At the time of writing this letter I’m sitting in bed with a head cold contemplating a snowy landscape of white rooftops and distant forests. All plans for visiting local schools and meeting a young graduate in fine art from the Marie Curie Academy of Fine Art in Lublin have evaporated. Meanwhile I’m confined to our flat in a well-heated and insulated communist block in Sanok, S.E. Poland. My resources are limited and sometimes this can be an advantage for there is more time to think and contemplate. Thankfully there is some reading matter to hand, a frank and engaging book by Julian Baggini Welcome to Everytown (Granta publications) extracted at the last minute from W.H.Smiths at Gatwick airport. Its theme is ‘A journey into the English mind’, an appropriate choice for someone leaving the U.K. for a country which is just celebrating 20 years since the collapse of the Berlin Wall. This book is a philosophical gem thoughtfully and amusingly written by a shrewd observer of the English way of life. To understand the British psyche, Baggini stepped out of his own comfort zone (Bristol) and went to live for six months in Rotherham, South Yorkshire with the postcode R66 which has the most typical mix of pensioners, struggling families, aspiring singles and so on. During his stay in ‘Everytown’ he read the most popular newspapers, looked at the highest rated TV programmes and listened to the nations’ favourite radio stations. He took the kind of holiday most people take and ate what they ate. I cannot detail in this letter his revealing observations, you must read them for yourself but it does give you a fascinating insight into the English mind and way of life.

As artists we are also observers, keeping sketchbooks and making notes on things which intrigue and attract us. When we create an art work in any media, we are trying to communicate something which is essentially unique to our view of the world. If we are completely honest in our intentions and are able to combine skill with sensitivity, we might create something which resonates with a few or a lot of people. This is our ultimate hope, to make a visual connection with others so they might see something in a different light and maybe prompt them to explore their own creativity.
Stepping out of England to live in a different culture can be challenging but immensely stimulating. Trying to understand the Polish mindset calls for a lifetime’s investigation. A country whose outlook has been restricted by communism for virtually 50 years does not change overnight. Coming to terms with a turbulent history and changing from communal to individual thinking and enterprise is a long and often painful process but there are signs that this is beginning to happen assisted by funding from the E.U. I’m really looking forward to meeting other Polish artists and teachers and reporting back in a future newsletter.

Szczesliwego Nowego Roku (A Happy New Year) and every good wish for a creative 2010.

She is married to a zoologist and with him has visited the Galapagos, Madagascar, Mauritius and New Zealand studying stranded animals and plants and finding that, after reading Darwin, she was inspired in this creative activity. Quoting from her blurb: “I draw. I paint ceramics. I make mosaics. I make pictures. The medium might change, but they are all just pictures. My subject matter is always animals and plants. When I learnt that you could draw with the needle of a sewing machine – paint with thread – I knew I had to try. I’d never owned a sewing machine before, but it’s easier when you don’t know anything about the usual stuff; I’m hopeless at seams and straight lines, but I don’t know, either, to be afraid of ignoring the norm and hurtling into experiment. I’m pretty much self-taught, with the help of a few books, and it’s been and continues to be a process of fascination, infuriation when things go wrong, and thrill when they go right. Thread-painting is painstakingly slow, but an exciting medium that I have found enthrallingly interesting. I’m learning as I go, about fabrics and yarns, tension and technique, rules and breaking them, strands and stranded wildlife.”

The pictures are beautifully executed, the animals and birds in machine embroidery in their authentic colours, which are then cut out and mounted on abstract patchwork backgrounds in muted colours, blacks, beiges, browns, greys, patterned and plain, simple or exotic fabrics, with a good sense of design. She says that her machine is quite ordinary, not a singing and dancing appliance and that she sources her materials from such as Mulberry Silks, The Silk Route and others that we see regularly advertising in Embroidery magazine. They are all professionally mounted in matching frames, which greatly added to the appearance of the exhibits.

Well worth a visit, but you will have to hurry as the exhibition ends on 14th February.

We met Karen Limper-Herz, curator, British collections 1501–1800 and were led through locked corridors. Already in the study room was a selection of exciting books. Karen had researched and written a paper on this subject which she read together with projected illustrations. After her talk we were able to look closely at all the books. These dated from the 1500s and included bibles, psalters, presentation books etc. and from the C18th and C19th, almanacs and keepsake books. Those made in England were the finest in the world.

