This week I attended a masterclass with Claire Wellesley-Smith. It has been a crazy few weeks of family, work and social commitments and I feel exhausted but a few hours of stitching in the library at Gawthorpe Hall has refreshed me.
Claire's practice focuses on slow stitching as a means of achieving a more mindful approach to work. The gentle and contemplative way in which she uses and repairs treasured textiles resonates with me. Finding my own rhythm with a simple running stitch seemed to let me breathe and be myself.
I started my own slow stitched collage, taking some old ribbons, lace and fragments of embroidery transfers that I found when clearing out Auntie Jean's house. I've included scraps from my last batch of Devore and a piece of yellow wool from Claire. It is tacked together with alarmingly-fluorescent green thread, to be replaced with hand-dyed silks and linen over the course of the next few weeks.
The afternoon disappeared in a flash as we lost ourselves to stitching and as we reluctantly packed up our work, Claire offered us a quote from Louise Bourgeois
"Sewing is an act of emotional repair" - how very true!
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