Welcome to May!

Lambs in the fields, tulips in the gardens and all the showy blossom on the trees, combined with sunny days and little rain have really brought home the changing season.

With life feeling like it might open up soon and the sun shining, I think that many of us are looking outwards again. Many of us will be double vaccinated soon, and although not planning many trips abroad at the moment, we might get out and about a bit more.

Spring is sprung and the garden is looking more inviting for us all. Maybe it is time to get some inspiration for next year’s exhibition? Or our Collaborative gardens project? Both are due for completing by the end of December, so I, for one, need to get thinking! Museums are due to open up again in mid May, but I, for one, will avoid the crowds for a while yet and continue to enjoy artworks virtually. I missed the Gees Bend Quilts exhibition in 2019 but I’ve been looking at https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/article/ra-magazine-gees-bend-quilters to see the early Improv techniques of the Deep South. I’m hoping David Hockney’s new exhibition “the Arrival of Spring” at the Royal Academy, featuring his prolific iPad artworks, will be available online too – although nothing beats the scale of his last exhibition where you felt you were in the woodlands with him.

I haven’t been to any shops yet, unless you count Deb’s Fabrics, in Selston, which is in Deb’s own house. She has a huge range of quilting cotton fabrics, suitable for dressmaking too, wadding, threads and plenty of interesting whatnots. The fabric has taken over her house! You can find her via Google, or www.debsfabrics.com  I’ve had coffee or a refreshing elderflower cordial in the garden with a few friends – on our new terrace – and visited the local library. However, come late May I shall be getting back to teaching some classes. Past students have asked me to organise a weekly class for them, so I’ve booked a hall and been COVID-inducted. I’m currently trying to find a convenient small hall to do occasional workshops over the summer. I must get my website organised so that I can advertise them!

Julie Williams has been busy during the last few months of Lockdown:

“I’ve tried various online workshops and courses over the past year but by far the most enjoyable has been Laura Kemshall’s Sketchbook Challenge.
Many of you will know how talented Laura is, and both her work and her videos are amazing.
Is my sketchbook ever going to be complete, I wonder?
Whenever I open it there’s something I can add, change or even paint over and redo the whole page…… so maybe not.
This week, using one of the pages as inspiration, I’ve dyed and printed a piece of calico, next step- some hand stitch.”

Gorgeous stuff Julie!  I haven’t done much sketchbook stuff since I completed my City&Guilds diploma, but I have signed up for a series of monthly sketchbook workshops by Gary Mills, via Crafty Monkies. For those people less familiar with sketchbook working than those following Laura Kemshall, this might be very accessible. A 90 minute class, monthly, on a different topic. I shall report back next month, after I’ve done the first session.

I’ve also been following Anne Brooke’s #52tagshannemade on her website www.annebrooke.co.uk

For 2021 the challenge is to make weekly embroideries to put on gift tags, inspired by different stitches.

I’ve particularly enjoyed her #sew4thesoul challenge of 2020 and I’ve made several lengths, with bees as my inspiration. (Bees are my current obsession and tailor nicely into the theme of gardens too!)

Anne Batchelor writes:

Hi to all at Living Threads. I was a member many years ago but still keep in touch. Did a zoom class…hate them….on Boro work, but it was excellent. My interpretation made into a glasses case. I hope you are all doing well and I miss Nottingham and The Living Threads Group. Sometimes pop up for courses and your excellent exhibitions. Love to you all Ann Batchelor xx

Rolfie Clennan has been looking online:

 I have a recommendation for you. It’s a You Tube site I found recently and was totally hooked. It’s ‘The Last Homely House’ and the English woman who does it quilts, sews, knits, cooks, gardens, dyes and crafts generally. Kate is really lovely, and watching her videos is like sitting chatting to a friend. I highly recommend the site as I have to all my friends!

Have a look and see what you think. At the moment she is auctioning a quilt she made and donating all the money to support a friend who is ill. Such is her following that it has reached over £4000 on Ebay.

Well, on behalf of the newsletter I researched The Last Homely House, which is a You Tube blog/style subscription to a country lifestyle – full of bees, ducks, sewing and knitting. She also has a website with shop https://www.thelasthomelyhouse.co.uk and you can find her on Instagram too. Sit with a cup of coffee and be transported to a homely life the North of England!

If you have any newsletter contributions, puzzles, recommendations, etc, do please send them to me via the Living Threads email address: livingthreadsgroup@gmail.com  or email me directly at gillitheokritoff@gmail.com It’s a hopeful time of year and but we still need some tips and interesting or amusing snippets!

Meanwhile, 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 been unwell or had Covid-19, and that the rest of us manage to avoid it.

Everyone please stay safe and keep creating. We will get through this and come out the other side. The vaccine will eventually mean we can all meet up and share our stories and textile work.

Until June (!!)

Cheers

Gilli Theokritoff, Newsletter Editor

Welcome to April!

At last, just for a few days, we have the promise of a blissful warm summer – then the cold edges back in in time for Easter! Never mind, most of the wintry weather is behind us now, and second vaccinations are on their way. We can walk and talk with friends, with a coffee, meet in gardens, and, with luck, shops will re-open on 12^th and life will edge a bit closer to ‘normal’. I’ve had to say goodbye to my two quilting holidays booked for this year, but it just means more holidays in 2022.

