Dandies and ballerinas - woyww 726

We’ve been out and about again (it’s what us retired folk do), this week to Manchester

Art Gallery to see the Dandy Style exhibition.  250 years of Men’s Fashion.

It’s so quick and cheap for us to get into the city centre, £10 for

the two of us and we can jump on the trams for that as well.

Here’s a few of the outfits we saw.

My own Dandy was the smartest visitor there.

As a treat we had lunch in Waterstones on Deansgate

And then I spent a happy hour browsing the shelves while

Philip roamed round the shops.

On Monday night we visited a local church that has been

converted into an events venue and restaurant. Freddy who

bought the redundant building has brought life back to this

beautiful old place of worship. He is very community minded and

opens the doors for lots of local groups to enjoy.

LINK TO THE CIRCLE VENUE

The event we attended was a Candlelight concert with beautiful

classic music played by Mercury String and two very talented

young ballerinas performed parts of Swan Lake.

With the atmosphere of the church it was very moving.

No crafting or stitching this week as we’ve been out walking

and working in the garden.

There’s a planning meeting about whether we go to the

caravan for the Coronation Day celebrations or stay home

and deck the house with bunting.  It’ll be the weather that

decides where we will be.  Either venue it’ll be spent with

friends and there’ll be lots of good food and a tipple or two.

Enjoy the weekend all

Lynn 

X

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All aboard there’s lots to see - woyww725

All aboard its full steam ahead

We spent a lovely day aboard the Northern Belle Train being entertained

and eating the most delicious five course meal while the train trundled

along from Manchester Victoria, picking us up in Rochdale then heading

upto Yorkshire and completing the loop back via Cumbria. I even went so

far as having a little tipple of champagne. It would have been rude not to.

There’s a great series on the telly on Monday nights on More 4 about

the worlds most luxurious trains.  Watch it, you’ll get a real feel of

the trip we had.  It’s an amazing experience.

On Sunday we attended the fabulous annual Manchester

Antique & Vintage Textile Fair, hosted by The Textile Society.


Met up with the very talented ceramic artist Karen Shapley, who

is also a textile vintage trader.

Oh yes I may just have taken home this lovely vintage petticoat.

Karen Shapley Ceramics Link


Now if you are not into textiles or Japanese culture you may not

understand why I am so drawn to this amazing piece of Boro.

It is over a hundred years old and is the result of the Japanese

belief in repair and reuse.

Pieces of fabric, recycled from damaged textiles are reused

again and again. Nothing is ever thrown away. I spent ages

talking to the most interesting lady whose stall it was on.

And yes, I had to bring it home. To me it’s like looking

at a painting. Every aspect of it fascinates me.

The rips, the frays, the stitches, the repairs, the front, the back.

It’s better than any Monet, Pollock or Rembrandt.

I know not everyone will get it but if you do you are welcome

to come and see it anytime.

Craft wise I attended a workshop in Brighouse recently where

we worked on vintage postcards.

First we made stamps by Lino cutting into rubber erasers and

Linosheets. Next up we died threads with Kohi-Nor dyes, then

we stitched and stamped the postcard before building up the

piece with buttons and trim.

Well I think I’ve left you with enough to go at today.

Hope to catch you all next time. There’s more adventures on

the horizon this week with a visit to Dandy Style Exhibition

in Manchester. Looking at 250 years of Men’s Fashion.

Dandy Style Exhibition Link

Take care 

Lynn

x

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Hares, ballerinas and a cat called Tango - WOYWW

Postman Sid brought me a mystery parcel this week

It was a box full of fabulous things from friend Tina in Montgomery,

Wales. 

I don’t know what I swooned over most, the paper hares made by Tina.

The beautiful books or the stunning piece of textile art she has handstitched.

Everything is enchanting and I can’t stop looking and appreciating it all.

What a very heartfelt, thoughtful thing to do

There’s been zoom meetings with my textile group the

No Rules Textile Society, where we meet once a week, talk

about the latest prompt and look at what members have been doing.

On the home front after 15 years my sister is returning home from Oxford.

She’s bought a house and this is the style she is hoping to replicate 

in her front room.  She is even adopting a cat like the one in this

picture. She’s seen one at the local animal rescue centre. It’s called

Tango and is a three year old house cat.

Telly wise we are enjoying the three part series on BBC 2

about the life of Mexican artist, Frida Kahlo. I’ll admit I’ve

being a fan for the past 25 years since doing my HND in

Textile Design at college and studying her work.

Sara Cox BBC 2 programme Between The Covers book programme

has returned for another series and is another favourite in our house,

even though the wandering welder never reads anything other than

the Saturday paper and the covers on his cd’s.

I’ve just finished reading this book I picked at random off the shelf

in my local library.  It was a really good read and I can recommend it.

We had a trip out to Manchester with my goddaughter Amy,

who gave us tickets for the Nutcracker Suite by candle light,

accompanied by a string quartet. 

I’ll never bother taking the car into Manchester again, we were there in

12 minutes by train and it cost us just over £5 each return on the train.

As March draws to a close we will be spending the last

week with friends holidaying in and around Stratford upon Avon.

There’s a trip to a butterfly farm and Blenheim Palace planned, as

well as Burford and Warwick Castle.

See you on the other side.

Take care

Lynn

xxx

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WHAT’S ON YOUR WORKDESK WEDNESDAY

In and out of the garden - WOYWW

There’s snowdrops in the garden 

daffodils on the table

and pancakes for tea

I’ll have to do two rounds of the reservoir to get rid of this sugar laden load of calories.

Craft wise I’ve watched a fabulous zoom talk by Ceramic Patchwork artist Zoe Hillyard

Link to Zoe Hillyard

Zoe takes charity shop find vases and pots, smashes them into pieces then rebuilds them by wrapping the pieces in fabric with stitch, no glue. Then she stitches the pieces back together into the original shape.

She was commissioned to do this series using these images from a fashion shoot.

I’m having a little go but it’s proving a lot harder than it looks.

It’s been a busy start to the year getting Mum’s finances sorted, along with the completion of the sale of her house. Add to that I’ve been house hunting for my sister who is coming back up north after 15 years in Oxford.

In the meantime I’m going to straighten out my fabric stash ready for the new prompt with the No Rules Textile Society. Hope everyone is well and still busily engrossed in their chosen creative craft.

Take care, catch you again soon

Lynn

X

Here’s a bit of trivia before I go. On my birthday in 1994 the largest pancake ever made was in Rochdale near to where we live.

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