Earlier books were bound in leather, paper, ivory, tortoiseshell and fabrics. During Elizabeth I’s reign and the Tudor period the books were printed with board covers and handed to the embroiderers who used velvet, satin, silk and canvas to cover with stitch for the final covers of the books. Velvet was a favourite and wore very well, as did any of the fabric covers once covered with stitching.

In 1561 the Broderers’ Co. was granted its charter. These professional embroiderers became very organised. Some book covers were embroidered at home in the large houses. A padding of cotton was put between the boards and the embroidered covers.

Sometimes small embroidered books have been found in their own embroidered bags, sometimes even with gloves and often a small piece of fabric with which to hold the book. The bag was protective but also a fashion accessory. Stitches found on the various covers included tapestry, cross stitch, tent, feather, chain, split, satin and beautiful goldwork. Pearls and spangles, the latter being held down by a pearl, gimp or a seed. Favourite subjects include apples, pears, strawberries, roses, carnations, tulips, lilies, daffodils, and pansies (heartsease).
When a book is acquired by the British Library it first has to go into quarantine. This is an area completely separate from the library and the book is minutely examined for insects and contaminants. Various methods are used to eradicate these. Other damage may have been caused by handling, poor storage etc.

All books should always be stored standing up and therefore a special box called a drop-back box is made especially to fit each book. Most are lined with velvet as this has an excellent surface to store embroidered books.

The advantage of a “Friend of………………” card is that you can call in more than once to see exhibitions and view them therefore without time pressure.  I write this the day after a delightful first viewing of the newly opened Royal Academy exhibition The Real Van Gogh: The Artist and His Letters.  On my return, I picked up an email from Ann Rutherford asking for some more newsletter contributions.  She mentioned talking about our work or how we work.  A day later, I reflected further on the visual and the verbal.

I now regularly write about my textile life.  A couple of weeks ago I made two new textile diary covers for 2010, one for me and an identical one to send to a textile friend in North Yorkshire.  I started with this diary practice three years ago following the disbanding of an exhibiting group and just before my good friend moved north.  To begin with, I kept monthly dated computer lists of everything I did that was textile linked in some way, experiments, completed pieces, exhibitions, talks, workshops and so on.  I printed these out at the end of each month as a hard copy and added extra pages with more photographs notes and samples, all in A5 format.  This then became a non-internet blog that I sent off fortnightly, receiving in return another, compiled and presented very differently but keeping me well up to date with someone else’s textile thoughts.

Last year I changed the format of my diary by compiling it all with Microsoft Publisher software.  I dropped my monthly listings and instead I just keep to pages of experiments, thoughts, completed pieces, exhibition visit reflections, articles I have written and other input of potential later interest.  I have a template to work on which saves a time so the whole creation process is short.  Also I do not need to keep looking at my nightmare handwriting as I type most of the text.  The diary cover is Craft Vilene based.  The pages are printed on A4 sheets of thin card and then cut in half.  Cover and pages can be hole-punched as they are created and simply held together with Ryman’s ‘Essential – leaf rings loose’, in other words with a loose leaf file mechanism without the file!  Pages can this way be added and or subtracted with great ease.
I have found the whole process of doing this very positive.  I always want to do something to put in my diary!  I would do it whether or not I had anyone to send it to.  I never sink into the trough of “Oh, I haven’t really done anything this week/month/year” or “I haven’t anything I want to work for”.  Some friends have recently begun nurturing their interest in textiles. We meet monthly.  To me it matters not how much they do or what they do but I have encouraged them all to keep their own distinctive styles of textile diary as a confirming way to view their personal textile achievements.

To return to Van Gogh, I so enjoyed the letters he wrote to his brother, describing his work and how he felt about it.  I am sure he used them to process his thoughts as much as to communicate to Theo.  I commend the process of writing alongside creating the visual and the discipline of making it a regular event.  For anyone who has good handwriting, all that is needed for a diary is some illustrations, photographs, postcards or samples to write on the back of or alongside.  Just in case you are thinking “A good idea, but I will have to leave starting it to next year”, I started my first diary in April!

The Gothic Revival movement began in the C18th as a romantic interest in the medieval but in the C19th a religious revival led by the Oxford Movement and the Cambridge Camden Society inspired a determination to restore or build C14th revival style churches with appropriate furnishings. In 1848 they published Ecclesiastical Embroidery. The Ecclesiological Society issued a design guide for church furnishings including embroideries.