 I’m still booked for Sewing for Pleasure in June and the Festival of Quilts in late July, both at the NEC.  I’ve booked my hotel for a four-day visit to the Festival and I hope it is going to be bustling, with plenty more room to move around as well. I’m usually rushing from one hall to another, between teaching classes and meetings, so a bit more room to move about in will be great!

Organisations are starting to dip their toes in the water again and organise summer meetings and get-togethers, all COVID safe. Most, including Living Threads, are being more cautious about individual workshops and waiting until autumn or next year. I’ve booked halls for a couple of regular classes that I run and am looking to start teaching those in late May. I’ve been in touch with my regular students all through the year via Zoom and WhatsApp and we know our circumstances and how we feel about the COVID risks. Meanwhile, I’m starting to get booked for talks and workshops for 2022, so it does feel hopeful that we won’t just be using Zoom for the future. That said, Zoom workshops are a practical and easy to attend solution to Lockdown, although full day sessions are a bit wearisome.

I recently did a great workshop with Luke Haynes, about his approach to portrait applique.
It was very relaxed and great fun, very Californian. My half-completed result is shown here!

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Marjie Kemper has sent this interesting link, to keep you absorbed over a coffee for the next few days or weeks –

When the Covid-19 pandemic began last year, many museums opened their (virtual) doors to everyone. For the first time, everyone could take tours of world-famous art museums and view beautiful, priceless pieces from the comfort of their own homes.

With travel restrictions still in place throughout most of the world, museums are continuing to share their collections virtually. Visit the address below to see 12 great virtual tours that you can take at your leisure.

https://www.travelandleisure.com/attractions/museums-galleries/museums-with-virtual-tours

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Thank you Sylvia Birch for sending this fine example of a sewing box: This is a much-loved sewing box which my dad made for my mum’s 21st birthday (1929). It is lined with my daughter’s wedding dress sample and filled with pieces of LT work and old lace and gloves. The pink pieced waistcoat was made for the first exhibition!

And from Janet Humphries:

Following my love of all things vintage I thought I would share a few words about my magazine collection. It all began on a wonderful trip to the annual Antique Textile Fair In Manchester where I spotted a pile of French magazines, La Mode and  Le Petit Echo de la Mode, the earliest dating from 1910. I was attracted by the lovely colour plates on the front page .Passing over £9.00 for three copies I couldn’t wait to start reading them on the coach journey home.
Since then I have amassed quite a collection, picking them up at car boot sales, Antique Fairs and even on holiday in Italy where I stumbled upon a collection of Aragon D’Ora (golden spider) and Mani di Fata(fairy hands) in a charity shop.
It’s quite an insight into women’s lives through the years, from having to endure the fashion for tight corsets in the early 1900s to stressing over stitching of the garments for your wedding trousseau.
Moving on a few years, married life was all about keeping the house spic and span with projects for cut work tray cloths and transfer printed tablecloths to be embroidered. There would be patterns for children’s clothing too.
Some articles would be frowned upon today as in this memorable comment.

Make sure that you apply your make up, tend your hair and wear a pretty dress BEFORE you start a sewing project just in case your husband arrives home early from his work. Remember to look presentable. (I think things have changed during lockdown)

Invaluable tips I have taken forward:
LAUNDRY …….add half a cup of turpentine to your whites.
To clean a fur collar squeeze the fur well in two basins of petrol until the dirt is out. Rinse well in plenty of clean petrol. Roll it up in a cloth and squeeze dry. Hang it up outside to dry thoroughly.
FASHION……petticoats are a nuisance when dancing. Tight fitting silk knickers are so much better.
AGONY AUNT……to enlarge a flat chest an oil bath should help but don’t expect results in a week. Deep breathing exercises coupled with arm flinging if practiced regularly should help.

These days we have it easy with most of us working with fabrics, yarn and threads because we want to and not out of necessity. If we need clothing it’s just one click away on the Internet and hey presto it’s delivered to your door the next day but ordering via a computer screen is not as entertaining as getting out these wonderful publications, thumbing through the pages and peeking at a bygone age.
Anyway must go, have to tend to my hair and make myself presentable.
Janet x

CHECK THIS OUT!

Our new Virtual Mini Exhibition of the ongoing  6” challenge is  “Nature’s Architecture” and it is now available to view on our website. There’s some lovely stuff, do have a look.

Virtual Exhibition – NATURE’S ARCHITECTURE – The Living Threads Group (livingthreadstextileartists.com) 

If you have any newsletter contributions, puzzles, recommendations, etc, do please send them to me via the Living Threads email address: livingthreadsgroup@gmail.com  or email me directly at gillitheokritoff@gmail.com It’s a hopeful time of year but we still need inspiration and amusement!

Meanwhile, 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 been unwell or had Covid-19, and that the rest of us manage to avoid it.

Everyone please stay safe and keep creating. We will get through this and come out the other side. The vaccine will eventually mean we can all meet up and share our stories and textile work.

Until May

Cheers

Gilli Theokritoff, Newsletter Editor