Claire's blog

I picked up my copy of the latest issue of Bead Magazine on my way home today, and got to see my profile in print! They’ve written a lovely article about me, and I’m really thrilled to see it. There’s also a project/pattern from me giving instructions to weave my Daisy design.

I forgot [...]

It’s a glorious weekend, so we headed out for the day.  I’ve been hankering after making a patchwork quilt for a while, and with our interest in batik raised by the class last week we headed off to visit Textile Traders in Bishops Castle.

Bishops Castle turned out to be a very pretty village, if [...]

At the Festival we saw the lovely work of Marie-Thérèse King & Sarah Jones, who are Eekbatik.  They run workshops from The Fold in Worcestershire, where they also show their work, so yesterday I set off there with Mum as neither of us had ever tried batik before!

Playing on paper

We started off by drawing [...]

With all the stress (and fun!) of preparing for the Festival and surviving through it, I was just looking for something relaxing to do when Mum pointed out the Joggles newsletter to me with a link to this article.  So I read round a bit about Zentangles and did this in my doodle/sketch book…

My [...]

Today the weather was lovely and people came out in droves.  Dad came in with us, which meant that we could all go for a proper look round the Festival.

The marquees in sunshine

Each year there are a number of painters demonstrating and talking about their art, at various sites around the Festival.

Demonstration in [...]

The weather cleared up and the sun came out!  Thirty-two coachloads today, and so many cars we moved onto the overflow car-park.

As the sun came out, people began enjoying the courtyard for a quick break between looking at exhibitions

I’m all talked out, as lots of lovely people came visiting who were interested in finding [...]

Yesterday my latest order of Moo cards arrived!  They look fab as always – I particularly like that fact that you can now customise the back, allowing me to add a picture of mybeaded tree I’ve started using as a logo.

Some of my yummy new Moo cards and box

The beaded champagne bottle is a [...]

…because my right hand is covered in henna!  I really fancied having it done for the Patchings Festival, and we had all the necessary stuff (henna, lemons, etc), so Mum’s just finished doing my hand for me.

Henna drying on my hand

I’m now sitting here carefully looking after my hand, applying lemon and sugar while [...]

I’ve been a member of the Beadworkers Guild for about 8 years now, and when I can I really enjoy entering their Challenge.  Each year they set a theme and invite their members to submit work inspired by it.  This year the theme was ‘Music Matters’, and I made this doll, Brunnhilde.

It ain't over [...]

So this post is running a couple of weeks late, as I’ve been poorly sick for a bit (nothing serious, just a virus-thingy that knocked me back a bit).

Both me and Mum were supposed to be going on another workshop with Janet Humphrey (who’s just launched her new website), this time on Victoriana.  Mum’s had [...]

On Saturday I went with Mum to the Venetian Glory textile class run by Janet Humphrey.  The class was to make an over-the-top embellished pouch bag inspired by some that Janet had seen in Venice.

Here's the bag I made

We started off with a base fabric (I used some Indian silk, Mum used a piece [...]

Tomorrow is Mother’s Day over here, and having read this post on Etsy about crafting Mothers and daughters I wanted to write about my Mum – without her I wouldn’t be sewing/beading/knitting/drawing…

Mum sitting in the snow at the Budapest Christmas Market – see the beaded necklaces at the stall in the background?

For as long [...]

Some new windows are being fitted tomorrow, so I’ve spent some of today sorting out the spare room/study/library/general dumping ground so the fitters can actually make it as far of the window.  As a lot of what’s in there is books I’ve mostly been straightening up the bookcases that line the room, and along the [...]

I’ve been meaning to get some for a while, but haven’t been sure what I wanted or how to choose.  But I came across this company last week, and loved the fact that in a box of 100 cards, you can have up to 100 different images!  Perfect for me, as I wanted to show [...]

It’s Grandad’s 80th birthday tomorrow, so today we had a family get together.  We don’t often get this many of us together in one place, so took the chance to have a big family photo – here we are, almost all of the Crouchleys plus hangers on

Mandy dropped by Patchings today to meet up with all of us, and we had a meal together.  She’s looking pretty well, although she tires easily at the moment, but it was lovely to see her.  We all brought something (I made fairy cakes), and it worked out to a great meal and a nice [...]