Easyart and Photobox - a poster is not just for Christmas

Here's an idea for promoting your textile art. Take a photo of your work, perhaps the piece you are most proud of and turn it into a piece of canvas art for someone's wall. Or maybe take various shots of your stitching and create a calendar ... or a mug or a jigsaw. Christmas is looming after all and every year it gets harder to find something unique. If you've "got it, baby" why not flaunt it for the world to see? And maybe you're a great photographer on the side too and have some fantastic photos people would love to hang on their walls.

1. Great idea no.1 - You can go to the Easyart site, scroll down to the bottom third of the home screen and look for "sell your art". There's a one off charge here, depending on how many pictures you upload at once, but after that they can stay there indefinitely and if they are good people may buy them - and you, the "artiste", will get 20% of the retail price. Could be a nice little earner for Distant Stitchers .... perhaps make enough to be able to afford Summer School without loading the credit card? Over the years I've bought quite few different pictures and posters and they've always turned up quickly and been good quality, so I feel very happy to suggest them to you.

Oh and while you are at Easyart, do check out the paintings of Susie Lipman (just type her name into the search box at the top of the site home page). Susie is the partner of my nephew and she is a really talented artist with a gallery selling lots of fantastic art in Burnham (the gallery is Oberon Arts).

2. Great idea no.2 - Or you could turn your "piece de resistance" into a mug or a jigsaw or a calendar. If you go to PhotoBox you can do all of these things in less time than it would take to thread up your sewing machine, or unpick that last row of knitting. I've used Photobox for several years and they are a very fast and reliable site, and I think the colours and quality of their pictures etc are really good. Its also a great place to store your photos safely (its also one good way of backing up some of your most treasured photos in case your home computer blows a gasket or sets fire to the whole house). And they can do lots of funky things like turning your once in a lifetime holiday photos into a smart little book - much easier than fighting with those gummed photo corners.

"I can resist everything except temptation"

I keep up a regular email correspondence with Anne who I met on last year's summer school at Urchfont, and Anne has the good sense to be very strict with me at times. Emailing over Easter I warbled on about various other crafty things I was half way through and I was roundly reproved for neglecting my work on the C & G course. Anne, there follows the visual proof of my ongoing reprobate behaviour (look on it as a sort of confessional). There's the memory blanket I'm working on made from material from some of Emily's toddler clothes (why can't grown-ups get clothes that cool?WHY?!). Then there's the Rowan cardigan I have been knitting that only needs its collar and it will be complete (I'm knitting smaller stuff after this - phew!). I tried macrame again after many many years and made a belt which I am really pleased with. And I finally got round to uploading my collection of photos of doors and windows in France, and ordering a collage picture from Photobox (http://www.photobox.co.uk/). I try to defend myself by claiming I am getting more rounded experience and one artform may inform another. Anne just thinks I am very very naughty indeed.