... hot offer...

Phew, what a scorcher!  After a wet start to our summer we are now experiencing daily temperatures of 32º-36ºC (that's 89º-96ºF) in the shade!  Normally, we don't get as hot here as the French Riviera, though clearly we experience our fair share of hot summers days.  Whilst rainfall levels remain moderate, falling in short showers and thunderstorms, this is also the time when the grass will turn from green to yellow to green again within the space of a week, and the sunflowers that currently surround us have just enough water to keep them blooming before rapidly turning to seed.  Claire Wellesley Smith, our Weekend Workshop leader for October is someone we know is interested in turning shades of green. She teaches extensively, working in adult education, schools, community projects, museums and galleries. Her workshops involve sustainable stitch, repurposed cloth, and traditional techniques. A consumate planter, dyer and stitcher, well known for her beautifully fragile "slow stitch" collages - Claire takes the same principles of balance, connection, sustainability and rhythm initiated around food by the slow movement, which started in the 1980s in Italy and applies it to textile processes - she is  passionate about domestic plants and how to utilise their oft-times hidden hues to colour equally gorgeous vintage textiles for her collages.  Many of the plants she grows herself in her native West Yorkshire, but she's looking forward to sharing with participants the adventures of discovering the autumnal colour variations of warmer climes proliferating in our mature gardens for the Slow Stitch workshop from 7th-10th October. Late summer/early autumn is a particularly good time for nuts, roots and late blooms that offer natural yellows, oranges, blues, reds, greens, browns and greys.   Claire recently had the pleasure of working with Richard and Arron from R&A Collaborations on a film as part of the Devon Guild of Craftsmen project Home Ground. They spent a day with her at her studio and allotment (pretty cold in early February and not many dye plants growing...) and talked about slow, localised craft practices, producing a fascinating insight into Claire's methods. We'd love to fill the studio with stitchers who are particularly interested in natural dying methods that can be employed on a domestic scale,  and we're offering  10% off both Claire Wellesley Smith's and Celia Pym's workshops Just type in the code CWSCP on the booking form to be eligible   We also have one copy of Claire's recently published book, 'Slow Stitch: Mindful and Contemplative Textile Art', worth £20 ($26) and published by Batsford with wonderful photography by Michael Wicks, to give to the first person to book a place on Claire's workshop with this code.     Earlybird tickets available still for the bi-annual Gigspanner concert we hold here, this year the weekend before Celia Pym's workshop.  So if the idea of some first class music, followed by a few days of quiet B&B accommodation in an amazing location, before moving into the world of stitching, we'd be happy to sort it out for you.  Bring your partner and we'll give you a special rate. Tickets for Concert only And before we melt here's something to make you smile.....

…. time to get cutting…..

If you haven't already started on your piece of our Textile Jigsaw of Words, this weekend might be a good time.  There's only a few weeks left now until our Reception with Raystitch (14th April) when our workshop leaders will all be casting a vote as to the best and most creative submission.  The prize for the winner is a free place on one of our workshops this year, where there are still places available, so hopefully worth the effort downloading the template and instructions, followed by a few hours of creative  stitching (don't forget your quote!)



To help you along, the talented and delightful Claire Wellesley-Smith, who is leading the Slow Colour and Stitch workshop for us in May, and whose superlative patchworks are continuously inspirational, has this advice:

"I've always loved searching out old unfinished scraps of patchwork and quilts. They are like little snapshots - the fabrics giving clues to their age and to the lives of the women who stitched them.   (By the way the hexagons shown in the image will be used at my workshop)."

And if that doesn't get you going, I've always found that when stuck for a idea, a long walk - especially at this time of year -  is what I need to get the creative flow moving.  There's nothing like the first of the spring flowers after a long cold winter to inspire.  Here are a few that are have felt brave enough to show show their faces round here recently…….

…. christmas quiz LAST DAY!!...

Most everyone guessed correctly that the beautiful hand-embroidered dress of Question Eight was the work of the delightfully talented Jessie Chorley.  Jessie is returning to lead another five-day workshop for us, Usable Treasures, at the beginning of September next year and we can hardly wait.  She is such a pleasure to be around, and a huge inspiration to stitchers of all levels.  Meanwhile her shop in Columbia Road, London is chock-a-block full of Christmas goodies so if you are in the area, we thoroughly recommend a visit.

Which takes us up to our last Christmas Competition quiz and we thought you should have something festive and easy.  This lady has been on the Crafts Council's list of makers since 1985 and her work has been exhibited all over the world (in fact she is just back from Japan!).

So whose Christmas stitchery is this?

Don't forget you can still enter all the previous days' questions as long as you make it clear on your emails to us  which day you are entering.  Winners' names will be plucked from our now enormous hat and we'll let them know by email.  We'll also post a list on this blog within the next few days.

….christmas quiz day four…….

Congratulations all those of you who guessed that yesterday's beautiful book cover, stitched with her own dyed threads, was made by Claire Wellesley-Smith.   You can see much more of the exquisite colours she dyes her found and re-found fabrics - which she then uses to create intricate hand-stitched collages - in the equally beautiful photographs taken of her work and posted regularly on her blog. 

We are so looking forward to Claire leading her first workshop for us in May of next year, Slow Colour and Stitch.  It's going to be a cracker.

But as we push on to Christmas, here is

This workshop leader has more energy and talent than there are squares in this gorgeous quilt.  She'll tell you that her greatest passion when assembling fabrics is colour, but her checkered career in the arts has given her an especially infectious delight in re-inventing  textiles of all shades - both beloved and neglected - and then sharing her multifarious skills with all those who love stitch.