easily distracted by shiny things…
Posted in FAQ, embroidery, sewing on Sep 16th, 2009
Just a quick reminder that this weekend is my smocking workshop at the Museum of English Rural Life.
Today is the very last day that you can sign up - in fact you’ve got about an hour and a half left if you want to secure a place!
The course runs from 2:15-4:15 on both Saturday and [...]
This is a sneaky peek at what you’ll be making if you come along to my Smocking Workshop at the Museum of English Rural Life. (It’s on September 19 & 20, and there are still places left! Book here…)
As you can see, we’ll be working the smocking stitches on gingham. For beginners it’s the easiest [...]
I’m sorry I haven’t been posting about anything other than work lately, but that’s because I haven’t really been doing anything other than work!
I have finally managed to buy a new bike, so today Paul and I cycled all the way to (guess where…) work, so that I could time the journey. The theory is [...]
Posted in gardening on Aug 4th, 2009
Contrary to the label on the box, this is in fact Real Food, from the MERL vegetable patch!
The Museum of English Rural Life has a huge garden, about an acre, and there are currently two vegetable plots. One is planted in a wartime style, and the other is modern. Both of them are yielding lots [...]
Posted in inspiration, photos on Jul 16th, 2009
This is a sneaky peek at one of the object storage cases at the Museum of English Rural Life. Frances and I took out every single smock, photographed and measured it, and took lots and lots of notes.
Now the task is to type up all of those notes, which is one of the reasons I [...]
Posted in embroidery, sewing on Jun 19th, 2009
Yesterday I spent a pleasant hour in the Reading Room at the Museum of English Rural Life, having a look at a couple of books about smocking that had been put to one side for me.
The books were Smocking: A Practical Beginner’s Guide, by Audrey Vincente Dean, and Smocking: Traditional and Modern Approaches by Oenone Cave [...]
Ever since my visit to the Museum of English Rural Life, I can’t stop thinking about clogs.
The pair above (which I believe are the same ones that you can try on in the museum) are an eight-eyelet farmer’s style clog made by Walkley Clogs. I’ve been coveting a pair of these for years and years, [...]
Posted in exhibitions, inspiration, sewing on Apr 27th, 2009
On Sunday afternoon I persuaded Paul to wander round the Museum of English Rural Life.
I hadn’t been since it moved location (in 2005!), and it’s in a much bigger space now. It’s a slightly strange museum - laid out more like a store room than an exhibit, with things shoved up corners and hanging from [...]