Battle of Hastings

On Wednesday morning Stewart and I went to 'Battle'!

Well! The Battlefield of 1066 at the town of Battle!

If you look at the map above Hastings is on the coast and

Battle, the actual Battleground of 1066 is inland.

The original castle was wooden and it was William,

that had the Abbey built on the grounds after the Battle.

It took 25 years to build and by the end of

William's reign it was one of the wealthiest Abbey's

in Britain.

Stewart and I did the walk around the Battlefield and as you can see

by the steepness of the hill the Norman soldiers had

a real struggle, to overcome and reach the top.

We live in Norfolk, which is known for it's flatness!

So this was a good walk/climb for us too!

It is always fun to get into the steps of History!

See more by visiting

www.english-heritage.org/battleabbey

This video is an animation of The Bayeux Tapestry

Brighton Festival

After walking around The Brighton Lanes we

needed a cup of tea and went into The Corn Exchange

for a cuppa and to see what else was going on around Brighton.

Inside the Foyer Bar was this Origami Booth.

It was funny as I had been playing with origami last week.

We watched the video and following the

instructions we made a lotus flower.

Coco Sato is a conceptional artist and you can see

more of his work and The Brighton Festival

by visiting

www.brightonfestival.org.uk

There was also a tribute table to Aung San Suu Kyi,

The Brighton Festival is celebrating her perseverance and freedom.

Brighton

Walking around Brighton window shopping

and soaking up the atmosphere,

was so interesting and I especially liked this shop window

with all the old sewing machines. I have never seen

so many in one place!

Brighton has so many individual shops and boutiques

there was so much to explore.

There are galleries and art work everywhere.

The murals are something else!

Brighton Pier

After the Royal Pavilion we just had to do the stroll

down Brighton Pier and take in the 'Sea Air'.

As you can see by the photograph directly above

the tide was on the way out and the 'Sea Air' was very fresh!

We had an ice creams, walked right to the end and watched

people putting up the deck chairs!!!

Brighton Pavilion

On Monday we went South to The Sussex Downs about

three and a half hours by car from us to stay at

Leonard on Sea in a cabin.

Neither Stewart or myself have been to this side

of the country to stay so we wanted to visit

Brighton and of course The Pavilion.

We entered by The Coach Door,

the original entrance visitors to King George would enter.

We were breathless in how the Pavilion is decorated,

most of which is so over the top it is amazing!

Everywhere is painted, gilt and showmanship.

Each and every room has it's own atmosphere and

must have looked even more spectacular

or imposing by oil lamps.

One of the crystal chandeliers in the Banqueting Room

over the dining table weighs a ton

and has a large silver dragon sitting on the top.

The Music Room Dome is covered in hundreds of guilded

scallop shells and has had to be restored several times.

We have never seen anything like this before

and would recommend Brighton Pavilion

as a must see for extraordinary interiors.

This is one of the few videos that shows the interior

and gives some of the history of

The Royal Pavilion.

Gallery Tuesday 18th May 2011

@ The Gallery Dereham is hosting one of the Taster Exhibitions,

for Norfolk's Open Studios this week.

The Gallery looked very different when we went to view on Saturday.

there are eight artist work on show.

Open Studios is always worth visiting and enjoying.

I didn't hold a workshop Tuesday this week because of the taster

and we were away on Holiday in Sussex.

Jack's Quilt

You saw the pile of fabrics I had collected together

on a previous post? Here is Jack's Quilt pieced together.

It is now ready for quilting.

The inspiration for the colours and design came from

the Blue and Green Quillow on the right of this post.

I took it outside to photograph because I couldn't

get higher enough to photograph all of it.

Jack's Quilt is a large single.

See more of my quilts on y website.

www.art2inspire.co.uk

Bess of Hardwick

Last week I had the pleasure of going to The Methwold Ladies Group

to listen to Professor Jeff Handcock speaking about

Bess of Hardwick Hall.

'Bess', not 'Elizabeth' due to Elizabeth the 1st being

on the throne at this time in Tudor England.

The Professor put Bess's life in context with Tudor English history

and made her 83 years of entrepreneurial life come alive.

I have visited Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire and marvelled

at the tapestries, panelled walls, collections, vast embroideries and garden.

Above is the guidebook written for The National Trust full

of some wonderful photographs and insights to the Hall.

See two videos I have put on my website about Hardwick Hall and

Bess's life. They are very interesting.

www.art2inspire.co.uk/bess

Fabric Shopping

Before a lunch time appointment I got to go fabric shopping!

Of course I went to Sian's Scout Hut

in Hunstanton.

The bunting outside looks great by the way!

Shan introduced me to her daughter Claire and the

shop will now be open on a Monday 10am-2pm,

by Shan's other daughter Jo.

(It's open now Monday to Saturday).

There was a Fabric salesman there

with all his samples and it was lovely

to see how Shan thought of her customers and

really chose the fabric for them and not what

he was persuading her to buy!

As you can see by The Scout Hut

it is an Aladdin's Cave!

As usual it was wonderful, wandering round and

discovering things, loads of new fabric and bargains!

I was there to buy Blues and Greens for a commission.

A quilt for Jack.

As you can see I found all I needed and could have brought more

and stayed longer if I hadn't had to move on.

See more of my Quilts on

my website

www.art2inspire.co.uk

Alpaca Waistcoat

There are so many different types of medias being undertaken

@The Gallery it's wonderful.

Nikki is coming along to use the fabric she has had spun

from her Alpaca Herd. The fabric is lovely to touch and to work with.

She is making a waistcoat, very suit like in it's construction

and look. After a few funnies the other week,

we got out the sewing dummy and are fitting it!

See more information about Nikki's Alpacas

at

www.azsualpacas.com

Crazy Patchwork Scissor Case

Barbara loves 'Bling' and admired my Scissor Case which

holds my sewing kit and scissors.

It is in the top photograph. I made it ten years ago, from

Jennifer's pink velvet trousers.

It is covered with crazy work patchwork and lots of

trimmings and trinkets.

You can see Barbara has made the back and front

and they are ready to be embellished.

I am available to teach this as a workshop,

to a group or at my studio.

Contact me for details.

See more of my mixed media textiles and embellishing

on my website

www.art2inspire.co.uk

Eygptian Quillow

Carol is starting a new project, a quillow based on

Eygptian inspired fabrics.

it will be lovely to see it grow. This is what Carol did in her

session @ The Gallery.

See more quillow's on my website

www.art2inspire.co.uk

Kimono Wallhanging Completed

Carol also brought her finished Kimono Wall Hanging in too!

There are so any techniques on here although it

looks quite simple in design.

(The top photograph is the front).

The fabric is beautiful and this design show it off so well.

Well done Carol!

See more of what goes on a @ The Gallery

www.thegallerrydereham.co.uk

Stained Glass Patchwork Complete

Carol came back after the break with her

'Stained Glass Patchwork', Wallhanging all finished.

It looks wonderful, ready for a sleeve and pole to

hang it up.

It looked wonderful hanging on the wall at

The Gallery.

Well done Carol!

See how this was made by clicking the label,

'stained glass window', underneath this post.

See more Patchwork and Quilting on

my website

www.art2inspire.co.uk

Machine Embroidered Leaves

Jeannette is starting a new project, a wall hanging

containing all different mixed media layered leaves.

There are many different techniques she wants to learn

and improve on ones that she has touched on in the past.

Here are some of the ones she made in her session.

The sessions @ The Gallery are approximately

2, 2 and a half hours long and some stay all day!

See more textiles in my portfolio pages on my website

www.art2inspire.co.uk