Patches of Destruxion

Hello everybody! Last weekend I went to a short workshop making EPP Christmas ornaments, here in my current home city of Coventry. We were at St-Martin's-In-The-Field Church, which was a very nice venue, providing excellent tea and cake in the café. We were in a heated marquee due to building work, but I really didn't find it that cold (note: I was the only one with this opinion. None of my fellow classmates took off their coat like I did). Our tutor was Jane Cobbett, a local textile artist, collector and quilt restorer. She started by giving us a talk on how the Victorians used to make Christmas decorations using fabric scraps, often selling them to raise money for good causes. She brought in this lovely late Victorian Moravian star from her collection (maker unknown). Isn't it lovely? A lot of the fabrics are silks, and you can make out some brocade designs. The beads are held in place by pins. Jane also showed us this version of the same pattern she made herself. Then we...

Hello everybody! Some embroidery from me, for the first time in a while. On Saturday I went to a lovely workshop at Spode museum in Stoke on Trent. The Stitching @ Spode workshops and talks are organised by Mary Chadwick and our tutor for this one was Vanita Roberts. We made these little hanging Christmas tree ornaments. The embroidery is mostly based on blackwork designs with a small amount of cross stitch. We were all given these kits to work with. And of course, being at a pottery museum in Stoke, the tea service is a beautiful blue willow. I got most the blackwork elements finished in the class. The rest I had to finish off at home. All the blackwork part done Here it is with all the embroidery and bras done before joining the sides together. And here it is finished! I even did a mini video so you could see all the sides. The shape is called a watbo. It's named after  Wat Bo in Cambodia, which means 'Temple of the Lotus' in the Khmer language. I haven't been able t...