Sew New Lampshade covers
‘Sew New’ is a series of one day creative days. Running from 10am until 4pm it is a full day spent in the Barn in the company of likeminded individuals and friends, working on a project from start to finish. Sometimes it can be frustrating to have to put something to one side because of […]
A day of felt making
Bronte & Anne came up to the Barn at the beginning of September to spend the day learning how to make felt using the wetfelting method. Felt making is something I didn’t think I would be interested in as I had an impression in my head that it involved large amounts of water and lots […]
A short story – A tall tale
I hugely enjoy writing. Fiction and poetry. I don’t’ seem to find time to write often and I only seem to do it if there is a deadline. If someone has given me a title or subject and there is a date it needs to be in by. About six years ago I started a […]
Seasonal poetry
And so to the poem. Our prompt for this was ‘Seasons’ and the only guidene was that it was to be no longer than 16 lines. Seasons ………. of the skies by Kate MacDonald A diamond sprinkled black shawl drapes over shoulders of mountains.Mercurial March blows cloudless, moonless, nights.Shedding ice shards, white & […]
Scottish Womens Institute & hitting a bit of a hitch…
Earlier in the year whilst working on designing and teaching courses with one side of my brain I did some small painted pictures for the Scottish Women’s Institute Federation show in April. This was the entry for ‘Flowers’, it achieved a silver star which I was delighted with. It is painted with acrylics on cotton. […]
Fancy Hats
Last Monday three ladies came up to the Barn for a hat workshop. Jan and Bronte cutting out their paper patterns Pinning the pattern to the fabric Working together – Alka cutting out three petrol blue brims in one go Alka and Bronte checking their stitching together of bands to brims Lunch leftovers! Jan […]
Junior Needlesmiths
Wedensday saw the first of three holiday workshops for youngsters. The children designed a stuffed animal, drew then cut out patterns, cut out the fabric pinned and then sewed them up finishing off by stuffing them with stuffing from old pillows. Here are a few pictures:
Needlesmiths News
I have been most neglectful of blog writing, other things get right in the way! I put together a wee email of News and I thought I would share it on here too, perhaps it will kick start the habit of writing regularly. Sometime ago I had planned (even written …. in my head) a […]
Passementerie
Passementerie (/pæsˈmɛntri/, French pronunciation: [pɑsmɑ̃tri]) or passementarie is the art of making elaboratetrimmings or edgings (in French, passements) of applied braid, gold or silver cord, embroidery, colored silk, or beadsfor clothing or furnishings.[1]Styles of passementerie include the tassel, fringes (applied, as opposed to integral), ornamental cords, galloons,pompons, rosettes, and gimps as other forms. Tassels, pompons, and rosettes are point ornaments, and the others are linear ornaments.from Wikipedia Galloons, pompons, gimp. I love the words used in the textile industry, many out of use today. […]
From Barn to Gallery & now to Workshop
In Argyll, up a hill, there’s a farm, with a barn, that’s sometimes a gallery & is now also a sewing workshop space. The whole tale, with photos, of how the cow barn became an Art Gallery can be found here: The Barn’s Story My parents live on, apparently, ‘the second highest hill farm in Argyll’. […]
