I feel as though my head is spinning - where to start.

Highlights of the week -

• London Fashion Week - Son No 1 launched his debut menswear collection.  There has been so much press interest that I cannot list it all here, and anyway I am not sure that my blog readers are that bothered in edgy, street orientated mens wear.  So I'll spare you!  But here is the best link to see the work.  The patterns are great, it must be said.
• Bletchley Park Quilt Exhibition - what a great venue for a quilt exhibition and thanks to the ladies of the the Quilters Guild Region 7 who did such a fantastic job (and here is just a small selection of the work on display but really sorry to anyone whose work it is, I did not get your names.  It was too crowded to record everything properly) 

• I took my friend Fee a descendant of the architects George and Giles Gilbert Scott (St Pancras station - George - and Battersea Power Station - Giles) to see the church at Gawcott in Buckinghamshire which was designed by the Reverend Thomas Scott, father of George, who started the whole architectural thing off. (I know she looks a bit tiny in the photo but if I made here bigger then you wouldn't see the church, which is rather lovely)

Well - a week to remember.

First of all City & Guilds Creative Textiles 2 started  - that is my Monday evenings sorted out for the next 20 weeks or so.

It was great to see 3 other people from the last class I did - and of course lovely to see Jane again.

And the other highlight has been London Fashion Week, and in particular Menswear day today, when a certain Mr Kit Neale presented his debut collection. (remember all that unpicking?)

If menswear is your thing (and I am guessing from the profile of my followers that it probably isn't - but don't let that inhibit you) you can watch an interview with him and others here.  (Proud mother moment!)

Right - on with my sketch book and mood board.  That Jane is a hard task master!

So I am just sorting out a few source photographs.

And I found this, which I think is rather lovely. Aspirational up-cycling in action.


This is in the dining room of a rather trendy boutique hotel in Clerkenwell, London.  The dining room was divided by three of these - constructed using bits and pieces from rather unspecial furniture.

I am a bit lacking in the woodworking skills or I would try to replicate this idea for my sewing room, which I am determined to 'sort out'!

For the last course I did (C&G Creative Textiles level 1) I had one photo on which to start the creative journey.  This time I don't have one image.  I think I will use a number - and I know its a bit cliched - but I think I will use leaves as the starting point.

Anyway, looking forward to Monday evening.  So exciting.  Have treated myself to a new sketchbook!  And I do love a new sketchbook.

It has been a bit of an exhausting few days.

Last week it was travelling, this week it has been sewing -  not my own stuff, but for designer son. Actually it would be more accurate to say unpicking!  That is what I was doing - unpicking waste bands and collars.

But before getting onto that, three cheers for the February snow!  Sure enough, as I knew in my heart of hearts it would, it snowed in February.

This was the scene on one of our early morning dog walks.



This really was the morning, even though the photos suggest the evening.


Then we (Whippet X and I) spent last weekend grafting at the new studio in Hackney.



That is the Autumn/Winter 2012 collection on the rail.


It was a slog - we had to get lots done before a photographic shoot on Monday.  Frankly, the Whippet X was not impressed.

Designer son has been getting a lot of press coverage of late, including these rather fabulous crowns (which were used in a shoot featuring Comme des Garcons clothes for Wonderland Magazine)



One thing though, I do know how to ease a sleeve into a shirt!  I thought I had forgotten all my dress making skills.

Last week saw me on my travels for the day job.  I packed the Whippet X into the boot of the car (resplendent on his jacobs fleece) and headed west.

My travels took me through the outskirts of Sherborne - but we did not linger, principally because I was late for a meeting.  In fact it might have been difficult because as an older market town Sherborne was not designed for cars and parking and the traffic snakes its way through the town.  It looks interesting and so I made a mental note to go back.

I attended my meeting (feeling rather foolish as I was late) and then headed further west into the wilds of Somerset.  As I had Whippet X with me we did have to make time for a walk and found a rather lovely wood, which according to the sign is part of the Crown Estates.




And then we headed on to Taunton, and in particular the Genesis Building at Somerset College.  The day was gloomy and so I did not take any pictures of my own (which I now regret though I think that even if I had I am not sure that they would have shown you much.

The Genesis Building is a sustainable teaching and resource building.  From the outside it looks, well, like an educational building.

Image from BBC Somerset

 When you go in you enter a large foyer area which has a cafe space, an office area, a lecture theatre and seminar rooms off it.

Image from BBC Somerset

 So far, so ordinary.

 But each of these areas is actually called a 'pavilion' and is built using different sustainable construction technologies.  So the cafe area is made entirely from mud walls (cob blocks for one wall, traditional cob - that is mud mixed with straw -  and a modern compressed earth technique for the others) with polished mud 'plaster'.  What this 'plaster' looks like is a terracotta coloured paint effect with a lovely buffed sheen.  What it is is mud, dried, sanded and then polished with bees wax.  It is lovely to touch.

Image from BBC Somerset

The office area is timber frame, the  classroom area is straw bale construction and the lecture theatre uses a clay block process where the clay blocks are held together by the thinnest mortar layer.  There are PV panels on the roof and a biomass boiler provides the heating.

Image from BBC Somerset

It is a very inspiring building and demonstrates that using 'non standard building materials is not just for Grand Designs but has commercial applications as well.  It was one of those buildings that ticked all of my boxes.

(For a more comprehensive report go to the BBC Report )

A county that has wonderful skies and magnificent sunsets.

These photos were taken in our last cold snap in mid January.  It was nippy, hence the Whippet X is modeling his snazzy sports jacket.

Dog-Daisy Chains: The Big Reveal!

Very excited to find this on the web - one of the few hard copies of Quilting Arts I actually have (somewhere).

And not only that, but whey hey, a bit of functionality I didn't know existed on blogger!