The designers of these ecclesiastical embroideries were very often eminent architects. George Street 1824-81, designer of the Law Courts, had worked as a young man for Sir George Gilbert Scott (St Pancras Station, Liverpool Cathedral and the Bodlian Library).  Street was passionate about detail and designed altar frontals and vestments. His sister Agnes Blencoe founded the Ladies Ecclesiastical Embroidery Society in 1854, her brother providing designs for Newton, Jones and Willis of Birmingham whose church designs were popular for many years.

Another pupil was George Bodley 1827-1907; his St Michael’s Brighton was a controversial design, including furnishings by William Morris.  Bodley with others founded a church furnishing firm, Watts & Co. There is a banner of his in Peterborough Cathedral.

W.N. Pugin  wrote a glossary of ornament designs including orfreys and other braids. These patterns were still used 20 years later.  Earlier in the Dublin Review he had criticised ‘prettiness’ of domestic needlework.  A set of vestments were made for St Chadd’s Cathedral Birmingham.

Sir Arthur Blomfield (Radcliffe Infirmary Chapel) also designed embroideries and encouraged amateurs. William Butterfield (1814-1900) a leading Gothic Revival architect  (Keble College Oxford) was admired for his hard and angular designs which showed single minded conviction and advertised the Christian message.  All Saint’s, Margaret St, London (off upper Regent St) is his church and worth a visit.

Would a modern architect have the time to incorporate ornamental textiles in his/her  brief?

During the 1870’s there were 10,000 women on the streets of London, many due to the deaths of their fathers, husbands, brothers in wars, shipwrecks or industrial accidents.  At one point only 441 were in the workhouse.  Over 200 sisterhoods were formed in this period, many making church vestments, which helped to alleviate poverty. Examples include St Margaret’s East Grinstead, the Wantage sisterhood and Sisters of Bethany, Islington founded 1876 who were famous for laid goldwork. There was the Church Extension Association, the Leek embroidery Society 1879, The Decorative Needle Society 1883 and the School of Mediaeval Embroidery.

The Queen’s embroideress Anastasia Dolby, took a keen interest in these societies and wrote a book on the subject of design. Much church embroidery was done by unpaid amateurs who were often members of the clergy families or women with time to spare.

Another church with vestments to see is All Hallows, Norwich. We were shown a detail of a glorious multi coloured eagle, a golden cope made by Buckley & Co. in 1870 from St Clements Boscombe Bournmouth, and a chasuble from East Grinstead. The Pilgrim in the Garden,  a tapestry designed by Burne-Jones (1833-98) finished in 1901, shows an atmosphere of unreality, a dream-like quality moving away from the more direct approach of the earlier work.

Towards the end of the century, the Art Nouveau movement, the Glasgow School of Art and the

plain and simple materials movement led by Jessie Newberry and Ann Macbeth were changing established styles. Walter Crane added his own linear style to the mix.

All the pieces shown were underscored by a conviction and strong religious faith, expertly crafted. As the saying goes, quality counts.

Flights were booked – a 7.30am flight from LHR via Rome to Bari on the east coast of Italy, somewhere just above the heel.  A couple of weeks before departure, the 7.30am flight was cancelled and Gill and I were now booked on the 6am flight!  OK I can cope with that.  3.30am, taxi to Heathrow for flight to Rome, no problems so far. At the departure gate for Bari discovered the flight had been delayed by an hour – waiting for the crew!  Well, I am in Italy now.

Arriving at Bari airport feeling somewhat weary –– no sign of the driver – no messages and my mobile didn’t work! I am definitely in Italy.  Information office to the rescue who phoned the Villa and learnt the driver was delayed – didn’t know why or for how long.  45 mins later he turned up and gestured with his hands (as only Italians can) and said ‘problem’ (limited English), to which I replied ‘what problem’, and he said ‘car’ – another hand gesture.  Oh the joys of travel.  We piled into the minivan and keeping our fingers crossed that it wouldn’t break down, were driven at breakneck speed, in the dark, over pothole filled roads, being thrown around like a Jack (or Jill) in the box.  At last, we arrived at the  Masseria della Zingara, in the middle of nowhere, to be greeted by John and our fellow ‘artists’.  We now discovered they had all flown out the day before and had already been out and about and done a day’s drawing!  So much for admin. (but that’s another story).  Given a quick tour of the villa which looked beautiful, before finally collapsing into bed, absolutely shattered.

