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

Winter Stitching Update #1

1. finish my woolly christmas tree garland (13 down, 7 to go)
                no update to report

2. wrap some woolly wreaths, from ChristopherAndTia
                fail!

3. make a series of felt stockings for the garland, by Dutch Blue
                maybe next week?

4. trio of applique and embroidery christmas scenes (when Helen brings some hoops back from China for me to play with) by Pilli Pilli
                no embroidery yet, but my hoops are on their merry travels to England!

5. stay up to date with my Brit Bee (and finish October's this week)
                woohoo success!!! I finished October's block this morning and it is on it's way to Laura, I will             .              do a post on the blocks after she has received them.

6. enjoy the local quilting festival on Sunday 23rd, by Lutterworth Piecemakers
                check out the post that I did last weekend to see some of the great quilts I saw, it was a lovely             .               exhibition!

7. quilt and bind Numero Uno
                quilting - check, binding - nearly!

8. quilt and bind it's twin; Uno Gemelo (sticking with the spanish naming theme for these babies)
                no chance, must buy more batting

9. quilt and bind my Baby Mystery Mixtape
                ditto

10. start (and finish the big sister quilt)

                nope

11. cushion for Nan of all her grandchildren's handprints

                started, but very little progress.

12. decide what I want for my Bee month and order the fabric

                I think I have decided, been researching like mad this week, but I need to try it out myself              .               before I inflict it on the lovely Bee ladies!

13. finish the embroidery lettering tutorial, over at Needle N Thread I started months ago!

                I'm sure I will get around to this eventually...

14. write my winter stitching list

                another checked item!

so the updated list looks like this;

1. finish my woolly christmas tree garland (13 down, 7 to go)

2. wrap some woolly wreaths, from ChristopherAndTia

3. make a series of felt stockings for the garland, by Dutch Blue

4. trio of applique and embroidery christmas scenes (when Helen brings some hoops back from China for me to play with) by Pilli Pilli

5. stay up to date with my Brit Bee

7. bind Numero Uno

8. quilt and bind it's twin; Uno Gemelo (sticking with the spanish naming theme for these babies)

9. quilt and bind my Baby Mystery Mixtape 

10. start (and finish the big sister quilt)

11. cushion for Nan of all her grandchildren's handprints

12. decide what I want for my Bee month and order the fabric

13. finish the embroidery lettering tutorial, over at Needle N Thread I started months ago!

I thought I had made much more progress than this :( better luck next week!

Jennie x

Lutterworth Piecemaker's 2011 Exhibition

I had a very inspiring afternoon yesterday, wandering around Lutterworth Piecemaker's exhibition, they hold a meeting on the third wednesday of each month for local quilters and it is a group that I have been meaning to go along to for a while now- maybe it should be the first of my (many) new year's resolutions?! You can check out their blog here; they are a bunch of very friendly and talented ladies, but I guess what you really want to see is the quilts, here is just a small selection of the quilts on display...

This reminded me of one of my very favourite quilts, Composition II by Shoko Sakai which can be seen Here.

This quilt was designed for a minimalist daughter who enjoys the sports pictured here. I love the complex simplicity in this quilt and the colours are beautiful!

The following quilt's top was found in an attic by one of the ladies, who carefully repaired, backed and quilted it. The top still had its original papers tacked in and rather than lose the history these papers have been scanned and printed onto the rear of the quilt, along with census data to match the woman who is believed to have pieced it, so that it's history may always go with it.

Four of the five blocks shown here are the product of the scanned paper pieces.

An interpretation of the paper pieced artwork on display at the Charles Rennie Mackintosh House and Gallery in Northampton by Helen Spence.

EDIT: The inspiration for this tryptic is the beautiful window of 78 Derngate and not the Helen Spence piece, my apologies for the mistake, thank you to The Maker for pointing this out; I tried to reply to your email but you are a no reply blogger.

Sorry, I forget the story behind this lovely baby quilt.

This piece was the quilter's first foray into art quilting and she remarked how easily it came together, this left me feeling totally inspired, I would love to be able to achieve something like this one day!

Jx