Patter from Patti

Crafty Notions in Newark, UK

One of my favorite stands to hit when I go to the Knitting & Stitching Show in London is Crafty Notions.  Sarah Lawrence is one of the most innovative and creative people I know.  Last year she and I discussed my coming to teach in her new workshop at their warehouse.  I naturally jumped at the chance.                    

We decided on my Fantasy Purses as a project and 7 women joined in.  The photo is of Sarah setting up a machine for one of the participants.

We used both regular sewing machines and embellishing machines.  Some had never used the embellishing machines before and all decided they loved the technique.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sarah's workshop area is full of inspiration.  All of her "stuff" is there for all of us to use, which we did.  I don't have samples here, but Sarah has new Mica powders that have a binding agent in them so all you need is water and  you have the most beautiful, shimmery paints.  But, back to our time there.

Here Gill and Chris are looking over the base of the purse Gill has finished.  Nearly everyone got their base done, which included stamping a face onto plain fabric and painting it with Sarah's Colourful Thoughts all purpose paints. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I didn't get photo's of everyone in the workshop.  Jacquie and Elinor are missing in nearly all the photo's.  Don't know how I missed them.  They were obviously downstairs in the warehouse shopping.  Which we all did a fair amount of.

Val brought an album she had made of her grandchildren and said it was based on my book "Creative Cloth Explorations".  I think it was all her original idea.  There were several pages dedicated to her 3 grandchildren and the book is fantastic.  Wish I had space to put photo's of each of the pages.  Beautifully done and such a terrific idea.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today, Sunday Oct. 17, was another free day and Peggy took me on a walk-about through downtown Newark.  I wish I had a photo of Peggy and I together.  She's almost 6 feet tall (5'11 1/2").  Together we made quite a pair (I'm 4'11").

Newark is a beautiful city.  It is about 1 1/2 hours north of London, by train.  The weather was absolutely perfect today.  Clear, sunny, cool.  I couldn't resist taking a photo of the 5 young swans as they started swimming towards us hoping we had some bread for them.  We didn't so they swam on.

Newark is full of beautiful, old buildings like the one below where Prince Rupert stayed when he had an argument with King Charles.  The building was built in 1475!  Peggy took me upstairs so I could see the ceiling beams and how low the ceilings were then.  Simply amazing.

 

 

Below is a photo of David & Sarah Lawrence, and Peggy, with whom I stayed in her home.  The embroidered wall hanging behind them was lovingly put together by many people and Sarah pulled it all together.  It is the main streets of Newark as it was in the past.  It was given to the Millgate Museum and if you are ever in the area go see it.  The lighting was really bad during the time we were there so I couldn't get a really good photo.  It is a master piece.                

I really hated to leave Newark, but my time here is over.  I head to Heathrow tomorrow and fly home on Tuesday.  England is close to my heart and I'll be back next September/October.

 

Prague

First, before I report on my time in Prague I have to share a new photo of my grandson, Theo.  A friend gave them a new outfit for him. He's now ready for Halloween.

Isn't that the cutest photo you've ever seen?  He is really enjoying his new pumpkin outfit.  He does love pumpkin to eat, too.

How I miss him, and his mommy and daddy.  My time with them was far too short.

After my 3 1/2 days with my daughter, son-in-law and grandson in Belgium I flew to Prague to teach a workshop.

I taught one of my favorite classes - creating faces with Shiva/Markal Paintstiks.  This group took to it like a fish in water.  They loved the technique and every face they did was

excellent.       After several of the doll group members shared dolls they have made from either my books, patterns or when I was there in February.  This is an extraordinary group.                                                                  Very enthusiastic and extremely talented as you can see by these photos.

After my workshop I had a free day to do a bit more site-seeing and Jane, the club president and Bohdana, who owns the Creative Center where I taught the workshop showed me around town.  The two buildings are called Fred & Ginger.  Truly beautiful buildings. 

