As this strange summer draws to a close I’ve had a few quiet days and thought I would write a short update here. I spent my break walking and at my allotment where the rhythms of gathering and processing have speeded up and I’ve noticed a definite shift into autumnal colour. My area of Bradford is about to come out of a local lockdown, the schools return next week and I’m hoping that some better structure might emerge for me in my working days.

Lockdown colours from my backyard, allotment and kitchen waste

I’ve continued to work throughout the Covid crisis, trying to keep some momentum in my PhD, my ongoing project in East Lancashire, the next stage for other projects including the Bradford Covid-19 Stitch Journal and final edits for my second book (I’ll be writing more about this next month). It has felt very improvised and fragmented at times, but I’ve also made new connections with textile practitioners, writers and researchers during this period and begun some interesting conversations. I’ve hugely missed the regular contact of my community practice and thought a lot about who is missing in the increasingly digital-focussed delivery of workshops, talks and projects. Through it all I’ve kept up my daily stitching practice, now in its eighth year. The repetition of my stitches, particularly on more difficult days, has been hugely beneficial to me.

This autumn I’m looking forward to resuming some teaching, with an in-person stitch retreat at Hope & Elvis and an online session with Selvedge about stitching as a daily practice.

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If you have time and access do listen to Stitching Souls, a beautiful documentary from the BBC World Service by Maria Margaronis about the Gee’s Bend quilters. I have also spent some time reading the excellent articles on the Decorating Dissonance website including this interesting reflection on lockdown through the life of nineteenth century German seamstress Agnes Richter