I went into my favourite local shop (local is Kendal, UK) yesterday for some black fabric and came away with the most luscious heart shaped glass beads – yummy.
It was quite an eventful trip to town – I was waiting at the bus stop when another bus caught the corner of the bus shelter as it pulled in to the kerb – there was a huge bang and a cascade of glass rained down as one of the glass panels disintegrated. Thankfully none of the people sitting in the shelter or passing by were hurt, though there was glass everywhere. I even found a tiny piece between my toes after I got home!
We are having some wonderful sunny breezy weather just now, so I’ve been scouring lengths of cotton for dyeing. Last night I ironed 6 or 7 metres of it – probably more ironing than in the whole of the previous year! My lack of ironing practice is rather evident though as all I ever seem to end up with are flat creases…
I’m very excited today as I just booked onto a pattern cutting workshop in October – it’s an introductory day but I think I can go back for more. The course is at Unique Image in Ulverston – not far from where I live but I haven’t come across it before.
Last week I mentioned Germaine Greer’s article – since then I’ve been fascinated to read a number of discussions on it from several different points of view – especially on Sharon B’s inaminuteago, Arlee’s Albedo Design, Monique’s All the Rest of My Life, Pat’s Art Journal and Olga’s Threading Thoughts. I left a couple of my own thoughts on Arlee’s blog. I think in the end my main issue with the piece was Greer’s underlying assumption that a woman does not have the right to choose for herself what she will do, unless it’s something that was formerly a male preserve. If her choices take her in any direction associated with domesticity, nurture or ‘traditional feminine pursuits’, they are denigrated. Yet the tone of Greer’s comments about Edrica Huws suggests that even if she can’t bring herself to explicitly concede respect for women who choose to liberate themselves from some of the more constricting elements of feminism, in practice she does respect Huws, and seeks meaning in her work. The Guardian prints a response today from Effie Galletly – Quilt-making is as much of an art form as painting, which at the moment is still open for comments.
