La Belle France

Make yourself a drink and put your feet up because this is going to be a long post!

We've just got back from another beautiful week spent in St Cirq Lapopie in the Lot valley in France. This village is the perfect place to just get away from it all and relax; eat and drink the some of the best food in the world.

This is the fifth year we've been back to stay at La Maison du Bourg in the heart of the village.

http://www.frenchconnections.co.uk/en/accommodation/property/3842?u_id=95727

This ancient stone house is on four floors with a delightful little garden where we spent most of our time sitting soaking up the sun (it was warm and sunny every day - 28-29 degrees even in September). Here are a few pictures of the house and the garden to give you a feel for the place.

This is the house looking up from the garden.

The back door taken from the garden - and yes, that IS a bunch of grapes right outside the door.

This is the study - the enormous fireplace or 'cantou' is almost big enough to stand up in (but isn't functional unfortunately - not that we needed to light a fire)

The bedroom is tucked up under the eaves and this is the view from one of the two little windows:-

The village is built high up the sides and on top of a cliff that looks down over the River Lot.

The cliff on the right drops right down to the river.

Walking around the village, the cobbled lanes wind up and down the hill. There are new vistas to enjoy at every turn.

From the garden. you can watch the morning sun rising. It soon burns off the mist hanging over the valley.

And, in case you were wondering if there was ever going to be any artistic endeavour in this blog post, here it comes.

My watercolour interpretation of this view from the garden:-

A photograph of the view of the church from the garden . . .

and my attempt in pencil . . .

And a more abstract version in acrylics.

Quiet - woman at work ...

The little pond in the garden attracts birds, great big dragonflies and two local cats who came for a drink every morning.

The bench, pond, garden chairs and the tall cypress tree in an abstract representation in acrylics

Before we went away, I bought myself a little present to bring along - 'The New Creative Artist' by Nita Leland. Here are a few ideas from the book that I played around with.

'Enclosed' doodles

Magazine collages:-

Paper weaving

But what about all those silk ties that you patiently cut into strips before you left I hear you ask? Well, just a few got hand sewn together before I decided that I'd wait until back at home and use my machine!

I've not been sitting around doing nothing ...

I've been planning a few projects that I can take away with me on holiday to France next week. I've been busily deconstructing a pile of men's silk ties which I plan to be handstitching while sitting in the glorious sunshine, (today's temperature there is 29 degrees C) sipping wine and generally chilling out.

I've been preparing pages in my sketchbook ready to try out a few ideas.

And I've been trying to decide if I can make do without clothes as it looks like all my luggage allowance will be used on art/stitching supplies!

Progress report to follow upon my return.

Things I'd forgotten

Did a little bit of tidying/sorting in my workroom today and came across these pieces which I realise I have completely forgotten to blog about.

A while ago, I read a tutorial on the method Susan Lenz uses to create her "In-Box". Susan has created a whole series of wonderful work using this method, some of which can also be seen here as well as on her usual blog. I didn't have much synthetic velvet so just used snippets of stuff from my stash.


Here's a close up where you can really see how the kunin felt melts away to leave the lovely crunchy foiled lacy divisions between the 'boxes'.


This is a shop bought wooden box (99p) which I covered in kitchen foil and painted with alcohol inks. I also did one with the painted foil method as a birthday gift for a friend but forgot to take a photo (sorry). This one will go into my gift stash ready for the next suitable recipient.


A couple of weeks ago I picked up a couple of shiny metal planters in John Lewis' sale for £3.00 each. I figured they were just a thicker sort of metal foil so they also got the painted look.


And these were two nasty shiny silvered ceramic vases that I bought in B & Q for just 10p each! The 'silver' finish hadn't taken properly in spots so I guess that's the reason they were so cheap. But hey - I saw metal so couldn't resist and they've been painted now too.


And lastly, this is a little pouch bag I made to keep my A5 sketchbook and pencils in. I can definitely see a coppery theme going on in this post. . . .

Crisis at the Embroiderers' Guild

Although not a member myself, I was horrified to read about the situation facing the Embroiderers' Guild over at Threads across the web.

I would urge anyone who feels the same to write to your MP urgently. If you don't know who they are, or how to contact them, you can find out from the Parliament website.

I've already emailed mine. Feel free to copy the text I used below. I'm sure Carol-Anne won't mind the plagiarism under the circumstances:-

The Embroiderers' Guild was founded in 1906 by sixteen former students of the Royal School of Art Needlework to represent the interests of embroidery. The aims and objectives of the Guild

"To promote and encourage the art of embroidery and related crafts and encourage the creation of fine articles incorporating the use of or associated with embroidery.
To educate the public in the history and art of embroidery and to undertake or support research in that subject and to publish the useful results of that research.
To collect, document, preserve, exhibit and interpret, examples of fine embroidery which are of historical or educational merit and to make available to the public such articles."


