STITCH embroidery classes in Harrow in the New Year

We have dates for an eight-week embroidery course in Harrow in the spring in partnership with the Asian Women's Resource Centre. Once again, we'll be studying embroidery packs, developed with the Royal School of Needlework (RSN), looking at Islamic and western traditions of patterns and techniques. Please do email me if you would like to know more, volunteer or book a place. Sessions on embroidery techniques will be led by the RSN. Here are the details:
Thursdays, 11am to 1pm starting 20 January 2011. A lunch club will follow for a nominal charge.

The classes will then run weekly, with the exception of 12 March (International Women's Day) for eight weeks.These classes will be free, thanks to our funding from Faiths in Action, through Community and Local Government.

Venue: Marlborough Hill Centre, 76 Malborough Hill, Harrow HA1 1TY

Protesting at London Councils meeting

Morning protest outside London Councils offices, Southwark, ahead of a Grants' Committee meeting. Very cold. On the agenda: funding cuts that will cripple many small organisations supporting vulnerable groups across London. Our partners, the AsianWomen's Resource Centre, are out in force. A bitterly cold morning and disappointing news. Looks likely that the axe will fall from the end of June next year.

Dinner at the Morden Mosque

For the second year running am lucky enough to be invited to dinner at the Amadiyya Muslim mosque in Morden. This time, Amtul Kafi invited me. Amtul was a keen and wonderful participant in our embroidery classes in Tooting in the summer. Amtul is now studying at the Royal Holloway: she would like to be a doctor. This having arrived in the UK less than ten years ago from the Punjab, speaking no English.
She shows me the library where there are many books and pictures of Abdus Salam, who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1979. Abdus Salam has inspired her with words from the Koran that drove him, she says: 'Look again'. ([Al-Mulk 67:5] Aye, look again, and yet again...) Amtul keeps looking.

Amtul Kafi holding Zubaidah Shah's embroidery

(Abdus Salam was an Amadiyya Muslim. He is buried in Rabwah, Pakistan. The inscription on his grave originally read ' First Muslim Nobel Laureate'. However, due to protests by Muslims who do not recognise Amadiyya

 Muslims, the word 'Muslim' has been removed. So the inscription now apparently - absurdly  - reads ' first Nobel Laureate'.)
Was very pleased to see some embroidery by Zubaidah Shah. Amtul holds it here. Zubaidah is 83. This embroidery certainly puts anything I can produce to shame.

Embroidery by Zubaidah Shah, 83, who has been a keen participant in this project from the start

The reverse of Zubaidah's embroidery. The reverse is always revealing. In this case, as neat as the front....

A protest at possible funding cuts

Just heard - the Asian Women's Resource Centre (AWRC) is taking a busload of women to London Council offices near Waterloo next Thursday when proposed massive funding cuts will be discussed. These cuts - which threaten many small organisations working with marginalised communities across London - could be make or break for the AWRC.
This is part of the government's spending review. Councils, which fund much pan-London work as well as activities within particular Boroughs, are talking about 'repatriating' current funding and delivering the same services only in Borough. This means organisations that work across Borough boundaries - e.g. the AWRC - would be left without funds.
A small knock-on effect for our classes: next Thursday's (25/11) will be postponed as many women will be down at Waterloo.

Scenes from recent classes

Scenes from the most recent classes at the Asian Women's Resource Centre, Harlesden...

Detail from embroidery brought in by Khalima

Everyone hard at work

And the full picture.

Crochet brought in by Daxa

Sewing, tea and cake.

For a long time, we have hoped to work locally - ie. close to our office - in Hammersmith and Fulham - and in residential homes. At last this is possible, thanks to a small grant from Hammersmith and Fulham Council and a partnership with Notting Hill Housing association. We are planning three sessions in Trillington House, Uxbridge Road, Shepherds Bush, London on
1 December 2010
8 December 2010
15 December 2010
We will have embroidery demonstrations, embroidery surgeries and a chance to sew and chat. From 10am to 12 noon on each day.
Not to be missed. Email info@bridging-arts.com for more information. To download a flyer, please click here

View from the window

And very finally - what could be more final than a graveyard? - the jumble of graves in the Jewish graveyard, seen from the window. Bodies buried12 deep because of lack of space in the ghetto. Brings thoughts of 20th century atrocities to mind, but this graveyard closed some centuries ago.
As often happens, the view from a museum window proves unsettling.
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A (nearly) contemporary tapestry

And finally something far more recent. A tapestry from the 1920s of a potter at work. Have been thinking recently that I would like to make a huge tapestry wall hanging. But how long would it take? A cushion cover takes months ...
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A very different ceremonial gown

And upstairs ecclesiastical goldwork. Here detail of a statue for Our Lady from the Prague Loretto. 1700 to 1720
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A machine stitched collar on a 70s wedding dress

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