A trip to that London

Apologies for my lack of blogging recently. I have been crafting, and working, and having some time off, and doing lots of WI-based things.

I am still working on the Images of Japan quilt and the cross stitch flower series, so will have updates on those soon.

For now, here are some pictures of my trip to London town. I went down on Sunday and stayed for a few nights. It was the WI AGM on Wednesday at the Royal Albert Hall, which was the reason for the visit, but I decided to extend my stay a little so I could do some sightseeing. I timed it just right as the weather was glorious!

I saw the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace.

Visited the Queen's Gallery to see the exhibition of Da Vinci's anatomical drawings.

 Went to the V&A and saw the fashion exhibitions, Japan gallery and Golden Spider Silk textiles.

 Nipped through Leicester Square for pizza and had a quick look in the National Portrait Gallery.

 Went to the AGM at the Royal Albert Hall.

 Ate ice cream with Hayley at Hampton Court Palace.

Phew! And then back home for some rest! It's raining up north now, quelle surprise.

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My birthday week

T'was my birthday on Thursday and I was very lucky to spend at the The WI's Denman College in Oxfordshire.

My room ...



I was there as the College Host for the week, which meant I was there to assist with any problems and generally keep an eye on the students and visitors.

This turned out to be the main part of my job as Hazel Everett was there teaching a goldwork course and she always manages to have a classful of cheeky women! There was plenty of laughing going on, but their work was fantastic too.

It was incredibly busy at times but always great fun and I met some lovely people.

On my birthday everyone sang as I walked into the dining room for breakfast and there were lots of treats and surprises for me. I can think of no better way to spend a birthday than in beautiful, peaceful surroundings with dozens of (slightly crazy) women and having all your meals cooked for you!

Among my pressies I had a box of cucpcakes delivered from my friend Kat, Hazel's goldwork book, plenty of wine and sweeties and .... an experience day at Silverstone!

Hayley, Helen, Flower and my mum had coordinated to get me a session driving a single-seater at the track. I was so excited and overwhelmed with it all I was bawling like a baby!

Cupcakes ...



Needless to say I had an excellent birthday and a really lovely week.

On Thursday night I hosted a quiz for some of the students, which seemed to go down well, and we even got a bit of snow.

Denman in the snow ...







I'm back at Denman next month for a conference, then a further two times later this year for WI Adviser training.

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Buns & Roses at the I Love West Leeds Festival

On Sunday, Buns & Roses WI took part in the I Love West Leeds Festival, this year in Bramley Falls Park.

It was a beautiful sunny day and we were there to sell our wares on our craft table and help the kiddies make name plaques for their doors.



Here's Helen, Hayley and me at our stall. Doesn't it look amazing?! We sold quite a lot of stuff, mostly thanks to the wonderful Liz, Secretary at the West Yorkshire Federation of Women's Institutes, who did a great job promoting the WI.





Here you can see everyone hard at work creating their plaques. We had lots of amazing helpers on the day and it was hard work, but enjoyable.

You can see my plaque hanging below the sign in the second picture. It's now on my office door at the Federation.





And here are some that the kids made, hanging to dry in the sunshine. They all got really into it and there were some very clever and creative uses of the stash we provided.

The I Love West Leeds events are going on throughout the month, so if you're local then do check out the festival website.

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Butterflies and leaves and a spot of interior design

Just time for another quick update this morning! I cannot believe it's Friday again, and now we're in July. Time flies!

Yesterday I decorated my office at the West Yorkshire Federation of Women's Institutes.



How good does it look now?! I'm so pleased with it. I chose green for the WI and purple as it's my favourite colour. These are also the colours of the Suffragettes, but Wimbledon too unfortunately, which I hate!

I painted a few lines of Jerusalem on the wall: "I will not cease from mental fight, Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand, Till we have built Jerusalem, In England's green and pleasant land".

I'm rather pleased with my painting skills and it's a lovely place to work - I can see out to the canal too and watch the boats go by. The pictures and quote on the wall remind me of all the work the WI has done in the past, and how much more there is to do.

I actually have a card to show today as well! Just a quickie, and apologies for the bad picture as it had already been paackaged for sale!



I used the Beautiful Wings Embosslit and the Leaves #2 die, coupled with a random piece of DSP.

Nice and easy and good for any occassion!

Stil plenty going on to keep me out of trouble, so I best keep at it!

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As promised, news from the WI

Here goes then with the latest tales from the WI.

