A Visit to the Royal Academy

9th February 2014

Royal Academy

We went to the Sensing Spaces Exhibition.

Architects from around the world had made installations from wood, concrete, sticks and plastic....

This was amazing, made from pieces of wood... 

..each column housed a spiral staircase...

...Royal Academy coving...

....this ramp was hidden behind the back wall of the installation....

...children had a great time running up and down!

The next room was great fun...

...a plastic structure had been installed to connect this room to the next and all ages were contributing by attaching very long plastic straws...

....walk through here to ...

...the next room...

...my contribution to the installation, 3 straws plaited which made this twisted shape!

I loved this one....

..through a fabric 'curtain...

...into a maze with 'walls' made from small branches...

...that led to this area covered in crunchy stones with one wall completely covered in large mirrors...

...both adults and children were walking on the stones to make the crunching noise and the mirrors made the space appear enormous.

 This was an amazing room installed by Kengo Kuma..

..a lovely space to reflect!

There were another two rooms using concrete to show light and shadow but my photos didn't turn out!

I loved this exhibition so much I went through all the rooms again and it was wonderful to see all ages interacting and enjoying this art work.

On the way back to the tube in the pouring rain we passed Trafalgar Square....

...don't know why the cockerel was there or why it was painted blue but it did brighten the day as did the music from a band, the music was -The Rivers of Babylon.

We then walked into the Burlington Arcade...

..this was the carpet running the full length of the arcade!

Real orchids made this wreath to show off the exquisite pieces of jewellery..

...a leather seat and magazines to read while you have your shoes shined!!

I loved this window display of luggage....

....there were many beautiful shops selling cashmere, men's shoes but mainly jewellery...

..it was like stepping into another world .

A Richmond Walk and Somerset House

5th February 2014

Greetings from London!

It is very wet and windy as I write this post but yesterday was lovely.
 In the morning I went for my favourite walk in Richmond....

...top of the hill...

...through the park .....

..the Thames...

...beautiful clumps of snowdrops...

....Hellibore...

...trees and amazing clouds...

...fast flowing Thames...

...just look at that sky....

....Weeping Willow arching over the path with Richmond Bridge in the distance.

In the afternoon we went to see a fashion exhibition in Somerset House... 

...view from the bridge as we crossed from South Bank...

...Somerset House from the bridge...

....entrance to the exhibition....

...Isabella Blow-Fashion Galore...

Isabella Blow 'discovered' Alexander McQueen and Philip Treacy as well as other designers and there were over 100 items from her personal collection on show, mainly by McQueen and Treacy who collaborated on her amazing and sometimes outlandish outfits! 

Unfortunately no photographs were allowed but the fabrics and designs were absolutely fantastic!

Photos from the bridge walking back to the South Bank....

..the Shard(just left of the middle)

..London Eye and Big Ben...

...MAGICAL!!

Lino Stamp Printing and Stitching

2nd February 2014

Two more transfer printed fabrics...

..this is using a fern as a resist...

...daffodil repainted and transferred onto a shaded background ready for stitching.

Next played with my new 'toy' ...

..first I drew half a shape along the fold in the tracing paper...

..traced on the back and opened out..

...traced onto the lino....

and started shaving away...

....sponged bronze metallic fabric paint onto the lino cut and printed...

as the stamp had smudged along the top edge I backed with Bondaweb and cut and ironed onto another piece of fabric. 9Also trimmed the stamp)

This was appliqued with free motion satin stitch in a variegated thread...

....backed with a fine wadding and then quilted in a circular stitch...

..I messed up the photo when I was editing!!!

Think maybe I should have used a much paler thread for the quilting!

Stamped on two other fabrics to show other ways of quilting...

..but that will have to wait as I am off to London tomorrow to catch up with the family and buy some fabric and maybe threads!!

Will keep you posted....

Quilted Transfer Paint Design

1st February 2014

Happy February from a very wet and windy Blackpool. Chanced a walk along the prom this morning,  the waves were crashing over the lower prom then it started to hail so we gave up and hurried home!!

I was in the mood for experimenting and stitching....

....painted a poppy head with T.P and used some dried wild flowers...

...I ironed the green background using the flower as a resist...

...then ironed on my poppy head.

Next I chose some tea dyed fabric as the background and used the poppy head a second time and was quite pleased with the result as I wasn't sure it would print again.

Backing the fabric with a fine wadding I stitched and stitched....

...using brown thread for the outline in a narrow free motion satin stitch and a natural variegated thread for the quilting around the shape.

I think I am going to use a poppy head shape on different backgrounds to show a variety of free motion quilting.

Also this morning I called into the local art shop and bought a new sketch book for Unit 6 as the one I made using my silk paper is just not big enough!!

While I was browsing-fatal for me- I saw these and just had to buy them...

...so hope to make a lino cut poppy head for some other samples.

Watch this space!