The Royal Academy Winter Exhibition 2020

Art exhibitions can be notoriously hit and miss, but one show that never fails to deliver for me is the annual Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. This annual open-submission art exhibition normally takes place between June and August every year and is chock full of every kind of art you can possibly imagine (picture paintings plastering every wall from floor to ceiling). …

2019 Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy

Art exhibitions can be notoriously hit and miss, but one show that never fails to deliver for me is the annual Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. This annual open-submission art exhibition takes place between June and August every year and is chock full of every kind of art you can possibly imagine. The diversity of the work makes …

A Fresh Look at the Ally Pally Knitting and Stitching Show

Earlier this month, the Ragged Life team headed over to north London for the Ally Pally Knitting and Stitching Show 2018. As many of you regulars know by now, I like to share a few of my highlights after such shows. This means that even if you couldn’t make it on the day, you can …

My New Wapping Flat – A Crafter’s Home

I’m completely biased, but I think that the best place to live in London is Wapping, near Tower Bridge. For me, it still feels like a quaint cobbled community, despite how close it is to Zone 1. It’s definitely to do with its geography. Wapping is conveniently nestled in the bend in the river, which …

Watercolour Workshop in London

As most of you know, I’m a textile lady through and through. Rag rugging stole my heart a long time ago and has kept me entertained for years. Well, last Christmas, one of my friends booked for us to go on a watercolouring class this April and I thought I’d share with you what happens …

Highlights from the Spring Knitting & Stitching Show 2018

It’s been a busy couple of weeks what with CHSI Stitches in Birmingham followed almost immediately by the Spring Knitting and Stitching Show 2018 at Olympia London, but I’ve just about survived it. When I go along to these large craft shows I like to take a look around and see what pretty and interesting …

Advanced Rag Rug Workshop – London & Hertfordshire

Anyone who has tried rag rugging before will hopefully agree with me when I say that it’s definitely one of the easier crafts to learn. Making a rag rug doesn’t involve lots of complicated stitches, it doesn’t require oodles of concentration (you should see me crocheting!) and there are very few mistakes that can’t be …

Highlights from the Knitting and Stitching Show 2017

From Wednesday to Sunday last week (11th-15th October, 2017), I was sharing the Ragged Life love at the Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace. Over the course of the week, I ran workshops for rag rug beginners and did demos from my Ragged Life stand in the Great Hall. I never get as much …

Tea and Crafting, Covent Garden

A bit about Tea & Crafting: Tea and Crafting in Camden is the first place that I ever ran a rag rug workshop in London. As you can imagine, it therefore holds a special place in my heart 🙂 So, I was absolutely horrified when I heard that the Camden workshop space had been affected …

Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2017

This weekend, I took the opportunity to visit the Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition 2017. It is one of my absolute favourite art exhibitions of the year and has become something I look forward to every summer. This particular exhibition is one of the largest open submission exhibitions in the world and, as such, is jam-packed with …