Stacey Harvey-Brown

Saturday was Kennet Valley Guild day. The Committee kept saying 'It is too soon to have a post-mortem on the Newbury Coat' and then discoursing on the triumphs and problems of same. We had two cakes and champagne as a celebration. 

We also had Stacey Harvey-Brown to give a talk and run a course on Sunday. Her enthusiasm is for texture in weaving. And she talked about the strange yarns you can get these days, silver, metal plus other fibre and other things that go bump in the night.  She lectures without notes and without slides/Powerpoint. Just loads of hands-on samples.

The course on Sunday was based on taking photos and everyone discussing how it could be interpreted in their particular medium of textiles. There were weavers present but also spinners, knitters and felters. It was very interesting to hear what the non-weavers had to say. In many cases, it seemed to me that they would make a better job of the interpretation. Fascinating.

Came home and have not yet tidied up. I have finished off the Coptic book and it, plus Christmas Carol, are going into an exhibition at the College. They have to be delivered today. The pieces for the Midlands Textile Forum's Exhibition at Leek  Museum also have to be finished because MTF wants photos for the catalogue by next Friday. I finished off one piece on Friday night but have some experimentation to do on the other one. The third one is a devore scarf which is all ready.

Dorothy is here this week and we are hoping to do some dyeing. But tomorrow will be spent at the American Museum at Claverton Manor. It has a wonderful collection of American quilts which she has never seen. Then there is an exhibition at Ledbury to see.

Barclays Bank has admitted that I am alive and apologised 'for human error' but they left  to me the job of telling the pension providers whom they had misinformed. In two cases, they providers now owe me three month's income. I spent several hours on Thursday explaining everything to three different sets of people. One actually said of Barclays 'What did they do that for?' I wish I knew. Anyway I have hopes of getting back to normal in two weeks.