Stitching and Patching in Greece.

Anyone following my Facebook page lately will have noticed that I am a bit obsessed with the Greek Islands! This Spring I was fortunate enough to spend three weeks in total on the beautiful Ionian Islands of Kefalonia and Zakynthos  This was my second visit to both islands, in fact my husband and I were married at the theatre in Argostoli, Kefalonia in 2005 so it was wonderful to return.

Since I have become interested in exploring the themes of strength through repair in my work, I really felt that I wanted to start on a project themed around the effects of the 1953 earthquakes on the Ionian Islands.   It took no time at all to find inspiration just from opening my eyes to the tiny details left on the landscape from ruined buildings and olive terraces that still sit amongst the indestructible trees.  Early in our stay on Kefalonia we took some lovely donkeys up into the hills above Sami  from the village of Grizata  guided by Katharina, owner of Donkey TrekkingKefalonia. Katharina's in laws are from Grizata and she showed us the remains of her Mother in Law's house and the white lilies she'd planted still growing in the garden there. I saw several more gardens with the same lilies as we explored over the fortnight, sad but beautiful reminders of the way of life that was lost.

Many of the themes I already explore in my work were fed here .  I try to express fragmentation and Sometimes letting the repair remain visible reminds us that the thing was fragile but will be much harder to break next time. This is true both physically and socially here, not only did the buildings shatter and fall but the people scattered too, out into the world to make the money to send back to the tiny remaining population so that they could rebuild their lives. Fragmented in one sense, but pulling so hard together in another.reassembly through my patchwork pieces and the comfort that results from putting something that was broken back together again. Things gain strength when they are repaired, like broken bones that thicken as they mend.


Post earthquake buildings on the Ionian Islands are now squat and resilient, no more than three storeys high and with deep foundations. Hunkered down and ready to take whatever nature throws at them, if they fall they will get back up. Duplications of the originals, repaired, rendered, painted and brand new again. I have every confidence that the Greek people will do the same in the aftermath of the current crisis they face as they have done so many times before.

So the work I am producing is once again utilising patchwork and I'm using colours and textures I've collected on my travels. The old is buttery cream walls, crumbling, bleached by the sun and revealing stone and render underneath.  Shutters and doors were green, now all peeling and faded to reveal  hardened grey wood under the paint.  Roofs were barrel tiled using traditional handmade, curved tiles rumoured to be shaped on the thigh of the maker...but probably not! Arranged first up then down and with a yellow ochre shade to them that would have been so bright once.  Grander buildings in the Venetian style remain preserved at Fiskardo and show off fancy iron balconies and shuttered windows floor to ceiling.

The new is smooth, plastered, and the colours are bright and warm.  Shades like the fruits on the market, mangos and peaches! Roof tiles now terracotta and in the imbrex and teqular roman style, doors and Windows now white and plastic.  Not so romantic, but durable and in keeping with the prefabricated, repetitive nature of building that has put these islands back together so successfully and provided their population with the opportunity to accommodate mass tourism and continue the ongoing process of repair.

The colours that are constant on the islands no matter what happens are obvious...blue and white, sea and sky. The exquisite blue lake at Melissani rediscovered in 1951 was revealed when the earthquake caused the roof to fall and allow the sun to stream in, like a big, blue eye opening from under the rocks.   The other constant that I am keen to thread through my work is the skills of the people, in particular the women of the islands.  Economics and progress drive away traditional craft from places everywhere in the world, so connecting myself to the needlewomen of the old life on the islands is really important. 

In Argostoli can be found The Harokopio Foundation, established in 1911 by Panagis Harokopos.   Regarded as unique in Greece,  the foundation began as a non profit organisation providing education and vocational training for unemployed women. The foundation is still active and concentrates on the preservation of the embroidery, lace and needlework tradition in Greece and more specific in Kefalonia through workshops and exhibitions.    

Unfortunately I discovered the Harokopio Foundation too late in my stay to actually visit but it’s first on my list for next time.  The Corgialeneion Historical and Folk Art Museum at Argostoli is a treasure trove of lace and needlework and several pieces of traditional cross stitch have really appealed  to me.   I have recreated the patterns and am including section in my patchwork pieces.

It's cold and damp in the UK today and I reckon some work inspired by the Ionian Islands might bring a bit of Greek sunshine to my afternoon while I wait for my next opportunity to return. 

