Summer summary

I've spent the last week readjusting. For the last two months I've been preparing, packing bags, loading cards, teaching, unloading cars, swapping bags - and repeat. So much so that there was a LOT of stuff to sort out. It's taken me about a week to get on top of that. But it was worth it for an AMAZING summer. Here's what we've been up to:

• We were very pleased to be given funding from East Riding of Yorkshire Arts Grant to run some Family Arts sessions in Goole and Withernsea. We recently ran the I Am ME project with children in Goole and we were keen to draw momentum and run some sessions where all children can get involved - and adults too! As a parent myself, I can say that often I wanted to join in the art and children's art classes - but never felt like I could! These sessions were designed to encourage adults to join in too (for free) and learn and enjoy alongside their child. We also run an adult drawing group as part of the Love to Draw project in Patrington, and we wanted to work more on that area to bring more art opportunities to families. So the Creative Families project was an exciting opportunity. We delivered 10 sessions over the summer and the response was fantastic. We also ran one of our Family Arts sessions in Pocklington this summer- taking inspiration from Day at The Seaside and making Collage Finger Puppets. We love to run these Family Arts sessions and try and make them as affordable as possible. When we can't subsidise them through funding, we often subsidise them ourselves as part of our Community Pledge. We aim to run at least one session per school holidays, plus a few extra sessions when we can.

• We worked with York Libraries to run some fun art sessions as part of their Summer Reading Challenge. We've worked at the libraries in York before and these sessions are so well considered and they fill up fast! It was great to be back making hand-stitched notebook covers (with a free notebook which the children found very exciting). Each cover was personalised with hand-cut felt shapes and sewn pocket, and is completely reusable for other A5 notebooks. I love teaching children to sew - whether it is using my (now infamous) dolphin-leaping-in-the-water analogy, or just watching their faces when they flip it the right way round again and see what they have created. We also made mythical clay creature heads - inspired by tales from Ancient Mythology or just some brand new fantastic creations. Clay is great fun and so achievable for all children.

• We were thrilled ot be asked to work with the Hull and East Yorkshire Children's University this summer to run a sewing workshop. What an amazing experience! Such a wonderful group of girls joined us - so enthusiastic, keen and dedicated. I showed them how to make a pencil case and how to use a sewing machine. Our sewing sessions are perfect for children aged 8+. We show them how to set up their machine and how to use it safely. They learnt how to make hems, seams and even put in a zip. They added coloured ribbons to personalise their pencil case and even made their own pom-pom tassel. It is so rewarding to watch children gain confidence as they learn to use the machine with the sharp pointy needle! We also ran a sewing session in Market Weighton, making drawstring tote bags. I love these bags - I use mine often as they're very durable and actually quite straightforward to make. They could personalise their bags with patches and choose their patterned fabric. We usually run at least one sewing workshop per school holiday, plus some Saturdays too. We can also run these for groups, parties or private sessions - we offer a private hire rate and can provide materials and equipment. We are ERMOS registered and we have appropriate insurance and Enhanced DBS.

We're just letting the dust settle and then I will be adding dates to the calendar for autumn half term and Christmas. We aim to run at least one family arts session and one sewing session. We don't run many sessions over Christmas as, to be honest, we're too tired by then and we find everyone is quite busy. But we're keen to run a Christmas-themed family arts session in early December - so do check our page for listing. If you want to be kept up to date you can subscribe to our newsletters.

And now, it's back in autumn mode. The kids are back in school, and I am delivering adult workshops again - take a look at our website and see what we have on offer.