Show and tell of a busy weekend

I have been meaning to write about the lovely weekend of 9th & 10th I had with my sister Theresa.
On the Saturday morning, with bags packed I set off for Airdrie

 to take part in a workshop with Alison King

'Entrances and Exits'

Everyone brought images and photographs of interesting entrances and exits, doorways, arches gates etc for inspiration. Once we had each decided our subject we set to work in all different ways with paper, card, fabric, paints and thread to recreate our little scenes, I didn't take any pictures on the day,  I was having way too much fun and had a lot of stuff to be getting on with. The best part of the morning was taken up with everyone cutting out paper patterns and card layers which will work under the fabrics to build up layers and depth to their pieces.

My photograph

taken in Rethymnon Crete 2010 a beautiful decaying doorway 

we only had one day to work on our pieces with Alison 

however my sister Theresa and I worked on our pieces when we got back to hers as I was staying over and we worked in her craft room until 11.30 in the evening.

 This is mine so far......

I'm working on two parts of the piece at once,

in class I began by recreating the old stone effect wall

I painted on some white fabric with my watercolour dyes 

and then used my Softywax fabric crayons and Markal paintsticks.

 The stitching on this was done later in the evening, I backed it with a piece of blanket and machine stitched into it a little, I left it there to think about it for a while.

The card door surround and hexagon window surround which I covered with silk in class and worked into these some with the paintsticks highlighting the edges, I may work into them more later.

the window surround

this is the door surround 

which I worked on more in the evening, adding in the wire-work, 

I still have more to do here with this.

A terracotta pot
a thick card backing, wadding covered in cotton, couched cords added

then a coat of thick paint, quit effective result I think. This will sit at the side of the door and hold a tree of some sort...undecided at present...I'm thinking grape vine, which are common in Crete.

like this one in Kokkini Hani ~ 2010

growing out of a wall 

and wandering upwards to the balcony above

 you can see the grapes hanging in abundance 

So lots still to do and lots still to think about......I'm enjoying the process

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On Sunday morning we awoke to snow! 

Our destination for the day was SECC Glasgow for our yearly visit to the Creative Stitches and Hobbycraft Show.

As Theresa's car was fitted with snow tyres we opted to go in hers.

about 400yrds from the venue the clutch went and we had to wait on a recovery vehicle arriving, we got our rescuer to drop us off at the show at around 10.30 and sent him off with the car home to Airdrie. We opted just to deal with getting home later, not wanting to spoil our much anticipated inspiring day of threads, fabrics and all things crafty.

inside my shopping bag

I went mainly for threads and I got some beautiful ones,

especially these 'Caron Wildflowers'

We both bought Margaret Beal's soldering iron for fusing fabrics,

and also, some little metal templates for using with it.

some nice fabrics 

stocked up on supplies of glue dots,
 double sided tape and glitter, needles and silk ribbons

I also managed to have a nice helpful chat with Lorna Bateman who does beautiful  ribbon embroidery kits, having just started working on one of her larger pieces which I think is called 'Spring Garden' which I bought a couple of years ago. We talked about various stitches and she advised me on thread thicknesses and bead sizes for the sampler. 

I bought these beautiful threads from her .

bargain of the day had to be these,
15 brass stencils from Samuel Taylor's stock clearance basket
 for the sum of £3.50

We got the train back to get my car from Theresa's and after a superb steak pie dinner which was all ready on our arrival, thanks to her hubby Ronnie, we managed to fit in a Mothers Day visit and catch up with the rest of the family at Mums in the evening.

Whoosh!

Wow ...that week went fast.
 Last weekend I went to the Creative Stitches and Hobbycraft show at the SECC Glasgow.  I was even fortunate enough to go on the Saturday and the Sunday :)

Every year I go with my Mum, Sister, Cousin and this year my Mother in Law joined us.
As usual, we all had a lovely time browsing the stalls
there is so much to see and be tempted by, I took my camera, but as always forget to use it.

I will post more about what I got at the show later, and what I have did with some of my purchases when I have time to take some pictures.

On Sunday morning before heading out to the show again I baked a cake and put it aside for decorating later when I got back, no idea what it was going to look like only that it had to be pink.
For this little Lady

 Having thought about it a couple of times during the show and bought a metre of lovely baby pink ribbon, and on the way home I stopped off to pick up some goodies.

(what would we do without marshmallow flumps and strawberry chocolate buttons)



its no work of art but it tasted delicious



I can't believe she is 3 already.

So Monday was Charlotte's day we didn't have a party but she enjoyed opening her presents and spending time with both her grandmothers and some of the family who came to visit.
I couldn't resist buying her Charlie and Lola 'The Absolutely Complete Collection'  DVD set
yep all 80 episodes on 11 discs a great buy  ....  we love Charlie and Lola :D can you tell?

and as jigsaws are her favourite thing to do at the moment ....

a giant 24 piece Peppa Pig Floor Puzzle

which she loves and can already complete,
comes with line drawing on the back and crayons to colour and wipe off.

************
Tuesday we headed up to Dundee with Kevin's Mum to visit the Verdant Works
Unfortunately we arrived to find out that it wasn't open on Tuesdays during the winter months, we were a bit disappointed having driven for an hour and it was not printed on the information leaflet we had with us.

Heading back out of town we discovered the University of Dundee's Botanic Garden and enjoyed a lovely afternoon stroll here instead.
I did take some lovely pictures which I will post later.
OK just a peek ....here's one

We enjoyed a delicious lunch in their bright and sunny coffee shop
 well worth a visit if you are in Dundee.

*********
Friday Charlotte and I went to Mothercare / ELC to take advantage of their extra 20% discout code along with her giftcard from nana Moxon and is now the proud owner of a lovely pink easel

some chunky chalk, propper paint pots and spiral art set which was half price. We havent opened this yet as she has spent a lot of today at the blackboard having fun, it's lovely to watch her sketch away with her chalk, she is growing up so fast.

 I have spent some time each day in my little studio having fun mostly with paper,
but more about this tomorrow.

so yes , quite busy really