Last Sunday I visited the Hearth Open Studio day and was, if honest, a little over whelmed by the superb standard of work but also totally inspired. The half a dozen or so studios house a collection of diverse artists working with ceramics, watercolours, wool, felting, there were some lovely clocks and fun little knitted and driftwood dolls - it was all pretty wonderful but the place that really appealed to me was the studio and work of Mandy Pattullo - a local textile artist who does the most beautiful patchwork, vintage fabric creations using old recycled fabrics, hand embroidery, lace, and is very experimental and creative at putting together the most unlikely materials to produce beautiful art. I first came across Mandy Pattullo when I moved to Northumberland, a practising textile artist - I was looking for classes and discovered she runs textile workshops. Unfortunately I've never managed to get on one as they are always either full or don't fit into my tr...