Sashiko at the concert hall cafe

This is the start of the third session of the sashiko sampler course in Perth.  When I arrived at The Peacock and the Tortoise yesterday morning, the electrics had tripped out, so while Trudy got the electrician in to fix them and check all was OK, we nipped round the corner to the concert hall foyer cafe and did an hour there!  Sashiko is so portable. We had an early lunch, as the lights were on again by noon.  It turned out that the lamp had failed in one of the spotlights in the window.

If we hadn't been there, I'd have forgotten that last night's concert was the St Petersburg Symphony Orchestra performing Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet overture and Symphony No 6 ('Pathetique'), plus Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No.4, so I got tickets. It was brilliant!

Sashiko courses - now all running...

All my current sashiko courses - Stockton-on-Tees (in the photos), Edinburgh and Perth - are now running.  Stockton and Perth have had their second session and Edinburgh's second day is on Saturday.  There are still a couple of places available at both Edinburgh and Perth, and at this point you could catch up.

I've been meeting up with the sashiko continuation group set up by members of the first Edinburgh course too. These are Sam and Pamela's samplers from the first course.

This is all keeping me pretty busy!

Glyn has had to do a lot of work in the window alcove (see my earlier post for more photos).  Gaps have been filled, extra bricks added and the outer wall repointed.  This is how it looked a few days ago...

.... and how it looked after demolishing the cupboard!  I'm looking forward to my 1871 Singer treadle sewing machine having a proper home at last.

Giveaway time! - East Meets West Quilts book and goodies

I haven't got a new book out but Patricia Belyea of Okan Arts has - and I've been looking forward to this for a long time.  Improv quilts using Japanese fabrics!  And she's doing a giveaway on my blog  (for UK residents only - there's a USA giveaway on her own blog), with the book, the fab Aurifil thread set and a yard of gorgeous vintage yukata fabric.  It is an ideal book if you have bought some of my lovely Japanese yukata cottons but don't know what to do with them.  UPDATE - Aurifil are running a world wide version of the giveaway via their blog - click here.

So, how can you enter to win these lovely goodies?  Easy!

Just comment on this blog or give this blog post a 'like' on my Facebook artist page, and there's a simple question for you to answer - 'What do you love about Japanese fabrics?'  The winner will be drawn at random on October 31st.  Your book, threads and fabric will be sent direct from the publisher, Abrams, so please allow a little time for it to arrive.  I will publish another blog post with the name of the winner on October 31st, so please check back to this blog in case you have won, as I'll need your postal address.  The winner will be notified via this blog within 24 hours but you must respond within one week of notification or her/his giveaway will be forfeited.  Please don't comment anonymously on this blog post, or I may not be able to contact you!

A BIG thank you to Abrams, Aurifil and Okan Arts for this giveaway too.

To buy East Meets West Quilts on Amazon UK, click here.

Keep an eye out on www.susanbriscoe.com this week too - I'm hoping to begin listing my Japanese fabrics for sale online!  Fingers crossed it all goes smoothly!

Now for some eye candy - these are a few photos I took to give you a flavour of the book.  I love the contemporary but slightly retro look in the styled photos, and the quilts are gorgeous - perfect, of course, for showing off yummy yukata cottons.

DIY & house archaeology

Glyn demolished the '1980s' cupboard filling in the hall window, to make space for my Singer 13K treadle sewing machine to go there.  Except some of the woodwork turned out to be a lot older.

The paneling at the sides and back under the shelf was installed at the same time as the cottage walls were plastered, it is flush with the lath and plaster above and there's nothing behind it except really rough stonework.

What is now a window was once a door, and the infill is quite rough brickwork.

There are huge foundation stones at either side.  This looks more like an old barn doorway than a cottage doorway.

Lots of gaps around the floorboards and the wall that needed filling up quickly so we didn't have a mouse invasion (Glyn found a bit of an old mouse nest in the wall).

We decided to leave the side panels in place and fill the voids behind with expanding foam.

Glyn has repointed the brickwork and filled a lot of gaps with mortar.  We will add some insulation and redo the paneling to the full height of the window, recycling the pine paneling we got from a local house demolition a few years ago.

The cottages have changed a lot since the mid C19th OS map (left), with the north eastern end of the row disappearing and the back kitchen extensions added by c1890.  Now I'm wondering if the current living room, on the end of the house, may be an earlier extension than we previously thought i.e. not 1970s.  The cast window sill matches the ones on the dining room, downstairs bedroom and kitchen, which would be odd if they were all built a long time apart.

World Textile Day photos

Bob sent me some photos he took at World Textile Day at Saltford, Bristol, last Saturday. We had a great day, met some lovely people and had a lot of fun (as we always do at these days).

 My stand looked nice and colourful with so many chusen yukata fabrics there.

Andrew from The Nomad's Tent made use of the cupboard doors in the foyer to create a magical entrance to the show, with carpets everywhere.  We couldn't have fitted one in the car on the way back, even after selling a lot of fabric, as the packing boxes still take up space, but I'd like to visit his shop in Edinburgh for something special.

We'll be back next year - all the dates for the 2018 World Textile Days are already on the website.  I'll be at every one apart from the South East of England event, and I'm giving the talk at Llanidloes - all about how sashiko is passed down from hand to hand.

• 17 March 2018 - Wales - Llanidloes
• 14 April 2018 - South East of England - East Horsley, Surrey NEW VENUE
• 2 June 2018 - Central England - King's Sutton, Oxfordshire
• 16 June 2018 - Scotland - Bridge of Allan
• 8 September 2018 - East of England - Mundford, Norfolk
• 29 September 2018 - North of England - Frodsham, Cheshire
• 6 October 2018 - West of England - Saltford, Bristol