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Hello from a grey, rainy-sky Yorkshire.  I'm sat on the sofa, waiting for the parcel man to deliver one of the few Christmas gifts I've actually got around to buying.  I really need to get a move on with deciding what to buy people.  I did venture into a few actual shops yesterday, but the impatient crowds, queues at tills and endless jaunty Christmas themed songs being played wasn't my idea of fun.  Online shopping's the way to go!   Right, on to crafty matters.  I was in Leeds yesterday for the last Stitch Art session of 2025.  It was themed around a new exhibition, ' Plant Dreaming '.  It's a beautiful display of paintings, photographs and textiles, plus some fabulous ceramics that I really coveted.   I think these ceramics are by Aliyah Hussain.   Hopefully you can see enough, despite my poor photography.  I also loved these massive wall hangings that were pretty much floor to ceiling.   They make me wan...

I'm finally getting around to blogging part two of the Leeds Tapestry.  (See previous post if you're not sure what I'm blathering on about.)  First of all, here's the 'Leeds in Bloom' panel, which features stunning embroidery of flowers and leaves.  It seems that when ideas were sought about what themes individual panels ought to cover, the natural world was a popular choice.  The Yorkshire branch of the Embroiderers' Guild were eager to get involved, but progress was slow as funding needed to be raised and sponsors weren't quick to put their hands in their pockets.  Below is the best shot I could get of the full panel.   The Queen's Hotel is at the centre of it, and could you imagine embroidering all of those windows?  It would've sent me round the bend!  My dodgy photography doesn't capture the way the panel's designed - you have Kirkstall Abbey at the base, shown in springtime.  Queen's Hotel in summer, the Tropical House & Ros...

Today's post will be one of two, maybe three on the Leeds Tapestry.  What's that?  Well, I didn't know either until recently, and I know more about it now due to an event on Wednesday.  First things first, it's not a tapestry.  In the same way the Bayeux Tapestry is an embroidery, so is the Leeds Tapestry.  It's a textile work made in sixteen panels, and they're about 2 and a half metres by 1 and a half metres, all framed and under glass.  (You can just about make out a panel in the photo above.  No idea why there's a CID sign too!)  The panels took hundreds of volunteers ten years to complete, and were a labour of love, the initial idea coming from artist Kate Russell who must've despaired that it'd ever get finished.  Made between 1992 and 2002, this was assembled before our online saturated days, before everyone could be instantly messaged on their mobile, or log on to Facebook and Instagram to catch up on everyone else's progress.  H...