500,25,600 minutes...................not quite............

.......but it feels like that long since I’ve  felt the pleasure of blogging.

With the world hurtling to who knows what future, and the UK becoming an  country unrecognisable to me, my creative urge has been struggling to find any point in emerging in to the daylight. Today felt right for a review of February. This is a very photo heavy post.

Decorating a samba drum to be played at Extinction Rebellion events

A beautiful, soothing piece from the exhibition at Two Temple Place, “Unbound” sadly, like so many events, cut short. Some great pieces in this, particularly the historic clothing, but also a few strange placements of exhibits on the second floor, meaning that four pieces could not be seen effectively. If this exhibition is re-opened, I hope the curators take note of the comments about the placement of the beautiful saris, and the two indigo wallhangings.

Painting course, a piece now probably never to be finished about locks and fragments, 

based on this photo

Signs of spring

Creating textures with paint

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The visionary Alexander McQueen, a superb exhibition in the shop on Bond Street - and they did let me in even although I was dressed in my oldest clothes worn to the painting class.

Dyed and shredded silk chiffon

As a dressmaker, intrigued to see the effect of the two wedge-shaped panels inserted in to the full circle skirt.

Hand made,  gold work bees

There are some excellent reviews ( and photographs of the actual garments ) in these articles here, and here. I know that couture is criticised as only being applicable to the rich, but I see the skills involved as no different from other fine crafts and therefore worthy of admiration. 

Then to see The Doncaster Heads, by Laurence Edwards, an art project commissioned by Doncaster Council to honour the town’s mining heritage. 

These heads are so moving, half life-size, I think. I’m often not taken with the finish on bronze portraits, but these are excellent. Perhaps it is the sheer number, and that each person is recognisable as an individual, yet part of a whole.There is a superb series of videos, of Laurence Edwards, sculpting the heads of 22 of the participants, as they talk to him. Each one is at least 1h and 50 mins, but are an excellent antidote to our current lockdown.

Library quilt, piecing completed, but needs a couple of appliques,  before quilting.

More textured paper

Picasso exhibition. Fantastic. I did not expect to enjoy this as much as I did . So many media, and I was not aware of how much he was prepared to experiment in them all. 

My professional life takes me to many hospitals across the UK. In Southampton General, there was an exhibition of the work of Alexa Cox. Delicate, yet powerful of images of young children, with paper cutaways. Very arresting and getting a lot of attention from hospital visitors. I didn't notice the parallelogram shaped light reflections until I loaded this photo.

Cutting circles in the textured papers

Experimenting with tone

Blue textured papers

An exhibition of new work by Frances MacDonald at the Portland Gallery. If I am ever left an inheritance, I will buy one of her huge paintings.

Franken-seed-pods in a London square

Spring sunset

Hellebore from my garden

Carrying the weight of the world? This running man, is one of a whole series that supports the banister inside a Newcastle hotel. Whenever  my work takes me away from home, I try to stay somewhere interesting, or to get to a local exhibition that I would not see otherwise. I wonder if I will be able to do that again before I retire.

The image below, from here, shows the statuettes before renovation.

Flooding in York, seen from the train

What a month of memories and inspiration.

She isn't blogging - oh yes she is!

Too much panto’  making going on to allow time for blogging. 16 costumes to make from scratch, 11 to adapt from existing wardrobe stores, numerous accessories to make - rapier frogs anyone?

New making experiences this year:

Dyeing swan’s feathers ( gathered legally in Hyde Park, at the Serpentine). Dyed using Dye-na-Flow dyes and a foam brush. Not sure how permanent this will be, but as long as the stage roof doesn’t leak, it should be fine.

Sewing leather - who knew this was so straightforward!

and a reason to get out my floral mini-hammer!

Stitching fun:

Bling for the directors to wear at the first Sunday rehearsal

Garters for the adult leads, male and female

Bling for shoes and hats

When the sewing gets busy, even my work computer is used as a surface

Chaos in the sewing room - I always start off saying to myself that I will work in an organised and tidy manner - it never happens.

A set of musketeers

For anyone with an interest in costume, there is a terrific exhibition by and about the costume department at the National Theatre, free and on until the middle of 2020.

Inspirational weekend - sculpture and stitching

I have been away to the Contemporary Quilt Group Winter School at Alston Hall.  What a treat.
On the way, I visited the Yorkshire Sculpture Park to see the work of Ai Weiwei , Ursula von Rydingsvard and James Turrell.  Wow, on all counts.  The works by Ai Weiwei are as thought provoking as ever, the scale of Ursula von Rydingsvard's work is astonishing and the Skyspace is a mesmerising experience.  The Yorkshire countryside was at its autumnal best, so the sculptures were seen in glorious light.  This park is on such a scale, it is worth planning a weekend around it.

Iron tree, Ai Weiwei

Ursula von Rydingsvard

Skyspace
Nature provided its own shapes and colours

Blue and orange

Toadstool - thanks to my brother, now identified as a shaggy inkcap.

Toadstool
Then on to meet over 30 textile-obsessed women, all there to learn.  Seventeen of us crammed in to  a rather small room, with voluminous quantities of equipment, to learn about machine trapunto with Philippa Naylor.  Philippa is a generous, encouraging and inspirational teacher, so if you ever get the opportunity to do a workshop with her, grab it immediately.  Her new book , Appliqué Mastery, is full of tips, as well as a full size pattern for her award-winning quilt.
The view from my bedroom was inspiration in itself, changing as the light of the day changed.





The trapunto was a surprisingly straightforward technique, and I managed a whole weekend without breaking a single size 60 needle - Philippa's recommendation.  This needle made a huge difference to the quality and density of the machine quilting I could achieve on my machine.

I have of course come away from  the weekend with another object to finish, so the "unfinished list" has just got longer.