****Love in a Walnut ****

Well it's only Tuesday but nevertheless I am in awe at the generosity I have experienced just in the last few days  from friends and family. First I get a huge basket of fabulous veggies from my neighbour. Discovered the delights again of my Pyhsalis or Cape Gooseberry plants with their paper husks, they not only taste good but are so beautiful to look at. The walnut above gave me it's heart when I split it :)

Next I popped into a friends for a coffee yesterday and came away armed with a huge amount of barlotti beans, another beautiful plant with it's red and green streaks and a sweetish flavour with a smooth creamy texture. Just so happens that my girlfriend also gave me a jar of Sticky Hoisin sauce so I came  home with dinner almost sorted. Couldn't help but think the beans would make a great necklace or bracelet and then had to slap myself and get the dinner sorted.

Then my daughter presented me with a  beautiful long two toned blue scarf that she hand dyed up at Chateau Dumas where they held  a days course on woad dyeing. I love it, so looking forward to wearing it. I have added a link for  Bleu De Lecture as if your not aware of the plant that produces this amazing colour and
 it's a fascinating read, have a look at what she does with soaps,paints and more.

The best bit is yet to come no disrespect to the above for their fabulous gifts. My son and family are coming tomorrow yipeee!!! for a week, many cuddles and kisses will be shared, haven't seen them for 8 months, so a big catch up is due. I am a very happy and lucky girl.

**** Fantastic Chateau Dumas Workshop Giveaway 2011****

Last October Chrissie and her daughter Terri came to our Reinventing French Textiles workshop at Chateau Dumas, our beautiful 18th century chateau and 22-acre estate in southwest France.

We had an absolutely brilliant week! The sun shone, we visited atmospheric country flea markets and rummaged in boxes, we made beautiful bags and gorgeous cushions in the studio and we went wild dyeing with woad in the woods. Our group of 8 was expertly led by our wonderful tutor, Ros Badger, author of craft book “Homemade” and a talented stylist (http://www.rosbadger.com/)

Chrissie said she thought the whole world should hear about our workshops – and I totally agree! In fact I’m delighted to announce here that I will offer one lucky person a free place on one of our workshops this year.

So if you think that you might enjoy a week of creativity in a luxury Chateau then please take part in our competition. The winner will enjoy a free place on a Chateau Dumas workshop, worth at least 1400 euros. It includes accommodation, all meals, tuition, trips to markets and factories (flight to Toulouse, France not included).

As well as our Reinventing Textiles, we have Jewellery, Millinery (from a milliner who used to make hats for the Queen and Princess Diana no less!) Painting, and a Festive French Country workshop. Chrissie has asked me to guest blog over the next few weeks and tell you a little about each workshop in turn – thanks Chrissie.

You can see our full creative workshop programme at http://www.chateaudumas.net/
We’re also on facebook http://www.facebook.com/ChateauDumas   you can  email me to join our mailing list at enquiries@chateaudumas.net or you can follow us on twitter http://twitter.com/ChateauDumas


A bientot, Lizzie


Thanks so much Lizzie, now does that not just get your creative juices going, but firstly let me say again a huge thank you to Lizzie for her very generous offer  and whoever wins this fantastic prize is in for a real treat.

I'm sure you are all wondering what it is you have to do to enter the competition and have a chance of winning this fabulous prize. Well, we're going to make it very easy for you.


First of all you'll need to go onto the Chateau Dumas website, look at the 2011 Creative Workshop programme and choose the workshop you would most like to attend. Then, to enter the competition, you simply leave your name and the title of your preferred workshop in the comment box at the bottom of this blog. You can add an extra comment if you like, but you must tell us which workshop you would most like to attend. Lizzie will then pick a name randomly 'from the hat' on 31 March and the lucky winner's name will be announced on the blog. What could be simpler?

