Many cups of tea, and other rugs

One of the first exhibitions I bumped into at the Knit & Stitch show in Harrogate was that of the Ebor Ruggers, a group of passionate people who enjoy keeping the traditional craft of rug making alive, but doing so while being sustainable. They make so much more than rugs though, think baskets, wallhangings, bags and cushions - and many were on display at the show.

I’m sharing those which caught my eye, including the one below that really wasn’t happy about being on the wall and kept escaping to the floor, and each time show attendees rushing to help the ruggers to get it back in place.

The rug tells the story of a daughter leaving home, potentially for university, leaving with hopes, dreams and the best wishes for her family, though the poignant part is the ‘come home’ plea, which is no doubt that of the rug maker to her daughter, and I’m sure is come home occasionally and don’t bring your washing!

I loved the simplicity of the rag rugged heart, which fully deserved its place at the show, but the storytelling piece below is the one that really made me smile, as it reminded me of MOH and his many, many great cups of tea!

The text in the rug is ‘a better man there could not be to make me many cups of tea’ and it took me right back to the early days of lockdown as we started working at our dining table in the kitchen and so he was making many more cups of tea, which I was happy to receive - and I’m still very happy that he makes me many cups of tea.

One day in lockdown though he asked me if I had a butler at work to make my tea, as while I’m always happy to receive and drink tea, I rarely made a cup for us myself. Oops - though in my defence, the tea was coming thick and fast so I had no need to make my own, and I don’t think I drank so much tea as back then - even when we moved our desks into a spare room each and there was further to bring it the tea kept coming, and so it does today too, which I’m very glad about.

I think I need to get him this rug on a t-shirt at the very least, or perhaps a mug - yes that would be more appropriate wouldn’t it?!

But anyway, back to the show - what amazed me about the rugs on display was the wide variety of approaches. I’m not sure why it did, but it did - and these three pieces (above and below) sum that up - and until then I didn’t realise that perhaps rag rugged bunting was what I needed, but maybe I do.

There’s some clever people out there excelling in their crafts, and I’m thankful for the glimpse they gave us into the ruggers world.

From Sewing to Sowing

* I was invited to this year’s Gardeners’ World Live preview and provided with a pair of tickets for the show, therefore all my posts will be marked as 'Ad’ though as usual my views and opinions are very much my own.

This is the perfect name for a garden isn’t it? I think the designer Annabel Davies should win a prize solely for that, and I’m sure she’s very happy with the Gold award that the judges gave her, but even so - or should that be sew?

But anyway, the garden reflects Annabel’s journey from sewing film costumes to gardening after she discovered a love of growing flowers and vegetables in 2020, which sounds like the perfect lockdown distraction too. And I think I’d love to see her costume designs if this is what her garden’s look like, don’t you agree?

But I digress, the garden is inspired by Arts & Crafts gardens and combines ornamental and productive planting - so no doubt another reason why it scored so highly for me. The show notes said that the garden uses a ‘varied textures of flowers and vegetables much like fabrics bring life to a costume design’.

And looking at this garden again a month or two after the show, that totally makes sense - the dense planting (another favourite of mine) meshing together to form the fabric of the garden.

All the while the plants are struggling to be contained by the raised beds and so spill over the edges with abundance.

It really is a garden, with planting that’s full of joy. Sigh.

* With thanks to Gardeners’ World for once again inviting me to Gardeners’ World Live, it was another great show! I’ll be sharing more from my visit to this year’s show throughout the year - I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.

Modern Quilts by Mandy Munroe

It’s been a while since I’ve shared some quilts from this year’s Newark Quilt Show, so today I’ve got some brightly coloured modern designs to share. The quilts here are all made by Mandy Munroe for a variety of modern quilting magazines over the past twelve years or so, and it was great to see them all together. Mandy says this is just a small selection of her quilts, and I’d love to see them all, but for now I’m happy just seeing, and sharing, these - I hope you enjoy them too.

, MANDY MUNROE

The show notes also said that it took Mandy a while to get used to designing quilts six months ahead of publication, so making winter quilts in summer and vice versa, but with access to top-secret fabric prints pre-release must have been thrilling, even if they couldn’t be shared widely, just yet.

I love the colours in the next two square based quilts, but I’m under no illusion to the amount of work in either of these. The Happy Squares quilt below brings ‘doodles in [Mandy’s] notebook were brought to life’ against the colourful squared backgrounds. I’m not sure my doodles could be a quilt, or even if they’d ever be this structured!

HAPPY SQUARES, MANDY MUNROE

CHEQUERBOARD, MANDY MUNROE

And what’s better than a chequerboard - well a chequerboard within a chequerboard of course! This quilt was made from scraps, and the smaller chequerboards meant that using every small scrap was possible.

BUCKLE UP, MANDY MUNROE

Mandy notes that for the Buckle Up quilt above she’d had the bold repeat pattern in her notebook for a while, and with this fabric she ‘went large!’ - I like it, and I like how the shapes make your eyes keep moving over the design.

This next one appeals for the colours, and is an experimentation of different colour combinations pieced into square blocks, and I can see what Mandy means when she says the finished quilt looks like a summer garden with umbrellas (from above).

AL FRESCO SAMPLER, MANDY MUNROE

The brief for this quilt was colours of the Kasbah, and the design is based on a motif that Mandy saw everywhere in Marrakesh. It’s great isn’t it, and I love how the bright colours pop against the neutral background.

KASBAH STAR, MANDY MUNROE

Now this one is very clever, and uses a bundle of Dear Stella Intermix basics which clearly I now need to check out! The bold prints were used on the triangles and the paler prints used to create streaks across the sky - I’m definitely a little bit in love with this one.

INTERSTELLA, MANDY MUNROE

What also struck me though was not every quilt needed to be quite so detailed. These next two take repeating shapes and are no less impactful for it. The one below was for a ‘Monochromatic with a pop’ issue and Mandy kept the design minimalistic and graphic.

MONOCHROMATIC, MANDY MUNROE

STACK, MANDY MUNROE

The quilt above according to the show notes was ‘possibly inspired by containers loading at the docks’ - and now I can’t unsee that, it just goes to show that inspiration is everywhere if we take time to notice it.

WINDOWS AT KEW, MANDY MUNROE

This final quilt was inspired by the brickwork surrounding the windows at Kew Palace, and is based on a photo that Mandy took and then simplified. And if you let your imagination wander it’s perfectly possible to imagine the flowers reflected on the glass.

They’re all brilliant quilts, and I’d be hard pressed to choose a single favourite from them, but what about you - is there one that speaks, or sings to you?