A knightly skirt

Loved the way someone at the Parador in Avila, Spain, has decided to tack a skirt on to this coat of armour. Preserving the knight's modesty perhaps?
The power of fabric.

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Bar furniture

In Madrid in a cafe behind the Prado....notice some intriguing boxes on the bar.  The barman tells me they were made by the mother of the owner - 'a very old lady' - who loves to make them. They are stitched squares of plastic netting bound together with embroidery silk. What a fantastic idea. Wonder if we could develop something similar for work with elderly people in residential homes.....

I Don't Know: the weave of textile language

I don't know either - actually - having seen Richard Tuttle's textile sculpture at Tate Modern this weekend.

I had been lured there by the wonderful photo (above) in the London Review of Books.

But in fact just saw this (below) which felt dismal, I don't know why - perhaps my mood. Conveyed in the title 'I Don't Know ...." is the idea that textile sculpture can have its own life. It changes as it is draped: presents differently in different spaces. In one sense this is exciting - in another meaningless (or that is what I felt on Saturday).

The loops of the fabric reflected the arches of the suspension bridge outside.

Was much happier at Fenwick where this Marc Jacob scarf cheered me up.

As did this dress. Simply because the print on the fabric reminded me of spring - Japan - cherry blossom and exquisite birds. Pure escapism.

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Matisse: patterns to energise

Matisse/Spanish Still Life 1910-11

Came across postcards of these two paintings this morning - kept ever since visiting an exhibition at the Royal Academy in 2005 - which I now see was called Matisse: His Art and His Textiles.
This was long before we started on The British Sari Story in 2007 or Stitch - so I must have visited it fairly randomly.
Something must have lodged in the mind, though.
These patterns are so vigorous and strong: they are what the painting is about somehow.
Have just had two pieces of toast and marmalade for breakfast but looking at these pictures has given me more energy.

The meaning of a stitch

It's a long time since I was a Guide - but I do remember how hard it was to earn badges. In my day - for sewing, cooking (hard to imagine!), orienteering (perhaps).....
Time has moved on. I was interested to see the range of badges on the fleece of a wonderful Guide from Camborne, Cornwall.
And the painstakingly neat - poignant even - stitches with which they're sewn on. The stitches almost speak.