Thursday 29 July 2010

Attlebrough Art Session

I was over at Attlebrough High School yesterday in my role as a
Breckland Artist. The Arts Development Officer, Sam Dawson
was with me to see what a session was like and lend a hand.
We were in the art room so were surrounded by inspiration and colour.
As you can see the children enjoyed their morning and were continuing
Summer School the rest of the afternoon and week.
I think Sam enjoyed herself too!
See more of my workshops on

Lynda Enjoys Embellishing

Lynda Turner, Dereham's Permanent Deputy Mayor
visited The Gallery, to try her hand at Taster Session with
the embellisher machine and found it very therapeutic after her very busy morning.
She then moved onto the computerized sewing machine to add some
additional embellishing stitches.
I hope we will see her again on a Tuesday gallery session as
she really enjoyed herself and produced a wonderful piece
of work.
She more of what goes on at The Gallery

Pat's Finished her Favours

These are Pat's finished Golden Wedding Anniversary favours.
They are all unique and so beautiful.
She has made over 50 and they all have a message on the back
and are going to be given in a little bag.
Pat gave Judy and myself one each and you can see mine
in the bag on the right.
We felt all warm and fuzzy inside and pat is soglad she has finished
in time for their party.
Well done Pat.
She has worked so hard on them over the last couple of months.
See more ATC's on my website

Jimmy's Farm Visit

We went to Jimmy's farm in Essex last week
on the way back from Brightlingsea
and here you can see Jenn supporting the sign.
We normally pop in to by some jam and this time sausages and
meat for the BBQ.
The gardens have really grown on andthe Old Spot Pigs were
wonderful to see, with their piglets.
The Jimmy's Farm is really under going some transformation
with the big Barn Conversion.
It will be fantastic venue and restaurant.
We watched the series and have followed the changes ever since.
Jimmy's website is worth a visit as it has so much information and
interest for everyone

Monday 26 July 2010

Brightlingsea Visit

The Clark Family went away for a few days to see
Grandparents and family at Brightlingsea.
Jenn went with Grandma and Grandad to see a show.
Annabel, Jenn's long term Holiday friend was on stage and was
outstanding. Well done Annabel!
Stewart and I went down to the old part of Brightlingsea to see
the developments to the new Marina Complex.
Thursday night was lovely and you could just
hear the first night of the funfair at Bateman's Point.
I didn't take my camera so took this photo
the following morning on our stroll.
A real stormy sky rolling in!
I took lots of pictures of the boats and old boat houses.
Inspiration for the future.

TC won The Alveva Challenge Quilt

We have a Challenge every year and the title this year was,
'Anything textile that explores the theme,
"An English Country Garden".
Wendy was the our Visitor Judge and boy! did she
judge and she explained to us how she marked each contributor.
Well done TC and she keeps the Cup until next year and has
a Red winners Star on her quilt on stage at the Exhibition in October.

Round Robins at The Garden Party

The Crazywork Round Robin squares came back to us last month and so
some of us had finished or put them together
ready to quilt.
See more Crazywork Quilting on

Alveva Garden Party


Wednesday 21st July our Alveva garden party at mine this year as I am Chairlady!
It worked well outside.
The adapted marquee went on the patio ouside the studio.
( We had to have it as the weather has been so unpredictable).
The food was in the studio and everyone spread themselves around the garden.
A lovely night and no rain!
See more of Quilters Cottage on



Wendy's Quilt

After The Gallery on Tuesday 20th,
I went home and did some more finishing on Wendy's Quilt.
This is Wendy's double sided quilt on my studio table.
I had to finish quilting, bias binding and attached the label.
It is a group quilt. All the members madeall the different blocks
and squares and it was put together like a jigsaw puzzle.
Wendyis an admirer of scrap qilts and double sided ones, so this is what
Alveva members put together, to say thank you for her hard work.
She was presented with it at our Garden Party (see posts).

Gallery Day 20th of July 2010

There was lots of goings on @ The Gallery this week with more events being booked
with the Gallery move and the start of the Summer Holidays.
Pat is making Embellished jewellery and she and other visitors learnt how to use the stitches on their machines.
Angie finished her wallhanging, see above, love it!!!

Monday 19 July 2010

Sewing a Marquee!

What will I need to sew on my trusty Bernina next?
Stewart and I were given a secondhand 30 foot Marquee last year
but it needed alot of TLC.
Today we got it out, cleared our patio area and began the puzzle
of not only putting it together but then had to make it into
a 24 foot one to fit the patio and use the good pieces,
(lots of the poles were bent and buckled).
It needed a lot of repairs and alterations,
hence my need to use the sewing machine.
It is now up and looks great, just in time for
the Alveva Quilter's Garden Party at ours on
Wednesday Evening.
Hope the sun shines!

Sunday 18 July 2010

Hungry Caterpilla at Watton

Wow! What a wonderful Friday we all had at
Watton Community High School.
The 150 students from local Junior Schools
had their induction activity day to High School.
The activities were fantastic,
Archery,Climbing Wall,Spider Web,
Team Building, Eco Tunnel and Art.
In my role as
Breckland Community Artist,
I lead Art session all day with around 30 students at a time.
The theme of the day was based on, 'Transition.
As you can see by the end of the day every student
had had a good day and waved their
'Hungry Caterpillar', in the air in approval.
Thank you to all the students, staff and
Sue Lee, the organisor of the event.
I look forward to many more!
See more of my art events on my website

Wednesday 14 July 2010

Caterpillars on Parade

In my role as a Norfolk Community Artist I have been preparing for
an art session at a local Junior School where I will be using the
these parading caterpillas. I have made 160 packs of them!
There are 84 here on the table!
See my website post for 'The Hungry Caterpilla' board.

