What Katie Did

Post For Pauline

Enchanted Forest, that was the title of yesterday's workshop at MAKE, with Mandy Pattullo and eight talented participants.

Working on tweeds and old quilted scraps and using cotton weight fabrics

the theme was woodland, forest, trees, animals, birds

lots of embellishments with stitched lines

and a generous teaching style from Mandy

wonderful interpretations of the theme

RESULT!

thank you to Mandy and all the women who came. I feel inspired to have a go myself! In a fortnight, on 16th October, Mandy will be back for the last workshop in this series, Textile Jewellery, and there are still a few places left! As ever, all materials provided, lovely lunch and tea, coffee and cake all day!

October here we come!

hello, (hello hello helloooo) can you hear the echo in the empty halls of my blog? me too - what's to be done?

Wednesday Evenenigs = Colour and FUN!

The Summer Holiday Wednesday Workshops have begun with a splash of colour and some experimenting with a lovely free technique that grew out of the Gees Bend Quilters tradition. I have long been fascinated by this method of stitching random shapes and colours and this was the theme for the first Wednesday Workshop.

and - as ever I am fascinated by how people interpret the same instructions and produce such different results

Take a look at the Anna Williams work - I can't get enough of it! I made a Flickr set some time ago if anyone wants to add their photos of similar work - I would love to see it. It is such a liberating way to sew!

Next week's Wednesday Workshop is felting, which is sold out, but you could join the waiting list for a re-run, or check out the other Workshops here for a bit of Summer Holiday Indulgence!

The Kids Workshops are booking up well too - still some places left for Books, Horses and Party Time - that one is going to be wicked!

Sunny here - my little shop at Allen Mill faces south and soaks up all this fabulous summer sun, it is very lovely!

so is this Owen just sent me

 

 

The Earth, the Sea and the Sky

a week of dancing and yoga on this good earth

a week of good friends, music and creativity by the wonderful sea

a week to set me up for the summer

Five Full Days in flowing, staccato, chaos, lyrical and stillness so now I am ready for anything!

And so the story ends...

at last, the film we have been waiting for ... well I have anyway

how does it end?

(surely you guessed?)

My boys took me to see it on release night - what a great film! How dedicated of Ralph Fiennes to have his nose removed like that.

As I write, there is rain pouring from the sky

like this

and tomorrow I am going here for a few days

and you have to agree that one would be better without the other (it's Embleton on the Northumberland coast)

when I get back there is a really interesting programme of courses for children and adults here

so I am off to charge up my batteries - like this

ps if you subscribe to the mailing list (and why wouldn't you) and you can spot ALL the spelling mistakes, you may win a prize - for sure - sorry

 

 

Summer Magic

I have been decorating - new colours everywhere, so what was once a big room with a partition and two teenagers growing up in their own bedrooms, is now a big room again with a soft green colour , some lovely old curtains made from a huge (vintage - that word again) table cloth.

The rose outside the window is at the peak of perfection, it is a David Austin rose called the Rambling Rector, goodness know why - I see it is also know as 'seagull' but as I am about as far from the sea as it is possible to be in these parts, I'll stick with the Rector

I wish you could smell it - for a few weeks of the year, the only place to sit in my house is right by that window - inhaling

John put the curtain rail up last night, so now I can open and close my table cloth whenever I want!

Midsummer Round Up

Gardening weather - that's what this is - lots of rain, LOTS of rain and some sun and long long days of light - the weeds have got the idea, just waiting for my veg to catch on.

Workshops and parties continue at MAKE regardless of the weather. When Alex decided that she wanted to spend her birthday with her friends I was really pleased because this is what she did last year too! Must be doing something right!

Still enjoying making Ann Wood's horses.

Here is the birthday girl's horse

Then Andrea's friends suprised her with a day of wedding preparation. She was not quite sure what to make of the mystery tour that ended at Allen Mill, upstairs in my messy workshop! But we very quickly got a production line going and made one of these for every guest ( I found these somewhere on this Wonderful Webby Place - do you recognise yourself? let me know and I'll add the link)

to be put onto little green garden canes

and some paper packets to be filled with treats for party favours. I posted these here on the blog way back when.

Then another felt workshop yesterday

with some lovely results - the fuel for this one ... proper coffee, seriously rich chocolate brownies and good company

Jan made this one, and Jane this one

Lucky that this course was the same weekend as Woolfest so I could stock up on fibre and catch up with old friends too!

Finally, here are some more old (and young) friends spotted on my way to work the  other day  

dodging the showers.

Big Things and Little Things

Moving house...

...just like a snail. The net curtains were wafting in the back window, I wonder if the tea cups were rattling on their hooks?

...and the Little, well, according to my friend Imogen, this chap will magically restore to full size protective elf at the full moon

seen here in a thicket of mesembryanthemum seedlings, I am aware that it is a full moon tonight...........

he arrived just in time!

Tea is an Evening Meal

Last night Lara took me for a treat suprise evening out to celebrate nothing in particular, except maybe friendship and Northerness. 'Tea is an Evening Meal' is a wonderful one woman show with a select audience of about 12, the number who can fit round that table with Faye. She is from Blackburn, Lancashire, near where I spent some of my growing up, so I was pleased to hear such a lovely accent all evening.

image from the show's website

We explored many of the tea time rituals, were treated to tea and custard creams (bourbon if you prefer) got to draw with salt, 

this represents the town of Thirsk, of course, famous for cheese. Not a lot of people know that

..... it was lovely to be reminded of tea, the language, habits, rituals and tea time ceremonies that take place in homes all over the place, but mostly up north, a fabulous and wonderful place to live. The little stories and associations woven into our lives  all connected to this warm brown liquid ... amazing! 

She'll be at the Latitude Festival in Suffolk in July, I wonder how that will work?

Easy to resist!

Yesterday at MAKE we had a morning of colour and friendliness - I am in love with colour combinations!!

Jo laid this out for her bag, it actually makes my mouth water!!!!

We were learning how to make a seamless bag using a process called 'resist felting' hence the title of this post.

Blue was a popular choice

Jan selected a mixture of silk fibre, bits of this and that to incorperate into her design and Christine...

...more blues and bits of Wenslydale curly bits

Liz went for bootees, no photos sorry, and I chose some of my favourite purples and pinks to demonstrate.

Usually when I take a session like this one I don't complete anything for myself, it's more a question of demonstrating, but this time I managed to make this, I added the beads while it was still wet - I am so impatient!

I really am impatient - message to self - slow down a bit and enjoy the ride

This is the perfect size to hold my phone and glasses when I haven't got a pocket, though I have a feeling there are a lot more beads and sequins required.