Lizzie will pop in from time to time between now and 31st March to tell you a bit more about the individual workshops. You can also Like Chateau Dumas facebook page for more updates: www.facebookcom/ChateauDumas

Rules for Entry
1. Please follow my blog
2.Only one entry per person. The competition is open to anyone aged 18 years or over. Giveaway is open worldwide.
3.Winner agrees to give an interview at the Chateau and to publicity on the blog, facebook and twitter
4. The workshop place must be taken in 2011 and is subject to availability
5.The competition starts on 18th Feb and will end at midnight on 31st March
6. The winner's name will be posted on the blog on the 1st April
7. Return airfare to Toulouse and transport from the airport to the Chateau are not included (transfers available for 30E per person each way)
8. The prize includes accommodation, meals, tuition and trips. Many materials are included; some materials are extra and can be bought at the Chateau.


 

Really looking forward to meeting you at the Chateau

The Day I Dyed and Went To Heaven

On arriving at  Chateau Dumas late Sunday evening turning into the drive I was met with the most spectacular scene of the Chateau ablaze with lights. I was so excited to be finally here and couldn’t wait for the morning to arrive and get started.

The rest of the group were settled and having dinner and I could hear that they were already having a good time. Lizzie (the owner of the Chateau) is such a warm and welcoming person you were instantly made to feel at home.

Last year I did the woad-dyeing course at the chateau and this was an experience that I want to do again and again. When I saw that Lizzie was running a course combining Reinventing French textiles run by Ros Badger and a day woad -dyeing well I just had to go. The course runs for a week but other commitments would only allow me three days, but they were filled to capacity.

9am Monday morning finally came, we all gathered in the studio which is large room with soft greys and white walls and a beautiful hand painted design on the floor, large skylights and the although the day was overcast (the rest of the week was glorious) the room was so light and airy.

A spectacular sight met us with piles of vintage textiles, trimmings, templates, embroidery threads, vintage craft books, a table full of samples made by Ros, and Lizzie, bags made from vintage linen tea towels, covered coat hangers, patchwork hearts to name a few and we all immediately pounced on the table where we could use anything we wanted as Lizzie had provided us with a massive range of vintage pieces to choose from.

I had a rough Idea of what I wanted to do but then my brain went into overdrive and I found my self hopping from one thing to the other, bliss pure bliss. Tuesday, hang on what happened to Monday? The group was producing lots of wonderful items and Ros seemed to flit with ease from person to person offering help and advice if needed, she has an amazing eye for colour combinations. I loved the fact that everyone in the group were also genuinely interested in what other people were making and hints and tips were flying through the room and made the atmosphere really special.

I wanted to make a bag from an old linen skirt and added a beautiful fabric trim to the bottom and decided to line it with the same fabric, I was fiddling about with it and Ros came over and said “ love this bag” I told her this was to be the lining, and with a flash off she went and came back with the most sumptuous piece of green silk and this was added to the top. Ok now I have two bags, but you can never have enough bags, right!!!

Ok Wednesday is here and Denise and Annette are setting up the vats for the woad-dyeing and we are all scurrying about sorting out what we wanted to dip first. She then gave us an interesting talk on the history of woad, which although I heard it last year it was delivered with humour and fascinating facts.

I had a bag at home with lace trimmings, shells, and a few other bits and was furious with myself, yes I had forgotten to bring it with me (well there is always next year) if I am lucky enough!!! So after beating myself up decided just to enjoy watching what everyone else was dyeing, between that and popping back into the studio to make up one or two other things that took my fancy. 6pm came far to fast in my opinion, which meant that my lift back home was due any minute. I bade farewell to my new friends who were still up in the fairy park dyeing with pleasure. I have selected a few pictures and I personally can’t wait to hear what they got up to for their last two days………

I for one had the most fabulous three days, met some lovely people, made a few things that I never knew I could and if your looking for a crafty holiday in the South West of France then I can’t recommend it enough.

http://www.chateaudumas.net/

http://www.bleu-de-lectoure.com/

http://rosbadger.blogspot.com/

And finally Ros will be offering one lucky person the chance to win her handmade book which will be personalised by her own fair hand coming soon on my blog in the next few weeks.

Dyed in the Woad

/

Last year I took a textile course held in the beautiful 18th century Chateau Dumas where we collected various pieces of vintage linens and then dyed them in woad using an ancient technique shown to us by Denise Lambert. I have to say that the smell of the woad was too say the least quite revolting but easily forgiven for producing such beautiful shades of blues.

If you would like to know more about this amazing plant check it out here http://www.woad.org.uk