Bohdana then took me to see a special Mucha exhibit at their National Museum.  Fabulous.  Photo's weren't allowed inside the exhibit, naturally, but I did get this near the entrance.  His work is one of my sources of inspiration for my work.

I also got to meet Sarka Rooya, who owns a fabulous bead store in Prague, and also is editor of a bead magazine.

While there she shared with us some of what she's been doing with lampwork beads.  She gave me a beautiful heart shaped bead she has made.  Beautiful young woman.                                                         

 

Below are Mirek and Bohdana.  They always show me the best time.  Prague is a beautiful city, but the people are the best part of it.

Life with Theo

For the past 3 fabulous days I've been with our daughter, son-in-law and grandson here in Belgium.  We've gone to a kind of flea market, small village but mostly just hung out at their home so I can get reacquainted with Theo.

The weather has been amazing.  Sunny & warm for two days and sunny and cool today (Sunday, Oct. 10).  All I have cared about is playing with our grandson.  So, here are a few pictures of my time here:

 

The Knitting & Stitching Show

Thursday, Oct. 7, before I took Eurostar to Brussels I attended my favorite fiber art show - the Knitting & Stitching Show at Alexander Palace.    This isn't really a palace, but more of an event center.  It is perfect for this show.

The whole area really catches the excitement of the show.  A Mrs. Smith made the seat cushion, pillows, leg cuffs and cover for the bus stop in front of Ali Pali (what the locals call the palace).  This was a beautiful greeting to those arriving and departing.
                                                                                                                                             As soon as I arrived my friend Maudie found me.  It was fun going into the show with her.  In the entrance is always a challenge.  This year it was fabric bags made from scraps leftover from projects.

This is actually a unique idea that one woman started here in the UK.  Bags are made and passed out to people who are shopping so that plastic and paper bags aren't needed.  These are given free to whomever wants one.  I love that idea.  Who wouldn't love to have a hand-made shopping bag.  There were hundreds of bags at the show and all beautifully made. 

Wouldn't it be wonderful to start this all over the world? 

About 8 years ago several of us got together and decided to have a stand at the show.  I did the show for 3 years with Betts Vidal, Barbara Willis and Michele Meinhold.  The 4th year I worked with Rainbow Silk, then after decided to just come and enjoy the show.  Barbara took over the event and added Gloria McKinnon, who is our friend from Australia. 

                                                                               It was fun seeing Colleen Babcock at the show, too.  Here she's with Betts and Barbara. 

Not sure you can see the amazing Asian Dreams crazy patch quilt on the wall next to Colleen.  I bought all the blocks from Gloria last year and have started putting them together.  Gloria also comes to Piecemaker's Country Store in Costa Mesa, California to teach.  It is there that we all take her classes to learn all the wonderful silk ribbon work that Gloria does.

The exhibits at the show, as I said earlier, are all breath-taking.  Below are some miniature hats that simply blew me away.  All are made of fibers, even the strawberries on the hat towards the front.

Yes, that is a shark attacking the straw hat.  He's made of fibers, too. 

Jan Beaney, Jean Littlejohn, Maggie Grey, Val Holmes, Richard Box and so many others were there with new work.  I didn't have time to see everything as I only had 3 hours.  I then took the tube to Kings Cross then to St. Pancras, collected my luggage and took Eurostar to Brussels and then another train to Rixensart to see our youngest daughter and her family.

More on that next time.

Torquay, England

This is my 4th year coming to Torquay.  My class was a bit smaller this year, but I really didn't want more than 12 in the class, and that was the final number.  We were creating my LiMei doll and she's quite involved and smaller numbers in a class means more gets done.

The first day was the nitty-gritty day,  We created a wire armature and filled the bodies with stuffing around the wire.  Then we drew and sculpted the face.  Day two was the dyeing day.  The bodies were dyed, along with the clothing fabrics.  We had a beautiful day for everything to be outside to dry in the sun.

