Hello

HAPPY VALENTINE’S …we had a fantastic trip up the Shard, a magnificent skyscraper, beautifully designed, elegant in its scale and sheer simplicity. The ‘we’  is me and my partner ( in love and crime) Len. I have been calling him my VaLENtine. He is humouring me!!

The trip up the Shard was our Christmas pressie from Lotte, our youngest daughter and her boyfriend Louis, such a fab idea. Cleverly planned to co-inside with Valentines Day, so we had a romantic glass of champers at dizzy heights, I am sure the altitude affected the number of bubbles!!! The extraordinary thing was that we were so high and whilst we could see the breadth of London unfolding beneath us we could not hear the noise of the city. Going to the loo was almost the highlight as its sheer glass in the window, great place to sit and view!!

View from Shard
View from Shard

Cheers!
Cheers!

 

We linked up with our other daughter, Bex at Tate Modern and took her out for lunch and managed a quick trip to Borough Market, foodies that we are, we indulged in some Valentine cakes, very red and yummy  !!

Detail of Sacred Places
Detail of Sacred Places

Back to earth today and madly sewing and printing, getting a couple of pieces ready to submit to an Open Textile exhibition in Solihull, so fingers crossed one might get selected.

I am using Lutrador, which if you don’t know is a fantastic man-made fibre to work on, its very absorbent, easy to heat distress but doesn’t fray and is good for stitching. I have been painting ‘grounds’ (Background cloth) and then printing and stenciling to build up pictures, it s slow business everything has to dry and I need to think carefully about  colour and composition, and then once dry they are ready for stitching.

I was given some lovely new threads for Xmas, some variegated and some deep blues and greens. These are making their way into my work.