Kaffe Fassett at Standen

My blog posts are currently like buses...none for an interminably long time and then suddenly a great rush of them, but all with the same destination - that is, sharing news of exhibitions that are soon to end. This one is particularly late in arriving with you, as the exhibition in question closes this Sunday (23rd April), so if you're interested it may be a case of read-and-run.

We missed the two talks that Kaffe Fassett gave at Standen to run alongside the exhibition as the tickets sold out so quickly, but in mid-March, my daughter, mum and I went along to look at the quilts and tapestries on display. These two red quilts in the image above were lit beautifully and really glowed.

This sweetly-coloured Pickle Dish quilt was my favourite. In researching the origin of the pickle dish design, I discovered some alternative names, one being Gypsy Kisses and the other being 'an eyelash quilt'! The latter leaves a pickle dish (which only shares the basic oblong shape that appears within the quilt) feeling a rather tenuous link, when a set of eyelashes is such a perfect literal translation of this design. Albeit rather jauntily-coloured eyelashes.

Because Standen is a popular location in its own right, many of the visitors hadn't come to specifically view the exhibition. It was really lovely hearing how surprised and delighted people were to stumble across this beautiful body of work.

We enjoyed the National Trust's tactful approach to asking visitors to refrain from sitting on the chairs. Such a simple gesture, but it seemed to convey a whole conversation without any need for any ugly signage. Just in case you're wondering, our thought was that the conversation would go something like this: Would you like this fir cone up your bottom? No? Don't sit on the chair then (all said in quite a friendly, smiley voice). Someone on Instagram mentioned that they've seen holly used at some National Trust properties...that seems like a slightly more aggressive conversation.

We were lucky to go on a day when everything was bathed in beautiful Spring light.

Once we'd finished admiring all the quilts, we wandered around the grounds chatting. My mum and I saw the chance to star in our own Rob Ryan paper cut and leapt upon it, captured by my daughter. I am wearing a poncho...not actual bat wings.

We saw this final quilt in the coffee shop. I was quite captivated by it, in part because I wasn't enamoured by the colours overall, but felt the whole thing was transformed by the very small amounts of blue splashed about and it felt really fascinating to see how it worked to lift all the other colours.

There's a lovely video of Kaffe decorating the Standen Christmas tree last year, at the bottom of this page, if you'd like to see.

Over on my Facebook page, I've also listed some podcasts that I've enjoyed over the last week while sewing, if you have some spare listening time. I always love hearing people's recommendations, as I'm always looking out for new things. One thing that I hadn't mentioned on Facebook, that I've been enjoying recently is The Conversation on BBC World Service. In each episode, they get two women together who share the same interest/job/life experience have a conversation and it's invariably fascinating as they discuss the similarities and differences in their experiences.

Wishing you a lovely weekend,
Florence x