Friday 6 July 2012

Weekend Walks: The Barbican

I went to the Bauhaus exhibition at the Barbican last weekend, and wanted to share a couple of my favourite pieces, so I can know where to find them again :)

My favourite pieces (in no particular order,) were;
Paul Keler - Stain Glass Window Designs (1922-23)
Laslo Moholy-Nagy - Composition Q iv
Kandinsky - Circle in a Circle
Gunta Stolzl - Tapestry and Working Drawing (1924)
Hedwig Jungnick - Rug (1921)
Paul Citroen - Metropolis

The image above is Jungnick's rug, I couldn't resist trying to take a photo of it so I didn't forget it and I am so glad I did because I can't find one like it with a quick google search. As the largest Bauhaus exhibition in the UK in over 40 years, it was fantastic to have the opportunity to see the classics side by side with some pieces I had never heard of.

Kandinsky's Circles in a Circle and Metropolis;


I was hoping for a larger selection of architectural and furniture works to be on display and was expecting a more Miesian influence, but the early, craft works more than made up for it. If you are in London before the 12th August; it comes highly recommended (and take a few minutes to wander around the Barbican too, while you are there- its breath taking!)

J x



Wednesday 4 July 2012

WIP Wednesday

This is my first WIP Wednesday for a long long time, and I figure I better start again cos my wips are threatening to run away with me!

1. Curio Quilt
lots of progress has been made on this one since I last linked up, but I am still less than half way to having a quilt top so must keep going.

2. Bee Portraits
I have received all my tops back, but I haven't done any work on putting them together yet.

3. Nicey Bees
I completely forgot about this quilt until I unpacked my Bee Portraits at the weekend; I started it back in June last year but I gave up on it somewhere near september, I seriously need to catch up and get it finished off; especially as round two has started!

4. Portholes
I committed to myself to doing a whole quilt of these when I saw the opportunity to do Lucie's class at the retreat; I have all the fabrics to finish a top and I have block 1 done.

5. Twin Quilt
Originally this was intended to be the back of my very first quilt, but I decided it would be too difficult to accurately match front and back for my initial foray into quilting so I split it into two semi-matching quilts, I finished off the first one before christmas as a practice for quilting before I attempted my god-daughter's but this one has been languishing in its little bag since then!

Intended Quilts - Fabric Bought, No Progress
6. Swoon
I bought the fabric to do my swoon months ago when everyone was swooning-along, but I didn't buy any backing fabric so I never got going.

7. Pinwheels
As above, I chose my exciting prints and didn't bother with the backing so I couldn't start (then I got sucked into Curio and time flew away with me!)

8. Crab Shack Charm
I want to get started on this one asap, I think a quick and easy top is a perfect way to re-energise myself

9. Blitzen Granny Sqaures
I was luck yenough to received some tiny squares of Blitzen in my goody bag at the retreat (anyone know what the official phrase is for these?) and amazingly Judith put some in as extras with my Crab Shack, as I haven't jumoed on the Granny Square band wagon yet this seems to be a perfect time to join in.

Wow, I knew I had let things slip, but not this much. It feels great to have it all written down though and I didn't even mention my Brit Quilt that is supposed to be what I am working on this summer! Fingers crossed for a magic fairy to come see me this week and have I 9 finished quilts by next WIP Wednesday what do you think? :D

J x

Sunday 1 July 2012

Fresh Sewing Day July

June has been a very interesting month in our house which has involved a fair bit of catching up with commitments from May, but not much sewing has been achieved. :(

In fact it has been primarily Bee blocks, with the completion of blocks from April, May and June all completed this month and off on their way home. I also made more headway on my Curio quilt which is a bit of pain to keep getting out and packing up all the bits are so cumbersome.



I have also signed up to the Brit Quilt swap, which I am pretty excited about and I have made some concrete plans for my Crab Shack winnings; I see way too many quilts in my future :) but I'm sure that's not a bad thing.

And as I am a pretty small blog I will also be linking up to the Small Blog Meet Up and going over to say hi to everyone... "Hi guys!"

J x