LAST DAY

Hiya Its the LAST DAY FOR THE FREE WORKSHOP with the SMASHEE enrolement today.

From tomorrow the FREE workshop will be for sale at 15 English pounds

The first SMASHEE BITE will appear in your email boxes later this week

The first WORKSHOP will be 1st December (or a few days before!!)

PATCHWORK DAY

Had a lovely day making a patchwork cushion from fabric provided by POPPY PATCH, will be offering this as a day workshop after Christmas.  Book up early

Just a reminder to scroll down the post to see if you are a winner of a workshop in the BLOG GIVE-A-WAY, you need to email me, even if I have your email, so I can keep the evidence for my records.

31st October is fast approaching - please enrol for THE SMASHEES before the stoke of midnight (BST) cause the ghosties will remove the FREE 9th workshop then
Go to http://shelaghfolgate.bigcartel.com to sign up

Oh & please visit my FACEBOOK page & become a fan ,thanks

AUSTERITY SPRAYS

Good morning, after a sleepless night, I thought that you might like a little taster of the type of idea contained in THE SMASHEES
So here are my AUSTERITY SPRAYS - The lovely spray colours that you can buy are very expensive so here is an UPCYCLE & RE-CYCLE idea
Most of this you should already have in your kitchen
Find a spray bottle, rummage at the back of your cleaning cupboard or in the garage, you know the ones with a little bit of summat left in them, cant bear to throw away.  Use up whatever is in it & then give the bottle a jolly good scrub.  No point in using this to spray your work if it still has bleach in it!!!!! is there?

One nice (or maybe more) spray bottle.

Save up your tea bags or use the horrid ones kept for those people you dont like (only kidding) or the free ones that come in the post.
Bung a few (its not an exact science) in a saucepan along with about half a cup of water & give it a jolly good boil up.  Leave to go cold safely.  You have a creamy pinky spray or fabric & paper colour, easy - store it in a LABELED jam jar or water bottle - you know the ones with a spout - dont throw those away make great splurges (try spelling that!!) with those.  Please dont forget to label clearly.

Take a couple of teaspoons of any old coffee.  I had some awful coffee that I left in the jar & went all crystal like, splash on some hot water to dissolve & leave to cool.  Mid brown to dark brown here.
This is fun!!!!
Got any fruit or herbal teas?  Can get pale lemon & oranges & pinks
Now I know that natural dyeing requires a mordant - Alum, vinegar etc & there are lots of sites on the Internet with info on this.  These ideas are for paper & as background colour for fabric that is going to be further worked into.

How about FOOD COLOURING - you know the little cheap bottles of lovely colours, can make fab striped patterns on fabric with a paint brush & some food colouring.

Raid the garden or the fridge for onions & leaves, dont throw the  outside leaves of the cauliflower away, give it a boil up & see what you get!  Red onions - orange peel you know the stains that you get on your hands when peeling an orange? Eh?

All of these will give you cheap colours, okay you wont get intense ultramarine blue (can use cheap crayons for that!!) but you will get AUSTERITY COLOURS & a really good feeling of saving yourself some dosh

What if you dont like the colours, get some really thin paper & splosh it on there, or even old wallpaper (with no paste on - that has fungicide yuk)  these papers can be used as pages in a book - ohhhh The first SMASHEE project is LOLLIPOP LANE FOLIO .............happy day to you x

100 up - HOORAY - TODAY IS BLOG GIVE A WAY DAY

Hi all
We have done it!!!!!!!  A hundred & I have done the HAT PULLING OUT
I gave everyone who left a comment since the start of the GIVEAWAY a number & added a slip of yellow paper with their number to the 'hat'  Here is the order that they were pulled out

 

I then converted the numbers back to the comment names so here they are

Could you all email me on shelaghfolgate@aol.com with what email address to send the FREE WORKSHOP to please

JAN LEATHERHEAD

MARIA D

RITA A

CALIFORNIA FIBRE ARTIST & COMPOSER

CAROL (carol tina taylor)

RACHEL LANGLEY

MO SMITH

MICHELLE

FABRIQUE FANTASTIQUE

MARION BIGNELL

Thank you to everyone who has become a follower & left comments, I hope that you all continue to enjoy the blog & leave comments, which are so lovely to read.