Next morning, sun shining and after breakfast outdoors, the rest of the group retired to work in the studio.  For Gill and me to catch up on the missed day, we were given an hour to take rubbings around the villa using thin paper and a soft graphite pencil or stick.  We had to capture as many tones as possible.  Next was to select a suitable view, cut/tear/collage the papers to recreate a tonal representation of the view, drawing in any details afterwards.  This proved a tricky task as a slight breeze kept blowing the bits of paper all over the place.  However, mission accomplished, we retired to the studio and put up our attempts alongside our colleagues efforts.  They had been working to produce a composition from the previous day’s collaged drawings, extract an image and turn it into a repeat design that was evocative of patterns from the 1950s.  Each of us was given a critique by John and encouragement on what we had achieved.

Lunch was followed by an expedition to the coast, taking only watercolour paints and a sketch book.  We piled into the two minivans and were driven to Polignano a Mare.  Wow, what a view, blue skies, blue sea, hot sun.  Here were houses seemingly perched, one above the other, on top of vertical cliffs rising from the sea.  We sat on the limestone paving and painted our colour patches, trying to capture the light and shade of the coastal view and buildings.  With time to spare before dinner at a local restaurant, most of us

wandered into the old part of the town.  Lovely narrow cobbled streets, white-washed walls, wrought iron balconies, hanging baskets of flowers, surprise views of the sea, fishermen angling for fish, delicious cones of Italian ice cream.  After dining on tasty pizzas and a chocolate pudding to die for, it was back to the villa where I promptly collapsed into bed.

Next morning we worked on the previous afternoons attempts at painted patches.  Initially we took a 4” square of paper, placed it over part of the painting and then drew in what we thought should be underneath.  An interesting exercise in visual memory.  After taking a colour photocopy we then tore/cut bits of coloured paper/images from a magazine and collaged them onto the photocopy to create a fantasy design.  Amazing images were conjured by all.

Over the course of the next few days we were driven to several towns and an archaeological site.  In Alberobello the brief was to make detailed drawings of the ‘Trullis’ – these are beehive shaped houses with roofs constructed from thin strips of stone.  Halfway through drawing a big white van drove up and blocked my view.  The driver got out and wandered off down the road.  Typical I thought – just my luck!  After a couple of minutes he reappeared and drove off.  Great – carry on drawing!  In Ostuni it was to be quick sketches of architectural fragments, adding washes of colour patches. Not sure what the locals made of us ‘ladies’ with sketch books in hand, sitting on steps or stools or leaning against a wall.  We got used to them as they sidled up sideways to see what we were drawing.  Most times we got an approved look or a thumbs up or even a ‘bella’.

Returning to the studio we reassembled the fragments into several compositions and designs;  combined drawings of the archaeological site with the ‘Trullis’, then using black poster paint, painted into them so that the original design was lost;  finally to cut/tear and collage until the end result looked totally abstract (and not a Trulli in sight) – well that was the idea.

In between the excursions and working in the studio, we were fed and watered by Julia who ran a local B&B.  She would ferry the hot food to us every day.  All we had to do was lay the table, clear away afterwards, run the dishwasher.

Over those few days I learnt a lot and gained more confidence in my drawing abilities. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience, the laughter, the banter within the group and John’s expert critiques and encouragement. Also the opportunity to see another little unknown corner of Italy.

Dear Members

Our annual Garden Party event in Dulwich held

on 19th June was well attended and greatly enjoyed by members and friends of the group including John Allen and Jon Crane. It was particularly good to see Mary Anderson and Barbara Jeremiah who had travelled some distance to be with us. Once again, our sincere thanks go to Ann who kindly opened her beautiful house and garden. The lunch was delicious showing off the culinary skills of our members who generously contributed to a variety of scrumptious dishes. As the weather was fine we enjoyed sitting outside, renewing friendships, catching up on news and later wandering around the stunning garden.

July seems to be the time for parties and this year has been no exception. The other day I met my friend Julia Tester, who, after a career in education, bravely embarked on a Fine Art’s degree at Camberwell. I knew she was very interested in the American artist Cy Twombly and had based her final thesis on ‘Handwriting, scrawling and graffiti’. Always on the alert for current trends as well as thinking about our next exhibition in May 2010, I decided to do a little research on the subject as it may have some relevance to our theme of ‘Letters’.

Graffiti is defined by the Encyclopaedia Britannica as ‘a form of visual communication, usually illegal, involving the unauthorised marking of public space by an individual or group…..graffiti can be understood as anti-social behaviour performed in order to gain attention. It is also a form of art.’

