camera to sort out, and dh bought a new computer the other day, which is great because I can put the camera stuff on it, but has meant ages spent moving files from old computer to new computer, yadda, yadda.....

The quilt group meeting on the Monday before the show was the big reveal of everyone's work, which was a great morning, but left us reeling from sensory overload. Finally got home just in time to meet my daughter off the school bus, and crashed. Tuesday was hanging day. there were about 10 of us, split into the two halls, and for the most part we all worked together pretty well. The lady in charge made us redo something a couple of times, and one whole wall of mini quilts was moved somewhere completely different, but there was no actual bloodshed. I had organised lunch for anyone who wanted it, and various other ladies had brought plates of goodies in too, but sheez, trying to get folks to stop work and eat was a nightmare. Next year, I might buy a siren!! The judges arrived from 5pm onwards and I left them to the care of the outgoing president.

Our judges were Australian quilt artist Jenny Bowker, who flew in from Cairo where she currently lives, Canadian quilt artist Linda Hancock who has been living in Kuwait for several years but who is returning to her home in Canada, and Noelle Aleyagut, a medical illustrator and artist who lives here in Kuwait. Somehow they had managed the almost impossible task of selecting various winners in each of the categories, and various highly commended. Each judge had their own judge's choice rosette to award, and then finally, there was a best in show.

On Wednesday a friend and I spent the day making canapes for the opening. she had a lady staying with her who is going to be moving out here in January, and who was just here for a look/see. So obviously she was press ganged into working too.

The evening was a great success. probably about 100+ people came, all the local press was represented, a couple of ambassadors and their wives, unfortunately not Sheika Altaf as her travel plans changed, a host of members, some of their husbands, and the rest must have been rent a mob. But what a fabulous evening. Prizes were awarded, with more than a few surprises along the way. This year our members seem to have been keen to take on the challenge of art quilting, and we had a fair mixture of both traditional quilts and art quilts displayed in the exhibition. I think though it came as a surprise to some that the best in show went to a traditional sampler quilt.

Throughout the exhibition, Jenny Bowker ran 2 one and half day workshops, which must have exhausted her, but were thoroughly enjoyed by the students. We looked at designs from nature and working in tiled patterns, and I'm looking forward to seeing if anybody is brave enough to develop their designs further into a quilt.

If I can work out how, I will put some photos up, but for now I intend to finish this and post it as it is embarrassingly late.
hooray, here we are. this one in the middle of course had to the first one, because it is my entry in the Faces of Arabia section, and is my first ever solo quilt. It will be on display in the Festival of Quilts at the NEC in August, along with all the other amazingly beautiful quilts in this category and a couple of others, Stars, and Self Portraits.






















This beautiful blue and white sampler won the best in show, and the Shades of Autumn was the visitors choice. Both are by Penny Armitage.
In no particular order, here are some of the other quilts from the show.

Sanded in!

Well, admit it, it makes a change from snowed in! Kuwait, and quite a lot of the gulf region, has been having a sandstorm for the past 3 days. it is showing signs of clearing, but I remain unconvinced, as its done that once before and come back worse. it's not like a blizzard, with it blowing a gale in your face, but it just sort of hangs in the air. visiblity is not very far at all, sometimes down to feet rather than yards (or even metres!), and breathing becomes interesting! the sand is so fine, that even staying indoors is no guarantee that you will avoid it, as it comes in round the doors and windows, and through the ac vents, and everything is coated in a fine layer of the stuff - a bit like a middle eastern version of Miss Haversham's wedding feast!!!
One advantage of the sand storm has been not feeling guilty about staying in and sewing. The kuwait textile arts association is having their year end exhibition at the end of this month, and while I wasn't too fussed about having anything in it, now that I am to be their next president I felt guilty about my apathy, and decided I needed to get something done. So I have been slaving over a hot sewing machine, and made a self portrait, 18"x18", and a 30"x45" quilted wall hanging, and a bag, and will finish the secret garden piece that I made a few weeks ago for the Textile Challenges group monthly challenge, and about to start a pair of fairy shoes, and maybe a bracelet, if I have the time after I have put hanging sleeves and labels on the backs of all the quilts. I particularly wanted to do some non-quilted pieces, as I'd done the talk on my embroidery, and have had great fun running up the bag, and know I will enjoy the shoes. We are having a bit reveal at the quilt group meeting on Monday 28th, so no piccies til after then, in case anyone here decides to read this. the exhibition runs May 30th til June 2nd, and I will be practically living there! have forewarned dh about this, and he reminded me that we have a party here on the 31st to celebrate our first wedding anniversary. (actual date 27th May) I had not forgotten, it's written in my diary after all, but maybe it was a good thing he mentioned 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.

