There’s textile delights aplenty at Waddesdon Manor at the moment. I particularly wanted to see Sacred Stitches, an exhibition of ecclesiastic textiles from the Rothschild Collection which is reviews in Embroidery magazine (July / August). I love Medieval church textiles so was excited to see examples that have not been displayed before, and I was not disappointed. The small exhibition also includes some other, later, treasures including a few gorgeous saint statue robes. There’s a small book of the exhibition which has some great images and looks well-written and informative too, assuming it is similar to the exhibition text, which is pretty good going considering I know far too much about this kind of stuff already.
The house is full of interesting textiles too, mostly on upholstery and in wall hangings.
An unexpected extra pleasure was the Folded Beauty exhibition of historic napkin folding by Catalan artist Joan Sallas. Truly extraordinary and amazing!
I was disappointed that the Philippa Lawrence garden artworks hadn’t succeeded. I got a glimpse of the half-grown piece on my drive in but it sounds like things didn’t work out as planned. I’ve been interested in her work for a while so will definitely be back to see it next year.
Ruth Singer 
I loved the sacred stitches exhibit, and it was interesting to note the different attitude they had to antique textiles – who now would cut up a 500 year old embroidery and upholster a sofa with it?
The sofas do look stunning but it is alarming isn’t it?