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

http://www.jimmysfarm.com/

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

www.art2inspire.co.uk

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

http://www.art2inspire.co.uk/

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!!!

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!

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

www.art2inspire.co.uk

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.

www.art2inspire.co.uk

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

www.art2inspire.co.uk

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

http://www.thegallerydereham.co.uk/

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

www.art2inspire.co.uk

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

http://www.art2inspire.co.uk/

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!