Present

" Every day is a gift, she told herself, that was why it was called present"

This lovely quote comes from Kate Atkinson's "One Good Turn". She was an unknown author to me when I read about her on someone's blog (no idea whose anymore). So, when in London, I bought a few of her books. I've only read this one so far and can certainly recommend it. Her style is very unusual, it seems light but there are a lot of subtle references to other novels and quite a lot of emotional insight. All in all a satisfactory read.

Thank you so much to everyone who has taken the time and trouble to particpate in our Colours of Africa project. The deadline has passed, but if you still have a piece you want to send in, that's ok. We will be starting work on making the objects for the auction in January. We already have a few very good ideas!!! Please have a look at the virtual exhibition on our blog : www.colours-of-africa.blogspot.com .

I have been spending time in the studio printing fabric and, believe it or not, I have made 2 quilts! Will show them when they're done. The colours in these photographs are not good, but reading other blogs, I think that is a general problem at this time of year.
I started on Dijanne Cevaal's linocutting course a few months ago and haven't gotten further than the first lesson. Dijanne visited us on Saturday (Sandy and Joe were here from England too) and I had nothing to show her except for the first 6 blocks which I had cut. I printed some of them on this hand-painted fabric. Did the background fabric in blues and purples (NOT my colours) and promptly hid it with the linoprint in opaque colours. Then I decided to be less drastic and printed in darker purples.

Another linocut which I once used for invitations to a party. I have cut a few similar figures and busy working with them. More on that later.

Almost 1 December....

A few more days to go for the Colours of Africa deadline! I know of quite a number of people who have made us textile works, but have somehow not managed to pop it in the post yet. Please girls, we need your contributions! Our website has also been up-dated so have a look at : www.coloursofafrica.be and to see the virtual exhibition, go to :
www.colours-of-africa.blogspot.com
The addresses to send it to are :
Colours of Africa
Leemstraat 45
2910 Essen
Belgium
or
Colours of Africa
Boutenslaan 7
4707 NC Roosendaal
Netherlands

Here you can see a lovely contribution made by Wil Fritsma;
and Sue Gallacher.

Thanks a million to everyone who has so far taken part. Our event is going to be very exciting. The workshops which will be given by Dijanne Cevaal from Australia and by Yda Walt from South Africa are almost fully booked. If you are interested, go to the website for more information, you might just be lucky enough to get the last available place! You can also find more information about the workshops on my website : www.trapsuutjies.com on the "workshop"-page.

I won these lovely fabrics in a give-away on Sharon Young's blog quite a while ago and have just not gotten round to showing you. Thanks Sharon!

Now then, I have been a real domestic goddess these past few weeks. I started my cleaning and clearing operation in the garage, which functions as my storeroom for all my products, and ended in the attic. Then I completely overhauled and reorganised my studio which means that I now have room to swing a cat! So what happens - I find it very daunting to start working and creating again. All the self-doubt has had festering time and I am convinced that I have nothing to offer. Last weekend I followed a very inspirational workshop which has nothing to do with textiles, so I decided using that as a starting point might get me somewhere. Where, I have no idea. I'll just plod along and see what happens....

Het is bijna zover - 1 december! Alstublieft dames, stuur jullie textielwerk voor Colours of Africa op. Wij weten van een hele aantal mensen die wat hebben gemaakt maar het nog niet op de post hebben gedaan. Aan iedereen die reeds wat hebben opgestuurd : ontzettend bedankt! Het wordt een geweldig evenement. Voor meer informatie en up-dates, volg aub. de links hierboven.

Colours of Africa

Before I tell you how the Colours of Africa event is developing, I want to show you two examples of work done in a workshop I taught last Saturday. I had a group of 5 lovely ladies and we did the reverse stamping technique and printing with lino-block stamps which they had cut. They really enjoyed themselves even though my studio is in a serious state of flux...hopefully the boys can help me to get it painted and sorted next week when they'll be home on a short break.

The one above was done by Christel de Vrij and below by Nelly Overdulve.

So there I was with loads of demo-fabric from the past few months (don't tell Annette and Hella, but I did throw some away!) and decided to make 2 more A4-works for our auction. What a struggle to get the sewing machine going. I promise you I had forgotten how to do my free-motion thing. Anyhow, here are the results...

