Last week I was in the Lake District, staying at
Glenthorne Guest House in Grasmere on my 9th
NWCQ retreat . Unlike
previous years , I didn't do very much sketching this year ( even falling behind a bit on my daily drawing ) but a fair bit of stitching. Given the poor weather conditions I'm glad I did my
'Grasmere Cloths' last year, it would have been very challenging this year!
The trains to Oxenholme had been delayed/cancelled in the storms of the previous week due to flooding so I was relieved that it was only 15 minutes late. Karen picked me up and the driving conditions in snow and flooded roads were difficult ( these photos near Windermere were taken out the window waiting our turn to go up on the pavement, the water being so deep)
Glad to arrive at Glenthorne, this was the view from my bedroom window ( and below , on a better day , the view towards the guest house )
The studio building among the trees and the table space divided equally with masking tape between the 13 of us ( with the usual jokes about ' encroachment' when materials creep over the line) )
The main project I'd brought to work on were the different sections of #trainstitching work in progress " #wrapmeintheshore" as I'm getting to the stage of working out how to hang it/ display it. I don't want to replicate exactly what I did for
#windmeinthesea so was seeking advice from the others and I'm glad to say have come away with lots of suggestions. It looked lovely with the wintery light shining through it, shame it would be difficult to replicate under gallery/exhibition conditions.
As it was the 10th year of these retreats , we had several shared activities to mark it. We know each other so well now, it feels like we pick up where we left off , always lots of laughter but also understanding of each others circumstances .
Besides 2 entertaining and informative quizzes in the evening from Jean and Ruth and a fun drawing session with Millie) we'd each brought a piece of denim which was sewn together by Judy to form a bookcover/ bag for the photo album/ scrapbooks that Millie puts together documenting our activities. We took it in turns to add some stitching by hand and machine
The ' extension' activity for those who wished to do so ( all of us in the end!) was to each bring a piece of fabric/thread/ beads in indigo or red and make something with them ( we did a similar exercise led by Linda B. when we used paper ) The rules evolved into being allowed to incorporate 2 other materials of our own and leave out one of the original if we wished.
The resulting works were extremely varied, from a beaded tree; bookwraps; mini collages; bookmarks; journal quilts to my '
barnacle' .
I used a patched piece of the Japanese kasuri from my trainstitching with pieces of the fabrics with a mussel shape cut out. My other addition was red thread which I used to sew 13 lines in
kantha style stitching
I then gathered it up into a shell shape ( using the indigo beads to fasten it) , weighted with a wrapped cord made of red and blue flowery fabric
In between sewing sessions went for short walks in the ever changing weather conditions, going shopping for Grasmere Gingerbread and warm
winter 'trews' ( the trousers I'd brought with me, even with thermals , weren't up to it ) .
We were very well fed at the Guesthouse with cooked breakfast and 3 course evening meal but still managed to fit in lunches of delicious soups and cakes at
Mathildes after browsing the
Heaton Cooper art shop painting supplies ( buying more Pitt artist Calligraphy Pens in different colours)
Fortified by coffee and cake I returned to work on my 'homework' for '
Surface, Structure, Stitch' at City Lit , taking one shape and playing with it in multiples
I took a mussel as my source shape, in 2 different sizes, using colourcatchers ( above) with a spacer bead between each shape and some indigo and cream fabrics sandwiched with bondaweb ( below) , with a few stitches to hold them in position. Lots of potential.
We left at Friday lunchtime under ominous skies with very wet snow. I was travelling with Judy , the spray on the motorway was dreadful , so glad that thanks to her hospitality I could make a more leisurely train journey back home on Saturday
The view from the train between Crewe and Stafford in particular was of a landscape of flooded fields
Safely back home in Faversham , after an early dinner at ASK, appropriately enough we had tickets for '
Waterways ' in St Mary of Charity's Church. The Sunday before we'd gone to 2 talks (
Mudlarking and
the way to the sea at Faversham Literary Festival with lunch at the
Carriage Restaurant in between so it's been a watery week !
