...all the fun of the fair...

For those of you who couldn't make it to the Selvedge Fair at their fab new venue in Chelsea Town Hall a couple of weekends ago, here are a few pictures of our favourite stalls!

Starting with Les Soeurs, of course

The hilarious Julie Arkell was there

 As well as the delightful Jessie Chorley with all her goodies

 Susie and Carol have had enough of answering questions!

Our beautiful mugs and soaps dishes , hand made for Les Soeurs  were a huge success.

...good time in the big smoke.....

Just back from a working fortnight in London and its environs where I met up with two of our workshop leaders for next year, Marion Foale and Rosalind Wyatt.

Marion remains the delightfully petite, pretty and hugely successful designer who through hard work and inspirational design made it to the top fashion tree and has stayed there for almost four decades.  In 2009, a retrospective exhibition titled "Foale and Tuffin - Made in England" was held at the Fashion and Textile Museum in London and a book Foale and Tuffin: The Sixties. A Decade in Fashion, was published to coincide with the exhibition, and is still available.  

Over coffee we discussed how she plans to lead the workshop here with us next year, which will cover the knitty-gritty of knitting fashion, maximizing her huge industry expertise as well as utilising traditional and cutting edge techniques and yarns - it promises to be an opportunity for knitters of all capabilities to take the seemingly giant step essential when improvising and creating designs, or simply adapting existing patterns to fit.

Later in the week calligrapher/stitcher, Rosalind Wyatt, met me at the V&A to discuss possibilities for a five-day workshop with Les Soeurs Anglaises next September.    

Rosalind sharing a cuppa with Price Charles, not the same day......

We are so  excited to have this ebullient, gifted artist on board, especially in this our "literary year".  Rosalind has taught at the V&A,  been featured on BBC Radio 4 and much, much more.  Her evocative storytelling and meticulous, seminal pieces celebrate the beauty of words in their every guise - written, painted, collaged, spoken, performed, stitched, even eaten -   but her workshop with us will concentrate on the relationship between writing and the needle; combining participants' letters, poems, texts  and printed words with inherited or meaningful textiles, giving the new work and an identity and life of its own, the sum offering much more than the combined parts. 
   

The tentative dates for this workshop are 25th-30th September 2013 and Wyatt will be having a two-week residency at Les Soeurs Anglaises, with sole use of the l'Espace studio, prior to the event.  So she will be au fait with the traditions, history and textile influences of this part of South West France.  We'll shortly be uploading details onto our website, but in the meantime, if you are interested in putting your name on the waiting list, do please let us know ASAP.

Whilst at the V&A I visited their Ballgown Exhibition.  Personally, I found it a little disappointing, but was quite smitten by this wonderful knitted swimsuit in their permanent costume collection....

De rigeur n'est pas for the lady traveller: perhaps Marion can sort out a pattern for me!

Look out for the V&A's next exhibition "Hollywood Costume" which start this Friday (19th October).   Advertised as "a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see over 100 of the most iconic costumes in the history of film-making", it looks like a corker,  and will be top of my list of things to do when we are over for the Selvedge Fair* next month.  

*for more information about how to get a free ticket to the Selvedge Fair, join our mailing list.

A Stitch in Town

If you've been very busy in the garden preparing for the warmer weather and haven't had a chance to read your emails you might not yet have heard about Selvedge Magazine's Spring Fair to be held at their regular venue in Highgate, London on Saturday, 2nd April just down the road from their offices and shop. As usual, it promises to be full of fun ideas and great things to buy, and for the first time Les Soeurs Anglaises will be manning a stall.

So if you do make it to Town, try to squeeze your way through the crowds to our stand to say hello. If we're old friends it would be lovely to catch up, and if we haven't yet met then this will be an opportunity for you to find out a little bit more about our workshops, and to get a better feel for LSA's venue, location and hospitality.

Our events this year are pretty booked up by now, however Susie Cowie, who is leading our Embroidery workshop in June, and Rachel Hazell our super-creative Book Art teacher, will both be spending time with us at the Fair. This is a perfect opportunity to see and talk to them about their work, ideas and the sort of things they love to teach; and if there isn't room for your to join us this year, there is always 2012.

We've lived in this area of France for almost ten years and we thought we knew all the English there were to know round here by now; but then, a few months ago, we came across Jane Bedford, who until recently was running a delightful tea room called "Cupcakes" in Brantome a local beauty spot. Jane's baking and cake decorating skills are a revelation! She doesn't just produce sublime, bespoke wedding cakes. Her tea cakes, biscuits and pastries are to die for and we're discussing with her the possibility of her designing and producing speciality Les Soeurs Anglaises bakes for the workshops.

There's no time like tea time.

*Photograph of Surry Puffs by Rebecka Ryberg Skött