Savage Beauty

I went to see "Savage Beauty" at the V &A yesterday. Was blown away by Alexander McQueen's imagination and creativity. So much attention to detail and the use of extraordinary materials, all used in conjunction with exciting concepts and narratives.
If you haven't seen it do try. I think nearly all the tickets have gone but they are opening it up 24 hours a day towards the end. If you are not interested in fashion then you will enjoy the whole set design and theatricality of it.
There are some good little videos and articles on the V &A website HERE and if you don't know anything about Alexander McQueen then just google images of "Alexander McQueen Embroidery" and enjoy.
I have been doing a spot of my own homespun fashion design today and here is what I came up with!

Red and White

New Monotypes

I love printmaking as much as textiles as I originally trained as a surface pattern designer and it allows the more painterly  side to come out, is quicker and I can achieve mark making and texture which is sometimes a struggle to get with hand sewing. I have an exhibition of my work opening this weekend at The Craft and Design Centre, Leeds City Art Gallery. If you are passing through before October 24th then please go and have a look. Check opening times  HERE

Red Lady

Roses and peonies

I live in the middle of a city. I don't have the idyllic lifestyle of a studio in the garden or even in fact a garden! I have a tiny Tyneside back yard which is typical of the area where I live but I do make it as beautiful as I can by growing things in chimney pots, old tin baths and china Belfast sinks. Some birds visit, the cat can sit in the sun and it is a tiny paradise in the middle of the big smoke. However…… my climbing rose annoyingly seems to grow tall and strong but then do all its blooming into the next door yard. I also grow peonies on my allotment. I suppose all of this is in the way of introducing this textile collage which has a bit of this back story going on… 

Threads

I  have just finished reading this book and highly recommend it. John Craske was a Norfolk fisherman who became infirm and spent his life painting and embroidering what he knew best - life at sea and the North Norfolk coastline. Julia Blackburn can not find out a great deal about him but her discoveries lead us to learn more about the people who loved his work ( including 2 people whose work I love - Peter Pears and Sylvia Townsend Warner) and odd digressions and stories e.g. about Einstein's brief period of living in Norfolk. 

Needlewoman

Getting ready today for the Stitch course I am teaching at the weekend. Fully booked I am afraid! Just back from teaching at the delightful SewnotStrawberryJam in Kent. I was very much taken with the horse box they now have on the little farm, which you can rent for the night. Think it needs a stable boy quilt on that bed though don't you!