E17 Designers Spring Market

I'm just waiting for the sun to shine then I get take some pictures of the new work we've been creating. But in the meantime here are some of the other great pieces to be found at the E17 Designers market to feast your eyes on.......

Easter Brownie Points....

It's a very miserable Monday today so to cheer you up a bit here's the latest offering from Hardy & Scott: their mouth watering Easter chocolate brownie.

I feel a chocolate overload coming on....

Goodies......

Just a quick snap of the goodies I won from Maggie Gray's blog. I can't believe how much I received. I've got a great array of materials and fabrics to keep me busy for a while, my only problem now is deciding what to make!

Oh and I even got one of Maggie's textile postcard creations, see on top of the pile:

It's official, a date has been set....

for the E17 designers spring market.

Friday 14th May at the Asian Centre in Walthamstow Village, starting at 7pm.

So keep it free and make sure to pop along for a free tipple and some great spring gifts.

Faith Tavender has been working on a new collection which she'll be bringing along, see below, and seeing as its someone's 30th this year I might just be making some strong hints.

Kirsten

Good things come in threes.....

On Saturday morning I got very excited after finding found out that I had won a giveaway from Maggie Gray's blog. Then at the Romford Embroiderers Guild, on Saturday afternoon, I had another stroke of luck by winning the raffle! They had a great speaker, Libby Smith, talking about the work she had been creating over the last year which was very interesting and inspiring.

After the Guild I met my daughters in Romford and from talking about my two lucky wins it was decided that I should buy a lottery ticket, something I never usually do! So I tuned into the lottery and with baited breath waited for the numbers to come up, at this point I had practically convinced myself that I was going to win, however all I got was one number!!

So this morning I was sitting, wondering what the lucky third thing would be and I realized I already had it. On mothers day my children came over to cook lunch for me. When I walked in the door I was hit with the smell of good food wafting through the air, a mountain of cook books filling every available surface and lots of laughter. Nathan was on the starter, Kirsten and her partner Paul were on mains and Chloe was in charge of desert. We had a lovely day and I also got some material for my latest patchwork obsession which they got from Tylers Patch at Barleylands.




Clare and Nathan became parents last June so it was Clare’s first mother’s day. It was such a privilege to share Clare’s first mothers day with her and granddad was pleased to look after Maisie. So Clare and me sat back and relaxed with a glass of Champagne just before being served a lovely meal.

I have the best three c hildren (and their partners) in the world.

Ethical Fashion Show and Vintage Fair....

If you're in the area pop along to the Ethical Fashion Show at the William Morris Gallery from 7pm. Sounds like a great line up of people including designers of London's leading ethical fashion labels, including Emmeline 4 RE, Feng Ho, Nancy Dee, Elena Garcia, Sew Last Season, Miksani, BEautiful Soul, Tammam as well as ethical shoe designer Bourgeois Boheme and craft & accessory designers Queenie & Ted (jackets below).



Music will be supplied by DJ Luke Franklin and organic canapes by Skye Cooks. All guests are entitled to a free goody bag, kindly donated by Juxtepo so make sure to get for 7pm to bag yourself one.

Also happening this Saturday is the Vintage 'n' Retro Tea Party, featuring some more of the E17 Designers. All profits go to the Helen Rollasson Cancer Charity so more reasons to treat yourself to something.

Amazing exhibition 'Stranded' by Lalla Ward

A few weeks ago I was lucky to have caught the exhibition of work by one very talented lady, Lalla Ward at the National Theatre on one of the last days to be showing. Lalla Ward is an actress and was in Doctor Who as an assistant to Tom Baker, which is a double bonus as I absolutely love Doctor Who. The work was very inspiring with unusual subject matter ranging from a pygmy deer to a land iguana. “I learnt that you could draw with the needle of a sewing machine – paint with thread". The pieces ranged from £200 for a small canvas to £2,500 for larger pieces. As a textile artist it was great to see lots of red dots on her work showing that people were paying art prices for textile pieces. I often think textiles is the poor relation in the art world and it is often hard to sell work for the price it took to make a piece.

However I was just reminded of her work in an interview within Quilting Arts, of all places, and it has more pictures of her amazing work.

There was also a behind the scenes theatre design exhibition at the National Theatre. It showed you how they designed stages, costumes, props etc which was fascinating. The best thing of all, they were all free, which is great about London. I have never been to see any exhibitions before at the National Theatre but I will definitely be keeping my eye out to see what’s on in the future.

It was a great day out and to round it off my husband and I walked down to Covent Garden and had a look around the shops. We were going to go to Joe Allen's for a meal but instead we kept walking down to China Town instead and was so pleased as all the decorations were up to celebrate the Chinese new year. However my feet weren't as pleased and were back in front of the fire by the evening.

Sharon