Welcome to June!
Apologies if this reaches you a few days later than usual – I have been enjoying our fine bank holiday sunshine! I hope that those of you who feel ready have been meeting up with friends and family. No hugs yet (if ever!) but it is so good to see people ‘in the flesh’.
I have managed to resume one of my weekly patchwork classes and we were all so happy to be with others who shared our enthusiasm. We’d been keeping in touch via Zoom and WhatsApp but nothing beats being in the same room, showing off our quilts- projects, etc. (Cardigans on, all windows opened!) This week I’m reuniting with three friends for a sit and sew day. We haven’t planned our sewing yet, just the shared lunch contributions!
The garden is taking up more time at the moment. I’m sure it’s the same for all of us. I went to the garden centre to get some Alchemilla mollis (Lady’s Mantle) and was told that they don’t stock it anymore – “it’s a bit old-fashioned” they said. I was horror-struck. It’s one of my favourites and we have a new garden bed I imagined filled with those froths of yellow fronds and the fabulous leaves that catch raindrops. I did manage to get some from www.Crocus.co.uk and I’m very happy, if a little out-of-date…
The recent weather hasn’t been too kind for gardening, a bit cold and wet, so I’ve looked indoors too. My daughter is a fiend for houseplants and has showered me with cuttings and cacti. I’ve discovered a great app for my phone – Planta – which tells me when to water each plant and sends me reminders. For the first time in my life I can honestly say all my houseplants are thriving!
If you fancy a real visit to a gallery but London and David Hockney at the RA are too far, how about the Harley Gallery where you can find ‘Same Sea, Different Boat’. The 5 metre embroidered textile chronicles peoples’ lives during the pandemic.
www.harleygallery.co.uk/whatson , Harley Gallery, Welbeck Estate, Worksop S80 3LT. It’s a great venue, with artists workshops, café, garden centre, artisan bakery and shop, etc. Well worth a visit!
I’ve discovered a new Zoom workshop website. Have a look at www.domestika.org for interesting classes – drawing, illustration, photography, design, etc. I’ve signed up for a watercolour florals course at the moment, so of course I’ve just had to visit Amazon and buy a lovely box of watercolour paints! It’s a bit like Craftsy, but more European and much more varied.
Last month I mentioned that I was doing a Crafty Monkies Sketchbook course with Gary Mills. It’s just a 3 part, 90 minute boost-your-creativity course, and you don’t work in sketchbooks at all! Gary has you work fast, so you don’t get time to ponder, you just belt out ideas and mix colours and get them down on pages and scraps. You get the videos to access later. For the colour module we turned all our mad scrappy pages into long rolls of collaged bits, which looked great when finished. I really liked his accessibility and simple approach. The next module is Collage Doodles. Can’t wait. All are available via Crafty Monkies, and you can access the recordings if you can’t join live.
I’ve not been sent any news or contributions this month – everyone is obviously concentrating on their gardens. 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 joyous 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 July,
Cheers
Gilli Theokritoff, Newsletter Editor
The Living Threads Group 