A long forgotten treasure

I was recently reunited with a piece of my work, an alphabet sampler. I was contacted by the owners who wondered if I was interested in seeing it again. Of course I was!

Its hand stitching, appliqué and quilting. It formed part of my portfolio of work that helped me get into Goldsmiths. I made it in 1975 and sold it soon after that.

It was wonderful to see it again. Lots of memories came flooding back as I looked at each section and saw what I had chosen to represent each letter. P for parquet, the flooring we had in our home. T for telephone with our red phone that my mother loved and our phone number clearly stitched. M for map, with our village of Llynclys nr Oswestry centre stage. S for sweets, my favourite, Liquorice Allsorts, all French knots and satin stitch

So much detail too, I worked on it for weeks, enjoying creating each letter, thinking about the subject and how to interpret it in stitch. It was great to see it again and record it as part of my early career on my website

Its been in the same family for 38 years, enjoyed by 3 generations, much loved and treasured by all the children as they have grown up with it. That makes me very happy!

Home again

Old Dubai and spice market

I am finally home again and I have had time to reflect on my trip to Australia and Dubai – what a wonderful time it was. There cannot be a better way to visit a country for the first time than to be treated so well by everyone.

I was made so welcome everywhere I went, hosted by kind, generous people and accommodated in lovely B&B’s, one with a personal chef! My 4 week trip was memorable for many reasons, the amazing range of wildlife I got to see in the wild, determined hosts made sure I saw wombats, kangaroos, whales, koalas and a duck billed platypus. Thanks to Maree, Laura, Joanne and Cindy I was shown the amazing scenery of Tasmania, empty white beaches, limestone caves and rain forests. When I was in Geelong, I had a fabulous day out along the Great Ocean Road with Gillian and Anna.

The people I met made it memorable, my course organisers, the Rotarians in Deloraine, the enthusiastic students on all my courses and fellow artists in Tassie, Geelong and Sydney.

In Tasmania I met Cindy Watkins a very talented textile artist, Ken Smith, a machine embroiderer of repute and Bill Flowers, a painter of snakes, just 3 artists out of a huge group at the Deloraine Craft Fair where the quality of craft and art was very high.
In Geelong I was very pleased to catch up with Dijanne Cevaal especially as she was so busy with organising the Geelong Patchworkers and Quilters Exhibition. On to Sydney, where I visited ( twice !) the Craft Gallery of NSW. Meeting Jude Skeers who was so helpful and informative about all things textiles in Australia. I had the pleasure of Julie Haddrick on my course, take a look at her website

I was away for a total of 38 days, I took 7 flights, stayed in 8 different locations, taught 6 courses and I met 76 students. A few of them came on 2 courses and many of them flew many miles to join me. I have made a lot of friends and look forward to seeing them all when I go back in 2014. Thank you everyone – it was amazing!