Fabulous time felting in Portugal!

I'm having a fabulous time facilitating my second felting residential holiday in Portugal, it's been wonderful meeting up with returning participants and welcoming new faces to join in the fun! We're a very international bunch, three Americans, one Swedish participant via Cuba, two English participants via Spain, one English participant via the UK, one Portuguese participant and one participant all the way from Hong Kong!!! Karin, owner of our beautiful venue Domino Vale do Mondego also joined us to felt today as did local girls Vanessa and Carla.

I've managed to felt a couple of pieces myself too and at the moment they're bundled with eucalyptus and oak, bubbling away on the cooker ready to be removed in a couple of hours time. For now though I've got my feet up and am just waiting for the call to dinner, the food and drink is divine as always, pics of the felt completed to date tomorrow, I promise!!!

 

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Pictures from The Tin Thimble and I’m on my way to Portugal!

I've been promising for the last week that I'll blog about my three amazing days teaching at The Tin Thimble, this year my workshops were part of their wonderful Felt Fest, an event not to be missed next year if you live anywhere within shouting distance! It was a totally inspiring experience to be part of this annual festival, each day up to 7 tutors strut their stuff, the participants were such fun and I loved meeting up with all my usual friends as well as meeting new fibre addicts that previously I've only known online.

Unfortunately I really don't have time to write about each day individually (I'm at the airport waiting for my flight to Portugal!) but I am going to share some pictures and let you see for yourselves how much fun we had and some of the beautiful felt created during my classes. I'll also upload other pics to my facebook page, hopefully before we board the plane but if not sometime over the next few days. Thanks to all my students, you were WONDERFUL as always, thanks Sharon, Emma, Mark, Lisa and Robert for making me feel as if I'd arrived home one more!

PS I'm not sure how good the Internet reception will be for our felting extravaganza at Dominio Vale do Mondego, I'll blog and upload pics to Facebook whenever I can but please bear with me if I can't do so every day, last year the connection was sketchy to say the least.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Naturally dyed linen dress and opening invitation!

The light wasn't the best when I tried to photograph this naturally dyed linen dress yesterday, it's one of my pieces for sale as part of the Creative Carlow pop up shop during the Eigse art festival.

Our opening is tonight between 6 and 8pm in the shop on Dublin Street (beside the entrance to the Royal Car Park), do please call in for a glass of vino and some nibbles if you are in the area!

 

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Home again, home again, jigiddy jig……..

I'm finally home again after a long delay ridden trip. Thanks to all my lovely friends who left me comments and private messages on Facebook, please excuse me if I haven't replied or liked each one individually but it's full steam ahead here today and I'm teaching (14 or 15 ladies!) from tomorrow morning onwards! At this stage I’ve unpacked about half my stuff and washed all the new linen and cotton jackets, shirts and skirts etc. that I picked up during those fun, high octane, silk seeking thrift store excursions with Dawn, Sue, Shirley, Jan, Kevin and Sharon!!!

I couldn't believe how many new garments (complete with tags) in natural fibres that I found on these trips, some to naturally dye and others to actually wear myself. They included a gorgeous silk top, a long sleeveless linen dress, several linen jackets and some amazing silk formal dresses. Anyway, enough of the writing for now, in brief……….

• I had a MARVELLOUS time in MI, KY and CA and promise to finish blogging about the workshops and upload pictures sometime over this coming weekend!
• the weather here is beautiful at Clasheen today
• my washing is drying on the line
• I've some silk scarves and tops ready for the dye pot
• I need to finish off some of the new pieces I printed/dyed last week in order to submit them for a pop up shop/exhibition tomorrow
• I'm cooking lamb chops, new potatoes and making a salad for supper tonight, Leiko is coming
• Later I'm checking that the truck will start then delivering some stuff to a friend
• Finally tonight I'll pack the truck for my workshop in the morning

 

 

 

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Jan’s beautiful felt wall hanging and Sus’s amazing finished bag!

Isn't Jan's finished nuno felt wall hanging beautiful and Sue's bag stunning?

What a marvellous job both of them did, congratulations girls!!!

 

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The Tin Thimble prepares for Felt Fest!

It's been wonderful here in Loomis since I arrived late on Tuesday evening, unfortunately I left my lead for charging all my devices at the studio so I've only a little battery power left to use now. Today The Tin Thimble is in full organisational mode for the Felt Fest, the shop has already been totally stocked up with yummy fibre and embellishments so now all that's left to finish is setting up the tables and allocating all the work areas. You can check out all the workshops available here, just in case you suddenly find an opening in your diary for the weekend!

 

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More pics from Lexington!

I'm all out of sync now with posting workshop updates but here're some pictures of the fabulous felt completed during the workshop last Friday and Saturday in Lexington. The final picture today is super host Jan Durham's amazing nuno wall hanging which she started on Saturday then finished at home last night, beautiful work on Friday and Saturday everyone, I really enjoyed my time with you!!!

 

Right now I'm at the airport in Dallas Fort Worth waiting for my connection to Sacramento so no more writing until tomorrow or Tuesday, watch out The Tin Thimble, I'm almost there! For now, here are those pictures…….

 

 

 

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