Paula x

PS Many MANY thanks and more later about Karen Fozzard of Down the Rabbit Hole who has been a wonderful help in finding the museums of Argostoli and giving me a wonderful insight into how a lass from Wakefield is running a wonderful handmade business in Greece.  Thanks for the inspiration ♥ px

Small Stitches

I started sewing when I was about six or seven years old, my mom used to give me the left over scraps from her dressmaking and I would wrap them tightly around my dolls' unrealistic torsos and stitch them horrendously at the back to make tops and skirts.  My mum noticed my interest and taught me embroidery and how to use the sewing machine and I did a bit of dressmaking at school (badly!) but I never really lost the urge to use up all these little bits of fabric that got left over.  I began doing English Paper Pieced Patchwork in about 1992 and I honestly can't remember why, something to do one Winter when the telly was on the blink or something I guess! 

Patchwork and hand-embroidery aren't techniques I ever really considered using in handmade items for sale as they are such a time consuming practices so it's always been something I've picked up and put down at intervals and done simply for pleasure.  Early in my business, a sewing machine meant I could work faster, produce more work and make more money - or so I thought.  My kids were young, everything was rushed and I grabbed chunks of work time whenever I could and looking at my old product photographs with my current eyes, I can see actually SEE the stress in some of my earlier work!  I found the noise of the machine, the breakdowns, the wonky tension, the lack of complete control and the urgent pace of the work really rather stressful and It's all right there in the stitching! 

I obsessed that I NEEDED to produce quantity to make money - pretty much in the same way that  I NEEDED  a microwave -except I I didn't at all did I?! I realised eventually that my actual oven or a pan of hot water are way more efficient that the box that goes 'ping' and felt rather silly for not getting rid of the infernal thing earlier.   I hand stitch the lace to my pincushions with gold thread instead of using glue it because it feels right to do it that way.  Glue would make me feel rubbish and charge less for my pieces, in fact I wouldn't even feel that they were handmade at if I hadn't stitched them so what would be the point?

I know that I sound like I just had an epiphany about all this hand-stitching business but I haven't really, I've always known that slow is the way to go and have been TRYING to say so with my work but I really think I need to speak up a bit!  What I really want to say is, I love sewing, I love the feel of it, the slow pace and the attention to detail and I want you to love it too!  If I print the words 'Sewing Mends the Soul' on a pincushion then I really really mean it and it is printed on a pincushion that I carefully made by hand. But I have made a hundred of them and may well have forgotten to mend my own soul while I was doing it!  By embroidering the words - on just a few, by stitching some teeny tiny patchwork then I can do just that.

So I now have some teeny, tiny patchwork and embroidered wearable pincushions emerging from my sewing
box for sale but all the images in this blog are of two commission pieces that I have made for the lovely Kate Bowles.  Kate is an valuable mentor and her phrase 'I think you need to go smaller' will now stick with me forever!!  Kate really liked the 'Antique Quilt' pincushion that I made in the embroidery hoop and wanted me to make a miniature version on a ring for her.  She also wanted to replace the pincushion on her vintage spool holder with one made of hexagon patchwork from her own fabrics, all of which were special to her in some way.  It's Kate's birthday today too - Happy Birthday Kate!!  Paula xxxxx

Mending

Recently, I have become a member of a secret underground coven of like-minded women whose main aims are to rid the world of holes, rips, worn areas, oh... and gin!  The holes are dispatched by mending and the gin in a different way!

We have taken to meeting up at undisclosed locations (each other's houses mainly!) imbibing gin and practicing the art of stitching things by hand in a million different ways.  Mending, darning, patching, embroidering and generally celebrating the happiness that ensues from making something not only whole again but more beautiful in the process. 

A while ago - quite a while actually, I bought a piece of an antique quilt at a vintage fair to make into a cushion for my daughter, for some reason I never got around to it and just left it in one of my fabric trays.  Not only has the cushion finally appeared but I've used up the extra scraps too! I've made a fabric button necklace (as I tend to do with tiny bits of fabric) , but I've also made some tiny patchwork from the torn scraps of disintegrating old cotton.  I've mended some of the hexagons while they were still separate on the papers and others once I had pieced them all together, I've done yet more mending on top once I'd appliqued the patches on to a piece of hand embroidery I did reading 'Sewing Mends the Soul'.    The whole thing has now become a pincushion in a 3" embroidery hoop which will hang rather nicely on the wall! 

You can find more joyous mending in the following places :
http://tomofholland.com/
http://uk.pinterest.com/cwellesleysmith/mending/
http://mymakedoandmendyear.wordpress.com/
http://katebowles.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/more-darned-books.html
http://hannahlamb.co.uk/Site/Visible_Mending.html

Happy stitching!  pxxxxx