I’m very fond of stained glass, as you might have guessed from my overexcitement about the stained glass windows at St Vitnus Cathedral in Prague. While I’d be hard pressed to say if I preferred historical or modern pieces, one of the nice parts about modern pieces is that they have utterly vibrant colours although one of the joys about the methods in which stained glass is coloured means that many pieces do not really fade with time and exposure to light.
Experiments are fun things, especially when they have unexpectedly nice results. Today’s testing was trying out some Procion MX dyes on silk ribbon samples to see how well the dye struck and whether the materials from this particular supplier would be any good for creating my own range of colourful silk ribbons for embroidery.
If you don’t get stuck in one of Prague’s lovely cathedrals or wonderful exhibitions, there are some great places to pick up some crafty supplies. One of these is the immensely practical haberdashery Filium in the Palladium shopping centre. Apparently they boast the widest assortment of fashion buttons in the Czech Republic and, while they might not quite beat the legendary Duttons for Buttons in York, it is a seriously impressive collection.
More cards, but a little bit of a different theme today – Somerset patchwork! Ribbons are wonderful, versatile things. You can wrap presents and decorate with them, embroider them to make particularly lovely looking flowers and cut them up and fold them over to may all sorts of fanciful shapes.
There were many things about my recent trip to Prague that didn’t quite go according to plan. The antiques shop, famous for their stash of antique lace was closed for unexpected reasons, as was one of the museums I had wanted to see, and the whole country went into a ‘State of Emergency’ thanks to You Know What. However, despite my best laid plans going to waste, I found some unexpected gems, including the Museum of Decorative Arts, and completely fell in love with a city that I’m just going to have to go back to.
It seems fitting that the post to welcome in 2022 will be my 222nd post! Some good accidental number matching there especially as my posting has been a bit erratic over the last few months. Let’s take a look back over what 2021 had to offer…
I think the post title and the cordoned off Nativity scene about says it all… so with today’s post you can enjoy some nice photos of St. Vitnus Cathedral in Prague (full title: The Metropolitan Cathedral of Saints Vitus, Wenceslaus and Adalbert – so there’s a Christmas connection in there somewhere) which might be one of the most breathtaking pieces of art I have ever seen in my lifetime.
My brain feels a bit like scrambled eggs at that moment… which may well explain today’s piece of machine embroidery! My completely obsessive love of over-challenging myself seems to have found new heights in my work and it’s very much this mix of being hugely excited by a lot of what is going on and going well, but also very much wanting a nap. Maybe now I’m at the point of embroidering people pigeons for their birthday cards I should perhaps consider the latter!
Most of my sewing adventures recently have been clothes repair which is not the most glamorous stuff to take photographs of, though I will say it is rather satisfying to have saved two pairs of jeans from the bin! If anyone has any resources on repair (preferably repairs of the invisible/less visible kind as I am not a fan of ‘obviously patched’) they’d like to share, please do as I am keen to learn more. In the meantime though, shiny resin photos for you!
Last week was the exhibition that accompanies the Hand and Lock Prize for Embroidery, which is a seriously lavish celebration of embroidery talent. There are several categories to the prize, including Fashion and Textile, with Open and Student levels. Whether you love all the individual exhibition pieces or not, there is no denying that the Prize attracts a veritable cornucopia of talent and is the ultimate ‘up yours’ to anyone who doesn’t think embroidery can be art.
astitchornine 