My friend Bee

This is my friend Bee Mellor who moved to Australia nearly four years ago and is over here on a visit. Bee is a brilliant textile artist and I have always admired her work. See more of it on www.beemellor.com

And this is what Bee made to give me. Inside the cover is a notebook of Khadi papers waiting to be drawn and painted on. I have built up quite a collection of her lovely pieces and soon, with her permission I'll show some more photographs of her work.

Budgie colours

My artist friend Bee said,'I'd like to have all their colours in my pallette to paint with.' ... These budgies can be seen in Priory Park in Chichester. Bee, over from Australia, and I visited them on what was surely the hottest day of the year so far !

Bakery Lane, Petersfield

I set up a stand in Bakery Lane, Petersfield on Saturday. It's a new venture - last Saturday of each month. 10am to 4pm. I'm going to try to be there next month outside The Blacksmith's Daughter florist facing Waitrose car park. This peeling paint door was a perfect backdrop for my old mirror. As usual the handmade buttons sold and the interesting jewellery tempted a few people to say they were going to see more in Tricot Too in Dragon Street.

Only three dolls left now.

This week I'll be making cats in cardigans for a display in Havant Library from Tuesday July 7th to Friday July 31st.
Next Saturday I'll be selling at Farnham Maltings again. That's Saturday July 4th 10am to 4pm

Summer Supper

Fresh picked from the garden. '...broad beans nestling in their blankety beds'....

Exciting me now

Making clothes with nuno felt is exciting to me now! This picture is in Lizzie Houghton's new book 'Felting Fashion'. The texture, the soft drape and the art to wear one-offness of these pieces is totally inspirational!

Sweet peas from the garden

All the fun of the Fete

A donkey ride for the children

A keenly fought tug of war.
I had a stand at Beech Village Fete on Saturday when all the residents came together to make money to revamp their village hall.
I met some nice people and bought some amazing books :'The Fiberarts Book of Wearable Art' - (I might post some pictures from this amazing book later) and the hefty coffee table book called 'Pierre Herme Patissier' with sumptuous photos of strawberry tarts, florentines and croissants and their recipes, both for 20p -not bad eh?

New buttons

The buttons on the left remind me of butterfly wings. These are buttons I made today. A larger selection is available to buy on http://jennystacyshop.blogspot.com

New stockist

My painted wood buttons are now stocked by The Black Sheep, a new shop in West Street, Midhurst.

Watching green finches with a friend

This week a friend hosted an 'Art Week' in her glorious garden. Her artist and maker friends sketched and painted with all this inspiration around them.

So much to see. As we sat chatting half way up the garden three green finches swooped and fed just a stone's throw away.

I love the colour and smooth texture of this gate against the pale stone wall.

What a paradise! Stone steps lead up through the garden to a vegetable plot beyond a gate at the top. Everywhere there is detail and decoration -smooth sun bleached wood on end as sculpture; chain arches and an amusing scarecrow made of threaded together plant pots. This garden could only have been created by an artist. It is a wonderful achievement.

Lovely delphinium in the garden

Flowers and thoughts

A few flowers from the garden and you can blame the garden for keeping me from blogging this past week.
It's so nice to potter about outside and to work on stock and orders outside while the sun shines. And today my kind neighbour lent me her sun umbrella so I can stay even longer outside without worrying about shrivelling up into a dry prune. I am knitting a tunic and it's taking far longer than I reckoned but I think it will be worth the time and effort when it's done. I've asked Rowan if I can have wool at wholesale prices as there are more garments in the pipeline - I'll find out on Monday.

I've also been thinking about workshops. What sort of things to teach? I have now come up with a list of workshop options for groups to choose from and I think I will learn from those taking part just as they will learn from me. If anyone is interested in joining a fun creative workshop let me know. More details on request.

I have three sales coming up: Saturday June 20th I'm at Beech village fete which is next to Alton in Hampshire;
Saturday June 27th I'll be selling in Bakery Lane, Petersfield - buttons, dolls and badges, not the textile jewellery which is exclusive to Tricot Too in this area.
Saturday July 4th Farnham Maltings in The Barley Room 9am to 4pm

At Farnham Maltings

On Saturday I had an enjoyable day selling at Farnham Maltings in Surrey. The dolls were especially appreciated and I'm planning to make a lot more of those. Buttons, necklaces and flapper girls also went down well. Although this is a once a month show for makers and antique dealers the stalls are so popular that I don't know when and if I'll be invited to do it again.
My next event is selling buttons and dolls in Petersfield on Saturday June 27th. Then you can see my work in the big display cabinet for the whole month of July in Havant Library.

This week in Tricot Too

Pretty cardigan worn with one of my necklaces.

Love this clean and cool outfit for hot summer days.

Red flower necklace with red flower print dress.

Making dolls

These are the first two of five dolls I hope to complete this week. I love selecting colours to make the dolls. The other three have hair and painted faces and today I'll try and make their dresses in different colours from those pictured here.

These dolls are for sale on my new shop blog http://jennystacyshop.blogspot.com/

Shopping for Cats

One of the first items to go on sale in my new shop blog is Cedric here, one of the 'cats in cardigans'. I am hopeless with things technical and for the time being have given up on installing Pay Pal. So if you want Cedric I'm afraid it's still payment by cheque in Jenny Stacy's world. See Cedric and his friend Wilbur on my new blog http://jennystacyshop.blogspot.com

Good display

Opposite me at the Petworth Costume and Textile fair last weekend were Sam Hogg and Lynne Wallace who display their work so beautifully. Different heights. Clean and uncluttered - I could learn a lot from these two!(see post below)

Lean mean green machine!

Last weekend I met the delightful Amy Aardvark, who prints textiles and her boyfriend JP who owns this totally cool bike. Very fast apparently. It looks to me like a 'green' version of a Harley Davidson. I hope to see Amy at Cockpit Arts in London where she has her studio. Her lively company was one of the highlights of the fair. (see below)

Petworth's Costume and Textile Fair

I spent the weekend and Monday in this rather beautiful round tent. It had a chandelier and billowing drapes, quite the grandest setting I have ever experienced! It was a lovely fair with talks on fashion and clothes through the ages. A large marquee of textile artists, another large marquee of beautiful fabrics - ethnic treasures, French antique linens, hand embellished clothes. Plus textile hangings and pictures by groups and individuals. All really interesting.

My table, and the words 'could do better' come to mind. But in spite of the rather messy display and totally wrong white mirror I had a great time. I met some really interesting people. I sold hundreds of buttons, lots of badges and a few pieces of jewellery. Hopefully the Petworth House Costume and Textile Fair will become an annual event.