As you know I've been getting more and more involved with this wonderful organisation for a few months now and really couldn't wish to be part of a more open, friendly and accepting group of women. And I mean that about Buns & Roses, our West Yorkshire Federation and the National Federation of Women's Institutes.

Remember the early days of Facebook when people would boast about having 100 "friends", hardly any of whom they had ever spoken to, let alone met?! Well, I can safely say that I have 207,000 very good friends in my fellow WI members and although I may not have spoken to or met them either, I know they would be there for me if I needed them and that I would happily return the favour anytime.

This is precisely why I have been getting more involved and am proud to already be the Denman College Rep for West Yorkshire, the Editor of our monthly newsletter (I have my own office and I get to decorate it!) and a member of the Home Economics & Handicrafts Committee.

As of this week, I now also sit on the Executive Committee at West Yorkshire and am so excited to also be President of Buns & Roses WI, as of our meeting last night.

Georgiana felt the time had come for her to step down, and with the approval of the rest of the committee, I have now officially taken on the role.

I don't expect it to be easy, but I know it will be fun and I'm looking forward to it.

Buns & Roses have had another bit of excitement this week as well - we are featured in the current issue of Woman magazine! Please do go out and get a copy (or at least flip through it in the shop - you'll see us on page 19!).

That's all the WI gossip for now! I am sure there will be more very soon and I will return over the weekend with crafty pics!

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Goldwork and The WI AGM

Yesterday I was at the Liverpool Echo Arena for the WI AGM.

I had been asked to attend in case the press wanted to talk to someone about being in the WI. As it happened, it was pretty quiet, but I had a great time anyway.

Being sat up in the VIP boxes was spectacular - I could see the whole arena and all 4,500 fellow members. When we all stood up to sing Jerusalem it was absolutely incredible.

I won't bore you with all the details here, as I'll be putting something up on our WI blog soon, but I will share some pics of my finished goldwork that I took along.

The Picture Framer in Burley did a wonderful job framing it.



And here are each of the four sections close up ...









Now I just have to decide where to hang it!

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Fascinator making with Buns & Roses

Last night was our fascintaor making workshop at Buns & Roses WI. Hayley very cleverly gave it the title (Sina) Major Tom, sinamay being the scratchy material used to make fascinator bases!

Anyway, seeing as I have made several fascinators now I was there mostly to run the bar and help other members, but I did find time to make a little brooch in the same method.



I used some of the waste sinamay in a rectangle shape. It is also curved at the opposite corners so is quite funky.

I covered it in brown silky material and edged it with orange gingham ribbon.



To decorate I scrunched up some bright orange fabric and orange lace and fastened on with some buttons.



In the opposite top corner I folded a bit of the same gingham ribbon round the edge and added another button.



And here it is in-situ!

You can see some more pics of what we got up to and the creations of our lovely members at the Buns & Roses WI blog.

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Wednesday fun

I had a very busy day Wednesday with lots of WI things - my favourite kind of things.

I spent most of it at the West Yorkshire Federation office sorting out things for my role as Denman College rep and also learning about running our monthly newsletter. I'll be getting involved in that too; I'm a woman of many talents. And not enough hours!

It's always fun being at the office with some of the other members and having a good gossip!



Here's me and Hayley being daft!

The evening was spent with Hayley and Helen as usual.



Here's Helen knitting me a hat!

I spent my time doing some tiny blackwork pieces as practice pieces towards my NFWI Embroidery Certificate.





I'm testing out different fabris and threads and getting used to how the patterns work - it makes my eyes go funny after a while!

Finally I helped Hayley set up her blog to showcase her artwork. It's still new but do head over and become a follower and you'll get to see some of her wonderful artwork in the coming weeks. Hayley's blog.

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Tales from The WI

Today I'm catching up on all the WI happenings from the last week or so, and there have been a lot!

Firstly, up at the West Yorkshire Federation of Women's Institutes I'm on the Home Economics and Handicrafts Committee. We sort all the crafty goodness out. The latest news is that I'll be running a card and gift bag workshop there next year and also that we're doing the WI stand at the Knitting and Stitching Show in Harrogate again. I'll be manning the stand at some point and hopefully teaching a workshop too. Exciting!

The next piece of gossip is that I'm now the Denman Rep for West Yorkshire! You know I loved my week there doing Elizabethan goldwork, so it just seemed like a good plan! I'll be helping spread the word about Denman to WIs around the county and will hopefully be able to get back down there very soon.