I have been running around all week organising stuff for the Colours of Africa-event which takes place in April 2010. The latest development being that we have now got a full-blown textile route with exhibitions in 4 venues. The project with school children in Essen (Belgium) and in Tulbagh(South Africa) is also up and running at last. A group of teachers from here are going there today armed with fabric and Trapsuutjies paint and will hopefully come back with great kids' art which we are going to sew into bags which will of course be for sale. All this effort will, I hope, result in a decent amount of money for the Chris Hani-creche. Read all about it on our website, linked above.

We are also very excited about the A4-entries which are now coming in at a faster pace. Please have a look at the virtual exhibition on our blog. The deadline is 1 December 2009 and I know of many people who have made their art but not yet sent it and of others who have promised and are (hopefully) working on it. We are depending on your support!

The workshops which are being taught the week before by Yda Walt and Dijanne Cevaal were almost full, but yesterday I managed to get a new venue - a whole school building - which means that we can accomodate a few more students. So there are still a few places available. For more details, look at the "Workshop"-page on my website.

Guardian Angel

The last trade show of the season done and dusted! It's been busy but mostly good (won't talk about the disaster again, I've closed the door on that experience). The Belgian Quilters' Association show in Edingen or Enghien, as it's called in French, was very pleasant. It's quite small and mostly traditional but still I had some very good customers and saw loads of familiar faces and it was such a lovely place to be. What a magnificent park, especially at this time of year. The traders were situated in the stable in the castle grounds - very grand stable! My stand had a bit of a different look but I loved the way I could display my painted fabrics.
Here's the castle where part of the exhibition was held.

And here's the stable where we were.

But why did I name this blog "Guardian Angel"? Let me tell you, I sighed such a huge sigh of relief when I stepped out of my car last night. The driving was an absolute nightmare and I don't scare easily. It's not that far, just over 130 km's, but most of those are kilometres from hell! The way people drive on the ringroad around Brussels cannot be described. You have to have eyes all over the place. I spent between 4 and 5 hours on the road every day and those were hours of supreme tension. Next year, I'm staying over in a B&B, that's for sure.

My guardian angel was with me all the way and last night she had help from Fred. He unexpectedly had to work yesterday so he only joined me later in the day, which meant that we were there in 2 cars. Even on a Sunday the traffic was horrendous and after packing up the stand it was almost dark when we left. We took different roads to the highway and as I was carting along I saw him ahead of me. I slipped in front and he travelled behind me all the way home even though he usually drives faster than me. It was very reassuring to know that at least my back was covered. I was thinking to myself how very lucky I am to have had a partner for nearly 30 years who is so considerate and kind and supportive. Made my heart sing all the way home - that is when I wasn't scared stiff by the other drivers!

Now I'm getting a grip on daily domestic life again and will hopefully have textile stuff to show soon. Full of ideas!

London

London was great, as usual. Annette and I did the tourist thing and spent 3 hours on an open-top bus. The best way to see as much as you can in a day. Afterwards it was the National Gallery, the Knitting & Stitching show on Friday, and the Tate Modern on Saturday. Above you can see the allypally entrance. What a great show that was! I saw many beautiful things, mostly embroidery-based which is new to me. Some of it was moving, some of it made me smile, and some of it was just very beautiful art. Also saw blogfriends Mags and Helen. Had a great Turkish meal in the evening with our friends Magie and Bob from The African Fabric shop and with Sandy and Joe who stayed especially.
The whole of Sunday went into getting out the Trapsuutjies newsletter and it's a good one this time. If you don't get it yet and would like to, just go the website and register (left bottom on the home page). Tomorrow it's off to a castle in Edingen for the Belgian Quilters' Association until Sunday. Actually I'll be travelling back and forth. Hope the traffic around Brussels isn't too bad!

South Africa House on Trafalgar Square - how's that for a piece of real estate?...

Smithfield Market, close to the appartment which is sadly for sale -- sniff,sniff....

The South Bank taken from the Millenium Bridge...

And a view of the "gherkin" - I just love that building.

Tada....!

Well, a distinctly muted tada seeing as I'm a week late with announcing the winner of my tiny give-away. Sorry about that, no excuses really, apart from the tummy bug that has been pestering this household. Sick kids last week, me felled on Monday ( and still not feeling 100%). Anyway, let me procrastinate no longer. Tim has just drawn a winner : Sharon.
Please e-mail me your address, Sharon, so I can post the purple bag and a stamp to you.

I have been trying to keep up pretences about being creative with predictable results. To be fair, my studio is being worked on (not in). Last winter was so cold that, when we came back from London after Christmas, the tiles had all started letting loose. Well, of course not all of them, but a few. So our hero and handyman has been called in and he is setting new tiles. Seeing as he's busy anyway, I've got a few more things on my wish-list for him to perform. Hopefully a result will be forthcoming soon and I'll be able to return to the drawingboard so to speak.

