Month Two of Lockdown and the world has shrunk in many ways, but our mood appears to be more outward than ever! Sewing for the NHS, checking on and shopping for neighbours, learning to WhatsApp and Zoom. These are all things we didn’t need to do before but are now vital and distract us from the negative. Let’s hope the world is improved by this experience and the community spirit is has engendered keeps going.

The Living Threads artists have hopefully been using the enforced lockdown and sunny weather to get outside and have a good look at their gardens, ready for the theme of our next exhibition in April 2021. It has been a joy to see the blossom coming out, the bees buzzing about and to hear the sound of lawnmowers. Aren’t birds noisy? With no traffic noise I’ve become very aware of what is going on in the trees and on the fences in my garden.

For those that enjoy machine stitching, there are an abundance of NHS projects to help make scrubs and masks. I have been making scrub caps out of an incredibly awkward antimicrobial fabric for Paediatric ICU at Queens, Nottingham. We have been thrilled to see the doctors wearing them and to know that they are proving useful. Facebook is awash with surgical scrubs making sites and groups. There are, for home use, even some no-sew mask patterns around, but if you have a machine they are very quick to make. My daughter is with us at the moment but preparing for a return to London soon, so is busy sewing masks for herself and partner!

Until Lockdown is lifted we as a Living Threads Group, cannot make any decisions but we do expect to be able to offer our Autumn classes and we will be taking bookings hopefully in August. We have a Preview Day organised for 1^st August, but more about that closer to the time, when we know more about the virus restrictions down the line. Please keep an eye on the website.

Don’t forget to check our website at: www.livingthreadstextileartists.com or email us at: livingthreadsgroup@gmail.com or check us out on Facebook.

We wish you all a speedy recovery if you or family have had Covid-19, and that the rest of us manage to avoid it.

Until June, or the partial end of Lockdown, whichever comes first!

Cheers

Gilli Theokritoff, Newsletter Editor