And finally, and most excitingly, I have been asked by the National Federation of Women's Institutes to attend the AGM in Liverpool next month! They needed a few members to act as reps for members of the press to speak to about what the WI is really like and what we get up to. I'm mega looking forward to it - 5,000 people attend and we have speakers, including Sir Steve Redgrave, and sing Jerusalem of course! Because I'll be with the press office it should be a good way to get a bit of a behind the scenes look at the WI as well!

There are other bits of WI-based fun, but they won't mean much to most people so let's just say that being a member is keeping me very busy and creative!

Finally, a pic of myself and the Buns & Roses committee at our meeting this week.

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Clearly For You and more business

It's still busy, busy, busy in the life of Gemma!

I was a very good girl yesterday and got a lot of work done (while also managing to watch the MotoGP, The Spy Who Loved Me and have a soak in a bubbly bath with my book for Buns & Roses WI Book Club). Productive or what?!

I needed to do this as today it was the Home Economics & Handicrafts Committee meeting at the West Yorkshire Federation of WIs. As always, we nattered and drank tea and got a lot planned. We have lots of great things to organise, including my own card making workshop next year and our slot at the Knitting and Stitching Show in Harrogate this November.

So I still could do with a few more hours in each day!

Unfortunately I've not had a lot of time to do much papercrafting recently. But I must get back on track as I have craft fairs and a market stall to prepare for!

PLEASE can I have more time?!

I do have a few photos stored up still though, so here's a card using the Clearly For You set.

This was one of my very first must-haves from the 2011 Stampin' Up! Mini Catalogue as I love vintage things and the way you can mix up the different stamps within the set.



For this one, I cut out the squares and rolled half with the Sanded Wheel in Basic Grey ink to give texture and the other half I used the rectangle pattern image from Clearly For You.

I used the decorative elements in Melon Mambo and Old Olive on some of the squares, then scrunched them all up and distressed them by randomly inking in Basic Grey. Simply rubbing the ink pad gently over the card stock does the job.

This one has already come and gone as one of my fellow WI members bought it for a wedding card! I hope the happy couple liked it!

Time for another early night now so I have enough energy for all the things I have planned for tomorrow! The to do list includes work, stitching, card making ...

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Learning to draw with The WI

Last night was our monthly workshop at Buns & Roses and we were learning how to draw.

We had a lovely illustrator called Steve Beaumont come to teach us and he was very good.

By starting off with shapes we all managed to draw a pretty realistic lady!



Here's my effort! Have to admit I'm not that keen on it. I liked it better before I did the face and hair!

Anyway, it was fun and I will definitely be a bit more confident giving drawing a go in future.

We have just started a Buns & Roses blog so please come and see us there for more pics and stories!

I also went to see the Asda WI yesterday - they are called the Trolly Dollies! And also had a quick visit to Leeds Kirkgate Market to organise selling some of my goodies there!

So it was a very busy and exciting day.

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Thank you flowers

It's always nice to say thank you, and even better if you do it with flowers.

So to say thank you to the ladies I met at Denman College earlier this month I made some hanging tag decorations using the Fun Flowers die on the Big Shot.



I used all sorts of different DSP and colours of cardstock, embossing some bits then sticking the three flowers together and adding ribbon for hanging.



Here are all the colour options.

The best thing about paper flowers is you don't need to water them, which is good for me, as my plants always seem to die!

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Exciting WI news and a day at the seaside

Well it may only have been a couple of days but a lot has happened since my last update!

Thursday evening was the second birthday party for Buns & Roses WI. As well as having our usual drinks and chats, I was delighted to be made Vice President of the group. Hurrah! I'm so excited and can't wait to be helping out the committee and doing even more with The WI! Hurrah some more!

Then yesterday I had a day at the seaside with Helen, Hayley and her hubby Flower.

We had to do a detour on the way up to Whitby as traffic on the A64 was going nowhere fast, but the scenic route was much nicer anyway.

But we got there, only to find that Dracula was out to play and the mist was so bad you could only see a few metres ahead! Stood on one side of the bridge you couldn't see the other! I was a bit disappointed as not only did this mean it was cold and I couldn't get a tan, but also that I couldn't see the church and abbey.

Anyway, it was still great fun, and we had a good wander, played the arcade games, ate fish and chips and did a bit of shopping.



I bought this old watch face with the intention of making it into a piece of jewellery. One day!



here are my wins from the 2p machines!