One of the things I love about coming to Sylvia's here in Torquay is the walk in the mornings and evenings.  I can walk along the edge of the cliffs and see the sea below.  It is truly beautiful.  But, as you can see, they have the same problems we have in California - cliffs falling into the sea. 

In the evenings Carl whisks me away for an adventure.  This trip was to Brixham to see where more D-Day events happened.  Many of our men and women embarked from various points along the Devonshire coast before D-Day.

But, as were leaving the Battery Gardens we noticed we had a flat tire.  Every year I have to have some adventure with Carl.  Last year, as he was helping me on the train to return to London the train took off with Carl still on the train with me.  Fortunately, Torre is a short distance from Torquay and he was able to get off and return to Torquay to meet Sylvia.  Who was standing in shock as the train took off with her husband still with me.

 

 

 

 

 

 After the class on Sunday Carl took me to see two very narrow bridges that are hundreds of years old.  With the recent rains the river was running quite fast and the sound wonderful.  After we visited the bridges we returned to Buckfast Abbey for Sunday Vespers.  We had gone there last year and Carl knew how I loved the pipe organ and the chantings of the monks.  This year there was an additional Benedictine service.  I even knew the hymn sung at the end.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               Here's the fun group with their dolls in various stages of completion at the end of the day on Sunday.  Everyone enjoyed working with the Embellisher machines we had, and we all loved the All in One dyes from Colourcraft.  Everyone did like using the Shiva/Markal Paintstiks for coloring the faces and upper bodies.  I do have to say that everyone's dolls turned out great and I can't wait to see the finished dolls when I return next year.                                                                                                              Today, Oct. 4, was my last day in Torquay.  Sylvia took me to a beautiful spot along the coast where we had tea and a light lunch before I had to get on the train.  The day was perfect - warm, sunny, breezy.

When I return next year we'll be doing my new Kiri doll based on the movie "Avatar".  Keep tuned.

Next, I'll be briefly visiting the Knitting & Stitching Show in London Thursday, then that afternoon heading to Belgium to see our daughter, son-in-law and grandson.             

Greetings from England

After days of trying to find a cable for my new Sony camera a friend got one of those card readers and I was able to start downloading photo's.  I'm a bit behind, as I'm presently in Torquay, but do want to start sharing my amazing trip to England.

Kathryn had picked me up at the train station in Preston, then we drove up to Cumbria.  Beverley and Kathryn then took me to Muncaster Castle so I could see the grounds.  Last year I didn't arrive early enough to do so.

As you can see, this is a beautiful part of England.  Where we were is on the west coast of Cumbria.  On clear days you can see the Isle of Man across the sea.  It did clear up while I was here but we were a bit busy to look for the Isle of Man.     

While walking through the grounds at Muncaster Castle we came upon an owl sanctuary.  Many of you know how I love owls.  I was in owl heaven!

I took dozens of photo's but will only share a few.  Do click on the photo of the two grey owls and check out the pink eyelids on the owl facing the camera.  I had no idea there were so many kinds of owls.

This is one I am familiar with, a Great Horned Owl.  We have them in our neighborhood in San Diego.  Very majestic.

I'm afraid they were feeding the owls, which put Beverley off for having dinner with Kathryn and I.  What were they feeding them you ask?  Baby chickens.

Beverley owns a wonderful store called Fobbles.  I had fallen so in love with the area last year that she asked me back this year.  I taught a 3-day workshop and we made my Xiuying doll.  We worked on a simple body armature then spray painted the bodies with CraftyNotions Colourful Sprays.  And, yes, the dolls heads are in plastic bags.  No one wanted their dolls heads to get sprayed with colourful inks.

By the end of the 3 days the dolls were almost finished.  The group was fun to be with and we all enjoyed our time in Beverley's converted barn.  Beverley rents the barn from an active farm.  They grow potatoes, so the barn isn't needed anymore for livestock.  If you are ever in this part of England, do look up the shop.  Check her website before going, though.  She offers a lot of wonderful classes, but isn't open every day of the week.

http://www.fobbles.co.uk