Summer School information

Next years's Distant Stitch Summer School will be held at Urchfont Manor, Wiltshire from July 6th - 9th 2008. Cas Holmes will be our guest tutor and has devised a fascinating workshop using hand stitch into papers and found materials called 'Beyond the Surface'. I'm sure many of you will be familiar with her work from your artists studies. See images below of some of Cas's work in her exhibtion - 'Traces' and on the website http://www.casholmes.textilearts.net .

'Traces' continues with the addition of new works at the following venues: Transitions, Bilston Craft Gallery, Wolverhampton tel 01902 552507 (contact Emma Daker) from 5th April - 14th June 2008 (a touring exhibition with Jo Newman, Deborah Roberts, Loretta Braganza and Mizuko Yamada. Riverhouse Barn Gallery, Manor Road, Walton on Thames, Surrey, tel 01932 254198 from 15 April to 10 May 2009.

Summer School booking opens on 1st November for current Distant Stitch students. Please contact Mandy Dixon at Urchfont to book your place.

Janice Myers invites you to her shared exhibition 'Transformed' with Andrew Vaccari. Janice studied City and Guilds embroidery at Urchfont with Sian. Her work has been included in many prestigious textile competitions and exhibitions and she is an energetic and inventive member of the South West Textiles Group. She develops her designs using the Pfaff computerised embroidery machine to stitch her figurative images on plastic materials.

You are invited to the preview on Saturday 1st December, between 3 and 8.

Two and a half births!

Two and a half births to announce!

Amelie Jane emerged at the end of September. You've seen the scan, now see the baby. Watch this space for my next piece of work.

Second birth: Maggie Grey announces the birth of a new online sister magazine to Workshop on the Web called Quilt Workshop on the Web, edited by Carol Dowsett (a past City and Guilds assessor at Urchfont). Visit http://www.quiltwow.com/ for a free peep at the first issue.

Keep a look out for Maggie Grey's book on digital printing onto fabric, out soon, featuring two pieces by Sian. Title and date of publication to be announced.

Good news. I'm now back on line. Apologies to everyone who has failed to make contact with me during the last few weeks. My Internet connection was down and even the BT engineer had to go away and consult his own helpline. So its good to be back adding to my blog. I'm off to the Knitting and Stitching Show at Ally pally this week so look forward to seeing you there. I'll be at the 62 Group exhibition stand if you;d like to come and say hello.

Sian