I will have another GIVE-A-WAY when I reach 200 posts, which should be before Christmas

THE SMASHEES

Please remember that if you sign up BEFORE 31ST OCTOBER (this Sunday) then you will receive A WHOLE WORKSHOP COMPLETELY FREE, after that date you will still get a SMASHEE BITE each week until 1st December when the WORKSHOPS begin

You can sign up at anytime after 1st December, & get the 8 workshops but will not get any of the SMASHEE BITES, drizzled out along the way.  So EARLY BIRD CATCHES THE BITE,  okay I am being silly, but I am so pleased to have reached 100 today

Take a look at my photos on Facebook

facebook Shelagh Folgate has: 29 friends 31 photos 27 wall posts 4 groups Take a look at my photos on Facebook Hi Shelaghfolgate.emptynest, I set up a Facebook Profile where I can post my pictures, videos and events and I want to add you as a friend so you can see it. First, you need to join Facebook! Once you join, you can also create your own profile. Thanks, Shelagh To join Facebook, please follow the link below: http://www.facebook.com/p.php?i=620921595&k=44EU26RRPT6G6BDAY1WZSSYW26BAWU5CRUBU&r Already have an account? Add this email address to your account. shelaghfolgate.emptynest@blogger.com was invited to join Facebook by Shelagh Folgate. If you do not wish to receive this type of email from Facebook in the future, please click here to unsubscribe. Facebook, Inc. P.O. Box 10005, Palo Alto, CA 94303

WELL WISHERS

What a fab lot of people you are, thank you for your good thoughts for the poor little Missy, she is improving daily.  I am also a lot better, seems I need a huge amount of sleep to function a bit normal!!!!  Its half term here now so have a bit of a break, lots of ideas on the stew.
Check out Clothpaperscissors for a short encaustic workshop using beeswax, could substitute soy wax instead or even use a melted candle.  Shall have to get some images up of stitching if blogger will let me do more than 1.  Can anyone help how to get over this?
2 more followers needed to the grand give-a-away........

MISSY ATTACK

Hi all
Just had a call from my son saying that Missy has been attacked.  She is coming into her first season (they didn't know this) & they let her out & some rotten tom has bitten & scratched her all along her back & had his way with her.  Poor Missy is so shocked & poorly, he took her to the vet & she is on pills & now has a booking for spaying on Friday

Poor little Missy

OH WHAT A JOY TO BE IN ENGLAND NOW THAT AUTUMN IS HERE

A misty morning with a touch of frost, clearing away to greet a watery sunlight sky, soft blowing breeze & chilly air.  A journey through the lanes with golds, greens, limes & bright yellow sun shafts. To a haven of colour & stitching.  My lovely morning to share with you all x

NEWS FROM MISSY GATE

Hope you like the new colour of the fonts, let me know please if it is still hard to read

Oh dear, oh dear, my son visited today & was shaking his head, I dont know whats up with Missy.  I said 'why' whats the matter.  She wont eat & is just lolling about.  Well I had to come clean.  Missy is a kitten & eats kitten food.  We feed Charlotte who is a full grown cat, adult food, Charlotte does not always eat the food, but when Missy was here she scoffed it up & didnt eat kitten food.  I had to tell him, so he has gone home with adult cat food in the hopes of tempting her.  (Didnt tell him she had salmon & THE BEEF episode)  One of my lovely students told me that her sons cat sulked after he left her to go on holiday so maybe thats what she is doing, hee hee, he is trying to fix his computer, I have a vision of Missy running around with the leads in her mouth & causing him havoc.  That will teach them to go away to fabulous Prague & leave her (not really they work really long hours & he has 2 jobs, one of them being a fire fighter)
I will report back what happens from Missy gate.
93......93.....93...lala only 7 more followers to go to the give a way.  Remember that if you are a follower & leave a comment you go into the hat for a FREE WORKSHOP, every comment is another chance.  I am going to prepare the names this afternoon

PRINTING ONTO FABRIC

Hi

There was a question posted on one of the newsgroups that I belong to about printing onto fabric.

