Bags of inspiration

We need another bag to go on our bag raffle at our exhibition, so I ran this one up. upholstery weight fabric, so no padding needed, although I added padded handles. Design challenge was to fit the lining while still maintaining the fringing at the top.

External pockets on both sides made by placing an additional piece of fabric over the top before stitching channels through both layers.

The flower is a selvedge strip, pleated then gathered and with loose threads stitched into the middle.

Last day of the holidays - sculptural outing

Last day of the holidays for my younger son, so we had a special outing to The Sculpture Park near Farnham. What a find this is! We spent over two hours there, wandering around the twisting sculpture trails and only saw half of what is on display. There is a huge variety of work in metal, wood, glass, cork and man-made materials. It was very atmospheric, with lots of wildlife flying about and rustling in the undergrowth and we only saw one other couple.

The amount of textural inspiration is incredible, so there will be several posts of photos from this visit.

There is no cafe on site, but across the car park there is a good hotel, The Pride of the Valley where there was a friendly welcome, good coffee and hot chocolate.

London fabric shop finds

In London today for a conference, and the venue happens to be on Edgware Road where I found two fabric shops new to me. The first, Jason's, has the most amazing range of designer silks and fine fabrics. Not in my price range for today , but wonderful to see, feel and dream about. Unfortunately, no pics on their website, and I didn't have my camera with me. but there are some on this blog.

The other, Hadson's , has wonderful wax printed fabric lengths, lovely silk chiffons and fine Swiss cottons. They also have a good selection of end of ranges quilting cottons at £5.00 / metre.

Simon Singh vindicated - BCA drops case

A day of celebration as Simon Singh has been vindicated. The British Chiropractic Association have dropped their libel case against him.. A victory for common sense, open debate and questioning of untested claims, hurray!