returning from grandparent duties in England

I am sorry for the delay in updating my blog but we spent 2 weeks in England on Grandparenting duties and then on our return have spent time catching up on the gardening,so textile work and blogging dissapeared out of the window. We had a wonderful time in the Lake District over the Easter weekend and had fabulous weather to enjoy the countryside. Our daughter lives in Ambleside so it is an ideal base to visit from. We took the steamer strip across Lake Windermere on Easter Sunday and it was a wonderful experience with fantastic views all around. I will try to post a photo as I have no art work to show at the present.

Thank you for the comments and I hope the cuckoo has dried out in the wonderful sunshine last week, Di. I have read of your visit to The Stamp Bug with Gloria with envy - shall look forward to looking at all the goodies at our next meeting - 7th May.

I have prepared my catalogue for the classes organised by Maggie Grey and will attempt to develop some interesting art work - there are some wonderful examples on the Forum of her classes. So hopefully I will make a start on that this week.

Another sign Spring has arrived

Today I saw the first swallow in the region and I also heard the Hoopoo, both signs that the weather should be more settled. The weather today has been glorious and the nippy wind was missing so the temperature was really warm making gardening a pleasure - although it does restrict the textile work. I had been waiting with baited breath for the next internet class from Maggie Grey using the catalogues that have been residing in gardens all over the world for the last few months - and I was not disapointed apart from the fact I had not got time to do any work from the lesson. I will study the classes and take part as and when I can.

I will try to post some of the other photos from my altered book but I am not sure how they will turn out - keep your fingers crossed.

It must be Spring - the cuckoo has arrived

The cuckoo arrived on Saturday in this part of the Vendee, so it really must be spring. The weather has been fabulous with wall to wall to sunshine, although a sneaky chilly wind has made its presence felt.

Last Thursday it was a group meeting of the Saving Graces group. This is a group of 4 textile artists who meet up once a month to hold a workshop and then work on the techniques covered and produce some work for the next meeting. Di travels from Paris either by car or train, Annie, Gloria and myself all live in the Vendee so travelling is no problem for us. We formed the group as a result of all following the web textile classes - Workshop on the Web. The meeting this time was held a Gloria's house and we looked at Transfoiling and producing a piece of fabric that could be used for making a shrine, box or bag. Great fun was had by us all and we had a thoroughly enjoyable day. The previous meeting had been based on the Maggie Grey free classes on line and we brought the finished products of our experimentation using gesso, shrink plastic etc. As a fun piece for the meeting we all worked on a small blank canvas and as you will see by the photo posted all the pieces were different. (The reason there are 5 pieces, not 4 as there are 4 of us, is Di could not work singly she had to have a pair).

I am having difficulty posting the photos of my altered book as it insists on positioning them the wrong way round. I will have to keep working on them and try to post them the right way round.