I thought that my reply might be useful to some of you, so here it is, without piccys I am afraid as I am in a rush to get to work

1. Iron your fabric, no creases



2. Iron the fabric to freezer paper, iron on both sides


3. Cut the freezer paper & fabric to size of your printer paper less a quarter inch wide & long


4. Make sure there are no DANGLING THREADS


5. Use a stick glue to attach the freezer paper to ordinary computer paper, a half inch DOWN from the leading edge of the computer paper


6. Dont get glue on the leading edge


7. Feed the leading edge through the printer, by removing all the rest of your paper from the tray & holding the paper straight


8. If the rollers will not grab the paper, then set them to the ENVELOPE setting. This parts the rollers to allow thicker (like envelopes or card) paper to go through


9. Let the print completely dry before removing fromt he freezer paper, which can be used again.

I hope tht this helps, I have been doing this onto all sorts of fabrics since 1999.


If I want to wash my fabric then I use bubblejet set or pre-treated fabric


By the way you can buy pre-cut sheets of freezer paper which are fab.

MISSY UPDATE

HEY!!! CAT....GET OFF THE SIDEBOARD

AHHHHHHHH..........she is now under the bed, 30 minutes later, no she isn't.......where is she?  Panic PANIC PANIC, please not in my storeroom amongst all the fabric, I will never find her.  We hunt & hunt, jingle toys, SHOUT, walk about the house with bits of beef dripping off us (well not really that was a bit dramatic) bits of beef in hand.
Eventually we find her in the dining room under the sofa, cowering right at the back camouflaged against the wallpaper.  PHEW, that was last night.
Today after a very tiring day with really nice curtain making students, (oh and 2 people who wanted to observe me, who were sent away with a flea in their ear or ears - wish my English was better!!) we decided to let her into the sitting room WHERE THE BUDGIE IS.... next to the cage is the sideboard, full of ornaments - my lovely ornaments of tall elegant ladies (thin)  Well once I was thin & a lady (hmmmmm, skating close to the wind now) never ever been elegant, altho once a woman said that I always had neat hair - ok those who know me stop laughing now, I shall appear next in public with my hair like Danni Minogue from the X factor tonight, but I still wont look elegant like my ladies - oh where was I - oh yes THE B CAT, sorry the Missy cat, tramping along the sideboard all over my ladies.
She is now in the dining room, banned from the sitting room forever lol

Naughty kitten, on the dining room table.
Oh it wont let me post more than one picture again grrrr
Must go to bed now as my ears are ringing so loud sounds like a really good party to join in too.

I am hoping to stitch tomorrow - whoo hoo, use the sewing machine again.  Night all x

MISSY CAT

Here are some pictures of my sons kitten, Missy, she is so funny.  We had silverside beef for tea & I could not resist giving her some, (sorry Dan) she usually has dried stuff, wow she loved it (& me lol)

Missy in the box!!!

Huh I had 2 more but blogger will not let me post them, will try again over the weekend, but you can see what a pretty little thing she is & she loves hiding in a box & playing with tissues which she steals from the tissue box!! & leaves all over the place hee hee so ver funny what a little dear.  We are still feeding poor Charlotte, next door beautiful cat.  She is a rescue cat & very very timid, but she lets my husband stroke her now, she is not so keen on me, she wont come in the kitchen unless the door is open.  We are guessing that she has been locked up, it makes my heart so sad that anyone could hurt such a lovely little thing.  My neighbour is not being unkind at all, he got her from the rescue but he does not feed her enough, we know this as we feed her for him when he is away on holiday.  So its off to the pet shop I go each month & she only comes when she is hungry, yes I know they are little toads but we feel so sorry for her, she sits most of the day on our garden bench especially in the sunshine.
We have to be careful as we have an old budgie 10 years old, that has his door to his cage open all day, he still flies around, his name is toribudgie, we used to have 5 budgies oh they were so much fun just like a family each had its own personality & the one with the least personality & the follower is the one we have left, I knew it would be.  We feel really bad about only having one now, but he is really happy on his own, one of the other budgies used to pick on him so I guess he is happy in his old age.  My mother-in-law has 2 new budgies, I was really cross with her as she is 85 & we had decided that we would not have any more budgies & I guess we will probably end up with hers if she gets any frailer (thats not a word is it?)
Budgies & cats hmmmm not an ideal mix eh?