We decided we would go for a quick run to Scarborough as well, and we got there about tea time, just in time for a walk along the beach and a paddle in the sea, and some more arcade games and one of those simulator things.



There was still a bit of mist over the cliff.



Here's what I won on Scarborough's 2p machines!

So that was Thursday evening and Friday!

Today I'm going to nip into town for some craft supplies as I have a few bits for a Christening that I've been commissioned to do. I'll work on them in the back garden this afternoon I think!

Hope everyone enjoys their long Easter weekend.

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Love is in the air!

Wowser, I can't believe it's Thursday again already, and coming up to the end of April too! Where does the time go?!

Last night was our weekly get-together at Hayley's. She, me and Helen generally just sit around and gossip and do something crafty. Last night they made LOTS of cakes (and I mean lots - more than 50 cupcakes and a BIG one!) while I did a bit of work and also finished off my short story for The WI's Lady Denman Cup Competition. I am pleased with it, especially as I haven't done any non-fiction writing for many years. Really enjoyed doing it too, so I must do more!

Anyway, on to today's card.

This was another made for Georgie's wedding earlier this month.



I was still in the Bashful Blue and Real Red phase, which I think is a stunning combo! I stamped the Eiffel Tower from the Artistic Etchings set in Basic Grey, and also the circle motif, which was stamped off on to my paper first so it was lighter.



The little envelope was made using the Petal Card Double Punch, which cuts and scores! I then made the hearts using the Heart to Heart Punch and the butterflies from the Beautiful Wings Embosslit. A quick tag was added with Linen Thread et voila!

This evening is the Buns & Roses WI second birthday party (hence all the cakes!). There will be lots of exciting news and I'm looking forward to catching up with all my girls.

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The WI: A truly lifesaving organisation

Yesterday evening I visited Meanwood WI with my fellow Buns & Roses WI members Helen, Hayley and Siobhan (and a friend of Siobhan's whose name I have forgotten!).

I love going to see what other institutes get up to, and I have to say last night's meeting was the most amazing yet.

The speaker for the evening was a lady called Joan. She had been a Navy Wren during the Second World War, starting at the age of just 17 and going on to enjoy an incredible career in the forces.

Having completed her initial training, Joan was posted to the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) and worked, at first without even realising what she was doing, on breaking German codes.

Along with many other Wrens and forces personnel, she worked tirelessly, helping to reduce the war by several years and save the lives of millions of people.

She spoke so well about her time in the Navy and life during the war at Bletchley Park, and it was a true honour to meet such an incredible woman.

Two things which struck me the most:
1. She is one of only a handful of people to use the German Enigma machine, which was smuggled into the UK from Poland.
2. She and her husband never once spoke of their work at home. It was only after several decades of their marriage that they realised they had both been working on the same project, such was the level of security and the importance placed on preventing leaks.

I think Joan's talk summed up everything that is great about The WI:
We are truly amazing women with fantastic stories and a huge impact on our world.
We have a strong sense of duty, of doing our very best for our people and country and of being faithful.
We do not give up and work tirelessly towards our goals.

I'm coming over a little sentimental now (I could have cried at times as Joan was speaking, although there were plenty of laughs as well), but I hope you understand.

Thank you to Meanwood WI for such an inspirational meeting (and great cake!) and thank you to Joan and all forces personnel for everything.

PS On a lighter note - I won this tissue box in the raffle!

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Old pics! WI stand at the Knitting and Stitching Show

Just a quickie today to share a couple of pics from last year!

The West Yorkshire Federation of Women's Institutes had a stand at the Knitting and Stitching Show in Harrogate last November, and myself and some fellow Buns & Roses members went along to help out.

I was manning the demonstration table for a few hours, making a few bits and chatting to lots of lovely people - men and women, members and non-members (but hopefully future members!).



Here I am stitchign away! I was doing some patchwork pin cushions, decorated eggs as Christmas ornaments and Suffolk puffs.



This is me and Hayley together.

It was such a lovely few hours and I got to chat to a lot of amazing people. Everyone was so enthusiastic and keen to learn about Tthe WI and what we were doing, both on the stand and in the wider context.

I know I say it a lot (especially if you have me on Facebook or follow me on Twitter) but The WI is properly brilliant. Since joining 18 months ago I have learnt a lot of new skills, made many new friends and had a LOT of laughs.

I am very glad to say I have been able to get involved with The WI on many levels and plan to do so much more over the years.

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