The African Influence again.

The impetus for my creativity is so often kickstarted by a nostalgic flick through the travel journals and photographs from our many holidays in sub Saharan Africa. There is something about the heat, the quality of the light, the wide open spaces, the colours, scents and sounds of places we have visited that I find irresistible. I usually find an image, a collection of images and my notes from a place trigger the desire to "make something". These forays into memory are usually accompanied by a trawl through my boxes of fabric. Normally broadly colour related the exception are the African collection which exists across the colours. Mostly purchases from my trips and from Maggie Relph but including regular commercial pieces which speak to me of the continent come out and I consider them in relation to the memory, the photos and how I felt there.

This summer I re read my journal from a trip to Zambia and Botswana and was instantly drawn to my description of a late evening on the edge of the Zambezi river.

I was on the shores of the Zambezi just above the point where it plunges over Victoria Falls. Here the river gathers pace in channels, areas to either side remain placid while in other areas  the water roils and boils, foams and bubbles as it seeks the fastest route over the edge. The moonlight here, without light pollution, is extraordinary and its reflection in the placid and roiling water was mesmerising. I wanted to try and create an abstracted evocative of this time and place.

I had a hand dyed length from Jo Lovelock and it was perfect as a proxy for the more placid areas of the river. This I quilted as a whole cloth in swirls that reminded me of the moving waters.

The swirling waters and the moonlight were harder to conjure. I had a collection of indigo dyed samples from a CQ winter school with Janice Gunner and found some home dyed fabrics with the same tones as the lighter area of the base quilt.

This was my palette and I strip pieced up a rectangle that was smaller than the base quilt so it could lie on top of the base.

To add movement to the reflections of the moon in the water I added thin strips from old denim jeans which I distressed to get frayed edges. I then added hand stitch to add a more dimensional feel. Both quilts were then faced and we're ready to apply the two together, hand stitched, off centre.

The quilt was then finished and had taken just than a month from start to finish!

 

Kaffe Fassett and embroidery

On Recent visit to York I went to the Quilt Museum and Gallery where they were showing Kaffe Fasett's first solo exhibition "Ancestral Gifts". While interesting to see the traditional quilts alongside Kaffe's take on the quilt designs in his signature prints, a case of " plus ca change et plus c'est le meme chose" while more exotic and brighter than the original inspiration pieces the technique and feel was still much the same.

What actually blew me away was a single exhibit In a small side room filled with interesting artefacts and collects of materials which had been starting points for his designs. Here there was a printed cotton jacket which had been completely embroidered the fabrics looked like Kaffe's own but the effect of the stitch work was fabulous.

On the face of it this is not an outstanding, knockout piece but when you get a closer look and see the stitching, wow!

Now I know what to do with the odd fat quaters of flowery fabric and with beads and wadding I think it could be very effective. I might start with a bolero for my great niece for Christmas!

Watch this space!!

With thanks to Kaffe Fasset, The Quilter's Guild and the Quilt Museum and Gallery for permission to use images taken on my visit to the Gallery.

Art Quilt v Quilt Art, musings......

My wandering among the quilts at Festival this year have set my mind focussing on what or where the lines are drawn between an "Art Quilt" and "Quilt Art".

Sadly I was not able to participate in the panel discussion on the Friday titled "How does a quilt become a piece of Art", it would have been fascinating to hear the various perspectives and to begin to develop criteria for judging which might reflect these perceptions when quilts are entered into the Art Category. I really hope that a CQ member who attended this sessions might put together an article for the magazine on this theme.

I suppose that to some extent my deliberations have been prompted by my experience of entering a quilt into the Art category this year. Similar work last year had been commented on by judges as more suitable to be an Art quilt, so on that basis, I made my choice this year. If a quilt sets out to be an art quilt how valid is a judges cricism on the choice of colours and on the straightness of a line of hand stitch? One can not imagine this being a criteria for a Quilt Art piece.

Yes I asked for feedback. I am not quibbling about this, this was her judgement given the criteria. I am however struggling to understand the point at which neat edges or wavy edges, loose threads and way out colour combinations become positive attributes as opposed to criteria for criticism.

Please do join the debate, I'd love to know what others think.

Game of Quilts - quilt made and handed over!

Thursday 6th started  early, lots to get organised and set up ready for our mammoth day of quilt making. We had been sponsored by Bernina for the machines and Wonderfil for our threads and the wadding was provided too.

Our team, "All Layered Up" was made up of six of us so that we could all have time out during the day, for sanity and to get around a little of the festival. 

Stuart Hillard, from The Great British Sewing Bee was there to set the teams off on the challenge.