Graffiti is now international: we see it on urban subways, railway sidings and carriages, underpasses and bridges, almost anywhere there is a derelict wall or building.

Since the late 1960s when it began to be used by political activists in Philadelphia, many scripts and personal styles have been developed. It is the bane of town councils who spend thousands of pounds on its removal, only to find it reappears. Young people are particularly attracted to it and as one teenager stated ‘Maybe if Northampton council put up a legal place 4 us lot 2 graffiti then we couldn’t do it where it wasn’t wanted.’ and ‘Some people are never going to get their work shown in a gallery, so the only way of showing it is on a wall.’ Like it or hate it, graffiti is here to stay and is now widely regarded as an art form which can be traced back to our early ancestors writing on walls and the Egyptians with their hieroglyphics.

Cy Twombly, highly regarded as an abstract expressionist painter was born in 1928 and last year had a retrospective exhibition at Tate Modern. Along with Jackson Pollock, he has attempted during his lifetime to break the conventions of classical painting in order to create something new. His approach, not unlike the automatic techniques used by the Surrealists, is to build up a series of marks which come from within rather than a representation. He uses numbers, letters, splatters, scribbles and scratches in crayon and pencil on multiple layers of paint. Combined with his love of poetry, classical mythology, light and landscape his work has certain affinities with Turner.

As embroiderers, I think we can find inspiration from his paintings by studying our references intently i.e. sketches and photographs , then setting them aside to work with our inner vision using the materials in a more spontaneous and hepatic way. This can often produce more lively and interesting results rather than a carefully planned design. Some members may remember reading the groundbreaking book ‘Stitchery’ by Nik Krevitsky (Reinhold 1966). This talented multi-media American artist showed at the American Museum of Contemporary Crafts and the Museum of Modern Art, New York. He also had a one man show of ‘Stitcheries’ which toured between 1963-64, in addition to contributing much in the international field of education. As I recall, this book illustrated a very direct approach to the materials and his love of stitchery was richly innovative and exciting.

‘The ultimate accessory’

When travelling to our garden party I passed through Waterloo Station where I was amazed and delighted to see the ladies on their way to Ascot wearing colourful dresses and a wide range of frivolous hats. Of course, the men sported grey or black ‘toppers’.

This reminded me of my visit to Hats: An Anthology by Stephen Jones at the V&A.

Jones has produced two hat collections a year since graduating from St. Martin’s School of Art in 1979. He said that ‘I simply live my life and put it into a hat’. He has worked with Jean Paul Gaultier, Vivienne Westwood, Thierry Mugler, Christian Dior, Mark Jacobs, Comme des Garçons and John Galliano.

This exhibition was a treasure box of hats, displaying a huge range from an early jesters leather hat to tricornes and bicornes, Victorian bonnets, straw hats, knitted hats and hats worn in films and shows and many more. Jones’s designs for fashion shows are creative, experimental and sometimes whimsical. Many were made from materials not usually associated with fashionable headwear such as wood, plastic and rubber. One was in the form of a Balaclava helmet of brown fur which reached the knees of the mannequin.

Sources of inspiration included architecture, geometry, travel and the natural world and many showed a topical element of their time. In London for instance ideas can be gleaned from tubes, taxis, palaces, policemen or street style. Obviously, designs for work wear hats such as those for air stewardesses require a totally practical approach.

Music evocative of the 1930s played as we watched videos of hats being made with the milliners sitting round a large table with their materials in the centre. Prototype hats are shaped on a calico covered head known as a ‘poupee’. The hat mould ‘block’ is usually made of wood, this is an essential tool of the workroom. Milliners often amass a huge collection of blocks which can be used time and time again. Straws, felts and fabrics remain key materials, other materials are sourced from all over the world, feathers from South America and Africa, silk flowers from France and ribbons from Germany.

Jones states that a milliner’s workroom is ‘half an Aladdin’s Cave and half an artists studio’, a place where each hat is carefully coaxed into being. In the video Jones is smartly dressed totally in black, I was just thinking that he reminded me of Boy George when he said that he had designed hats for him. Another quaint video showed ladies from the middle of the last century trying on hats and explained which hats suited certain types of faces.

A French fashion editor noted, when choosing a hat it is important to ‘take the one you fall in love with, which mysteriously ‘does something’ for you, which magically makes you feel more beautiful’.

I hope you will take this advice.

