Quilted Yurt and other Loch Lomond Show goodies

I've been a bit quiet on the posting front as I have been frantically working and realising that there are not enough hours in a week, let alone a day! 
The kids art classes are progressing and there is going to be some work to show at the end of term exhibition on 19th June.  It's really fun to see what catches their imagination and also to discover their lack of critical skills.  In some ways, it would make life a lot simpler if after the first drawing/ stitches I could say: 'yes it is fine and no I wouldn't change anything' and dive into the next thing!  Saturday's class is going to be paper collage, looking at Matisse's paper cut outs and finishing off painting their mod-roc sculptures.

The reason last week was so busy was the Loch Lomond Quilt Show.  It's lovely having such a friendly show so close to home and I spent three days enjoying the quilts and talking with other quilters.  The highlight for most visitors, including myself was Linzi Upton's full size Quilted Yurt.  It filled the room, with its beautiful quilted panels and Harris Tweed roofing.  It had many great details, which were only found on close inspection, like the twig deer head inside, made by an artist friend of Linzi's (I forgot to note down the name, but it would be worth finding out about).  Linzi's trademark is using gold lame, a fabric I normally dislike, but the restrained use of it on the panels added an opulence to the walls and raised them up to something special.

I know I think I have a busy life, but Linzi's pales mine into insignificance.  Her blog is well worth a look

Other than the Yurt, I also enjoyed some of Hungarian blue and white quilts.  I really loved this one by Somogye Trenine for its triangular borders.  There were also some which used a terracotta or red colour along side the blue and white and they worked well.  Unfortunately, the lighting wasn't great for photography, so I don't have any images.

Jane Lloyd had a fantastic selection of her work in St.Mungos.  I have admired her work in the past and in fact I have written about it, back in 2007 after seeing it in a European Art Quilt exhibition in Mulhouse, France.  Her pieces are very vibrant and I love the way she repeats elements again and again, working through them until she understands a spiral or arch completely.

Finally, at Lomond Shores, there was the Anglia Textile Works with their quilts hung against the windows of the Gateway Centre, with a backdrop of luscious green leaves.  I particularly liked Kathy Colledge's Branch-lines at Matlaske, which was painted and then quilted.  It was very effective.

As I am meant to writing an article about this for Popular Patchwork, I'd better not say anymore and keep the rest for the magazine - it is going in the July edition (on sale end of June), once I've written it, rather than just writing my blog!

If you haven't been the Loch Lomond Quilt Show, it is well worth a visit, just because it is so friendly and because the churches which are the exhibition venues put on fantastic tea and cakes - West Kirk is my firm favourite and there was no disappointment in the filter coffee with meringues and banana loaf this year.