Author Archives: Kathleen

Lutradur play day

I have just spent a very pleasent day with eight ladies who wanted to know what Lutradur was all about.

We looked at what paints could be applied to it and then heat stressed some of them to give a lovley lacey effect. We used a soldering iron to solder out motifs from the lutradur and also to bond pieces together. We looked at sewing grids on first and then heat stressing it along with building up a collarged picture. The ladies really relaxed into it and were very open minded about the product.

 

Gold Work Snowflakes Workshop

Next Tuesday isn’t that far away now and I have a full class of lovely ladies eager to get started on their gold work snowflakes for this fast-approaching festive season.
Thanks to Sandra at Tudor Rose Patchwork shop I don’t need to worry as she has got all the goldwork supplies sorted and is kindly giving me a basket of goodies to sell, meaning I don’t need to worry and my ladies will have what they need if they don’t own any supplies already.
I have worked my snowflakes as a panel which hangs in a specific place each year in my home. My ladies may have some different ideas as to where or what they are going to turn theirs into. One snowflake would make a stunning special greetings card and one inserted into a box top would look glorious especially with hand made Xmas decorations made and contained inside.
If you have never had a go at this technique before its time you had a go. Find a local teacher to get you going or put a gold workbook on your Christmas wish list.
Must fly now as I need to sort the Stitch diagrams and patterns.

Tidying Up Before I Can Get Creative

Yesterday I couldn’t even see my desk to even think about getting creative so there was nothing for it but to get stuck in and clear it up. After a hour or so trying to push it all back against the walls I managed to find the desk, immediately stopping and sitting down to get creative. It would of been easier to go down the studio but the weather was horrid and wet and I couldn’t be asked to weatherproof up to go down there.

I then spent the rest of the afternoon drawing and trying to iron out the logistics of my next sample for Tudor Rose shop (a flower obelisk).

It’s going in the right direction but like most things I need to get going on it to iron out the things that inevitably won’t work.

Felt lazy in the evening so plonked myself in the chair and finished my gold work sample of snowdrops while watching something on the telly that I didn’t need to concentrate on a lot

All in all I achieved quite a bit today.

Lutradur Fiddle Time

I have known I was teaching a workshop on Lutradur possibilities for months.

So why oh why did I leave my samples and experiments right to the last minute.

Oh that’ll be because I’m a busy teacher with her fingers in to many pies!

Never mind I have plenty to keep the ladies busy tomorrow and plenty of ideas to chuck out to them for experimenting. I’m quite looking forward to a messy day. Look out ladies here I come!

Christmas is coming

When I went into guild last Thursday everyone was busy ikmaking their Xmas decs for the Christmas tree appeal to be held in the centre of Bedford shortly.
As usual I was to busy catching up and so I never even got one started and therefore have had to do homework.
These have been free machine embroidered with a splattering of beads hand stitched onto them.
I just need to pull them over a carcass template now and bead the edges and hanger. That’ll be tomorrow nights job.

Ally Pally (Sunday)

Left home to collect Julia at 6.45pm for the last day of the knitting and stitch show. Good journey down but a long day commenced with the dreaded break down at the end of it.

Thankfully Julia is great at packing and balancing things on the trollies so we were out and on our way home within 35 mins and home by 7 pm.

We dumped everything through the front door and bless him, hubby had tea done and a large glass of chilled white wine waiting. Putting away took me all of Monday and some of Tuesday but I’m ship shape now and ready for the onslaught of more samples for upcoming work shops.

I really enjoyed the show and hopefully some new adventures will come out of it but I am glad to get back to some kind of normality. Love the picture of my daughter wearing my fascinator. She was as fresh as a daisy on Sunday while the rest of us were weary and worn out.



Ally Pally 3rd day

It was manic today. You couldn’t pass up the aisles where we were and as for getting off the stand to spend a penny. FORGET IT. Thankfully Carolyn who works along side me is a real brick and managed to crawl out under our table and go and look after as many of us exhibitors as she could. She stood in for Margaret Beal and Kay maxwell who were thankful for a quick jump of their stand . Later in the day she did the coffee run when we were all gasping, generally looking out for everyone. (She’s a real star)
I taught on the learning curve and the keen ladies all worked like crazy making wired and beaded flowers to wear as a corsage on their jackets. That’s all my learning curve duties done now so tomorrow I can concentrate on doing my thing

Great Girl Fashion at Ally Pally

Look who dropped by my stand today at the knitting and stitching show.
Pat and Mar from the Netherlands sporting their amazing costumes made specially for their visit. I think they looked great and was astonished by the amount of embroidery covering the clothing. I did laugh when the girls flashed me a glance under their petticoats where they had matching bloomers to match.
Then I was shown a matching bag and a pull along trolley with a chair that dropped down for a little sit down when shopping became to much. The girls were completely coordinated and it all looked very impressive. We’ll done girls and I hope you fill that trolley with loads of goodies