travels, talks, courses and spending sprees

Well, I'm back from my travels and all set to go. I took my daughter back to England to spend the Easter holidays with her father, and took the time to catch up with my sons and friends, and to do a one day course at Art Van Go.
The travelling was pretty tedious as it usually is, 6 and a half hours on a plane is not my idea of fun, I would take sewing things with me, but the last time I did the combination of a metal daisy wheel cutter and a silver needle case brought the entire security team into play and held up the queue for far too long while I took everything out and showed them that it wasn't a bomb or the makings of one. and who needs that every time they travel? Sons and friends were all suitably pleased to see me, and we had the first of several boozy evenings together at the pub - what joy! well it is when there aren't any pubs out here at all.
I drove across country to get to Art Van Go, found it and then my B&B, which was excellent, so if any of you are planning to go to a course there, I will let you have the details. Comfy bed, delicious home made food, and hosts as chatty or not as you want them to be. and then the course. It was actually the first one I have done with them, living as I did in Herefordshire, it's not always so easy to get to Hertfordshire for the day, obviously it is much easier from Kuwait! anyway, I digress, as usual. the course was on dyeing and painting, and learning the differences between the two, devised and led by Viv because she reckons over the years the discussions about this subject alone would fill several books. She had about 3 different watching sessions with her doing the most talking and doing, interspersed with us doing the doing and some talking and several whoops moments and lots of ooh and ahh type moments. she put a gazillion bottles of stuff out and said help yourself. kids in sweety shops would not come close, but 12 women had pretty inane grins on their faces for most of the day!!! I wanted to do this course because I will have to do some dyeing/fabric colouring experiments for my C&G course, and having never done any before, wanted to get some sort of heads up first. not a bad decision.
Unfortunately, going on a course at AVG is a very dangerous thing. my credit card went into serious meltdown, and my luggage weight was in serious danger of being well over limit. however, I have reformed the plastic remains of my card, and just got away with a smile at check in. phew!! it was a brilliant day, and then the following morning I went back in to meet Sharon Osbourne, who was demonstrating techniques and chatting, and spent some more!! how useless am I. AVG loved me though!! maybe its just as well that I live in Kuwait and can't get there too often.
Since I've been back, I've finished a machine embroidered picture for Textile Challenges March challenge, which was the theme of doors and windows, using fabric, paper and a found object. I had finally had some inspiration the day before I left for England, typical! It's called secret garden. I have also been making quilt squares for various friends who are moving on over the next few weeks - looking forward to seeing the finished quilts. Can't say more in case any of them read this before we give them their quilts, but it'll be good. Am now finally making a start of a couple of quilts that need to be finished by May 25th - do I stand a chance? Not nearly, but I'll give it a go. We are having the KTAA annual exhibition at the end of May and then, gulp, they are going on to Birmingham for Quilts UK. I definitely don't stand a chance. And as if that is not enough to be going on with, I am repeating my C&G talk, with additions, to the whole KTAA next week, I also need to make some ATCs and some inchies for 2 different groups, AND (yes Sian I am still enrolled in your group) blooming well get on with my C&G stuff before I get the order of the boot. No pressure then! keep smiling everyone, I am, or is that insanity looming large?!!!

major displacement activity

I really must start practising my grovelling, as I can feel a mega session coming on with Sian! No more progress on the C&G front at all.
But, I have made some atc's for a swap I signed up for ages ago, and some postcards ditto. So, I haven't done nothing, but I still feel guilty that its not really what I should have been doing.

































these were fun, the theme was flower fabric and beads.












I must really get my stuff together and make something for the textile challenge group March challenge, which is a theme of doors/windows, using fibre, thread, paint and found objects. there are some lovely things already submitted. we decided as a group to give everyone the same theme and the same ingredients, and see how they worked out. like I say, very interesting so far.

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!