You win some, you lose some

I had a really good day today – till I got home!

I spent the day, with my friend A, at the long-anticipated Alice Kettle workshop on line. Alice is our local celebrity embroiderer, responsible for this – and, it turns out, a good teacher and generous sharer of time, expertise and materials.

We started the day with drawing [and coffee and biscuits …] I can’t draw – but Alice was very encouraging – and anyway, she told us, we were going to cut up the drawings later. We drew circles, our own faces as we touched them, and little pictures from the room around us. Then, as advertised, we cut them or tore them up and made collages with them, and some other ingredients.

This was mine – and it was the worst of the lot. Everyone else had been much freer – and that was a learning experience. Big and bold – and b***r whether it is 'realistic'.

Then we spent a little while looking at the ‘Object as Muse’ exhibition – my third visit. Did I mention this was taking place in the Discovery Centre – home of the embroidery mentioned above? So after looking at the exhibition we looked at the embroidery – even though I have heard Alice talk about it before, it was still worth hearing her talk about it again.

Then we began to stitch – hand stitching, which may be a surprise if, like me, you think of Alice as a machine embroiderer. She had brought along some of her samples of hand embroidery which were very inspirational – fascinating use of colour and scale. She recommended sitting in front of the TV with fabric and threads and just playing with simple stitches. So we did – inspired [or not, embroiderer’s choice] by our collages, and advised by Alice.

We didn’t have a TV so after lunch [sandwiches, coffee and cake, included in the cost], Alice talked us through some slides of her recent work. After tea and biccies we looked at the work some class members had brought along, and ended with a show and tell. We got a going home present of the book of the Discovery Centre embroidery.

This is my piece – which suffered from me trying to sew on the buttons while standing up looking at other people’s work. I think it will need a bit more work – but it is ‘only a sample’ Of course I always preferred making samples to making finished pieces in C&G…

And the bad bit? I got home to find we had had a letter informing us that someone had tried to use our credit card fraudulently. Again. It is the third time this year. The card companies have always picked it up and been very good about sorting it out but it means being without a card for a while - and it leaves an unpleasant feeling - not, perhaps, as bad as being burgled, but still an invasion of our lives. I find it difficult to explain how it makes me feel but I am sure if you have experienced it you will know what I mean.