Thursday 29 March 2012

Catching Up Again

The last few weeks have been a mixed bag of busyness and a grotty cold.  We won't dwell on the cold which knocked me for six as I'm much better now, but I will share with you some of the busyness.

Last weekend I recovered enough to go on a coach trip to the Fashion Embroidery and Stitch Show at the NEC.  When I first arrived in the Halls I was delighted to see the guitarist that we had met at the Malvern Show.  David Jaggs played his delightful guitar music of all styles throughout the day and it felt very restful to enjoy a break from the hurly burly having a cup of tea and listening to his guitar drifting in the air.


If you go to David's site you can download sample tracks of his music which is very varied from classical through Spanish to versions of pop classics.  I treated myself to his Recitals CD.

I have to admit that Ididn't take many photos at the show but I will share what I did take.


 On the Madeira stand Michala who blogs as KaylaCoo was demonstrating her beautiful combination of felting and machine embroidery.  When I arrived at the stand she was wrestling a large blanket through the machine in order to add elaborate stitching.  It was interesting to see the amount of effort that was required to achieve a tension under the needle.  Michala's work has a wonderful painterly quality, inherited no doubt from the amount of preparation she undertakes with her paintings and drawings.  It was lovely to meet up with a fellow blogger.

An exhibit that caught my eye was the work of Susan Chapman.



I was particularly attracted to the flowing, drifting nature of her work.  You can read more about her work in the Gallery section of her website and she has some close up views of the work on the stand above on her Flickr pages shown in her sidebar.

Sadly Blogger is now refusing to post any more photos so I will cut short this post and try and continue tomorrow.  I still have to show you work by Christine Hudson, postcards by the West Country Embroiderers and some of the dresses from the series Downton Abbey (I need to write this here or I will forget what else I was going to say).  See you soon.


9 comments:

ju-north said...

Looks like you had a great time. Seeing bloggers at work gives a new dimension! (Are you doing the 'Beyond Layers' course?)

Heather said...

Lovely post and I'm glad you're recovering from the cold.
How great to meet Michala - I love her work. Looking forward to seeing more pics of your visit to the show.

Anonymous said...

I was at the show too and there was some lovely work to see, I particularly liked Michala's work and the West Country Embroiderers postcards too :)

Peneller said...

I'm glad you got to the show and enjoyed it. I was there on Friday and although I thought I'd seen everyone, I missed Kayla Coo!
I thought the exhibiting artists were really great and they all seemed ready to talk about their work. Not a lot of money spent but a great day.

pam said...

Sounds like you had a great time at the show - look forward to seeing the Downtown Abbey costumes - glad you are on the mend.

Clare Wassermann said...

I was there too. I'm glad you enjoyed it as much as I did! glad you are better xx

Mrs Mac said...

Glad you had a good time and that you've beaten this terrible lurgy- mine keeps coming back!!!

I'd love to go to one of those shows with you; I wished I lived nearer!

Maggi said...

Glad you enjoyed the show. I was on the stand right next to the music and had definitely had enough after the first half hour!

Michala Gyetvai (Kayla coo) said...

Hi Julie,
It was lovely to meet you too!
xx