Jane Brocket's Blog, page 3

lisbon

Tiles, blue skies, warmth, fresh fruit, a good market, plenty of coffee, lots of pastéis de nata, great shop signs, a street full of haberdasheries, many rattling tram journeys, and Tom, Alice and Phoebe. All  that's required for four good days in Lisbon.

book now

Ray Stitch have a good offer on workshops which lasts until the end of this week:

"Summer Madness at Ray Stitch!!! Book any of our July or August courses by the
end of the week (July 11th) and receive a 20% discount"

 

summer breeze

I'm changing the photo while I carry on away from the blog, and these are my favourites of the last week. I had lunch with a friend at Honey on Tuesday - highly recommended for generous, delicious Middle Eastern food - and on my way to the loo found this wonderful arrangement of seasonal beauty at the bottom of the stairs and next to the kitchen. 

Fresh peaches, fresh tomatoes, bright flowers, and windows wide open to let in a breeze - these are the things I love about summer.

colour workshops

Dropping in to let you know I'll be running a new workshop on quilting with colour at Ray-Stitch on Sunday 3 August and Sunday 2 November. 

"Come and play with colour!

Colour one of the most exciting aspects of quilt-making, but it can also be one of the most daunting. If you love colour and want to experiment, or if you find colour intimidating and want to know how to use it, this is the workshop for you. It is led by author and blogger, Jane Brocket, who is known for her eye-catching, colourful quilts and for her relaxed quilting philosophy which is based on simple techniques, big effects and lots of beautiful colour. This one-day class will teach you how to work with colour with confidence and will focus on using great colours, basic shapes, and lovely fabrics to make quilts that don't take forever to finish. In order to make the most of the workshop, you should bring (or buy) fabrics in colours you don’t like or are afraid of, as well as colours you know you love, so that you can experiment with different ideas and fabric combinations. Along the way, there will be also plenty of discussion, advice and tips about fabric, design, making, finishing and potential mistakes."

More details and booking here.

a week of living colourfully: yellow

I'm finishing on a nice, bright, sunny high with (mostly) close-ups of some of my favourite things in yellow.

This past week was inspired in a roundabout way by listening to one of Phoebe's favourite songs which she played a lot while she was revising and I was working. It made me smile and think of rainbows and rainbow nations and rainbow flags in which all people and colours are equal.

And with that thought, I'll sign off for a while and take a little break from the blog. 

stained glass

fabric

flowers 

cafes

 

patterns

sewing threads

front doors

and home

a week of living colourfully: blue

Oxford museum

I'm going for a full week of colour because you can never have too much. Today is blue with a bright blue sky outside and soft blue flowers in the garden. Books have been written on the subject of blue, and associations with the colour are many and various. So I'll just do the pictures and get on with the weekend.

Manchester evening sky

Liverpool stained glass window

Sign on bumper cars ride

Spanish postcard

Olympic park meadow, London

Chichester door

Cambridge punts

Oxford church tiles

Shetland wool in Manchester 

Oxford blue plaque

a week of living colourfully: violet

I don't have any photos of violets - so rare these days - but last year at Wisley I did see this bed of thousands of pansies (close relations of the viola/violet) set out in broad stripes of colour which include shades of violet and purple and lilac.

When I was writing Ruby Violet, Lime, my children's book on colour, I found the purple/violet pages the most difficult. There isn't so much violet around in the natural world - mostly in flowers, vegetables and plants, and we have few, often complicated, associations with the colour (poison/royalty/emperors/faith/mourning/bravery) and tend not to use it in our interiors on a large scale. 

 

English garden

But I really like violet and enjoy seeing it. It stands out, adds contrast, subverts classic combinations, and makes your eyes work. It's brilliant with lime green, orange, yellow, cerise, and white. It is wonderful in spring and early summer gardens in lupins, hyacinths, tulips, alliums, adding a dash of strangeness and sharpness next to all the usual colour combinations.

home

We have a room painted violet-lilac which surprises some people,

silk threads

and I often use violet and shades of purple in quilts (quilting fabric designers are not afraid of violet).

Wisley

Manchester

Shoreditch

Hove

hyacinths this spring

Strangely, all the best-known Violets I have come across, apart from Violet Carson/Ena Sharples, are daughters in children's stories: Violet Beauregarde (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), Violet Parr (The Incredibles), Violet Gray (Peanuts), Violet Baudelaire (A Series of Unfortunate Events), and my favourite, Violet Elizabeth Bott (Just William). All have character issues, which confirms again that violet has quite an interesting subtext. (It's also only a 'n' away from violent, which may or may not have something to do with how we feel about it.)

Violet has always been one of the most intriguing and complex colours for me. Slightly off the scale, thought-provoking, and always good in a mix.

a week of living colourfully: green

Mint, Shoreditch

What can I say? I need green. Deep, lush, bright, pale, fresh, lime, emerald, bottle, apple, grass, sea, spring green in leaves, trees, flowers, buildings, gardens, landscapes, streams, rivers, food, drink, ink, glass, fabric, art, yarn, tea, eyes, politics, markets, paint, and our house. I would hate to live in a greenless world.

Classic cafe, Soho

Chillis etc, Wakefield

Home

Tower, Said Business School, Oxford

Greens (mizuna?), Wisley 

Window, Manchester Cathedral

Sculpture, Yorkshire Sculpture Park

Pub, Manchester

Shetland wool...

...in this shop, Manchester

I rest my case for green.

a week of living colourfully: pink

 Soho

Well, pink with blue. Actually, bright pink with delphinium blue. Or cerise with ultramarine. Or fuchsia with azure. Or candy pink and sky blue. Or pastel pink with cornflower blue. Or china paink and duck egg blue.

 Oxford

 

 Southampton

 Home

 

 Shoreditch

 Marbella

 Oxford

 Quilt Me!

 Liverpool

I'm not fussy, as long as there's some pink and some blue.

a week of living colourfully:orange

Orange is a top colour and a top flavour. Orange Smarties are the best on butterfly cakes, and we've just discovered the brilliant London Marmalade (great mix of sweet, bitter and sour) made by London-based England Preserves. (Their lovely designs and labels make them the perfect preserves to have on scones/toast/tea cakes while reading a Persephone book.)

And how dull would our streets and shops be if there weren't big boxes and displays of oranges in markets and greengrocers? You can't beat a good orange.  

[The butterfly cakes were made for a shoot for an article by Olivia Gordon about me and my home in the July issue of Psychologies (with photos by Penny Wincer). It was one of the nicest interview and photoshoot processes I've ever been a part of because everyone involved was so lovely.]