I’ve been half way round the world and back home again and haven’t posted here for a while …I did think of all the things I wanted to share but, true confessions, I never quite got round to it. So here’s a quick round-up of where I’ve been and a little bit of what I’ve been doing since my last post.

First up was Festival of Quilts in Birmingham, UK. This year we went all out on the Mettler stand! I made a banner to go all around the very top of the stand which is  28.5 meters or 93.5 feet for those of you who have feet! These are the pieces all laid out on the carper at Edwina’s, we were planning the colour sequence, or trying to!

We had one hour workshops going on the stand all day and everyone who participated got a goodie bag of threads and other treats, not to mention an hour with one of us. If you look carefully you can see the Lutrador banners Edwina made at the corners and a few extra “Mettler” banner pieces.

Edwina and I had a gallery of our work around the outside of the stand and we showed our pieces from our “unravelled” show. The show is based on our shared experiences and using those experiences as a source if inspiration. It’s so interesting to see how differently we interpret things. Below is “misty matera” my piece inspired by time we enjoyed in Italy and the corner of Edwina’s- not a good photo I know!

Festival is an amazing event, if you haven’t been it’s worth the trip. There is so much to see….

…some very large quilts…

…and some very small!

…and everything in-between. This year that included TV camera’s! yikes. We were both filmed/interviewed over the 4 days of the event. I can’t say I ever got used to it …as you can see it’s a rather intimidating thing. Here’s Edwina holding her own behind a wall of camera’s, recording devices and the men that operate them. I hope I managed as well as she did.

When all that was over we took a day off and went to the Worcester Flower Show, it was a lovely afternoon! I really enjoyed seeing the plates of “matching” vegetables. I’m quite sure that not how they are judged but it was so interesting to see how the growers had arranged and presented their harvest and which ones had taken the medals.

We did manage a little personal creative time and headed out to almost Wales to spend 4 days with Bobby Britnell at Moor Hall. Moor Hall is a 400 year old farmhouse and is an amazing place to spend some time. The area is stunningly beautiful, this is the view from the bathroom window where I was staying just down the road ( Ok, it wasn’t much of a road by North American standards, more of a lane)

And below is my ideas board at the end of day 2, it changed a lot over the course of the 4 days but this is the only image I have. There is a lot of new work in my sketchbook (and buzzing round in my brain) just waiting to come out.

I arrived home just ahead of an amazing storm that caused power outages all over and blew down trees everywhere including our favourite walking trail. The dogs loved the weather, there were all sorts of new smells and a few “changes” on the path that required a little clambering.

I’ve even managed to get a little stitching done! this is the very beginnings of one of my pieces for an upcoming show in April 2016! It’s a really early start for me but there’s going to be lots of hand work and it’s a largish piece…I must be turning over a new leaf, possibly blown in from the storm.

Bye for now, Catherine