I am demonstrating making a tri-shutter card for Thornbury Craft Club on Thur 12th May. They very kindly invited me along. I have been a couple of times and they cover all sorts of crafts throughout the year.

I have got all the kits together, I hope there won’t be more than 30 people, otherwise I will be stuck. I have some spares in case bits get lost or damaged as they work. I just need to refine the instruction sheet, which they can take home with their finished card, to make similar cards.

Here is a sneak peak of the card I am demonstrating.

Do you think they will like it?

“CHICKS (Country Holidays for Inner City Kids) is a children’s charity that aims to provide life enhancing respite breaks to as many disadvantaged children as possible at one of our retreats in Devon or Cornwall.”


I came across CHICKS in a sewing magazine. They have a kite as part of their logo so I was instantly drawn to find out more. I loved what they were doing for children who may be living in poverty, children that are being neglected or abused, who have lost parents and those children who are full time young carers.

One of the CHICKS retreats is based in Brentor, near Tavistock, a coincidence as Brentor was somewhere my husband has fond family holiday memories himself. We have also been to visit Brentor and the old church on the top of the hill. The other is based in Tywardreath, near Par in Cornwall.

The photos on the website show them having a really special time, the website also describes some of the home lives these children cope with. I want to help CHICKS further than just making a bag, I wonder what I can do next?

You can help by donating. This is on their website: To donate £5 now text CHICKS to 70777. (Texts cost £5 + your standard network rate).

Or you can become a CHICKS Memory Maker, see the Memory Maker page. Their website is www.chicks.org.uk.

Saturday 5th March, Vintage Jumble Sale, Rangeworthy, S Glos.

This is where my DH and I went to have a browse and see if I could find any bits and pieces for sewing.

This is what I bought.

That’s two official Sewing Machine Basic classes I have done now. I think they went very well and it is great to see the ladies confidence increase and think about going off on their own to make all types of goodies. Maybe they will come back for some further lessons too. Here are a couple of pictures.

I saw this on the All About You website.

10 Reasons to Love Sewing by Olivia Gordon

1. It’s soothing
2. It feeds our magpie instinct
3. It’s creative
4. It’s practical
5. It teaches patience
6. It’s a time-honoured craft
7. Our gifts are second to none
8. There’s always more to learn
9. It’s about domesticity not drudgery
10. It requires brainpower

What a lovely evening we had at Tortworth Court Hotel last night. Seeing in the New Year with music, dancing, champagne and lots of noise.

Today, 1.1.11, my birthday, was a quiet day. Listening to new cds, opening presents, reading the paper, eating birthday fairy cakes, then a lovely array of party food with Poinsettia Cocktails to round off the day.

In between times I managed to put a scrap of a website together as I am offering a Learn to Sew class as a prize on MyThornbury website. So much more to do.

It was a lovely day, thank you to all my family and friends for all their wishes, presents and cards.

Look what I found whilst doing some serious ‘work’ on the computer today. I need this magazine, SewSomerset. Fortunately for me I have found someone who will sell it to me here in the UK, which means I don’t have to buy a plane ticket to Canada. Who are my saviours? Rainbow Silks and they have a gorgeous website full of all sorts of things I could do so much with.

My quote for August is:

“And the day came when the risk it took to remain tight inside the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.“
Anais Nin

Here is a little about Anais Nin.
Anais was born in Neuilly, just outside Paris. She spent her childhood in various parts of Europe until, when she was eleven, her father, Spanish composer Joaquin Nin, abandoned his family. In the same year, her French-Danish mother, Rosa Culmell, took Anais and her two sons to New York. On the boat that brought Anais away from Europe and from her father she began to write her journals. In 1923 she married Hugo Guiler, who had studied literature and economics and had acquired a good position in an international bank, allowing them to live comfortably.

The couple moved to Paris in 1924. There they lived in various appartments, among them a beautiful house in Louveciennes, but Anais also often had a studio for herself and lived in a houseboat on the Seine for a while. In Paris she and Hugo supported various avant-garde artists, among them Henry Miller with whom Anais started an affair and exchanged hundreds of letters. The book A literary passion includes a great number of the letters these two artists exchanged over the years and provide an interesting documentary of their struggle for recognition as writers as well as their relationship.
Anais moved back to New York just before the outbreak of World War II. After a turbulent time in New York she divided her life between New York and Los Angeles, between Hugo and Rupert, a much younger lover and friend. From being a cult figure of the early feminist movement, Anais later rose to international prominence with her writing. She is best known for her diaries but also produced a number of novels and a prose poem in surrealistic style as well as wonderful erotic short stories, published posthumously. Characterized by the use of powerful and, at times, disquieting imagery, her work reveals great sensitivity and perception. 

In 1973 she received an honorary doctorate from Philadelphia College of Art. She was elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1974.

What a grey and damp summers day. I haven’t been outside the front door today!

What I have been doing though is sewing. I got out some fabrics I bought at PaperArts several weeks ago, they are Basic Grey patterned fabrics by Moda and are delightful. I used the basic pattern idea from a book called Sew Darn Cute by Jenny Ryan.