In 1924 HM Queen Mary became the Guild's first Royal Patron. Most recently HRH the Duchess of Gloucester graciously became the Guild's Royal Patron in 2005, following the death of HRH the Princess Alice in October 2004. On 8th May 1964 the Guild became a Registered Charity and in 1986 Registered Museum Status was achieved in recognition of the standard of management applied to its collection embroideries. The collection is of national significance as a resource for artists and students. It consists of over 11,000 world embroideries dating from the Coptic period to the present day, and includes a major collection of British embroidery.

The Guild also has a collection of over 2,500 titles including 600 reference books available to both Embroiderers' Guild Members and the public within the library and 2,000 loan books (temporarily suspended) which provide a rich source of research material for students and members.

In 2006, a century after its founding, the Guild had over 25,000 Members and subscribers throughout the world, 236 Branches and 85 Young Embroiderers Groups for young Members aged between 5 - 18 years.

Today the Embroiderers' Guild is in crisis.

For the past 25 years the Embroiderers' Guild has been located in apartments at Hampton Court Palace, Surrey. In recent years great effort and resource was dedicated to establishing a National Embroidery and Textile Centre but following an exhaustive review of the proposed NET Centre, the Trustees established that the project posed an unacceptable risk to the long-term future of the Guild and decided to withdraw project. Vast sums of money gathered by years of fund raising were lost. The Embroiderers' Guild licence at Hampton Court is due to expire imminently. The Embroiderers' Guild, its collection and its library face the very real prospect of becoming homeless by the end of this year.

What can be done to save this priceless resource? Please would you bring this issue to the attention of the Rt Hon Ben Bradshaw, Secretary of State at DCMS at your earliest convenience and I look forward to receiving your reply.

Amazing Grace!

I've been busy sewing for Grace who's growing like the proverbial weed. I haven't managed to get to see her for a fortnight and I swear she's grown two inches and even more gorgeous than ever. I know I'm the doting Nana but scroll down and you'll see what I mean.

First up are a couple of little summer dresses although if the weather we've been having lately keeps up she'll be too big for them when the sun does make a reappearance.




And a little pinafore dress based on the same pattern. The sharp eyed amongst you may have noticed an absence of buttons on these. That ISN'T because I can't do buttonholes but because her Mum has a "thing" about them. So velcro and hooks and eyes to the rescue. Can you guess what fabric I used for this?


I had some fabric left over from making her cot quilt and bumper so ran her up this little elasticated waist skirt.



And this one is my favourite - the fabric was in the sale for only 99p a metre and the broderie anglais trim at 50p. I can't resist a bargain so bought five metres of each. I may make her Mum a (more grown up style) matching skirt and maybe one for me too.


I looked after Grace for a couple of hours last night while her Mum popped out. And wasn't I surprised to discover that in two weeks she's mastered cutlery!


Here's proof it goes where it should (most of the time at least)


All done Nanamanda - wipe my face please!



Isn't she just adorable .....


And for those of you still guessing what the checked pinafore dress is made of - two teacloths that cost the princely sum of 36p each!

A bit of this and a bit of that

Now the pressure is off I've just been enjoying myself doing a variety of things.

First up is this machine embroidered panel, the inspiration for which came from one of the wonderful photographs taken by the amazing Yann Arthus Bertrand. The original photograph is of a flooded valley after the construction of a dam with the dead tree stumps sticking up out of the water.


And a close up


I've also played around with a canvas covered with crumpled tissue paper and painted with acrylics which I've called 'Fire in the woods' for want of a more inspired title.


I treated myself to some Tim Holtz Alcohol Inks and made some cards.




And I've embarked on a new piece since getting Maggie Grey's new book, 'Stitches, Straps and Layers'. This is very much a 'work in progress' - here are the beginnings of the first two layers - more anon.

It's finally finished

(Click image for close up view)

My final piece for my NCFE Level 3 Creative Textiles course is now finished and submitted. I have to admit, the last few weeks I've done little else and I've actually grown to really dislike the end product. And if I don't stitch another bead in the next six months I won't be unhappy.

All that, together with all the paperwork that has to go alongside the piece, has meant I've decided not to take my tutor's advice and embark on the two year C & G Level 4 course come September. I may reconsider in a year's time but for now I'm fed up to the back teeth with form filling, client briefs, 'evidence', aims and outcomes and want to work in my usual spontaneous, fairly unplanned way for a while!

I was lucky enough to get a place on the Jan Beaney/Jean Littlejohn five day course in October at www.masseriadellazingara.com which I'm looking forward to immensely and have already got my name down for a course at the same place (doesn't it look divine) with Maggie Grey in May 2010. Those, some online courses, Festival of Quilts in August and Ally Pally in October will suit me fine for a while.

So - now I'm free to do as I please! Watch this space .....