Shibori Indigo Samples

I unwrapped my suprise parcels! from the Shibori Indigo workshop
and rinsed them through in cold water.
I am really pleased with the results.
I will try and do another Indigo session in a few weeks time.
I liked the pieces which we used beads, screws and sticks to wrap
round. I also need to investigate stitch resist more as the stitched
circle piece is really beautiful.
Thank you, Marion and Sally for a great workshop.
See more of my dyed quilts on my website

Gallery Day 13th of July 2010

Pat has nearly finished her 'Favours' she's making.
She is now continuing with the Embellisher making the
embellished felt material to make brooches and cards.
See more of what goes on @The Gallery

Crochet Day

I am playing catch up with my blog with
all the wonderful things I have been doing lately.
On Sunday I went back over to Rockland Allsaints to Marion's Studio
to learn crochet with a select group of ladies
who were already crocheting but wanted to learn more.
Now, I am self taught and as several of you know I do freeform
or 'scrumble' crochet.
So to learn properly and boy! did I learn.
I learnt that I have been wrapping my thread round the wrong way!
(that explains some of the twisting). Also double and trebles,
thats what the stitches were!
Anyway, as you can see we made some flower brooches.
The above are mine. I made the brown one on the day and
I carried on when I got home so I didn't forget.
I am going to dye the cotton one with Indigo.
Thank you so much for such a lovely day Marion .
I am definetly going to continue.
A twisty scarf next!
See my scrumbles on my website

Monday 12 July 2010

Indigo Dyeing Workshop

On Saturday I went over to Rockland Allsaints to the studio of Marion Baker,
whose studio I had visited on the Norfolk Open Studio scheme.
Marion and Sally Mills were giving a Shibori Indigo workshop.
Well, what a day, of learning so many techniques,
laughing and sharing in the sweltering heat.
Perfect day for Dyeing though and drying fabrics.
The Indigo Vats were set and ready and the magic began.
Putting our prepared stitched and wrapped fabrics
in and watching them change colour in front of our eyes.
The deep rich blue, Indigo is famous for.
We had a wonderful lunch in the garden under the shade of some trees.
But we couldn't unveil our treasures as they have to dry and cure
for a few days. I am going to open mine this afternoon.
I'll post my results soon.
Thank you so much to Marion and Sally
for making it such a wonderful day for all of us.
See more of my dyed fabrics within my art on

A Visitor to the Garden

Look at this cheeky visitor to our garden on Saturday morning.
She had the front to drink out of the bird path and then
stroll around the garden eating the tops off my new plants!
Sweet peas and all.
It's funny though because I just watched her and chuckled.
I couldn't bare the thought of scaring her because she might have run into the road,
which is the other side of the hedge.
I know she crossed it to get in!
She wandered down the garden and by the look of our raised onion bed,
slept there most of the day while we were all out.
We walked down the garden late afternoon to water
the green houses and hadn't realised she was still there.
Our voices startled her and she ran down the path into the
the corn.
They are wonderful creatures but really make a mess of a garden!

Thursday 8 July 2010

Linda's Quilt

Ah! Ah! Linda caught me out this week!
I booked last week with Linda to spend Wednesday afternoon
in my studio, layering and safety pinning her quilt together, using my 6ft by 8ft table.
But when Linda called round in the afternoon,
Jenn and I were nearly asleep because of the heat, watching a
girlie film in the living room!
I had to giggle and so did Linda as my work table and studio was full of
pre- exhibition and prep work.
After we cleared a space and the table we set to.
Look at Linda's Quilt isn't it fantastic?
A real 'Colourwash' Quilt!
See more of Linda's work at

In The Newspaper

I'm in our local newspaper this week advertising the
Kings Lynn Embroidery Guild Exhibition at
the Kings Lynn Museum.
It's a really nice article with all the information about our group and the dates
of our different demonstrations.
Such as Tassel and Cord Making, Embellishing, Stumpwork,
Hand Pieced Patchwork, Locker Hooking,Machine Embroidery and much more.
Visit The Museum website to enjoy more

Monday 5 July 2010

Embellished Card Detail

Each one of the Embellished cards are different.
See more of my Embellishments on my website

Embellished Cards

Finished making some embellished cards today.
I just love working with the blue range of materials.
These will be on sale in The Gallery.
See more of my Embellishing on my website

Thursday 1 July 2010

Demonstrating Embellishing

This morning was the first day of
The Kings Lynn Embroiderer's Guild Exhibition
at The Kings Lynn Museum.
Photographer Alan Miller took this photograph
of me and The Editor took the details of the
Exhibition and they were also researching
the exhibits of the Museum to put on the
Kings Lynn News website.
The Guild Exhibition is a variety of work entitled
'East Anglia'.
It is on until the 20th of August.
There are demonstrations by members
of the Guild most days and these are on the
Kings Lynn News website.

Gallery Day 29th June 2010

Lots of moving around at The Gallery today.
Each artists who exhibits, has there own presenting area for the next few weeks.
So I moved 'The Toxic Stack' and 'Red Quilt' over to the corner.
They really compliment each another!
I now have to figure out how to display all my mixed media exhibits to give my area some cohesion!
Workshops carried on as usual,
interspearsed by visitors and customers who were interested
in what was going on.
There were also two teenagers from the local High School,
participating in the work experience week.
They helped me in the afternoon to set up a print station ready for
the printing workshops which are coming soon.
Great fun sorting through materials and all the different sorts of Paper!
Also news that building work had started on the new Art Centre where
The Gallery will be moving into next year.
See more of the 'Red Exhibition'