After a delicious lunch in the garden at Ann Rutherford’s,  four of us decided to visit the Horniman Museum and look at the paper-cuts – Wycinanki, a traditional Polish folk-art. As any who have visited the Horniman will know, these were displayed in the gallery on the balcony, perfectly framed with neatly displayed information alongside. They first appearing in the C19th, when the papercuts decorated the inside walls of rural homes and were replaced by new ones each Easter. These were made exclusively by women using sheep shears to cut the detailed designs.

Two regions specialise in this art:– Kurpie: plain papercuts, round or star shapes gwiazdy and most popularly feature cockerels.

Those from Kowicz are multicoloured, rectangular kodry, often with scenes of weddings and everyday life. Also vertical tasiemki lacy panels with floral decoration.

At a table with chairs a brief video shows papercut techniques from very basic through to more advanced and with animals. Using scissors. Helen Miazek makes contemporary heart designs for gifts at weddings and cut paper designs to decorate Easter eggs.

This was a small brief overview of an interesting folk art, and should you be in the area, the Horniman is an interesting stop for a visit. The park and surrounding gardens are lovely and there is a modern café.

NB. The Horniman

The (free) aquarium in the basement is perfect for small grandchildren and surprisingly the stuffed animals still appeal. The African gallery is well displayed (I love the voodoo!) and there is the famous musical instruments gallery. Interesting planting in the gardens. Be aware that in recent years special exhibitions like the papercuts have been good but quite small so don’t travel from Birmingham specially for one of these – but you could combine it with a visit to Dulwich Picture Gallery.

Dear Members,

It was good to see so many of you at our AGM in March. For those who were unable to attend for whatever reason, you missed a very entertaining talk by Diane Bates. Dressed in an elegant scarlet coat decorated with black froggings complemented with a black wide brimmed hat, she entertained us with an amusing and witty presentation of her stunning and highly original machine embroidered and beaded body pieces. From the beginning she made it quite clear that ‘up North’ it wasn’t just about ‘flat caps and ferrets’, but a region of lively creative ideas based on a rich industrial heritage. Her sensitive drawings and designs combined with her extraordinary technical skills certainly distinguish Diane as a remarkable artist. Having spent most of her life in education, she told us that she was no business woman and had no intention of selling her work. Instead she was bequeathing it to the V&A. What a brillant idea for it will be a treasure trove for future generations.

Meike Dalal-Laurenson, recent editor of Felt Matters, also introduced her Afgan Project to us.  I strongly commend this to you as one way in which we can really help women in this war torn country to make a connection with the outside world and develop their own sense of personal self-esteem. Having seen and purchased one of the small panels for additional embroidery, I was thrilled by the quality and craftsmanship of the designs.

After all the planning and excitement of our last exhibition with the Knitting & Stitching Show, it’s time to give some thought to our next event at Chequer Mead in May 2010. The title ‘Letters’ is a wide-ranging and interesting theme dreamed up by Janice, our exhibition organiser. As I ponder on this, it seems to me that with the increasing use of electronic communications, this is particularly topical. Will the Letter soon be outdated? I hope not for amidst the rubbish which floats through my post box it is the handwritten envelope wchich always catches my attention. Perhaps this is a generational attitude but the idea of a ‘love email’ doesn’t seem to have the same attraction as a personal letter which say so much about the times and intimate thoughts of the writer. Even the sealed envelope suggests secrecy with the handwriting, postmark and stamp a source of curiosity. Then there is the pleasure (or pain) of opening the letter and knowing it can be read and re-read many times rather than being copied then deleted on a machine.

Letters come in many forms, conveying heartfelt or polite ‘thankyous’, news and gossip, sympathy at times of loss, congratulations, demands, disappointments and the joys and concerns about everyday happenings of the present moment. They can also be life- changing landmarks. The letters of Van Gogh to his brother Theo and the more recent publication of Alan Bennett’s book Writing Home are both fascinating vignettes of the lives of the writers.

For those of you more interested in the simple beauty of abstract shapes, actual letter forms could provide a great source of inspiration. Some members may even have a copy of Pat Russell’s book on Lettering for Embroidery which is still a superb and original approach to design. Anyway, whatever avenue you choose, don’t forget to keep your notes and sketches as they could be of interest to the public.

P.S. This may sound a bit surreal but my husband Zbigniew Kruczkiewicz has just won a gold medal for Poland, for the second year running, in the World Heavyweight Lifting Championships! Could this be inspiration for stitch?