Now we were ready to go. It took us a while to get into the swing, despite practicing, a strange machine and a small amount of space but we had a plan and we stuck to it! Our quilt was made up of four panels, one of which was plain with appliquéd flowers. We started here so that we would have maximum time to hand stitch the flowers and Echo quilt them.

Then it was all hands to cut and piece the blocks, each made up of three fabrics, the flowered and turquoise in all and alternating yellow and orange squares. Strip piecing helped and soon we had enough blocks to construct our first row. Kneeling on the floor or cut our wadding and backing fabric, and going to the outer reaches of the hall to apply 505 spray we were ready to layer up. These rows were then quilted. 

We had chosen the flowered quilt back so that our quilt as you go technique was almost invisible from the back. We had experimented with Wonderfil Invisifil thread to quilt and top stitch the strip joins, it worked really well and I'm going to invest in some for myself for the next quilt I start.

With the rows joined up we had the binding to make and while that was being done we added a drift of appliqué flowers to the blocks as well.

The binding was Sue's bright idea but it meant that she was needed on the machine at the end after her full day hanging quilts on the Wednesday.

Eventually, we did finish.

We did enjoy the day, we had some laughs along with the hard work, we realised that we had been our own worst enemy in going for a slightly larger size. It was in a very good cause, Birmingham Children's Hospital, and our left over fabric and wadding has gone into the Linus pot for the group who work at The Bramble Patch in Northants to use. Would we do it again, probably, for me it and a big birthday celebration meant that I saw less of the quilts and exhibitions than I would have liked, but it was my choice!

Are you ready for "The Game of Quilts"?

It's almost time for the Festival of Quilts, starting on Thursday at NEC in Birmingham. This year the Guild is initiating a new feature. "The Game of Quilts " and as a mad thing I have signed up to take part! Teams, of four, at any one time, will attempt to make a quilt in a day to be donated to Birmingham's Children's hospital. "All Layered Up" is ready to go.....

We have been given a block and can do anything we like with it as long as we create a quilt of a minimum 48" square between 10am and 5.30pm six and a half hours from start to finish with just one sewing machine!

This is the block we have been given to work with, a three patch.

These are the fabrics we have chosen to make it with

We have spent a day working out how we will do it, practicing some of the techniques we will use and how we will deploy our work force. There actually six of us in the team, so we each get a bit of a break from the "sweatshop" for a coffee, a comfort break and some retail therapy. It means we have had to schedule our workload in four sections so when we are working we know what to do. 

This activity is open so that visitors to the show can watch and ask questions as we go along or barrack from the sidelines. We will be there all day on Thursday, down by the Theatre area, come and say hello!

New look.....

Finally found the time to put one of my embroidery designs up as wallpaper for the blog. So much better than the default version. Will now have to see if I can do these things from the I Pad rather than the clunky PC!

Through our Hands - "The Liberated Quilt" Pt. 2

This is a purely personal response to the works exhibited and my perceptions of the practice of the artists. As with most things, no two people perceive the same work, landscape, architecture or artefact in quite the same way. With textiles I find my responses tinged and coloured by my own practice and the impact that colour in particular have on me.

My response to Sandra Meech's "Level Flood 1 & 2" is very influenced by my knowledge of the Somerset Levels through visits and by the huge media attention that the recent floods received. I felt very moved my the images and even produced a piece of work myself on this theme. 

I love the spare quality of the above pair, this place can be bleak and elemental when the weather is poor and I feel that Sandra Meech's work captures this so well.

Sue Benner's " Mesh 1" is visually grabbing. Strong abstract imagery strikes one from a distance and draws one in. At first glance I was struck by the feeling that I was transported inside the downtown of a major city, surrounded by skyscrapers reflecting the light and the surrounding buildings so strong were the vertical lines and the grid of windows. Only on reading her blurb did I understand my mistake.

This work draws one in, having been grabbed from afar you see more and more as you get closer to the work and perceive the different surfaces of each element, the raw edges of the silk and finally the wavy stitched mesh of the quilting. I could happily live with this and find a new element to concentrate on each day!

Deirdre Adams "Tracings 4" has the opposite impact to me. From the other side of the gallery I could have passed this piece by, but at close quarters the textile artist in me was completely fascinated by the close up detail and pondering the construction and materials that made this piece.

Just look at these detail edits.

They force one to examine the tiniest details and ask a range of questions. When was the colour applied; how many layers of colour are overlaid; has color been removed; was it acrylic wax that produced this effect? It's the technician in me which is responding to this work and I spent a disproportionate amount of time in front of this piece!

There are things to say about all the work shown but these are may strongest responses and the elements which will live with me for the longest time.

It is very refreshing to see an exhibition curated with such attention to the variety of talent and approach of modern stitched textile artists. I must applaud Annabel Rainbow's skill at doing this and her humour which is reflected in her piece "Murder" which for some reason escaped my camera!