This is a screen-print attempt after an idea out of the new Claire Benn and Leslie Morgan book which I bought at the FoQ. A great idea, using paper from the shredder, but obviously a really half-hearted attempt on my side. Will be doing more if that later.
After the disaster in Mechelen, I had a super day in Doesburg, Holland. It's a bi-annual event focusing on textiles. It wasn't as well-attended as 2 years ago, but I still did really well. Goes to show if the public is on target, the results will follow. I was planning on taking lovely mood pictures in the church in which the event is held, but my batteries gave in after only 2 takes.

My stand was on this ancient grave and I like to believe that there we were looked upon sympathetically that day.

When we moved into this house in 2007, I bought Fred an oak tree for his birthday. It's still a baby but this year there's a promise of a real autumn beauty in the making. We obviously won't live long enough to see it reach a really decent size, but nothing's stopping us from enjoying it right now.

Well, it's off to London tomorrow! Annette and I are paying a short visit. Will be visiting the Knitting & Stitching show at Ally Pally on Friday. Really looking forward to that. Next week's this season's last event in Edingen, just south of Brussels. It's the 20th anniversary of the Belgian Quilting Association. After that it's time to put business issues in second place and get the creative juices flowing again!

Disaster and destiny

I had the most dreadful week last week! I was at a hobby show in Mechelen, Belgium, and it was a complete disaster. Before the show I knew that I had made the wrong decision in going there instead of to Ste. Marie in France but I could never have predicted the extent of the faux pas! To start off with it was a 5-day show instead of the usual 4 and it was ridiculously expensive! The main attraction was card-making stuff. I've got nothing against people cutting and glueing and whatever-ing to make their own cards, but the bottomline is the majority who have that as a hobby don't like spending a lot and my products aren't cheap. My reasoning for choosing this show was to reach a larger Belgium audience and in all fairness there was quite a bit of interest in the workshops so, who knows, I might still have some follow-on results!
To complete the moan let me quickly tell you that it was extremely hot, boring and never-ending. My stalwarts, Annette, Hella and Fred were once again there to support and endure with me!

On the upside, Annette sold one of her beautiful capes. Have a look on her fotopic .

Out of sheer boredom I decorated some of the small bags which I had dyed beforehand. I love the Ocean 3 stamp and the way it can be used to create a bit of dimension. The stamp I used on the right is unfortunately not one of my own designs. A pity, because it fits in very well with my series. It is from the catalogue of the factory that produces my stamps. I still have 1 for sale (Eur 6,50 plus postage) should anyone be interested - just leave a comment or mail me.

Now for the destiny part. A while back one of my favourite bloggers, Andrea Pratt, led me to this book. I can't remember how - she either wrote about it directly or I followed one of her (always worthwhile) links. That's not important. Last Friday the book arrived. On Saturday I started reading at the show. Sunday Fred went with me and I told him about it. So he ended up reading it. We passed it back and forth and couldn't stop exclaiming - yes, yes, yes this is what it's all about! We completely ignored the punters, who weren't interested in us anyway, and had a great time! Sundays are usually the worst at shows - long, exhausting and poor turnover. But this Sunday passed in a whirl of enlightenment and, ironically or maybe not, I had more turnover than on Saturday. Admittedly Saturday was a rock-bottom day for Trapsuutjies!

Anyhow, I don't care. This book makes more sense than anything I have ever read in my life! To celebrate and to get back into the swing of things, I want to do a give-away. Leave a comment choosing 1 of the bags above, plus let me know which one of the Trapsuutjies stamps you would like (sorry, I tried to link directly to the stamps but don't know how. Go to the "shop" and then Trapsuutjies stamps on the website). I'll put all the names in a bag and draw a winner on Wednesday 30 September.

Mechelen was een regelrechte ramp! Ik doe dus geen hobbybeurzen meer. Mijn enige hoop is dat er qua workshops nog het een ander zal volgen. Het was 5 dagen lang, vermoeiend, super heet en ook nog saai. Verder niet meer zeuren, het zit erop en nu op naar de volgende : as. zaterdag op de Nationale Vezel- en Textieldag in Doesburg. Dat is wel altijd leuk!

Om mijn terugkeer tot de "normale" gang van zaken te vieren doe ik een give-away. Kies een van de tasjes boven en een Trapsuutjies stempel vanaf de website. Laat een commentaar op de blog en as. weonsdag, 30 september, trek ik de winnaar.