UPDATE

Hi & welcome to my new followers, at 86 now, only 14 to go to the BLOG GIVE-A-WAY I am hoping that this will happen before Christmas, fingers crossed.

It is so nice to read all the lovely comments & help that has been sent to me, especially during this rotten TMJ.  What a misery I feel sometimes.
This week started with my C & G machine embroidery level 3 class, who are in their second year.  They are  beginning their design portfolio on LINE.  I was in lala land having taken pills to get through the day that dont agree with me.  It was a beautiful day, a bit chilly but deep cerulean blue skies & wonderful shadows a.  Ilong with the  colours of autumn in England, deep rusty reds, limey green through to deep jewel green, wonderful complementary colours I had already planned to do group exercises & had asked them to bring their cameras in, so to have such a great photography day was a real bonus.  They had between a half hour and an hour to collect 6 photographs all on their prompts worked out before hand.  Each team had a leader (oh yes its apprentice time again over here lol) who made the decisions for the shots based on each members recommendations.  Each member had to take the same photo but from a different perspective.  Try it, its not as easy as it sounds.  They are to print them out at home, I am looking forward to seeing their end results.  They photographed in an Urban environment.  The same exercise could also be undertaken in the country, indoors or at the seaside etc.
Tuesday arrived with the second class of the new level 3 C & G patchwork group.  This is a mixed group between certificate & diploma.  It was an important day for the diploma students as they were deciding their Research theme, a major body of work..  We exxplored using texture, line & colour within paper & fabric samples.  Well done to all of them  producing contemporary designs including working with paint on fabric.
Wednesday was get up early day for a visit to the diabetic clinic.  I have been diet controlling the D for 18 months.  I have lowered my levels to 6.8 which I am told is very good.  I just wish that I could have controlled my stuffing through out my life in such a strict manner!!!#Dashed back home to teach manipulated patchwork, then in the evening I had the first session of C & G level 2 patchwork, with a large ability range.  I decided to design only with fabric & we tackled block template crazy patchwork using a monochromatic scheme, all students bar one chose Red, which was very interesting.
Thursday saw me at the doctors to get the medication sorted out, I then spent a huge amount of time in PCworld sorting out a laptop mostly for my husband to use, however the one I bought is light pink with white keys, hee hee, I just could not resist it.  I did get a really funny look when I returned with it at 9.45pm last night.
I picked it up before our BOAT meeting & sat in the car inthe town centre faffing about with it.
The BOAT meeting was lead by Janis, who had been on a course with JAMES HUNTING, she talked us through what she had done & bought a huge amount of wonderful supplies for us to use.  I was obessed with my puter & was very rudely fiddling about with it whilst she was talking, oh dear :-(
I spent the rest of the evening colouring onto papers, which when they are finished I will post pictures
It is now Friday & a day off waiting for my son to arrive with his kitten, as we are kitten sitting whilst he & his partner go to Prague for a few days.  I have had to clean up the kitchen for her as she loves to run around on the window sills!!!
Back with pictures when I am on my normal puter & not hogging the one that I bought for my husband hmmmmmmmm.......  Tomorrow I am teaching curtain making, such a varied week, oh & the face is still niggly but so much better.  Happy stitching x

FEELING BETTER

Oh I am feeling so much better today.

