Summer Fun Bloghop With SewDanish and Unique Women In Business



Denmark, June 2011

We are now well into July. Amazing how quicky the time flies when one has fun :-)
After lots of travelling (Italy, Turkey, Greece followed by a trip to Denmark) in Juni and July having a wonderful time, I'm now back home in Britain for at least a little while.


Effesus, Turkey, June 2011 

Shortly after returning back home, we went on a hiking trip to Wales with friends. Had the most superb time, and for Wales, we had the most amazing weather. Did about 25 miles up an down the mountains over just about 3 days, so not too shabby.


Wales,  July 2011

Ever since the weather hasn't been all that fantastic. Actually it's been rather cool with a lot of rain. All the rain we didn't get in the spring with the beautiful weather we had for weeks on end has now caught up with us. At least the garden is happy :-)



Back home in GB :-)

 But to be honest I don't mind the iffy weather that much as it gives me more time to stay indoors, catching up on heaps of stuff that has been postponed with me not being home and not feeling guilty about it.


Freshly dyed threads and fabric

What a great feeling to being almost on top of things. Have done a lot of fabric and thread dyeing this past week. I now have this wonderful pile of color piled up on my worktable. Some of the dyed threads will be listed shortly in my little shop SewDanish others will be used in some of the many project that I'm itching to get on with and finish. 
Hope you are all having a lovely summer where every you are and enjoying what ever you are doing. Take care and stay safe.

Tantalizing, Translucent and Manipulated with Pauline Verrinder

I just spend 5 fabulous days doing nothing but sewing and sewing and sewing. It was fantastic! In January I had signed up for a summer school with the yummy heading: 'Tantalizing, Translucent and Manipulated'. And was I in for a treat! The summer school took place at Cottenham Village College, North of Cambridge (GB) Our tutor was Pauline Verrinder a wonderful textile artist, international tutor and author. Did she keep us busy? OH YES!
Over the 5 days we looked at several ways of creating transparent and semi transparent backgrounds for stitch. Amongst others, we worked with cocoon strippings, different types of water soluble fabrics, laminate pouches, silk chiffon, sheers, cotton organdy and much more.


Some of the techniques I had touched base with before, but as always it was great to be reminded. I never ever mind revisiting seemingly familiar techniques. There is always so much to explore with in a technique. 'Been there done that' is not a phrase that for me applies to contemporary, free style machine embroidery. The potential for developing and pushing the boundaries even further, is always there. It is such a freedom to play, and that is probably one of the reasons, why I like this type of embroidery so much.
The amount of work that was produced during these 5 days was totally impressive. So inspirational to see the different and very individual results.

Traditional Craft

I've signed up for a weeks summer school today and I'm so excited, because I know what to expect. Quite physical work, lots of noise, dirty, possible a sore thumb... I've signed up for an upholstery class :-) I did an upholstery class last year, and loved it, but had to stop going, when I was invited to join the free machine embroidery textile group, Advanced Textile Workshop, ATW, that meets on the same weekday. For some years I have been doing basic furniture restoration and painting. I love going to flea markets, car boot sales and auctions. Especially at auctions one can often come across a wonderful furniture frame in need of upholstery. At our local flea markets one can pick up lovely antiques that needs a bit of TLC at good prices. Since upholstery is a craft and a skill that I hadn't touched base with, I decided to sign up for a course when we moved back to England. And it was great. I love learning a new skill. It is a fantastic process to strip a piece back removing the old upholstery, do the repair work if needed, treat/paint the the wood and see it come to life again. Then build the chair up layer by layer, horse hair and all. Tremendously satisfying. There is so much to learn and I have only touched the surface, so I decided to do the summer school i July. I cannot wait!