At least in Paris things went well, the course at La Tapisserie Au Point was excellent as usual. This one was Galons Et Bordures, there should be a picture tomorrow, it needs to be taken out of my suitcase and put back on the frame, I didn't have time last night. You will be impressed, I think, by the amount that we did in the class, it is pretty hard work at one of Veronique's courses. There were only three of us doing this one, plus there was a girl there who was doing the "Maison de Reve", which is the final and most impressive project that you can do as a class. I'm really looking forward to going back to do Motif Florentin in three weeks time.
The one rather boring point was that there was a Korean woman there who was rather strange, she wants to do all the courses very fast and then go back to Korea and teach - I have the feeling that she kind of wants to take the ideas and profit from them, because she was asking for copies of this and that. I think it's fine to be an agent in another country and do things correctly, but I get a bad feeling when it looks as though someone wants to plagiarise.
By the way, Veronique's new book is really great, and it is bilingual - although the diagrams are so fantastic that it doesn't need to be. I am seriously thinking of making the screen, it is a really practical and elegant way to record a sampler of stitches:
If you would like a book, you can order it here - I can highly recommend it. It is so well produced and the ideas are greatly inspiring.
Two days of courses from 9:30 am to 5:00 pm didn't really leave much time for anything else, especially when I also spent four hours on Saturday evening advancing for Sunday.
However on Friday I went to the hairdresser and have a new, shorter cut, David says it is rather nice, incredibly rare for him to notice, I wonder if his wife has been telling him to be more sensitive again! I also went to Brentano's and to Le Bon Marche - where I bought yarn, needles, a few notions and Christmas present for my sister. For some reason she is convinced that Petit Bateau T-shirts are the height of chic - they are actually children's ones that go up to an 18 year old size that quite small women can squeeze into - so I humour her by buying them. I don't actually know any French women that wear them, although children and teenagers do. Myself, I prefer something a bit more comfortable and better cut for a woman's figure, although I don't wear a lot of T-shirts anyway.
After that I went to the office to collect airtickets and talk to a few people who were there, and I crawled home again really quite early, about 4:00pm, to rest and get ready for the course.
I did get some nice mail while I was home - my clothes from Ulla Popken, some things from Criss Cross Row and Traditional Stitches, and a Rowan magazine with lovely cushions in it. But I am still waiting for a few things.
Yesterday I stayed at home until it was time for my taxi, the morning was only enlivened by a call from Sylvain, who with his usual tact and diplomacy said it didn't really matter if I had a Cyprus work permit, because then he could take me back to his French project. Talk about missing the point entirely! I did not appreciate, especially when it turned out that the reason he wanted to talk to me was to ask questions to help him with an RFP for Algeria. Algeria, I shrieked, what is wrong with Belgium or Germany or Denmark or somewhere normal? I am getting quite worried about this continued tendancy to go for contracts in Muslim countries, it simply is too dangerous and unsuitable for women to work there.
Anyway today I am playing catch up, better go...
