Day of delights

The highlight of the CQ meeting was an amazing talk by Alice Kettle - here she is starting to tell us about her workwhich has culminated (so far) in the 16-metre piece you can see, in thumbnail, on her website. This took her a year to embroider and as it grew, got too heavy to lift. Alice's work has to be seen "for real" to get the full effect of the gleaming threads and dimensionality of the resultant fabric - quite apart from the painterly qualities and general impact. Marvellous.

Afterwards, Judy and I were heading for Holborn tube station when we noticed this shop in Pied Bull Yardwere drawn to the window display
and had to go in. Amazing luscious spotted fabrics made up into bags, cushions, lavender bags - and a range of contemporary items, many with spots, by other makers - like these mugs.
Note the laser cutting on the side of the leather chair -
All very covetable! We were enthusiastic and as we were the only people in the shop we were able to chat with Margo. Paying with a credit card meant going downstairs to the workroom - where further delights awaited - The scarf lengths are felted and gorgeously soft -Fabrics are woven by a mill in Suffolk, and Margo uses the scraps for pieced cushion covers, with serged seams to prevent unravelling -Of course what appealed to us most was this work in progress -We'd got diverted by Margo's shop immediately after spotting Blade Rubber and of course had to go in there too -- it was hard to resist the "useful textures" stamps (block of 4 for about £15), and these by the English Stamping Co (£5.50 for the large size) -