Claire's blog

Visit to the Festival of Quilts

Claire — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 19:35:17 +0000

Last Saturday I went with Mum for a day out at the Festival of Quilts at the NEC. I’m not a quilter, but you can always get me along to a textile or craft exhibition and after seeing the fabrics, threads and books for sale together with the amazing exhibition and competition quilts I really [...]

Profile in Bead Magazine

Claire — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 20:48:54 +0000

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 [...]

Bishops Castle, Chester and batiks

Claire — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 20:31:03 +0000

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 [...]

A day with Eekbatik

Claire — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 19:03:55 +0000

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 [...]

Oodles of doodles

Claire — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 20:50:49 +0000

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 [...]

Day three at Patchings – with added sunshine!

Claire — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 20:46:37 +0000

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 [...]

Day 2 at the Patchings Festival

Claire — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 22:45:07 +0000

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 [...]

New Moo cards and the Patchings Festival

Claire — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 21:23:52 +0000

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 [...]

Typing left-handed…

Claire — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 21:29:58 +0000

…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 [...]

The Beadworkers Guild Challenge

Claire — Sun, 16 May 2010 18:45:24 +0000

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 [...]