Finches

A few spare hours over the seasonal break has given me the chance to develop a few new lines for the Etsy shop. I love finches so here are a greenfinch, goldfinch and bullfinch.

Clocking

Thanks to all of you have told me about "clocking". They appear to be embroidered motifs around the ankle area of stockings.
 Thank you to those readers who supplied   a couple of good links here about stockings and the motifs here
http://www.mfa.org/collections/object/pair-of-infants-stockings-121440

https://georgianera.wordpress.com/2015/03/31/18th-century-stockings-how-shocking/

I googled images of early nineteenth century stockings and found many good pics there too if any of you want to follow it up further.

Quilted Petticoats

I was given this old book for Christmas. It was first published in 1915 and this edition is 1948. Over the last 10 years I have fairly regularly made quilted petticoats / skirts using old quilts and my original inspiration was the quilted skirts worn by women connected with the fishing industry here on the north east coast of England. There are few references to quilted petticoats in any books so  I was interested to read in this book two storiesI did not have any knowledge of. In one chapter Webster tells of runaway slaves being identified by their petticoats and later on she talks of women from Holland who settled in the USA and who wore short quilted petticoats all the better to show off their high heels and coloured hose with scarlet "clockings" ( no I don't know what this means!). I would love to see some photographs of these transplanted Hollanders in their quilted skirts and fine stockings if anyone can lead me to any archive photographs.

Here are some photographs of some of my own quilted skirts. You may have seen them before and they are featured in my book "Textile Collage".

Woad Work

Have had time to put together a little collage this week using some of my left over bits of woad dyed fabric from Chateau Dumas last summer. I am returning in 2017 to run a slightly different course so why not spoil yourself and join me in the south of France? Full details are HERE. I don't have anything to do with the booking procedure as that is for Selvedge and Lizzie at Chateau Dumas to do so please don't contact me but go  straight through the link above.

Another lovely bag

I have had a lot of comments about my last post so here is another example of an embroidered bag from the Sami people. My absolute essential viewing this Christmas will be "All Aboard! The Sleigh Ride" on BBC 4 at 7pm.  A two hour sleigh journey from the point of view of the reindeer travelling across part of the Arctic Circle. There are no words but he is being herded by a couple of interestingly dressed Sami women. I have seen it before but can't wait! GB readers go and set your recording devices up now!

Reindeers and Christmas

At Christmas time I feel I can freely admit to loving reindeer and in fact all deers! Some of the best textiles I have seen this year  were in the Nordiska Museet in Stockholm.

Worn Out

The last and smallest room of my current solo exhibition at The Customs House contains my most intimate and personal work which mixes up my love of working on to the surface of old quilts and my love for my grandmother. It brings together embroidered quotes from her diaries, some of her household possessions and my beloved old quilt fragments. I still use the fork on my allotment.

Worn Out

In the year that Mandy Pattullo became a grandmother she has been thinking a lot about her own grandmother who died more than 30 years ago. She was a poor farmer’s wife and was worn out through trying to make ends meet. To supplement the income from the farm she sold eggs, raised piglets for sale and looked after the calves. In the lead up to Christmas she would sit in a cold barn and pluck ducks and turkeys for the local butcher. Looking through her diaries Mandy could see that she had many livestock and money worries, but  her own  good memories are of her working in the farmhouse garden, making clothes on the old Singer and her cooking for legendary parties at the farm. Reading the diaries and slowly sewing her words brings Mandy closer to her life and helps her reflect on her own role as a grandmother to Bobby.

https://www.customshouse.co.uk/gallery/