This is my feather head picture

Stitched on a very holey stretchy fabric

Variegated metallic thread in the bobbin

variegated rayon thread in the spool

Shows a much more contented Shelagh than the 'face ache' Knight picture above

A Knight on the Tiles was stitched by me

for an auction to raise funds for the victims

of the Tsunami

Please dont forget that the bonus for becoming a SMASHEE runs out on 31st October.  Off to bed now as have 2 full days of City & Guilds teaching.  Tomorrow Machine embroidery level 3 & Tuesday Patchwork & quilting level 3.  I hope that the new found energy stays with me.
I feel very tempted to post a picture of the mess which is my desk at the moment, but feel very ashamed :-)

LAUNCHING THE SMASHEES

What is this?????  I am changing the way that I run the CREATIVECHALLENGERS GROUP.  From 1st December 2010 to 31st July 2011 there will be a series of 8 COMPLETE workshops.  These will be posted on a closed blog &  there is a Yahoo group, that you can join, if you want.
Through the group you can access help & advice

There is no pressure or time limits

The workshops will include
Machine stitching - Machine embroidery stitch techniques - Machine quilting
Hand embroidery - traditional & innovative
Optional use of a machine needle felting or a hand felting tool  There will be info on using a serger. 
Heat tools
Dissolvables
Edges, finishes,
Backgrounds
Products
Mixed media

Info will arrive each month & there will be additional  updates from time to time.
All this for the cost of £40 for all 8 workshops.  That's a fiver a month!!
Sign up before the end of October to get a completely free surprise workshop (WORTH £15) & bonus ideas that are due to be born throughout November 2010.

Join up by going to http://shelaghfolgate.bigcartel.com 
THE SMASHEES - AN 8 MONTH TEXTILE COURSE

 PLEASE ENSURE THAT YOU SIGN UP FOR THE CORRECT PRICE. 
Only existing Challenge members qualify for the special price & I know who they are!!!!!

Don't miss out, this is open to anyone who loves to stitch & create. 
Scroll through my blog it will show you the diverse methods of creating that I use.
8 months of lessons, fun, information, ideas & creativity for only £40....... (approx US $63.78) (approx AUS $64.68)
http://shelaghfolgate.bigcartel.com/

Thanks

Thank you for all your good wishes & advice.  Am still 'spaced' out.  Hoping to return to normal (ha) soon x

Trigeminal neuralgia

Yep thats the next thing I have got - Trigeminal neuralgia so along with TMJ, it all adds up to one hell of a face ache. Or just hell :(
Tuesday night I removed my tooth guard & nearly fainted with pain.  Imagine tooth ache on every tooth, shooting pains jabbing up each tooth, neck & sinus pain then you will get the idea.  I have had 2 wonderful children & had the usual rough time but the pain was nowhere near as severe as this.  By midnight having taken so many tablets I had lost count I was hyperventilating; my husband bundled me into the car & headed for out Nene doc.  She gave me the strongest pain killer that they keep.  Did a diabetes test & calmed me down.  The pills worked a tad & a sleepless night was followed by a morning trip back to the doctors for stronger pain killers.  The ones that I have are one step away from morphine, which I was promised on Friday if I didnt feel any better!!!  I made the doctor, who had a speech impediment, write everything down as by then I was a sobbing wreck.  Good job that my Dave was in there with me.
I stuffed the tablets, and strong antibiotics & some other tablets that are anti-depressants but used for nerve pain, down my throat and went to bed at noon on weds & didnt get up until 7am on friday.
Being a free lance tutor if I dont work, I dont get paid, I had already cancelled 2 workshops, including a new City & Guilds class.  On friday I had another workshop & we just could not afford for me not to do it.
Dave drove me to Poppy patch where I was so spaced out I felt like I was 'drunk' all day in charge of a FANTASTIC group of very caring ladies.  How lucky am I to have such a fabulous group of people, they could have been so unkind, but were so wonderful - thank you ladies.  When I returned home I was iching from head to foot.  I re-read the notes that come with the drugs to find that all 3 say iching & wooziness.  I scalled down how many that I took at tea time, went to bed after Strictly & awoke today with a feeling of being alive and no iching.  The pain is there but bareable at the moment & I feel tired now but oh so much better.
Sorry to ramble on with tales of woe and certainly no stitching to show.  I guess that I had a virus in my nerves & it went to the weakest point - the jaw bone.  Oh please never again.  I hope that you never get it.
Have a happy weekend, its great to be alive....